jimmuller 

My sweetie and I were joined by BF member otg for a 67 mile jaunt from Bedford to Pepperell and back. A few pics







Full report can be found here:
https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...l#post17791417

rholland1951

OK, got it. Whereabouts is this installed?

rod

mr_bill

"Take" the SL-4 to South Station (it's the best bike lane in Boston), at the end of Essex take the left on Atlantic (you have no choice) - you can't miss it.

-mr. bill

rholland1951

Rode the old GT to Arlington Center at 9:30 this morning to do a shift counting Minuteman Trail users with the Arlington Bicycle Advisory Committee (ABAC). The East Arlington segment of the Minuteman was crowded with users of all varieties (llama walkers and eliptigo riders excepted), including an earnest-but-somewhat-clueless phalanx of volunteers from Grace Chapel (Lexington), who were out picking up trash, doing good works, and blocking traffic across the full width of the trail, all dressed in blue t-shirts.


I spent two hours tallying cyclists, joggers, and walkers on the Minuteman, factored into 15-minute intervals, from the vantage point of a picnic table at Swan Place. Executive summary: there were a bunch.


That done, rode home, then took the LHT to Paramount Bicycle Repair, Ball Square, Somerville, for an overhaul. 11,000 miles so far on that one, and still going strong; Tyler Oulton at Paramount will keep it that way. After some other odds and ends, brought the Surly Trucker DeLuxe (basically, a 26" LHT frame with S & S couplers and a custom build) up from the basement for the first time since December, put it up on the stand, and fiddled with it for awhile, then took it out on the Minuteman for a shakedown ride. Had a good time, reacquainted myself with this bike's kind of fun, and noticed a couple of things more to fiddle with before the next time I ride it.


A delicate sunset developed, and I took its picture, then enjoyed an increasingly gaudy light show in my mirror as I rode home. Between one thing and another, 14 miles today.


rod

anx

Did a couple of mini-circuits on my roadbike around the Woburn area on Saturday through Horn and Winter ponds. It was a great day for it, lots of walkers and bird watchers out by mid-morning.

rholland1951

At the end of a hot and busy afternoon, adjusted the QR pedals on the Trucker DeLuxe, and took it for another shakedown ride on the Minuteman. It quacked (or barked) rhythmically on high-torque down-strokes. Pedals? Maybe, but the fiddling I did today seems to have eliminated that. Bottom bracket? Possibly rear brake... but why the synchrony with the down-strokes? As the King of Siam said, "It is a puzzlement."


rod

jimmuller 

Rod, are you pedals tighten into the crank arms sufficiently? My Centurion creaked on power strokes for a commute home once last year. I had been working on it the day or so before. When I got home I check and sure enough I'd not tightened them enough.

rholland1951

Thanks, will check.

rod

Jim from Boston

This weekend, Friday PM through Monday PM I did a 1600 mile round trip drive to North Carolina. (I took my bike, but time and family activities precluded riding.) This afternoon I was intending to arrive in Kenmore, rest a while and go to Norwood for some brief errands. While in Connecticut, I heard about the bus explosion on the eastbound Mass Pike in Newton that shut it down with a miles-log back up in my direction, that I would soon encounter.

A favorite training ride segment is to ride from Hopkinton to Norwood through some beautiful back roads with little traffic. So I got off the Mass Pike at I-495, well before the traffic jam, and off at Hopkinton and followed my route. I went through Hopkinton to Holliston, and (perhaps to the amusement of sherbornpeddler at least) I did forget to turn on to Fiske Street through Sherborn to Dover, but rather continued on to Millis and then backtracked via Rte 109 to Norwood.

Though only traveling 30-40 mph, at least I was continuously moving, with only rare traffic lights, it was so backroad. I was a bit chagrinned to “despoil” the route by car, but I do get a different perspective with my head up, above road-view. When I arrive at Norwood, my colleague had not even heard about the bus explosion.

BTW, temps and the leaf cover on the the East Coast up to about New York are in early summertime status, but Boston was distinctively in early, maybe to mid-Spring conditions.

rholland1951

Took the DeLuxe out after work tonight, on the usual after-work-tonight route. I had spent a little more time fiddling with the QR pedals, and managed to silence one, and, by the middle of the ride, both. I've formed a theory that involves my having abused the QR mechanism (MKS EZY Superior) last year with an ignorant flooding of unneeded lubricant, thereby preventing the spindle from seating properly in the adapter. I'll have to take them apart, clean them thoroughly, and see if I can get them to seat properly afterwards (and not squeak, squeal, squawk, bark, or honk). Also, my rear brake pad makes a noise like an angry elephant when it grips the rim, but that's not always a bad thing, keeps the Minuteman walkers on the their toes...

Long sleeves and long pants tonight, but Spring is here anyhow, hallelujah!


rod

rholland1951

Took the old GT with the big balloons for a gentle spin out the Minuteman this evening, cool and breezy, bunnies, moths and the evening star.






rod

jimmuller 

I rode to work this morning as I do almost every morning, about 16 miles. I had just made the last right-hand turn off of a busy main road onto the dead-end business road where my employer is located, with only 100yds to go to the company parking lot. But about 15 yards from the intersection is another parking lot entrance on the right. It's a very, very bad arrangement because drivers come whipping around that turn off the busy street unable to see anyone wishing to exit from that lot, and drivers trying to exit that lot can't see anyone turning in from the busy road.

As I rounded the turn I saw a driver pulling out from that lot but looking to his right (the dead-end direction) and not to his left where all the busy traffic comes from. I slammed on the brakes (thank you, Campagnolo!) and yelled. The driver heard me (his window was open) and slammed on his brakes too. I yelled to him "I might have been a car!", meaning to inform him he was lucky as s**t. Of course I was luckier. I should have yelled "I might have been a 30-ton truck and you'd be dead!" He yelled back the expected answer "I'm sorry, I didn't see you."

Of course you didn't see me, you idiot, because you were looking the other way. I know you didn't see me. I was riding the bright red Masi and wearing a day-glo yellow jacket and reflective yellow ankle straps. But if you're not looking you won't see anything, now will you? Is that such a difficult concept to understand?

As he drove off I yelled back and hoped he heard "That's a reason, it's not an excuse." As he pulled away I noticed the Handicapped tab hanging from his rear-view mirror. Maybe it refers to his mental capacities.

This is probably the single most-often repeated dumb explanation, "Sorry, I didn't see you."

Of course it goes without saying but I'll say it anyway: Ride defensively, everyone.

Jim from Boston

Hi jmm,

Thanks for that story; vicarious is a more comfortable way to learn, though on this thread I might better say reinforce that lesson. I would add that a recent important lesson I learned on Bike Forums was not to assume that just because the driver is looking your way, maybe even seemingly making eye contact, that the driver actually sees you. Besides colorful attire, I always leave my flashing red rear lights, and often flashing front white light on during the day. A cardinal rule of mine is ”Make yourself as visible as possible, and assume nobody sees you.”.

Also I recently write a corollary to my Golden Rule of Cycling:

jimmuller 

Good points, but I'd suggest the following quibbles. On my commute I prefer to run my taillight on solid instead of blinking for several reasons. When I see a blinking blinkie while I'm driving it bothers me, really. There is some evidence that people can fixate on a blinker which causes them to approach it more closely unintentionally. More importantly, I want drivers to see my bike as a vehicle rather than as a bike, as long as they see me at all. My own response when seeing bikes w/taillights is exactly this, a red taillight implies a vehicle, a blinking taillight implies a bicycle.

I don't assume people are jerks. In fact, my experience has been that most people decidedly are not, but rather are quite courteous, too courteous sometimes. I ride to be courteous to drivers too, and more important, to be seen as being courteous. I wave them trough intersections sometimes, I wave and mouth "thank you" when appropriate, I wait for (most) stoplights, I brake for pedestrians at crosswalks, I wait my turn at 4-way stops or else go beside a car so as not to take up any turn that might otherwise be a car's opportunity. But I do assume drivers might not see me, that they might be unskilled or inattentive at that particular time. I figure no one wants to hit me, and my job is to make it possible for them to not hit me.

Jim from Boston

Thanks for the reply. Perhaps you're right about solid vs blinking red lights, but I don't think I'm followed too often by drivers who have nothing else to fixate on, for long enough periods to become entranced. And it's fine with me to be recognized as a (vulnerable) cyclist rather than a non-specific "vehicle."

When I refer to non-cycling peds and cagers as "jerks," I mean "clueless" rather than “malicious.” We have discussed courtesy to motorists, and over-courtesy by motorists.

But,

jimmuller 

I had yet another Close Encounter of the Stupid Kind on my run home this afternoon. I was riding over the hill between Woburn and Lexington (the one you JFB called "my" road because I once posted some pics of the old farm there) when this elderly gent driving a big black Cadillac (I think) SUV made a right-hook turn in front of me. At the last minute he realized his mistake, swung the turn really wide, then stopped. I slammed on the brakes and actually wasn't in much danger of hitting him. I turned and pulled up beside him and asked "Am I not that visible?" He waved acknowledgement that he'd screwed up, and we went on our respective ways. It's almost too bad I didn't hit him because it would have damaged his nice shiny car.

I dunno, maybe wearing bright yellow, riding a bright red bike, and running a red taillight isn't a good idea. I have better luck on a stealth bike (which means almost any bike I own that isn't the Masi). Or maybe it was just today's weather.

At least traffic was lighter today than it has been all week.

Jim from Boston

jmm, you are welcome to use my Bicyclist's Curse as referenced above. Just follow the link to learn the secret incantation, and use it wisely.

mr_bill

So, coworkers wanted to ride at work today, and I didn't want to put my bike in a car, so I rode to work, rode at lunch, rode back home, 101 km total.

Haven't gone through the captures yet, so ant tracks:



-mr. bill

mr,grumpy 

I think that it speaks to your character that your first thought wasn't to be indignant the he cut you off but or to take it as an affront against you, but instead you tried to express to him the danger that he put HIMSELF in by pulling out without looking. You are, of course, right. If you had been a truck or even another car it might have ended quite different for the motorist.

jimmuller 

Thanks for the kind thoughts but it's really less altruistic. I was thinking that people are more likely to see the significance of a bonehead move when they see it as a danger to themselves than as how it threatened someone else. It becomes real when it becomes personal.

mr_bill

So, after a quick stop at Starbucks in the Heights headed out along the familiar Minuteman. With the sun so low behind the tips of the trees are in light while the base of the trees are in shadow.


Crossing 128:


Through Acton, sun is higher in the sky:


Brand new surface with a tree crew to the right, when the officer waved me up the 10% grade I'm thinking how long is it going to take me to clear him, shorter than I imagined though, not only are we both in high vis yellow but we are also both listening to an Apple device (one ear only though):


(I don't know why I find this so funny, but had to copy the above image because an unfortunate random sequence of four letters in the image name got tripped by the censor-bot here.)


Lunch time through real orchards with real stone walls and real old homes, the mcmansion fauxlonials are miles away from here:


Crossing 495:



(Should have charged batteries....)

-mr. bill

mr_bill

On the way home, the descent down the new surface quite nice:



Did you know that bicycles don't have to stop for school buses in Massachusetts? I think that's stupid. I don't think they know that bicycles don't have to stop. I always stop.



I will take cobbles over machine cut tarmac any day:



Flip side through Acton:


And in Concord - Pre-Prom:





All in all a glorious day to be out and riding.


-mr. bill

mr_bill

Jim, where were you and sweetie headed this morning? (Walked past you in Arlington Center this morning.)

-mr. bill

jimmuller 

Was that you who said hi this morning? I didn't recognize whoever it was. A belated hi in return!

Sharon and I just rode directly from our house in Waltham, across Belmont, over to Alewife, out the MM through Arlington and Lexington to Bedford, then back home. 31.1 miles total. Would have gone out longer but we had errands to do, plus the car is full of sound gear for a gig tomorrow so I couldn't fit the tandem in without unloading everything. We tried to get out and back before traffic got heavy.

A few pics from today. Depot Park in Bedford:





On the way back we hopped off the MM for a short ways to detour through Parker Meadow Conservation Land in Lexington. I tried riding but the trail had too many root crossings and bridges!







It sure was pretty in those woods.

On our way out we noticed some interesting activity in Lexington and decided to check it out on our return. It turned out to be preparation for the 5th annual Battle-Green BBQ Festival. We got there well before they opened and too early to eat lunch anyway or I'd still be there eating BBQ and drinking beer, and probably would have to walk the bike back to Waltham.

It will still be going on tomorrow!
Lexington battle green bbq festival - The 2015 Lexington Battle-Green BBQ Festival

Nice pics. What road were you on to cross I495?

mr_bill

That's Harwood Ave. Great climb from Newton Rd.

-mr. bill