guidoStow

A good day to go climbing...

bigredkevbot

Did you ride out there from anywhere, or just a sprint to the top?

guidoStow

Rode out from stow. 60ish miles round trip.

jimmuller 

mr_bill

Tonight while eating outside Posto in Davis Square, that awful sickening thud followed by a loud cry of alarm. A bicyclist got doored. Ran to do what I could.

Relatively lucky. No "visible" injury.

But....

While everyone was relieved that everyone was OK, managed to at least convince the rider and driver to exchange information.
And before the rider walked the last couple of blocks home they agreed to listen to their body and if later anything didn't feel quite right that's their body telling them to go see a doctor.

Adrenaline. Such a masking agent.


Anyhow, some random photos from rides this week:

There's just something about riding on weathered boards.

Under the BU Bridge:


Along the harbor in Charlestown:



The Mass Ave & Beacon Street intersection continues to evolve:

With added cone:


And then a bit later, the cone is gone (hopefully not dragged away by somebody's suspension):



Inexplicably, I had ridden past the Mariners stadium, but I had never ever ridden here before (I don't think I have to say where here is):



Mass Ave & Cambridge Street merge in Harvard Square now has a bicycle light for the still opening Flagstaff Park bike path, even if it might be ignored:



-mr. bill

jimmuller 

Ooh, it's always disturbing to read about a collision.

Two rides today. The Gazelle took me up Cadillac Mountain and the tandem took us around Eagle Lake.





[/IMG]

rumrunn6

guess the blueberries on Cadillac Mountain are long gone, huh?

jimmuller 

We've seen some. Not enough to take time to pick and eat though. The popular trails are always picked over, duh...

mr_bill

This video inspires me to set the WABAC machine to a few shots from the Cape this summer.


(And sorry, I just find this still very funny. Not only completely unaware of the motor traffic. Completely unaware of ALL traffic.)



So, on the Cape, the big bicycle rotary at the intersection of the Cape Cod Rail Trail and the Old Colony Rail Trail. What's fascinating about it is just so obviously the right solution here. Well done!



But there are also a couple of mini-rotaries on the Old Colony Rail Trail at Orleans-Harwich Road. I was wondering why put a rotary here until I saw how many folks with young children bicycled to the rotary and turned around back to where they came from. Pretty smart. Love to see these on the Minuteman.



Then of course there are the traditional road rotaries, here in Chatham Center, the intersection of Queen Anne Road, Main St, Stage Harbor Road and Old Harbor Road. BTW, I get why there are so many Depot Roads on the Cape, but where are there so many Queen Anne Roads on the Cape?



Finally, riding in Chatham Center is like riding on a sidewalk but with cars. Traffic is at a walking pace - or dead stopped. If there were bike lanes here we'd be the fastest vehicles on this stretch by far.


-mr. bill

rumrunn6

CCRT to Chatham is nice enough but just dumps you out and if you don't know where you are you are lost, then I always find it a hassle finding my way back to the trail. I feel they need to do a better job with that last part.

mr_bill

The wayfinding on the dump you off part has gotten better.

It's funny, you can see the violations of the right of way of the Old Colony line right next to the power substation (Pampered Pallete), and wouldn't it be nice if the trail continued past the graveyard to the Chatham Elementary School (where the old station was).

But the wayfinding just stops at Depot Road. So from there you need to use other navigation skills to soldier onward and back.

-mr. bill

mr_bill

PARK(ing) Day 2015 - in front of Joie de Vivre on Mass Ave between Porter and Harvard Square. There were parklets popping up all over today.


-mr. bill

BikingMountains

It's finally cool in Boston again and it's now my favorite biking season. I biked through Franklin Park and along the Emerald Necklace today to get to Longwood for an appointment. First day with a jacket!

jimmuller 

It is indeed cool again, finally. I rode to work and back. A bit chilly.

LindaB

[QUOTE=Jim from Boston;17986221]What a great trip; we look froward to hearing about it.

I had the pleasure of chatting with LindaB recently on this Northeast Regional Discussion Thread, ”Need Route Advice - Concord MA to Providence RI”. Fellow MetroBostonians may be amused at the advice we gave, including,



Linda, since you’ll be a short time in Boston, I posted to an inquiry from a Houston BF subscriber who will soon briefly visit Boston as a stop on a Grand New England Tour:


Hello - I'm reporting back as promised on our September 1-20, 2015 Massachusetts-Rhode Island trip. Here is the route we took from Concord MA to Woonsocket RI: Concord Woonsocket Rev 3 - Concord, MA. We stopped at Walden Pond, then continued south and westerly using 117 and small roads. Stopped at "Longfellow's Wayside Inn where an Inn employee took our picture (haven't seen it on their website, though). Visited the reproduction mill there, and continued to Ashland, where a local fireman pointed us to a nearby diner for lunch. We enjoyed rural roads and crossed I-90 at Woodmere Rd/Temple St. which was just an overcrossing - no auto ramps to cause trouble! Next day we rode the Blackstone River Path into Providence and stumbled onto a great Farmer's Market for an early lunch. The rest of the trip went smoothly - on to Newport, RI, then New Bedford for the Whaling Museum. Spent that night in the charming fishing town of Fairhaven, and we treated to a guided tour by a local the next morning. From there we joined 9 other members of our Davis (California) Bike Club for the sagged portion of our trip, a thorough visit to Cape Cod - including Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and Provincetown.
Many thanks to those on this list who offered suggestions for our ride! (I forgot to mention how we got out of Logan Airport -Took the "T" (Blue Line) from the airport with bikes & panniers to the end of the line at Bowdoin. Cycled from there along the Paul Dudley White path to Cambridge and out to join the Minuteman Path. "T" was very crowded - not easy with the bikes, but it worked!
Linda

Jim from Boston

Hi @Linda,

Thanks for your report. It’s interesting to hear about cycling in our region from a faraway visitor, and I’m so familiar with the segment described from Concord. I tried to find the Woodmere Rd/Temple St crossover of I-90 (Mass Pike), but couldn’t figure since I didn’t know the town; it would be a good thing to know, as you mentioned. I presume you rode the Minuteman Bike path all the way to Bedford. I hope you got a chance to see the Lexington Green, site of the first battle of the Revolution.

Sort of reading between the lines, while you described the itinerary of the trip, I hope you also enjoyed the ambiance of the cycling in our crowded Metropolises. I would think that the Cape and Island segments would be idyllic on weekdays after the ”crazy” summer season is over. As I recall, the weather this September has been great.

FYA, my (our) only ride in California was on a cross country trip from LA to Washington DC. We started in Laguna Beach and crossed the Mojave desert via San Juan Capistrano, 29 Palms, Perris, Amboy, and Goffs. In Goffs we got some trip-changing advice to avoid Las Vegas, and we proceeded by way of Arizona. For native Midwesterners, now New Englanders, that was some exotic and memorable cycling.

jimmuller 

Just commuted again. Yesterday, today, tomorr..oh wait, tomorrow isn't a work day.

mr. bill was that you I saw heading into Woburn Center about 10 after 5 yesterday afternoon? If it wasn't then you look like somebody else, or else I don't know what you look like.

Lots of bikes out this week. Lots of cars too.

guidoStow

Did my make-up ride of the Rose Mountain Rumble ride in Lyndeborough, NH. This is a route the Kris Henry of 44Bikes set for the Piscataquog Land Trust. 43.25 miles 3252 feet of climbing. Fun Ride!

rholland1951

Returned Saturday night from a vacation that pivoted with the seasons, two weeks in France and Switzerland, off the bike for social reasons, but nonetheless with some bicycle content from time to time.

In Paris, observed what seemed to me to be a vibrant bicycle culture, with an unusually successful integration of the VeLib' bicycle-sharing network into the daily lives of many.


In Thoiry, Pat asked me to look at a problem with her rear friction-shifter on her vintage mixte. Fortunately, it was one of the three mechanical problems I'm actually competent to fix...


In Grosshochstetten, Tom and Madeline get up and down the hills in their alpine commute on a pair of Swiss Flyer s-pedelecs ("s-" stands for "schnell"). I tried one of these on a previous trip, it feels pretty magical, like wearing seven-league boots.


Back home, I got my first ride in over two weeks Sunday evening, the not-yet-quite-eclipsed Supermoon lighting the way and ground fog rising over Arlington's Great Meadow, riding in the sort of pleasant solitude that transforms the Minuteman into a contemplative space.


Suddenly it's Autumn...

rod

rholland1951

From the Friends of Lexington Bikeways:
If I hear more, I'll pass it along.

rod

rholland1951

Rode out to Lexington tonight on the Monster Trucker, my Surly Trucker DeLuxe sporting 52mm Compass Rat Trap Pass Extralight tires, inflated to 30/35 PSI: just floated along, and kept a good pace, dodging the bikes, runners, walkers, and dogs, lit, unlit, reflective, or stealthy. Solitude wasn't in it, lots of company. What a difference 24 hours and 17 degrees make: shorts and short sleeves, who knows when that will work again?








rod

mr_bill

I look alike. Anyhow, no. Bronchitis put me down last week.

For me, it's not shut up legs - it's shut up lungs.

-mr. bill

rholland1951

Rolled out on the Monster Trucker in the warm drizzle for a 10-mile night ride to Lexington Center, last chance before the deluge. Near the AHS football field, I met with an oncoming mass of bobbing lights...

... which resolved itself into a squadron of running young women, equipped with headlamps and singing a whimsical song. This was as close to Fairyland as I've gotten lately.


In Lexington, I encountered a male rider speaking nonsense words in a weird, high, nasal voice, more like Goblin Market than Fairyland. "WTF?" said I. When I encountered the same rider (and his silent female companion) on the return, I realized he was giving a detailed narrative of the ride (including the bell that I sounded to pass) to an infant or toddler in a rear seat on the bike. Whether he always speaks in such a bizarre register I have no idea, but fatherhood affects some of us in strange ways. I'm a couple of decades beyond all that myself; godnose how I behaved at the time.

Made my way home through the dark streets, pleased that the drizzle never thickened up into something a little wetter.


rod

jimmuller 

Yes, well, I rode my commute yesterday and today. Took the Raleigh, another bike I've been neglecting. Yesterday was cool and damp. Today was downright wet without raining. My glasses fogged up from the mist after just a mile or so. By the time I got to the office I was soaked but from nary a single drop of rain.

Jim from Boston

I'm preparing for the Fifty-Plus Annual Ride in Pennsylvania Columbus Day weekend, but as I posted to that thread,

So yesterday I tried to get in a training ride of about 20 miles from Norwood to exurban Dover and back. As noted by @jmm, I too encountered some light fog that slightly misted my eyeglasses, but not drenching. However, it did make my problems worse, as I posted to the Advocacy & Safety thread, ” Rural riding vs urban riding? “

So any more early AM riding from Norwood until about March will have to be directed towards Dedham and into Boston for safety. I just hope to ride at all for the next few days, with the upcoming forecast of extended rain.