rumrunn6

Had to do a midweek drive to NY to help a brother after work Tuesday afternoon. Didn’t realize the smoke was so bad till about Hartford. Put a mask on in the car & put the airflow to recirculate to help filter it. Took a pit stop in Newtown CT got out of my car w/o the mask so I could eat something. At first it smelled like the old Stella D’Oro cookie factory in the north Bronx a happy memory but then I coughed & got s taste of it, yuk. The occasional rain didn’t seem to help.

rumrunn6

There were chickens.


off leash no less

rumrunn6

not a good time to be riding a bike



https://www.airnow.gov

autonomy

Yesterday I went for a brief walk on the Battle Road trail in Meriam's Corner; surprisingly the haze in the air has subsided by this time and I was greeted by a sweet, intoxicating mélange smell of whatever wildflowers are in season, meadow grasses, wet ground, but still with some residue of smoke. The Battle Road is closed for the whole summer for a boardwalk replacement, see https://www.nps.gov/mima/mima-gaoa.htm




Here's my awesome mspaint annotation with a potential detour:


I have gone down that farm road to Shadyside Avenue in the winter and it was wet then, there was standing water on it now. It might dry out by mid-summer.

autonomy

I haven't been riding much, but when I did, I tried to make my rides count. I decided to cleanup my gravel bike before the season and this turned into a major project with overhauling both the front and the rear hubs! I need to pay better attention to this bike. Unlike my fair-weather, fair-conditions road bike, this one sees dirt, mud, water, and very fine dust, which destroys everything much quickly. I also managed to drop a chain into my spokes a while back and some of them didn't look great, so I replaced 7 and trued both wheels to an acceptable state, but probably should bring them in for a professional adjustment at some point.


You'll note some pitting on the cone on the right


Repacked with new bearings and marine grease

Then, after some local testing to ensure the wheels are not falling apart I drove out to one of the best-kept secrets in the state - the 9-mile Flood Control road at the Knightville River Dam. I also wanted to test out my new frame bag and a fork cargo cage (both worked fantastically, although the cage did scuff up my Nalgene bottle)


Many people would be surprised at how wild this place is. I didn't see a single person here.


I saw that there was a trail on the east side of the Westfield River and decided to explore it, hoping to loop around (do not recommend it unless you're on an MTB, it is unmaintained and very rough). Unfortunately, unlike the ranger that I ran into told me, there was no bridge at the end of this trail where it was supposed to go over the appropriately-called Dead Branch Brook. So, because I really did not want to struggle for 5 miles back on a rough trail, overcoming a fear bordering on panic, I crossed the river here with the bike on my back - knee-deep in one spot, but mostly calf-deep and very slippery. Was not prepared to have this sort of experience in our state.


Having spent too much time on the unmaintained trail and looking for other crossing points, I decided to cut my riding time short, use my new-found confidence of river crossings, and cross to the west side at this point - you can see the sandy bit to which I walked. Then I just enjoyed the sun, and it was wicked hot that day.


Great, remote views and dirt road here. Surprisingly, I did not see a single tick and I was watching for them like a hawk. I did find one last year.


This place is built up to flood to protect the surrounding area, and it did several years ago. Last year there was a sign on the bridge saying it was closed, but not anymore. 10 years ago you could drive over this bridge to a parking lot further down the road, but the flooding ripped up whatever pavement there was and pretty much destroyed the road, so the Army Corps closed the gate. The result is that there are fewer people coming here and the area is getting reclaimed by nature, which is a bonus for me.


Finally, having climbed back to the top of the dam I realized that even with 28t up front and 34t in the back I keep running out of gears in places I tend to ride, so I thought "why not get more gears" - here's a 42t cassette I got off Amazon but it came without the 11t gear and a lockring and it was just a little too big for my derailleur, so it went back and I got a 40t instead, but haven't tried it yet. I am eyeing some bikepacking adventures in Vermont where this will come in very handy!

rholland1951

The maintenance is welcome, but... yikes!

rod

rumrunn6

ooh intriguing! what did you have for footwear? how did it hold up? might explore during our seasonal dry spell in July. I'm thinking closed toe sandals would be good?

rumrunn6

very happy to be back home. this was 15 minutes South of where I was for 24 hrs




driving back North the air improved & when I crossed into MA it was like a breath of fresh air! literally!

EVlove

^^We really have been lucky with the wind direction so far. I even went racing on Tuesday night up in Londonderry. The setting sun looked a little redder than normal perhaps but the air was fine.

autonomy

I usually wear my Merrell hiking shoes with this bike and they did well here. I took my socks off to have less stuff to dry and then left everything in the sun for about half an hour - I really did not want to spend a couple of hours in wet shoes and then have to wash them. This actually worked pretty well. But yea, I did wish I had some sort of closed-toe sandals on or a pair of lightweight water shoes - more of a thing for longer trips rather than an outing like today.

The trail on the west side, by the way, requires no water crossings.

P.S. They do sell SPD sandals but... nah.

autonomy

That is absolutely crazy, that's what they have been seeing in California in the past few years. Even Boston didn't get this bad.

EVlove

Another day for a close watch on the weather radar. After lunch seemed like a good time for a ride not too far afield. I wanted to make it count and picked the long, hilly way to the BFRT at I-495, and from there the short stretch to the Lowell terminus. Skyward glance, something is in store for sure, but still some time off.



I turned around and followed the BFRT to Chelmsford center. Next decision point. Take the short way home from here, or keep going?



A little more ominous but should hold until I get to High Street, no? Oh, and I finally wanted to identify the tufty grass that's been growing across from the Brickhouse restaurant, I had been noticing that patch all spring. So, onward.



Well, Google tells me it's an invasive species, an annual called cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum). Not a huge problem here in Mass. but very much despised in the prairie states because it outcompetes native grasses, and fuels wildfires. As can be seen, it's already pinkish-ripe and ready to drop a lot of seeds.

I got to High St which, it turned out, had received a nice smooth layer of asphalt. Not the final coat yet, hence the warning signs, but irresistible nonetheless. The question was which way to turn. Right for the quickest way home, or left for a hilly detour back into the center?



I decided to take the more challenging route. I hadn't been up that way in months, in fact I think the last time was back when there were sap buckets on some of the maple trees. Now some of that very syrup is in our fridge; my wife spotted it at the farmers market recently.

Left turn onto Route 27 for the quick descent into town, and as it was all for exercise today, I even took the slingshot around the public library instead of cutting short on the sidewalks. It was now beginning to look like I should keep going at a good pace to beat the rain, so no photos. I reached home minutes before my wife came home from a grocery run. Grinning, she handed me this:



Bit of an indulgence (from Whole Paycheck Foods). I cannot comment on those taste notes yet.

And another few minutes later, we did get a brief but intense downpour!

11.4 miles and 517 feet climbed.

rholland1951

Another day to ride between the raindrops, I thought, and rolled out on the long wheelbase Atlantis shod with 622 x 55 Rene Herse Antelope Hill Extralights. Saw this when I looked W up Broadway in Arlington, so of course I rode towards it.


A few lightning flashes and thunderclaps later, I had made my way into Lexington, as far as Arlington's Great Meadow (standard explanation passed by reference), where I took this photo.


Immediately after that, the rain fell in earnest, and did so for the remaining 3/4 of the ride, with a little more electrical activity thrown in for good measure. I enjoyed riding in the rain, but it did tend to focus my attention and that was it for photos. Among the pictures I didn't take, I particularly miss photographing the guy riding his bicycle no-handed while carrying on open umbrella above his head, living some dream or other.

The Atlantis with its fat, supple tires was fun to ride. I need to get it off pavement some time, but not in the middle of a rainstorm.

rod

rholland1951

The weather suggested rain somewhere, sometime. I bit, and got a good soaking for my troubles. It's ok, I like riding in the rain (there are limits, however). I took the Rivendell Atlantis (MIT == Made In Taiwan in their parlance) and rode East until I got wet, then rode North until I got wetter.


A good day to be riding around on a bicycle without a care in the world, or at least without the need to be able to leave things out in the open where they can get rained on. The rain, when it came, was sincere. This turned out to be the amphibious landing variant of the oft-ballyhooed hills-and-traffic drill. Wet, and good exercise. This is a bike that dares me to weigh it.

rod

EVlove

I had spent part of the weekend getting the Lotus back into the rotation. Much overdue stuff I should have done when I first got it last fall, such as repacking the BB and headset and, you know, clean the chain I got lucky in that none of the bearing cups put up undue resistance but unfortunately it did turn out that the spindle was pretty much scrap metal.



It went back in for now but will have to be replaced. I'm as yet undecided on my course of action. The easy and cheap option is a modern sealed BB but the cups are still pristine and I'm leaning towards keeping it 1981. Maybe not with a genuine NOS Shimano spindle but something close enough from the era.

I also redid my handlebar wrap, still with the same cheap copper metallic tape. In the right light, it's sort of a match for the saddle, and goes with the anodized Araya rims (the wheelset is borrowed from the Bianchi).



The picture is from today's longer test ride, to NARA Park and back on a slight variation of my usual route. The BB worked mostly in silence as long as I wasn't mashing uphill but the same couldn't be said of the chain. I had blasted it with silicone spray after the cleaning bath, but clearly not enough. The chain is on borrowed time, anyway. Wear indicator shows .75 and it's starting to phantom-shift. The brakes kept dragging, too. I eventually managed to center the front but not the rear. A pain to maintain for their modest stopping power. I wonder if I could liberate a pair of Dia-Compe center-pulls from the bike co-op for small money, they would serve much better.

So, a to-do list remains, but it's back and was fun to ride nonetheless. 17.0 miles and 567 vertical feet.

rholland1951

As a sort of afterthought appended to a busy day of chores and errands, I took the Atlantis out for a spin on the Minuteman. The spin turned into single-minded cranking, and I was making whizzy time until I slowed down to give the throngs their due (and not be that cyclist). I stopped at the pump house to take the picture that I would have otherwise forgotten.


While I was standing around, I took a photographic sampling of the throng, sample size = 1. Oddly enough, he was pretty typical, although the parent-child pairs that I didn't photograph were modally significant.


Helicopters were looking for the bear.


I looked too, but couldn't find him.

rod

rumrunn6

must have been hiding

rholland1951

Yup. Turned sideways and disappeared.

rod

Ghazmh

I took this picture while having breakfast before riding 100 miles on the Vineyard.

rumrunn6

aww nice, how were the cagers?

Ghazmh

Business as usual.

rholland1951

I took the Nobilette out for a midday ride on Wednesday, before going grocery shopping and before the great, roaring storms of rumor and prediction come rolling in. Here's the Nobilette, in one of Arlington's Great Meadow's several proscenium arches, waiting for the drama of those storms.


Feels good to ride this bike again.

rod

EVlove

I had some time in the late afternoon and, based on a quick check of the weather radar, and an unwillingness to go on yet another BFRT run, decided on a short but intense ride, mostly on roads. However I was momentarily without more than a mini pump and so once again needed to keep a modest pace downhill into Chelmsford center until I could properly top off at the tool station at the Brickhouse. The BFRT then served as the quickest connector to where I was really headed, i.e. the quiet roads on either side of the Chelmsford/Carlisle line and the cranberry bog. This is fairly flat terrain and served nicely as no-shift training for the track. I did not have any gizmos running but did glance at my watch at the beginning and end of the flat stretch. About 17 minutes for 5.3 miles, which comes out to 18.7 mph on average.

From the cranberry bog over to Great Brook State Park is a nice bit of climbs and descents through (gentlefolk) farmland. I stopped to take a panoramic shot that I'm not happy with, as well as this one that would have had plenty of birds sitting on the far fence if my phone hadn't spooked them. A flash of reflected sky, I suppose.



As I was ready to get back on the road, I paused for a fellow cyclist on a recumbent bike coming the other way. Not sure why he felt the need to ask if I was OK but we've had this conversation before. By and large, I appreciate the gesture.

Coming to the stop sign and left uphill turn at Lowell St moments later, I somehow forgot to shift down and so found myself climbing out of the saddle in 52x19 for a moment. Which worked better and was more fun than I would have thought, so I went with it.

I was now working my way back to Chelmsford center and traffic was picking up. Route 4 in particular was nasty as always, between cars whizzing by and the very degraded right hand side of the road. One or two of those knocks made me glad I took the time to inflate to 90 psi! Could easily have been pinch flats.

It was still only about 5 and the sky not too threatening yet, so I pulled into the Warren-Pohl reservation. Just like most of today's ride, I hadn't been here since last year, and while my 23mm tires would not allow riding it this time, I was hoping for a nice wildflower display.



The place was once again completely empty and I simply left the bike and strolled along the meadow trail a bit.



The meadow, however, was a bit of a letdown. Not a whole lot of variety. I couldn't think of the name of the common purple flowers but later consulted a plant ID app. It's cow vetch (Vicia cracca). Pretty enough, good for grazing animals and bumblebees, improves the soil, but again an invasive plant that's bad news in more fragile habitats.

Lucked into a gap in the traffic for the left turn onto Route 4, and my now rested legs allowed for a speedy run for the rest of the way into the center, and off the busy road.

13.7 miles and 568 vertical feet.

rumrunn6

had to walk to pick up my car so figured I'd take the MUP. pretty quiet out by us. but what a gorgeous day

bike_tom

I've was away on vacation the past couple of weeks (coast of Maine), so haven't been riding for awhile. I was looking forward to getting out on the bike today, and was originally thinking of heading out to Depot Park. However, I did some Googling last night and found this Streetsblog article indicating the Somerville Community Path Extension was finally open.

https://mass.streetsblog.org/2023/06...opens-saturday

So, I just had to go check it out!

I made my way to the Community Path via the MM, Alewife, and Davis Square, till I got to the beginning of the extension at Lowell St Somerville. Here's a slideshow I made from a bunch of still photos:



Most of the photos were taken on the fly with the action camera. A few at the turnaround point I took with my phone.

The path is basically done, though there are some detours, like at Gilman Square station. When I got to East Cambridge, I wasn't sure where I was going to end up. I followed what seemed to be the main route, and I ended up under the Zakim Bridge in Paul Revere Park. I did some exploring along the waterfront and I believe I was then in North Point Park overlooking the Museum of Science.

Looking at the map when I got home, it seems that it wouldn't be too hard to get onto the Dudley White Bike Path on the Cambridge side (and probably the Boston side too). That would allow a return trip via Watertown and the Watertown Cambridge Greenway. I left that for another ride, and came back the way I went out.

The Community Path itself was moderately busy, which made its narrowness apparent - only 10 feet in most places. Still, its a great new cycling asset.

Tom