rholland1951

Whoosh! Sounds like fun. Good luck!

rod

rholland1951

So, a diligent Google search leaves me unenlightened: which Charlie Baker is this named for? The same guy who runs for Governor from time to time? Or some other Charlie?

rod

s4v8

I've searched online for the answer but couldn't find it.

Is parking at the Fresh Pond Mall and riding up to the Minuteman@Alewife a no no? Towed?

Bishbike

Rod, I asked a race official the same question. He told me that he was "a fellow that lived at the start and really liked us. So, he came out every night and volunteered. Not a rider or anything"


Dave

jimmuller 

Fresh Pond Mall? Is that the one just over the RR tracks from the parking garage? The last time I was there they had signs saying you would get towed if you weren't shopping there. They looked serious. I had driven into Alewife to take the T downtown to a dr's appointment but the garage had "Full" signs up. It was actually due to a malfunction in their ticketing units. Can't let people park without paying, can we? I ended up driving into Boston.

No one has seen Charlie for a while though. Last I heard he was stuck on the MTA. Probably wishes he'd ridden a bike instead.

Bishbike

Nice Kingston Trio reference Jim!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7Jw_v3F_Q0

s4v8

I believe that's the one. There's actually many places to park on both sides of Alewife Brook Pkwy but it would really suck if the 4 wheeled vehicle was towed.

Here's the location:
https://goo.gl/bXAyQO

rholland1951

Another 10-mile ride on the Minuteman at sunset, a little later, a little darker, maybe a little cooler than last night. A lot of folks seemed to have gotten caught in the dark with no lights. Missed 'em all.

rod

Bishbike

Legs feeling sore after hammering last night, so I took it easy this afternoon. 30 mile recovery ride. Went out to Concord via the Minuteman and all of it's detours, and Rt.62. Returned back to Waverly Sq.via the Hanscom/Mill St./Concord Ave. route. Lots of spinning, no hammering.

Nice to ride on some smooth fresh pavement on the Minuteman!!!!!!

Nickel

My friend had a great time riding in NH. Thanks for the bike shop tips!

It is too early to think about this but what are good winter riding routes into Cambridge if the Charles River path is unplowed?

rholland1951

Depends, of course, where you start from. All winter routes are better with studded tires. Roads are better than trails, at that time of year, as a rule.

rod

Jim from Boston

My experience of winter riding in Boston is that the major roads, e.g. Jamaicaway and Rte 1 are plowed earliest and best in a snowstorm, and are the most well-maintained. Same thing is probably true for Cambridge.

rholland1951

It's the seasonal apprehension of late August... If the leaves start changing colors, just ignore them. Someone must have tried seasonal migration by bicycle; I suppose a search of crazyguyonabike would produce evidence of that, but I gave up looking after encountering disturbing content...

rod

Jim from Boston

"Am I the only one smiling through the weather lately?" [2/27/14]

In response to a thread. “Do you have a lifestyle fantasy?,” I replied with this consideration of a seasonal migration:

rholland1951

That thread was instructive, and reinforces my belief that all-weather commuters are the real heroes of the cycling world; for one thing, it's simply colder early in the morning. The fact that the OP of that thread commutes in Rochester, NY, home of the dreaded Lake Effect, is icing (pun not intended, but embraced since it showed up anyway) on the cake.

Once Winter comes, I expect I'll enjoy cycling in it again as a Winter Sport superior to the other Winter Sport, snow shoveling. But that will strictly be making a virtue of necessity; I'm in no hurry for that kind of fun.


Jim, your seasonal roll around the periphery of the country sounds lovely!

rod

jimmuller 

The title asks "Good ride today?" Yes, to work, and I anticipate a nice ride home this afternoon thank you very much.

I left home about 7:20, slightly earlier than typical. Traffic was light, rain was light but pleasant, temperature was cool and pleasant.

Addendum: The ride home was lovely, dark and deep. 5:05 to 6:10. Light was traffic too but seemingly in a hurry. This must be Friday.

rholland1951

Rolled out the Minuteman to Lexington Center about 15 minutes before sunset, gray skies and low clouds, a 10-mile mental health ride. For awhile there were more bunnies than people, and a very pleasing late-summer Night Chorus enriched the aural landscape. Returned in the dark, and began to encounter young men of fighting age, including one band of six in muscle shirts that had the definite look of a war party (cue Link Wray); these were put into perspective by an authentic warrior, a Marine out jogging with his young child in a runner's baby carriage, PT and Quality Time efficiently combined; perhaps he'll refer the other young men to a recruiter.




rod

Bishbike

A late gig last night, morning drizzle, and family commitments kept me from my usual Friday group ride out to Harvard. I instead opted for a quick 26 mile out and back to Concord. My legs thanked me, as the are still feeling sore from Wednesday night's time trial.

Jim from Boston

When I cited that winter thread, rod, I did not specifically recall that tsl was the OP. He is one of my favorite subscibers to BikeForums. Several years ago, he convinced me to get studded tires when I was hemming and hawing. Though not directed at me, he posted:

Back in 2010, I had the pleasure to meet him when he suggested the venue of the Second Annual Fifty-Plus Ride in the Finger Lakes. He tells a great story about how he needed to rest on his first bike ride of a couple miles, home from the bike shop. I was dismayed when he started a thread, “End of the line”:

jimmuller 

Nice adventure indeed.

We had one those days which qualifies as a finalist in the "Every Day's an Adventure" competition. It was supposed to be a short tandem ride with some friends from out of town who were going to rent a tandem (their own being in Florida). But my sweetie wanted us to go out earlier and put down 20 miles or so first. So we rode Bedford to Carlisle and back, a total of 24 miles. Halfway through we stopped at a farm stand and picked up 6 or 7 pounds of dead weight (but edible). Got back to Bedford as our friends were arriving. They rented the bike and we rode out. We got as far as Concord when we discovered their front wheel had not one but two broken spokes. I didn't want them riding on that so we called the bike shop. The shop didn't have a pickup vehicle but they'd fix it if we brought it in. So we loaded the wheel on the back of our tandem, tying it down with a spare tube.



We got to Bedford, waited while their mechanic fixed it, then rode back to Concord. That's a round trip of 12 miles, so we'd already done 36 when we started back out. We ate some lunch, climbed back on the bikes, made it to Fern's in Carlisle, had a short food break.



Another tandem was already there so I snapped this picture.



The rest of the ride was uneventful, but by the time we got back to Bedford our odo read 58.8 miles, a bit more than I'd started the day expecting.

We drove home and as I stepped out of the car I heard a loud hissing, found this on the rear tire.



Removing that tire from the car took some work, but we made it.

It was a long day.

rholland1951

Had another foray to the North Shore today, 73 miles through Arlington, Medford, Malden, Revere, Saugus, Lynn, Swampscott, Marblehead, Salem, Beverly, Wenham, Hamilton, Ipswich, Essex, Danvers, Peabody, Lynnfield, Wakefield, Stoneham, and Winchester. This is an instance of a template that has emerged over the summer: ride the Bike to the Sea route (Northern Strand Community Trail) outbound, meander up the coast to Wenham, where my daughter has recently moved, fool around riding in some of the adjacent towns with her in the afternoon, then high-tail it back to Arlingon on the Danvers Rail Trail and an odd lot of roads in The Sprawl That Route 128 Built. There are two catches: 1) I seem to be physically unable to start a Saturday ride much before 10, and 2) the days are getting shorter. So some of this took place at night.

Today's ride, templated as indicated, had a few novel features:

1) A brief spiritual pilgrimage to the Medford Stupa; I had a little business of that sort to transact.


2) A preview ride of the not-yet-complete Revere section of the Northern Strand Community Path, skirting Rumney Marsh. It is quite beautiful, even though the work-in-progress trail surface was challenging to ride. I got my Gravel Grinding merit badge, so that's something.


3) A detour to the Saugus Iron Works, which turns out to be only a few blocks North of the Saugus section of the Northern Strand Community Trail; once upon a time, antimonysarah (whose systematic research on bicycle routes to the North Shore has been inspirational) had complained about not finding a satisfactory route to the Iron Works; this one is ok, provided you're running at least 28mm tires to accommodate the crunchy crusty crushed asphalt surface that Saugus put on its segment of the trail.


4) Had another crack at the Lynn proto rail trail, the socially-constructed single track running beside the extant railroad tracks in the abandoned roadbed that may one day become the Lynn segment of the Northern Strand Community Trail. It's still likable on a second look.


5) Tried the Puritan Road detour that DBrim suggested: it's a keeper.


6) The ride with my daughter was a hoot; she picked the route (she's rapidly discovering the country out there on her bicycle), and rode me into the ground: good girl!


7) The Martians landed in Hamilton some time ago, and still run the joint.


8) There do seem to be a few counterexamples...


9) Damn fine ice cream.


10) The ride in the dark through Lynnfield, Wakefield, Stoneham, Winchester, and Medford was jolly: the roads were well surfaced and lightly traveled, and some things just look better at night...


rod

Jim from Boston

Rod, as usual your pictures are gorgeous.

Last week I replied to this thread on the Living Car Free Forum, "Bicycling Heaven"

I had perused through previous posts on this Metro Boston thread looking for one post, most likely yours, to prove my point. Did you ever think about a “Best of Boston” album to demonstrate the celestial side of cycling around here? I suppose an album devoted to the infernal side would be amusing too.

Just sayin’

Nickel

I figured as much. I have been on Team Studded Tires for several years now. The route would be between Kendall and Waltham.

rholland1951

Hmmm. If I were trying to do that, I'd reach back for one of Buzzman's descriptions of his 120-mile commute to the Berkshires... or SBP's history rides... or antimoysarah's randoneuring adventiures... or Jim and Sharon's tandem rambles... or Bishbike's sculpture rides... or mr_bill's handlebar movies... godshammgod's ride to Provincetown... or commuter stories from mtalinm, Jim Muller, Buzzman, and you... It's really AND, not OR, riding in this town, more good rides than you can shake a stick at, or fit in your head, or fits in a single post... Best thing would be just to send 'em the link to SBP's first post, and let 'em read all about it as they have the patience and inclination to do so...

rod

jimmuller 

Rod, what JFB said, your pics are great!

We had been talking about starting early to go through downtown Waltham before traffic this morning but we decided to sleep in instead. Today we just did 31 miles, home through Belmont to Alewife, and out the MM to Bedford. Had a nice relaxing break on one of he benches opposite the B&M car.



[RANT]
I've said before and I'll repeat here, the MM can be a dangerous place on the weekends. Within 1/4 mile of Bedford when we returning we saw two falls a hundred yards or so ahead of us. One was a pre-teen who lost control seemingly for no reason, stayed upright, but apparently took a painful hit to his body. His dad was there to help out. The second was a older but not elderly woman who all alone apparently slipped off the pavement and fell trying to ride back up. The new pavement at the far western end has a dangerous 3" drop-off to the ground, so let us hope they come along and build up the shoulders. We were passed by numerous Lance-Wannabes who should have known better than to hammer through heavy traffic, most without giving any "passing" warning. While we were coasting at 17mph downhill into Arlington (I know because I checked my speedometer then) we were passed by someone hammering an MTB at least 25mph, perhaps even 30mph.

We stopped at the TJs and there was a dad whose young daughter, perhaps 8 or 19, was very upset because she'd started to cross the path without looking while another L-W hammered by head-down, and they nearly took each other out. They had both made mistakes and fortunately neither was hurt, but the girl was upset at herself for the mistake. While Sharon was shopping I observed some of the aftermath, including another woman who'd seen it and had the compassion to go speak to the girl, giving reassurance from a complete stranger which seemed to carry more weight than reassurance from "just dad". Then she explained to us what had happened. (We then had a nice conversation with them about riding a tandem.)

Of all the dangerous things we saw yesterday and today, by far the worst, and in fact pretty much all of them that weren't single-vehicle accidents, occurred on the MM involving an L-W. They did not involve cars on the roads. Even Dorothy, one of our out-of-town guests from yesterday, commented that it was far more serene riding the roads than the MM we'd ridden with them last year.

Sorry for the angry tone of this part of the note but I've had it up to here with idiotic behavior. It is bad enough when people walking baby carriages don't stop to think there are fast bicycles going by and perhaps they shouldn't walk side-by-side. But a cyclist who endangers people should have his wheels taken away.
[/RANT]