mr_bill

On the bright side, the signs explaining HAWK to Mass Ave traffic are finally up. (More than Cambridge ever did at Broad Canal.)

-mr. bill

autonomy

Anyone want to salvage this Surly LHT?

https://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/bo...247484528.html

rholland1951

Took the Ebisu up to Lexington before dinner. There were two APD officers at the Mass. Ave./Mystic Street/Minuteman junction tonight, doing nothing in particular, although one of them appeared to be holding a handful of paperwork... citations? Only took the one photo while I was waiting for the light, spent the rest of the time making the wheels roll over the asphalt and negotiating heavier than usual Minuteman crowds. Pleasant evening, pleasant ride.


rod

Ghazmh

I posted a link to my thread at the charity event page. thank you to those who have generously contributed what you could. 3 weeks to go!!!!

https://www.bikeforums.net/charity-ev...l#post19778915

Nothing too exciting to report otherwise. 3 for 3 with this weeks morning rides. September is knocking at our door. Early morning fog laying low across the farm fields. As I rode by the Old North Bridge I thought I was going to encounter a column of redcoats emerging from the fog. I mounted my L&M Seca 1500 on the Roubaix-much better!

mr_bill

Pamphlets. Both officers are very nice. One officer is very tall.




-mr. bill

rholland1951

mr. bill,

As always, you are a force for reason and balance (to say nothing of empiricism) on this list, and, no doubt, elsewhere, in a period when those are qualities too seldom encountered. Thanks!

rod

jimmuller 

I've ridden my commute every day so far this week. Monday and Tuesday had light traffic but an incredible number of idiot jerks on bikes on the MM. Today was Everybody Drive Both Cars At Once Day. Unbelievably heavy traffic. Made up for earlier in the week, brought the average back to normal.

One minor problem I've had lately is kids ridding the wrong way on the shoulder of some of my commute roads. Today I looked up to see three teenagers coming at me on Lexington St between Four Corners and the Y building. Maybe they were going to the Y. I stopped completely and forced them to go around me. I will not risk my life pulling out into traffic because they are too *** stupid to know which side of the street to ride on. Maybe we were looking at future Darwin Award winners.

drewguy

Any time there's any type of digging they'll call the utility marking company.

rholland1951

Took the Trucker DeLuxe, 26" wheels with 55mm Compass Rat Trap Pass Extralights, out for the evening constitutional before dinner. Saw that some of the Minuteman Evening Regulars were out: I exchanged greetings with the man on the bike with The Best Dog In Middlesex County running to heel; I peeked at the cover of the book the Reading Woman was reading while walking, but couldn't quite make it out, probably just as well, the choice of reading material might have been disappointing, I ascribe a degree of erudition to anyone so conspicuously literate. Bopped right along on the big-footed bike, but paused to photograph the swans on Peepers Pond, before dashing home to dinner.










rod

mr_bill

Minuteman Art in the Globe

-mr. bill

autonomy

Yesterday morning turned into an interesting event. As the only day without daycare duties, I decided to do a long-distance ride instead of simply commuting by bike. To get the extra credit, I decided to make it slightly longer than usual, to get to Carlisle in a less-familiar way (not via Minuteman), and to change things up in Carlisle a bit to investigate a couple new roads. Well, I was sort of foiled by technology - first, the alarm on my smartwatch didn't go off, then Osmand navigation failed me several times resulting in multiple stops, detours, and loops. It would give me instructions such as "bear right" or "turn slightly left in 100feet" on completely straight roads and was completely silent at road forks. And a few times it gave me hilarious instructions such as "in 100 feet make a u-turn, then in 100 feet make a u-turn". Could be because I exported the route from Strava this time and not from RideWithGPS.

Initially, my long ride was supposed to be somewhere around 47 miles home to work. I bailed on the back roads and took Monument st into Concord. By the time I got to Haute Coffee for a much needed stucky bun, I was at 30mi. Somehow, my "bailed" route clocked in at 48 miles about half a mile from work, so I added another loop around the neighborhood just to get over the imperial half-century mark.

I have to say, I didn't much enjoy getting to Carlisle because of traffic, but once there the riding was fantastic. It's a really good place for road cycling.


Early morning fog in Arlington Meadow


A quiet break from traffic on Maple St, Carlisle

jimmuller 

Hmm, that u-turn trick could come in handy to make a ride any distance you wanted.

I could use a stucky bun about now too, as long as my fingers don't get stuck to the bun.

Because of a change in various corporate bookkeeping details I find myself with a week's worth of vacation that I'll lose if I don't take it by September. So today I took a vacation day and rode the Masi for 53.8 miles. @autonomy, we might have passed like ships in the night, except that it was day.

autonomy

Yeah, on days like that I feel no shame in sinking my teeth into sweet pastries.

And I just found out what was the reason for some of my troubles - it WAS Strava, just don't know why it does that (creates loops in the path):


Learn something new every day - RideWithGPS has an article about a similar issue at intersections https://ridewithgps.com/help/incorre...-sheet-entries

rholland1951

Took Friday off (it's August, after all), and used some of it to take the Rawland for the variant of the North Bridge loop that has become my personal default: out on the Minuteman and Reformatory Branch, back on Monument Street, River Road, Skelton Road, Route 225, South Street, and the Minuteman, 31 miles through Arlington, Lexington, Bedford, Concord, and Carlisle. Kept a quick pace, passed up a lot of photos in favor of maintaining the spin.

In Arlington Center, a.k.a. Perplexity Junction, noticed for the first time a semiotic puzzle: triangles that may be arrowheads that may be directing outbound traffic into the left lane of the Minuteman that people may follow uncritically that may cause accidents; but of course, the triangles may signify something else altogether...


The Minuteman was simply lush, in the way that a well-watered August brings.


Reformatory Branch: wildflowers and wild turkeys.




Monument Street: the obligatory photo from the Hutchins Farm overlook, before launching down the gravity well for the lesser rolling hills up to Carlisle. Wheeee!

rod

Ghazmh

I brought my R3 to my LBS for a tune up today. I've been hearing some ticks, squeaks, moans and groans and having some quirky shifting. I was thinking that I wore out the bottom bracket. Instead the frame is cracked..........

rholland1951

Yikes! Warranty? Or nature's way of giving you a new project?

rod

Ghazmh

I hope warranty. They are contacting Cervelo Monday. Pictures of the crack, bike, and purchase receipt. Best case scenario I get a 2017 frame and am on the hook for labor, which is the outcome I'd like. Worst case they find a reason to deny the claim, which I don't know what I'd do. Probably strip the parts and set my sights on something different. Now that I think of it I have also noticed the back end to feel spongy. I dismissed it as low tire pressure.

jimmuller 

Good Lord! Be glad it is the frame cracked and not you.

This is standard conversational material for the C&V. At least it didn't asplode while you were on it.

Ghazmh

Yeah, I am sure glad they caught it. I prefer to keep the rubber side down.

eabeaj

Out at 6 AM for 42.5 miles on a very humid, sweaty morning up Mass Ave via Pleasant St (Lexington edition), Concord Ave, Smith and Trapelo to Lincoln (with a little detour at the end on Silver Hill and Weston Rds), then Sandy Pond/Bakers Bridge/126 to Concord. Up Lowell to Fern's, back on 225 with a second detour onto East and back via Maple (my first time for this little loop) to the Minuteman and Mass Ave. One last detour, taking Hancock north and around and back to Mass Ave via Grant and then it was time to stop screwing around and head home.

Started awfully slow (humidity?) but by the time I hit 20 miles I was good to go, and could easily have gone past 50 this morning if I didn't feel the need to get home so as to not leave my wife alone too long with the 2-year-old. Little did I know he had slept until 8:15 and I gave up on my half-century for no reason. Oh well.

osric

The triangles are Yield symbols, and sometimes referred to as "shark teeth." They're just starting to be used in Massachusetts.

rholland1951

Perfect! Properly understood, they make sense, but are just novel enough to add to the perplexity, and aren't really self-documenting unless you already know what they are...

rod

jimmuller 

@eabeaj, we might have passed like ships in the night, except that it was day. I was in much the same area. Rode completely around Fern's though.

I took the Gazelle out for a little spin today, 61.25 miles, Waltham to Chelmsford. It's an easy bike to ride hard for a long distance. It seems never to tire, and doesn't demand much from the rider either.

Photo op time. Lincoln Library, Lincoln, MA. The big eagle seems hungry. Maybe looking for gazelle meat.



The inscription below the eagle:



Ah, just to the left was something perhaps even more remarkable.



Going up the hill past Hutchins Organic Farm I passed three women who'd been keeping up a good pace but who had slowed on the uphill. One had moved on ahead but the other two were tight together. I called out as I passed each, ending up with something like "Passing on your left, girls." I should mention that they were all gray-haired though seemingly younger than I. One especially seemed to be in great shape. Some seconds later I heard something like "Have a nice ride, boy." He! I turned my head and yelled "I haven't been called boy for ages." The reply came back immediately "I haven't been called girl in ages." I thought I heard humor in the reply. Perhaps not. I hope it was humor. I gave them a thumbs-up and continued on my way.

A few miles later after I'd turned off rt 225 and was coasting around some swoopy turns at maybe 17-18mph, another cyclist came up swiftly behind me. I wave him around, he went by and called out "Good Lord, don't coast, man, pedal!" I called out it was so nice a day you had to savor it.

Half a dozen miles later I stopped for lunch at Great Brook Farm Start Park and a group from a Ride Studio ride stopped too. (Lots of bikes out today.) One guy was on a particularly interesting bike, this Della Santa.



I asked if I could take a picture. He said it was the Masi he couldn't afford when he was younger We spent some time talking about older bikes. He still had a PX-10 being restored. I asked how it rode and he said "What did I know, I was 14." But he did notice the higher gearing and the eventually discovered that the Normandy hub had English-threaded FW, wished he'd known that when he was younger.

It was a great day.

autonomy

Nice stories and pictures, all. @Ghazmh oh boy, good luck with that. As already said, good thing it didn't break apart on you.

No rides for me this weekend due to family obligations but super excited for next weekend's D2R2. Doing the shorter Green River Tour on 28mm tires, really really hoping it doesn't rain.

Velobass

Hello Metro Bostonians! Velobass here, formerly Bishbike. Just checked in to the thread. Lots of great pics and ride reports! Living on the North Shore now, but still make it into Arlington, Belmont, and points west to ride. Enjoying lots of great riding up here north of Boston. I would love to post some reports from time to time if that is OK.