rumrunn6

anyone else hear and feel the Devens' detonations today?

jimmuller 

Good to see you are riding to work. I rode on Friday and didn't get wet. But the bike got rather dirty from the roads still being wet. I took the Gazelle now earing Super Champion Competition rims and Veloflex Cirterium sew-ups. The bike did great despite getting a bit dirty and the ride was wonderful.

We took the tandem out today and when we returned home the odo read 51.51 miles. No detonations. We did pass Rod H on our return, called out "Hey, Rod." I hope it didn't sound like "A-Rod."

Today's stop at Ferns is titled "Find the tandem in the pizza". Lots of bikes out today.

rumrunn6

do they have their portable outhouse setup yet?

jimmuller 

Noop. Not yet.

rholland1951

Took the Nordavinden out for a ride after lunch, 32 miles through Arlington, Lexington, Bedford, Carlisle, Concord, and Lincoln, basically one of the all-pavement variants of the North Bridge loop (seemed wise to stay out of whatever mud was left over from Thursday's rain). It was beautiful riding weather, albeit a trifle breezy, with a wind that managed to make itself felt as a headwind coming and going.


Tooled out the Minuteman, and encountered enough population pressure to trigger a bit of misanthropy; oddly enough, fellow cyclists elicited the most of this, through a combination of truly wretched choreography and innovations in right-of-way and lane utilization, along with a few other behaviors encountered that were particularly endearing (perhaps all this boorishness can be ascribed to First Ride of the Season syndrome?)... never mind, exchanging hearty greetings with Jim and Sharon dispelled the misanthropic funk (as usual, they were returning as I was headed out).

Much of the landscape was still dominated by Winter's ruined vegetation.


However, I heard frog choirs from a couple of vernal pools as I rode past, in the Concord River flood plain on the Bedford side. Sounded like a car with a loose fan belt, but I'm sure it's very exciting if you're the right species. Crossed the river on Route 225 and climbed Skelton Road, the first of a series of roller coasters that included River Road, Monument Street, Virginia Road, Mill Street, Lincoln Street, Middle Street, and Marrett Road--enough to wake up the legs after their long Winter's nap.








Trees with evident buds! Hurrah!


Elsewhere, not so evident...


The Cambridge Reservoir would like to remind us that, given all the snow we didn't have last month, a little more rain this month would be appreciated.


The Maple Street ramp to the Minuteman still sports its original bollard, complete with metal bicycle saddle. Most of these have disappeared, but a few remain. This one needs a coat of paint.


rod

rholland1951

The Army publishes a Fort Devens Noise Report at intervals. Like a weather report, but for man-made thunder.

https://www.devens.army.mil/noise-re...se_report.html

rod

rumrunn6

link did n't work me me - got this msg

"Your connection is not secure

The owner of www.devens.army.mil has configured their website improperly. To protect your information from being stolen, Firefox has not connected to this website."

rholland1951

Yeah, Chrome gave me something similar; I chose to step over it, using the "Advanced" link in the Chrome display. IMHO, what's going on here is a wizards' dual between the InfoSec weenies at the browser developer and the web site in question, with both parties believing they're doing THE RIGHT THING. The particulars of that are strictly OT, I think. But I believe it's unlikely the Army is after your credit card info. If an abundance of caution prevents you from proceeding to the site, its contents are duplicated verbatim on the sites of several abutting towns, and a Google search on "Fort Devens Noise Report" will typically lead you there.

rod

rholland1951

Or then again, maybe not. Mostly the surrounding towns have taken to just posting the link...

rod

jimmuller 

Got out for YAL (yet another lunch). What a lovely spring day it is too!

Ghazmh

Another great riding weekend indeed. Hopefully to be followed by many many many more this year. 32 miles Friday evening without spotting another cyclist. I can't remember the last time that happened. 52 today as my R3 seemingly disappeared beneath me.

now I need to get some 2016 miles on my 520.

rholland1951

So, anyway, since this isn't Geek Forums, here's the current Ft Devens Noise Report:


rod

jimmuller 

Speaking of wildlife, while riding home yesterday on the MM we saw a small skunk cross the path right in front of us, just east of rt225 in Lexington. Prettiest little creature you ever did see, and cute too.

sherbornpeddler

Yesterday afternoon, by the time I was lounging at my cousin's in Boston, I wasn't as cute as your skunk but I might have had other similarities. 7:30 AM I biked to Wellesley where I met up with a friend and we drove to the Woburn/Wilmington town line, just past the Rumford Museum. We biked up Rt. 38, Main St and bushwhacked in to the oxbow of the Middlesex Canal and found a rock grooved by canal boat tow ropes and just north of that an aqueduct bridge over Maple Meadow Brook. We followed the canal as best we could along side roads and admired the Shawsheen Aqueduct where canal boats floated 30 feet over the Shawsheen river. We found the Gatekeeper's house and the rings used to hold a floating tow path across the Concord River. The Middlesex Canal Museum in N. Billerica is excellent. From there we took the train, in my case to N. Station where I biked across town to Cousin's and eventually an evening lift back to the burbs. The Canal was a big success, 27 miles long and put Lowell on the map. It was replaced by the train. One of the many interesting points to ponder was that in the winter a person could skate all the way into Boston and back in a single day.

jimmuller 

Pretty cool stuff! I like the floating tow path. You realize, of course, you were going through some of my commuting territory.

After today's commute I can officially claim to be a really tough cyclist. Not only did I bike to work through a biting nor'easter wind and then back home through wind and sleet, I had to brave the onslaught of DST-induced sleep-deprived aggressive drivers through Belmont. And I survived.

rholland1951

Street-clothes ride to Arlington Center tonight for an ABAC meeting, 50s and clear when I headed out, 40s and raining on the return (surprise!). Brief and pleasant (if a bit damp) bit of transportation cycling on the Rawland.


rod

rholland1951

After a long day at the end of a very long week of same, after the cold front blew through with clouds, showers, and a lurid sunset during a wet commute...

... I took the Rawland out for an evening ride on the Minuteman, temperatures in the low 40s, just the thing to clear the cobwebs.






Not that many folks out, a few teenagers with a boombox playing hiphop, a few runners, the odd Invisible Pedestrian, a couple of other cyclists. Frogs were singing heartily in Arlington's Great Meadow; hope they fare well in the coming snow storm.

rod

jimmuller 

Nice. Yes it has been a long week of same. I rode the Gazelle through light same two days ago and experienced both getting wet and having a sew-up get flatted by a staple at work. Yesterday I rode the Bianchi and made it home between the various samestorms. Well, from the pic of Cambridge Reservoir you posted a few days ago it looks like we could use the same so I'm not complainin'.

rholland1951

Took the Nordavinden out for 20 miles on the Minuteman in the mid-afternoon, all I had time for, temperatures in the low 40s, brilliant clear skies, and a chilly headwind on the outbound leg. This was, as much as anything, a rolling meditation on a friend's illness; probably just as well I didn't attempt anything more demanding. A good day to ride in the sunlight.








rod

jimmuller 

I commuted again today. The usual sentence, of course. Temps in the upper 40's, a bit of mist on the return. Rode through a flock of about two dozen turnkey going through Follen Heights. Fortunately neither I nor they were hungry.

Ghazmh

Anther Friday evening ride in the cold wet fog. Not another cyclist to be seen again. Being off from work this Thursday and Friday I managed to squeeze in 108 miles in 3 days. Not too shabby for March. Akin to climbers attempting to summit my Everest, Thursday I began "fixing ropes" along a route to Portland for an eventual tour. Instead of actually fixing ropes I rode out to Harvard establish the first leg of this eventual trip. I must say how much slower my mostly unloaded 520 is compared to my road bikes. I mounted an Ortlieb handlebar bag over this past winter.

rumrunn6

nice

JohnHuth

I took a minor risk and swapped out my studded snow tires three weeks ago. This pushed my rear wheel to the brink and I busted two spokes. It was about to go in any case, so I put out the $ for a new wheel, and loving the change. I can't really detail all the rides to Harvard Sq. from Newton and back - but mostly good, some rain.

There's a story from NPR about bike safety in the Boston area: https://news.wgbh.org/2016/01/29/loc...-safety-boston

jimmuller 

Rides back and forth to H.Sq. to pick up tires and spokes and wheels?

How did swapping out the tires push the wheel to its limit? It sounds like that wheel needed either good truing or replacement anyway.

JohnHuth

I some of the spokes were on the edge of failure, and I think that simply the body english in taking the studs off pushed them to the brink. The wheel was definitely well out of true. Often times, I have to take my wife's car to the mechanic, and put my bike into the car to drive it over and then ride the bike in to work. It's also possible that all the loading and unloading out of the car pushed the wheel over the brink too. Once I saw I busted a couple of spokes and the wheel was very much out of true, I decided to just get a new wheel. The darn thing was over 10 years old and had taken quite a beating over the years.