rholland1951

Welcome, Hugh! Glad you liked that route. Out of curiosity, how thin were your tires? Doing the Reformatory Branch on anything less than 28mm kind of counts as "underbiking", and you get extra credit. Beware of that trail within 3 days of a good rainstorm: muddy...

rod

rholland1951

Panza, sounds like an adventure in the rain. Please share your favorite routes in NH, as you ride them...

rod

Hugh Morris

Jim, I definitely enjoyed the roads out that way. My instrument of choice, for whatever reason, is the trombone. This rehearsal was for a live hip hop band. Coasting downhill there was cool and all but biking uphill home with the horn on my back... notsomuch.

220ish pounds on 25mm tires on a very recently acquired trek 520. Ideally I'll get some fatter things on there for winter and whatever tours I can manage, but right now money and they run. And FAST, for my limited frame of reference, having come from a limping old single speed Raleigh.

I can see how that trail would hold water; one part was nearly a rhythm section. Beginners luck with my choice of day: no traffic, long sight-lines and that Hitchcock zoom effect from flying down a narrow path in the sun-speckled woods.

rholland1951

With a Trek 520, you have lots of tire clearance and, these days, lots of tire options, depending on what sort of riding you want to do. Enjoy!

rod

Panza

Oh yes! Wire-Wallace Rd in New Hampshire is a long stretch of 11 miles. The hills are short and steep which means you never get bored riding through this foresty section. The people were fairly bike friendly and gave ample passing room as I was on the side of the road putting my rain jacket on often. At the end of Wallace, there's a roundabout which leads to a convenience store/gas station in the lovely Golfstown to refuel. In Goftstown there are small roadside places where you can eat which seemed to be quite busy. If you ride it in reverse, you're greeted by a lovely category 4 steep hill climb.

Clough State Park has a nice scenic view of water, a large dam, and is surrounded by large hills and small mountains. There was a fair amount of people, but there was so much dog crap that I was more concerned about trying not to ride over any that it took out of the fun. Quickly into the exploration, the roads all become dirt, so if you're on 23mm tires like I was, it's much harder to navigate. Cross bike would've been nice.

Route 77 was an unexpected pleasure, originally made it there because of a wrong turn, there were rolling hills and long declines over a few nice rivers. You're above and separated from the forest so you can take in more of the scenery instead of feeling like you're "inside" the forest. Relaxing horses, cows, and farms selling local produce were prevalent. There were no more convenience stores until I reached the town of Weare where I stayed inside a gas station until the heavy rain let up a little.

Rest of the ride was mostly covered in rain, but I hope to make it to the mountain on my next trip with more route planning. For some reason, I chose to use Google maps to plan the route under the option Bike. It took me into some uncompleted roads, dirt trails, and dead ends. I'll also throw the rear rack on the bike, wearing a backpack was not as comfortable and aided to the constricting feeling. : )! I'm learning lots about these long rides.

rholland1951

10 miles on the Minuteman tonight, the air cool, dry, clear. Kept a brisk pace.

rod

rholland1951

That's it! For me, it's one pedal stroke per dip... the spin synchronizes with the trail surface, close enough to a sine wave to pass...

rod

jimmuller 

I had this experience on my commute home today. Still had 14 miles to go.



AAA got me home.

rholland1951

Yikes, Jim, what is that?

rod

Bishbike

What the heck happened Jim?!?

Bishbike

Between gigging, teaching, and buying a house, my rides have all been the 8 miles between the apartment and the new house.

Finally got out for a 26 mile out and back to Concord today. Wanted to stay out all day, but had to teach. Great day for a ride. Perfect weather for sure! Just what I needed to clear my head.

Funny how the familiar roads seemed fresh after taking a hiatus.

Hope to rejoin my usual Friday group ride this Friday and get some big miles in.

Bishbike

Welcome to the forum Hugh! Always nice to see another musician here.

jimmuller 

"That" is a FW which has come apart, bearings scattered around Middle St in Woburn.

Ah, well, the FW came apart. (See above.) I started hearing and feeling a bump in sync with the wheels but only when I pedaled. That's a clue. I thought it might be a broken axle, but saw the FW wobbling. When I took the wheel off to investigate further its main parts separated.

Pretty cool, huh? Betcha' that never happened to you!

rholland1951

Cool indeed, in a scary sort of way. Which bike?

rod

jimmuller 

My trusty UO-8. Of course it isn't the original FW or even the original wheels. That bike has served me faithfully for 42 years so I can forgive a slip up every so often. I'm commuting on it now because the low sun makes vision hard, but it has a generator and lights to make me easier to see.

rholland1951

Like Dr. Who, I expect it will regenerate and be ready for new adventures...

rod

mr_bill

These are from the end of last week. I spent last week at YUL (Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport). Except for a couple of trips on the 747 (I kid you not) bus into downtown, it was very claustrophobic to be in an airport hotel for a week. A half mile walk to the local Starbucks at the other end of the long hallway from the hotel lobby to the other end of the terminal.

However, I brought my bike (and my camera). Then managed to bollix almost all of the photos into the trashcan.

So, one quick-ish ride out to Parc René-Lévesque. The ride along chemin du Bord-du-Lac was delightful, and I *loved* these signs.

The following late afternoon a longer ride along Canal de Lachine to Vieux-Montréal and back. Besides biking (or walking) around Old Montreal is wonderful, I was amazed by the numbers of commuters on Bixi bikes.

Bixi is the company in Montreal who makes so many of the bike share systems, including Hubway, Citi Bike, Capital Bikeshare, and of course Boris Bikes, aka Barclays Cycle Hire.

In Boston, there are usually a few Hubway bikes mixed in with all the folks on their own bicycles, in Montreal during the commute time, it's vastly the other way around, about 4 out of 5 bikes are Bixi bikes.


The two photos that didn't end up in the trashcan at least capture the unique venue I stayed at:




-mr. bill

rholland1951

Fourteen miles on the Minuteman this evening, the greenery starting to take on colors from the Fall palette here and there. Lots of Canondales out tonight, or perhaps I was just noticing the ones that are always there; got passed by a guy on a great old Dawes (one of Jim's C&V correspondents?). And... encountered a cargo bike flying a Japanese fish.


rod

Jim from Boston

Hi Jim,

Sorry to hear of your misfortune. How prompt was the AAA service? As I understand it, you get two pick-ups per year, but fortunately such debilitating disasters are rare in my experience.

My worst was a pedal axle breaking en route to work in residential Newton at about 6:00 AM, with about 10 miles to go. I called a cab and they arrived in about a half hour as I recall. The bright side was that we drove to Norwood in a cloudburst of a rain storm. Cell phone and ATM card are about the most useful emergency tools you can carry (except maybe a gum for unusual situations? ).

jimmuller 

It worked out okay, just cost me a bit of time and less cash than a cab ride would have been. This is the only time I've ever had a breakdown where I simply couldn't ride and it wasn't fixable with carriable tools.

Agreed about cell phone and cash/ATM card. Not sure about gum though. I'm thinking a gub would be too heavy and not terribly useful.

At the moment the UO-8 is wearing a 6-spd with the stop screws limiting access to the inner 4 cogs. We did just fine on yesterday's commute. As soon as my shipment of round tuits comes in (any day now) I'm hoping to rebuild the busted FW. Its cogs are an unusual 15-30 and I have no idea where I got it. A few BF members have also offered me another 5-spd. As Rod predicted, Dr. Who lives again.

rholland1951

Gum?


... or, perhaps, a portable attack dog...


rod

sherbornpeddler

Mr. B Nice report and great photos. Thanks. Interesting observation on the public vs. private bike differences between Montreal and Boston. In my own Boston use Hubway is an alternative to subway more than taxi.

sherbornpeddler

Originally Posted by rholland1951
Yikes, Jim, what is that?



"That" is a FW which has come apart, bearings scattered around Middle St in Woburn.


Originally Posted by Bishbike
What the heck happened Jim?!?



Ah, well, the FW came apart. (See above.) I started hearing and feeling a bump in sync with the wheels but only when I pedaled. That's a clue. I thought it might be a broken axle, but saw the FW wobbling. When I took the wheel off to investigate further its main parts separated.

Pretty cool, huh? Betcha' that never happened to you!

One of the great things about this thread is our diversity. I would have attacked the escaping ball bearings with a magnet rather than either chewing gum or attack dog.


Once gum-stuck, dog-gummed in a red cup or magnetically recaptured, can one tell if they escaped by wearing down to a smaller size, cup and cone wear or Metro Boston road surface induced cone creep?

jimmuller 

SBP, you need to start getting out again, real soon!

I have no idea where the bearings went. I happened to see one of them. Didn't have a magnet, nor the tools to reassemble it. Didn't have any gum either. Nor Gumby.

I did my commute again yesterday (Did I mention yesterday yesterday? I think so.) and today. This morning I stopped just after entering the MM in Arlington to take off my balaclava, and just as I was getting started a voice over my shoulder called out "On your left" and a group of seven cyclist went by. I fell in behind, we crossed one road immediately, and they took off. There were four guys in front decked out in full kits and riding head-down in a tight quad formation, two more guys not so stylish, and one girl, I mean woman, spinning a cadence much faster but trailing.

A quarter of a mile later I caught up with her and kept hearing her coughing. She was slowing, obviously having difficulty. As I went by I asked if she was with them and was she okay. She answered yes and she'd be fine. I wasn't sure what "them" meant, all six or just the two. The four guys in front were moving, the next two guys seemingly not so fast. I caught up to them and asked if all seven of them were together, they said yes. I told them they were losing one rider, that she'd dropped back. By now she was 200 yards back. They looked back, realized what was up, and slowed or stopped. But the four in front were oblivious, head-down, cranking.

So I took off after them. It took me maybe a quarter of a mile with me pushing my 42 year old UO-8 with its bottle generator engaged and them riding new CF, but I finally caught them. (He!) I called out that they'd lost a rider. One guy asked "What?" I said the girl back there was having some trouble and they'd lost her. Ah, they figured it out, slowed and I think turned around. I took off, figured I'd done her, and all of them as a society of seven, a nice service. I never saw them again.

rholland1951

Jim, you're a mensch!

rod