rholland1951

Took the Ebisu on a 48-mile ramble through Arlington, Lexington, Bedford, Concord, Lincoln, Sudbury, Wayland, Weston, and Waltham, a ride mostly beside water--the Sudbury River, the Cambridge Reservoir, and a soggy gaggle of creeks, ponds, and swamps. Not the hilliest ride, but now and then a climb or a descent would get thrown in for variety, and to get from one bit of water to the next. Minuteman (for the misanthropy, mostly inspired by fellow cyclists this time), Reformatory Branch, Monument Street, Walden Street/Route 126, Sherman's Bridge Road, Water Row, River Road, Pelham Island Road, Old Sudbury Road (Ponyhenge!), Route 117, Lexington Street, West Street, Winter Street (alongside a part of the Cambridge Reservoir I hadn't ridden before), Old County Road, Trapelo Road, Smith Street/Spring Street, Marrett Road, Mass. Ave., Maple Street (ripped up), the Minuteman again ("all we like sheep", as Handel had it), home. The Ebisu was comfortable for the distance and conditions, although it's time to make a couple of changes to the cockpit I've been putting off, and re-wrap the bars, while I'm at it.

Reformatory Branch: swampy bits. Makes me nostalgic for my South Georgia boyhood.


Concord Center: The first block or two of Walden Street was closed for a street fair. I asked a dapper gentleman in a straw boater what the occasion was. "I don't know... Summer?" Good enough.


Lincoln: Walden Breezes, Hen House Division (a trailer park for chickens).


Sherman's Bridge Road: Sudbury River.


Sudbury: Water Row, Sudbury River flood plain.


Wayland: encountered time travelers on Pelham Island Road.


Pelham Island Road: a great blue heron on the wing.


Old Sudbury Road, Lincoln: Ponyhenge!


Weston: mango sorbet at the Cedar Hill Dairy Joy, just the thing for a desultory ride on a sultry day.


Winter Street, Waltham: nice ride along the Cambridge Reservoir, at least on a Sunday. Note: at least one driver did not get the memo about the One Way segment in Lincoln.


rod

mr_bill

You're gonna need a bigger box.




-mr. bill

jimmuller 

I rode the Motobecane about 30 miles today, just out to Concord and back. A bit of history:





Anyone know where this is? It's easy to miss because you typically ride by with too much speed to notice.

Ghazmh

Lowell st?

Ghazmh

I had a nice long description of today's 101.2 mile ride on the Roubaix, then I swapped screens to get a link to a picture that I took in Nashua. When I returned the text was gone. At 2:00 PM I was 1 of only 2 cyclists at Ferns, desperately needed an ice coffee and a snack.

101.2 miles in 5:59:13.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5...0gzVjJ4OTdLTFU

https://www.strava.com/activities/1098316732/shareable_images/photo_based/19033025/1/1CA82C49-CED1-4C26-B2FC-15E86317E963?hl=en-US&v=1500838947

rholland1951

Had a quick ride up to Lexington Center this afternoon, as much to photograph the Duck Crossing on the Minuteman in Arlington Heights before tomorrow's downpour as for any other reason. I could hear the ducks quacking, masked by the undergrowth.






rod

jimmuller 

Noop. Intersection of Sandy Pond Rd and Baker Bridge Rd in Lincoln. Because the road is coming off a nice downhill and that stone is on the inside of the turn most riders never see it. I rode by there a number of times before I saw it.

mr_bill

Revere Beach Blvd closed to traffic for the Sand Castle Contest



Winthrop Parkway - flood gates



Winthrop Shore Drive



Deer Island - the eggs



Leaving Deer Island plant - re purposed navigation buoys



Harold French Square - Blackstrap BBQ dead ahead (highly recommend this joint!)



Going under orange line at Wellington Station



Pretty sure that's Fellsway above



Don't remember, just like the light



The new deck at Scutra in Arlington - work in progress



-mr. bill

Panza

Hey guys, not really a ride report but ...



I'm traveling to Quebec in two weeks via motorcycle. I'm still training for the Pain in the Mass 150 ride and don't want to lose momentum so I want to take my bicycle with me to ride through the week. There's no way that I could order one of those fancy motorcycle bike racks in time. Does anyone have experience strapping and tying a bike down to the back of a motorcycle ...? I was thinking about removing the chain and wheels and tying them down somehow.

jimmuller 

mr_bill,those pics look great! I really need to know how to get over to that northeast part of the world from our vantage point west of the big city. Gimme a clue!

mr_bill

Hope you do better than I did this weekend. Afraid that both Tom Tom and Google failed me and my friends real time, and I put them in the deep end. I don't know WHY Tom Tom and Google think 16 is a good ride.

(ARGH! Google Maps mysteries - don't know why it is going embedded here. Click on more options, bicycle routes.)

From the South, Rutherford Circle to Revere Beach:

We wanted to go Northern Strand, but it put us on a meander through to Ferry St->Elm St->Park Ave. (Park Ave is a lovely descent into Revere Beach though.)

From the West, Medford St Bridge or Charles St Bridge to Revere Beach:

(Again, Google and Tom Tom, Revere Beach Parkway bridge over the Malden River - not fun.)

The only other water crossing available onto East Boston/Winthrop is Chelsea St Bridge:

(Don't let the GPS send you Boardman St to 1A on the flipside, though damning with faint praise, huge shoulder and you get off the first exit.)

(Oh, T and Water Shuttle too can get you over/under/on.)

-mr. bill

mr_bill

Zero experience with bikes on bikes. BUT, another alternative is BIXI, their version of Hubway (which is our version of BIXI). Other alternatives are renting a road bike while you are there. Five days is about 200 CAD, which is about 160 US$.

Montreal is lovely.

-mr. bill

Ghazmh

As I was going down the hill and slowing for the intersection I had my head on a swivel looking for that rock this morning. Just as I began to wonder if I missed it there it was. I've cycled and driven through that intersection (mostly cycled) many times and never noticed it. It's nice to see something new like that hiding in plain sight. Thanks.

kinda wet and otherwise uneventful 30 mile AM spin. I'm already noticing that 5:00 isent as sunny as it was a month ago. Another few weeks and the headlight will be back in action.

Panza

Sad, summer solstice was June 21st. We're just losing daylight from now on ... I'll miss being able to ride at 9pm while still having good visibility.

rholland1951

Yah. Long shadows on this evening´s ride before dinner. And I rode over a couple acorns, or something like them, with a sharp report each time.


Another harbinger of Autumn: I've located the frame and fork for the next project bike. Nobilette No. 72, a go-fast made of Columbus TSX tubing, circa 1990. I've started rounding up components, like a squirrel hoarding acorns.


rod

Ghazmh

I had a nice 35 mile spin Friday morning with the Roubaix followed by 68 Saturday. 9 was on the trusty old Montare hybrid grocery shopping and running errands. The last 59 was on the R3. I took a wide loop through Weston, Sudbury, Hudson, Stow, Wayland, Concord, Acton, Carlisle, Bedford, Lincoln, and back through Concord, Lincoln and Weston.

rholland1951

Cycling for me today was a complex number, the imaginary part being a ride to Harvard and Devens that got preempted by the real part, honoring a request to help out in my capacity as apprentice wrench at Paramount Bicycle Repair...


That occupied most of the day, and got my hands nice and greasy, but I still had time for a quick ride on the Minuteman on the Nordavinden before dinner, a brisk pace on a lovely evening, real enough.


rod

Ghazmh

This afternoon I finally rode the Smoothie along the regions beautiful scenic roads through Lincoln, Concord, and Carlisle basking in Summer's finest. It was a delightful 40 mile Sunday afternoon ride.

Ghazmh

I signed up for my first organized cycling event. its about time I put these miles to good use. Donations are greatly appreciated.

https://my.biketothebeach.org/Ghazarianmichael63

mr_bill

Rode to SOWA for an art gallery show closing, not quite Amsterdam, but lots of bikes:


If you look closely, you can see the shadow of "cannondale":


And new protected bike lane on Mass Ave outbound to Harvard Square, between Trowbridge Street & Unnamed Place (Quincy? Bow? Harvard?):


The world as we know it does not end if you don't use the protected bike lane:


-mr. bill

jimmuller 

Yesterday I took the Masi out for 57.9 miles. Spent some contemplative time on The Road That Time Forgot. I actually saw two other bikes there, which is surprising because part of it you have to ride at a walking pace. At least I do on my 23mm sew-ups.

autonomy

Did our weekly ride with the wife Saturday morning instead of Sunday due to schedule constraints, and boy, did it feel like late September! Gray skies, chilly wind, actually got cold sitting outside of Haute Coffee in Concord. Fortunately, the sun came out in the afternoon and I was green with envy on Sunday morning of all the other cyclists who got to enjoy the fantastic weather on two wheels.

rholland1951

Nice guinea fowl you've got there!

rod

rholland1951

Took the Surly Trucker DeLuxe, shod with 55mm Compass Rat Trap Pass Extralights, out for 15 warm, late afternoon miles on the Minuteman.








Fife and drum music came wafting onto the MInuteman from the Lexington Green, so I stopped for a moment to investigate. The drums were tight, and the fifers were blowing up a storm with those old modal songs.




The run of wet weather we've had this season has kept me more on the pavement than usual, and that has translated to off this bike, my go-to for trails and abandoned roads, but the bike gently reminded me that it's a lot of laughs on pavement, especially some of the nasty broken stuff that we seem to be plentifully supplied with in places (cf. Jim's The Road That Time Forgot). Time to get the bike back into the rotation. Light, supple 55mm 26" tires have some surprising advantages.


Speaking of rough pavement, Revere Street appears to be under construction, and crossing conditions at the Minuteman intersection require a little care.


rod

Ghazmh

As always its great to see all the pictures. Great scenery and bikes.

I was finally able to download and create a link to a pic of the Smoothie at the Lincoln Library from Sunday afternoon. I got out yesterday morning for the usual AM loop and it was fairly routine. Which of course is a good thing. Today I was feeling a little less motivated to do the same loop so I clipped a few roads from the route and settled on a 25 mile abbreviation. On 126 heading toward Walden Pond as I passed the farm at Baker Bridge Road I caught a whiff of Dill again. At the Rte 2 stoplight on 126 a small pack of riders pulled aside me at the light. The lead rider had a silver R3 with the same Boyd 44mm wheels that I have on my black R3. I said "nice wheels" but I dont think he saw mine to appreciate the reason behind the compliment. Eventually I was back at Baker Bridge Road but instead of passing by it I went up it. No Dill scent this time, although I did think of dill flavored sunflower seeds as the sunflowers were the next crop. After them I think its pumpkins, but I really cant say. Low plants with orangish yellow flowers.

Again I used my diminutive Night Rider blinkie light but on the solid setting for 30 minutes until there was enough ambient light to switch to blink mode. It provides no useful light for me to see with but is less annoying than blinking in the dark without a real headlight. I think next week I am going to mount my L&M Seca 1500 on the Roubaix. The frame mount battery dosent hang very cooperatively on the R3 with its tapered top tube and brake cable route. The cable is right where the velcro strap needs to go in order to have it up against the seat tube. Infront of the cable run and it dangles and slides around too much.

I just noticed that I mounted the replacement 28mm Conti Gator Hardshell rear tire on the Smoothie backwards. A few weeks ago I noticed a 1" gash going across the tread through the sidewall with an oh so slight bulge. Bummer the tire was slightly over a year old and has seen less miles than it should have.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5O...ew?usp=sharing

Enjoy the rides!