Ghazmh

mr_bill

From Saturday:

The Grant Street bridge project in Lexington ran a bit ahead of schedule, so dismount free zone:


And of course the forbidden LBS across the street:


-mr. bill

autonomy

I saw 2 people riding them on the Minuteman this weekend!

Thanks to the post above by @mr_bill I decided to try a LimeBike (I also had an opportunity whether due to circumstances I was faced with either a 40-minute walk or Liming... not that I have anything against walking on a beautiful day). I got one of those moneybag bikes, which I don't think has been ridden before me and took it for a quick jaunt on the bikeway. It was convenient to have this service. It's fine for errands and leisure rides, but I discovered a frustrating lack of gears between #2 and #3 ; nevertheless I was able to keep up downhill with some of the more leisurely roadies. However, my desire to climb Park Ave on one has diminished. Left it near the bike trail next to another LimeBike and both were gone by the late afternoon.

Then, rode to Bedford Depot with wife, and took the kiddo on the back. She had way more fun than usual, and on the way back kept yelling 'on your left' at everyone and everything, it was rather cute... until she started shrieking it at absolutely nothing. Oh well, still a nice ride - very many people out, including some who seemed like 'irregular users' of the trail.

NomarsGirl

Rode the East Bay bike path on Sunday with hubby. Lots of people out since the weather was so nice. If you haven't been on this path lately, you should check it out. I always found it very bumpy with lots of tree roots. The entire path has been repaved and there isn't a bump on the whole thing.



End of the line.

rumrunn6

they're popping up everywhere. Greenride bike share in Burly VT

Panza

Back from climbing Mt. Washington. That was fun ...
It's nice to be only a few hours away from such epic mountains.

jimmuller 

How was the weather?

Yesterday was good for biking. I did my usual commute, this time on the Masi.

rholland1951

Resolved Monday's "where shall I ride today?" question with a 35-mile exploratory trip to Deer Island, via Arlington, Medford, Malden, Revere, Winthrop, and Boston (which is to say, Deer Island itself). That choice was, like much else, inspired by a ride SBP (@sherbornpeddler) reported here a couple of years ago. Rode East, of course, so made my customary pilgrimage to the stupa at the Kurukulla Center. I have a naive theory that since the spiritual technology of a prayer flag holds that the prayer is repeated each time the flag waves (or, perhaps, each time it is perceived as having waved), an animated image of the flag waving should also do the trick with each iteration. Unfalsifiable but satisfying, like any good spiritual technology...


Rolled through Medford and Malden and picked up the Northern Strand Community Trail. The community gardens and lending library were in full bloom.


Made my way to Revere Beach, said to be the oldest public beach in America. 50-odd years ago, when I was a car-less undergraduate, I used to ride the Blue Line (you should have seen those fine old antique rail cars, with benches like church pews) out here to take a dip and groove on the townie beach scene.


Rush hour in Winthrop.


Pedal long enough and things change. Long sight lines emphasize that.


A little more pedaling, and Deer Island is under my wheels (the "pictures or it didn't happen" picture).


Big, low-flying planes add their roar to the ocean's in this neighborhood.


The other week, I was out among the harbor islands in a friend's sailboat, and here I am again. I like this better, the bike only leans over when I tell it to...


A Platonic wind turbine (with digesters)


Never far from beauty or chaos here, engineering marvels notwithstanding.


I'd like to thank the MWRA for insuring that a million Eastern Massachusetts toilets don't back up. Life is good.

This ride is, in some sense, a fulfillment of the original Bike to the Sea vision, using the Northern Strand Trail for its intended purpose.

rod

rholland1951

By way of a postscript to the previous report: anybody dubious about the utility of bike lanes should give Revere Street, Revere, a try during rush hour. You and your bike will absolutely be the fastest things on the road.


rod

Ghazmh

Panza

First time in history the race was delayed. Delayed by 2 hours due to rain. Very wet before and after. A pocket opened up where it wasn't raining and we went for it. Very windy as usual, and cloudy for the majority of the ride. Even the summit was a cloud.


I don't know why I do these mountain climbs when I'm not suited for them. A sprinter clyde at 200lbs.

rholland1951

Went for a 19-mile urban ride with my grown daughter, across Arlington, Somerville, Cambridge, the Locks, the North End, the Rose Kennedy Greenway, Cambridge Street, the Esplanade and the South bank of the Charles as far as Harvard, then home via Garden Street, Sherman Street, Rindge Avenue, and the Minuteman. Along the way, we rectified some equipment deficits that had become apparent during last month's NH tour, including stops at Wheelworks for gloves and a new headlight, and at Bicycle Belle for a Terry Liberator saddle. The Carousel on the Greenway was the major goal, and a jolly time was had by all.




















We were both impressed by the progress in bicycle infrastructure that has been made in the cities we rode through, something that made this urban ride much more pleasant and approachable.

rod

mr_bill

What a wonderful ride.

Also a wonderful mural at Advance Tire.

-mr. bill

rholland1951

Agreed, that mural is a real civic ornament.

rod

rumrunn6

r

ran out for 20 on the BFRT (abridged, round trip Acton to Chelmsford) after work last night



Rod, love the Duck boat pic! Fun!

rholland1951

Night riding season is creeping up on us, for sure...

rod

rumrunn6

yup ditched the kiddie lights for the real thing. used low last night & was sure to tilt it down even tho I still have my wide angle lens & top hood. these riders out here aren't all freaked out by someone using a light like they are on the MM. I even saw a cpl front strobes! I could only chuckle to myself

Ghazmh

mr_bill

-mr. bill

rholland1951

Took the Rawland Nordavinden out for a spin on the Minuteman this afternoon, after this morning's downpour was all over except the puddles, and this afternoon's thunderstorms were nothing but probabilities. It occurred to me I was playing Shrodinger's Wet Cat (a non-lethal variant of the famous thought experiment), dry for the moment. The day was fine enough at the start, but began to get a little weird immediately when I got to Arlington Center and encountered Uncle Sam in a cage... I considered the possibility that this was the Arlington Arts Council's latest decoration of the Minuteman, but decided it wasn't their style, too tendentious, and that what I was seeing was probably some sort of restoration work.


Rolling along, I admired the sunny, blue sky decorated with fine, puffy white clouds, warm and breezy, Summer at its most benign.








Lexington Center confronted me with another aspect of this Summer's day: ominous clouds that corresponded to some nasty blotches on the pocket devil's weather radar. Breezy was becoming windy.


I found the opportunity to ride right into a Hudson River School painting to be irresistable; misconstruing the timeliness of the weather radar display probably helped. Off I went. It was a pretty, though darker, ride.


At Bedford Street, I took stock. The sky was lowering in truly Victorian form, and I was reading the weather radar a bit differently now.


I turned around and headed back. Just after transiting Revere Street, I began to notice a little drizzle. This followed an accelerated curriculum and rapidly graduated to shower and then, at the Visitors Center at Meriam Street, to downpour. MOWRRRR! said Shrodinger's Wet Cat. No frogs were actually strangled, however, and I sought shelter under the broad roof of the Lexington Depot.


The storm was fast moving and bounded, and soon enough I was rolling again. I passed the fringe of Arlington's Farmers Market (it being Wednesday), and unlike any other Wednesday, didn't just keep pedaling, but stopped to buy a couple of fresh ears of corn for dinner. I improvised a balanced way to carry the bag between the two hoods of my brake levers. This bike likes a front load anyway, and the corn proved delicious come dinnertime.


East Arlington was completely dry. Shrodinger's Wet Cat purred.

rod

rumrunn6

wow, looks like a complicated repair & a thing to keep an eye on in the future. looks like a drop off due to erosion on the outside there

engineering drainage for old railroad beds are kinda interesting to me. from what I remember about many of the unpaved rail trails I've ridden, is that on either side of the rail bed are parallel ditches to carry the water. or the bed is significantly higher than the surrounding landscape, thereby keeping it above water

wonder what problems paving them over creates for engineers. along the new sections of the BFRT they put down fairly wide shoulders of stone dust. but it's already washing away creating deep ruts which could cause a bike crash (if you were to wonder off the paved part)

rumrunn6

interesting, is that something they can help with?

mr_bill

There is no official link from the Grove Street underpass to the Bikeway.

However, there are two desire paths, one for the Summer St approach and one for the Mass Ave approach.

The Mass Ave approach is very steep (the tree roots make a natural stairway) and you can see some aggregate uh, aggregating at the curb on the road.

So the erosion there is most likely a combination of human footsteps and the far more intense and frequent rainfall we have been getting in recent years.

(We won't talk about the non-ADA compliant "sidewalk" on one side of the underpass and the dead-end "sidewalk" on the other side of the underpass.)

-mr. bill

rholland1951

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of informal access points to the Minuteman. The trail wouldn't be as functional without them, but each comes with its own special complexities.

rod

rumrunn6

it's all good, even the dead ends, lol. new path, near new lot on the BFRT at Ice House Pond, Acton ...