jimmuller 

I didn't do it. Nobody saw me. You can't prove anything. (And I really rode 1342 miles yesterday. )

But I did bike to work today!

Standing on the platform, waiting for the train.


A serene part, heading south on the Blackstone River Bikeway; on the left is the remains of a canal:


At the office, two Bianchis, old and new:


I tried a new route today to avoid a particularly messy intersection rt146 and rt116. I had tried this two years ago when I started this commute, but the bridge over rt146 was being rebuilt so I had to turn around. Today I tried it again. The maps showed it to be about a mile and half longer. It was, ah, tough. For those of you familiar with Rhode Island, it includes running west on Wilbur Rd from Limerock on Great Rd over to rt123. I figured it might have a hill, since rt123 tops out on a hill with an airport up there, right above my employer.

Wilbur Rd is a quiet, isolated, largely rural lane. After crossing rt246 westbound it goes UP. The climb is only about 1/3 mile, but the Topo USA reports it as having an average grade of 10% with sections as high as 18%. My legs still ache from that climb. On the other hand, the run home that was a lot easier!

Well, the intersection I wanted to avoid was in the homeward direction anyway. I probably won't go that way regularly inbound, but that's probably going to become my regular homeward route.

EBH

From todays ride, including passing over a powerplant dam and a sluselock

EBH

Some action pics from today also:

northbend 

Beautiful route EBH. Cool bike too.

WNG

What a gorgeous bike..Wonderful set of photos, EBH!

No pics of today's ride. Just went for a late morning 22 miler of last week's route. It's becoming my main loop out near where I reside. 90 degrees and sunny, must start earlier!

jimmuller 

Nice pics, EBH. But I hate to have to tell you this but your right brake lever is missing its cable.

We did 55.6 miles on the tandem today. Downloaded into the GPS a route to a new part of the state for us, then just went for a long ride. Bedford to Pepperell by way of Carlisle, Westford, some of Groton and Dunstable. Dang, but Groton sure has its share of hills.

Found in Westford:





Today's route

Chrome Molly

Did first of the my three Wisconsin Triple Crown rides today. Arcadia Brute, 150k with around 9500 ft gain. Managed it in 6 hours, but noticed I'm not getting any younger. No photos, but just imagine a gray haired guy looking awfully tired trying to hang on to the back of a paceline full of twenty and thirty somethings. Haven't posted much because the build up was boring hill ride repeats due to our very late spring. Hope to post some more scenic photos of rides in the next couple weeks. All these photos of everyone's rides is as great as ever. I had the oldest bike there by far (84 760)

gomango

Congrats!

I'm so tired from the Almanzo 100 that I am going to bed early.

I did 81 and broke a rear derailleur. That ended that.

Pics tomorrow. A total arssh kicker.

Chrome Molly

81 on gravel is plenty to be tired about. Sweet dreams. I wonder if that's always opposite the AB?

obrentharris 

Thanks for the beautiful pictures from Norway EBH!

Jimmuller, the map is great! I love maps and the opportunity to become just a little better acquainted with a part of the country I've never visited. What program do you use to create and import the map? Nanette and I went on a tandem ride in Sonoma County today. I'm afraid the historic apple packing building we found isn't nearly as old as the historic building in your photographs.



The only thing C&V about this tandem is the old Novarra handlebar bag. (and the riders!)

24 miles, mostly bike paths.
Brent

jimmuller 

obh, I like your photo. That roof line and the vertical striping really highlight the tiny stoker and bike!

About the program, that is DeLorme TopoUSA. It came with our PN60 GPS. I've been a big fan/user of DeLorme StreetAtlas for many years. I wanted a GPS that had maps and a display, not just something that would show upcoming turns. That's why I sprung for the PN60. It has taken me a while to figure out how to use the PN60 effectively and remember it all. TopoUSA does routing similar to StreetAtlas but with more data, of course.

To create a route you mark start and end points, but also "vias" which forces the route through that spot. Since I wanted to follow a route from a book I had to identify each turn on the map, and make sure it had enough vias to force the route that way. That's what all the dots in the course are. Then you upload it to the PN60 from within TopoUSA and then on the road you select that route to follow.

Following a GPX track downloaded from a website is not so straightforward, but can be done.

I'm glad you enjoy the pics and stuff. New England is an interesting place with a lot of history (like that old mill building). I didn't grow up here but I've been here since '75. We also have a lot of short steep hills, even in the flat parts. And the old roads built before modern highway codes weren't graded like new ones. That mill building was on a dammed river of course, and getting out the valley was a slog in both directions!

EBH

More nice pics
Keep em coming folks.

JJScaliger

I left early this morning and did a 33 mile ride in Smithfield-North Smithfield-Slatersville and Burriville RI.It was around 50 degrees at the start and warmed up to about 65 on a nice sunny day. Tons of fun on all new roads for me. I based this ride on an old Narragansett Bay Wheelman ride last updated in 1989.

Stillwater Reservoir on google maps (formally known as Woonesquatucket Reservoir or Stump Pond?)



Mowry Conservation area in Smithfield



Forestdale School (1877) North Smithfield







dam at Slatersville RI



Barn at Smith-Appleby Farm on Stillwater Rd



I broke a spoke about 5 miles in, but went on with little trouble.

EBH

Nice pics

jimmuller 

As usual, JJS shows off his rides with style! (How do you spell Woonesquatucket?)

Not to be outdone by the Forestdale Post Office, I'll lead off with an even older building we go by regularly in Concord, taken on today's ride. Historically significant too. 37.7 miles today.



Another item that's been sitting there for a while:

southpawboston

JJ Scaliger, great pics of RI! Your photos continue to make me want to take the short drive down that way and ride.

Jim Muller, great shots of an area I love to ride in! In fact I just rode through Groton today on my way to the MIT Haystack Observatory, and indeed there are some good hills, some approaching 10% grade. I also routinely ride through Carlisle/Concord/Lincoln as one of my go-to routes when I need to get a ride in.

Today I rode one of the Ride Studio Cafe routes with some friends including forum member JPTwins, which took us from Lexington out to Chelmsford and back in a very scenic loop, with a stop at the MIT Observatory. Route was 62 miles, plus 9 miles to the ride start from my house and back again, brought the total to 82 miles.

northbend 

I rode to the town of Redmond to meet up with some friends for a ride.

A lot of rural riding today

My Friend Ty ran into a friend of his. Pro rider Tom Peterson. What a nice guy.

I split off from them to ride home as they turned north to go back to Redmond. My day ended with something like 85-90 miles

jimmuller 

SPB, that's a great pic with the dishes on the background! We did ride by Haystack on rt40 yesterday but didn't go in. Truth is, I didn't like doing so much of rt 40. It was hilly, narrow, and very busy, with a mail truck making life tricky for a short while too. On checking the route in Pepperell I found that it didn't quite take us where I wanted to go. So we routed ourselves around on the return trip.

I would have ridden in just to look around, especially after another BF member posted pics on the Metro Boston forum (I think it was). But I wasn't at all sure how our time (or energy) was going to work out through unknown country. Plus the entrances we saw looked like 20% grades to get in! As it was, the return from Pepperell to Westford was much easier than I expected, reversing most of the same roads. Perspective is a strange thing.

jimmuller 

nb, that looks like you had fun. (But tell that guy on the red bike that his front wheel is about 20 spokes short. )

JohnDThompson 

Finished up the Lake Pepin 3-Speed Tour. Thought I was headed for a major debacle when I went to set up camp Friday and discovered I'd brought the wrong poles for my tent. Managed to make it work anyway, but was glad my cobble-job never got stress-tested with a big storm (as as happened previous years on the Tour).



Lots of people. Registration is capped at 120, and with the busy roads things can get crowded.



I did try a couple shortcuts, including Noel's suggestion for Flower Valley Road as an alternate approach to Red Wing, avoiding the "no shoulder" bottleneck where Hwy 61 enters Red Wing. Several miles of gravel, a killer hill I had to walk because of lack of traction on the gravel , but a long downhill run into town and only one car on the whole section.



Met a fellow from my tiny home town of Shelton, WA which I haven't seen in half a century and all in all had a much better time than I expected given the tent pole episode and weather forecast for 70% chance of severe storms. I did break camp in Wabasha just ahead of a severe storm with large hail and 60mph+ winds, though...

obrentharris 

O.K. You guys have convinced us with all your beautiful photos. My wife and I have begun planning our road trip to the East Coast (bringing along our tandem of course) for when I retire in a couple years.

Meanwhile on the West Coast... I rode the Mountain Bike with the Forest Knolls Freewheelers today out to State Highway 1 near Olema to watch the riders go by on the last day of the Tour of California.



It's surprising how many water bottles a peloton like this leaves at the side of the road. We make watching the Tour an annual event, so I haven't had to buy water bottles in years.

9 paved miles
29 miles of dirt
6,100 feet of climbing

Brent

EBH

Took the Concorde out today.
Early on I thought I should have taken the MTB...

Zoku620

Many '72 Charger's in Norway?

jimmuller 

EBH, your pics make Norway look beautiful. And I'm sure it is too!

JJScaliger

Today, after I left work, I went out and rode 42 miles on a humid, hot, May day at 83 degrees. Jim’s comments got me thinking about architecture, and I knew that the Smith-Appleby farm was old, so I did some research and discovered that it was a modified Stone Ender.

A stone ender was a timber and post home, usually 2 stories, with one wall consisting of a large chimney, dating to the 17th Century. This architectural style was unique in the colonies to Rhode Island.

There are only 9 extant stone enders and 5 (well 6, but I missed one when I made my list) are located within striking distance. I figured I would use this as a rubric for my ride today.

I made a loop through Cranston-Johnston-Smithfield-Lincoln-North Providence-Providence-Cranston. Since sections were urban and have heavy traffic with lots of road debris, I decided to bust the Kelly out for the first time in a few months.

Thomas Fenner House Cranston (1677)





I thought my first stone ender was going to be a bust with no view of the chimney because it is a private residence with a stockade fence encircling it. The old carriage lane leading up to the house around the block had a nice view of the business end of the stone ender.
There aren’t many structures left in RI before this time. Even though it was settled in 1636, most building were burnt or destroyed during King Phillip’s war.

Clemence Irons House Johnston (1691)





Smith-Appleby House Smithfield (1696)




This house had additions and was modified several times. It isn’t really a stone ender anymore.
It did have a mill and blacksmith shop on the site before.

https://smithapplebyhouse.org/