rumrunn6

affirmative

jimmuller 

We took the tandem out for our first ride of the year, 41 miles to Concord and back. The MM is clear, as expected after several warmish days. We did have to walk through a few patches of ice on the way out but they were just water on the return.

I don't recall seeing this sign before. Anyone know when it was put up?


This must be an old bridge built for the RR line.

Archwhorides 

Security and extra workout all in one!

rumrunn6

hate them now, but love them in the spring (when they come off & my legs aren't skinny)

Ghazmh

Finally back on the road this morning for a slow and steady 23 mile spin on my new winter bike! I haven't received the Schwalbe Winters (700x30) that I ordered from my LBS last week. Instead it was with the stock CX knobby tires. They stunk on wet pavement. A good hard pedal stroke and the tire lost traction. Which led to a slow and steady ride. Before heading to work I mounted my narrowish 700x25 GP4 seasons to give me more contact patch until I put something more season and width appropriate.

I quickly removed them and installed a fresh set of CX0's from my local LBS which.

eabeaj

You also, I believe, got to witness one of my more ignominious moments as a Minuteman cyclist, when a friendly pair of pedestrians and I were both trying to navigate around a large puddle and a series of silent miscommunications led to a slow-motion collision at about 2 mph. At least I was able to unclip. No hard feelings were had on either side...

jimmuller 

Ah! I remember something of that nature. Didn't see the beginning, just saw a few smiles and heard what sounded like an apology. Good no one was hurt.

rumrunn6

I had a similar occurrence but chose to ride thru the puddle as a sacrifice. I do have fenders, so ...

rumrunn6

hey congrats on finding a source for those 30mm tires!

btw: I just let the cats out, patio covered with invisible ice! (aka black ice, but my patio isn't black, so ...)

edit: sliding school bus this morning. there goes another mailbox!
https://www.necn.com/multimedia/WEB-...470701803.html

mr_bill

Far away from home....

Taipei 101 with my YouBike:



-mr. bill

rumrunn6

nice! how's the weather?

mr_bill

It’s currently tomorrow here, and 16 C. According to the weather channel it is raining every day. The streets and sidewalks get damp during the night, more like condensed fog than rain. I used my umbrella the first day here, barely.

I just walked in my t-shirt to the MRT, catching one of the last trains on the red line. (The MRT last train departs the terminus stations at midnight.) Pulling into Dongmen station outbound sounds just like Harvard Square.

Other than that, biking and walking is easy, though the scooters rule the roost here.

Also, some of the quietest streets have walk lanes, just paint separating you from motor traffic limited to 30 km/h. Lots of close passes on those quiet streets, but nobody goes that fast.

-mr. bill

anx

Best start of any post on here that I've read for a while!


It's still freezing here, with plenty of snow banks, here's a pic of one on the Somerville/Medford line that i passed on a quick lunch time ride today. Felt pretty cold out there, hoping the forecast for a warmer weekend is right.

Ghazmh

What a great day to ride-finally! After 2 months of riding in sub arctic cold or being unable to ride due to obligations that somehow got in the way of riding, I was able to ride today! 'Took the new Boon 7 cross bike out with a fresh sat of Bontrager 38mm CX0's for 47 miles. I found it a new experience to have half the gears to choose from. It only felt additionally challenging when climbing a few rolling hills. I had to stand where as when on a road bike I could sit and spin. It was the longest ride with this bike so far. I could get up to a good sprint with the limited gearing options and wide tires but overall I find it a wee bit slower than my road bikes-so what. It's allowing me to ride when I otherwise would be limited to my hybrid which is just not as fun without drop bars. I also could roll over new road side ruts, sand, and crud that I would have dart and weave through with my road bikes. The Schwalbe Winters are still on order and should arrive at the LBS next week. I'd love to not need them but should appreciate them when I do.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DQ...f6zeS14N_IAmT-
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Kr...V-oL_zyeYvtSZ3

Later on I jumped on said hybrid and cruised on up the Charles River path to Russo in Watertown and filled the panniers and handlebar basket to the rim with produce.

anx

@Ghazmh it still felt pretty cold at 9am when i was out. 47 miles, nice!

I only managed 25 miles today on my usual Charles River loop. Paths were mostly clear with some snow melt having refroze but my hybrids Bontrager 700c 38mm tires handled it well.


The roads themselves are in rough shape, this one in Somerville between Union Sq and Cambridge St, Cambridge is more of a chunk of road missing than a pothole.


An apologetic car parker who almost doored me but my reflexes and caution saw it coming, so no harm no foul.


The Charles itself still a lot of it frozen at the hour I was out


I think maybe there was a Boston Children's hospital run, I saw at least one stand with drinks and plenty of joggers out there


Gotta love Cambridge's road intersection improvements over the years


Take a break a third of the way in to my loop


On the home stretch and even more joggers on Memorial drive

jimmuller 

Good to see y'all are gettin' out. I took the Tommasini out for a quick and cool 20 miles today.

rumrunn6

that trail thru Maynard ... may have been plowed once, but it's covered in ice & water, so ... had to run home & change bikes

Ghazmh

After yesterday I made a minor saddle position tweak. Today I rolled out for another 39 miles on the new Boon 7. I was very comfortable after making the saddle position change. It was a wet and mucky ride but enjoyable.

Trocadile

Great weekend to take a break from the studs. Boston skyline from Nahant town wharf:

rumrunn6

good report! glad you found lots of dry pavement even tho you had to tolerate a tiny bit of ice. yeah the roads take a beating. I almost took the road bike out Saturday but there were too many reasons not to. my spouse never looks before she opens her door, regardless of what side she is exiting. drives me crazy. Boston & surrounding cities really are investing in bicycle related upgrades aren't they! looks like they can use a widening of that Charles River path, huh?

mr_bill

Still getting over yesterday's 37 hour Sunday. (Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!)

Used YouBikes to get around town quite a few times. Biggest problem was TomTom turn by turn directions waiting until the very last moment to announce "Left turn at" and then wouldn't tell me the name of the road. Worse, it would sometimes announce "left turn at number number number number", which as far as I could tell was a random sequence.

The Guardian on the Bicycle Kingdom.

Anyhow, a few shots from Taipei to give you a flavor of biking in the city.

Typical main city street. The Brown Line is the el on the left. It's a rubber tired train, only a few cars per train, they run very frequently. Relatively quiet, does not block out daylight, there are several els around the city.

Also of note, the sidewalk. The yellow sign with Peds on Top/Bike on bottom show it's shared MUP. Bikes usually keep to the street side. "Pedestrians Have Right of Way." Don't know why this one is yellow with blue, most were white with blue. Finally, the circle blue arrow/arrow scooter sign. There are two-stage left turns all over the city for scooters. (Bicycles welcome too.) Instead of Copenhagen Left, I'm going to start calling it the Taipei Left:



Typical one-way 30 kph local road. Note the BIG convex mirror across the intersection:



Larger local road, still 30 kph. Red stripe means no parking. White with green is a walk lane. Yup, the "pavement" is often just paint:



One of the rare times someone was parked on the no-parking side. Getting passed by a small truck here:



Larger feeder road, I'm keeping up with the scooters here. They rule the city, fastest way to get around:



The advanced scooter box. There's a stencil of a scooter in the middle of the box. The lights are often long, ALL the scooters filter forward. They often have countdown clocks. Bikes are welcome to join the pack at the rear right:



Taipei Municipal Stadium on the lelt, and for those who know corporate regalia, 7/11 on the right. They are everywhere (along with Family Mart). This is a huge BIKE LANE that I'm riding in:



Taiwan Cultural and Creative Arts Center on the left. This is Minquan East Road, a typical stroad. Three lanes in each direction, with some curbside car parking. In the middle two diamond bus lanes, the bus stops are in the center of the stroad:



Training wheels:




YouBike dock:


-mr. bill

mr_bill

When I say scooters rule, they rule.
Love Vespas?

Taipei is your Amsterdam.


-mr. bill

rumrunn6

oh man! thanks for sharing Mr Bill

jimmuller 

Pretty cool stuff! Metro Boston, Very Far East Division.

We took out tandem out for 48.3 miles yesterday. We went west as far as the Bruce Freeman, found it mostly impassable, went north on 110 to Heart Pond and had the beach all to ourselves except for one guy ice fishing.



A few more geographical features in Concord:

This is not a thorough street.


This is.

anx

We are definitely fortunate to have municipalities willing to invest in Bike infrastructure. I frequented a local business for a hair cut today and had to listen to the proprietor complaining about all the bike lanes invading 'his space' and how Medford residents now arent 'real medford residents'. Funny how the things he saw as negatives we're ones I see as major improvements over the last 10 years to our area. Needless to say I didn't tell him that while he held his scissors around my head.