mr_bill

There’s riding with long shadows, then there is riding within the terminator.

-mr. bill

autonomy

So, I haven't posted in a while but I've been lurking and looking at the pictures. I haven't as much as even looked at my bikes as it's not too safe for me to go to the basement anymore. I'm recovering from a pretty intense surgery on my femur and I won't be able to even walk on that leg until late spring. But it's all for a good cause and a long-term investment in my health and quality of life.

I can see the Minutemen out of my windows and on some of the very warm days we had recently I was very jealous of all the people I saw riding through.

Keep posting pictures, everyone, it's good to see familiar places and get ideas for new rides. Even though I can't make it out there it gives me more motivation to get through this and look forward to the time I can get up on a saddle and use my newer, better leg (though it will take quite a bit of time to restore the muscle strength).

rholland1951

Best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery!

rod

jimmuller 

@autonomy, what Rod said, +100 (that's inflation for you).

In the meantime, consider this, the view out or kitchen window at 6 this morning. I'm not riding anywhere.

autonomy

@jimmuller @rholland1951

Thanks for the well wishes!

rumrunn6

get well soon! be a good patient. I know what you mean about investing in your future health. dentist wants me to get braces & crown all my front teeth

rumrunn6

yeah we got blasted good!

Ghazmh

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Ghazmh

I must admit I am reluctant to ride this weekend. Despite studded tires I've developed a healthy fear of black ice which probably resulted from more and more winter riding. And despite having a garden sprayer and plenty of bike cleaners and lubes I'm also reluctant to coat myself and my bike in road crud again. This weekend I'm limiting myself to errands on the hybrid. The PDW Takeout basket that I had on the front of it broke. It had a clean shear across one of the aluminum tubes. It was an expensive little basket that has proven to be useful despite being a tad small. I contemplated getting it welded but instead sistered a patch of another aluminum tube over the crack and epoxied it. It looks like crap but it's covered by the bag that goes into the basket. Anyhow the repair interferes with the brake cable routing. It looks like the basket has carried its last bag of apples. It didn't take me long to order an Ortlieb handlebar basket, which has a much larger capacity (mass and volume). It can also go between my hybrid and touring bike as I sometimes use the touring bike to get groceries from local produce stores.

anx

Managed to get out at lunchtime for a quick 1-hour loop around the Mystic Lakes, there were some brave folks out boating, looked like fun. Felt like i had to force myself out even though I wasnt feeling it with another storm coming not sure when I'll get another chance.

rholland1951

Took the LHT out for an afternoon ride on the Minuteman through Arlington, Lexington, and Bedford, temperatures in the balmy 40s, and a breeze that was only noticeable on the return, when it turned out to be a headwind. The idea was to assess the Minuteman surface, with an eye towards understanding what would be lurking underneath tomorrow's load of snow when the plows came for it on Wednesday.


The trail surface was clear and dry in Arlington.


The Lexington segment was in good shape, too. The Friends of the Lexington Bikeways would like us to send them a tax-deductible contribution to help keep it that way.


The beaver lodge and beaver dam at Tophet Swamp appeared to be in good order.




Rode on into Bedford. After Wiggins Avenue, the surface started to get a bit messy, but nothing I couldn't pick a line through.


Came to a full stop at the Elm Brook bridge, two-tenths of a mile short of Depot Park: snow, ice, and a birch tree across the path suggested it was time to turn around.


Not clear what the Bedfords think they're doing with that, but perhaps they're saving it all up to do at once. Oh well, 2.75 out of 3 ain't bad, I guess... unless you're trying to commute on the Minuteman Commuter Bikeway, in which case studded tires and a certain amount of bloody-mindedness is in order at this time of year.

Riding home, I grinned at the previously-mentioned headwind, which made the low 40s seem a little lower, and watched the clouds pile up. A crew from Green Mountain Pipeline Service was at work lining the sewers in East Lexington again; beats leaky sewers.


Everything changes tomorrow. I brought the icebike up from the basement, and swapped it into the ready position in the garage.

rod

rumrunn6

awesome complete info, thank you! looks like it's possible to squeeze by the birch tree? got my ice bike ready last night even tho boss-man didn't cancel work. was hoping to get out early on the MM then back home before it got too bad. but knowing our work they'll wait until it's really bad out before telling us to go home, or wait until I'm getting in the car to go in, thereby wasting my whole am-prep time. in which case, plan B is to ride down by the river near my home. no car required. thanks for the donation link. I've enjoyed so much of this trail that donating is a no-brainer

prefer starting a ride before the storm commences, then getting caught in it for a little while as it intensifies. then getting home safely to hunker down. but heading out during the worst of it, is hard to justify. been preoccupied w shoveling & roof raking. free now but it's still coming down at a crazy rate

rholland1951

Beautiful!

rod

jimmuller 

@rumrunn6 - Yeah, nice pic!

autonomy

Fatbike time? I've seen people (actually, you hear them coming from a mile away) fatbike on the Minuteman in the fall on clear pavement days... not sure if they're looking for extra resistance/work out.

rumrunn6

not sure it matters, they always have a giant smile on their face

rholland1951

In the depths of Winter, I've seen fatbikes displace CF racers as the fastest thing on the Minuteman... but only when trail conditions have been kind of awful. Speaking of which...

I took the recently-rehabilitated 1987 GT Karakoram rigid mtb, in its icebike persona shod with 47mm Nokian Hakkapeliitta W240 studded snow-and-ice tires, out for another post-storm survey ride of the Minuteman, through Arlington, Lexington, and Bedford. Temperatures were falling through the 30s.


The results of that were a lot like those of Monday's ride, only more so:

Arlington's segment of the Minuteman featured bare, dry pavement.


Lexington was much the same, with a few puddles and stretches that were wet with meltwater.


Lexington also had a few yards of pavement that snow had fallen onto from the boughs of trees, after plowing. This was most noticeable in the stand of pines between Hartwell Ave. and Westview St. At the time I rode the (late afternoon), these were shallow, soft, and easy to traverse.


The Bedford segment, starting for plowing purposes at Wiggins Ave., initially looked plausible (although it was the only at-grade crossing of the Minuteman that had a barrier of plowed snow across its entrance).


Conditions quickly deteriorated, however.




While the Bedford segment had evidently been plowed (judging from the tire tracks at the margins of the cleared path), either the blade had been set too high, or the plowing had occurred prior to some significant additional snowfall. Long fields of slush, ~3" deep and setting up to harden in places, dominated much of the Beford segment. My tires put me in a relatively favorable position to ride in this stuff (due to the aggressive tread, rather than to the studs), but it simply wasn't any fun, like riding in a somewhat slippier version of mud, and I turned the bike around before reaching Elm Brook.

Whatever Bedford spent for the plowing, it seems to me they didn't get their money's worth. The comparatively good condition of Arlington's and Lexington's segments suggest they might have done better. To be fair, every year, one town or another seems to fumble the plowing job. Everybody has taken at least one turn at that. Conditions will evolve day by day, as we cycle through freezes and thaws. What I saw in Bedford seems to me to have the potential to form icy ruts, a dangerous condition.

That said, it was a nice day to be out on a bike, and there were some lovely Winter scenes to be enjoyed. It was fun, too, to be rolling on the old GT, with its weird old Biopace crank. Hard to believe this is the first time I've had it out this season--it's almost as if the whole Winter riding season collapsed into a single day.






rod

rumrunn6

always a useful report! thank you. love the GT, looks like a big one! 22"? another question do you get as far as that fallen birch tree? did they remove it?

rholland1951

I didn't get as far as I did on the previous ride. I'm curious about the birch tree, myself. I'm guessing they dealt with it when they did the most recent, somewhat cursory, plowing job, but the key word here is "guessing"...

rod

Ghazmh

Folks, I know some of you commute in and around Boston. A friend and ridding buddy of mine had his new (like 2 months old) 2017 Trek Crossrip stolen in Cambridge late January. Could you please keep an eye out for it. Its grey and has green fenders and green bar tape.

https://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/bi...531820323.html

"$100 Reward.

This bike was stolen on Jan. 31 in Cambridge. It was last seen in March 6 in the South End (by a friend who did not know it was stolen at the time) locked to a pole under the I-93 bridge where Albany Street goes under I-93. The map attached to this Craigslist post shows the approximate location. It was seen at that same location a week or so before that.

The customized green fenders and green bar tape on the grey Trek make the bike highly recognizable (The bike comes plain from the factory with black bar tape and no fenders). If the thieves have not removed it, it may also have a bar-end mirror on the left and a bar-end bell on the right, another bell on the top, rear rack, etc.

If you see it, please call 781-392-4564. I will provide a $100 reward for anyone who can successfully help me get the bike back. There is a police report on file in Cambridge and the Boston PD near that location are aware the bike has been seen."

rumrunn6

absolutely

mr_bill

Not a commuter, but between Nor’easters I ride in that neck of the woods.

The great news is anyone who hasn’t degreened the bike is unlikely to do so soon, and that bike is an easy to spot bike.

A longshot, register it with Cambridge startup Rejjee, an app that lets you register and report stolen bikes. Since it is a unique bike, you might get unexpected eyes looking for it. (Slight risk that the thieves might find out you are looking for it, but if they haven’t degreened yet....)

-mr. bill

autonomy

@rholland1951 good report, looks like you had a fun ride. I was on the trail in Bedford maybe 3 times last winter and it was always icy ruts and postholes (don't remember if it was all the same snow though)

@Ghazmh sorry to hear, that sucks - I can definitely empathize. I had a very good bike that I worked hard for stolen out of the basement of my building in college and it's a really shorty feeling. Scoured Craigslist, posted signs, never got a lead. Someone knew what they were getting (a $850 Gary Fisher MTB with hydraulic disk brakes and a proper fork). I was too naive, had the proper U lock Sheldon Brown style BUT through a wooden rack (dooooh)
Maybe this one will pop up on Craigslist.

anx

It was good to see a lot of melting has happened since our last storm, even in these frigid temps. The windchill this morning while i was out on my new 29+ wheelset wasnt much fun. The cold was more than i could handle for an hour along the Mystic River. Can't believe it's the first day of spring next week!

Ghazmh

That's a bummer, sounds like it was a nice ride,