MinnMan

Thanks. I had the wrong one....

BTinNYC 

Nice. Queens Blvd is an insanely dangerous place for bikers and pedestrians. This lane has to improve the safety a bit.

Russ Roth

Hit up Hempstead Harbor with the middle kid today, had a pretty good time with it. We hit a "most difficult" trail we hadn't tried before which was a fast, wild ride and a lot of fun. Helped us kill a couple hours between lunch and dinner.

GlennR

Burrrrr... 36*F today, but I still got out for 30 miles.

Gotta put your "big boy pants" on and a few more layers and get out. The winter hasn't even started.

Russ Roth

Anyone ridden to see the lights at Jones Beach?
Yesterday was a pretty perfect day for riding so I started the morning with an hour long ride at edgewood with the kids, we hit up 3 new red trails we've not ridden before along with rehashing some of the yellow and blue.
In the afternoon I worked of dinner by heading over to Cedar Creek, it was 7 so I parked on Atlantic Blvd and rode through the entrance to the park then took the path down to jones beach then onto the boardwalk towards the lights. I didn't ride all the lights, when we drove through with the kids I saw some people who did. Then turned and headed back. Only a 16.5 mi round trip so not really far and largely free of obstructions, there was no one on the boardwalk. Weather was close to perfect, tiniest bit of wind helping the ride out but light enough to not really be noticeable on the ride back. The fog added a nice touch to a night ride to give a sense of riding alone.
Got to test out my new Moon Meteor Storm pro. Claims 2000 lumin in boost mode which is supposed to run for 2.5hrs. Rode the whole way in boost mode, didn't seem to shine out too much farther then my 1000l light but had a wider beam for more on the sides. After 1.2 hours I still showed more than 60% battery left so I think the cold was just right to keep the temp where it needed to be for optimal run time. The fog may have helped cut down the distance though.
As for the new winter bib tights I picked up from the new shop in RVC, they weren't as warm as their thickness seemed to indicate. I didn't freeze but I've got some older xl that fit a touch looser then these at xxl and are more wind proof to boot. On the plus side, they're the only tights I have bought with a pad that doesn't cause me pain. Definitely a decent fall/early winter pair for longer distance comfort.

BTinNYC 

Around N Queens; Malba, Whitestone, Bayside.

Ft Totten

hotbike

11.7 miles, the halfway point


23 mile ride Monday. Stopped at the halfway point to make vegetarian ramen soup.
Went to Kew Gardens.
Returned via train.

GlennR

It's amazing how filthy your bike can get if you don't clean it for a month and ride it on wet roads with lots of leaves and debris.

I spend a good 3 hours removing the cassette, chain and jockey wheels, then cleaning them and the frame. Put it all back together and its nice and clean... until tomorrow when I go for a ride.

GlennR

Burrrrrrr... 35*F today.

GlennR

Been a busy year.

GlennR

34*F and didn't expect the freezing rain.

Steve B.

A buddy and I did our annual New Years Eve or Day ride, road bike this time, supposed to be 52 and sunny, which it was at noon. By 2 it was 43 and fogged in, I was underdressed and froze my ass off. It's raining at 3.

hotbike

Good rides today and yesterday. Ten miles to Mineola, return on train #550. Ten more miles today to Oyster Bay, return on train #553.


New headlights, winter hand guards are being perfected .

The Tailbox is tapered at 11° and has a cutoff point where it is 5” wide, since the room required for a fin would extend the tail too long to fit. There are three LED lights stacked, and LED strips vertically on each side. This is known as a Kammback. “ The Kammback is named after German aero-dynamicist Wunibald Kamm for his work developing the design in the 1930s.” -Wikipedia

Russ Roth

Hit up Edgewood on new years day and noticed my middle kid's bike was looking a little small, really a lot small. So we went bike shopping yesterday and today. I have to say that the pandemic has really wrecked bike availability and prices. Though I think the whole rush to add more gears and reinnovate every 2 years it seems has made the whole thing worse. Looked at trek and was extremely disappointed in the options, really just didn't like them. Going to 141mm qr "boost" is just stupid, either stick with 135 or make it a real boost back end with a thru-axle. The trek bike shop seemed clueless about their stuff. Brands had the nicer trek Marlin that I was considering but wasn't happy with the spec on, but nothing in Giant, Liv, or C-dale that was equivalent which is what I was hoping for. Merrick Cycles is a good group but again, mostly just trek and while my kid liked one of the colors it was still a spec issue. Mineola had C-dale and the women's XS was between the trek's XS and S which made it a best fit, color was exactly what the kid liked and the spec was the same suck as trek.
Now have a 1x 252mm crankset coming and an upgrade air fork coming, so it'll be properly set up 1x9 with a stiffer, more responsive fork. They didn't have it built, so we took it home and built it together. Had to have new purple grips as well, but one happy kid. Tomorrow is a busy day so Wed should be a trip to stillwell.

GlennR

29*F today... burrrrrr

kaos joe

Holy mackerel, I'm actually going to get to ride this week. For 2 weeks my days off have coincided with rain and gloom and wet and other obligations with diabolical precision. Except yesterday mornings gloriously crisp sunshine......I was heading home from work at 730am full of anticipation of wonderfully frozen trails, only to receive the panicked call from my offspring that her car would not start. Foiled again!

Looking forward to riding with the boys tomorrow and some SNOW RIDING Friday! Next week I am having all the titanium removed from my wrist/forearm so will have to be content with hiking for a couple of weeks.

Russ Roth

Hope you got the ride in.
The middle kid and I hit Bethpage with the new bike, we rode most of pink, purple, hit some of the jumps and finished with the brickyard. We have to cut the bars down about 2" each side, they're really wide for an XS and there was plenty of complaints about the crank length on the ride home. 152mm cranks were already on the way and I sort of expected this. Climbing involved a lot of gyrating back and forth due to the 170mm cranks. Switched it to 9sp from 8 when I got back and the new parts arrived for that. New, air adjust fork will arrive on monday as well. 8sp to 9sp was an almost 200g increase but the fork should remove close to 1000g, the stock fork weighed 2780g while the replacement claims 1770 grams. Hopefully the shorter crank will take some off and I suspect it will. The seat will need to go up 1/2 inch with the new cranks.

kaos joe

Yes, we had a great ride, as apparently did you. I think I recognize the exact spot your second pic was taken at. It looks drier in your pics than the greasy conditions we found, although oddly enough the bikes were relatively clean after a dozen miles.
When I got my 29er I had 1 look at the ridiculously wide bars and immediately took a pipe cutter to them. I removed the absolute max amount until the brake lever clamps came up against the swelled middle part of the bars. The Santa Cruz TallBoy also apparently has a low-ish BB and several of us who have them all noticed having pedal strikes a bit more often than on other bikes.

Nice to see kids getting into it! Looks like too much snow to wade through today, alas. Take 'em sledding! I've got trails 150 yards from the house, maybe I'll try it later......although the Wise One is pointing out that I'm only 5 days away from having the screws and plate I acquired in my last spill being removed from my right arm.

Steve B.

I too cut my 750 mm wide bars down to 700. Too many tree gates at Edgewood where 750 was too wide. Part of this is riding 600mm bars for 30 years. I have come to understand and like wide bars though, I read about folks liking 800 and 850. That's really wide, but there are some places on the Island without tight trees where they work.

One of the reasons I got a 29" HT was my '04 Stumpjumper had a low b-bracket and I was always pedal strikes on stumps and such. Really annoying. I should sell that bike, haven't ridden it in a year, rides like a slug compared to my HT.

GlennR

I'm gonna switch my wheels from road tires to 35mm knobby and head to Bethpage. Too much ice on the roads so it looks like i'll be off road today.

kaos joe

How did it go? We went XC skiing there this morning. Gorgeous morning! It appeared that there was less snowfall there than on the south shore, I was thinking it might have been rideable.

Boy, do I ever stink at skiing.

GlennR

21 miles, 29* and some ice so I rode pretty carefully.

Russ Roth

We tried to hit the trails yesterday to test out the changes but there was just too much ice on the trails to really ride without it being a hazard. The shorter 152mm cranks really kept the knees from going too high and the kid wasn't rocking while pedaling. Really wanted to know how the fork went but looks like it will be several days before then. Did take the bike from 32.5lbs to 28.5lbs, most of which was the fork at 2.2lbs lighter. Really its the air adjust vs cheap coil that matters.

Steve B.

Agree with conditions for BP.. Too much ice from a packed down trail. I didn't feel comfortable sliding around on a solo ride. I can wait.

kaos joe

Thanks for the heads up, I was literally minutes from heading out to give it a try. Tomorrow I go under the knife to remove the hardware from my right arm, results of a trail spill. I guess that's it for me, then, for a couple of weeks, but sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. Maybe I'll put on the boots and take a hike, too beautiful out to sit around.