rholland1951

By way of an experiment:


Another experiment:


rod

rholland1951

Ok, the trick is that you need the URL of the actual image, not some framing structure. I dug that one out of the Flickr html source for the link that you used.

With Google Photos, you can do this on a Windows laptop by right-clicking the image and selecting "Copy link address". That gives you an image URL, although a godawful long one, which you can then use with the Insert Image tab in the Bike Forums Quick Reply toolbar. There's probably some trick for doing this with Flickr short of light-duty code inspection, but I'm not a Flickr user so I don't know what that is.

Nice photo!


rod

NewATBikeComute

And after the 8 hours that separate...

rholland1951

Got a ride at the end of the day that started near sunset and ran into dusk, with mild air and a pleasing concert from the Night Chorus that seemed to feature a few bullfrogs singing a bass part at Arlington's Great Meadow. Autumnal colors beginning to show, with delicate sunset pastels in the clear air near the horizon.




As darkness fell, the trail users separated into lanternfish and the unlit invisibles.










I'm carrying 3 headlights, two mounted mid-fork and one on the bar. The left mid-fork-mounted one is aimed a few feet ahead of the front wheel. The right-mid-fork-mounted one (with better optics), is aimed about 20 feet head of the front wheel. They both stay out of folks' eyes, with the possible exception of recumbent salmon. Mostly, those are all I need on a dark night on the Minuteman. The one on the bar normally stays off, but can be used if I feel conditions warrant; it's on a swivel mount, and can be used as either a high beam or a low beam; in particular, it can be used for the old country road night driving trick of briefly showing a high beam as a request for another driver to lower theirs. On rare occasions it serves as the Idiot Blaster 4000 (V. Banerjee, op cit).


rod

Ghazmh

Another nice-ish week of riding, 2 early morning rides that were absolutely chilly. 2 late afternoon rides that were absolutely awesome. That was balanced out with 25 more miles in today's downpour. I just switched from SPD-SL to SPD pedals on my bad weather road bike in preparation for use with my winter shoes. Today I tried something new for the rain. I wore my Shimano SD 66 sandals with neoprene socks and PI insulated shoe covers. It was a very comftorable combination.

rumrunn6

got out for a short ride in the rain on the hard packed dirt Reformatory Branch Trail Concord to Bedford. was actually excited to go out in the rain, and it turned out OK

sherbornpeddler

No mud for me. Saturday I rode down to RI on Burnt Swamp Rd. and enjoyed great weather. The Diamond Hill reservoirs are like others, very low. 39 miles. Stopped by the LBS for a new chain.

Regarding pedals, I have spd on my single speed and find them much easier to unclip. Due to an aging ankle this is increasingly of interest.

jimmuller 

No lanternfish, no mud, plenty of speeds (15 in fact, all vintage French), 50.93 miles on ye ol' vintage tandem.

Some orange.



A few bugs.



So many yellow jackets at Ferns we moved over to the Gleason Library across the street.



More orange.

sherbornpeddler

Bees, Halloween decorators are out. All I got in was a short errand rides on the Upper Charles trail and found more orange, this time from early Fall leaves. No problem yet but they serve as a preparatory notice that leaves can obscure the trail in a colorful way.

Jim from Boston

IMO, the orange just served to intensify the beautiful blue.

rumrunn6

interested! just started looking into non-paved trails & came up with a short list. just picked up an older straight bar bike w/ 700x40 tires that I want to get dirty :-)

Upper Charles Rail Trail
(park in Holliston just south of Framingham)
or
(park at Sacred Heart Church in Milford or Friendly's)

Monadnock Branch Trail
(at Mass / NH border)

Southern New England Trunkline Trail
(near Rhode Island)

Groton Town Forest

Franklin Town Forest

rumrunn6

wondering who will get the 1st scary clown pics on their ride

sherbornpeddler

RR6, nice list. The Upper Charles trail won't get you muddy in Milford as that is all asphalt and 2/3 of the part in Holliston is very smooth, new stone dust. I meet folks who like to park at Casey's Pub in Holliston and we ride west to Milford, all paved except for 500 yes that is waiting for the abutting developer to finish that piece. From Caseys going North it is mountain bike rough ballast stone then pretty smooth dirt to Sherborn's Whitney St. bridge where technically the trail ends. Going further north means riding or walking on or along side of active track or going a little east on Whitney and riding single track maze of trails north under the power lines. Up to Framingham and a nice ride into Ashland.

rumrunn6

thank you!

rholland1951

Anybody care to hazard a guess as to when we'll have peak foliage on the Nashua River Rail Trail (Ayer, Groton, Pepperell)?

rod

rumrunn6

stuff near me in Tewksbury seems to be popping today!

JohnHuth

I had a strange recurrent flat on my rear wheel, so I drove into work today and took it over to a guy at EMS who found this teeny-tiny piece of glass that I can only figure was the cause of the problem. I must've missed it when I changed the inner tube.

But the rant - on my drive home (first in a long time) I got a motorist's eye view of some bikers in Cambridge, and my god! I was horrified. Dusk coming on strong, very dark, 18:30. One guy was riding the wrong way on a one way street, with no reflectors, no lights, no helmet, and talking with a cell phone onto his ear, drifting around the middle of the street. He almost got hit by the guy driving in front of me, and seemed utterly serene. Another guy - same thing, no lights no reflector, riding the wrong way on a one way street, popping out across traffic with no signing, against turning traffic. I nearly hit him. Another guy, a perfectly good bike path on Nonantum Road. He forsakes that and rides with little illumination on the side of a busy road.

What is going on with these people??

I'm surprised there aren't more fatalities if this is what's going on.

jimmuller 

Lots of idiot cyclists around. Whenever I drive I'impressed by how many idiot drivers tbere are too.

sherbornpeddler

RR6, the SNETT may be more to your liking and is well defined on the DCR and NEMBA sites.
I've been on the trail in Willimantic Connecticut where it is hard paved and where it is too rough for anything but a mountain bike. At the MA border is Douglas State Forest with lots of trails and the eastern end is the Franklin State Forest with a new parking lot and lots of trails. The Trunkline rail bed further east is also known as the Franklin commuter line from South Station.

rumrunn6

thanks, found my way to NEMBA (amazing site) & was having a good time planning future exploratory rides. Wifey is away this weekend & I'm beside myself trying to make a decision

Jim from Boston

Nice to see your post, @JohnHuth even if a mini(?) rant. Apropos of your post, I recently replied to a thread on Advocacy & Safety, “cyclist killed at Porter Square, Cambridge MA.”

jimmuller 

JFB, good for you for following up on the radio talk shows. Cyclists need voices.

But there is a message not getting through, a point not being made. Actually several points:

At least during commute times every cyclist represents one more car THAT ISN'T THERE, a car that would be there otherwise. It seems that people seeing a bike as an obstacle think of only two alternatives - either the bike is there or it isn't. Those are the wrong alternatives. The real ones are either the bike is there or another car is there. The cyclist not being there at all isn't an option because just like you we have to get to work one way or another.

Here is another way to look at it. When I'm on the bike you (the motorist) can pass me almost anywhere anytime. When I'm in my car you can't pass me at all. You are stuck behind me until our routes go separate ways. I could be one more car in front of you at a stoplight or stop sign or that crazy Y intersection or that ridiculous rotary or waiting to make a left turn.

Most of the time you can pass my bike as if I weren't there - every day car after car goes past me with no delay or extra effort or anything. On the rare occasion you do have to slow for me it doesn't cost you any significant time. It takes me about 1 1/2 seconds to pass a parked car. If you are going twice my speed (30 vs. 15mph) it still cost you half of that. The most it can cost you if you have to slow a little is the difference, 3/4 of a second! And that is only if you have to slow to my speed for the entire time it takes me to pull back over to the shoulder. But anyway, this happens almost never. It may feel like you had to slow down but it doesn't amount to much. Anyway even further, if I were in my car in front of you you'd be that much further behind because of the space I take up. It's a wash when you do have to wait a little but your win for all those time you have to.

Now, you may be thinking if were in my car I'd be going faster. True enough but if you can pass me whenever you wish (which you can almost always do) it doesn't matter how fast I'm going! 20mph, 10mph, or walking at 3mph, you aren't affected.

You may also be thinking I wouldn't be in front of you. Well, maybe I would and maybe I wouldn't. The time that most of us leave for work varies by a few minutes from day to day. Some times I'm earlier, sometimes I'm later. It takes me a bit longer by bike than by car but sometimes I compensate by leaving earlier. How many times have you come up behind me on my bike? On my car? You see, it's quite random. Anyway, if it wasn't me it could be some other cyclist. Either way, you are better off with fewer cars on the road.

I wish there was some way to get these message across to folks. Maybe some bumper stickers that say "If I was on my bike you wouldn't be stuck behind me!" Or "If I was on my bike you could pass me." I'd love to see billboards or PSA's on TV with a picture of such bumper stickers.

I'd love to give people the message "If you hit me it would ruin my day. And it would mean you having an injury or fatality on your traffic record and you insurance bill and your conscience for the rest of your life. You might even spend time in jail for vehicular homicide. You want to trade all that to save a second of your time? Doesn't sound like a good trade-off to me."

How do we get these messages across?

NewATBikeComute

Chilly, but worth it. Also, first post of my commuter, with new Nashbar bag. Not thrilled with it, will see.

JohnHuth

Biking in the Boston metro area does take some thought and planning to get the safest routes, know how to handle the idiosyncrasies of the timing of lights in certain intersections, how not to get doored, etc.

Seeing it from both side - most of the time, motorists are pretty courteous to me, as long as I'm well lit, give good turn signals, acknowledge a kindness, obey the traffic rules and so on.

What bothers me is seeing cyclist who really set themselves up for trouble - no helmet, no illumination in the dark, flouting lights and stop signs. They contribute to a bad reputation for bicyclists. I try to make a point of doing things that would contribute to a better reputation. E.g. not dodging between a two lines of cars at a light, jumping across a red, etc.

jimmuller 

To both of these points:
+100 +100 +100