bike_tom

I was wondering if anyone would pick up on that!
At the time I was at Little Fresh Pond, all the dogs were small. That made me ponder the same naming question you raised.

BTW: Most of the many dogs I saw on the loop were off-leash, and no one seemed concerned that I was (carefully) threading my way among them on a bike.

rholland1951

Took the Rawland Nordavinden out on the Minuteman again on Thursday in the late afternoon, keeping moving to stay warm as much as to make time. A sunset display of clouds and colors was slowly getting organized, and the cool/cold air thinned the crowds. The Nordavinden just glided along. "North Wind", indeed.







Something new under the sun! Has anyone reading this tried them?



rod

rumrunn6

nope wishing them luck tho!
https://battleroadbikes.com/

google says:
Battle Road Bikes
Address: 145 Massachusetts Ave, Lexington, MA 02420
Hours:
Open ⋅ Closes 6PM
Health & safety: Mask required · Staff wear masks · More details
Phone: (781) 734-6464

rholland1951

Hmmm... Looks like they're fundamentally a repair shop. I'm looking for a good bike mechanic. Maybe I'll give them a try. Thanks!

rod

rumrunn6

& outdoor cycling movies!

rholland1951

Took the Rawland Nordavinden out on the Minuteman once again Friday evening, a sunset ride that allowed me to continue grooving on the recently restored Rawland and also to test some specific layering against the mid-40s temperatures.


Along the way, I caught sight of the rare Red-Tailed Cyclops.


rod

Ghazmh

the owner Jim as an awesome mechanic. He used to be the lead mechanic for the Lexington coffee shop/ bike shop that is no more. He is my first choice if a particular task is outside of my skill set/tool capabilities. He also did several wheel builds and rebuilds for me too as well as the only mechanic I trusted with my custom bikes.

rholland1951

Thanks! Can't get a better reference than that! I'm sold, and will start streaming my embarrassingly long backlog of repair and build jobs his way.

rod

Ghazmh

Glad to help!

rholland1951

Gave the Nordavinden a rest, and took the 1987 GT Karakoram and rode East.


This ride had the usual mix of surfing the hills and dodging urban traffic, plus a good deal more than the usual quota of rough pavement. Medford Street, Malden, had raised structures, grooved pavement, and what to my eye appeared to be old cobbles exposed, but perhaps there's another name for what I was seeing as I rode over that. A long climbing run up Main Street, Melrose, had the grooved pavement treatment as well. The set of René Herse Humtulips Ridge Extralight 55mm tires on the GT, inflated to 30/35 PSI, was pretty much perfectly suited for conditions, that would have been somewhat more challenging with the Nordavinden's Grand Bois Cypres Extra Legere 32mm tires, running at 60/65 PSI, though I expect it could be managed.




I find it easier stop to photograph hills on the descent; the resumption of pedaling is less daunting than with an interrupted climb. As a result, all slopes are downhill in these pictures. "Show your work," my 6th grade teacher would say, were she to see them.




rod

rholland1951

Got out on the Rawland Nordavinden after the Pats game, with the gaudiest displays of sunset colors just past, and rode off into such sunset as remained.






Temperatures fell through the 40s, and the Nordavinden glided quietly along the dark path, chasing my headlights. Only a few people were out, and many of the walkers and a few of the bikes were in their stealth suits, neither showing a light themselves, nor reflecting any light that others sent their way. I suppose this maladaptive behavior was some sort of response (or non-response) to the first day back on EST.


A crescent moon keeping company with the Evening Star (Venus, of course) was visible for much of the ride, but proved surprisingly slippery to photograph among the treetops.


Night fell, and so I chased my headlights through the darkness until they led me home, and I followed.




rod

rholland1951

Took the GT up the Minuteman around sunset. I'm enjoying the evening ride groove, something I tend to forget when the days are longer and brighter. Quiet rides with a different perspective.


I followed up with Battle Road Bikes, taking them the Surly Trucker DeLuxe for some work on the front derailleur that I hadn't been getting around to. They didn't flinch at the S&S Couplers or the cable splitters, and I had a good conversation with a couple of the mechanics, one when I brought the bike in, the other later, during the ride, when he took the shop dog, Fica, out for a walk. The dog is charming, btw.


As night fell, I tried again to photograph the crescent moon. The moon came through ok, looking just a bit like a fingernail paring, but Venus was lost in the trees, off powdering her nose, I guess. Try, try again.


Mostly I just sped along, enjoying the cool, rather than cold, air, floating on the big René Herse tires and keeping an eye open for the heedless and unlit, of whom there were a few, all of whom I avoided entangling my karma with.

rod

rumrunn6

looks like you are able to get out at the right time to enjoy the last light before darkness. jealous. thanks for sharing your experiences with the shop. always good to support LBS(s)

rholland1951

New bike box day? Until the box that UPS brought is opened, that's what it is. To be continued, maybe tomorrow...


Meanwhile, I got a call from Battle Road Bikes that the bike I had brought them on Monday was ready for pick up on Tuesday, two days early if anyone's counting. I put an old Specialized Sequoia with a nice lugged frame that I bought from someone on the iBob list on the rack, and drove over to the bike shop. I took the Sequoia in, explained that it had developed a stuck stem, and handed it off to Jim. While Matt was ringing up the work on the Surly, Jim fixed the stem and returned the Sequoia. I bought a tail light to hang on the presumed contents of the bike box, put both bikes on the rack, and drove home, very pleased with these guys.


Chores and errands ensued, the sun went into hiding for the night in that annoyingly premature way that it does around here at this time of year, and I took the Surly Trucker DeLuxe out on the Minuteman to exercise its newly adjusted front derailleur. It was shifting better than it had in years, which of course put me in a jolly mood as I rode through the cool and dark.




Mal's yard was flooded with photons, so I borrowed a few to photograph the newly restored bike. A creepy artifact crept into the picture, but then it's the dark time of year, and creepiness is rife.


Had a ball riding the Rat Trap Pass tires again, for the first time since mid-August. This has me thinking about how the RTP Extralights on the Surly compare with Humptulips Ridge Extralights on the GT. The differences are subtle and interesting. I'll gather my thoughts about that, and see if any of those want to become words suitable for typing here.


In high school soccer news, Arlington High was playing Brookline High, to the cheers of a boisterous crowd.


I rode home thinking that I'd need to put off a shake-down ride for the Sequoia until tomorrow, and that I should take the GT in for service next, to prepare it for its Winter Beater duties.

rod

rholland1951

Took the 1982 Sequoia for a shakedown ride on the Minuteman Wednesday afternoon, in daylight, for once.




Had a good ride, started to get adapted to the somewhat aggressive riding posture the low bars demand, but discovered that I need a taller seat post: when the saddle is high enough with the current post, the post is dangerously over-extended. So back to Battle Road Bikes it went, accompanied by the GT, which is getting a well-deserved and long overdue tune-up and spa treatment.

That settled, I used the hour before dinner not to ride in the dark, but to open the oversized bike box that arrived Tuesday.


With a bit of effort, I extracted the giant Rivendell owl pellet, several bicycle subsystems bound together for transport with zip ties.


I started snipping the various zip ties. Tomorrow I'll start trying to put the subsystems together into something that resembles a bike (and a green one, at that).

rod

autonomy

Dang, that already looks beautiful!

mr_bill

So, I've been remiss on posting the rest of my journey.

Continued:

Amazing how often Blue Bikes docks are either filled or empty. Here at Cedar St. very empty:


However, that first block of Cedar St. was way uncomfortable, so after this ride I switched to Hancock to Spencer, even though that was a standing start climb up Cedar. Lesson learned:


When you can't road, the sanctuary of even plastic bollards is HUGE. Greatly reduced the need for constant "situational awareness" (which was my Achilles Heel):


The last leg of deep end was the one block of Mossland to Somerville Ave. In this case, I'm being shepherded by a street cleaner:


Oxford Street, "sharrows on steroids" and this segment downhill. Total sanctuary:


After a one block jog on Kirkland Street, the cut through in Harvard Square made this trek possible. One block of two-way Quincy Street was easy enough, then the two-way bike lane on One-way Quincy was wonderful:


Although it ran into the always red bike signal to continue on Quincy. Part of me cursed how they couldn't time this better. BUT, once green, no motor traffic behind me at all. Wonderful:


Leading to an easy crossing of Harvard St:


And an easy crossing of one way Mass Ave:


...continued...

-mr. bill

mr_bill

And then the wonderful Bow and DeWolfe St to get to Paul D. White Bike Path (John Weeks Bridge ahead):






Now, I wish I could say I can't believe how bad the Paul D. White Bike Path is on the Cambridge Side, but I've been watching this slowly die for years. I am eternally grateful that they didn't fix it now. But note the brand new surface to the left. Grrr:



In the rest of the enlightened world a bike lane over a bridge is not put on the crush side of a barrier, but still, this makes it easy to cross the BU Bridge. However, the BU Bridge got steeper and steeper during my radiation therapy:


Didn't love this crossing, though I did ride it to BIDMC but walked it coming home:



...continued...

-mr. bill

mr_bill

On the other side of Com Ave entering Brookline, and their amazing sequence of one way general traffic but two way bike traffic at Essex and Ivy:




Carlton crossing Beacon:




Which turns into Colchester then Chapel (Longwood stop on the left):


Crossing Longwood stop on foot:



...continued...

-mr. bill

mr_bill

Through the park and about to enter Boston:


The Short Street Steps:


Crossing Riverway:


Thankfully Winsor School was quiet while I salmoned Short Street:


The very nice alley at Winsor School:


The longest wait ever to cross Brookline:


Finally on the BIDMC campus:


Walking to parking:



-mr. bill

mr_bill

So, I biked to 27 of my 34 treatments. I had promised my radiation oncologist (who also rides a bike) that I would quit when I had to drop into the last cog on bike while climbing the BU Bridge. The BU Bridge was never a mountain in the before times. It wasn't even a hill.

I'm done with my treatments. Now patiently waiting to heal, and hoping that I can return to the roads one day, and climb mountains too.

-mr. bill

rholland1951

Amen. mr bill, thank you for sharing that Homeric epic. Much to ponder here.

rod

rholland1951

Rainy day wrenching. The thing in my basement now looks less like an owl pellet, and more like a bike.


rod

Ghazmh

That looks nice! What’s the backstory? I have a pair of those tires in my supply drawer for my gravel bike.

Ghazmh

Who doesn’t love New Bike Day? It’s like a birthday but without getting older. After months of lamenting the supply disruptions and overall lack of bike inventory I managed to find out through the grapevine that a certain shop in Portsmouth just got a delivery of Salsa Beargrease fat bikes in both SLX and Deore builds on Thursday. I bought the last medium SLX model yesterday.