joychri

Great day for a Christmas ride in Eastern Massachusetts. After a raining morning this afternoon was clear with temps in the mid-50's. Almost unheard of for the Boston area at this time of year.

Merry Christmas.

jimmuller 

joychri, nice pics. Is that river the Sudbury? Or the Concord?

We got out on the tandem today for 30.06 miles. It was indeed a nice day.

JJScaliger

I went out today too. 33 miles on the Dawes. A beautiful 50 degrees!






Merry Christmas!

joychri

Thanks Jim. It was actually the Charles in Needham at the Nahanton public dock.

whatwolf

40 miles of dirt yesterday and 21 today. Going to try to get an earlier start tomorrow, as there's been a lot of this:

Vonruden

Awesome pics the last day, good to see everyone getting out. Another nice December day at the Jersey Shore!

browngw 

Amazing weather for this time year here. Sunny, dry and 7C (48F). Got out on the trail with the old Triumph MTB and rode to Simcoe from Port Dover and back on the Lynn Valley Trail (22km). Last year you would have needed a snowplow!

Ed.

I haven't the slightest idea. We started in Bedford, MA and, thankfully, we ended there, too. I'm sure Jim will be along in due course to fill in the in-betweens. Nice ride, nice day, but I'm not willing to name names just in case someone needs plausible deniability.

jimmuller 

Plausible deniability?

Yes we did do a ride today, 44.4 miles, temps in the upper 40's (too many 4's if you ask me), and no one escapes unscathed.


L to R: Larry (my neighbor), PastorBobnlnh, Frog (a BF lurker), Ed. (apparently needing a cover story), Prowler (whose visit to the Boston area started this whole thing), my sweetie Sharon and myself. Ed. and Prowler treated us to a poetry recitation at the start, very high-brow.

Prowler wanted to ride my Centurion but I let him ride the Motobecane around the parking lot and that became his choice. At one point he passed us in a blaze of glory and we figured the next time I saw the bike ever again would be in Pennsylvania. But he was nice and slowed down.

We started in Bedford, made a run south across the Sudbury river, then a run north to Concord:



Then Prowler broke one of my tires, which gave me a chance to demonstrate my change-a-sew-up skills.







Along the way we kept our strength up by consuming luscious food - Pastor Bob's peanut butter fudge, Frog's pumpkin bread, and my sweetie's oatmeal cookies. We rode until it seemed appropriate to return and inexplicably found ourselves crossing the Concord River:



And of course we made it back to Bedford with the same number of bikes and people (and one fewer good tire) than we started with:

Sir_Name 

Got out for a short ride after a long hike today. Pic taken at the top of Environmental Park (I think...).

jimmuller 

This unseasonably warm weather (near 50 in late December) at least provides great days for biking. So we took the tandem out again today, home in Waltham to Concord and back, 43.1 miles.

We stopped at the Lexington Visitors' Center and my sweetie decided to snap some pics. Another cyclist stopping there commented "Still Life With Helmet" so that became this pic's title:


She and Sharon then talked for a while about riding a tandem.

The stop resulted in several other interesting conversations before we could take off again. One woman was on an interesting-looking steel bike I didn't recognize so I asked her about it. The DT lettering said Channel Islands Bicycles, the fork had a Campagnolo sticker, and it was equipped with a Campy NR crank. She said her brother used to run a small bicycle shop called Channel Island Bicycles in California and made bikes. He'd made that custom for her, and she loved it because it fit her so well. It looked well-ridden. (Long live vintage steel!)

Then another guy came along, offered to take our pic together, then said he had an ulterior motive. (Okay...) He'd just written a book entitled Boston's Cycling Craze 1880-1900, by Lorenz J. Finison (that was he), published by Univ. Of Massachusetts Press. So we talked for a while about that time period and he told us some things about races that used to run from towns north of Boston down to Walthm, turning around not far form our house, then back to the start. It sounded like it should be a great read!

Finally we got back on the bike and continued on our way. Rode the Minuteman Bikeway out to Bedford, then further on to Concord. They have been working on the MM this year. The rt225 crossing has been re-worked and recently given new stoplights. It looks like they are worried about safety there, as well they should be because rt225 is a busy road. The meaning of these lights should be perfectly clear.

JJScaliger

My wife and kids went to a Disney princess on ice event this afternoon, so I was able to go out for 46 miles in Coventry and West Greenwich. 50 degrees and nice! 7 miles of dirt included on the ride with the Dawes.

big hunk of quartz




I haven't been here in a few years. Within spitting distance of CT.

Old man winter is just around the corner...

jbchybridrider 

Did the same route as last weekend but took a Basso Viper laden with Ti Record I've had for years but never ridden. I liked it so much it features heavily in my shots, sorry about that... not.

I liked seeing these wild flowering peas on the road side. Very pretty.


Once into the hills from the city it's rolling hills as far as the eye can see. It's great riding here.




On top of Mt. Lofty.

jimmuller 

jbc, that looks like a nice day's run on a great bike. Enjoy your summer!

jbchybridrider 

Thanks Jim I will enjoy it. You look a bit rugged up on your last ride but with the appropriate gear it's ok, kinda prefer cooler weather myself.

fender1

Snuck in 27 miles between family commitments today. 50 degrees in december is not to be missed!

New pavement and 38mm Compass Barlow Pass EL= SMOOOOOVE!
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Crossed the river twice (Schuylkill or as the locals call it: Sure Kill
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Cut through the Valley Forge National Park:
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Nice to see that this bridge:
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Being replaced with a new bridge below:
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Also go to test and determine that 11.5 Keens fit in Soma Oppy toe clips. It will be nice to have dry, toasty feet in the winter riding ahead.
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Vonruden

Some very nice pics added recently. Looks like a fun ride took place up in Mass. Nice shots Fender1, need to try those tires. I will try to add some of mine shortly.

rccardr 

Yesterday, and not a long ride (colder in the park than up by the house, especially in the shade) but awfully pretty. Prince William Forest Park.
Rode with my friend Gary who tells me this is the site for the time trial events for the World Police & Fireman Games this year.
Lots of elevation change in a 12 mile loop: from a 42+ mph downhill all the way to the small up front and the biggest on the back. I look forward to returning when it's a t***** warmer.
(please note edit: the t with many asterisks is actually the word 'tad'.)

gomango

Ok, so two days ago it snowed 6" here in the Twin Cities.

Grabbed the Mukluk and did 21 miles along the Mississippi river near our house.

Here are some pics.

[IMG]Untitled by gomango1849, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Untitled by gomango1849, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Untitled by gomango1849, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Untitled by gomango1849, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Untitled by gomango1849, on Flickr[/IMG]

I'm heading out on my Merckx in a few minutes on the same route. Colder than a dickens here today though. It's three big degrees here right now, so we'll see how long I last.

[IMG]DSCN1370 by gomango1849, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]DSCN1225 by gomango1849, on Flickr[/IMG]

Chrome Molly

So how did the cross bike fare in the snow? Nice pic's around Ft Snelling by the way. You're made of anti-freeze to do 21 then go for more.

gomango

It was 15 degrees yesterday and I had a choice of x country skis, snowshoes or my neighbor's Mukluk. Everyone else went riding and they were having a cook out at Fort Snelling.

Easy choice.

The Merckx is decent on the streets. I threw on some Small block 8s I have here and they did ok.

Only went down once hard today and that was on the Minnesota river side, over by the Cedar Avenue bridge.

Hit some soft sand at about 20mph and launched. Bike was fine, Grady was ok as well.

We ended up doing just under thirty today and I feel like I did a fifty.

Vonruden

Yesterday's rain ride on the IF, luckily it was near 50 degrees, I feel for you Grady.








Needed a good cleaning when I got home

Post ride treat

gomango

Brutal tomorrow. -7 by morning, with a high of 1 degree tomorrow.

Wind chill of -24.

Nasty stuff, so we figured ride today and stop whining.

I'll be on the treadmill tomorrow.

1938 Autocycle

Boss gave us the afternoon off and got home to find my new 11-32 cassette in the mail box. Installed it on my old Lemond and was finally time to take the old girl on out for some climbing. Got in 30 miles and 3,200 feet of climbing before dark. Great day hear in Northern California.

jbchybridrider 

@1938 Autocycle nice countryside where you are. Must be happy climbing with those ratio's.