Ghazmh

Saturday I rode my Honey Allroads off season road bike for 32 wet sandy glorious miles. It felt blissfully fast to be on a bike without studded tires even though I wasn’t breaking any speed records. Today I rode my Salsa Beargrease fat bike for 11 slow miles from the old watch factory to Watertown Square.

rumrunn6

Saturday was a road trip to help my parents. today I opted for a forest down in Carver (Myles Standish). just enough snow to be fun, for a studded 29r MTB

mr_bill

Continuing my leaner’s permit adventures in motorcars, drove down and back to Newport Rhode Island for The Newport Biennial. Very thankful that I had an artist in residence in the passenger seat helping from time to time. Each outing is getting easier, but, damn, mass hole donuts behind steering wheels makes it hard. (They are obviously not donuts.)

Yesterday went out on my Frankndale. Lots of puddles, no ice. Good. Lots and lots of people, with no artist to help me. Not good. Damn, didn’t harm myself or others, but wow what a tough ride. Chilled my nerves cleaning my bike post ride.

Still, not ready, but getting ready-ish. Have first post radiation oncology appointment Wednesday, considering another Blue Bike ride.

-mr. bill

rholland1951

We're riding with you.

rod

rumrunn6

do you feel more secure aka safer on it?

Ghazmh

The path or the bike?

jsilvia

What a difference a day makes. Friday and Saturday I rode a combined 60 miles. in 40-to-50-degree temperatures. Sunday, Monday SNOW, Back to the Gym. Come on Spring.

rumrunn6

oh sorry, the bike. ppl tell me I'll fall less on a fat bike than on my mountain bike

rumrunn6

hehe, right? 50 later this week? then there was this morning? wth? was brushing 3 cars & shoveling again. at least you're riding. gym's are great. so nice to get back inside them

Ghazmh

I wouldn’t say that I feel safer exactly. I feel enabled to ride on terrain and conditions that would have been too much for my 29er hybrid with the Schwalbe 4 row studded 2.5’ tires I had on it (same as yours IIRC). I tried to ride that thing on the Charles River path and the MCRT in winters past with medium tire pressure, low tire pressure to no avail trying to convince myself I can do this without buying a fatbike. Well as you know in November 2021 I bought a fatbike and so far can say unequivocally I can ride when I’d have been on the sidelines. So I wouldn’t say that I feel safer just more surefooted, confident and more capable than a non-fatbike.

Ghazmh

I hit up the MCRT this morning on my fatbike. Might I sat that a fatbike is so fun to ride on the snow but is terrible on clean pavement. I rode the approx 1-1.5 mile to the MCRT on the road. Its loud, bouncy and I am forever fearing that I am leaving a trail of expensive carbide studs in my path. Either way once I got on the snow covered path the ride was nice. Brutally cold. My hands were delightfully warm thanks to my 45Nrth Sturmfist 4 gloves and my 45Nrth poagies. They claim that either is good down to 10F but my fingers surely disagree. However the gloves and poagies together are a winning combination. I rode 8.5 miles. I turned back when the inside of my goggles began to fog up. Knowing it would be catastrophic to loone clear visible eye protection I turned around and rode back. It was far too cold to ride without them and far too cold to use conventional cycling glasses.

rumrunn6

brave man. the cold is wicked lately. glad to hear about the happy hands! re: goggles, I carry a cpl paper towels & periodically wipe the moisture from my face & from the inside of whatever I'm wearing. I've also removed the foam inserts in the vents. for my last ride I opted for safety glasses instead of goggles. but goggles sure are warm & cozy. so fun hearing from new fatbike riders!

mr_bill

This morning, one dog couldn't wait, so the humans are cleaning up and all the other dogs are way beyond patient.

I don't think I could manage this if I was a dog, and I know I couldn't as a human:



Bummed a ride into BIDMC, tried out the new camera on the new phone. Gargoyles:



Took a Blue Bike home from Microcenter on Memorial Drive to "Railroad Lot" in Arlington Center. (Sorry, no pics.)

Probably getting out on the Frankndale tomorrow.

-mr. bill

rumrunn6

hehe wow, quite the road block! do those blue bikes have studded tires?

mr_bill

There were only a couple of dicey spots along the Charles. Part of the reason to bum a ride was for reconnaissance. The dog walkers were early in the day, conditions quickly improved.

BTW, all the blue bikes are covered in salt. We are a hardy people I guess. (I almost wanted to bring it home for a wash.)

-mr. bill

rumrunn6

that would have been above & beyond of you. wonder what they do for maintenance of the fleet. took my bike rack off my car last night & gave it a soapy wash w/ a long handled soft brush. drip dried & in the basement it went

rholland1951

My bicycle cycles this week have thus far been limited to putting together the build kit for a late model Rivendell Atlantis frameset I purchased from Riv a couple of years back. I'm somewhat perversely doing a drop-bar build on this one. I took the frameset, wheelset, and build kit into Battle Road Bikes this afternoon. After checking that in, and discussing the build with Matt and Pete, I realized that I had failed to bring the fenders in with the rest of the gear, so back home I went to fetch those. I wasn't gone long, but by the time I had returned, the guys had put the tires (700c x 55mm Rene Herse Antelope Hill Extralights) on the wheels, put the wheels on the frameset, and added the seatpost, stem, and handlebars, making it a rolling chassis. This bore a heartening resemblance to an actual bicycle, and cheered me greatly.


The Bike-Tinkering Backlog Reduction Program is rolling along smartly. I'm going to have a bunch of riding to do come Spring.

rod

rumrunn6

looks like a comfortable ride! well, you won't have to learn how to ride a bike again cuz you've been active all winter!

rholland1951

Between the long wheelbase and the big old tires, it should float along. I'm ready for Winter to be over.

rod

rumrunn6

I hear ya - a few good winter rides & I feel like I have my "street cred" & with a cpl warm days teasing us, I soon remember biking w/ less clothing & fewer hazards

rholland1951

After the better part of a week off the bike, I took the recently-tuned Surly Trucker DeLuxe, wearing its now-familiar 55mm Rat Trap Pass tires, for a little shakedown cruise on the Minuteman. It was the cold end of the most recent thaw, with the next freeze in sight, but no ice yet on the trail between Arlington Center and Lexington Center. The bike seemed happy, braking and shifting with precision, and I stopped to take its picture under the Battle Road Bikes mural, since they did the work that made it so. 5300 miles on this bike, and many more in prospect.


It was a cold, windy, late-winter ride, with the wind in my teeth outbound and at my back on the return. Felt good, as long as I kept pedaling.


Tomorrow's another day, of course.

rod

rholland1951

Saturday afternoon I took the 1987 GT Karakoram, its Nokian tires bristling with carbide studs, and rode East.


It was a cold day, and windy. The bike blew over the first time I tried to take its picture. What sits above this line is the second attempt, and I had to do a little tinkering with the front fender hardware after I righted the bicycle. When I rode again, the stem looked like it had been deflected by about 3°, but otherwise seemed to be doing its job, so I made a mental note to fix that later. Riding in the wind was its peculiar kind of fun, one either enjoys it or stays home. By and by, the promised Alberta Clipper came to visit snow on us, first as a flurry, then as a shower, then as a squall. The Nokians were the right tools for the job, or right enough. I rode with a bit more discretion than usual, descending hills at a gentle pace, largely devoid of Wheee!, and took one picture with snow in it, and that on the Northern Strand, the flattest of the flats, and devoid of traffic.


rod

rumrunn6

5:25pm Saturday, at about Franklin, MA, driving back from the cape, roads in good condition, driving typical highway speeds, heading North on route 495, a crazy, blinding whiteout squall, with side winds reminding me of hurricane wind, attacked everyone. we were lucky in that the traffic wasn't tight & everyone was able to slow down w/o the nasty pileup that PA experienced. took this pic when conditions improved & it was safe enough, to take 1 hand off the wheel

rholland1951

Yup, that's a dandy snow squall. Good job wrangling it!

rod

rholland1951

Took the Surly Trucker DeLuxe out at midday Monday for another shakedown ride, and once again was pleased at its newly-renewed mechanical condition. Bravo to the folks at Battle Road Bikes! The day had conditions to match the bike's: temperatures in the 50s, brilliant sunlight, sharp-edged shadows, dry pavement, still a bit of ice off the trail, as seen here at Peepers Pond, looking like some kind of extra-terrestrial metal. Many cyclists, walkers, runners, skaters, all shaking off the Winter cobwebs and getting in each other's way.


rod