mr_bill

Spouse never hurt their arm, and is often the one to say quite simply “go bike.”

-mr. bill

rumrunn6

oh shoot, I'm so dumb, who am I thnking of? jimmuller? I'm such a bad virtual friend

mr_bill

Next gen sandwich board next to Uncle Sam.

>90% masks before the storm.

-mr. bill

rumrunn6

had a nice 27 mile ride (no mask) on Routes 62, 225 & 4, Stowish, Acton, Concord & Bedford 77 - 79 degrees!


1st time putting ice in the bottle! yay! I've missed it!

rumrunn6

yes! wait to pass!

Ghazmh

I need To thin the herd before I can get another bike. My Soma must go. I used this bike for rail trails, and riding the Vineyard. Both of which shall now be done with my touring bike.

If anyone is interested.......

https://boston.craigslist.org/bmw/bi...124562030.html

rumrunn6

just bought a new rear wheel so I’m out. good luck!

rholland1951

Nice build, nice bike. Good thing it's not my size!

rod

rholland1951

Was very pleased to hear that the big line storm was going to arrive later than previous forecasts had it, so took the Surly Trucker DeLuxe 18 miles through Arlington, Lexington, and Lincoln, under the highway and over the hill. Lots of climbs and descents on Marrett Road, Mill Street, Old Mass. Ave., and Mass. Ave., and a lovely Spring day that hinted at Summer.

Arlington High School construction barrier: No Congregation, Detenga La Variedad De Germénes.


Follen Community Church, East Lexington: the church is lovely, but the purple blossoms are stunning.


Cotton Farm, Marrett Road, Lexington. Lexington still has working farms if you know where to look, and used to have a good deal more of them. The old orchard at Cotton Farm is conservation land now, but serves as a reminder of the town's agricultural past.


Old Reservoir, Marrett Road, Lexington. Marrett Road always turns out to be a little longer than I think it should be, and the Old Reservoir provides reassurance that I didn't miss the turn-off on Middle Street.


Middle Street, Lexington, approaching Lincoln Street. Middle Street is only a few blocks long, and provides a discreet connector between Marrett Road and Lincoln Street. It's one of those streets that seems to disappear unless you look straight at it, but once you're on it, there you are. And soon you're somewhere else. It also has a nice little hill.


Cambridge Reservoir, Lexington Road, Lincoln. After rolling under Route 128 on Lincoln Street, and crossing the Lincoln line, we've got water. The fish aren't biting, but that hardly matters on a day like this. Besides, too many fish would make the Cambridge water taste funny.


Mill Street, Lincoln: somebody has built himself an aerie, in mid-century modern style. It blends into the hill, and can only be seen from the road in certain seasons. I covet this, in an abstract sort of way, but am nowhere near acquisitive enough for that to be anything more than a passing fancy.


Fiske Hill, Lexington: Spring is here, love is in the air, and two of those rocks are human, a fine demonstration of camouflage.


Lake Street, Lexington. In its own way, this 20th Century travel trailer is as worthy of covetous attention as the Mill Street aerie. I'd like to think this old couple have used it to wander the country.


Stone Store, Mass. Ave., Lexington: the long descent begins here, and a rollicking ride it is. My thanks to the Lexington DPW for keeping the pavement so smooth, it would be a very different ride otherwise.


rod

jimmuller 

You might have me confused with mr_bill, no? To my knowledge mrs_bill doesn't have an arm problem. Anyway, thanks for asking. My sweetie's arm is coming along nicely. She's doing PT to regain, as she puts it, factory-spec. But she is not letting me ride around here. I did ride part of a race in Innsbruck yesterday. Through the magic of Zwift it was all within the confines of our living room. Day before that I rode someplace called Applegate in the back yard, via Rouvy. It looked like New Hampshire. Not much traffic to speak of, just pretty though monotonous scenery. She even asked me to set up her Terry on the trainer, then she rode through parts of London. The virtual riding experience is interesting. The Zwift app runs well on both Android phone and Windows10, but with CGI visuals. The challenge of so many other riders does make one pedal harder!. The Rouvy apps have beautiful scenery but have not been 100% successful for me just yet.

rumrunn6

ah! thank you & I'm sorry for the confusion. I should keep a cheat sheet w/ common member profiles. that virtual riding sounds interesting. glad to hear all are progressing, & well

rholland1951

That sign's brilliant. I saw a couple of earlier drafts. It turned out well!

rod

rumrunn6

today had a fairly quiet ride thru Bedford, Billerica & Tewksbury

Ghazmh

Going once, going twice, sold. I sold the Smoothie this morning! No regrets and it seems to be with an enthusiastic young new owner. Yesterday I rode my Allroads for 60 miles, then my touring bike on the Mass Central trail for 8 miles with the kids. Today I rode my Redsky down to Millis then on up to Carlisle and through every town in between for 84 miles in all. 3 rewarding and enjoyable rides. I had the bandana keeping my beard covered. I managed to pull it up most of the time.

rholland1951

Took the Rawland Nordavinden up to Lexington Center and back before dinner, pearly gray sky and benign air.

The Masonic Bunker looms over the intersection of Mass. Ave. and Merritt Road.




Turned around in Depot Square.


This is the restaurant that replaced Yangtze River. Anyone have an opinion of the food?


As I was leaving Lexington Center, the chimes of the First Baptist Church captured my attention.


The time rolled past quickly.


rod

jimmuller 

Yesterday's weather being cool, cloudy, and dry, I took the Bianchi out to the back yard and rode one training lap of the UCI Richmond course (my hometown). Even recognized some of the landmarks and geography such as the Fan District, Monument Avenue, Shokoe Valley, the old Main St. train station. Zwift replaced the monuments with statues of cyclists. IIRC, 10.4 miles, 43min25sec or thereabouts. No pics though.

sherbornpeddler

Ghazmh, Some impressive back to back days of riding! Those are some great roads.

sherbornpeddler

Jim M. Bravo! Nice that the weather in Richmond was so similar to this neck of the woods. How were the cobbles? Did you see Peter Sagan when you were there? Tell me drafted all the way until the last 200m?

autonomy

I am hearing of a theory (from medical personnel, no less) that the initial panic has subsided and people have become desensitized and more complacent. I, too, noticed an uptick in traffic and typical m******* driver behavior. A Friday afternoon's almost idyllic ride through Carlisle and Great Brook was somewhat marred by too many close passes and an incident where I was honked and yelled at by a group of youngish folks while taking a moment to safely pass a family of riders on an otherwise empty road. I guess some people are still in a rush and m*******s will continue to be m*******s, even during these times.
And with today's news, nice weather, and people growing tired of isolation, the times of empty roads are coming to an end.

There's an impressive tribute to the 75th anniversary of the end of WWII at the Carlisle rotary. There's more of these knit flowers on the lawn in front of the Veteran's Memorial, just past the rotary.



My daughter asked if we could take a walk to the Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House in Concord (of Little Women fame), but since it was too far, we decided to bike there through the Minuteman instead (the National Park, that is). If you thought the bike path can be a zoo, think again - multiple large groups of scattered kids/adults with restricted sight lines making it even more interesting to guess what's around the corner.



It was glorious with spring blooms! You couldn't go inside of course but it was still great to walk around. There were quite a few visitors in cars.

To avoid the dodging of unmasked crowds on the way back, thanks to very quiet Sunday afternoon roads, we made the executive decision to take the 'adult' route back home, skirting Hanscom. We lingered a little bit at the Rectrix landing field and saw 3 planes land in a short period of time, a small thing perhaps, but everyone thought this was absolutely exciting. We've never seen planes land/take off here before probably because we never stopped here for ourselves. A bit of a lesson there.


The kiddo did really well on the way back and even helped pedal up the notorious Virginia Road hill. We played a game of count the lilacs and all in all she counted 27 bushes. Late Sunday afternoons have been the best time to ride.

rumrunn6

yeah, those kids need to be in school. I'm trying to remember how our street riding changes seasonaly, when school is out. I guess this is the same?

jimmuller 

Ah, you know Richmond, do you? The cobblestones are still there in the Zwift course, and their audio makes the appropriate noises but for some strange reason I didn't feel them through the bike saddle. No Peter Sagan as far as I could tell. The climb up Chimborazo hill from the river was a killer. I was running about 100 watts and the app thought I needed more so it slowed me down to a standstill for a short while! Or maybe I had a data probem, I dunno'.

I'me trying to decide whether I like Zwift or Rouvy. The Rouvy visuals are spectacular but so far I've run into technical problems with Rouvy that Zwift doesn't have. The psychological effect of either is quite effective.

Addendum: I have to mention that my sweetie has been riding the trainer too. She asked me to set up her bike, and then she spent an hour riding around London. Two days later she decided to do Zwift's short version of the FTP test. Now she wants to go through one of their training programs, a 4-week FTP improvement sequence. Yow.

rholland1951

Rode out to Lexington Center on Mass. Ave., then improvised a loop that continued on Mass. Ave. as far as Worthen Road, then followed that to the end, picked up Kendall Road, took that to Marrett Road and rode past Dunback Meadow and the Masonic Bunker to connect with Mass. Ave. for the return. This turned a 12-mile ride into a 15-mile ride, added a few hills, and included the fun of briefly getting lost. It's a nice route, and I'll add it to the short-ride-off-the-Minuteman repertoire.

Broadway, East Arlington: construction that has been hanging fire has resumed in earnest, starting with the installation of some compressed-stone pilings.


East Lexington: "... and on Wednesday, we'll get take-out..."

:
Lexington Center: nothing doing.




Battle Green: continuing on Mass. Ave.


Looking up the Mass. Ave. hill towards the Stone Store; time to turn left onto Worthen Street, and avoid some serious climbing.


The Hayden Centre: this used to be a mecca for the children of friends and colleagues who lived in Lexington. Nice facility, presumably currently PAUSED.


Worthen Road is a comfortable ride, at least this segment. I recalled seeing a 4th of July fireworks display in one of the now-empty playing fields, decades ago. Of course, this year, it's possible to have nostalgia for the Good Old Days of February.


Kendall Road: I had forgotten this road, found it again by getting creatively lost after reaching the end of Worthen Road. It delivered me to Marrett Road, after which the route converged with a problem whose solution was known.


rod

autonomy

You know, I don't qualify as 'old' but I feel like I've definitely left the 'cool' group. Regardless, I'm at a point where I'm having trouble telling age - I think they were more in the early-mid-twenties bracket, which makes it even more puzzling.

Have you ridden Paul Revere road?
https://goo.gl/maps/ng2uaBPPDLXPzVrm7

Or another, much longer favorite, Hancock to Grove to Page?
https://goo.gl/maps/4oabaTxqSuEiDWhRA

rholland1951

I'm fairly certain I've never ridden Paul Revere Road; many of the Lexington neighborhoods remind me of the "seven tightly-folded dimensions" of some of the recent physics theorizing; I'll give it a try. Hancock-Grove-Page, many times, although most often in the other direction.

rod

Ghazmh

Why thank you sir! If I were as awesome as the rest of the regulars on this thread I’d have been far more detailed in describing the experience. Nevertheless I felt connected and engaged in the world around me by experiencing it from the side of the road.