The Blayleys

Bike Friday Tikit Give-Away

2013-05-14T22:42:00.000-04:00

In a purely shameless attempt to increase the readership on this blog (from my two loyal readers to maybe 4 or 6), I am going to give away my Bike Friday Tikit. If I can't increase blog readership based purely on my riveting stories, maybe I can buy it :-)

But first, let me say thanks to Velouria of Lovely Bicycle for helping me out with this shameless promotion and for taking all the awesome photos below.

So here's the deal. A few years ago, I took a job in downtown Boston in a big fancy building that didn't have a place where I could lock up my Cielo commuter and feel good about it being there at the end of the day. But if I had a quick folding bike, I could just fold it up and haul it inside the fancy marble foyered building and carry it up to my office without ruffling too many feathers. And if I got caught in snow, I could fold it up and take it home on the bus - or just leave it in my office and take the bus home.

The Tikit was perfect for this. It takes about 10 seconds to fold. Naturally I got my Tikit fixed! And of course I set it up with a dynamo front wheel, an awesome single sided rack that allowed me to keep the pannier on when folded and the cover to ... ahem ... disguise it in the fancy marble foyered building.

But then I stopped working and the Tikit became a doorstop. It became more of a doorstop when the stem got recalled last fall, but I got my new stem installed and all is well in the Tikit world again. But it wants to be ridden and folded and unfolded, and I'm just not meeting its needs.

But you can! Here's all you have to do. Become a loyal reader! And post a comment here telling the world (well the two loyal readers) something you like about my blog - like a favorite post that isn't this one, or something you've learned or found funny or sad or whatever. This means if you are not already one of my two loyal and regular readers, that you might need to read some of the older posts.

Also include how the Tikit will improve your life.

If you comment anonymously, please include some means of identifying yourself. I don't need an email, just a unique name.

You have until the middle of June.

Near the end of June, I will announce the lucky winner - who can then provide me with real contact details. (This means you'll need to come back and read a post at the end of June.) Creativity will be rewarded. Shameless praise for the fixie pixie is not the goal, and won't help you - in fact it may DQ you!

Shipping costs will be your responsibility, or if local (greater Boston) the winner may arrange to pick it up.

A little extra detail. The frame is a size large. I have the seat and stem as low as they will go. (I have a 30 inch inseam). The drivetrain is fixed. One could add a single speed freewheel - for single speed. This model is a commuter bike, not a travel bike. It folds quickly for hopping on and off buses and such. This model uses 16" wheels, where the bikes intended for travel use 20" wheels.

Pixie doesn't seem so small on the Tikit!

Do you want the Good News or the Bad News?

2013-05-12T23:19:00.002-04:00

"Do you want the good news or bad news?"

This is what Fear Rothar said as he came upstairs just before we were to load the tandem into the car to drive out to Westfield for the Bash-Bish 300km brevet.

A few weeks before, while cycling out in the Catskills, we noticed that the rear tire on the tandem was rubbing the fender a bit. These darn aluminum fenders are such a pain. We supposedly have the right sized fender for our tires, but like Dr Who's Weeping Angels, if you look away, bad stuff happens! Or if the tire isn't perfectly round... or seated just so, bad stuff happens. The Grand Bois Hetres that we use on the tandem seem to have a reputation for fiddly mounting, so the plan was to remove and remount the tire, or just put on a completely new tire. I was supposed to do this, but my brand new belted fixed gear bike showed up a few hours prior, and I had to go for a ride first. I mean it would just be inconsiderate to the builder not to take the bike out for a ride as soon as I got it, right?

I had just come in from that initial ride. Fear Rothar had finished work for the day and was impatient to get going, so he headed downstairs to check things out. He came up to show me the giant hole in the tire that was causing the problem. It was amazing we hadn't had a blowout on the last ride. But putting on a new tire should at least solve the rubbing issue.

A few minutes later, he returned... "Do you want the the bad news?" Oh oh, why was their no choice to get good news? This time the bad news didn't have such a quick and easy solution. He showed me a nasty looking crack down the center of the rim - visible only when he removed the tire, and only because we were using Veloplugs and therefore not hidden by rim tape. Well that was a showstopper for the tandem.

While I had a brand new bike that I was itching to ride, the 20% climb up Bash-Bish discouraged even me from taking a fixed gear bike - even one still coated with Magic Faerie dust.

Before going down to pump up the tires on my geared Seven, I did a quick post to facebook, commenting on how I'd have to get up the Bash-Bish climb without Fear Rothar's assistance thanks to the cracked rim on the tandem.

I remembered noticing a very worn brake pad a few days before, and commented to Fear Rothar that I'd need to replace the pads. Gentleman that he is, he took over that chore for me.

In the meantime, Rob Vandermark, who seemingly spends all his time monitoring facebook, sent off an email, offering us use of the wheels off the Ride Studio Cafe demo tandem. Loyal readers may recall, it was this demo tandem that inspired us to get our own. With disk brakes, we could use versatile, fat 650B or 700C wheels for hill-climb races and change between them easily. With the 650B wheels, we could use a standard 700C tandem fork and have plenty of clearance for fenders and fat tires. When we built the bike, we started with the 650Bs and planned to someday get a second set of wheels in 700C. But the 650Bs had proved so versatile in all conditions that we just hadn't gotten around to getting that second set of wheels.

We had a quick discussion and decided I'd drive over to the shop get the wheels.

The forecast was dire, with 90% chance of rain and thunderstorms, so naturally the 700C wheels from the shop tandem wouldn't fit with 650B fenders. Off came the fenders. The fit was tight in the rear, but there was at least a mm or two between the fat 700C tire and the chainstay bridge!

This course is tandem-nugen, like no other route we've ever done. The Jacob's Ladder climb and descent is about 50 miles long, with a long gradual up, a little steep up, a little steep down and the rest gradual down. The middle part of the route has a lot of flat and rolling terrain, and then there is the little steep climb up by Bash-Bish falls, followed by the 50 miles of Jacobs Ladder. We've done the ride many times on both tandem and single bikes, but it really has to be the most tandem-friendly route we've done.

So it was a choice of single bikes with fenders, or tandem without. It was a tough call - no fenders on a guaranteed wet ride, but after Rob had so generously offered the wheels, we just had to go with the tandem - wet bum and all.

By the time we'd done all the running around, it was late, so we didn't quite get as much sleep as the 6AM start should have allowed. Don Podolski, the organizer had moved the start time from 4AM to 6AM, after years of hearing me complain about the early start. So naturally, we still got the same amount of sleep as in years past!

We woke to the sound of water pouring through gutters, but when we looked out it was just light mist. And it was quite warm - over 60F. We knew not to be fooled. Becket (at the top of the ladder) is always 20 degrees colder than Westfield, and then there's the highspeed descent followed by miles of gradual downhill, with no climbing to warm up on. So we dressed for the climb and packed away jackets and other warm stuff for the descent and wetter conditions sure to follow.

We hopped on the tandem and rode the mile from the motel down to the shop/ride start. On the ride over, we heard a scraping noise. When we got to the shop, we realized that once we were sitting on the bike, the tire deflected enough to hit the chainstay bridge. Our spare tire was a bit narrower than the Jack Browns mounted on the borrowed wheel, so we decided to put on the spare. Of course we started this 3 minutes before the ride start, so we were working away as everyone rolled out. With a 30mm tire, we had just enough additional clearance to work. We rolled away from the shop at about 6:15, and then stopped at our motel to pick up another spare tire - fortunately I had brought 2. On a long event like this, and especially with the tandem - we like to carry a spare.

So now we were a bit behind schedule. No need to panic. It's a long ride, and despite the fact that some folks head out at a pace that approaches light speed, you really can't finish a 300km in an hour!

We caught three riders as we approached Huntington and another 3 shortly after the steep climbing began in Chester. There was a bit of mist, but it really wasn't bad. I dared not voice this out loud though.

We reached the top in Beckett, and it was so warm that we didn't even add jackets! This has never happened to me on this ride. It is always freezing on this descent. Thank you global warming?

Shortly before reaching the control part way down the long descent, we heard a high pitched squeal. Fear Rothar thought it was a train, but I was sure it was the rear disk brake.

We found Don at the control along with a couple of other riders, Big Bad Don and Patrick. Patrick is a friend of George Swain's and had commented on our meeting George out in the Catskills. Patrick thought he was the only randonneur who had never met us! But now he has, so he can mark that off his bucket list!

Anyway, Fear Rothar played with the musical disk brake, while I got our cards signed and grabbed food. With the brake adjusted not to wake everyone in town, we headed on. We first reeled in Big Bad Don, and then a few miles later, caught Patrick, who quickly took advantage of the tandem draft, tolerating the spray from our fenderless rear wheel!

We rolled through Great Barrington and onto my least favorite part of the route along Route 7, where we caught up to George Swain and Jon Doyle. For a while, we had a train of bikes behind us, but at some point, the tandem friendly rollers took their toll on the poor single bikes with less momentum, and we found ourselves alone heading into Kent, CT, site of the next control.

The weather continued to be a mix of light mist and heavy drizzle, but still not awful.

Just as we hit town, a shift onto the big ring made very bad noises, as the chain jumped over the ring. We recovered, but when trying to big ring again, it was clear something was rubbing. Unable to blame fenders or the disk brake this time, I looked down to see the front derailleur had twisted when the chain came off. We gently rolled the last half mile down to Gifford's - the control spot. I went in to order lunch and get our cards signed while Fear Rothar again played mechanic. It is so nice to bring a mechanic along!

As we enjoyed our lunch several other riders rolled in, including Simon, on single speed. Shame on me for not riding my new fixie! And Simon wasn't just doing this ride on one gear. He was hammering!

After a long break at Gifford's where the great food attracted a large crowd and a lengthy line, we pressed on to the absolutely gorgeous part of the route through Duchess County in NY. We talked about memories from past events. This is where we almost hit a deer. And here's where we saw the 500 pound guy on a lawnmower, across from the lawnmower repair shop - "How much business does he give them?" we had joked. And there's the place with the pork dinner on tonight where I had asked Dena, the vegetarian, if the ride was hard enough yet... Dena and I have a long running joke that I'll know the ride is too much for her when she asks for meat!

Time passed and we were on the bike path that precedes the feature climb. Then we were on the climb. One thing I'd neglected to mention about the loaner wheels is the wee-tiny-micro-cassette they came with. Like my single bikes, we have a 12-36 cassette on the tandem, but the loaner wheels only had a large cog of 27T. Our granny ring is a 30. That doesn't give us much of a low gear, but my captain said he wasn't worried.

Well, boy did we miss the cassette that keeps giving (more gears) as we stood for large parts of the climb! I kept hoping there was one more gear being held in reserve, but that wasn't the case. All this hard work and standing also made me quite warm. I was wearing sunshields on my arms. These are like super-light arm-warmers, except they are supposed to keep one cool and keep the sun off the skin. Well I was getting warm anyway and pushed them down to my wrists. A few minutes later, the heavens opened, and the weather gods aimed a firehose at us!

We continued up to the top, which is well after where you think the top should be. I had managed to pull the forever after known as rain-shields (since they had prevented the rain until I pushed them down) back up before the top, but with no effect, i.e. the rain didn't stop. Once at the top, we stopped to put on our jackets and hi-vis vests, and then we headed down the high speed bumpy descent as the rain stung our faces!

Back through Great Barrington and up the first part of Jacob's ladder, we found the penultimate control. JoAnne was chipper and welcoming and opened a cooler to show off the very best sandwiches ever!

Refueled, we finished off the climb and began the 25 mile descent back to New Horizon's Bike Shop. A mile or two outside of Westfield, the sun came back out!

Many thanks to Rob, Patria and Drew at Ride Studio Cafe for loaning and preparing the wheels. Thanks also to Don, Mary and JoAnne for the very long day working the controls. And thanks to Fear Rothar for helping get my very wet butt up the Bash-Bish climb.

Now to research some new sturdier rims for the tandem!

Domestique to a Brand New Randonneuse

2013-05-09T10:51:00.002-04:00

The greatest blog post ever written was almost ready to be published when I added one more link and lost the whole thing! Darn auto-save! I've tried to rewrite it, but it's not as good. What follows is the 2nd attempt...

I met Constance Winters about 18 months ago on a Thursday morning ladies rides from Ride Studio Cafe. I was made aware of her very popular blog a few months prior and had become a fan. Constance is actually a pseudonym, and since she introduced herself with her real name, I didn't make the connection right away. But as we were riding along, I realized that I was in the presence of a celebrity, and suddenly blurted out, "Are you Lovely Bicycle?" To which she shyly replied, yes. We continued riding and chatting until we got back to RSC. Finding we had some common interests, we decided to get together again for more rides.

Constance initially cycled purely for transportation. Her blog focused heavily on bikes and clothes and such for the utilitarian cyclist. But she had also started to explore the realm of cycling for fun and sport, and was starting to do more and longer recreational rides.

We met a few times over the next few months for rides, including this one. I was quite surprised when I read that post, as I had recalled that she was smiling throughout the ride. Maybe she was just gritting her teeth. Fortunately, despite that less than stellar ride report, she continued to join me for more rides, including some with dirt roads and challenging climbs. And we soon developed a warm friendship.

Over the spring and summer, Constance completed many longer and more challenging recreational rides, including an overnight ride, and a few dirt road events. She also volunteered to work on the local 600km brevet, where she was seemingly inspired to consider riding some of these long and rule-riddled rides that we call randonnees.

This year, she planned to take part in the first ride of the New England Randonneur's calendar, a 100km populaire. She seemed a bit concerned about the overall distance, since she would have to add about half again as much distance riding to and from the start. I felt confident she could do it. In the meantime I was planning to my own Haystack Permanent a few weeks prior to the NER ride, and invited folks to join me. Constance and half a dozen folks did exactly that. She rode to and from the start, and completed the entire ride within the time limit and with a smile on her face - really. I checked for gritted teeth this time. The next week, Ride Studio Cafe had a rando-seaon kickoff ride and party, and Constance again did the ride, plus riding to and from the start. And then a couple of weeks later knocked off the NER populaire.

I'm not quite sure when she began to consider the 200km brevet. But since she already had done multiple 100km rides plus bonus miles to and from, it wouldn't be a big leap to do the 200km. However the route is based on one of my own routes and is scenic, which is another way of saying it's very hilly. It would be a challenge, but I had every confidence she would complete the ride. I sometimes joke that brevets bring out the stubborn people - the people who just stick to it and get it done. I knew she wouldn't give up.

Anyway a few days prior to the brevet, she joined my Tuesday RSC ride, saying if it went well she'd do the 200km brevet. As part of my cunning plan to get her addicted to randonneuring, I stuck with her that day to ensure she had a good ride. At the end of the ride, we bumped into our friend Emily O'Brien back at the studio, and learned she would be away for the weekend so would miss the brevet. I was sad as I'd been hoping to ride with Emily. Emily and I have done a few rides together this spring and we are riding at a very similar pace these days. Upon hearing Emily would be away, Constance said "Ride with me." And while I knew she was kidding, I ashamed to say that I laughed it off, due to our differences in speed.

On the way home, I replayed a conversation I'd had recently with some female racers regarding getting more women into the sport. My response had been, "Just ride with them." Not every training ride has to be full-on. In fact, not every race has to be full-on. If you want to grow the sport, take the time to ride with the new gals and show them the ropes. A little nurturing goes a long way.

Well what a hypocrite I am.

I got home and fired off an email to Constance. "Let's plan to ride the 200km together." She immediately responded that she was only kidding and never expected me to ride with her on a timed event given our speed differences. I responded that it was about a fun-time not a fast-time. With 13.5 hours allowed, we would have no problem officially completing the event. Everyone gets the same credit, regardless of finishing in 7 hours or 13.

The one caveat was that I was leaving the next day to go to NC. I had sold my father's house had planned to go down to sign papers. But my father also has some on-going health issues and I'd need to go to a few doctor's appointments too. I wasn't sure if I'd actually be back in time. As luck would have it, I caught a flight late Friday. I didn't get a lot of sleep, but I did make it to the ride start.

I bumped into a bunch of old friends and we chatted briefly. Then I spotted Constance. She seemed more subdued than usual, but she was ready to ride. We headed out in a small crowd, that soon thinned down to 4 as we started up the first notable climb. I rode along chatting with another rider. When we reached the top, I stopped to adjust some clothing and wait for Constance, while the others pressed on. When she reached the top, she told me to go on, that she really didn't expect to ride with me. I told her she was stuck with me for the day.

While I had every confidence that she could complete the ride, I know from my own experience how nice it is to have company. The time and miles just pass faster when you aren't so focused on the ride!

I also vowed to myself not to get separated like that again. I have an advantage on the climbs, not due to strength, but the gearing on my bike. I have a compact double, with 50/34 chainrings and a massive cassette, ranging from 12-36. This gives me a wide range of gears, including a low one that's less than 1 to 1. I may not use that gear often, but it's good to have when I need or want it. My philosophy, which I must credit to Fear Rothar, is "Better Looking at it than For it." This applies to gears, clothes, tools, etc. With my low-low gear, I can always just shift down and spin along beside. It's not like when I'm riding fixed and have to maintain momentum to get up the hills.

Constance has a low gear of 34X29, not nearly as low as mine. And I know she prefers a high cadence. We talked about how to get lower gears with her preferred shifters, and hopefully she can get this worked out.

Down to just the two of us, and on quieter roads, we did the next climb side by side, rolling along at a good pace. Maybe she felt she was on fire, but something reminded her that she had left a pair of bike shorts in the oven, and she'd need to stop to phone home. I was laughing so hard when she made the call, that I'm not sure if she gave basting instructions or just said they were done and time to come out!

The terrain for the next while was quite gentle, and we made good time and enjoyed the sight of lovely apple blossoms and other signs of spring - finally! Then we started up the first really big climb. I joked that it was the Pommes Frites climb, as we were going up Tater Road. Maybe I still had that vision of shorts baking away in the oven. We did this climb, side by side, again with me spinning away in a low gear. I know this route in my sleep, and was able to tell Constance where the gradient would ease off and start back up and where the best views are. Next thing we knew we were flying down into the first control in New Boston, seeing a few folks on the little bit of overlap on the return leg.

I headed into the store where I bought a delicious home-baked chocolate muffin, a cookie and an iced coffee. Constance checked out the food table at the control and told me she couldn't eat anything sweet or crunchy or with bread. Hmmm, I thought, what does that leave? A short while later she came out of the store with two bun-less hotdogs with a little relish on top. As long as it's appetizing to you, I say eat whatever you want on these rides! Just head out at digestive pace, so it stays down.

We continued chatting away about anything and everything as we rode, and I think Constance barely noticed the next climb. Near the top, I pointed out a feature on her GPS, that displays the predicted route profile and shows where you are. She was quite surprised we'd just climbed something big. I use this feature mainly to know when to put warm clothes back on for a descent in unknown terrain. But for this route, I didn't need the GPS. I knew we had a fun swoopy descent down into Purgatory (Falls).

The next climb is the toughest on the route. I had noticed earlier when looking through the cue sheet, that the organizer had eliminated the reward of the view above Paradise Farm, presumably to shorten the ride (my route is a bit over 200km). I had no intention of missing the reward of Paradise after descending into Purgatory, so I told Constance I would ride all the way to the top and swing back around and meet her at the info control on the lower road. It was a lovely clear sunny day and the 360 degree view was amazing. The Monadnock range to the north just glistened. Hopefully this part of the route will get put back in next year.

Next up was a very fast descent into Wilton and then a long gentle climb that would take us to the highpoint on the route in Temple. The store there would serve as an unmanned control. Constance asked if this store had similar fare to the one in New Boston. I told her of one ride where I lunched on hohos and bottle Frappucino after finding the pickings slim. This time I was in better luck and found some good cheddar cheese and a drink. See, I don't really live on hohos and coffee alone! My main other source of nutrients on this day was coming from Probars, my favorite on the bike snacks. Constance found a frozen hamburger and a microwave.

We saw a couple of riders here and I warned them about the rough roads for the next 10 miles. The road leaving Temple has always been a bit bumpy, but this winter took its toll and it was even more so. Still it was dead quiet and had some nice views. Neither of us took many photos on the ride, but we did both stop to get a shot of the dam/waterfall in Greenville before heading up the next climb to the "wow" view. Years ago, Fear Rothar and I were returning from a day of x-c skiing, when we stumbled upon this view. We decided that we would design a ride around this view, and that ride eventually became the 200km. The second year that the route was used, it was arrowed and someone painted "wow" on the road. So ever since then, this has been known as the "wow" view. It lived up to expectations on this day. We rolled along the ridge, until Constance could take it no longer and just had to take a photo. This ride must have been torture for her without a proper camera. She loves to take photos, and I've heard her say many times is that her goal is to get strong enough to be able to stop and take photos on these events. We actually stayed for a while watching a stunt plane do loops that would have made me toss my lunch!

After "wow", it was another quick descent and the final big climb up to Parker's Maple Sugar Barn. Sadly Parker's is not an official control, but it probably wouldn't be such a good idea to linger over a pancake breakfast at this stage of the ride. We continued on past the mini-lighthouse and covered bridges at the bottom of the hill and to the penultimate control in Brookline.

Now we were on the home stretch. More nice views and rolling hills and apple blossoms followed. Constance continued to smile and we continued to talk. We took occasional breaks to stretch, but she was still keeping up a brisk pace, and smiling. We took a quick break 15 miles from the finish, and as we started back up, I paraphrased one of Sir Edmund Hilary's well known quotes. Not this one: "It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." But this one: "Well, George, we knocked the bastard off." when I suggested we were within striking distance and could "knock the bastard off."

The next few miles flew by. I don't think my companion's tires even touched the ground. She was floating on a cloud. Every mile marked a new longest ride for her, and the reality was that she was about to become an official randonneuse. I think she could have eaten a banana sideways, given that ear to ear grin.

We arrived back at Hanscom to applause, and I managed to snap a photo on my phone of Constance with her completed card. What a rewarding day. I am so proud to have helped make the day fun and to witness as Constance truly got hooked and reeled in to the world on randonneuring. There's no turning back now!

Do you want the sport to grow? Nurture it. You will be rewarded!

Climbfest in the Catskills - Part 3

2013-05-07T22:59:00.003-04:00

The smoker's cough seemed to be getting worse. Almost to the point that John considered passing on the planned long ride for Friday. I'd initially plotted out this brutal century route, but also created a shorter option with a remote start.

Just as I had the car packed up and was about to leave, I convinced John to come, so we put his bike back into the car and headed out a little later than planned. We drove out to Phoenicia where we are becoming regulars at Mama's Boy Coffee Shop. After a quick coffee, we headed out on our bikes.

I had looked at several different routes that I had found on ridewithgps as well as studying our gazatteer to create the route for the day. Interestingly, no mention was made of dirt on Crump Hill on any of the online routes I had studied, so we were pleasantly surprised to find more nectar for honeybees (dirt) there. It also turned out to be one of the toughest climbs we've done this week. At the top, the views opened up allowing us to take in the still snow covered Belleayre ski slopes. The descent was actually paved and fast, as we rolled back down toward Big Indian with ease.

Next up was the climb up to Slide Mountain. Many of the climbs in the area have a shorter steeper side, and a longer, shallower side. So simply doing a route in reverse can be like doing a completely different set of climbs. We did the steep side of this climb, so we can legitimately tick it off of the list. The descent was long and swoopy and full of surprises, including the Frost Valley YMCA and Forstmann Castle, which suddenly appeared in the middle of nowhere!

We pedaled on a bit further to find lunch at the Blue Hill Lodge in Claryville. Fortunately, after the big meal, the next climb was one of the easy side climbs. Since we went up the easy side I'm not sure we can really tick off the Sugarloaf Climb. But I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the Sugarloaf descent, one of the best of the trip.

Next up was climbing the easy side of Peekamoose. Since we'd already done the hard side, we can now say we've completed it. Maybe it's just from the perspective of doing brutal climbs all week, but when we reached the top, I was just starting to wonder when the real climbing would start! John called this side a big ring climb. Roaring down the ski jump on the far side reminded me why it had seemed so hard to climb on Monday!

Then it was back to Phoenicia to finish.

The next day we planned another remote start. Had I properly planned this trip, we would have alternated the remote starts, so we didn't have so much driving multiple days in a row. But I admit it, this had to be our least pre-planned trip. We booked our house a few days before and planned each ride the night before. And yet it still worked out great.

Our final big ride would be to visit an area called the Gunks, easier to pronounce than Shawangunk. Julie, who was house/cat sitting for us this week, grew up in New Paltz and had reeled off the names of the climbs we should do over dinner one night, names like Mohonk, Minnewaska and Shawangunk. I again went to ridewithgps and found several different routes, including a long one that passed through Woodstock. John was finally starting to cough less, but was still not at 100%, so we opted for a shorter version from New Paltz.

We drove into town in the midst of a race. We saw lots of cyclists heading back up into town. We had a quick coffee and then rolled out across the river on the tandem. We saw the final riders heading in. Despite the fact that we were clearly not part of the race, several of the marshalls wished us luck. Hmmm... did they know something we didn't...

After riding single bikes all week, I had finally sweet-talked my way back on the tandem for this ride. But after riding my own bike all week, I was out of practice for the screaming descents on the tandem, so I asked John to take it a bit easy on me until I got used to the tandem again. I could sense him gritting his teeth as he had to hold back on a great twisty descent, but better to have a non-terrified stoker, right?

The first climb over Mohonk got our attention. Then we had some busy roads for a short while as it seemed everyone was taking advantage of the first nice warm and sunny weekend all year to head out to the park. Once past the turnoff to Minnewaska, we found ourselves on wonderful quiet roads. Then the climbing began, and I found Vista Maria to rank with the toughest climbs we'd done all week. (looking back at the reports, I've said this lots, haven't I?)

Next followed a screamer of a descent into Ellenville for a quick lunch. Leaving town we spotted what at first appeared to be a castle, but it quickly became obvious it was a prison, surrounded by fences topped with razor wire. Either a prison or the most serious deer fencing ever! John decided an alien shouldn't take a photo of a prison, so we don't have photos of the coolest looking prison I've ever seen. But I found this on online.

Next up was the climb up through Minnewaska and descending with traffic back to New Paltz. We stopped in at the Water Street Market for ice cream and coffee before heading home.

By chance, we stopped to get gasoline and who but George Swain spotted the tandem on the roof, and pulled in to say hi and hear all about our week.

We saved the hardest climb for the last day - without knowing it. The house we rented for the week was at the base of Meads Mountain Road and California Quarry. We had climbed Meads Mountain earlier in the week, but hadn't been up California Quarry yet. I plotted a short, but intense route that would take in a few hills before dropping into town at Sunfrost Farms where we could have burritos for lunch.

The view from the jeep track that continues on from California Quarry Road

Check your brakes before beginning this descent!

Final stats for the week. 46,000 feet of climbing over 475 miles. John got a bit more as he circled back a few times on some of the climbs. I do believe this week has kick-started our season quite well, and we both might be in better climbing shape than we were. Looking back at one of Riding the Catskill's blog entries, it seems we ticked off 7 of his 8 hardest climbs, although since we did Sugarloaf from the easy side, it may not count. I'm thrilled to have had the chance to explore this area, and look forward to returning now that I know what a gem it is!

Climbfest in the Catskills - Part 2 - Nectar for the Honeybees

2013-05-01T22:53:00.006-04:00

We had a couple of goals for our week in the Catskills. One was to do lots of climbing, and trust me, we did not suffer from any lack of hills. The other was to make full use of my new Honey All Roads and find some good dirt roads. We'd found a little dirt in our initial rides, but not quite as much as I was hoping for. So I sat down in front of my computer and typed the words, dirt and Catskills into the search box on ridewithgps, and found this route created by somervillebikes. I've never formally met somervillebikes, but we have a mutual friend, Velouria of the blog, Lovely Bicycle. In the week before we headed away, Velouria had mentioned that somervillebikes had a holiday home and some good dirt road routes in the area. So I had great confidence in this route when I found it. But then I noticed a level of detail rarely seen on routes one might randomly find online. He had color-coded the route to show what was dirt and what was paved. And every cue was annotated with additional details. This was very promising indeed.

As was the route profile. Careful you don't cut yourself on the sawtooth shape!

The only downside was the route was located about 60 miles west of Woodstock, so we'd need to drive out. Fortunately we had the car! We got up and had breakfast and then loaded the car. John has been feeling the effects of spring allergies this week, and was coughing like a chain-smoker, as we drove out. We aimed for the town of Bovina, at the southern end of the route. The designated cafe wasn't open, but the general store there was a great place to get coffee and pastries. We knew we wouldn't see much on route, so we carried a few bars and planned to take advantage whereever we saw services.

The route (for us) started with a good dirt climb and descent. Honeybees, named for her distinctive sounding Chris King buzz hubs, was instantly thriving. This is what she was designed to do, and finally she was getting the chance to show her stuff. The low gears saw plenty of use all day. The fat tires inspired confidence as did those awesome disk brakes. The bike fit me perfectly and felt so balanced. The fenders that I mounted the day before we left continued to do a fine job of warding off any rain.

John was on his Seven that he uses for everything. Honestly, we could just get rid of all his other bikes. His Seven is one versatile machine. He has raced up Mt Washington on it, with very impressive results. He has done Green Mountain Double, a 200 mile dirt road race, several times. He has packed it up and flown to far-away places, and toured with it. And pretty much everything else. For this week, he was trying out a new minimalist bar bag for carrying his good camera. He also had a giant expandable seat bag that proved capable of holding all his cold weather gear and mine, when it finally warmed up enough to remove stuff.

I had my usual small ortlieb bar bag - for my now-broken camera, as well as my phone, wallet, snacks, along with armwarmers, vest and gloves, when they weren't on me or in pockets. I have not yet mounted a large seatbag, so I just had a tiny one with tube and tools.

I've mentioned before that one of the reasons we've switched to touring on single bikes versus the tandem, is photos. John likes to stop and take lots of photos. Given our differences in speed, he can get a shot of me riding toward him and then away, and then take a few dozen shots of turtles crossing the road, or leaves actually changing color, or blossoms opening, and quickly catch back up to me. It works quite well - at least when we both have GPS or cue sheets for navigating independently.

We were only a few feet into the ride, when he stopped for the first photo! It seemed we might end up with a barns of Delaware County theme to the photos at first, as we saw lots of interesting ones. But we also saw lots of wide open vistas, a bunch of cute alpacas, at least one really gnarly road (and sign). And it was an absolutely amazing day. After the chill of the previous few days, it was finally starting to get warm, and we had brilliant sunshine. But I'll just let the photos speak for themselves...

As much as I love my GPS, and find it so useful for rides like this, we did experience a technology failure on the way home. When we finished, we loaded up the car and entered Woodstock, NY into the car GPS (no cell phone or data signal here), and started on our way. At some point I noticed we were going back a different way than we had come out. But this sometimes happens with the unit. I had remembered a large town that should have a place to get something to drink before we'd get on the main road, and kept looking for that town. But it didn't come. At some point we noticed the scenery was dramatically different from any we'd seen around Woodstock. Still no alarm bells. We just said we'd have to head out of town in this direction. But then the GPS announced we were at our destination. But clearly we were not. We finally panned around on the GPS map to discover we were about 60 miles away! Oh well, it would be a late dinner tonight. Next time I use this device, I'll pan to be sure the destination really is the destination! (And yes, I still have it. I did not litter and toss it out the window, although that thought did briefly enter my mind!)

Climbfest in the Catskills - Part 1

2013-04-25T00:46:00.000-04:00

Longtime readers may have spotted a theme to our vacations at this stage. It seems that we find some place with lots of concentrated climbing and travel there to concentrate on climbing. This spring, we decided to go to the Catskills in New York. I joked with a friend recently as I referred to this as a "Staycation", since we weren't flying anywhere. Despite this area being just a few hours away by car, we had not ever truly explored it. We've cycled through Woodstock, NY on the Westfield 600km and really enjoyed the scenery and the climbing. So it's long been on the list, and this year it bubbled up to the top.

We decided to rent a house for the week in Woodstock and since we were driving out, we'd bring both the tandem and a couple of single bikes. I have a brand new Honey All Roads, and I was eager to put it through its paces. But we also love riding the tandem, and since we could bring multiple bikes, we did.

We got a bit of a late start on Saturday morning, as we still needed to pack and load up the car. John had a very stressful work-week. Why do employers insist that you do all the work you would do while away, in the week before you go? I don't miss that kind of stress. I hate to see John dealing with it, but at least this week, he's left it all behind and is just enjoying some fine riding.

I contacted Hudson Valley Randonneur, George Swain, to see if he might be interested in getting together while we are in the area. We had met George a few years ago at the end of a fleche, and we've kept in touch through social media and blogs. It would be good to reconnect in person and spend some time riding together. We also have some mutual friends, not to mention mutual interests, so we'd have plenty to talk about on a long ride. I knew he had a few permanents in the area, and figured he'd be a good resource for the best roads to ride. We arranged to meet in Woodstock on Sunday to have coffee and go for a ride. We decided to ride the tandem and had a great reward of a long sustained descent for our efforts. George proved to be a most excellent tour guide, leading us on a fabulous route up past Kaaterskill Falls, followed up with a great view of the slopes of Mount Hunter and down through Devil's Tombstone to Phoenicia, for lunch at the awesome Mama's Boy Coffee Shop. He also offered lots of route advice for the rest of the week.

On Monday, we decided to check out a route we found on RidingTheCatskills blog that offered a bit of climbing and teased us with mention of gravel. The Honey All Roads really wants to be on dirt or gravel! Researching various possibilities, I found a route from Woodstock to get us over the reservoir where we could join up with the Peekamoose ride with gravel.

It took us a while to get to that first bit of gravel, but in the meantime, we found lots of climbing, descending, more climbing, more descending, some gorgeous waterfalls, possibly the worst convenience store ever, and finally some dirt.

A few days before the trip, the weather forecast was looking dire. So I mounted fenders on the Honey, and packed rain gear. I didn't really expect winter to return though. While we didn't get snow, it was darn chilly for the first few days, and I dressed in my winter gear. I did get the heavy jacket off for the big climbs, but was quite happy to have it, and my winter hat and some heavy gloves for the descents!

Still things looked a bit dodgy for Tuesday, so we planned a route that circled back through Woodstock to give us a bailout option. We'd passed an interesting looking Euro-style road with lots of hairpins on Monday and decided to go check it out. We found a few routes on various online mapping/tracking sites that took it in, so we figured it must be rideable. When we got to the base, we found lots of signs warning us away from the private road, but we decided to risk riding around a closed gate. If they are really serious about keeping cyclists out, they'd have a big fence, right? A gate like that is just to keep cars out! So if you are bothered by gates and private road signs, and you have come to this blog looking for routes, don't do this one.

It was a glorious twisty euro-style climb, and I finally found lots of dirt on the descent, so this made us both happy. Happy, but frozen by the time we got back to town. Hot chocolate and hot soup at Bread Alone helped thaw us.

Warmed and refueled, we headed out to climb Plattes Clove, better known as Devil's Kitchen. If the hot chocolate didn't warm us, this climb would. Astute readers may remember that my new Honey has low gears, with the lowest less than 1 to 1. I spec'd these gears for some of the nasty dirt climbs I have planned this summer. Well the Devil and her kitchen got first shot at my 34/36 combination. It was slow going for me, but I made it up - pedaling. We rolled up to a nice view of Hunter Mountain and then enjoyed the lovely swoopy descent back down past Kaaterskill Falls.

Luckily the rain we had feared we'd get passed us by. I hear our friends back in Boston weren't so lucky.

Again when checking the forecast, Wednesday had initially looked dodgy. I had plotted out some nearby out and back climbs, but on Tuesday night, I saw that the chances of precipitation had all but disappeared for Wednesday, so I planned something a bit longer, but not so long that it wouldn't count as a recovery day!

Of course it started with a brutal climb right out the door up Meads Mountain Road. Various maps showed a road up to a lookout. It turns out the out and back part of the climb is a fireroad, with some big loose gravel and very steep pitches. I'd need more skill, legs and gears than I had to get up to the lookout, so we passed on that trail and continued on for more exploring of new roads. But not before I dropped my camera and busted the screen. I can still take pictures, I just can't see them and I can't access the menu. Good thing John's the primary photographer!

I'd used online mapping software and the gazatteer to put this route together. The next road on the map turned out to be dead-end, and I've learned my lesson. If the sign says dead-end, you don't need to descend a thousand feet to prove it right! OK, it wasn't a thousand feet, but it was enough that I was not so excited about climbing back out. Fortunately it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought.

We enjoyed some easy terrain as we made our way back to Phoenicia for another lunch at Mama's Boy. Then we got to digest briefly before resuming the climb-fest, finishing it off with a euro-style twisty climb called Seven Sisters.

Tomorrow we are headed west to Delaware county to find some proper dirt!

Not quite a cycling post, but then again...

2013-04-23T22:33:00.001-04:00

Never again, when someone asks where I am from, will I have to respond "just outside of Boston". Now I can just say "a few blocks from THE boat in Watertown, MA."

Last week left me and John feeling very lucky. While we got to experience a stressful day of lockdown at the end of the week, we were nowhere near the marathon on Monday, and on the far side of the river from all the action in Watertown on Friday. And this was the message that I attempted to send to far distant friends and family throughout the drama all week. At times, it felt wrong to post messages on FB or twitter, that we were safe and sound, while so many others were not. But our families needed to see these messages from us. And it turns out social media is actually a good way to broadcast a message like that to a far distant audience. I admit to being quite relieved to see the check-ins from various friends that I knew were doing the marathon on Monday. But I was still heartbroken to hear of the deaths of people I did not know, but who's stories I will not forget. And I was devastated by the news of all the severe injuries, including so many leg amputations, a most cruel attack on fans of running!

Like so many other folks, my response to all this is not to hide away in fear, but to seize the day. Like most of the other residents of my town and neighboring towns, I "sheltered in place", not out of fear, but to stay out of the way, and not cause any additional hassle to an already over-stressed police department and other public safety officials. It was a glorious day, warm and sunny. I had planned a short ride for the morning, since I had so much to do to prepare for our vacation that was scheduled to start at EOD Friday. I needed to get the bike rack back on the car, and load up tandem and single bikes. I needed to get clothes and such packed, print out maps, do more route research, do laundry and a bit of shopping, etc.

But we awoke Friday morning to find text messages, emails and FB messages from various friends, alerting us to stay inside, keep the doors locked and check the news. We are used to hearing helicopters. We live near a major commuter highway. We are used to sirens from the highway and nearby hospitals. But the sounds we could hear in the distance were not the normal ones, and soon we knew why.

"An abundance of caution" was the phrase used, asking people outside the immediate search area, to stay in place. (Those in the thick of it likely didn't need to be told!) The entire public transit system was shut down. The governor asked schools and businesses in Watertown and surrounding towns to stay closed. Taxi service was suspended for a while - presumably all this was to eliminate means of escape for the wounded suspect, who had crashed and abandoned his stolen car. Amazingly the airport was open. Not that I thought there was any chance that the suspect would be impacted by closing the airport, but how was anyone supposed to get there? Or get home?

Our street was eerily quiet. Some likened it to a blizzard, except in a blizzard, we go outside and shovel and build snowmen and play and help our neighbors with their shoveling. And we get warning, so we have an abundance of bread and milk in the house.

Like many I could not turn the news off. I tried, but then I'd get another email, or hear more noises, and I'd turn the radio back on. I had many rainy day things to do at home, but I couldn't concentrate. I have a backlog of posts to do on the blog, but made no progress. I need to work on the fleche route and have another permanent route I'm working on - no progress. I have bikes in need of maintenance.

All I could think about were my neighbors across town, and hoping that this would all come to a peaceful end soon. I wanted to open the door and let the warm fresh spring air in. I wanted to go for a bike ride. And I wanted the world not to be filled with misguided angry people.

Today, things are calm back home in Watertown. We packed up Saturday morning and have been enjoying some lovely cycling in the Catskills this week, and I promise to post pix and stories soon.

This is not a political blog, and I'm not going to make it one. But I will repeat something I said last summer. Bad stuff happens to random people at random times. I will not live my life in fear. Instead, I make every effort to live in the moment and appreciate exactly what is happening at the time.

And one of the best ways I can appreciate each moment is on my bike, breathing hard as I climb a steep grade, or enjoying a beautiful mountain vista, or gliding down some twisty descent. And this week, that experience has been a bit more poignant.

Permanents and Transcience

2013-04-17T22:41:00.003-04:00

As a fixie rider, my feet are always moving. Could it be some form of hyperactivity that draws me to riding a fixed gear bike - since I just can't seem to keep my feet still? Or maybe hyperactivity is why I am always seeking variety. I'm not one of those riders who can go out and do the same route week after week after week. I just read about a Kiwi rider who did the same century route every day for 65 days in a row to celebrate his 65th birthday. While an impressive feat, I would have gone insane by day 3!

While it may help someone training to compare their time or performance on the same loop from week to week, that's not why I ride a bike. Yesterday, while leading my Tuesday ride, someone asked me how to get strong. I laughed, as I said that I was the last person to ever ask about training advice. I ride my bike to get to great places to eat, to enjoy the view, to enjoy good company and to have fun. If fitness comes as a side benefit of my riding, that's great. But it's not my goal.

My goal on Tuesdays is actually to share with my fellow riders all the quiet and scenic roads and cafes that I have found within a 60 mile round trip of Lexington! If the cool scenery or great cafe is on top of a big climb, it's certainly nice to be fit enough to get there without enduring a lot of pain. But it's not a training ride, it's a ride for its own sake!

I've been leading these rides every Tuesday for about a year and a half now. I have about a dozen different rides that we rotate though, so it takes us about 3 months to repeat one. I also create a new one every once in a while, so someday, we will have even more variety!

For locals, we do these rides every Tuesday at 10AM, from Ride Studio Cafe in Lexington, MA. I tweet the link to the route, usually on Sunday nights, and that tweet can be found on the right hand side of the blog, along with other pithy comments throughout the week!

I absolutely understand how much work goes into creating a new route, especially a long one, so I don't fault any club that runs the same century year after year, or any of the brevet organizers who use the same routes for their brevets. After all, in these cases, you are really only doing the route once a year. Even so, I do crave variety and despite having a few favorites, I do find myself travelling to different regions just to do a different route.

Enter the RUSA permanents.

Over the past couple of years, I've been travelling back and forth to NC quite a bit to help my dad, after my mom passed away, and when he got sick. I was back and forth enough that I bought a bike to leave there. I used my GPS and various mapping programs to explore, and this worked reasonably well since I often couldn't get away for long rides or rides at set times. But recently as things have settled down, I've been able to plan a bit more in advance and get out for a full day.

As I mentioned in a previous blog posting, I joined the NC randoneurring email list and sought fixie company. I both wanted an interesting route and to ride with some like-minded riders. I've known about permanents for a while, but they haven't really caught on here in New England like they have in other areas. So it was a pleasant surprise to be invited to join a group on a permanent - even more so when a few were riding fixed. I had a great ride and made several new friends. On a subsequent trip a few weeks later, I did another and also had a great time.

With this serving as inspiration, I finally decided to see about turning some of the Tuesday routes into permanents. I spent a bit of time refining the cue sheets, figuring out reasonable places for controls, and then had a discussion with Crista, RUSA's permanista. She is such a great resource and does so much for this program. She coached me in everything I'd need to get my cue sheets right and helped with info controls and getting the route cards correct and such. Despite having done brevets for 25 years, I learned a tremendous amount about some of the less than obvious logistics!

So now I have a few permanents based out of Lexington, MA. And I think there might be some pent up demand for permanents in the area. I've had lots of company on the first two that I rode officially. Following RUSA rules, I picked a date and time and sent out email to the local list asking if anyone would like to join. And quite a few folks did.

So I look forward to seeing more of this type of activity on our local randoneurring list. Hopefully others will be inspired to share some of their favorite rides, and we can really get a big library of cool routes. For RUSA members, the permanents also offer the chance to take part in some of the year-round challenges, or geographic challenges, as well as some practice hanging on to a route card or navigating with a cue sheet.

So for any of my RUSA friends who haven't checked out the permanents program, I encourage you to do so, both as a rider and route creator. It's a great way to find new routes in a new place or even in a familiar area, and potentially a cool way to meet new folks in a slightly less formal event like a brevet. Of course it's only slightly less formal. You still have the route card and receipts and such, but my experience so far, is that riders may be just a bit more laid back on a permanent.

And I must be careful with my wording here, as I say that isn't limited to RUSA folks. As I've mentioned, I do rides like this every Tuesday - using the same routes - although different from week to week - no cards, no info controls, no RUSA credit. Although be aware that sometimes I may stop to take a quick photo of some stone marker that could be used as an info control, as I go through the process of submitting more routes!

And you don't have to ride with me! Almost all my routes are public on ridewithgps. Many can be found on the routes page on this blog, which I promise to clean up and update very soon. And folks are welcome to download and go ride them with friends or on your own at any time. Just be warned that they have lots of turns and a GPS is handy, they sometimes include dirt or a short trail, and they tend to have some climbing - because the best scenery is often at elevation.

Finally, despite indications to the contrary, I do not secretly work for Garmin helping them sell GPSs, but they sure do come in handy!

A Little Diversion

2013-04-11T01:21:00.000-04:00

I know. It's been a while. But radio silence on this blog is coming to a screeching halt! I have a serious backlog of things to write about, so there may be a flurry of posts in coming days.

Despite the backlog, I'm going to start with my most recent diversion. I went on a seriously fun bike ride last Saturday, and tonight I'm still smiling and giggling with glee. Ride Studio Cafe and Honey Bikes put together an awesome event and they built a bike, just for me, just for the occasion. Really! They did! How cool is that?

And in the true spirit of Just-In-Time manufacturing, it came off the bike stand about 15 minutes before the start of the ride. But no fear, I hopped on the new bike, rode it around the block, across some cobblestones, down a trail and off and onto curbs a few times, and then headed out to do a group ride on twisty trails, with rocks and roots and bridges and boardwalks, grinning ear to ear the whole time!

I had a blast, but for some reason, kept thinking about coffee!