The Blayleys

Gloves

2012-03-03T21:57:00.001-05:00

We have had very strange weather in New England this winter. For the most part, it has been relatively mild. But we've had a few bitter cold days as well as some balmy ones. The problem is that the two extremes have come one right after the other. The high temperature can vary by 40F from one day to the next, making getting the right clothing choices a bit of a challenge. A little layering and judicious use of zippers usually are enough for me to adjust to changing conditions. Normally if I am under-dressed or over-dressed on one day, I can tweak my clothing choice slightly the next day and be comfortable. But since conditions have varied so much day to day, this hasn't really been the case this year. Most of the time when I have misjudged, the issue has been my hands, and so far I haven't inflicted permanent damage, but I do find I am now carrying extra gloves a lot!

Looking back through my photos for the last few months, I can clearly see that my Rapha Women's Softshell Jacket has proven to be incredibly versatile. I've used various different leg coverings, from leg warmers to tights to insulated pants, and various different types of headgear from headband to woolie hat to windstopper skullcap, and a dozen different gloves - which is ultimately what I'm trying to write about.

And I will. Right after I finish raving about that Rapha jacket. I got this jacket last fall from my local Rapha retailer, Ride Studio Cafe, and literally have worn it almost every day since - with notable exceptions being my trips to warm, sunny NC. The softshell fabric is windproof and water resistant, making it great in cold and damp conditions. The pit vents allow for nice temperature regulation when it gets warmer. My old cold weather standby is an awesome jacket from MEC that is no longer made. It is a fleecy jacket with wind-proofing on the front, shoulders and front of arms. It is so warm that I really only use it for temperatures well below freezing. It has seen many years of use for winter commuting, and the occasional all day bitter cold weekend ride. But if it gets too much above freezing during the day, the MEC jacket can get too hot.

So I was surprised after using the Rapha jacket lots this year, when I wore the MEC one day and really noticed the lack of windproofing on the underside of the arms. The nice thing about having the windproofing all around the arms, combined with pit vents, is that you can open the vents to get the draft or close them to keep it out. With the windproofing just on the front of the arms, I actually felt a bit of draft in a jacket I had always considered quite warm! What this ultimately means is the Rapha softshell could handle the bitter cold conditions as well or better than the fleecy jacket, and it also works well if the temperatures rises, whereas the MEC would cook me alive.

Both jackets have external rear pockets, providing a nice place to keep my phone and camera at hand, as well as extra gloves. Both have a zippered pocket to keep my wallet secure. The MEC has lots of reflective stuff all over. The Rapha has more subtle reflective piping, but I keep a lightweight reflective hi-visibility vest in the center pocket for those after dark rides home. The drop down bum flap has a reflective Rapha logo - good for spray protection should I somehow find myself without fenders, as well as nighttime visibility. I have the grey/black version. The men's version also comes in red.

The ladies cut is both flattering and functional, because it fits close. The thumb loops at the end of the sleeves are also very nice for keeping wind from coming up the arms without being a super-snug elastic band, as found on many jackets.

But wait, this post was titled GLOVES. So let me get back to gloves. Apparently I channel Imelda Marcos spirit through my glove collection.

When most folks talk about cycling gloves, they are thinking about the nice cool fingerless padded gloves that keep your hands from going numb on longer rides!

But sometimes, it gets cold, and you need more than just shock absorption.

Disclaimer: I mostly ride fixed gear bikes in the winter, so I have no worries about jamming fiddly shift levers when using bulky gloves or mittens. And my bikes with gears have bar-end shifters which also are no problem with even the bulkiest of gloves or mittens.

Below are my mittens for the coldest cycling conditions. I got them a few years ago when I bought my Lake Winter cycling boots, which I talked about here. These have a nice warm fleecy lining, and a heavy canvas outer. They are roomy enough to use with a moderately thick glove liner. And they have a little zippered pocket for a hand warmer - if it's really bad. They have some reflective material on the sides, which faces back with hands on the bike. These are good for temps below 25F.

My 25F-35F gloves are a pair of ski gloves to which I've added some reflective tape from lightweights. These have enough room to supplement with a light glove liner, should I misjudge. I'll also point out the security cords on these - very handy when I pull the gloves off on the move to take Panda shots and other photos!

The Chiba gloves are for 35F-45F. These are waterproof. I have used these commuting in 40F rainy conditions. They have cycling specific padding and grips, and the very important terry cloth thumb for wiping runny noses. They have a warm fleecy interior, but are not so bulky that they would cause issues with integrated shifters. If you just want one pair of winter cycling gloves, these are the ones to get! I added the lightweights reflective dots. I used the fabric specific product and ironed it on. The dots have survived many washings.

The Louis Garneau gloves are for 45F-55F. I bought these a couple of years ago after a cold spring-time brevet, to encourage the arrival of warm weather. It didn't work. I used them several times that spring. These are also a cycling specific glove with terry cloth thumb and minimal bulk. Again, reflective dots were added later.

The Seirus gloves are waterproof. Since my other waterproof gloves are for very cold conditions, I wanted something for warmer rain. These are very form fitting and claim to be warm without bulk. I didn't buy them for cold weather, so I can't criticize them for not working well in freezing conditions. I have them for 55+ and rain.

Glove liners are essential for me. I always have liners with me. They can add several degrees of comfort to any glove. They are also great with bulky gloves for when you need to take them off, to operate a camera or open an energy bar, since you still have some covering. These are lightweight wool liners from Ibex.

A couple of years ago, John and I were out riding on Christmas Day, when I found this brand new pair of gloves in the middle of the road, clearly someone else's Christmas gift, lost out of a pocket on their first outing. These have been great for borderline warm conditions - and the price couldn't be beat!

The above selection are the gloves I keep by the door! John has a similar collection with a few other brands and models thrown in the mix.

I guess the real point is that if you are riding in real winter conditions, you likely need more than one pair of gloves, and will find yourself with a similar ranking of gloves and temperature. A little layering can be done using a glove liner, but beyond that, different gloves are needed for different conditions.

Before I head out for a ride, I check the current temperature and forecast, and grab gloves accordingly. Given the wild variations of late, I should probably just carry all of them all the time!

I should also mention handlebar mitts like Pogies, Moose Mitts and Bar-Mitts. These are oversize mitts that attach to the handlebars at the brake levers. There are models for both road style drop bars and flat bars. The idea is you wear a light glove and place your gloved hand inside a giant outer glove, providing ample insulation and windproofing while leaving you with fine control for brakes and shifting.

Sunshine, snow squalls and round towers

2012-02-26T22:04:00.000-05:00

All this talk of a mild winter is starting to annoy the weather gods. So they huffed and puffed and blew a gale force wind our way this weekend, providing another excuse to take out the tandem. So while John's mates were off sheltering from the wind in the woods, we headed out on the tandem. We only made it a few blocks before stopping into the new George Howell Coffee in Newtonville.

I decided to indulge in a Rogue Chocolate panini, which wasn't as weird as it might seem, while John opted for a more healthy crepe. We did amass a pile of espresso cups before we finally could avoid heading out into the wind no more.

First stop was the Norumbega Tower. It does look like a glorious day!

We headed a little further along to try and get a closer look at the gatehouse, but it's well protected by big fences! We did take note of those big grey clouds.

It became quite clear that this was to be a relaxed photo op day, so we gave in and stopped lots along the way to be rewarded with scenes like this.

At some point we found ourselves in the midst of a pretty intense snow flurry, but it was too windy for anything to reach the ground! Not surprising, we found ourselves at Ride Studio Cafe, where we lingered a while over hot chocolate before heading for home.

All in all, a lovely, relaxing day out!

No fear, the big rides will come soon.

Nawth Shaw riding

2012-02-24T17:35:00.001-05:00

I don't know Boston's Nawth Shaw well. So, when Beverly native, Matt Roy, suggested, in one of his infamous Bad Ideas (TM), dragging David Wilcox and yours truly on some of his favourite roads in that direction, I leaped at the chance.

Matt had the decency too, to lay on simply splendid February weather. It was sunny, dry, if breezy and a smidgin chilly. However, it transpired we were going to cover a large portion of the North Shore in our day out, so there wasn't much hanging out and chillin' to be done!

I wasn't too worried about the rip-roaring tailwind we enjoyed early in our ride, even when I was spinning out the top gear on my junior racing (16-27) cassette. Until perhaps, I saw this sign. I wondered if it referred to the headwind battle that awaited us on our return journey...

After enjoying a very friendly coffee shop stop in Ipswich at ZUMI’S Coffee House, we started heading (vaguely) in the direction of home.

This included a very worthy side-trip out to the secluded Conomo Point.

Next up were some rough coastal neighbourhoods, where I was worried about puncturing and having to ride the rim to safety...

Did I mention it was a gorgeous day? And the roads weren't too bad either!

We continually tacked back and forth, so the feared headwind was never a big factor.

200 quality kilometres in our legs had us running on fumes towards the end of the day. However, the ever kind Mo stuffed David and I full of heavenly quinoa (courtesy of the awesome Bob's Red Mill) and berry pancakes, before sending us off on the last leg of our journey home. Not a bad day out for February!

Presidents and Purgatory

2012-02-23T23:32:00.002-05:00

Astute readers may recall that at the end of the Festive 500 challenge last December, John and I declared ourselves so far beyond redemption that we felt no need or desire to serve additional time in Purgatory (Pamela had already been to Purgatory Falls, NH earlier in the week), so we bailed on our planned final ride from Framingham out to Purgatory Chasm. This is probably why we didn't win! That and the fact that we didn't have epic blizzards to ride through. But try as I might to ride in snowy conditions this year, global warming seems to have arrived in New England, and we've been blessed with some pretty amazing winter cycling this year.

But it is also a presidential election year, and we've been bombarded with news stories that try my patience and insult my intelligence and make me feel I'm in some sort of presidential purgatory. I'm really hoping to emerge into a state of grace soon. So seeing as how I like my theme rides, we decided President's Day would be a fine day for Purgatory.

President's Day is also the beginning of school vacation week here in Massachusetts. As bike commuters, we love it when school is out because traffic at commuting time is much lighter. We had hoped for relatively light traffic on our ride, but it turns out that since we have almost no snow, instead of heading north the ski, all the school kids and their parents drove out to Purgatory Chasm for a hike - or so it seemed, based on the traffic we encountered on our ride and our hike.

John has a new camera, a Sony NEX7. Most of these shots are with that camera - with a few obvious exceptions. We've learned that if we ride singles, we can get nice action shots, but it was windy, and there's nothing so nice as riding a tandem in windy conditions, so we opted for the non-action shots of a tandem ride! I guess pictures at a cemetery (on our way to Purgatory) are about as non-action as you can get!

While we haven't had any snow, and it's been really mild for most of the winter, we do have the odd day where the temperature is 40F higher or lower than the previous day. This makes it really tough to dress appropriately. In a normal winter, conditions are relatively constant, so once I get the clothing choices right, it doesn't vary much from day to day, but this year I've worn different gloves every other day. And I can't just tweak it for the next day. I just need to carry all 20 pairs of gloves I own! Today's wind came straight from the north pole, and I left my north pole gloves at home! I survived, but my fingers got a bit chilly.

We took a slight deviation off route to check out the West Hill Dam.

John is really enjoying the new camera.

Ah, we have arrived, soon to discover where all those cars were headed!

We always ride in walkable shoes, and if you are going to Purgatory, I will recommend them. Signs suggested the chasm was closed in winter, but everyone else had ignored the signs and headed in, so we did likewise. We had to take care on some sections with ice, but it is pretty amazing that we could do this hike in the middle of February.

I'm not really a fan or sermons of any type, but the speaker failed to show. Maybe Hell has frozen over.

Oh this could explain why he was a no-show at the pulpit!

Hiking through the chasm was the only time we were out of the wind all day. But the brilliant sunshine and cloudless sky made for a lovely warm hike.

After our hike, we hopped back on the tandem and aimed it toward Framingham, taking in some much quieter roads on the way back. We arrived back just as my fingers were really starting to complain, and John graciously sent me into the supermarket to thaw them out while he loaded the tandem in the car.

After returning home, I modified the route to remove some of the roads that we found too busy, and hopefully now have a much quieter loop. I look forward to heading back on a warm windless day.

Now that we've been to Purgatory on President's Day, can I have some salvation from the endless, relentless attack on my patience with the American political system? Not a chance, but I can still hope, can't I?

"Snowy" trail riding

2012-02-16T22:17:00.003-05:00

The forecast predicted 3-6" of the white, fluffy stuff. While sensible types might have stayed at home and provided laps for cats in front of a nice, warm fire, Messrs. Roy, Wilcox and I decided to go slip, sliding in the woods instead. The plan called for stringing together as many sections of trails in the Fells as possible, with Matt leading the way.

Things started according to plan when I awoke to find a dusting of white outside. The forecast still seemed accurate as I made my way to Gnarlington through white coloured precipitation. However, that was to be the extent of it for the day, as you can see from the following photos:

The first order of business for the day was to find Wright's Tower in the Fells - with just a little help from modern technology.

Not that we let technology get in the way of some fun!

However, we were soon back on the bikes, with the tower in sight.

While it felt like we were miles from anywhere, "civilisation" wasn't actually very far away.

This was as close as we got to snow on the ride. You, dear reader, will be glad to hear that we coped!

A chatty metal detecting enthusiast pointed us towards this lovely stone bridge.

Continuing the tower theme, we next visited Bear Hill Tower...

...from which Matt won the bike tossing competition.

Next up - with the emphasis on up - was the old ski area overlooking Horn Pond.

There be Boston!

At this point, the Ride Studio Cafe was calling our name, so off to Lexington it was. We arrived there with 35(ish) miles on the clock, of which 3 or 4 were on those things called roads. Not a bad day's work!

Fender Update - SKS Raceblade Long

2012-02-13T10:27:00.000-05:00

Last week in my Fender post, I mentioned that I had some of the new SKS Raceblade long fenders on order. (I have updated that post now with this information).

They arrived over the weekend, and I eagerly opened the box and tried to mount them on the bike that currently sports the original raceblades. But I found several limitations, the primary one being a max tire width of 23mm. I had missed this detail before I ordered them.

Not the longs!

I'd missed another detail as well. The mounting hardware attaches at the brake and the QR skewer. I should have looked more closely, but had assumed they were similar to the mounting of the race blades I have. The bike I bought them for has bolt on hubs - it's an inexpensive fixie, pictured above.

On initial inspection it would seem that the fender should be more stable with this manner of mounting, but I was never able to prove the point...

As I discovered after the fact, and due to my own lack of research, they absolutely will not work with my 28mm tires. The fender is too narrow and the stays are simply too short for this size tire. The length of the stays can be adjusted at the QR plastic piece, but there is not enough range to handle more than a 23mm tire. The only bike I have with a 23mm tire is my uphill race bike - and it's the one bike that will never see fenders!

The mounting hardware at the brake goes under the brake, so if you don't have enough clearance at the brake for the Crud fenders, these won't work either. Back to that 23mm tire limitation.

I also tried to use what appeared to be fender eyelets on this frame, but the fender/stay design seems to be such that the stays must mount at the axle/center of wheel. There wasn't enough adjustment between the two stays to mount away from the center of the wheel - these eyelets were close to the center, but still far enough away to not work.

I then tried to mount them on a different bike that does have QR skewers, and found the mounting hardware at the hub axle/QR skewer is incredibly fiddly, and highly dependent on dropout design - the dropout must be flat, and the next frame I tried had a rear dropout with a raised lip.

The pictogram instructions and this video from SKS show removing the springs in the QR skewers. I wasn't very happy with that idea.

Now here's a gotcha, you might not discover until you try it. The fender must be removed if you remove the front wheel for roof rack mounting, since the stays attach at the hub. It only takes a second to pop the QR at the brake, but when reinstalling, you have to get the stays back in at the hub and I found that part a bit fiddly. There is a very slick plastic QR that attaches to the metal piece that goes on the skewer, but since this metal piece is open to go over the skewer and needs to come off with wheel removal, it seems completely unnecessary to have this part also be QR. This piece also functions as the way to adjust the length of the stays, but the QR part really seemed superfluous.

The same plastic QR is used at the brake mounting points. It works well there, and makes popping the fender off super easy.

So if you use a tire no bigger than 23mm, have QR wheels, and flat dropouts and don't mind removing and replacing the fender when removing the wheel, these should provide a bit more coverage/protection than the basic race blades.

Fenders

2012-02-07T22:01:00.000-05:00

Mo Bruno Roy looks great all the time, but she really carries off the muddy look with style and grace!

Photo by Matt Roy

I can't say the same for me!

And while it may be fun for an hour, I bet it would get a bit uncomfortable on an all day ride. And it might not be such a good idea to show up to work this way, or to try and get a seat at any coffee shop other than Ride Studio Cafe. Even there, you might be offered a big bucket of water and a towel at the door!

Photo by Natalia Boltukhova
www.pedalpowerphotography.com
www.tinyrussianstudio.com

So while I wouldn't suggest fenders for cyclocross, they are pretty nice for commuting, touring and any long ride in the rain. The photo above is perfect for showing off the effectiveness of fenders. Notice the fellow in the middle with the clean backside and fenders, while the other two are covered in grit. One of the really ironic things about this picture is that guy in back (Fear Rothar) almost always has fenders, but decided to sacrifice them to get 32mm tires on his bike for this race. So naturally it rained for the entire event. I think he may still be washing the dirt from that pair of shorts.

It really is naughty of me to try and embarrass Fear Rothar with that photo, since the bike is usually set up with full fenders. It was actually designed for full coverage Honjo fenders with 28mm tires.

The photo is really showing off the decal, but if you look behind the seat tube you may see his quick release setup for the rear fender, making it very easy to take off for races, or dry events. The top of the fender mount has been filed open. Combined with a Sheldon Nut it just takes a 1/4 turn with an allen key to free the fender. The Honjo stays are also designed to release with just a 1/4 turn.

I will mention that the Honjo fenders and most other lightweight aluminum fenders don't stand up to much abuse. They are light and look great, but if you kink them, they eventually crack and break at that point. Sadly we have a box full of broken ones. And if you ride off curbs with the front extending down low like in the above photo, it may catch and bend and then eventually break as well. This is not to discourage anyone from using this type of fender, just take care when mounting - and if you travel, pack them very carefully or consider an alternative fender for travel.

I use plastic Roadracer Fenders from Crud on my Seven. When I spec'd out the frame, I asked for clearance for 26mm tires with fenders. It is designed for 57mm reach brakes, with the pads positioned at the bottom of the slot, to provide maximum clearance for cushier tires. I had planned to use the Roadracers, which do not require eyelets, but I had the frame built with fender eyelets anyway, just in case the Crud fenders didn't work out or I wanted to try something different later. I can report that I am thrilled with how well the Roadracers have worked out. They weigh almost nothing! And they actually work quite well to keep both me and the bike clean. They have three sections, so they come apart and pack very nicely - very handy for a travel bike. The rear fender has a clever wraparound section to provide extra protection for the drivetrain while the front fender has a short section that can be removed easily for mounting the fork on a roof rack. I have learned to tape down the nuts from the inside to make it easy to remove this section without dropping the nut in the parking lot - never to be seen again. The nuts and bolts are plastic and very easy to tighten/loosen by hand. But they should also be checked occasionally, as we have had some come loose. I carry spares now.

You need about 4mm of clearance between the tire and inside of the brake to use these fenders. Depending on the size of tire, this is a great option for many racier bikes without fender eyelets. I know lots of club riders who consider a 23mm tire fat - and I believe they will work with lots of bikes with 23mm tires. For anything bigger, you likely need the 57mm reach brakes.

Crud Roadracers with mudflap made from high-tech packing tape!

The Crud fenders come apart, making them very handy for packing in an S&S case.

For bikes that really don't have clearance, there is the option of SKS Race Blades. My inexpensive fixie fits into this category. If I was willing to use a narrower tire, I could probably use the Crud Fenders, but given the road conditions around here, I'm using the fattest tires the frame can take - 25mm. But since this is my lightweight fixie, it's OK. If I really need full fenders, I'll use a different bike! They do mount up quickly and provide enough coverage to keep my backside clean, but they are fiddly and I do have to readjust the front one lots to keep it from rubbing!

I tried the new SKS Raceblade long model, but found several limitations, the primary one being a max tire width of 23mm. I had missed this detail before I ordered them.

The mounting hardware at the brake goes under the brake, so if you don't have enough clearance at the brake for the Crud fenders, these won't work either. Back to that 23mm tire limitation.

The pictogram instructions and this video from SKS show removing the springs in the QR skewers. I wasn't very happy with that idea.

The same plastic QR is used at the brake mounting points. It works well there, and makes popping the fender off super easy.

For our commuting bikes, we use full coverage fenders and big fat tires. I have an old set of SKS/Esge chromoloplast fenders in gold, along with a fat studded tire on the front. Buddy Flaps complete the package.

The A.N.T. sports lovely painted to match fenders from Velo Orange.

This geared bike sees a bit more trail abuse in snowy conditions. The original metal front fender died in action and was replaced by a flexier but more durable plastic model.

And finally the tandem has full SKS fenders and Angel of the Highway Buddy Flaps

Why Tandem?

2012-02-01T10:50:00.001-05:00

I always enjoy the chance to tell the story of how I used a tandem to snare Fear Rothar. We were both participating in a cross-USA bike tour on single bikes, but due to our speed difference, we rarely saw each other on the road.

We had met a year before when Fear Rothar came from Ireland to do BMB in 1992. We had emailed occasionally, and he was the first person I told when I decided to do PAC Tour the next year. I really didn't remember that he had previously told me of the same plans. Whether it was fate or accident, or some plan on my sub-conscious' part, we ended up on the same trip.

His roommate and my roommate were friends and the three of them ended up riding together lots. But they were fast, and I was a middle of the pack rider. We figured out later that apparently my roommate was clueless, as I talked about that cute Irishman she was riding with, and he kept suggesting she get me to join them for dinner, but she just didn't make the connection.

Fortunately the organizers (Lon Haldeman and Susan Notorangelo) had brought along a few tandems. They even put up with fanbois requests from participants to ride. It was an absolute thrill for me to get to stoke for Pete Penseyres one day early in the trip. I looked at the routes and terrain and plotted to ask Lon Haldeman for a chance to stoke with him on a nice rolling day in Wisconsin, where I knew the tandem would be a great advantage. And I had such a great time that morning that I didn't want to give up the big bike and asked Lon if I could use it as bait - uh I mean - if I could get Fear Rothar to captain for me, if I could keep the tandem for the afternoon. Having ridden with Fear Rothar himself, Lon had confidence enough in his bike handling skills to hand over this very nice custom made tandem.

I approached Fear Rothar at lunch with the suggestion. He was a bit hesitant at first, having had a hard ride that morning, but warmed to the idea. Various folks started to offer him tips for tandeming, but I said to let me. I'd done this before. I used to show up on club rides with my own tandem, and troll for captains. Captains are actually pretty easy to find and train. Stoking takes all the talent, since you have to give up control and not steer.

I had him do a quick spin around the parking lot without me. I simply told him it was like riding a loaded touring bike (I knew he had toured), but the luggage contributes. Then we headed out of the lot, down a long hill, around a right hand bend, where he leaned so hard I practically scraped my elbow! OK, not literally, but it felt like a good hard lean. Then we headed up the next climb. Oh yes we were still in that rolling terrain of Wisconsin, so we had plenty of hills. I caught my breath and then asked if he leaned his touring bike that hard. He said, "Yes"... OK... We stood on the next climb and had the most wonderful afternoon riding along and chatting. A few days later, we borrowed the tandem again and at the end of that ride, we planned our first dinner-date together.

After the trip, he headed back to Ireland, but a few months later, I showed up in Dublin with a tandem, and we toured for a week. It wasn't long after that I lured him back to the US, to become my regular tandem partner.

Aw, aren't tandems romantic?

They can also be lots of fun and really fast too. One of the things I love most about tandeming is speed. We absolutely fly down hills, and on the flats and especially on rolling terrain, where momentum means you can fly up little rollers. Climbing is considered to be more difficult, but a well coordinated tandem team can climb amazingly well.

Our experience is that the tandem averages out our climbing speeds. So on a pure hillclimb, our time will be about half way between the times we'd post individually. For rolling terrain, we get a great advantage from momentum and the extra power, and can at times fly along much faster than Fear Rothar would alone.

Touring is also nice on the tandem, since the extra weight is much less noticeable on the tandem than on single bikes. There is also half the carrying capacity, so ultimately we actually pack lighter than we might on single bikes. The disadvantage is not having a moving model for photos. Unless we are traveling with friends, our photos usually have one or the other holding up the tandem. When we ride single bikes, we can at least get shots of each other on the move!

But with the tandem, neither is ever left waiting for the other or struggling to catch the other. Despite our differences in speed and power, we ride along together, talking and having fun.

We aren't exclusively tandem riders. And even on the tandem, we occasionally swap partners. A couple of years ago I handed over stoking duties to Kristen Gohr so they could set the Mt Washington record.

We do lots of single bike riding as well, and our two big trips last year were actually on single bikes. After years of touring on the tandem, thanks to ease of travel with couplers, we finally got coupled singles.

We tend to use the tandem for really cold rides. Since one can work as hard or easy as one chooses, and still be together, it is easier to stay warm in bitter conditions when riding the tandem. I also get a nice windscreen! We also like to take then tandem if a suggestion is made that it's not a good tandem ride - just to prove folks wrong. We put together a team of three tandems for the Rapha East Northeast Gentleman's Race in 2011, and showed them exactly what a group of strong well-coordinated tandems can do.

Tandems aren't for everyone. You have to want to ride and work together. You have to totally trust each other. You have to willing to give and take. But if you do, there is such an amazing reward.

There are lots more tips for tandem riding in this article on our website.

Inspiration

2012-01-27T13:38:00.000-05:00

Back when I was in high school, I did a week long backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail (AT). It was not terribly long, but a good challenge for me at the time. And it was just enough to whet my appetite for backpacking in the future.

I had never done anything like it before, and had to prepare from scratch. I used a large part of my allowance for the year to buy boots and pay for the trip. I borrowed a backpack from a friend, who had done the trip the year before. She had raved about how much fun it was, and encouraged me to go. I had my own sleeping bag - all kids do, right? In retrospect, I should have tried to borrow a proper one. The rest of my gear consisted of shorts, a pair of jeans and a couple of t-shirts, pretty simple.

We would also be carrying some group gear, so we were to only use half our packs for our own gear, since we'd also need to add food, or pots and pans etc. We used two person tents and each had a tent-mate. I can't remember whether the tents were supplied or if we worked this out between us. I definitely did not have my own tent.

I remember getting the letter with the training tips and packing list beforehand. One of the tips for preparation was to walk lots and to walk lots with the backpack on and wearing our boots. One suggestion was to fill the pack with cans of diced peaches. I think I substituted Campbelll's soup, since we only had fresh/frozen peaches at home! I was quite the site, walking around the neighborhood wearing this backpack, filled with cans of soup.

There was no mention of high-tech gear. Goretex and Polartec all came later. I'm not sure much was said about avoiding cotton. I did have wool socks with some sort of liner, and I used a lot of moleskin that week. I don't remember any emphasis on lightweight stuff, although by the end of the trip, I had decided jeans weren't a great choice, since they never dry out after getting soaked, and I sure would have liked a nice warm lightweight sleeping bag like some of the other folks had.

We did about 10-12 miles a day. We actually had two groups of hikers, each with about 15 students and a couple of adult leaders. The two groups drove to opposite ends of our planned route, and hiked toward each other, swapping car keys in the middle. We hiked through Rhododendron Gap in full bloom. This was a massive thicket of 8 and 10 foot high rhododendron bushes that seemingly went on forever. I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life. We also had some amazing mountaintop vistas combined with some thigh burning ascents and knee-torturing descents.

One morning at breakfast, our leader read out the description for the day, describing one uphill section as a trail that was passable by jeep. And I still remember everyone taking photos of the broken down jeep half-way up that trail! Passable by jeep indeed!

I also remember getting quite chilly in my inadequate sleeping bag, and having to put on soaking wet jeans in the morning after the previous day of rain. But I had such a great time that I signed up for the trip again the next year. We did a different section of the trail the next year, and I was hooked enough at that point to buy some of my own equipment and planned to do lots more hiking and backpacking in the future.

But my story today isn't about how I got hooked on the outdoors. It's about this 1954 Cadillac Eldorado that I spotted coming home from a bike ride earlier this week.

On one of of those AT trips, we were hiking along when the skinniest person that I had ever seen, went zipping past us. Our leader described him as looking like death warmed up! I think we were in southern Virginia, heading north. He had a very minimal pack, and was moving rapidly. I didn't see him smile. I think I just saw the blur of the bottom of his shoes as he seemingly sprinted past our group.

A short while later, another fellow caught up to our group. He was friendly and slowed to chat with our leader for a while. He was a through-hiker, doing the entire AT from Georgia to Maine, in one go. He'd take most of the summer to complete his trek. Today, when people do multiple 1200km bike rides in a year and 50 people climb Mt Everest each season, AT through-hikers are a dime a dozen. But back then, I don't think it was so common. Most of the folks in my group, who were well and thoroughly exhausted at the end of each day, were duly impressed with anyone who was doing this all summer long.

Then he told us about the skinny guy. Skinny guy was from New York City, and despised the outdoors and hiking and pretty much any type of physical activity. But his father had promised him a Cadillac Eldorado if he did the entire Appalachian Trail. So he did a small amount of research - no internet in those days - and came up with a minimalist approach.

There are lean-to shelters at various intervals along the AT. The rule is that through-hikers get priority, allowing them to travel lighter - without a tent. Of course skinny guy was making use of the lean-to shelters. These two through hikers had met at a shelter the night before and had hiked together a bit that day. Skinny guy's one concession to weight was a listing of the shelters and distances between them. He had determined he could make a shelter about 10 miles further up the trail that day, and was on a mission when he passed us. It was pretty late in the day when we saw him, but friendly guy was pretty confident he would make it, both to the lean-to and to the end.

But the part of the story that really stuck with me was that skinny guy had determined that he could save a lot of weight and live off the land, in part by cooking and eating stinging nettles. He would soak them to remove the stinging effect and then boil them. It was rumored that it was a bit like cooked spinach, providing some amount of protein and vitamins. Although my memory of skinny guy was that he didn't look like he was a diet high in protein!

I've thought about skinny guy occasionally, when I have some big challenge and need some motivation. I can't imagine doing what he did - a couple of months of misery for a car, even a Cadillac Eldorado. But these days I hear about all sorts of motivation and inspiration that make me pause. The news is full of stories about performance enhancing drugs in big money sports. But those drugs are also being used where the prize is just your name in the paper, or a medal. What is the motivation?

I'm not sure how proud I could be of a medal I got through cheating. I recently took part in a contest that included a public vote on facebook, through their *like* system. The top prize was a bike, with a some smaller runner-up prizes. One of the competitors apparently bought his likes. Yes, there is a company that provides a service, where for a fee, they provide you with some number of Facebook likes. Fortunately my motivation for the contest was to have fun, do some rides and take some pictures. No prizes for me, but i did some nice riding, had some great food (no twice-boiled stinging nettles), and took a few photos for posterity.

But what gets me out in the rain, or cold, or doing a really hard climb, or a really long day, or through some really drab scenery? Is it the fame, the glory, or just to have something to write about in the blog :-) I'm not so sure but I know it is not me seeking a reward like a car or even a bike.

There's a well know story of a Zen Buddhist Master who saw his students riding their bicycles and asked them, “Why do you ride your bikes?”

“I ride it for my health and exercise.” one said trying to impress his master.
    “Ah … then you will live to an old age.” the master said.
“I return from the market and use it to carry my load.” said another student.
    “Ah... then you will not have a crooked back like me in your old age.” said the master
“I ride my bike to ride my bike.” said the other.
    “Ah... I am your student!” the master replied.

So while I won't claim to be a zen master, I agree with the sentiment. I ride my bike to ride my bike.

So tell me what inspires you?

At Least it's Not Raining

2012-01-23T20:47:00.001-05:00

-Forbidden Topics of Conversation on Bike Rides-

As you may know from reading a previous blog entry, I like my bike rides to include lots of conversation. But there is one subject I just will not tolerate being discussed during any ride, and that's threatening weather. RAIN is a 4 letter word. There is simply no disputing that. And it is just imprudent to discuss rain out loud (or even think about it) during any bike ride.

Bring on discussions of politics and religion. By all means, we should get our heart rates elevated occasionally on a bike ride. The more controversial the better. And don't hold back when talking about your favorite sports team, especially if they aren't local. Although don't expect me or Fear Rothar to have a clue whether the team you are talking about is in a sport with a large round ball, a small round ball, a large odd shaped ball, or a puck.

As cyclists, of course, most of us can chat away all day long about the pros and cons of carbon-fiber anything or integrated shifting or 1/4 inch ball bearings, as well as the best technique for blowing one's nose on the move, or how frequently one needs to pee and what drugs are the most effective at reducing that frequency. Hmm, the final one might actually be more an indication of the age of most of my riding buddies.

But we absolutely must not discuss weather. How many times have you been on a ride with threatening skies, when some fool utters, "At least it's not raining", shortly followed by the crack of thunder, a bolt of lightening and a torrential downpour? Sadly this has happened to me far more times than I can count. I do very distinctly remember the first time it happened. John and I were leading a ride into southern NH that we named, "It's a Long Way From Tipperary" for what should be obvious reasons. Just to set the mood, we arranged for dreary Irish skies. We were about a third of the way into the ride. Clouds were hanging low from the weight of all that moisture, but they were hanging onto it quite well, until our now-former friend, Bill said, "At least it's not raining." It wasn't 60 seconds before torrents of water were washing down the road. I've never seen such a display of the ill-temper by the weather-gods. Bill learned his lesson and has been allowed to ride with us again, but he knows not to utter the R-word ever again during a ride.

It happens again and again. Various friends refuse to believe that simply saying the R-word can actually conjure up a storm. But it has been proven causative repeatedly. Well, except when that its the actual goal... I do recall on one brutally hot sunny day, standing in the middle of the road, and screaming the forbidden phrase over and over. It just got hotter! The weather-gods can be vindictive.

But just let rain be unwelcome, and let one of your riding companions start talking about how the weather is holding, or repeatedly saying the dreaded R-word, and soon, very soon, the rain will come. Go ahead, test it out... just not when you are riding with me, OK?

Also should the sun start to poke out on a cloudy day, the mere verbal acknowledgement of sunshine or shadows, often will scare it away. Just appreciate it... silently. Stopping to apply sunscreen is likely to bring on biblical flooding. Fear Rothar and I almost felt responsible for major floods in Europe in 2002 when we bought a tube of 50 SPF sunscreen. We called it cloud-genie-in-a-bottle. As soon as we opened it, the clouds formed and it rained for weeks!

And it doesn't stop at rain. It's any discussion of weather conditions. One must also never talk about an anticipated tailwind. The joker who says in my presence, "At least when we turn around, it will be a tailwind. " will suffer my wrath, when the wind-gods show how fickle they are, and turn on us!

So next time you find yourself in a heated political discussion, and someone suggests changing to a less controversial subject, like ... say ... the weather, remember my rule. Weather may only be discussed in the past tense, once everyone is safely home, including those who rode to the start! Best to wait until the day after!

Incidentally, as proof, the mere fact of my typing out this article, repeatedly spelling out the 4 letter word, and the offending phrases, caused rain to fall here. Fear Rothar just rode home from work in pouring rain. Shame on me!

OK, for real this time...

2012-01-20T12:30:00.000-05:00

Yes, I must live under a rock. I don't watch reality television - so I'm not terribly current on the whole public vote-for-me thing. I just signed up for facebook to get some photos from a friend last summer. But we have had the website for a while, and I would occasionally get a query from someone asking if we had a mailing list or a way to notify folks of updates. I finally realized that blogging would be the best way to 1) get me to post photos from trips and rides in a more timely manner and 2) allow folks to subscribe or get notified when we have something new. So we started the blog.

It was quite timely as the Rapha Festive 500 - Ride to Redemption came soon after, and gave me something to write about for a while, and provided some inspiration for using the new camera, as well as a chance to possibly win some swag.

So we came up with a funky theme for our rides, based on the name of the challenge - Ride to Redemption. We started by riding to Redemption Rock. But being a bit cheeky, we continued by riding to Brimstone, Purgatory, World's End and other similarly themed spots. We had some fun, took a lot of pictures, learned a bit more about facebook, strava, and blogging, and logged a lot of kilometers in the process.

If you haven't seen the earlier blog entries and don't know what I'm talking about, check out our Festive 500 page.

So after all that, we made their short list, which the grew to a long list, but we are still on it. So now we are seeking your support so we might win a pair of socks or something. Facebook users, please go to our photo on Rapha's Festive 500 gallery on Facebook between now and Friday 27th January, and like it.

And if you don't do facebook, here's a great excuse to start!

Why I Love to Ride in the Winter

2012-01-18T19:21:00.001-05:00

I do love crisp winter rides. Although I could have passed on the gale force winds today...

But once we got into more sheltered areas, and especially once we started heading home with that strong wind at our backs, we were better able to appreciate the deep blue sky and sunshine that makes winter rides so nice.

Bob selected a route that took us past the wind turbines on top of Mt Wachusett. But apparently the wind was blowing so hard that the turbines had been disabled for the day.

We had a short section of dirt, with a light coating of ice, but we managed to all make it through upright.

We took a break at the ski center to warm up a bit with a fabulous lunch inside the lovely heated restaurant, and when that still hadn't helped Ira's toes, we resorted to stronger measures. We climbed Justice Hill!

35F and Sunny

2012-01-17T23:18:00.000-05:00

We finally got some snow in eastern Massachusetts. There is still not enough to use the cross-country skis, but enough to prompt me to mount a studded tire on front of the Green Queen (aka my green Cielo by Chris King). It has been amazingly mild this year and this is definitely the latest I have have ridden into winter without studs.

The Green Queen is my nominal commuting bike. John calls it my 50 year old hammer - with two new handles and three new heads. I've had the bike for 18 years, and over the years I have replaced almost everything except the Phil Wood Fixed hub. Yes, even the frame has been replaced.

My commuter bike started life as custom Ted Wojcik cyclocross frame spec'd to get clearance for fat studded tires, with rack and fender eyelets. Sadly when I mounted the fat studded tire and fender, I discovered a bit of toe overlap. I put up with this for many years until, after all those years of abuse from winter salt and such, I noticed a bit of paint bubbling near the bottom bracket (a sure sign of internal rust). I used this as an excuse to replace the frame with one that didn't have TCO.

I spotted the Cielo frame a few years ago in Richmond at NAHBS. One of the big appeals was the lack of TCO in the small frame size. It also had all the features I look for in a commuting bike, like horizontal dropouts and fender and rack eyelets. You may not realize that horizontal (front facing) dropouts work better than track-ends (rear facing) for a fixed gear bike with fenders, until the first time you try to take out your rear wheel to repair a flat tire. I practically had to remove a fender once on a bike with track-ends, so if I want fenders with a fixie, I either go for front facing horizontal dropouts or use an eccentric hub like the ENO with vertical dropouts.

As I mentioned above, I have a vintage Phil Wood flip-flop hub, which is currently laced to a Sun CR18. I'm trying hard to wear this rim out, so I can replace it with one that is easier for mounting/removing tires. You may be getting the idea that I have a lot of punctures on this bike, but that is not really the case, thanks to the big cushy tires that I can fit into the frame. But as a commuting bike that gets used lots in foul weather, when I do have a flat, I like it to be as little hassle as possible. Currently I use an ancient Avocet 32mm tire on the rear and a Schwalbe 37mm studded tire on the front.

The front wheel has a Schmidt generator hub, proving an endless source of power for my Supernova headlight and taillight. I also have a B+M D-Toplight battery taillight and plenty of reflective stuff on the bike, rims and spokes.

The bike sports ancient SKS gold colored chromoplast fenders. I love the gold color. They have some rockin' Angel of the Highway mudflaps from Buddy Flaps, which often gets me a cheery greeting from passing motorists.

I recently installed a very elegant Middleburn crank, with a single splined chainring.

The brakes are old Paul's NeoRetro cantilevers mated to short reach Cane Creek levers, with a handy quick release in the lever. The bars are my favorite narrow TTT Morphe bars - no longer made, but I stockpiled a few when I could.

A Tubus Fly rack enables me to carry an Ortlieb pannier (or panniers) full of gear, like work clothes and laptop. I also have a Topeak Morph pump, along with a couple of spare tubes, a quick patch kit, tire levers, allen keys and screwdriver.

I've commuted on this bike for many years. I did get a Bike Friday Tikit when I worked downtown, but this is really my preferred and most used commuter. I love the simple maintenance of a fixed gear, especially for all the mucky conditions that I ride in. And the fat tires are great for Metro-Boston's less than pristine roads.

Today was our first real snow, but the roads were clear (of snow but still wet) when I headed out. Thanks to my worth-their-weight-in-gold-fenders, I stayed comfy all day. The sun even came out and made a lovely shadow!

Social Riding

2012-01-15T20:43:00.002-05:00

While the weather holds this winter, I will continue to lead what I call a social ride on Tuesdays out of Ride Studio Cafe in Lexington, MA. This is a ride that starts and ends with a coffee, covers some quiet scenic roads and usually includes a lunch stop. We ride at a Goldilocks pace - not too fast, not too slow, just right! (If you're in the area and have Tuesdays free, please come join us.)

So what exactly is a social ride? Recently a conversation erupted on the email list of my local recreational club about riding etiquette. I was rather surprised by some of the opinions expressed about what makes a good club/social ride. But I suppose more to the point is whether a recreational club ride is a social ride. In the case of this club, the word social is very much part of the club charter. When I go on club rides, I am looking for a social ride.

So I thought I'd share my thoughts on social riding here on my own little soapbox :-)

First and foremost, a social ride is not a race***. If you want to race, fill out the entry form, pay your fee, pin your number on, warm up, race, and then go stand on the podium, and collect your medal and prize money. This doesn't mean that you can't occasionally sprint for a town line on your social ride, but don't assume that the rest of the group will join you or be impressed by your athletic prowess as you raise your hands in victory. I have yet to see newspaper headlines proclaiming any winner of the Concord Town Line Sprint*. I do know of plenty of people who treat a weekly Tuesday evening club ride like the world championships, but I honestly don't know anyone who is impressed that someone else won it.

For events with a large number of riders, ideally groups should split into smaller social groups to keep things at a manageable size, which will vary a bit depending on conditions. On a large club ride in a busy suburban area, folks might start out in small groups of maybe 8-10 riders according to pace. But often riders will see groups heading out and think everyone is leaving them to ride alone, so they jump in and the small group becomes large. Experienced riders will hang back, knowing that it's not a race and there's no need to start (or finish) first! They know there is potential to make new friends and possibly mentor new riders.

Many of my rides are with old friends, which doesn't just mean friends who have AARP cards, but rather friends I've had for a while. Some are with new friends. I often go out with a small group of regular riding buddies. We all know each other pretty well. We chat away about anything and everything. Sometimes I meet new people. I usually start by asking how they got into cycling and about some big ride they may have done. It goes from there. Many of those new friends soon become old friends.
Since we've established that a social ride not a race, it should be ridden at a steady pace. Race tactics really have no place on a social ride. I am surprised that some people just don't understand that sudden surges in speed do not actually constitute a steady pace. No one else is impressed that you can surge around the group to reach the top of the rise first, especially when you slow down to ask about the next turn. Either ride with the group or don't.

Half-wheeling is where one rider keeps pushing the pace up by riding half a wheel in front of the rider at his side. The first time that I saw this term was many years ago in a column from one of my favorite cycling writers, Maynard Hershon. Maynard says it's just not nice, so don't do it. 'Nuf said there.

Since the point of a social ride is to be social and have a conversation, this means riding side by side when reasonable. A few weeks ago, I was on a club ride and tried to pull up alongside another rider to chat, but each time that I pulled along beside, just as I was about to introduce myself and start the conversation, the rider sped up, presumably because if I could come along beside, he must be going too slow. But when I did not subsequently sprint to close the gap and fall in behind, he resumed the previous pace and we all came back together. I finally managed to let the rider know that I was trying to be social, not competitive. As we talked, he indicated he was new to club riding, and wasn't actually sure about the etiquette. So I said that as long as the roads were not busy, it was much more pleasant to ride along side by side, talking. The rest of the small group did the same thing, with folks riding side by side, in line. We did this for the remainder of the ride, except on a couple of busy stretches, where the whole group dropped down to single file, resuming side by side riding when back on quieter roads and where safe and reasonable. The time passed much faster as we chatted away. I'll even venture to say that the hills probably seemed easier too. If I want to go ride myself, I'll just go ride by myself. I do the club rides for company. If I want competition, well... see above... I'll fill out the entry form...

Once a small group has formed, stronger riders may need adjust their pace to keep a mixed speed group together. More experienced riders will graciously pass on tips to the new-comers, all the while being aware of the difference between being a know-it-all and a good teacher.

When you have a group of 8 to 10 riders, riding along in a group, side by side, 4 to 5 deep, it is important to ride steady and to alert riders behind to things they cannot see, like potholes, branches, ice, dogs, walkers, etc. When you see a pothole, point to the side where the hole will be as you go around it. Calling out, "Hole, right" as you go to the left of the hole, will also alert the riders behind who may not see your hand signal. It's also good to indicate rough pavement or tracks with voice and hand signals, as well as slowing and stopping.

All the usual pace-line riding etiquette is appropriate. Maintain a steady speed. Don't speed up when you get to the front. Avoid sudden stops. Don't blow your nose (or spit) on other riders - move out or give some indication that phlegm is being ejected! If a rider has moved out and is waving you forward, it may be for this purpose.

If a call goes out for ice or angled tracks, riders may need space to maneuver. This usually means the group spreads out a bit. Do not come up beside a rider trying to cross badly angled tracks squarely. Do not pass a rider who is trying to negotiate through ice or slush.

Indicating turns is also critical. I prefer to use right hand for right turns and left hand for left turns. The old left arm up for a right turn is necessary in a car (where no one would see your outstretched right arm inside the car), but not a bike. But try not to poke out the eye of the person riding next to you!

Calling out "Car back", will let riders in front know that a car is overtaking, but unless riders are in the middle of the lane, and clearly oblivious, it is not necessary to repeat it twenty times.

A nice aspect of social rides is that folks are considerate of each other. This means that a group stops for mechanical problems, clothing adjustments, bio-breaks, and even photos as appropriate. Riders help each other out with the loan of a forgotten tool or tips on how to get a stubborn tire on or off, or maybe with the loan of a jacket, or even the offer to carry something when there is a space issue. If you've ridden along with a group for 95 miles on a century, it is considered bad form to sprint when the person doing all the navigating suddenly has a flat tire. Karma will haunt you for this.

Unless you live in the desert, or a truly dry area where roads are never ever wet, fenders are one of the nicest things you can do for your riding companions. Even if it's not raining, roads may be wet from snow melt, or run-off from garden sprinklers. There is nothing worse that riding in the rooster tail of a fender-less rider. I hate having to floss grit from my teeth. Even if your bike has tight clearances, you can get fenders like the Crud Roadracers or SKS Raceblades. Oh, and they'll keep crud off you too!

Finally keep your lights considerate on a group ride. Flashing or exhibitionism, is usually not considered socially acceptable. So when in a group, if you have your lights on, please use the steady mode. (This includes on busy bike paths too).

Please mount your taillights so they aim straight back, not up into the eyes of the following rider. Lots of folks mount lights on seat stays and they end up angled upwards into the eyes of a following rider and alerting low-flying airplanes. Please make sure they are aimed straight back. Also the lower a taillight is mounted, the less likely it is to shine directly into the eyes of a following rider. Maybe it's because I'm a pixie, and my friends are all giants, but their seat post mounted lights tend to be right at the wrong height for me.

Also I don't understand why anyone uses a flashing headlight. You see... you don't see... you see... you don't see... But for some reason, lots of people that I meet on the bike path use this less-than-friendly-to-fellow-path-users mode. Please just say no to flashing!

As I said early on, a bit of spirited riding is not out of the question. However, if you get to the top of the hill or the town line first, it doesn't mean you are better looking. Have fun and go for it, but the display of peacock feathers is just that.

Finally the best riders will make everyone feel that their company is enjoyed, rather than endured. If your friend says, "Go on, don't wait for me", consider that you might be half-wheeling or not showing appreciation for your friend's companionship. Did you come out to ride and enjoy time with your friend or to fuel your testosterone poisoning**?

*Yes, I do occasionally sprint for the Concord Town Line, and sometimes even slip up and try for victory or a podium spot in the local, weekly, Thursday morning world championships!
**Yes, females, including yours truly, can suffer from testosterone poisoning, also known as peacock syndrome - the need to show off.
***I also occasionally enter races.

Vote early and often

2012-01-12T22:16:00.002-05:00

For those of you who do facebook...

Seeking support for our effort at Redemption - Rapha style. There will be a public vote to decide the top three for the Rapha Festive 500 on Rapha's facebook page on Friday ~~13th January~~, postponed to the 20th January.

Vote early and often!

And if you don't do facebook, here's a great excuse to start!

If you haven't seen the earlier blog entries and don't know what I'm talking about, check out our Festive 500 page.

My Love/Hate Relationship with Bib Tights

2012-01-12T12:21:00.000-05:00

I must admit to having a love/hate relationship with bib shorts and tights. When I first starting cycling, I was thrilled to find women's bib shorts. I gave Dawn Urbanek lots of business back when she was making some lovely stylish women's bibs. One of the advantages of bibs is the lack of a binding waistband, which for me, seems to add pressure on a full bladder! The disadvantage, especially for women, is that they add a little hassle, when the bladder is full and in need of emptying.

OK, maybe if I didn't start out every ride with coffee...
Or if I kept my rides short...
Or if I only rode in temperatures where jackets aren't needed...
Or if I didn't want access to jersey pockets...

Then I wouldn't have to deal with running out into the woods and removing jerseys, jackets, etc, and then freezing while I'm just trying to pee. It doesn't help that cold weather seems to make me pee more. So at some point, I gave up bibs, just for the convenience of quick stops.

But bibs are great for warmth, especially on the lower back, where they eliminate any chance of a gap between the top and bottom. I am amazed when I see a rider whose shorts or pants don't quite meet the jersey or jacket, leaving exposed flesh on the lower back. In the summer, this can result in a small, but nasty sunburn! But in the winter, it has to lead to lower back pain from the chill. Suspenders can help keep the shorts/tights, pants up, but they have the same pitfalls as bibs.

My catch-22. One thing that has helped me, is finding shorts with a less binding or wider waistband. It can be tough to find the magic combination of enough elastic to stay put, but not so much to annoy. But in the winter, as I add tights or pants to the mix, I either get too many waistbands, or suffer the ride down factor. So I end up going back to bibs.

I haven't really solved my dilemma, but I do really like my new Rapha ladies bib tights enough to put up with a little hassle factor these days. The ladies version addresses the other issue many women face with suspenders or men's bibs, eliminating straps in awkward places. They have no chamois, so are won over shorts, meaning I can wear them several times between washing. I do not like tights with a chamois for exactly this reason. They have a reinforced seat, which is exactly where I usually wear out tights or pants. Mine have a nice big white stripe, on one calf, which adds the visibility from behind. As a UK product, I am a bit surprised that the stripe is on the left side as it is most visible where folks drive on the right, but it works for me in the US! There is also a bit of reflective piping for added visibility when riding after dark.

I still have my love/hate relationship, and unless I get bladderback surgery - it will stay that way.

BTW, for even more info on clothes for winter riding, see this article on the website.

Knees and Elbows!

2012-01-07T17:34:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I thought I'd need to apply some sunscreen to the backs of my calves today, figuring I would likely be in knee warmers. I guess I forgot what 70F feels like. Hopefully I didn't get sunburned on all that exposed flesh today. And hopefully no one was blinded by the glare off the snow white legs. Given what I heard about conditions in the Boston area today, I might have needed some sunscreen there too. So I shouldn't get too much hate mail for showing off pictures of knees from my ride today.

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy!

Knees and elbows!

Is that the wee little giant taking shelter from the sunshine?

Never fear. I will back back in Boston Monday afternoon, and will return to regular programming including pictures with neck warmers.

Sunny and 65F

2012-01-06T20:18:00.001-05:00

John was pulling a shot of espresso Tuesday night as I was reading aloud the forecast for the weekend: 65F and sunny. It didn't take him long to realize I made good on my threat to redeem some frequent flier miles and head off somewhere warm and sunny! My Dad's 83rd birthday is next Tuesday, so I decided to head down to NC to help him celebrate. Really it had nothing to do with the weather. Or the desire to ride without a neck warmer.

Notice the lack of neck warmer and headband!

Those are fingerless gloves

the wee giant

Tomorrow, sunscreen will be applied to my calves!

Shoes!

2012-01-04T23:20:00.000-05:00

There are times that it seems I live under a rock. Credit the lack of television. I seem to miss out on a bit of pop-culture. But thanks to the internet, I know there was a character on TV called Carrie Bradshaw, who seems to really like shoes. From what I can tell, I'm not in her league or anywhere close, but I will admit to being known in some cycling circles for my brown leather cycling shoes. I do love these shoes. They are from a company in the UK called Dromarti. I first saw them in a UK magazine several years ago and lusted after them. Then I saw them in person at NAHBS in Richmond a couple of years ago and had to have them. Sadly they didn't have any in my size at the show, so I couldn't get them on the spot, but I ordered a pair as soon as I got home. They are absolutely gorgeous, especially when freshly polished. And to confuse metaphors, they fit like a glove. They are the most comfortable pair of shoes I own - and given the amount of time I spend in them, that's a very good thing. I've abused them a bit with rain and sun and mud, and they handle it just fine, responding quite well to a little brown shoe polish. However, I have called the line at salt and snow. They are pretty well ventilated, so are great for summer, but I have a dedicated pair of winter cycling boots.

Racing up Mt Equinox with my Dromarti shoes

A little dirty and dusty after D2R2

January came to New England and so did winter... well sort of.... Cold Temperatures have teased us a few times. We had a strange pattern of cold, then mild, then cold, then mild, but a few days ago, cold put on a stronger show of force and has stuck around. What we are missing is snow! These are the boots I should be using at this time of year. But we don't have any snow!

So instead of x-c skiing, I am bundling up for bike rides. Thank goodness for my Lake Winter Cycling boots. I bought mine a few years ago and bragged to John about not even needing overshoes until the temps approach 0 Fahrenheit . He hesitated for a while, but finally broke the piggy bank and is now a convert as well. They are by far the most popular winter cycling shoe among Boston area cyclists. They are pricey, but if you ride in proper winter, they are one of the best investments you can make. Mine are roomy enough for my thick wool socks and insoles. They have a nice thick sole and good insulation and, of course, no ventilation.

In most conditions, I use them alone. But combined with toe warmers and overshoes, they have handled the coldest conditions here in Boston, including temps with minus signs!

So until shorts and brown leather shoe weather returns, and while the snow continues to boycott us, my Lake Winter Cycling boots will be getting plenty of use.

Dear Rapha,

2012-01-02T14:15:00.001-05:00

John and I lost some weight doing the Festive 500. We need new, smaller clothes. Please send the following in size small for Pamela to replace the now too big and worn out items

before Redemption

after Redemption

ladies small shorts
ladies small winter tights
ladies small rain jacket

and for John

before Redemption

after Redemption

men's medium shorts
men's large tights
winter hat (he claims his head is smaller now)

Thank you for challenging us but now nothing fits!

January 1 - Restrospective on Redemption

2012-01-01T01:15:00.002-05:00

There will be a public vote to decide the top three for the Rapha Festive 500 on Rapha's facebook page on Friday the 20th January.

Rapha ran this crazy challenge for the last week of 2011 called the Festive 500 - Ride to Redemption. The challenge was to ride 500 km between December 23 and December 31. We took the challenge quite literally and kicked it off by Riding to Redemption Rock on December 24, and tried to stick with a somewhat irreverent take on the redemption theme throughout the week. We invited others to join and had some company along the way. The challenge provided great motivation for Pamela to make use of her new camera. Here are a few highlights from the week. Click on the daily blog entries for complete stories and many more photos.

We had great company and help along the way. Our riding companions during the challenge logged 2740 kms at well, so maybe we should really get to count 4182 kilometers worth of redemption.

Grand Total - Pamela - 838 km, John - 609 km

Dec 23 - Seeking out Redemption Centers
Pamela - 55 km, John 30 km

Dec 24 - Ride to Redemption Rock
Pamela and John - 164 km

Dec 25 - Fire and Brimstone for the Unredeembale
Pamela - 75km, John - 75km

Dec 26 - Disgrace and Redemption
Pamela 96km, John - 100km

Dec 27 - Paradise Lost Lake

Pamela 130km, John 44km

Dec 28 - From Purgatory to Paradise

Pamela 110km, John 51km

Dec 29 - A Pagan Celebration

Pamela 105 km, John 28 km

Dec 30 - World's End

Pamela 74 km, John 87 km

Dec 31 - Recuperating from Redemption
Pamela 29 km, John 29 km

There will be a public vote to decide the top three for the Rapha Festive 500 on Rapha's facebook page on Friday the 20th January.

December 31 - Recuperating from Chasing Redemption

2011-12-31T16:26:00.001-05:00

Total - Pamela - 838 km, John - 609 km

Dec 31 - Pamela 29 km, John 29 km

Dec 30 - Pamela 74 km, John 88 km

Dec 29 - Pamela 105 km, John 28 km

Dec 28 - Pamela 110km, John 51km

Dec 27 - Pamela 130km, John 44km

Dec 26 - Pamela 96km, John - 100km

Dec 25 - Pamela - 75km, John - 75km

Dec 24 - Pamela and John - 164 km

Dec 23 - Pamela - 55 km, John 30 km

Chasing Redemption is hard going, especially for someone with such a cheeky attitude.

So today, we decided to sleep in. Cocoa was also tired of getting up early and, for the first time ever, I had to make the bed around her!

MayorFixie, a fellow Ride Studio Cafe Denizen, agreed to ride out to the remote start and lead the planned ride from Framingham to Purgatory Chasm, after I came up with a long list of excuses for blowing it off.

well and truly redeemed already
one visit to Purgatory per week is enough
chain, tires, shorts (and legs) are worn out
car to transport bikes and bodies to remote start is out of gas
can't afford the food bill anymore
need a new size small Rapha Ladies Rain jacket, please!

But John and I decided to have one more go at finding Redemption a little closer to home. So we looked up our nearest Redemption Center on Google Maps and made our way there.

to discover that we really must be totally beyond redemption!

The week finished the way it began, a bit grey!

But we found our way to the mothership, otherwise known as Ride Studio Cafe, where MayorFixie reported that no one else showed any interest in Purgatory today.

And then feeling we really had earned it, John and I headed for Vicki Lee's

December 30 - World's End 2011-style

2011-12-30T23:11:00.000-05:00

Last May, we survived Harold Camping's predicted rapture and had a rapturous good time doing the East Coast Rapha Gentlemen's Race. Today, we rode to World's End and, yet again, it did not. We'll see what 12/21/2012 brings and whether the Mayans had it right. Maybe we'll plan to do this route again on that day. If I have to be somewhere when the world ends, this is as good a place as any - actually much better than most. It is an absolutely beautiful spot. I'm so glad it has been preserved and is maintained now by the Trustees of the Reservations.

We had a good crowd for the End of the World ride today. Jon, Donny, Bob, Gene, David, Rich, Frank, John and I had a glorious ride along the south shore coastline with lovely views of the Boston skyline. John, Jon and Donny took off at a brisk pace, while the rest of us enjoyed a more relaxed ride. This isn't to say, we didn't push ourselves. Noticing I was being a proper FixiePixie, riding my fixie, Bob kept proposing we climb up to various round towers we saw along the way. I cannot resist a round tower, especially on top of a hill.

Not to be outdone, the lads did a bit of rock climbing in the middle of their ride.

From Pemberton Point, we had a nice view of the Boston skyline, one I'm sure is spectacular on a clear day.

At the end, we explored the lovely tree-lined gravel carriage paths winding around the 4 large drumlins that make up World's End.

I just don't possess the vocabulary to do justice to the views today, so I'll have to let the pictures speak for me.

BTW, I gotta love strava, we stopped for almost an hour for lunch, and I still got QOM on a stretch of road which included that stop!

John surpassed his 500km goal today and I broke 500 miles! But we had company and help along the way. Our riding companions over the last 7 days logged 2660 kms at well, so maybe we should really get to count 4042 kilometers worth of redemption.

for all the photos from today...

Jon Lawrence/MayorFixie will be leading tomorrow's ride from Framingham to Purgatory Chasm, since we've decided we truly are beyond redemption, and a visit to Purgatory just won't help us. In addition to riding lots this week, I have driven more in one week than in the past three months! Weatherspark is telling me that riders who are out in the afternoon will likely get to make use of their rain gear. If you are planning to ride, please email Jon (jonathan dot lawrence at gmail dot com) so he will know to expect you.

We will let the car rest tomorrow and probably just ride over the Ride Studio Cafe to wish everyone there a Happy New Year and pick up some coffee beans.

We will also try to catch up on some of the stuff we've neglected this week while we've been in eat/ride/eat/ride/eat/ride/eat/blog/sleep mode. I think the cat wants some attention...

So far - Pamela - 809 km, John - 580 km

Dec 30 - Pamela 74 km, John 88 km

Dec 29 - Pamela 105 km, John 28 km

Dec 28 - Pamela 110km, John 51km

Dec 27 - Pamela 130km, John 44km

Dec 26 - Pamela 96km, John - 100km

Dec 25 - Pamela - 75km, John - 75km

Dec 24 - Pamela and John - 164 km

Dec 23 - Pamela - 55 km, John 30 km

December 29 - A Pagan Celebration

2011-12-29T21:14:00.001-05:00

Last week, when we came up with our list of Redemption Rides, we had a few obvious choices like Redemption Rock and the two Purgatory rides, but some of the others required a bit of literary license. I must admit Pagan Hill is one. It is actually Pegan Hill , but this, the highest spot in Natick, does so fit with the original meaning, that we call it Pagan Hill. As one of the local hill-climb training spots, it also seems like a natural place for a band of druids to cast spells that make cyclists dance up hills effortlessly.

When standing atop the hill, I can almost hear the three witches from Shakespeare's Macbeth, "Eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog..."

And today, I wouldn't have minded finding a boiling cauldron up there filled with hot chocolate.

We seem to be in a weird pattern of wild temperature swings. Last Thursday, I was riding with shorts, light jersey, leg and arm warmers and a vest. And my ventilated summer shoes! One of my riding companions tweeted a photo of her glove-less hands! Yesterday was 50F at dawn, but the Fahrenheits fled as the day wore on, and by this morning, their population was in the teens. Which is to say, it was actually far more seasonal than we've experienced most of this month.

Base-layer: shorts, Ibex merino wool crop top,
Ibex merino wool zipped turtleneck, Ibex merino wool leg warmers

Outer layer: Rapha ladies winter softshell, Ibex merino wool softshell pants

Extremities: Bridgedale wool socks, Lake winter cycling boots, Chiba overshoes,
Lake Mittens with handwarmer pocket,
Ibex merino wool neck warmer, OR windstopper skullcap, Louis Garneau Helmet cover,
Oakley Progressive Transitions glasses,
Zelig Cat!

This also seems to substantially reduce the number of cyclists willing to head out on a long ride. When planning rides in hard-core conditions, it does make sense to expect just hard-core riders to show up. My usual riding buddies were also resting up after the previous few days, so they could make it to World's End on Friday.

I've been riding a lot lately, so I need two breakfasts and two lunches and two dinners!

So there I am, having my cortado and scone at Ride Studio Cafe, when Roger and Jonathan arrived with their weightless bikes and fast legs. Fortunately they were kind and took mercy on this social pace rider, sporting a bike with couplers, generator lights, fenders, giant seat bag and handlebar bag, who also had the desire to stop for the occasional photo. Chip joined in part way through the ride and fell right in to the social pace. There were lots of stories about cyclo-cross and doing hill repeats on our feature climb. I did suggest they could go up and down a few times to wear themselves out, while I rested. But no one took the bait, and they continued to be kind, and to take it easy on me.

Jonathan, Roger and Chip at the base on Pegan Hill.

Jonathan, Chip and Roger at the top.

I have a new camera, a winter solstice gift from the Fear Rothar, who expressed a desire to appear less fuzzy on the blog. After our trip to Ireland, he observed that his photos, with me as the model, were all clear, where my pictures of him were all just a bit less so. I claimed it was the Zelig effect, but he found a new point and shoot camera for me anyway. And indeed, he is appearing a bit sharper these days. But the new camera has so many new features and modes and settings, that I sometimes am overwhelmed, or accidentally forget and leave it in a mode that doesn't work so well. I did exactly this when I snapped my coffee shots this morning, so sadly all my on the road shots leading up to the feature climb were all in gourmet mode, but came out half-baked.

Pamela on the move!

John again had to work today, but managed to slip out for a 28 km ride to visit Norumbega Tower, the closest approximation of a round tower in the area. Round towers, whose origin as pagan fire towers or Christian bell towers is a source of debate among Irish scholars, are a frequent feature of John's rides in Ireland.

Another brilliant sunny day!

Friday's ride starts from World's End in Hingham, following the CRW south shore coastal route created by Andy Brand. We will carpool down and meet other riders there at 10AM. Please email pb at blayleys dot com if you are joining us.

So far - Pamela - 735 km, John - 492 km

Dec 29 - Pamela 105 km, John 28 km

Dec 28 - Pamela 110km, John 51km

Dec 27 - Pamela 130km, John 44km

Dec 26 - Pamela 96km, John - 100km

Dec 25 - Pamela - 75km, John - 75km

Dec 24 - Pamela and John - 164 km

Dec 23 - Pamela - 55 km, John 30 km

December 28 - From Purgatory to Paradise

2011-12-28T19:05:00.001-05:00

After the disgrace of Monday, I worried a bit that today's ride to Purgatory Falls might also not go as planned. But the weather gods cooperated somewhat, allowing for a glorious ride from Purgatory to Paradise and beyond. I say somewhat because the high temperature for the day, 50F, occurred in the wee hours, while it was hosing down with rain, incidentally. Then the temperature fell throughout the day, approaching freezing when we finished, but it was clear and sunny. And while the roads were wet from the evening downpour, they weren't icy thanks to the 50F overnight temperature. Dressing for these conditions (temps falling) was challenging, but we all managed to select the right combination of clothing. BTW, I mentioned my desire for some Rapha women's tights in yesterday's entry. Well, Zabeth came through for me. She had accidentally ordered an extra pair when Rapha was having a sale, so she passed them on to me at the good sale price. And I absolutely love them! Rapha can still send me a pair for free- ladies - size small, please.

Today's route includes some of my favorite roads. Years ago, John and I put together a 200km route for the local brevet series. Over time, some of those roads have gotten busy, so I have proposed replacing the middle part of the 200km with this route. I think it will happen this year. Hopefully the riders won't hate me for replacing the busy roads with some quiet, scenic (which translates to hilly) roads. There are some magnificent views along the route, but I will say that riders have to work hard to earn them.

The reward at the top of the toughest climb

Hey look at us, we are sooooo cute!

The new sections include the descent to Purgatory Falls, followed by the climb to Paradise Farm.

Pamela, Marc and Bob in Purgatory

Bob climbing out of Purgatory towards Paradise

This is followed by a descent off Pead Hill and then a wee section of dirt, which is offset by another magnificent view. The dangerous part of the ride involves a very badly angled RR crossing on a main road followed by a left turn on a right hand bend off that same main road. Then we enter a lovely tree-lined road that follows a babbling brook up toward Temple and views of Pack Monadnock, which we mercifully pass on climbing today.

Pamela is having fun with her new camera

The descent from Temple is gentle, but on brutal pavement and is followed by a climb up to another panoramic view. This climb was welcomed today as we needed to warm back up. The final big climb brings us past Parker's Maple Sugar House. It seems the town of Mason passed on all that road paving stimulus money that so many other towns took advantage of this year, as evidenced by the condition of their roads - the roughest I have been on in ages. We were pushing daylight, so we made a beeline from Brookline back to Hollis, but still came in with 110 kilometers for the day. It was a glorious day with great company and great views.

We had 4 hardy souls for today's ride: Dena, Bob, Marc and me. We all carpooled up together in my wee little Fit, which normally gets about 40 mpg, so with 4 people, we got 160 miles per person gallon.

John again had to work today, but he did get out to verify that *Pagan Hill is still there. With that assurance, we will ride out to Pagan Hill from Ride Studio Cafe at 10 AM on Thursday. It is to be brutally cold overnight tonight - quite the contrast from last night. So wear a few extra layers if joining me on Thursday. And show some mercy, I have a lot of kilometers in my legs now.

*Pagan Hill is actually Pegan Hill, but we changed it to fit our theme, please don't sue us!


Echo Bridge

Have cross bike, will carry!

So far - Pamela - 630 km, John - 464 km

Dec 28 - Pamela 110km, John 51km

Dec 27 - Pamela 130km, John 44km

Dec 26 - Pamela 96km, John - 100km

Dec 25 - Pamela - 75km, John - 75km

Dec 24 - Pamela and John - 164 km

Dec 23 - Pamela - 55 km, John 30 km

Too many great shots to chose from, click here to see all the photos from the day

December 27 - Paradise Lost Lake and Beyond Redemption

2011-12-27T20:21:00.000-05:00

The Festive 500 - Ride to Redemption continues. Today, John had to go back to work, but I continue to enjoy freedom from proper employment. A few weeks ago I started leading a social pace ride out of Ride Studio Cafe on Tuesdays, so today's Redemption Ride was just my Tuesday Social Pace Ride, meaning I would likely have a bit of company. We started with a total of eleven riders, with a few planning to cut off at some point for a shorter ride, but most planning for the full distance. It was another amazing December day, not quite as sunny as yesterday but an almost balmy 40F at the start. I was definitely dressed lighter than in previous days. If only I had a nice pair of the Rapha Ladies Winter Tights... Maybe I can win some in this contest!

The planned route for the day was one of our favorites, heading out along off-the-beaten track roads toward Groton and featuring Lost Lake Road. We've often described Lost Lake Road as having a climb where you'll feel like using your brakes. The G-forces are amazing as you fly down, then quickly up and around a 90 degree left hand bend followed by a 90 degree right hand bend, and then some more ups and downs. You really just have to experience it yourself though. Last year we'd told some of the Sunday morning gang about the road, but they had their doubts, until we led a ride there. Since then it's become a regular route out of the Studio. With a little editorial license, we made it fit into the theme for the week.

I have to admit that I'm getting a little tired from all the riding, not just this week, but over the last few months. John and I both felt as if we were riding on worn out legs yesterday. That lucky John had an easy day of cycling since he also was expected to work, so he couldn't join us for the full day out. I get zero sympathy from him, as you might expect. But I did ask my riding companions to be kind.

Getting the hang of the over the shoulder on the move shots!

Colin and Jonathan showed clear signs of testosterone poisoning and apparently did not get the memo about this being a social pace ride. They hammered off the front and it seems they got hopelessly lost, but did manage to eventually find their way back to the Studio. I have provided links to cue sheets and GPS tracks for all the rides, and there's just not much I can do when folks speed off the front without cue sheets or GPS data. What can I say, I am beyond Redemption!

David and Emily arrived on their tandem shortly before the start. They planned to just ride out to Chelmsford with us, and then head off home to continue packing for their forthcoming move. We had a lovely chat and we rode along together. Emily had provided some enhanced photos of me and John, indicating exactly what would happen to us, should we stop riding after achieving redemption. Thanks Emily. You are a sweetheart for keeping me motivated. I will remember this!

With the victims of testosterone poisoning well off the front, and the tandem turning down the bike path, we were now down to Dena, Zabeth, Bob, Frank, Gene, Ira and me. We had truly settled into social pace, riding along side by side chatting away the kilometers. Everyone made it through the dirt stretch on Rocky Hill and the uphill braking on Lost Lake. I had said I'd stop for photos and would see the group at the Dunkin Donuts at the end. As I neared the end of the road, I did notice a potential problem as the route actually bypassed the DD by heading though a residential neighborhood. But Bob and Dena are both very familiar with the road and the DD, and were the only two with functioning GPS units; therefore the only people actually navigating. So I figured they would get everyone to the lunch stop. However when I arrived at DD, I saw no bikes. A quick phone call to Bob's mobile, and we were all back together and chowing down.

Breaking them in gently with this little section of dirt

Paradise Lost Lake behind me

Zabeth left us at the DD. As she is building up distance to recover from a back issue, she had arranged for husband Dave to come out. Waiting in a nice heated donut/coffee shop seemed sane!

The stone arch bridge

While we were having coffee and lunch, I took the opportunity to mention a little deviation from the route that would involve a nice photo op as well as a little more dirt. Neither Ira nor Frank are fans of dirt on the roads bikes, but they will be assimilated. Bob and I love to put dirt on our rides. Dena is phased by nothing. So we headed up a small road and then turned off beside some train tracks before climbing up a little trail to reach a lovely railroad grade that crossed a nice stone arch bridge. We stopped for photos and then continued on toward Lexington.

Riding along the lovely unpaved railroad grade

some Festive scenery

We got back to Ride Studio Cafe in ample daylight, where we enjoyed Hot Chocolate, expertly made by Erica, compliments of Frank.

Erica, our beloved barista

I am now over 500kms for the challenge, so officially Beyond Redemption, but we already knew that, didn't we. I still have 4 more days, so will, of course, continue to ride, or risk growing into Emily's photo. It looks like the weather will cooperate for tomorrow's ride from Hollis, NH to Purgatory Falls, so we are definitely planning to attempt it. We have a small group carpooling up. If you are coming and haven't told me, please let me know by emailing me at pb at blayleys dot com.

While John had to work, he did manage to get out at lunch time for 44km.

So far - Pamela - 520 km, John - 413 km

Dec 27 - Pamela 130km, John 44km

Dec 26 - Pamela 96km, John - 100km

Dec 25 - Pamela - 75km, John - 75km

Dec 24 - Pamela and John - 164 km

Dec 23 - Pamela - 55 km, John 30 km

December 26 - Disgrace and Redemption

2011-12-26T21:02:00.000-05:00

To translate Robbie Burns, "The best laid schemes of mice and men / Go oft awry"

Seeking the Abbey of Sisters of Divine Mercy of the Assumption of the Immaculate Epic Conception, we found this one

Followers of the blog may be aware that we made some ambitious plans last week for the Ride to Redemption challenge, completely ignoring the fact that it is actually late December in New England, a time and place that is often much more suitable for cross-country skiing than cycling.

Today's planned route to Mt Grace is a challenge even in the best of conditions. It has loads of climbing and descending, and is a bit on the long side for the amount of daylight we currently have. We had shortened it with a remote start, but this did mean loading up and driving to the start. We further complicated logistics by arranging to test-ride a Seven tandem, which we'd need to pick up on our way out of town.

So between the distance, the drive, and the stop to pick up the test bike and get espresso, we had an early wake-up call, so early that I think the cat was still asleep! Alarm silencing was first order of the day, then petting the cat. Dragging ourselves out of bed and filling our bellies with porridge came next. We were thrilled to see blue skies and sunshine again, and delighted that our thermometer indicated temperatures above freezing. However, we were a little concerned by the amount of frost on the car and moisture on the ground. So we checked the forecast for Westminster, our starting point for the day, and it was to be above freezing and sunny for the time we'd be riding. We were still expecting a chilly ride, given all the descents and the elevation, so we dressed in warm clothes, and packed lots of gloves, and those toe warmers that had been so valuable a few days ago.

We arrived at Ride Studio Cafe shortly after 7. Rob started pulling shots of espresso, while we put our pedals on the 007 tandem that he was so graciously letting us try out for the day. We joked that this time, we weren't even leaving our own bikes for collateral, but Rob reminded us that he knows where we live and that Patria knows the combination to the garage. And he also knows that like Norm on Cheers, I am a fixture at the coffee bar at the Studio. To paraphrase the Governator, he said, "You'll be back!"

Now properly caffeinated, and with a cool tandem to ride, we merrily headed off to Westminster. Traffic was non-existent, due to this technically being a holiday. American merchants were thrilled that The Holiday to Honor Consumerism fell on a Sunday this year. Unlike most if the rest of the western world, normally the professional ranks in the USA just get the one day off. But with the Sunday holiday, most folks not involved in retail got the Monday as well, which would mean Sunday was just a day of rest for the retailers to prepare for shopping mayhem on Monday. So long as we didn't try to ride near a shopping mall, this was great for us too. And unlike the kickoff to the season of gluttony and consumerism that starts in the wee hours of Black Friday, the day after the day when Americans feast on turkey and then fall asleep in front of their giant 92" televisions watching games played with odd shaped balls, today's shopping frenzy did not start early or cause heavy traffic at the time we were heading out.

We made good time to Westminster, but were alarmed when we took the exit off the highway and saw white stuff on the side of the road. As we continued up the main street into the center of town, we saw more white stuff all over the road. John started making noises about not wanting to crash a very pricey borrowed bike. I recalled last year when John took a fall on ice in Ireland, and had to take advantage of Rapha's crash repair policy to stitch up his very pricey torn tights and jacket. I noticed he wasn't wearing the patched tights, but a brand new pair. We knew we'd be on much smaller roads that this main one through town, and the elevation of Mt Grace was well above where we were now. We've also done this route a few times and the descents are screamers. We hopped out of the car and headed into the Dunkin Donuts for a conference. I pulled out my smart phone and looked for local conditions, as if I'd get any more info than the icy, snowy parking lot was providing. It was then I saw the black ice warnings to drivers. Still I was optimistic that we could be graced with better conditions. We decided to check out the first few kilometers of the route, and much to my dismay, we turned on the first small road and found it white, likely hiding lots of black ice. We've not had a proper snowfall since the freak October storm, and none of the roads have any leftover salt or sand. If we had studs and were riding our own single bikes, it might be different, but we just couldn't justify the risk, so we turned home in disgrace!

But all was not un-salvageable. We decided to go back to Lexington and do one of our favorite rides from there. Salvation from our Disgrace would come on a ride to Harvard. In Concord, we crossed paths with Henry, our riding companion from Saturday. He was surprised to see us, given our plans of grandeur out in central Massachusetts, but we told him of our disgrace and plan for salvation.

Why do I keep standing at the airport, dreaming of flying somewhere warm?

maybe with real flamingos...

We were blessed with sunshine and dry roads. The temps dropped a bit as we gained elevation and rebounded once we were homeward bound. We had a disheartening moment when we discovered the folks who run the Harvard General Store were seemingly out taking part in the shopping frenzy or maybe out on a bike ride of their own, as our hoped for source of coffee and sandwiches was closed for the day. Lack of cafes is the only disadvantage of riding on such quiet roads. Fortunately we were prepared with Probars and such, so we didn't starve, but we did start to fantasize about baby back ribs on the way home, and Redbones was the beneficiary of those cravings, as we bee-lined there after returning the tandem and getting hot chocolate and telling tall tales.

Sad face reflected in the window of the closed lunch spot!

Lovely views from Fruitlands

I will mention that shortly before we got back to the start, we came upon a sad cyclist with a serious mechanical. He'd managed to break the spring in his rear derailleur and in the process wrapped the chain around his botton bracket in a knot! I tried to free the chain, but needed some extra slack and thought of pulling the crank, but I only have an 8mm allen key in the toolkit on my single bike, so the crank remained in place. But we did have a chain tool and quick link, so we split the chain, freed it, put it back together with the quick link and got him onto the large chainring and a large cog, taking as much slack out of the chain as possible with the broken rear spring. With this setup, he could at least ride down to the nearby airport and wait for his wife to come rescue him. This should get us some redemption points, eh?

Tomorrow's ride to Paradise Lost Lake is on, starting at 10AM from Ride Studio Cafe. John is happily going to work, but Pamela will continue to clock up big kms.

So far - Pamela-390 km, John - 369 km

Dec 26 - Pamela 96km, John - 100km

Dec 25 - Pamela - 75km, John - 75km

Dec 24 - Pamela and John - 164 km

Dec 23 - Pamela - 55 km, John 30 km

December 25 - Fire and Brimstone for the Unredeemable

2011-12-25T19:35:00.001-05:00

December 25 is the day most of the western world sets aside to celebrate consumerism, allowing most folks a day off work to consume lots of food and exchange lots of items into which the giver may have invested great thought, like a manger scene snow globe, that will likely be returned the next day and exchanged for something the recipient really wants, like Air Jordan sneakers.

Having achieved Redemption yesterday, we chose to seek out Fire and Brimstone. But rather than descending into a hot, fiery hell, we climbed up to Brimstone Hill where it was so brutally cold, that we would have been quite happy to roast our toes on a bit of fire.

Since this holiday seemingly honors shopping and consumption, the folks who work so hard in all the shops and cafes are given the day off work. However, in recent years, more and more businesses (CVS, Dunkin Donuts) have decided to take advantage of lack of competition on the day, especially for the potential customer who has truly waited until the last minute and considers a bottle of shampoo and a pack of batteries to be an appropriate gift. But even the ever-accommodating Rob and Patria, of Ride Studio Cafe, our usual coffee and ride-launching point, decided to take a break and closed early on Saturday and completely on Sunday. So we decided to open Cafe Blayleys before the ride to serve espresso drinks and provide a warm meeting place.

After Saturday's long hard ride, we had scheduled a slightly shorter ride on Sunday. This would also allow a few more folks who had family obligations and such, to join us. We started with 9 hardy riders. At ride start time, it was still in the low 20's Fahrenheit as a light flurry of snowflakes delighted all the children in the area. But with the promise of Fire and Brimstone awaiting us, we pressed on.

John as Barista Extraordinaire

Riders enjoying the warmth of Blayleys Cafe

Now, all bundled up and ready for Brimstone

Rolling out through the suburban maze of roads

Rich is powered by Skittles!

The feature road of the day - seems innocent enough, eh?

Baruch making his way around the first steep corner

Pamela heading up the last few feet of gravel to the fire tower!

With a photographer ensuring that she doesn't put a foot down!

Skittle-powered Rich on his way to the fire-tower

It's all about getting photos. Passing one of the three gates on this road designed to keep the riff-raff out of either Framingham or Sudbury. Clearly it doesn't work.

Passing the view back up to the fire tower. Looking at the attractive photographer must be more interesting than the view of the tower!

Baruch and Colin on Pelham Island

Ira and Rich on Pelham Island


Pamela is getting the hang of these self-portraits!

Monday's ride is to Mt Grace, with a remote start in Westminster, MA at the Dunkin Donuts. We aim to start riding at 9AM. We will be stopping in at RSC on our way out of town to borrow the 007 tandem to test ride on some proper hills. Let us know if you are joining us, and if you've already downloaded the route, be sure to check for the updated version. We've cut a few miles to try and finish in daylight.

So far - Pamela-294 km, John - 269 km

Dec 25 - Pamela - 75km, John - 75km

Dec 24 - Pamela and John - 164 km

Dec 23 - Pamela - 55 km, John 30 km

December 24th - Ride to Redemption Rock

2011-12-24T21:24:00.001-05:00

It all started innocently enough. John and I were talking about a theme for the upcoming Festive 500 rides, when we realized Rapha had already provided the theme for us: Ride to Redemption. John suggested we simply Ride to Redemption Rock out near Mt Wachusett. Next thing I knew, we were also talking about riding to Purgatory and Brimstone and Grace, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Before all those other rides we would kick off the week with a long, hard, hilly ride to Redemption! When we planned this 90 mile ride, starting from Ride Studio Cafe, for the eve before the day when everything is closed, little did we know the temperature would never even think about rising above freezing. But given the long hard day and the early sunset at this time of year, we figured we should get an early start, so we planned an 8:30AM departure from the Studio, which meant a 7:30 AM departure from home, which meant a 6:30 AM alarm. Oh that hurt.

We got to the Studio as Rob and Patria were tuning the grind so our espresso would be perfect. Henry arrived a short while later, as the only other person insane enough to do this ride on this day. David joined us for the first bit out to Concord before heading home to meet family obligations.

It was somewhere around Concord, that Gigi, my GPS became very unhappy that I was ignoring her, and I realized that we were doing the route in reverse! I'd put together 8 routes in a very short period of time, 4 of which leave from RSC. I made an effort to try to have different ways in and out of Lexington, so before we left home, I had a quick look on the computer to remind me how I'd planned to go out for this one. I saw a line heading out to Concord. Silly me - I didn't pay attention to the distance on that line, or I would have realized it was the return leg. Well it didn't really matter, the ride should flow well either way. But Gigi, the 705, simply could not cope, and stopped displaying a track. Fortunately John has an 800 on the front of the tandem, and his GPS continued to display the track. I know most of the roads around here well enough that I can find my way out and back to Mt. Wachusett without GPS or maps, but if we just let me pick on the fly, we might end up with a 160 mile day, rather than a 160 km day!

Once we'd figured out we were riding in reverse, we relaxed and enjoyed a few roads in a direction we don't normally ride. It was like being on new roads. We continued out through Harvard before coming to the out and back part of the route. Years ago we discovered a lovely series of quiet roads that lead straight to the mountain. If we tried to make a loop and stay on lovely quiet roads, we'd have to go around the reservoir and be back approaching 160 miles, so I had made the decision that I love these roads in both directions, so that's what we'd do. We did have a little loop at the far end, where we climbed the mountain using a series of tiny steep roads, and then descended on the main road in search of Redemption, or at least Redemption Rock. Then it was up Justice Hill before the downhill trending ride home.

Did I mention it was cold? As you can see John was willing to pay any price for toe warmers!

It was especially nice to be on the tandem in the cold.

A lovely stone house served as a great photo op to break up the climb up the mountain.


The lads stood out in their red jackets!

It was cold, but the sun and blue skies were brilliant! Fortunately the road to the summit is closed now and covered in snow and skiers at this time of year.

Ah, Redemption. This is what we came for!

Having achieved Redemption...

Redemption Rocks!

The high temperature for the day - yes that's -2.1 C

John's none too happy about his frozen bottles.

Riding past the one hill we didn't ride over today!

Special Congratulations to Henry. This was his longest ride ever! But it didn't show. He climbed like he had polka dots on under all the layers, and descended like a demon, matching pace with the tandem with ease.

See all the photos here

Tomorrow, we will host the ride to Brimstone from Cafe Blayleys in Watertown.

Dec 24 - Pamela and John - 164 km

Dec 23 - Pamela - 55 km, John 30 km

December 23 - Seeking Out Redemption Centers

2011-12-23T17:17:00.001-05:00

The first day of the Festive 500, Dec 23, started grey and dreary. We've got lots of long hard rides planned for the rest of the week. Today should just be an easy ride - save something for tomorrows ride to Redemption Rock. But I think I will seek out some inspiration. I'll ride the Green Queen, my workhorse fixed gear commuting bike with a pannier so I can pick up some coffee beans for the weekend.

First off, how do I take a self portrait?

I did say it was a grey day!

At least I'm not at work in that office park across the reservoir!

We have some hard rides planned. Hopefully I won't feel like settling down here by the end of the week

And hopefully my legs won't be all twisted like this tree in Lincoln Center.

I did stop at the airport and considered redeeming my frequent flyer miles...

hopping on a plane to somewhere warm and sunny

but I stopped into my favorite local hangout, Ride Studio Cafe, and Rob served up a most excellent Cortado.

Then the sun came out

Hmm, should I seek redemption over there?


Oh no, this looks is much better!

Dec 23 - 55km

Hmm, does Strava not care I wasn't racing, but stopping to take photos in the middle of all those climbs :-)

Redemption Rides

2011-12-22T16:07:00.000-05:00

As we posted previously, Rapha has another crazy challenge for the last week of 2011 called the Festive 500 - Ride to Redemption. The challenge is to ride 500 km between December 23 and December 31. We are taking the challenge quite literally and kicking it off by Riding to Redemption Rock on December 24, and sticking with a somewhat irreverent take on the redemption theme throughout the week. We'd love company.

Some rides will leave from Ride Studio Cafe in Lexington, Massachusetts, USA. Others have a remote start, since we don't need to ride the 500km all in one day! The longer rides will start earlier to maximize daylight. We plan to be back before dark, but it might be a good idea to bring lights, especially for the longer rides. Definitely bring a camera and a spirit of adventure.

Please download the GPS track and/or cues and let us know if you will join us, especially for the rides that don't start from RSC. (Email pb at blayleys dot com)

Since Ride Studio Cafe (and almost everywhere else too) will be closed on the 25th, we will serve espresso drinks at our place before the ride (coffee from 9, ride at 10). Send me email, pb at blayleys dot com, and I'll give you the address. And for folks who have no other obligations for the day, we will have a potluck after the ride. Let us know you are staying so we can coordinate food.

So here's the schedule, including links to RideWithGPS routes. The weather could get temperamental with all this forward planning, so check back for potential changes. As you can see, we have over 500 miles (which if you do the conversion is way more than 500 km) of rides, so Pamela will be well and truly exhausted by the end of the week! She'll probably need a massage.

Saturday, Dec 24 - Redemption Rock
from Ride Studio Cafe
8:30 AM sharp
90 miles
Sunday, Dec 25 - Brimstone
from Watertown, MA
10:00 AM
45 miles
potluck after
Email pb at blayleys dot com if you are riding
Monday, Dec 26 - Mt. Grace
from Westminster, MA
9:00 AM sharp
90 miles
Tuesday, Dec 27 - Paradise Lost Lake
from Ride Studio Cafe
10:00 AM
60 miles
Wednesday, Dec 28 - Purgatory Falls, NH
from Hollis, NH
10:00 AM
60 miles
Thursday, Dec 29 - Pagan Hill
from Ride Studio Cafe
10:00 AM
50 miles
Friday, Dec 30 - World's End
from Hingham, MA
10:00 AM
40 miles
Saturday, Dec 31 - Purgatory Chasm, MA
We're tired, so we've made two options. We'll be doing the short ride.
Purgatory Chasm
from Framingham, MA
9:30 AM
65 miles
or for the truly hardcore who need a last minute century!
Purgatory Chasm
from Ride Studio Cafe
8:00 AM sharp
105 miles

Rapha Ride to Redemption

2011-12-21T23:57:00.003-05:00

Rapha has another crazy challenge for the last week of 2011 called the Festive 500 - Ride to Redemption. The challenge is to ride 500 km between December 23 and December 31. We are taking the challenge quite literally and kicking it off by Riding to Redemption Rock on December 24 following this route. We will start the morning off with our noses against the window of Ride Studio Cafe at 8 AM, awaiting their opening, to get espresso and scones, before heading out to ride at 8:30 AM sharp. This will be a fun, hard, spirited and festive ride. Folks are welcome to join us. We will be on our tandem. We plan to be back before dark, but it is 90 hard miles. It might be a good idea to bring lights. Definitely bring a camera and an spirit of adventure.

We are planning other rides as the week goes on, including rides to Purgatory, Brimstone, and World's End. More details to follow.

Where the BLEEP are we?

2011-12-20T18:48:00.001-05:00

We love maps.

Almost as much as Pamela loves coffee.

It seems like we go on tours just so we can buy maps of new places.

At times, we have set aside a pannier just for maps.

John could spend hours poring over maps.

John shares his map obsession with friends

I love touring during blackberry season, since I can pick blackberries whenever John is looking at maps.

We have gone to lots of expense getting many of our maps laminated. The lamination isn't just for rain, it also greatly extends the life of a map that gets unfolded and re-folded lots. It also protects against someone pouring, rather than poring over the map.

So it might come as a surprise that we use GPS devices.

We got our first GPS when we lived in New Zealand. To be honest, there aren't a lot of roads there, but we still bought 1:50,000 scale maps for the whole of the South Island, and had them laminated. Then we'd go ride on the unmapped forest roads, where all these maps were of no use! Well that's not entirely true. While the forestry roads weren't shown on our maps, we could use the latitude and longitude data from the GPS to determine exactly where we were on the map and how far away we were from civilization. But mainly we could see if we were riding around in circles, and we could use the track-back/breadcrumb feature to get home if we were hopelessly lost. But we also could see how far we had gone and how much we had climbed.

GPS devices have advanced a bit since our initial purchase and now one can get a GPS device with color maps, route profiles and even temperature. And unlike traditional bike computers, they don't require re-calibrating for different wheel or tire sizes. One of the great features is when we see some interesting-looking side road, we can quickly pan around on the maps on the GPS to see if the road goes anywhere. This saves a little time versus stopping to take out and unfold the map. It's also handy if we don't have a map in the detail scale to show the tiny roads that often pique our curiosity.

I got an Edge 705 a few years ago. John got the 800 last year. These two devices are very different, and clearly were not designed by the same teams. The 800 is the newer model and has a touch screen interface. Because I am so used to my 705, I have some difficulty finding things on the 800. Because John had not used the 705 much, he has less trouble. One of the features I love on the 705 is the route profile that updates throughout the ride and can be scaled to display all or part of a route. We have not been able to figure out what is being displayed on the 800, but we the route profile that is displayed doesn't match our expectations, the 705 or the online software profiles. The 800 does have temperature and last Sunday it showed that we were truly insane, riding in -8C temps. Maybe I didn't really want to know!

But back to mapping functions. The really cool feature of using a GPS and mapping software is that we can plot out a ride ahead of time on a computer, then download it to the device and see/follow a route on the GPS, without having to stop at every corner to pick blackberries, uh I mean check the map. I still want to pick blackberries, but sometimes we tour out of blackberry season, and then I'm just left taking pictures of people looking at maps. Above is a screen shot from RideWithGPS showing a preplanned route along with a nice elevation profile, letting me know ahead of time what I'm in for. This online application also generates cue sheets that are reasonably accurate and handy to give to our non-GPS enabled riding companions. There are a few other online GPS mapping programs, but RideWithGPS is my favorite and the one I have had the best luck using with my 705. I've had no luck using routes from MapMyRide on my 705. The MapMyRide routes work fine on John's 800, but choke my 705. With the online tools we can also share our routes or get routes from other folks. Just be aware when taking routes from unknown sources that they may have picked busy main roads, where you would prefer small back roads, or they include dirt and gravel roads and trails, where you might prefer something paved. If you use any of our published routes, expect small roads and dirt!

We don't always have an internet connection, so we also use the Garmin software that comes with the Garmin maps. We have a small lightweight laptop (11" MacBook Air), that we sometimes take with us on tours. The Mac version of the Garmin software is a little quirky, but we found lots of remote places where we could not rely on an internet connection and online tools. The main issue we found with this software is sometimes it puts in Chinese characters for via points, which wouldn't be awful if this didn't actually corrupt the downloaded routes. So long as we change those via points to use English characters, the downloaded routes work fine. We have not have the same type of issues with the Windows version of the Garmin mapping software. In addition to working offline, the other advantage to the Garmin software and maps is that most of the online tools use Google maps, which tend to include lots of trails masquerading as roads, especially in Europe. We've been in places where we know there is only one road, but Google shows dozens, most of which are trails.

We still have and will continue to buy paper maps. It's great to sit down and plot out a route on a proper map, especially one with topo lines or color coding for terrain. The Ordnance Survey maps in Ireland show the mountains in a lovely shade of brown. So John aims for the brown stuff whenever we ride there. Paper maps are really good for the big picture. We have sometimes spent hours seeking out a ranger station just to find a particular map for a national forest. We need maps just to find places to get more maps.

I'll also admit to naming my GPS. This way I can blame or credit her for a route. We call her Gigi. She's actually Gigi II, since I stole the name from Dan and Janet Morgan who used the name Gigi first for their GPS.

Waffling on about the weekend

2011-12-19T09:48:00.001-05:00

On a bitterly cold December Sunday, Patria and Rob of Ride.Studio.Cafe were kind enough to entrust a Seven tandem to our (ab)use on their Sunday morning ride. It wasn't just any Sunday morning ride, however, but the prelude to their Waffle Wonderland seasonal celebration.

A tandem photograph?

And, did I mention it was the coldest ride of the season thus far? Considering the temperature, an impressively large number of people turned out for fun and frolics. We rolled out the bike path to Bedford and then popped out into the wind as we headed towards Carlisle. There are no prizes, dear reader, for guessing that this wind was chilly, to put it politely. This had a few effects. One, our extremities begged for a little more blood flow. Two, the shiny tandem seemed to invite spirited pedaling. And three, ride leader Geoff, who was kind enough to supply hand warmers at the start of the ride, was also eager to appreciate the tandem from the point of view of its slipstream. The result was us putting said tandem to a very good test and warming everyone up!

We felt right at home on the tandem from our first pedal strokes, although we probably shouldn't tell Rob that those first pedal strokes took us over the cobbles adjoining the shop, and then over a short section of dirt before hopping off the curb (just kidding about the curb!). It felt particularly impressive when we were out of the saddle and the curves descending Strawberry Hill elicited only squeals of joy from the stoker compartment. We were enjoying ourselves so much that we didn't want to return it. However, the pain of doing so was eased by the delicious waffles that awaited us when we returned.

Our gracious hosts, Patria and Rob.

Emily and David also introduced us to Chloe, their Bernese Mountain Dog puppy, who charmed all and sundry.

Chloe!

The Winter Solstice - The begining of the end of early darkness

2011-12-16T22:44:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year when cyclists can start celebrating. Very soon days will start getting longer. You may notice non-cyclists also commemorating the solstice or beginning of the end of early darkness by lighting up the night with decorative and colorful displays all around their homes. I consider these displays a symbol of empathy for the commuting cyclist all lit up at night, making her way home.

We do a fair amount of riding with lights - both for sport and practical riding. Click on over to the website to check out the updated article on lighting.

Photos from November trip to Ireland now available on website

2011-12-12T00:07:00.001-05:00

John has a new camera and has been having fun prepping photos for the website. He's selected a nice subset of all the gazillion pictures he took during our recent trip to Ireland in November and we've updated these pages with maps, photos and commentary. Slideshow available here. Enjoy.

The full report

If you are now inspired to go bike touring in Ireland, check out these tips.

Winter Cycling

2011-12-11T19:46:00.001-05:00

We've had an amazingly mild autumn, ignoring that little snowstorm that brought down limbs from every tree in Lexington before Halloween.

The problem with a mild autumn is that winter still comes, and when it arrives suddenly, rather than gradually, my body just can't adjust, and suddenly I don't have the right clothes, or lights or studded tires! It was just Monday that I was out with riders in shorts and short sleeves as the temperatures reached into 60's Fahrenheit. Then last night the temperature dropped below freezing and today despite ample sunshine, less than 40 of those little Fahrenheits came out to play at the best part of the day. And those that did got blown around by a stiff icy breeze.

So after months of riding supplementing with just arm and knee or leg warmers and a wind vest, I had to dig into the cold-weather gear and pull out the winter boots , heavy tights, jacket, warm mittens and yes, even the Windstopper skull cap. It wasn't that cold, it was just that much colder than it had been. In February, we will consider today's temperatures balmy. But today it felt horribly cold. So it seems appropriate to take the time to review the winter tips article and update it as necessary.

The readers digest version:

Don't overdress
Layer, layer, layer
Wool is a great base layer
Lake Cycling Winter Boots can't be beat
You really can never have too many pairs of gloves
Fixed Gears are great for those who suffer from cold hands, since you don't need to worry with gloves jamming brifters
A good hat will help with cold hands and feet
Bib tights are great for keeping the back warm, but no good for gals trying a quick pee stop
Don't forget the rain jacket
Keep your bike in good working order, so you aren't doing roadside repairs with numb fingers
Studded tires beat a broken collarbone
Don't get caught in the early sunset without lights
Better looking at it, than for it (i.e. carry extra clothes for the inevitable)
Stop and drink the coffee
And enjoy the low light

Read the full article...

Signs of the Times

2011-12-08T21:34:00.001-05:00

I notice odd things sometimes when I'm out riding. Here's a few shots of some of my favorite signs.Is it any wonder that I ever find my way back home?

I found this one last spring while riding in NC. What could it mean? I think we could use some signs like this in Massachusetts, just to indicate that the road ahead is actually just a series of potholes loosely joined by bits of pavement.


Another of my favorites. If there is Nonesuch Road, why does it need a sign?

Bring on the Flat Hills!

We are plain speakers here in New England!


Meet me at the brick building. It's the one with the sign over the door that says "Brick Building."

This goes a long way in explaining why they have to label the brick building. Note that the schools are on Church Street, while the church is on School street.

Cycling in Ireland

2011-12-07T23:00:00.000-05:00

We took a quick trip to Ireland at the end of November. While it may not be the best time to go cycling in Ireland, the extra time we get off for American Thanksgiving makes it a convenient, albeit expensive, time to travel.

Last year, John was greeted with frosty conditions and slid out of the country just before the deep freeze and snow arrived. This year we had amazing conditions. The temperature was almost mild. We only had one day with proper rain, and actually had two days with brilliant sunshine.

John and brother David are so close in size that they just ride each others bikes. So we only needed to pack and fly with Pamela's single bike. This saved a bit on luggage fees as we used our two allowed checked bags for the bike and a large bag with both our clothes, along with a carry-on. As you'll see from the photos, I could have carried even less clothing. I wore the same thing all week!

John found his favorite old roads: one lane wide with grass growing up the middle.

He even managed to find a few muddy lanes so I could fully take advantage of my mudguards.

Yes, the roads felt bumpy!

Full report is posted on our website.

Joining the 21st century

2011-12-07T15:41:00.001-05:00

Seems about time that we do a proper blog. We will keep the full website, but will post info here when the website is updated. We will also try to keep the blog more current with weekly postings.