New Years Day: The Day of the Coyotte.

My wife was kind enough to allow me out of the house on a bicycle today. I was determined to NOT simply saddle up and burn myself ragged until I ran out of steam. No boring "loop" for me today. With that in mind I selected my Trek 820 as my steed-de-joure. There were other factors in the choice. I had her tuned up a bout a month ago but with the coming of the Crossbike, she had been quite neglected. Also, one of my "plans" had me riding the MTB trails at the local park. The MTB has no fenders though, and it was still a little gross on the streets, despite not raining at the time. Besides, I just really wanted to have some fun with that poor bike! Pull the kid? Yep. Grocery run? Sure. Trip to the bank or hardware store? Trek 820 please. Something fun? Something else!



So I got geared up, got my (way too heavy) backpack* on and fired her up. We head down hill which ment that we had to go back UP hill, and the hills in these parts are pretty steep.Well, to me they are. So there I am riding up-hill, down town, needing to take a left hand turn and am all out of breath and half dead. I check, I double check and whip out my best VC move and signal my left turn. Around the corner and up another damn hill! Really? I'm less than two miles away from home (an on my "way to the bank" rout that I have negotiated about 75000 times before) and I'm exhausted. I seriously thought about turning back, but did not. After all, my Teamates are counting on me right?

I rode around a little more and, based on a cut-through on a dirt trail and past experience, I decided to NOT try to tackle the 5 mile off-road loop on this bicycle on this day. Instead I went up over the highway and out into the countryside. It was there that I cam across this fellow. I stopped to look.

What is this? A wolf? A dog? I doubted both. I settled on Coyote. I watched it run around in the field hunting mice or whatever for a while. I took a few iPhotos of it, but nothing god. I was hoping that it would come closer so I could get a good shot. Well, suddenly it did. It locked on me and started "coming right for me" as they would say in that town in Colorado. It was then I saw the white paws and decided that it was probably a dog after all. Now I became concerned about it's well being. Alone out in a field next to the woods. So I called to it. THAT altered it's trajectory! It took a left turn and bolted. It was heading straight for a playground! Oh great. I was wishing that my iPhone was an iTwo-Twent Two right then as i quickly assigned the animal back into the "Coyote" slot and feared that it would eat a child. I hopped back on my trusty steed and charged, the long way around, after it. I found no sign of the animal and there were no children in sight (other than the one he dragged away into the woods to gnaw on as a snack, I'm sure.

I buggered out.

I kept riding over hill and dale. I saw happy streams and some big, shaggy moo-cows that iThought about taking pix of but they were far away and I was up to my Bag Limit for "little dots that might look like animals if developed correctly" shot for the day. I kept peddling. In all I made it ten miles. I almost got eaten by one wolf and almost run over by one SUV. I felt good about having gone out and got some miles on me on the first day of 2012. I'm glad that I didn't turn back after the first two hills!

Twisted Steel, it turns out, is not sexy at all.

I have a friend. I feel badly for him. He is what many would call clumsy. His affliction goes beyond that in real terms but for the purposes of this discussion it is a good enough term.

Now this guy, friend-x, wanted a road bike. He's a tall fellow and does not have a lot of liquid capital. Ok, he doesn't have any capital tied up in stocks and bonds either. He is just kind of broke. So, whereas he is poor, tall and a Friend of Mine and whereas I had a nice 61cm Peugeot frame (from AFTER they converted to "normal" sizes and threadings) it was resolved that I would make a gift of this frame and various bits to make about 75% of a bicycle to Friend-X. It was so done. He took the bike and a hundred and seventy five bucks to the campus bike shop and emerged with a fully functional, rideable price of Vintage Steel. It is at this EXACT point that things take a turn for the worse. He adjusted the fork-holders on his Thule roof racks, put the bike up and drove home. He went for a ride right then, even though it was cold and dark and rainy. He loved it even if it was just for a short ride. He ws hooked on his "roadbike". I was pleased.

Naturally, at the first chance that I got for us to take advantage of our flexible schedules and unseasonably warm weather, I invited him to go for a ride. We were to meet at a local sub shop and go from there. I arrived later than Friend-X. As I pulled into the parking lot I saw him standing nest to the car futzing with the bike. She look good up there. She looked tall and elegant and sexy. She was ready to go. She was whole! Turns out that she was bent!

Yep. Somehow, the left forkleg had come loose from the clam, wedging the left leg in the holder. The weight of the bike waggling back and forth for the whole ride bent the drop out. A lot. I don't know how it didn't snap! So ended our bike ride and began our quest to get the thing fixed! Naturally we tried the LBS. Closed on Wednesday. That was OK because they kinda suck any way. Now what? Well, when my MTB broke the chain I brought i t to the Bicycle Shop of Topsfield. They did a great job fixing it and impressed me in general as a rider's shop. I called them up and they agreed to drop every thing and see about fixing this up for us. Hum, we might be able to salvage a ride before dark yet...

So, we drove over. It not a short drive. Cost about $7 in fuel. We walked in and the man working there take a look at it. "It's bad", he tells us. Not to worry. He has a guy who works for him who is a machinist. That guy will be in tomorrow and they can have it fixed up for less than twenty bucks. Friend-X says "Humm". He thanks them for their time and collects his bent-ass bicycle and we leave. My blood presure spiked just a little
bit. As we walked to the car I inquiered why we were not getting his fork fixed. I was going to pay for it at that point! he ruined my bike, my gift and my fun! I wanted that bike fixed almost as much as if it had been my own (still). That was, surpprizingly, NOT the reason! He wanted to bring it to a bike shop closer to his house. Now, I can understand this. It makes sense. Of course THIS shop was about 8 miles from his house. Not that far, but the closer one was, well, closer. Or at least it used to be.

Once upon a time there was a bike shop. It had an address and a phone number on the internet. The address was plugged into the GPS and off we went. We tried to call. I was told "There was something wrong with their phone". Ah, the power of pure hope! As we drove on, the "we" manning the phone turned to "I" and  when "I" tried to call "I" discovered that the problem with the bike shop's phone was that it was "disconnected". The bike shop that was closer, the bike shop that was better, was a figment of Friend-X's imagination. I had one more trick up my sleeve.

Some say he was born on a bicycle being peddled through the south of France. Some say that his internals are all bike gears except for his tongue. All I know is that he is called Ed. Ed runs Cycle Re-Cycle in Haverhill. He does two things very well: he talks and he fixed bicycles. It was to him that I brought my goofy friend and his twisted fork. When we got there the sign said Open but the locked door said "Closed". The 'shop" is a windowless barn next to the house. There was no way to check inside other than calling so call I did. He was in the house. For less than a minuet Quick as a wink he was out in the yard talking to us. He was on his way out. He had no space to leave it. Could we bring it back tomorrow? "Oh sure" said I. "where are you going"? I asked. Well, that question led to more and more talking and next thing e knew he had us in the shop and was using some sort of Magical Wizard Tool to make every thing alright on my buddy's fork. Five Bucks.

 We never got our ride in that day, and haven't gotten the chance to go since. Never the less we had an adventure and I got to spend the afternoon with a good, if slightly clumsy, friend. X.

Cross-monster

Who? Not me! Not this year any way. it was supposed to be my Cross-year. I made up my mind that, of all the kinds of bicycle racing that there was,cyclocross was the only kind that I would ever be interested in actually doing. Of course, it was the only kind of race that I ever actually saw in person too. It may have had some impact on my descision.

As you might have guessed, a number of factors conspired againste to keeps from achieving the fitness and equiemt goals that even a whole-hearted effort to finish dead last would have entailed. I hung my head in shame as smer turned to fall and I knew that I had failed in my goal.

This year things are different. Not in a hypothetical or theoretical way, like a re-resolution of last years New Years promises, but in a very physical, durable goods sort of way.

I bought a cross bike! Ok, it's not a good cross bike. It's more than good enough for my "Race for Last Place" but not, as far as racing goes, much else. What it IS good for is riding arround in all conditions and on all terraines. It was pristine. Owned by a nice little old man who only rode it to work a couple miles from his house in good weather. Untill he got laid off a short time later. Me? First ride was through the mud. Second ride, also throughout the mud. On the third ride, I added in some dirt trails, frozen water crossing, single track and a couple of those wooden MTB bridges. Ok, I would have added those in but I crashed Out trying to climb up onto the first one. I went head first, actually, but "plastic amd foam before skin and bone", my helmet saved my squash.

And cloths! Oh man did I ever luck out on cold AND warm weather cycling cloths. I'll leave out the details since some of the more delicate readers might be perturbed, but I got a smokin' deal on a ton of stuff. I can ride and not freez OR chafe! I'm pretty pleased with that. Add to that the fact that it's been pretty warm and dry for winter and I've been able to actually ride! Not a lot, just too many other things going on but certainly more than normal. And this year I HAVE TO keep riding, inside or out

Why? Because I owe it to my teammates! Yes. Yes I did. I signed up to NE on a MTB race team. I don't figure I'll win much. I just want to show the flag for a worthy cause, meet some cool people and have a little fun. Knowing that people are counting on me, even just a litle bit, gets me walking down those basement stairs to the trainer when I'd rather be playing with the baby or snuggling with the wife. I still can't go very long or very far but, if I keep at it who knows? Maybe I can get in shape enough to only finish second to last!

Bike paths are good right?

I put the bike on the rack and too it with me while I was running some errands before picking up my daughter from school. The regular MTB with the fenders and stuff. I wanted to explore the abandoned rail bed in Seabrook NH. It started off easily enough. There is a large shopping center that lies along the route of the path and a "secrete" road that leads out of the parking lot, crossing the old rail bed. Found it. I chose to head out south-bound on the trail.

Now, one might suppose that, since I enjoy writing this thing and that this thing is on the Internet and the Internet is for pictures, porn pictures specifically, I might take some once in a while when I am out and about on  my bike. Sadly,I do not. I am almost always too involved in the actual riding to stop and snap shots. With that being the case, I will try to describe the experience in words.

The rail-bed itself is overgrown, and had the fully-intact, and partially deteriorated carcass of the railroad upon it. Tracks, ties, the whole nine. However, there is a fairly wide... roadway that runs parallel to it. This road or path is as clear of obsrtruction as any semi-maintained rural dirt road can be. The first part of the trail is made up on undulating hills. I have encountered these formations before on one other abandoned rail road bed and a converted recreational trail. Oddly, other ex-rail beds do NOT have these "whoops" so, even though I theorize that these are the scars that remain when the ties are dug up, I am not sure. I am not sure that the ties along this branch were dug up since a full-intact railway sits a dozen or so feet to the west of the trail. There are a few side paths and trails that lead into residential neighbourhoods. The first obstacle was a train bridge that spans a small roadway. The tracks continue over the bridge and the ties extend out about four feet to the east of the tracks allowing a crossing but with nothing between the ties but thin air, making riding across a daunting proposition.

The path continued on, smoother than before. In short order it came out of the woods across the street from an abandoned municipal building. I was able to pick up the trail on the other side from the parking lot there. This part of the trail in no way lie next to the railroad, but did rejoin it after meandering over an old stone wall and through some twisty trails. I followed this down some more, well into Mass by now and came to a point where a dirt road crossed the path. I turned east there knowing that there was a paved road in that general direction that I could take to start my ride back to the car. It was getting late and I did not want my princess waiting!. The road quickly opened up into a sand pit area that looked pretty expansive. Despite the temptation to explore, I tried my best to pick a direct rout back to the tarmac but wound up with this epic fail:

Getting a 25 pound MTB un-stuck froma spot like this is much, much easier than getting a 300 pound dual-sport un-stuck from a similar predicament. The riding, which had been fairly dry and smooth despite ample evidence of  ATV and dirt bike use, got worse from here. Slick and muddy, it was a challenge to navigate safely on a bike with street tires and fenders! When I did come out to civilization again it was not on the road that I had hoped to hit but on one of those small side roads that you can't be sure if it's a road or a drive way that allows multiple branches of the same family to access different houses (and by that I mean trailers) that are on the same property. Either way, the guy on the porch didn't go for a gun when he saw me. In fact, he didn't seem the least bit disturbed to see a stranger ride out of the woods and through his yard / down his street, as the case may be. I quickly took to the streets and got back to the car. It was a wicked fun ride and fueled my imagination with places to explore on a "proper" mountain bike.

Of course, a proper mountain bike would have suited the terrain better than what I had with me, but it did OK. The centerstand didn't fall off this time, and neither did any thing else for that matter. The whole area, path, road and pit, was much cleaner that I have ever seen before. I do not know if there is a community presence in on these trails that picks up trash and stuff or if they are just very under-used. In a way, it would be a shame to see this trail developed into a full-blown MUP. It serve's it purpose as it exists now, in that the riding is by no way so difficult as to dissuade any child or teen for using this as a bike high-way and it's a great place to do a little light mountain biking.  Personally, I can't wait to get back in there and explore some more!

Cycle Center of the Universe: Cape Cod

First off: I have GOT to start taking more pictures! I did a whole bunch of cycling and saw a whole bunch of cyclists and took exactly ZERO pictures! Not good.

What was good though was to see so many people cycling around for pleasure and transportation NOT in the city.The region's MUPS are very long and connect residential, recreational and down town areas to each other. They also provide a great way to avoid trying to have to find a place to park in the crowded, narrow down-town village streets. The only thing that is "bad" about these bike trails is that, like all of their kind, they run along abandoned railroad beds. This offers quite a mixed bag of sight-seeing opportunities that range from breath-taking to kind of grungy. Unlike many other bike paths that I have been on, they offer many, many dining, drinking and snacking opportunities. It is entirely possible to consume far more calories than are burned riding on these trails!

Once in town the streets are often designated as Bike Routs and, even when they are not so designated, are full of cyclist of all ages. The motorists are quite tolerant of this activity and wait behind the poky cyclists with no horn tooting or near-missing. Every place of interest has a bike rack or two outside it and the attractions are full of people in cycling clothing or helmets. Less one take it that I found only recreational and transportational cyclists on the cape, I have to tell you that the back roads and main streets are littered with Roadies! They tend to ride solo or in pairs, not like around here, so no one really minds them sharing the winding country roads at all. It's like bike-utopia.

Tried a New Trail today.

This morning, after work, I got the chance to try to tackle the Nashua River Rail Trail. This was the un-friendlest rail trail that i have ever been on, including the Minuet Man! I started out at it’s far northern end, in Nashua itself. There is a large parking area. A path leads a short distance to the east where there is a small pond. Dirt paths go off from there. There are no water, vending or sanitary facilities here and only a very few trash cans. The area is kept neat and clean though and is in good repair. The path itself is both less than I expected and more.

I tend to be disappointed in the “big” bike paths. I guess that maybe they have been around long enough for the vegetation to grow back in close or perhaps they just didn’t design them to we open and airy “back then”. In any event, I found the path to be narrow and slightly over-grown. For the most part the trail is well maintinaed and clean. There are a few bumpy bits and one or two areas where significant amounts of dirt has come onto the trail. It is not arrow-straight as some of the other trails are. Sadly, there isn’t a lot of interesting scenery along the path but neither is there a lot of Urban Blight os industrialization visible from the path. There are benches and places to reast. It crosses throught down-town Pepperhil and there is a convenience store and an ice cream shop there, among other things.  One enterprising abutter has installed a couple of lawn chairs and a coke machine on his property facing the trail!

The other trail users were a varied lot. By far the number one largest group that I saw on this week day morning was older people on hybrid bikes! There were a few roadies, me being one of them today. I saw a guy “traing” as hard as he could on his dual-suspension MTB. He was spinning quite fast and had a very harsh look of concentration on his face. He was concentrating so hard, in fact, that he did not even respond to my cheery hello  as I passed him on the path going down and going back up it. In fact, the vast majority of the people that I passed on this path refused to aknowledge my greeting or even manke eye contact! Not the friendly, family, comunity feel that I tend to expect on bike paths! Two people stod out as “friendly”. The middle aged guy on the “fixie” and, more importantly, the young blond girl riding with her friend. Other than that. a couple of grunted “hello”s was the best that I could get out of any of my fellow Trail Travelers.

All in all it was an enjoyable morning though. I did not do the whole trail as I wanted to save some “steam” for riding with my family laer on but I think next time I’ll go all the way down and back. I will continue to ride cheery, no mater what.

Out and about on Bikes

So far this year I have tried to Ride the Georgetown-Rowley State forest three times. All three times I have wound up walking out! The first time is was my seat. The second time my chain broke. This time, my riding buddy got a flat. No problem! I had a spare tube in my pack and tire irons and all that. So we swapped out the tube and my buddy started pumping. He pumped and pumped and pumped with the little stick pump. The pump got hot. He got tired. The tire got WAY under-inflated. He was way to big of a fellow to ride out on it without bending the rim and he was way to pooped of a fellow to keep pumping so... out we walked.

Then I went to work for a couple of days and stuff. I got out today with my youngest on the back of the 820. Here he is relaxing in front or a relic of the old railroad we were biking on. He get's pretty comfy back there and we had his favorite Buzz Lightyear water bottle so he was pretty well chill. He wanted to see a bunny.

We saw THIS bunny! Biggest, friendlyest, most domesticated bunny that we have seen cycling together. Wait. Domesticated? Yep. This thing was as tame as can be. We actually cam across it right after another guy. We tried to catch it but it was not quite that tame! We called the ACO. I hop thay were able to round it up and return it to safety.