Riding With Bicycle Times Frank

CLICK HERE to see all the photos

I have been reading Bicycle Times for a few years.  It’s one of the half dozen magazines to which I subscribe and I have to say I’m most impressed with the content of this one.  They also publish Dirt Rag for the off road bike riders.  Bicycle Times is more about bike riding than selling bikes if you know where I’m going with this.

I took a group of riders on a casual ride of my favorite places. During the ride, Nick from our bike club joined us.  There is a small cruise ship in town that allows passengers to bring their bikes.  We were joined by a couple from Pennsylvania who joined our group of six, Kate, Leighann and Jeff from Pittsburgh, Nick and I from Cape Cod and Fabio from Milan, Italy.  Two classic bikes, two fat bikes, a Scott SUB 40 and a Cannondale were our choices of rides.

We visited Fort Phoenix a Revolutionary War era Fort protecting the last free port, New Bedford, Ma, from the British Invasion in 1778, when they landed 5000 troops and marched into the city burning everything as they progressed. We didn’t stay long because the historical site has been overrun by Pokeymon players for the past three weeks.

Our second stop was over the bridge to New Bedford Bakery, where we stopped for a light breakfast of Portuguese linguica stuffed bread and cod fish, chicken and beef stuffed cakes.  However, no stop in the Whaling City would be complete without a visit to the Whaling Historic National Park and into the Whaling museum to be eaten by a sperm whale.

Nick joined us at the bakers as we rode along the west side of the New Bedford pennisula along Clarks Cove. Newlyweds Kate and Fabio had a moment as we rode along the beach to the WWII era Fort Rodman and Nick got to try out Frank’s fat bike.   Inside Fort Rodman sits, Fort Taber that was engineered by Captain Robert E Lee and built by Henry Martyn Roberts better know for the writer of Robert’s Rules of Order.

We rode along the east side of the penninsula along Buzzards Bay.  The city in the early 60’s had built a hurricane barrier of local granite.  Two years ago, New Bedford built a walking/biking path atop the barrier, which allows a commanding view of the bay. A short ride took us to the middle of the harbor on this bike way where we stopped for a visit to Palmer’s Island Lighthouse.

Fabio and Kate sailed their 28 foot sailboat from Brunswick, GA over the past couple of weeks and “Tranquility” is moored in the bay.  They took Frank and Leighann on an afternoon cruise while Nick and I continued home.  We will all meet in the evening for dinner put together by Fabio and Kate.

I had mentioned that when you ride with a local, you get to see the secret places.  Another perk of riding with a local around here is fresh caught seafood.   Tonight menu has freshly caught sea scallops, recently picked local mussels and our friend Larry who is a commercial diver, brought us a bag of quahogs he dug up a few hours ago.

CLICK HERE to see all the photos of this ride.