Bike riding season that is. After a long two months of frog snow, (knee deep), things are happening. It looks like the rain will be cleared out for the 10 AM East Bay Bike Path ride. Meet at Fort Hill for the 10 AM start. If your new, look for the older gentlemen sitting at the picnic table in the parking lot.
CAFE TOUR STARTING FROM FORT HILL SATURDAY 10AM
For directions to Fort Hill bike path access search for directions to intersection of Mercer Street and Veterans Memorial Parkway in East Providence through Google Maps or GPS. Parking is overlooking the river on the West side of the highway.
Sat weather forecast.
A chance of rain, mainly before 10am. Patchy fog before 9am. Otherwise, cloudy through mid morning, then gradual clearing, with a high near 52. Southwest wind 13 to 17 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 39 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
There is some news on the Midnight Marathon ride on April 20th. PANCAKES. If your doing the ride and want pancakes at 2:30 AM or so, you need to buy a ticket.
The details of the ride are forthcoming. Soon. I promise.
New England Randonneurs Brevet
Dighton Rock 200k, Sunday April 11 2015, details here
Below is a link to the Narragansett Bay Wheelmen’s ride schedule. All rides are open to everyone. The Sunday ride has options for different miles.
**(I’ll be riding Saturday mornings Cafe Tour on the East Bay Bike Path. It’s a great start to this seasons riding. 26 miles of easy pedaling, stopping for coffee and a snack at the halfway point in Bristol R.I.) Leaves Fort Hill at 10AM
The link offers tons of information about local club rides, charity rides, brevets, and other bike related events. There is also instructions on using their GPS files on your device.
Finally a list of events happening this year.
Everything you need to know about biking in New England is in one place ready for your perusing pleasure.
The weather is gradually improving. The snow is gone and now it’s time to start spring cleaning. The roads and parking lots are covered in sand. The bike path is painted with brush and twigs but people are out and smiling again. It was a difficult two months of continuous heavy snowfalls and bitter cold. That’s all in the past as Easter approaches. The time of new (the lily) and abundant (the rabbit)life.
Cover Photo: Waiting for the start of the NYC Five Boroughs Tour on Avenue of the Americas.
It’s been a couple of months but finally today I’ll be back on my bike. Riding to the gym first then who knows where after that. It’s time to begin the daily fitness rides also. Working my way up to 30 miles a day. Maybe it will happen on the first day. Tomorrow will tell.
Riding to yoga class.
A decent but long winded explanation of the laws concerning bikes in Boston. I am curious to hear how far into the video you got before letting out that big sigh I know will come, and hitting the stop icon. I paused and moved on to other things twice before finally getting to the end.
Cover Photo: Winners of the SouthCoast bike challenge being recognized.
That’s an acronym of a Bruce Willis quote from Die Hard. It’s said in celebration of the cleansing of the Northeast for us bike riders. Not only has the snow been cleared but the torrential downpours have cleared much of the debris off the roadways. Continue reading “YKAMF”→
Cover Photo. The Verrazano Narrows Bridge connecting Brooklyn to Staten Island.
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As always, click and photo for big. Click again for bigger
Hopkinton, MA. The start of the Midnight Marathon Bike Ride
There is still no place to ride a bike which put a severe crimp in training for biking in Panama next week. I have been putting on some time at the gym, but anyone who rides knows that a stationary bike is no substitute for the real thing. The only thing worse is riding on a trainer. I tried that one season and ended up selling the stupid thing.
Biker riders all over the northeast are pining to get back on the road and all we can do for now is dream (and write) about our upcoming trips. With that let the show begin with highlights of last years rides that we are doing again this year.
First up is the Midnight Marathon Bike ride that we do on the eve of the Boston Marathon in mid April. We load our bikes for transport to Hopkinton (some ride from Boston). We board the Amtrak to the start and the thousand or so riders bike the marathon route back to the city. No leaders, no rules, no helmet is required, no nothing. Everyone is on their own. It’s a hoot. Oh did I mention that the ride begins at midnight?
Two weeks later on the first Sunday of May, it’s the New York City Five Boroughs Ride. 30.000 riders have the roads of Manhattan, Queens, da Bronx, Brooklyn and the Verrazano Bridge to ourselves. This is a big MF bridge especially at the end of a forty mile bike ride. We also cross four other bridges to make this a five boroughs five bridges rides. Seeing all the boroughs of New York on a bicycle at 12 mph with no vehicles is the bee’s knees.
A month of training leads up to the years big tour. Riding the Great Allegheny Passage Pittsburgh, PA. to Cumberland, MD. Lat year I did it with the Rails to Trails dot org group and found it such a great ride that a couple of us are doing it again this year on our own. Or as we in the bike culture say, “self supported”.
There is also the GRAND TOUR from Florida to Austin, Texas. I have been wanting to do a cross country tour for years and time is running out for me to cross that off of my list. Twice I have been ready to go and had to cancel. I wanted to do this solo but I am not adverse to riding with company. The video is a young man who did this last summer and I am only linking his video so he can get lots of hits on his YouTube. CLICK HERE for Mr Smith’s (Barett), video. Leave him a note if you feel like it. He did a great job and deserves recognition.
This has the possibility of being a really good spring and summer.
In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Reward.”
This was our reward for a couple of hours hiking near San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina. We could hear the rumbling of the glacier avalanches that happened every few minutes. What looks like waterfalls is the remnants of those avalanches.
A Midnight Rider 