Ride Into The Sunset. Thursday 5:30 PM in Newport, RI

This is one of the highlight rides of the summer. Ride along the beaches, five mile drive, the mansions and chasms of Newport, RI. The ride begins at 6 PM at the bike shop which is across the street from the baseball stadium.

Newport bike has a large parking lot less than a mile from the bike shop and it’s available free of charge for anyone with a bike.

Ten Speed Spokes Longest Day Ride is a yearly event held to celebrate the start of summer and all things cycling. It features 4 different length arrowed courses. Everything is free! Shirts and helmets are required.

All skill levels and ages of cyclists are invited.

This year the Honky Tonk Knights are playing live tunes for your return to the shop.

The ride will be on June 25th and will start at 6pm. Be sure to get here by 5:30pm at the latest to allow time for check in. T-shirts will be limited to the first 150 people who check in on the day of the ride so get here early!

After the ride Five Speed Spokes bike shop provides, entertainment, soda, a beer, pizza and snacks. All included in the free ride.

People, Boats, Bikes and Horses

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The ride in Tiverton, RI last night was a bust. No big deal for this retired guy. I’ll do a long ride tomorrow morning. Well, tomorrow morning arrived and I remembered I am playing tennis tonight. No big deal for this retired guy. I’ll do a long ride tomorrow. Tomorrow will come and I’ll be lucky to walk after a couple hours of tennis tonight. I did find a solution to those next day lactic acid filled burning legs. An ice bath after tennis.

Filling a tub with the coldest water possible out of the faucet, then sitting in it, is very difficult. Last year the best I could do was kneel in the tub. Last week however, I tried the frog in the boiling water system. The one that says if you drop a frog in very hot water it will jump out. But, if you put a frog in cool water and slowly bring it to a boil, the frog will allow itself to be cooked. I sit in an empty tub and turn the cold water on so it flows very slowly, gradually opening the faucet as I adjust to the shock. It’s not easy, but it’s doable. It’s amazing how fast the lactic acid recovery is by a simple ice bath. Or in my case, a cold bath. It’s common for pro athletes to do the ice bath after a game.

There was time to do a ride around town today. Fairhaven, MA is a waterfront town within sight of the western side of Cape Cod and on a clear day, Martha’s Vineyard. A camera is an essential bike component for any bike blogger worth their salt. Sometimes a photographer begins the day with a theme and there are other times, like today, that we simply pay attention to the world and stay ready for what ever happens. There was a lot going on today.

Buzzards Bay Swim

There was a rally for the volunteers for Saturday’s Buzzard Bay Swim. It was too good an evening not to ride my bike the four miles to the gathering and the waterfront was abuzz with activity.

It was a quiet ride home but I did stop at the salt marsh to watch all the activity in the water. Duck families, egrets, lots of small birds like robins, starlings and others scrambling for a last minute meal, making a racket with their screams. Needless to say, the nine feet of snow we had on the ground a few short weeks ago is nothing but a fond memory.

As always, click any photo for big. Click again for bigger.

Newport, RI

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See all the Photos on flickr HERE

The call was issued by the Fall River Bike gang to meet in Newport for an early Sunday morning bike ride. Expecting a medium hard ride, I loaded the road bike and set out on the 45 minute drive to the start at Newport Bike Coalition office on the island. (Newport is on Acquidneck Island). There I met up with five other riders and ended up being unofficially elected to lead this ride.

Sunny, eighty something degrees with no wind riding our bikes in Newport RI. There are things just as good I’m sure, but I doubt if there is anything better. Early in the ride we all decided this would not be a ride so much as a sightseeing adventure on our bikes. Because of all the stops, it took us three hours to ride twenty two miles. The up side, we all got some great photos.

Fort Adams, Ocean Drive, First and Second Beaches and Purgatory Chasm were the highlights of this ride. I didn’t get a photo but we stopped near Flo’s Clam Shack were their special is two hot dogs and a bottle of Moet for $110. It’s so unique that it’s one of the most popular items on the menu. Remember, we are in Newport. Home of Mansion Row on Bellvue Ave, the tennis hall of fame and the America’s Cup Yacht races. As daddy always says, “money don’t spend itself”.

Martha’s Vineyard.

We drove back to New England but were certainly not ready to end our bike tour. We decided to drive out to Wood’s Hole and catch the ferry to “the Vineyard” to do a day of riding, eating, drinking beer and sightseeing. We got all that accomplished.

A bit of fun with the panorama function on my camera.

One of the things that struck me was how much better riding is when it’s done in civilization. The GAP for me is rated a little below OK. With the stories we heard of the C&O conditions, I really think it would have soured both Brandon and I on bike touring. MORE

Bike Tour Day 1. Pittsburgh to Connellsville PAore

After staying in a wonderful airbnb, we took a Uber to the train station to unbox and assemble our bikes. Withing a few pedal strokes I knew I had severely over packed. I found a post office a mile away and shipped home all my cooking and some of the camping gear. Keeping only the tent and a pillow, just in case.

It was 1:30 by the time we got riding and we got in a slow 62 miles to the town of Connellsville, PA. We ran into a father and son from Alaska, Jeff and Finn who turned us on to a cheap motor lodge at the top of a pretty severe hill. Normally this would not be an issue, but after riding 60 miles on dirt, it was kind of tough.

Today we will continue into Myerdale, around 60 miles. More about today later today. Pictures and all that stuff.

Bike Tour Travel Day

Red Roof Inn Baltimore Airport — I like Red Roof. It’s inexpensive. That’s the extent of the good things to say. You get the point.

I drove the the Red Rood Inn at Baltimore airport last night. Brandon is flying in from Austin this morning. We will drive 30 miles to Union Station in DC, box our bikes and do the tourist thing while we wait to board the 4:30 Amtrak to Pittsburgh.

Tomorrow morning we begin our bike ride from Pittsburgh to DC on the Great Allegheny Passage and the C&O canal towpath. We will be mixing camping with soft beds and hot showers.

It’s Touring Time

IMG_20150528_150913604 — The bike all packed up and ready to go.

Early Sunday morning I drive to Baltimore to pick up Brandon. We begin our tour on Monday in Pittsburgh and should arrive back in DC on the following Sunday or Monday. The weather looks dicey but we will make do.

FB_IMG_1430832275891 — Brandon from Austin.

IMG_20150429_114134842 — amidnightrider from Cape Cod

The Whole Enchilada

Since 2008, I have been talking about riding the C&O/GAP bike tour. We came close a couple of times but the logistics scared us off. Last year, I did the GAP with the Rails to Trails group but did not get to see the C&O. This year, everything came together and seven years after I set my sights on doing this ride, it’s finally going to happen. Back in the early days of bicycle touring, the nerves would usually kick in a week before the ride began. All the “what ifs”. With a few tours experience, it’s become a summer routine. I still get excited, but instead of thinking about all the things that could go wrong, I installed new handlebar tape on my touring bike.

Most of the stuff is laid out on the bed aligned with the pannier it will occupy. It’s under guard so I’m not worried about anything going missing. ( I have a small dog that likes to take things to different parts of the house).

On tour, or reading about touring, there are always stories about people going out of their way to do something for the traveler. This tour however, things began before our first pedal stroke. A new friend from bikeforums.net got us a visitors resident parking pass in DC. When we get to Pittsburgh, we are staying at an airbnb host.

June 1st is our travel day and we begin the ride on June 2nd.

Sunday Ride

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The weather has been hokey lately. Lots of windy days and lots of cool days. Two months ago if the temperature hit 55, we would all run out of the house in our underwear celebrating and dancing praise to the fire gods. Now when it’s only 55, we run into the house and turn on the heat. Today was in the 60’s so I went for a bike ride.

I chose a local bike club’s route that is pretty close to my house. A thirty mile loop that was arrowed by the Narragansett Bay Wheelmen titled, the Mattapoisett Ride. One of the highlights was when I came across the small town of Rochester MA, memorial day parade. It felt like I was in one of those movies that use small town extras. Cannonball Run with Burt Reynolds came to mind. It was really fun to be there and see how proud everyone was of their small town.

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