The day began just a little bit cool. I decided to ride the 7 miles to yoga at the local Boys/Girls club. I just happened to look up and saw the wall above my bike stating that this was the third oldest club in the country. I have been going here for two years for yoga, putting my bike in the same spot and it took this long to look up.
Another long unnoticed item on a regular route is this closed gas station. So many have tried to make a go of this but the location is crap. It’s on the edge of a bridge spanning the river that opens every hour. People have always hesitated to stop here for gas out of fear of getting stuck when the bridge opens. The prices say clearly how long this place has been closed.
The ride was intended to be longer, but the weather turned sour with dropping temperatures, wind and drizzle limited me to 16 miles. I did make one more stop at a recently closed motel that was a haven for transients, pimps and people with drug problems.
I went for a bike ride around town to take some photos that would allow me to work on my new editing software. It was a sultry January day on the SouthCoast of Massachusetts with an approaching winter storm on the horizon. I got the photo shoot done in plenty of time and actually the rain didn’t begin till after the editing was done.
Click the Vimeo link at the bottom right for the best experience
The plan was a 21 mile easy spin to recover from Tuesday night’s hammerfest. I made arrangements with the owner of Hungry Heroes Sub Shop for some riders to park and we would be back for the after ride dinner. I led us out of the parking lot, looked back and was the only one riding . One of our riders got a flat a few dozen yards from the start. .
Geoff fixing his flat
As we rode on the MUP I began to quicken the pace from our 8 MPH. Everyone was keeping up OK. On this ride was the new kid. Nick got his first road bike for Christmas and during the ride over the weekend that I was video taping, I noticed how he stayed with the fast riders. After telling my co-leader, Flat Tire Geoff, where we would meet up, I told the kid to go to after burners. We quickly got our speed up, way up. As we were riding I gave him instructions on pace line riding, how I would signal him to take over the lead.
We were clipping along at a pace of 18-21 MPH, I pulled left to let Nick take the lead and that’s when I noticed there were 4 of us in the paceline, and there was a second one chasing us. Once Nick got the lead, the bastards dropped me.
Fortunately, I was the only one who knew the route we were riding and we had to regroup at strategic spots when there were choices of turns to make.
After this stop we had a Strava segment coming up. Sixteen year old Nick who has been riding for less than two months, pulled the whole group of us up Vaughn Hill road at 22 MPH. Near the top, I blew up and had to drop out of the contest and also noticed that the rest of the pace line had also blown up and dropped back.. It was just me and Nick. I yelled had him to go for it, he didn’t understand what I was saying and also dropped his speed. It’s too bad, because he was on pace to break into the top ten for this segment.
At the 1/2 way point Lloyds Market, we again regrouped and rode as a pack for quite a way stopping to visit the Clydesdale Ranch and another horse ranch. The Clydesdales were put away for the night, but Baby, a few miles down the road was more than happy to spend time with anyone who stopped by.
One of the reasons we had to stop and regroup was Nick’s dad riding sweep. Not by choice BTW.
The last highlight of this route was riding past the World Headquarters of Titelist Golf, the Acushnet Company. We arrived at Hungry Heroes with calories to spare just in time to see the closed sign.
Fort Taber in New Bedford MA. Built to protect the city from an invasion by sea after the War of 1812. It was designed by Robert E Lee before he became an insurgent.
Yesterday I called the hills on our Wednesday Night Ramble Goldilocks hills. Not too steep, not too flat. My legs told me a different story overnight and this morning. An easy spin or recovery ride is a standard remedy for those aching muscles. I planned on one of those easy, short recovery rides. I ended up doing 25 miles, but it took over 3 hours with all the stops for photos, taking to friends, stopping for coffee, stopping for no reason. It was a good day to ride a bike.
The elevated walking and biking path in New Bedford, MA
The
The swing bridge turns on a massive cog that sits inside the yellow railing at the bottom of the bridge.
Another beautiful day for a bike ride. Today I set out to ride the Tour de Creme 25 mile option route. It’s a fundraising ride for the Mattapoisett Land Trust on the SouthCoast of Massachusetts. I offered to video the ride and today was to familiarize myself with the route. Not long into the ride I decided to take some videos and produce a trailer.
I stopped to talk to a neighbor on the way to the market. He complimented my new car and said, “all wheel drive?”. I responded, “why”. He said because of this. Continue reading “The Day After The Storm”→
There are a few local one day bike events that any biker rider worth their salt should have on their to do list. There is one local “bucket list” ride that everyone should do at least once.
This post is just a front for the video at the end. Skip all this and scroll down.
As I rode by the salt marsh I could hear the crackling of the ice breaking away. The over night temperature was in the single digits, but the day eventually warmed to 40 F. Continue reading “Even the Salt Water Froze”→
It sure is a nice feeling to be back riding a bike again. The fog lingered early on giving the salmarshes a unique perspective. These were taken in Fairhaven on the South Coast of Massachusetts.
As always, click any photo for big. Click again for bigger
A Midnight Rider 