I was about to drive to yoga when the weather on the 8’s began broadcasting. It was raining but the prediction was for the sun to show itself after and eight day hiatus in just a couple of hours. That got me into the garage to check out the “made summer ready” road bike. I’ll keep this short. Continue reading “Three Flats and Sunshine.”
Tag: south coast massachusetts
Early Morning Is The Best Time To Ride
Early morning ride to get my hair done. I left the shop at 8;30 and it was just too nice not to ride. 45 and cloudy. It is the first day without rain this month. Met with a couple of bike friends and fellow photographers, Peter Perreira and Josh Sousa at Tia Maria’s European Cafe in New Bedford. Naturally we talked bikes. A ride around the peninsula in the city before returning home to power wash the decks and clean two bikes of all the crap they collect from riding in the rain. Probably do a second ride tonight
Day 29. Exercise Tiger
Day 29 of 30 Days of Biking was a 17.5 mile loop on a sunny, cool, windy day.
I got the Novara Randonee bike all tuned up for NYC tomorrow and took it out for a shakedown ride. Everything is working fine and after eight years, I finally decided to adjust my saddle to eliminate the problems the pressure caused. It took that long because this is primarily my touring bike. During and after every tour I promised myself to adjust the seat. I always forgot about it till the next tour. After taking it our for a test run last week, I was determined to fix the thing. You can’t imaging how painful things became trying to relieve myself. It always turning into a scream. All is good now.
The ride took me into the city (New Bedford, Ma), around the peninsular and into the old Army Base name Fort Rodman. I stopped by the military museum and the old Fort within a fort, Fort Taber.
A stiff ocean breeze kept the temps in the low 50’s but the wind was at my back for the return leg of the ride. The beaches were deserted except for a lone man hunting for treasures.
Rain is in the forecast for Sunday’s ride but for now it looks to be off and on showers. We can live with that. My last day of 30 days of biking is very likely to be a lap around the parking lot in Staten Island tomorrow. Fortunately there is no minimum distance in the rules. Thirty days of riding is a done deal and Sunday begins “The National Bike Challenge“. My hometown of Fairhaven, MA will be out to regain our spot as the winner in the local challenge that we lost last year to our Neighbors in Mattapoisett, MA. I’m pretty sure we got this.
Beating the Rain
The local weather gave a 40 % chance of rain for an hour followed by 10% for another hour. That gave me time to get in 26 miles for day 26 of 30 days of riding. It was one of those days where I got into the zone. For instance, Vaughn Hill is a nemesis of mine. I begin to dread the climb a half mile away. Today, I came out of the zone and realized I was a mile beyond Vaughn Hill. I climbed it and didn’t even notice. I did other hills at double digit miles where before today my speed would drop to 6 -8 MPH. I was having a blast.
I was really excited to see my stats for this ride because I know it was the fastest by far, of the season. Naturally, when I got home I shut down my Garmin and didn’t save the ride. I do have a wired bike computer attached but that only told me the time and distance with none of the fun stuff that Strava tells me when the information migrates from connect.garmin. Oh well. It would have been nice but within a couple more rides, this one would be out of sight and mind.
The last ride of this event will be in New York on Saturday. I’ll probably do a short ride in Staten Island before we take the ferry to Manhattan for registration. Sunday will be a celebration of completing 30 days of biking with 32,000 friends as we ride the 5 Boroughs and 5 Bridges of NYC.
Day 23. I Am The Egg Man
If I didn’t commit to 30 days of riding I very well may have ditched today’s ride. For a plethora of reasons, I didn’t leave the house till after 4 PM. The first few miles were a struggle to say the least. I could have turned around anytime and still have fulfilled my 30 days, but…… I have an event next weekend and don’t want to go to NYC wishing I had put more miles in preparation. Continue reading “Day 23. I Am The Egg Man”
30 Days of Biking
Day 21 of 30 days of biking took me on a longer loop of 25 miles. Ten days from now is the NYC five boroughs bike tour and I’m doing my best to get some serious miles in. I did stop a couple of times and took photos but today was a training ride.
One of my stops was to answer my cell phone when wifey called from the Dominican Republic. When we travel we use WhatsApp. We were turned on to this app by an Israeli soldier when we were in Panama last year. WhatsApp uses the internet to make calls, texts etc anywhere in the world. No more paying for international calling on my cell phone.
I used the Novara Randonee touring bike for this ride to make sure everything was working OK, not only for the NYC ride but also for my short summer bike tour. The tour is narrowed to two possibilities. Leaving from home and riding Cape Cod and the Islands or traveling to West Virginia to ride the North Bend Trail. The Cape is solo and West Virginia is a fully supported tour. Decisions, decisions.
Day 5 of 30 Days of Biking
I had to return my new camera that had a major issue. One of the Geeks at best buy made sure that it was a defective camera and not operator error. I was hoping it was only a setting that I screwed up, but the screen was defective. Because I got the display model, replacing it would cost me around a hundred twenty five more. I found one that is better suited to my use and to my surprise, Best Buy discounted it 10% for my troubles so it cost me less than $100 for a really good camera.
I’m on Day 5 of the 30 days of biking challenge and because of the weather, a challenge is an understatement. It was cold and windy most of the day. However, things had changed for the better around 3 PM which made it an easy choice to ride to Yoga class. I got to try out the new camera and am liking it a lot.
Night Ride To Yoga
It was a chilly and windy ride into the city for Yoga. The yoga leader decided to do core work this evening. It hurt soooo good.
Although the ride to the city was chilly, the ride home was very cool. A full moon, clear sky and the wind at my back made the ride home a joy. I tried taking a few shots of church steeples with the full moon and sky as a backdrop but I could not hold still enough to take a night shot. I only got one. One of the others is the old Vocational school built with the design of a manufacturing mill. They certainly had different ideas about education back then.
One Minute Video
The One Minute video. It’s simple — no camera movement, no editing, only existing sound, one minute long.
My New Bike Surprised Me
The so’wester gale was a blow’n. The original plan, hatched yesterday, was to get the road bike ready and begin training for bike events happening soon. I got stuck watching the Davis Cup and before I knew it. It was noontime. I decided that today was not going to be the day for a long ride with sustained winds of 20-25 knots, so I settled on the new Scott bike, I got on my trip to Austin last year, for the short ride to the bank. Continue reading “My New Bike Surprised Me”
A Midnight Rider 