runnin' me ragged

 

It was a conspiracy, I tell youse...

So I had a great ride yesterday, if a little long - 100km (60 miles) is close to the maximum distance I like to do these days. I'm also leading a 30-ish mile ride for the Memorial Day All-Paces Rides for my club, the Princeton FreeWheelers, tomorrow.

So for today, I chose a route of about 40 miles, with about the fewest demanding hills of the routes I usually do, and a plan to stop at the Blawenburg Bistro. 

Well, after they were closed for Mother's Day, I called the Bistro... and found they were ALSO closing for the Sunday of this Memorial Day Weekend (that's today). I'd already posted the ride and the route, so I contacted my registrants, and told them to bring snacks, and we'd have to do without. (I've already called and checked to make sure that my stop for tomorrow's ride will be open...)

Now, I plan a pace of 13.0-14.9mph on my rides (my club calls that  C+ ride). But there were only four club rides scheduled for today, and mine was the fastest-paced... so many of the folks who would have gone on a faster ride today, came out for mine. (And more would have come; I set the limit at sixteen, and had to turn away requests.)

At the start:

Above: even more revolution being plotted.

We started out in good order... but soon they got away from me, and for much of the ride, sweep Dave H and I were discussing the fate of the world, and how far away was the horizon over which the other riders had disappeared.

(After the ride yesterday, I just didn't have it to push today!)

At one of the places where they allowed me to catch up:

We stopped at the Bessie Grover Park (not least so I could put my lungs back in). We came back through Skillman Park, across Tony's Bane at Dead Tree Run Road, and up Canal Road. I limped back alone to find a few of 'em still in the lot.

Heddy, above, angela misericordiae (angel of mercy), gave me a bottle of cold water she'd had for her own ride home. I think I'm honor-bound to save her houseplants from a building fire, should the need arise.

Riders registered with me tomorrow will not need to worry about me running away with the pace. 

Don't let the average on the Ride Page fool you. My subsequent ride home barely crossed 11mph.

they should all be like this.

 

Tom H posted a 40-or-so-mile-ride today on the Princeton FreeWheeler Ride Calendar, calling it "moderately hilly through the Sourlands and along a few rivers". His start, near the quarry on Kingston-Rocky Hill Road, is about ten miles from home for me, so I decided to ride in and back, and turn the day into a metric nearly-century, almost 100 kilometers.

I met Eric H riding in.

At the start:

I'd seen the elevation diagram for the planned route:

...and decided I was worried about that big hill about a quarter of the way in, so I'd put the easy gears on the bike, but I needn't have worried; the diagram was deceiving, and we went over with decent breath and strength (although with the usual excess of complaining).

It was a glorious, beautiful day.

They can't all be like this, but I wish they could.

You do, too.

Ride page. (Doesn't include my rides from home or back. Like, do you really care about those?)

the illusion of prIvacy

 So I did some research on Youtube, on my supposedly "secure" browser Vivaldi, on the Karoo 2 bike computer.

In my Facebook feed this morning, in my "sell your private data to anybody" browser Opera, the second item in my feed is an ad for the Karoo 2.

So much for the illusion of privacy.

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In other news, one of the videos I saw was this from Monty at Sportive Cyclist.

I love his presentation style. He's got the dry, self-deprecating, easy-profanity humor I wish I could emulate,

i warned 'em

 

My description of this ride included the following:

Look: this one's not for everybody. Part of the route on the way there is milled (due to flooding, not for construction; that part's ALWAYS gonna be milled), and the route back includes a long strip of Main St in Somerville and Bound Brook.

But I've gotten multiple requests to do this route again, and if these guys (yeah, of course they're all guys) want it that bad, then I'll schedule it.

The stop is at the Italian Bakery and Espresso Bar in Raritan, and it IS that good that it's worth the bad route. (Or at least it is to some of these riders...)

Like, that oughta be enough warning, right? So not only was the ride filled, but three people initially scheduled to do something else rode along for a while.

I refuse to be held responsible.

It was a great day, though; not as cool as I was afraid it would be, and the wind wasn't much of a detriment on the ride (and was an asset for much of the way back). Two riders made suggestions about alterations to the route on the way to the stop, which I'll almost certainly incorporate (I've already got a suggestion solicitation email out to one of the riders).

The stop really is that good, though.

More about that woman on the left below.

When I ordered my crumb cake, the woman in the photo above put it on a plate. When I asked for just a bit of wax paper, with an eye-roll she not only insisted on the plate, but went outside, and pulled out another table and a chair... and then continued to get a chair for each new rider who appeared, with the appropriate amount of sass. It was fun.

And back. The route back is along Main Street in Somerville and Bound Brook, and no rider is going to think of it as a good time... but soon enough we were turning over the Queens Bridge into South Bound Brook (after waiting for what may have  been some dignitary's funeral, with many motorcycles, some riders of which were in business suits). Then we took advantage of a tailwind to go the length of Elizabeth Street, to Amwell, and back to the start.

Often (nearly always, in the good weather), there's a woman doing graceful and athletic steps on roller blades when we get back to the start. Laura OLPH had mentioned this to Matt F, but she was nowhere to be seen today. Matt, I assure you: she's usually there, and I'm sorry that her appearance was not in place to make up for that drudgery on Main Street in Somerville today.

Ride page.

windy out and back

 

Tom H invited a few of his Insane Bike Posse out for a slightly-under-40-miles today. 

Tom saw that the wind was going to be a presence, so he set the route mostly into the wind on the way out, so we'd have mostly a tailwind on the way back. It worked. Sort of.

We did this route.

When we got to the Assunpink, we decided to roll around and make sure the pond was still there.

It was.

Along the way, Martin (a pro photographer) explained why our pictures of those hills that look so frightening in real life, never look threatening in the pictures. I was glad to learn it was not simply my dunderheadedness. (I can ascribe an adequate number of my ills to that already.)

For us, a ride of this length is just on the edge of whether we need to have a snack break or not, so we decided not to... but human frailty and age intervened, and we decided a stop for attention to our renal needs was in order. We dropped in at Village Park in Cranbury.

And once again, Martin got a picture of me:

Yeah, I don't ever look that good. Martin is a pro.

they who have eyes to see, let them see

 Not every white intellectual snob with a bow tie is Tucker Carlson.

(I had to provide a headshot for an ID badge at the hospice at which I hope to volunteer, and I insisted on a jacket-and-tie.)

cross check craziness

 About three-and-a-half years ago, one of the brake mounts broke on the fork of the Krakow Monster, my monstercross bike built on a Surly Cross-Check frame (you can see the entry at the bottom of this post on the other blog). I bought a new fork, and installed everything.

Today, another brake mount broke on the new fork. On the near side of the fork in the picture above, there should be about another 3/4" of extension on that nub in the picture. It doesn't show in the picture, but the broken piece is inside the brake arm I'm holding to the left.

I doubt I'm going to buy another Cross-Check fork. I might buy a fork with a mount for a disk brake, but that will require rebuilding the wheel with a disk-brake hub (I'd use a hybrid cable-fluid brake, like the Juin Tech one if I did that). Or I might go a different direction entirely: get a new frame, build it up with the parts I have...

No big loss. I only put about 30 miles on that bike last year.

much bling; little business

 

I get bar wrap from Ali Express, because it's cheap, and because I can find colors and patterns not elsewhere available. I usually stay two or three packs ahead, because I have no idea how the stuff is gonna feel on the bike, how long it will be*, or how durable.

A few riders and club members remarked on this most recent pattern, and, while I agree the pattern is nice, I'm disappointed. I put it on about two weeks ago, and in that time (and about 300 miles), the pattern layer is wearing off. I won't be using this stuff again.

I've replaced it with an even more bling-y pattern, but it appears to be on the same substrate as the stuff in the pictures above. I hope the current stuff lasts. 

But if not, I'm only out about $10-15 (and three or four weeks of shipping time). And if  get real dissatisfied, I can get no-backing black EVA for about $5. I buy those five-at-a-time for the New Brunswick Bike Exchange.

*Deda Elementi tape (real Italian stuff; NOT cheapo Ali Express) comes in some of the best colors, including a deep red and three different shades of green... but it's always just that little bit too short.