weekend off-road rides

 Above: the author, looking better than I ought. Thanks to Martin G for the photo.

 I have not posted often about rides this fall, mostly because I haven't gone on group rides, and my solo rides don't generally include anything interesting (even to me). 

When it gets this cold, we generally stay off the roads, and ride paths and trails to avoid the wind. (Sometimes, the wind-avoidance is successful.) I got invited on two such rides this Thanksgiving weekend. The first was a ride around the Lawrence-Hopewell Trail, led by Tom H. 

 That's not all of the folks who came; we were ten or eleven. The LHT is one of our regular winter rides, although we tend to do it only once per season (or maybe that's just the frequency that I go along). Our path wends through paved trail, clay-surface trail, along local streets, through parking lots and parks, and even through a private school. 

This crew had riders at a range of abilities. Some went off at their own pace; others slowed to ensure that nobody rode alone (partly because the LHT is not ideally marked, and it's easy to get lost). We swapped off on the riding-in-the-back duties.

We left from the Maidenhead Meadows lot (which was PACKED! Evidently, a number of folks had the idea of hiking or running part of the trail on this Thanksgiving Friday). Early in our route, we came upon a boardwalk, of considerable length (and apparently, newly-finished), over some wetlands along the route:

 The surface makes for a pleasant ride, and it protects the fragile surface below. There are other wooden bridges at other points along the route, but nothing as long as this.

 You can see our route on the ride page.

 

---

While we were on that ride (apparently), Laura OLPH apparently got the idea to do a D&R canal towpath ride from Washington's Crossing up to Lumberville and back. She sent out feelers later in the day to gauge interest, and there was enough to run the ride (we had five).

At the start:

 This is a simpler out-and-back route (although we did vary a couple of short sections on the way back, as you can see from the ride page). It felt much colder to me than the previous day (but I also find that, after about six or seven miles, I begin to acclimate to the temperatures). 

Some of our number stopped at the Prallsville Mills.

 I'd misread the planned length of the trip, and was grateful when we got to the store at Lumberton.

On the way back, crossing the bridge, we saw a huge flag. Martin G thought to stop for pictures, and I decided he had a good idea.

 Also on the way back, we found this abandoned railroad car, apparently a favorite stop for the local taggers.

 Martin G got this one, with my back in the foreground:

 And to end, one more from Martin G. I don't post pictures of myself in this blog, but when Martin gets these shots, I make a point of including them.

 Thanks, Martin.

another option ride

 It's been a while since I posted about a ride. It's been a while since I did a group ride.

 As I've posted, I haven't either the strength nor the stamina I once did, and while I might be able to get back to that, I'm not sure I'm willing to put in the single-minded focus to get back to that level - I feel like I might have to give up other things that have become important to me. So while my usual crew were planning forty-plus miles with 2300' of climb* at a pace where I was sure I'd be dragging back the group (if I could keep up at all), I found there was another ride with the club that was going a little less distance, with less climb. And folks I like were going along. 

*I used to be a good climber. I still am, sometimes. But I don't love the hills the way I once did. (And I'm not good at descents.) 

So at stupid:30 this morning, I registered, and showed up at the start. It's close enough that I could have ridden from home, but I over-exerted on a project in the garage yesterday, and decided to allow myself a break. I drove in, stopping for a couple of bagels (carbs for the ride, doncha know).

And I had a great time with these folks. You can see the route and my performance on the ride page. It happens that much of this ride went on roads through the neighborhood we moved to a couple of years ago, so these roads are now on my regular solo training routes (this is a new experience for me; I've been riding in the Sourlands for years, and I'm still lost up there most of the time). 

We had riders at a range of experience. For much of the way, I chose to stay in the back with the slower folks, and helped to make sure the group didn't split up too badly. Except for two who chose to go off the front, we kept together at turns, and when there were the occasional requested stops, we went only when everybody was ready. 

Jeff P showed off his new wooden bike:

 It's laminated cherry, with a ZIPP wheelset, a one-by drivetrain, and the Wheeltop electronic shifters. He put on cable caliper brakes, making the sensible argument that he's been riding bikes with caliper brakes for decades and there's no reason to change now. (Of course, I would find this sensible; my road bike, the Yellow Maserati, sports caliper brakes, and bar-end friction shifters.)

At about 25 miles, we turned west on Federal Road, and started about six miles of straight-into-the-wind, which had picked up out of nowhere; it had not been windy previously. We traded pulls, and at one of the stops, a rider pointed out that the tops of the trees didn't seem to be moving... it was as if the headwind were ginned up only on the road surface itself, solely for our consternation. 

It goes that way sometimes.

 

yes, it's classist...

 I know classical music is classist... but I have loved it for years, and I'm not giving it up.

born to run 50th anniversary ride

Above, PFW members in front of the house where Bruce Springsteen spent his pre-teen years.

Every now and then, the club does a specialty ride of some kind. There's a regular repeat of a century to the shore and back, in memory of the late Don Sprague, who led that route for years. We had a ride that included stops and lectures of historical sites in Mercer County, including the Pole Farm and sites on Washington's march to Trenton. (I've been hinting for a member who has special knowledge of Trenton and the D&R canal in that area to lead a ride-with-talks, but the hint has so far not been taken up.)

Club President Mike V has led rides before that have included passing sites significant to Bruce Springsteen. This year, the fiftieth anniversary of the release of the "Born To Run" album, he listed a ride passing by the sites of three houses where Springsteen spent his boyhood. ("Three houses" implies more grandeur than is appropriate; in each case, Springsteen's family occupied half of the house, or less, and one of the houses was condemned and razed, and the land is now part of a parking lot.)

 We had nineteen registered, seventeen of whom showed up at the start (the Excellent Wife [TEW] met us along the route; another did not appear at all, doubtless due to the demands of real life). Despite the range of abilities, we stayed together well for the first part of the ride, up to the sites in question (all in Freehold). 

At the first house:

 

Below: Mike talking in the site of the second house, now the parking lot of St Rose of Lima church. We had to disperse quickly when mass let out.

 Free Wheelers blocking traffic outside the third house:

 Then it was time to get some miles in. We made a stop at the Freehold location of Broad Street Dough Co, a source for designer doughnuts. Riders were VERY impressed; so much so, that as I now live in a location where I might conveniently lead a ride to that stop, that strong hints were dropped that I might lead a ride with that as the stop, as I do to that Italian bakery in Raritan (although one rider opined that I might start the ride there, allowing a pre-ride doughnut, and end it there, allowing for him to bring home a supply),

I don't know. If he had them in the car, and had, say, a forty-minute ride home, how many would you suppose would survive the car trip?

In any case, I'm beginning to plot a route. 

It was a delightful day; the weather, the occasion, and the company all cooperated. I ope to have a similar experience again. Do any members have any good ideas? 

thinking of the roman empire

 It's not a perfect correlation... but he kinda reminds me of Caligula.

getting back to it

 I've fallen off writing about these rides. It's probably part of a general malaise about cycling: I like working on the bikes (and I'm getting more opportunities to do so), and I like teaching about them (I teach the Basic Bicycle Maintenance course at the Princeton Adult School, and, as usual, the course is full for this semester)... but I'm less taken with actually riding the bike, probably because I'm not as strong or as fast as I was a couple of years ago (and I was never very fast, although I used to be good going up a hill).

Other responsibilities, illness, and cataract surgery led to my not riding much over the past year or so, but I've gotten back to it (less because I really enjoyed it, and more because I want to get back into better physical shape). As I've ridden more, I've gotten better (now, there's a surprise), and as I've gotten better, I've gotten more interested in riding more.

 

 All this to say that I went out on one of the weekday club rides this past Wednesday. Since it's a weekday ride, most of the folks who come are retired. The regulars who used to do this ride called it "Team Social Security", although that seems to have fallen out of use.

As you can see from some of the pictures, the "Team Social Security" moniker would still apply.

 

The rides are usually about 30-35 miles, and while they advertise C, C-plus, and B-minus paces, they tend to go faster; riders go off the front, and sometimes wait at turns or stops (and sometimes don't). This ride was advertised as having B-minus and C-plus rides doing the same route (so that riders who tired after starting with the faster group, could get "picked up" by the slower group  when we came along). There was a certain amount of self-reflection and reassessment of personal abilities as some of the riders looked at the fast folks who came for the B-minus ride... and it may be that one decided to roll with the slower group, instead.

That said, though, one of the things I like about this group, is that they look out for one another, and don't let people just fall of in the back. I'm an occasional drop-in, but the regulars know one another's abilities, and consider whether someone may be having an off day. They know that some don't climb well, for example, but will keep up handily on flats and descents. They keep a brisk pace, but they care for one another.

 

My current schedule doesn't allow for me to come out on all of their rides, but I think I need to join them more frequently than I do.

 

You can see how we did on the ride page. 

 

I've got a couple of interesting rides planned for the upcoming weekend, and I plan to do posts about them, as well. And now that I've written that, perhaps I'll feel responsible enough to actually do it.