major taylor new hope ride

 

Today was the annual Major Taylors Cycling Club Newark to New Hope ride. I've been invited way plenty of times, including three or four times at the Mercer County Juneteenth Ride, and I decided that it might upset the gods if I continued to avoid it. The main event is the 115-mile ride from Newark to New Hope and back... but I'm not doing no 115 miles in one day, even if I haven't done 54 miles with 3400' of climb the day before. But they offer a 66-mile route from Johnson Park in Piscataway to New Hope and back. Now, Johnson Park is next door to my back yard, and 66 miles sounded possible, so I signed up.

None of the Usual Suspects was interested (and I only saw a couple of Free Wheelers at all, including one who was volunteering). But the folks who had been so insistent about the invite persuaded me that I'd meet people at the ride, and I did. But my energy flagged; I wound up doing a lot of the route alone after being mostly dropped by the people I was riding with. When I got to lunch, there were probably twenty riders behind me; by the time I finished, there were maybe five. I'm hoping my poor performance was due to the demanding ride I'd done the day before.

I went with the intention, though, of getting pictures, and get pictures I did. Here's the group riding in from Newark:

A few leaving the Grove Five, either back to Newark or to New Hope:

And a few more that were just too good to miss:

I don't know if I'll do it again, but I'm glad I did it. You can see the route (and my poor showing) on the ride page.

a longer ride with lots of climb

 

 

I'm pretty sure she's gonna complain about the way I say it when she sees this post, but it's clear that Laura OLPH has

HAD. IT.

with fast riders on her rides, pushing the pace and going off the front. So she emailed a few of us about her intention to post today's ride, and then only allowed for seven places, figuring she could add some if regulars were closed out.

Three regulars apparently were; we wound up with ten, for this 50-plus-miles-with-3500-feet-of-climb ride.

 

Out of Hillsborough and north, through Branchburg and Whitehouse Station. Polish John K had to get a selfie at this intersection (check the street signs) and I had to get a picture of John getting the selfie.

On a ride this long, I normally try to get some on-the-road pictures, but by the time I got my brains to it, we were on one of these ferocious climbs. My new GPS rates certain climbs, whether by length or difficulty, and there were eight of 'em on this ride, one of which was a wicked one before the stop in Califon.

(While we were at the stop, professional photographer Martin G got this of me cleaning the sweat and salt out of my headband. I call the procedure, "doin' laundry".)

You know when there was another wicked climb? Just as soon as we left the stop. Oh, SHEESH.

But then there was this long downhill to make up for it; you can see it on the elevation diagram on the ride page.

We plugged in a second stop on the way back. I, for one, was not complaining.

Laura was riding her newest bike, Janice. The Janice for whom the bike is named was the guitarist for Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem; here, she carries a pinwheel as her guitar, as the taillight provides her psychedelic lighting overhead.

I think it's suitable... although Laura tells me the other bikes are jealous of the attention with which Janice is getting showered these days.

Tomorrow, I'm planning to do the Major Taylors 66-mile Poscataway-to-New Hope-and-back ride. Why do I do this to myself?

eben weiss uses friction shifting, too

 Eben Weiss, the guy behind Bike Snob NYC, has an article up on Outside Online about changing all of his bikes to friction shifters.

Don't confuse friction with downtube. You can put your friction shifters on the downtube, or on the bar ends, or if you're just that insistent on keeping the shifters close to your brake levers, you can use bar-mounted thumbies. 

But with friction shifters, you'll never have to worry about groupset compatibility again. And yes, it's a skill you need to learn, but you'll have it within a ride or two. And the occasional missed shift is part of the fun.

Both of my bikes are set up with friction shifters. I can set one to index for when I need to... but the next time I expect to need to is when I'm teaching a bike maintenance class in the fall. (In other news, I'm teaching a bike maintenance class in the fall.)

And if it's good enough for the Bike Snob... well, I'm going to stop apologizing for my bike preferences, let's say that.

some old guys ride

 

Friend Jack H invited some of the old, retired guys on a ride today; Pete G, Martin G, and I showed up.

43 miles, almost 2000' of climb, 15.0 average. Pretty good for some guys who are all either at, or gonna see soon, 70 years old.

two things

 Two things: this morning, I was looking through some of my old blog posts for something else, and came upon this one from ten years ago, with a motto I'd forgotten about (but shouldn't have): inimicum malissimum meum mecum duco, "I bring my worst enemy with me".

The other thing: about three months ago, I came as close to suicide as I ever hope to come. I referred in that post to the forgotten war memorial. I was going to pass by there today on my way to something else, and I decided to stop and get some pictures.

There's some kind of design at top I can't place, and a legend at bottom, "Their Bodies Rest", which is how I know it was once a war memorial. There are bolts in the stone that apparently once held bronze plaques, but those are gone; whether officially removed, or stolen for the scrap metal, I don't know.

It's an eerie space. I don't know why the branches are stacked up near the base, whether for removal, or burning, or what. 

Last night was the last of a series of individual counseling sessions I'd begun to deal with a problem (that I'm not going to be specific about here). I'm done, for now.

I'll have a more complete post next month for suicide month. But the gods told me that today was a day to stop by there, and I find they don't take kindly to being ignored.