Mastication

So, I wasn't lying in my last post about going to Massachusetts for Johanna's brother's wedding in Lenox, MA. I really went and I brought my bike. I did everything that I set out to do in that post. Since Johanna is family and I'm just a glorified +1, she was busy and I had some free time. On Friday, I rode down the street and ended up on this cute little ribbon of singletrack about a mile from downtown named after some guy named Dan. I returned from my little sojourn and learned that I still had like two and half more hours until the rehearsal dinner. This would allow me to fulfill my dream of riding at October Mountain State Forest.

Well, October Mountain sucked, or at least I only found the shitty trails. I was also besieged by heavy gunfire. Maybe it's because I live in a city with gun violence, but even when I'm wearing orange, gunfire kind worries me when I'm in a forest. I guess in Lee, unlike in Hartford, "shots fired" means recreation instead of a reason to call the police. The trails were also totally eroded to the point of being marginally to totally unridable by ATVs and dirtbikes. And, I kept bottoming out my car. As much as I pretend, my Passat is not yet ready for the WRC.

At least my car isn't painted as garishly. (photo credit to rallybuzz.com for Loeb's car)

So anyway, not being able to do awesome mountain biking while attending a wedding is ok. I'm not that selfish and/or self-centered. Johanna and I went for a walk around Lenox & I bought some really good cheese and Miller Lite. I still had some more time, so I decided to explore Kennedy Park, which is like 500 yards up the hill from the center of Lenox, by bike.

And the day was saved! Kennedy Park has several miles of awesome singletrack and the bad memory of October Mountain was erased. Kennedy Park is like a hillier Keney Park with more letters in its name, however, someone took some time to put in some sweet and swoopy singletrack. I even rode down this steep thing and off of a wall, which I didn't see, and didn't kill myself. The wall a big surprise.

the picture makes me look like a liar (or a wimp), but I swear that it's really steep and that's a death wall!

Then, due to the improvement in the mountain biking, the wedding was a great success for all to remember for years to come! Seriously, it was a really awesome wedding.

ornamental cannon

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Riding Massachusettsly

People who live in central and western Mass seem to be good at riding bikes. To figure out why I'm going up there this weekend. Well, no, that's not really true. I'm actually going up there, because Johanna's brother is having a wedding in Lenox. Maybe I'll have interesting stories upon my return, maybe I won't.

But, you can take some time from the edge your seat to stop by Catalogue over at 56 Arbor Street. This month it's Dawn Holder, she's awesome (and rides a bike to boot (maybe even rides a bike in boots)). It'll be at 8pm and here's a descriptive email about it:

Greetings and happy spring. May is the greatest.

This is an email announcement & invitation to our May CATALOGUE, featuring Dawn Holder:

Nocturne

Saturday, May 22

8 o'clock

56 Arbor Street

Suite # forthcoming

Hartford, CT 06106

Dawn is curious. She is an explorer, however an introverted one, navigating psychology rather than terrain. Her work is scary, and also fluffy. Porcelain explains it all. So does sugar. These are common tools.

Dawn is an adjunct faculty member and ceramics technician at the Hartford Art School. For CATALOGUE, she will venture into an odd, natural world, using oddly natural materials, creating environments with phosphorescence. We will walk in and look.

CATALOGUE is a monthly event that showcases artists, musicians and other creative endeavors, and is hosted by Joe Saphire, Nick Rice, and Joel VanderKamp. The event is a collaboration between artist, curator, community and space. CATALOGUEs for March, Brendan Mahoney, as well as other previous shows, will be available on Saturday the 22nd.

Contact us for directions or questions: CATA.info.LOGUE@gmail.com, and please pass this invitation along to those we might have missed.

Joe Saphire

Nick Rice

Joel VanderKamp

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Post-lawsuit Reservoir

I went on the CTNEMBA RAW @ MDC WH Res, or the Connecticut Chapter of the New England Mountain Bike Association's Ride After Work at the Metropolitan District Commission's West Hartford Reservoir. Living in the post-lawsuit mountain biking landscape, I was worried that I'd get there and have my bicycle confiscated. So, I rode my mean looking 29er. I met up with Don (from whom I bought my Kona, coincidentally) and Gary. Well, actually, they'd already left, so I rode to hopefully catch up. Not surprisingly, there were a lot of people riding in groups, so I kept asking each group I saw if they were the NEMBA group ride. Eventually, I caught them.

Nice slow pace and I was shown some cool new trails. Who knew that I'd keep finding new trails at the Reservoir. Also, lots of speculating about which gate was involved in the lawsuit.

Anyway, for the past few weeks there have been these strangely placed and confusing "trail closed" saw horses and they're still there. I don't know if they're related to the lawsuit, because they've been there since before the verdict was announced. Some are there because it looks like they're working on drainage stuff, but others don't make any sense.

After the ride, Johanna and I headed back into the woods for a five mile run. I slept well last night.

Not really any new updates on our beloved Reservoir. Hopefully status quo prevails. Read more!

Call to action!

If you live in the Hartford area, ride a mountain bike and read the paper, you've probably been following the story about the $2.9 million awarded to Maribeth Blonski of Rocky Hill. Ms. Blonski crashed her bike into a gate at the reservoir, broke four vertebrae in her neck and sued the MDC.

Mountain biking is an inherently dangerous activity. I've hurt myself mountain biking at the Reservoir, because sometimes I'm not very good at staying upright over rocks, but I wouldn't sue over that. Conversely, I feel that if someone is willfully negligent and creates an unsafe environment, a lawsuit is warranted. So, I'm sort of torn here, because a gate is a man-made (so, a created dangerous environment), but hitting a gate indicates a lack of control over one's bicycle. I'm going to stop there, but I don't know any more details in the case. I'm sorry Ms. Blonski got hurt.

However, as I freaked out yesterday, so did Rick Green. As someone who pays for MDC water, I want mountain biking kept legal at the Reservoir. I hope you do too. Please, contact the MDC and let them know your thoughts by email, stanguay@themdc.com, or by phone, 860 278 7850. Rick says there's a meeting of the personnel, pension and insurance committee tonight. These meetings are public, as far as I know, and are at 555 Main St. in Hartford.

CT-NEMBA chimes in, too.

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Threadless

I got my Stumpjumper back with its new headset and was excited to take it for a ride. I went up to Granville State Forest. I think the Hartland/Barkhamsted Dam/Mid-western Mass area is pretty and hilly. Trails aren't too trodden, but I was having a good time. They ran along side pretty, rocky streams. I like riding trails in remote and unpopular places, because it feels a lot more like hiking and nature-y. They may not have the most mountain bikesque lines, but that's ok.

So, I was about two miles in and having a good time, when all of the sudden my right foot feels weird. It was like I wasn't pedaling on something flat. In fact, it wasn't like I wasn't pedaling on something flat, I was not pedaling on something flat, because the pedal had eaten up the threading on the cranks. I don't know how I did it, but I did. Nothing felt cross threaded when I put the pedals on. My nice old Sugino cranks are ruined and it abruptly ended the ride.

And, shortly thereafter, a stick stabbed me in the face.

Note the odd angle of my foot.

What is this?

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The hardest trail in the world!

Ok. It's certainly not the hardest trail in the world, because I don't think anything the reservoir is. In fact, a google search reveals that the Powerline Trail on Kauai in Hawaii is the hardest trail in the world. Although, looking at pictures and reading descriptions of it makes it sound like it's a fire road. That doesn't that difficult.

But anyway, I was riding my Redline last night at the reservoir. It was nice, I don't think I'd ridden my singlespeed since Christmas Eve. I also discovered where they hide all the man-made stunts- some of which are cool and some aren't very well constructed (a lot of rocks kept buckling under me), but that stuff isn't really my thing anyway.

This is the northern entrance to the really hard trail.

Anyway, as you can see in the map up top, I've mapped a little trail that runs on the west shore of Reservoir 2. It starts right by the entrance to the little trail that goes across the causeway. Someone took some time to construct this strange trail. It's benched nicely into the hill side and has stone stairs. It's also narrow and off-camber, with strange rock gardens and big logs. And, it looks deceptively rideable, not like a hiking trail. I had to hike half of it, though, so I suppose I just suck.

See? someone worked hard on this, but why?

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(no subject)

I've been outside as much as I can muster lately, but it's not really leading to anything to write about. You go outside, it's nice, what more is there to say? Lots of mountain bikers at the reservoir again. It's good to have company.



Johanna and I did some hiking and camping on the AT last weekend.


First race of the year this Saturday!

And, some very sad news about that kid at UConn who got hit. I hope he's ok. Read more!

Tour de Talcott

I don't what it is this, but starting late last summer and into this year, I've started finding all sorts of new singletrack. Maybe I've got my eye out more or maybe I ride with a more open mind, who knows? Obviously they're only new to me, because if other people weren't riding on them, there'd be no trail.

Yesterday, I decided to the Tour de Talcott. Personally, I think Trans-Talcott sounds better-- more Kraftwerkian. I rode this section the opposite direction of the way I usually do and found this cute little swath of singletrack that I must have ridden by 100 times.

View newly discovered in a larger map

Nothing else really happened yesterday, besides the riding of the bike. There were quite a few other mountain bikers out, so I didn't get lonely. I think at Penwood I saw the guy who writes that Charlie Rides a Bike blog. I don't know what he looks like, but I recognized his bike. His group was intense, unlike when I need to walk up a hill with my singlespeed, these guys run up them.

Oh, I did discover another new trail at Penwood, but I didn't explore it. There appears to be a new green-blazed trail that runs between the creek/road and the really, really hard to ride section of the Metacomet. It spurs off that little section of singletrack that cuts away from the creek/road. Anybody ever ride it? Where does it go?

View somewhere in this area in a larger map

It also appears that the creek/road trail had some maintenance done to it. Thanks who ever did that.

So, yeah, it was a good day, but I suppose any day is when it's sunny and you get to mountain bike for 3 1/2 hours is.

Monument to a fallen hang glider?

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In what form will our punishment come?

First off, I want to thank Ms. Longstocking for bringing such controversy to our blog. We love it! The East Coast Greenway is a big deal, even the much maligned CT DOT bike map recognizes it. One would think that Google would at least incorporate that map as a starting point.

In her next post, I heard a rumor that she may take on the Apple and the iPhone. ;-)



Winter is drawing to a close, and unlike last year when it was nice and in the 50s, this year it's nice and in the 70s. In fact, the weather is nice, The Courant took a picture of Lucas in a hammock. I've been able to do lots of mountain biking and wear a tshirt.

So, at what cost? Will the stock market crash? Is it going to snow on Wednesday? Are we enjoying nice weather on the backs of those in New York and Fairfield county who've had trees fall on their cars?

Koi are in full effect again this year.

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Happy daylight savings time!

I love daylight savings time a lot. It's shame that today was so dreary and overcast, because it'd still be nice and light outside. To celebrate, I went for a bike ride (big surprise, huh?).

I have come to own a 1985 or 1986 Diamondback (Diamond Back?) Apex. It's a pretty sweet ride, though lacking some of its original cool parts. Salem is a generous man with his bike frames, though he's very particular about which components are going to leave attached to said bikes. In other words, you aren't going to get the Deore deer head derailleurs for free. It did come with the sweet Suntour U-brake and period Shimano cantis. The shifting parts of the drivetrain are Deore, albeit newer than the bike: early 1990s (or maybe late 1980s) Deore thumb shifter and a early to mid 2000s Deore XT derailleur.


This bike is unique, in my opinion, for three reasons.

1) The spacing for the rear wheel is 126mm. I know that some early mountain bikes were spaced that way, like Bridgestones, but I find it weird. Presently, I have a 130mm wedged in there. It doesn't seem to be causing any problems

2) It's painted like a snake. Its former owner did this and he's a famous artist.

3) This is one isn't true anymore, but for a brief time all major component manufacturers were represented in the drivetrain: Shimano shifter, derailleur and cassette; Suntour cranks; Campagnolo chainring and a SRAM chain. The SRAM chain was worn out, so I bought a KMC chain. That's why this isn't true anymore.



So, I rode it around the reservoir much like it had done 25 years ago and it rides quite nice. The bike is not very fast, which I chalk up to it being kind of heavy and having a really, really relaxed head angle. However, the relaxed head angle and very long wheel base do a have a benefit: it descend really, really confidently. It's a little more stable than my 29er and 20x more stable than my rigid Stumpjumper. It almost feels like I'm riding my suspension bike.

The woods were not nearly as mucky as I thought they were going to be. I guess water deficits have some silver lining, though I did encounter one creek that was very difficult to cross.


I also forgot to mention that I ran into the mysterious man who runs Remove Sunglasses At Tunnel. Read more!

When you should not ride a bike

It's a beautiful day today; happy Valentine's Day!

Yesterday, Salem and I rode up to Congamond to spectate the NEMBA ice race thingy. My right knee has been bothering me with increasing intensity and frequency lately. I think it's because I smashed it into a root and rock about a month ago. Some think it's because I have new shoes and the cleats aren't lined up perfectly. I lean towards the smashing, because I've never had cleat or float problems affect me while walking and this has started hurting me while I walk. Maybe that whole "shoes ruse" thing is correct, but I'm still blaming the root and rock. I almost didn't go yesterday because of my knee, but I shift my cleat a bit and I seemed ok riding to Constitution Plaza. So, we journeyed up and back. It was very nice. My knee started complaining a bit, but then when kinda numb and everything seemed ok.

This morning, there was a mountain bike ride at Meshomasic State Forest that Salem to which alerted me. My knee started to hurt me last night a bit, but I hoped I could either sleep it off or scare the pain with whiskey.


I woke and it was ok, but the more I used it the worse it felt. I debated going some more and sort of took my time getting ready, perhaps to erode my resolve. The bike still went in the car and was driven over to Glastonbury. Taking my time brought me there about ten minutes after the 9:30am start time of the ride, but I made out only one set of tire tracks, so I thought I might be able to catch up. That very quickly became an impossible proposition because my knee hurt so bad that I was only able curse at myself for getting out of bed. None the less, I followed the tire tracks for a good four miles before eventually giving up at riding back to my car. Ugh.

So, the lesson, I think, is that you should not ride if it hurts. Read more!

Ice floes

Ice floes are awesome. They really elicit that feeling of it being the end of your life and you're being cast out to sea (even if that's some kind of racist myth). Since it's been really, really cold, the Connecticut River is full of them right now. Salem and I regarded them with awe on a recent jaunt down along the river.


We also contended with the excitement of pushing our bikes along the ice! Not river ice, but close to it-- not the kind of thing that your mother would encourage you to do.

I wasn't tough enough to go on the beard icicle ride the next day. Read more!

On the radio & mountain biking nostalgia

First, if you can't get enough of us on our poorly written blog, several beat bloggers and our friends are going to be on the Colin McEnroe Show from 1-2pm. Listen to the story about the time Salem had to boot a tire with his own skin! Marvel at how Chris turned cottered cranks into a Play Station 2! Cower in fear as Ben recounts a nine hour CCBA board meeting! Drift into a deep sleep as Brendan describes mountain biking at the reservoir for the 600th time! ...other people are going to be on the show who may actually be interesting.

UPDATE! In case you thought I was making stuff up, Ghostship Matt corroborates over on his blog. TJ'll be on, too.


Regarding the other side of the ampersand, I was over at my parents' house yesterday with a bike. Leaving from their house, you can make a nice loop of Avon with several miles of rolling singletrack. These are the trails of my youth (I never figured out why bikerag thinks Winding Trails is so terrible, if you know where the singletrack is, it's not that bad. People seem to rate trails by how much stuff there is to huck. My philosophy is not as such.), though there have been some pleasant additions. Sometimes, I would climb over Avon Mountain with my bike on my shoulder to ride at the Reservoir, but that was a lot of work.

I added something to the loop yesterday that I usually don't: Huckleberry Hill, which is on the other side of town. It's probably Avon's most technical riding by a significant margin, because it has rocks and hills. Huckleberry Hill is almost the site of my first bike race ever. In sixth grade I entered the Sam Collins Day Mountain Bike Race. It was a really big deal to me and I got all nostalgic about it yesterday.

In true Brendan-style, I had excellent start astride my Nishiki Pueblo until I hit the climb up Huckleberry Hill Rd. It's a legitimately steep climb, I think it averages about 10% for a third of a mile or so. But, I was destroyed from my sprint start and dropped to the granny gear and lost almost all my positions by the time I got to the top. We entered the woods at Huckleberry Hill School. About twenty feet into the woods, I went around a corner, hit a log, went over the bars, landed on my head and blacked out. I only blacked out for a few second and a very nice fellow stopped to help me. I got back on my bike, caught back up to a few people and finished in second to last place with a flat tire. It was like the coolest day ever. I even got a water bottle as schwag. I subsequently lost the water bottle the last time I rode at Nepaug (like five years ago, I don't ride there much).

Yesterday's ride was not nearly as exciting, though I had a relatively funny crash when my front wheel washed out.


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Expedition speed

I'm not going to attempt to take credit for the term "expedition speed", but I'm going to do all that I can to propagate it. Dario and I first heard Salem mention it last Thursday whilst we rode slowly through the beautiful and shotgun filled Glastonbury Meadows.



If I understand correctly, expedition speed is another way to say that you're going slow. However, unlike regular going slow, you must have an intent look on your face, gritted teeth and an inflated sense of importance. You probably should wear some wool for good measure. It's perfect for riding this time of year.



A nice thing about expedition speed is that you don't even have to go very far if you believe that you life is part of an ongoing expedition. Thus, my ride to work this morning as well as my mountain bike ride at the reservoir yesterday were all part of the same expedition. The same went for my ride with El Prez and Dario on Saturday, the snowy powerline ride last Tuesday, the hike I took on Sunday with Johanna and the trip across the street today to buy a sandwich. Heady and philosophical, right? I mean, I have no idea where I'm going.

Also, unlike an expedition, expedition speed doesn't require you to carry camping gear or ride a Surly Big Dummy. That'd be totally inconvenient.

I think this may be a little bit like Rapha and their epics, but we do it mainly in color and have mountain bikes. I'd gladly switch to black and white if Rapha started giving me some free clothes. I think my cell phone camera even works better in black and white.

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Unrelated, but two observations:

1) Those of you who frequent the reservoir are probably familiar with the very rideable two foot drop on the blue trail about midway along the ridge. Well, the big winds and falling ice (or something) has fell two trees right there, so you can't ride up the hill on the other side, they effect made a 50 foot fence. I'm wondering if a chain saw will be needed or a log stack can be made. Any thoughts those of you who are good at trail maintenance? Should I start being a CT-NEMBA trail ambassador around here? Do they have enough of them?

Drop off in the background.

Fallen trees.

2) The NYT's Spokes blog is generally lame (like the beat bike blog), but they had a very interesting post today about the history of bicycle clubs in the US. I guess the League of American Bicyclists did a lot to maintain the color barrier in cycling (though they have apologized)... sort of like how they want to make cycling in Connecticut seem terrible. Read more!

Climate change

When you ride a bike in the woods, you're acutely aware of temperature, precipitation and ground hardness- even if you're a crappy mountain biker like me. Well, even if you spend a lot of time outside, you become more aware of the weather. To that end, wearing heavy overclothes, I often say things like: "Last Wednesday, I did this ride in a t-shirt!" or "Good thing we can ride across this pond now." Actually, the latter I would never say, because I'm scared of falling through ice and think that I'm fat. Though, on Friday when Dario, Salem and I were doing some walking across ice, finding cell phones in snow banks and rubbing Manchester the wrong way. I was none too pleased about the walking across ice.



Yesterday, Salem and I did some mountain biking at Grayville. I did that NEMBA ride there a couple of months ago and thought that I'd never return, because it's pretty far from my house and the trail network is moderately confusing. Going back was great, because there are some awesome trails there.


The much ballyhooed snow fell (that guy has a Land Rover, what's his complaint about snow?), precluding mountain biking today. So, I went for a walk.

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