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!

Keney Park in Winter

An appointment near our city's northeastern corner ended earlier than expected, giving me a few extra minutes to enjoy the ride to my next stop. In such a circumstance, there's no better route than one through Keney Park.

I rode through the northern entrance in Windsor and took the paved road past the cricket fields, pausing to inspect a puzzling milk crate full of tropical produce sitting atop some fresh-split wood. The traffic noise faded quickly, and there were few other people around to disturb the silence. Even Tower Ave. was unusually quiet as I made my way between the upper and lower park.
In the southern section of the park, I took the nature/ fitness path. Nobody has bothered to clear the snow from this and many other paths in the park. I guess that's not very good from a park maintenance standpoint, but to be honest, It was kind of nice that way. There was just enough snow for ambiance without making pedaling significantly harder. The lack of seasonal leaves opened up the view to the horse corral. At the southernmost end of the park I pedaled hard and fishtailed the bike on the black ice-covered walkways. Again, this is not very safe or good maintenance on the city's part, but I found it entertaining.


When I lived in New Jersey, my friends and I would avoid the Jersey shore like the plague until after Labor Day. It was then that we were free to fly our kites and enjoy the warm water without traffic or interruptions. Parks in the winter can be like that. Most people don't think to enjoy them this time of year, so you can have the whole place to yourself.

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Riding bicycles in Hartford

The subtitle of our blog is "Riding bicycles in Hartford". We talk about it less and less because, well, we've got a lot of posts at this point. It'd be boring. However, every so often there's an affront to riding a bicycle in Hartford and we must respond. Chris will be responding in greater detail soon, but I'd like to offer some preliminary anger.


Recently, The League of American Bicyclists came to Hartford to talk about making things bicyclely friendly. I didn't go and I'm not even sure if I heard about this event. Through our friend Kerri at Real Hartford, who went, I learned that the League ranked Connecticut 44th (out of 50 states) in terms of bicycle friendliness. Much like an American in Europe, I am compelled to defend my homeland.


How can this be? What the hell? What does this even mean? Why am I standing up for Connecticut even though I just got hit by a car? These questions are just for rhetorical flourish, but I am pretty perplexed by all these states that rank ahead of Connecticut. I will admit that I have not ridden my bike in all 50 states, not even close, but I have ridden in several states that rank far ahead of Connecticut, like Maine. Third place? Come on! I have ridden in greater Portland a bit and it felt a hell of a lot like riding in greater Hartford. It didn't feel fourteen times better. Drivers were about the same and the infrastructure felt about the same. They had some bridges with bike lanes and we have some bridges with bike lanes. They have some bike paths and we have some bike paths, etc.

Connecticut probably does not have as many cycling advocacy dorks as other states, because the vast majority of people who commute to work drive. Whatever. We're a hypocritical "progressive" state. However, our aged, not very wide roads are pretty easily traversed by a bicycle. Compared to other states that rank much higher, our roads are much better for having a relatively dense population. Greater DC? They have some nice bike infrastructure, but if you're not in the more affluent places that have those improvements, good luck riding on the 17 lane roads. I suppose it's conceivable that a state deserves a higher ranking if it has made an effort to address bike problems because of it's really wide roads.


My 5 mile commute (round trip) is pleasant, very short and is entirely in Hartford. Yet, when I ride to work from my parents' house in Avon, it's 20 miles and more or less without incident (unless someone takes a left in front of you). During weekends when the weather is more pleasant, cyclists flock to out where my parents live. They wouldn't do that if the roads were unrideable. Although, I do admit that the distracted drivers of large, powerful vehicles in the affluent suburbs are occasionally menacing. We really need to pass and enforce some distracted driving legislation.


I don't know. I'm totally perplexed. It would seem that a ranking of 44 would that it's barely possible to even ride a bike in Connecticut, but I do it all the time with considerable enjoyment- especially with the pleasant snow conditions as of late.

Heck, Florida ranks 12 places ahead of Connecticut and it's the most dangerous place to ride a bike in the country.

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Starting 2010 late

So, I guess I'm done with my hiatus. I rode my bike to work yesterday and went mountain biking after work (and as long as they haven't changed, the conditions are awesome for riding a bike in the snow). Those are pretty run of the mill things for me, leading me to believe I'm inching back to normal. Some people seem to bounce right back from car altercations, but I suppose I'm emotionally fragile. The Surly, on other hand, isn't going to recover from the event. Johanna and I went to South Carolina between xmas and new years, which was nice because there are bike paths and beaches, for people like me who are temporarily terrified of riding on roads.


Last year around this time I wrote some reflective stuff about 2008 and what would happen in 2009. In terms of riding a bike, 2009 was pretty good. I met some new people to ride with: Dario, Salem & Peter and rode in interesting places. I seemed to also have become better at riding a bike, or at least faster in my amateur races. In the races I entered, I finished on the podium in all but three. D2R2 was a big a disappointment for me, but there always this year. I'm better aware of my shortcomings and ignorance, so hopefully I'll ingest some electrolytes this year.

Hartford 'Cross was a veritable success and I'm excited about putting it on again. There was good feedback on how to make it better, but also many people who were excited about it happening again in 2010.

One sad result of this year seems to be the I've alienated a lot of people who used to ride with me. Chiefly, Johanna has no desire to ride with me any more. So, resolution #1 is to stop being a jerk.

What's your plan for 2010?

Oh, and in political news, I like Merrick Alpert's walking style.

I walked here, not Merrick.

And further, I really hope that I can get the police report from Farmington. I don't want to be stuck in insurance hell.

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Here We Go A-Barreling

I was introduced to the frightful joy of downhill snow biking in the mid- 90's by my friend Bald Matt in Queens. He had two old mountain bikes with BMX handlebars which we brought to the local "Suicide Hill" sledding spot. This particular hill had one or two decent-sized berms running its width. Bald Matt pedaled furiously downhill for each descent, barreling like mad, catching sizable air with each spectacular berm-hit. My runs consisted of more coasting than pedaling, but that made for enough speed to keep me entertained and fearing for the safety of myself and everyone else on the crowded hill. I haven't done any downhill-bike specific day trips since then, but have thoroughly relished every snowy hill that I've happened upon while riding since then.

Late Saturday night, we finally got our first proper snow. I know it has snowed before this winter, but this was the first nice, dry, fluffy proper snow. At no point in the overnight storm was there any rain or "wintry mix" garbage. That was snow as it should be. El Prez sent out his virtual Bat Signal for a Sunday afternoon trip to Riverside Park for sledding. I don't own a sled, but I did have a hankering for some snow biking. Kerri was among those intrigued by the idea, and in a photographing mood, so she offered me her commuting bike for snow flogging, on the condition that I would fix anything that I broke. That seemed fair. We made our way through Constitution Plaza toward the Riverfront Recapture area. The elevator by the outdoor amphitheater was not working, despite it being within the posted hours of operation. The next logical choice was to ride down the slopes of the amphitheater itself, which was fun and more than a little bit dicey.

A half dozen people answered the call and met up at the top of the dike at the northwestern corner of the park. We took turns flying down the steep, fast slope on the lone snow tube.

I only did a couple of runs on the bike, as the climb back up proved a difficult mix of heavy bike and low traction. It was a total hoot though!

We wrapped up the afternoon with a ride over to the railroad bridge to watch and listen to the ice on the river drift and collide.




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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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The Eel 4, with one fewer participant than its name

While 50 or so people did some exciting driving in Shelton yesterday, only three decided to participate in the fourth Eel. The overriding theme was obviously the weather. It started off cold, but just in a cold way, then it warmed up and started raining. Although, it only warmed up to 32°, so it got a lot worse when the rain started falling. But, I know that there are places elsewhere where the weather is considerably worse and people still ride in it for fun. We're still not prepared for this stuff around here.

Dario, Salem and I arrived in Bushnell Park at 11 with a good diversity of bikes (respectively, a skinny-wheeled fixed gear, a single speed mountain bike and a geared mountain bike). There was some kind of bagel explosion, trash cans were frozen into the pond and the port-o-john was tipped over. I guess it was a crazy night in the Park. Shortly before leaving, we ran into Johanna's dad, which isn't all that remarkable, because he lives right nearby.


We up through the Keney Trail and then across the river to South Windsor, etc. We didn't go as far as we hoped, but there was good reason. In essence, the ride is still in progress. Dario and I also had a rather hilarious crash on the iced-over bridge over the Hockanum River near its confluence with the Connecticut (I think you can only make light of crashes when no one is hurt. No one was hurt in Shelton, thankfully). That whole thing about bridges icing before everything else is very, very true.


The winnings from Saturday were thusly enjoyed after the ride.

So, yeah, weird poses, huh?

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Stupid weather

It is supposed to be nasty and disgusting tomorrow (Eel 4 day). I would like to go for a ride, but I don't want to catch my death. I'll get up and post my intentions on here by like 9:30. I'll also still probably end up going to the park and seeing if anyone comes. Maybe we'll do a really short ride or just go get a beer.

In other news, I did that Beer Cross race today. Nice course, rideable snow. I came in third... though there were only seven or eight riders. I had first for the the first lap and a half or so. I should have held on to it for longer. Maybe making a gap is a good idea. Oh well. I'm still not very good at this stuff. Read more!

First Snow

If you live around here, you probably noticed that it snowed. Not very much, just a 1" dusting at most it appears, but there's always that slight magic to the first snow. So, since this is a bike blog, I'm not going to write about memories, sleds, Santa (though, I did buy a Christmas trees yesterday), yuletide, muletide or hot chocolate.

Dario and I rode down to Constitution Plaza this morning to meet with Peter & Salem. On Ledyard St, I got a sizable nail in my tire, which is presently booted with Peter's granola bar wrapper. From, there, we went to the Wethersfield meadows. People split on the way back. Dario and Peter had some cryptic business; Salem and I briefly rode together, but he had to go purchase an ancient Volvo and I wanted to grab another tube, because I was so close to chez moi. I got the tube and decided to eat my left overs (which were this very interesting winter cabbage & dried tofu dish from China Pan). I decided since it was only 1:30, there was that I could explore today, so I rode out to the reservoir and eventually to Terry Plain Road. Things were pretty:


Then I turned around and came home. The Terry Plain Road connection had become a creek and was rather difficult to ride.

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To help Salem out, here's a picture from the ride on Friday:

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Awesome & not awesome

This is awesome. You can read the rest of the story here, but nothing holds a candle to the awesome picture. (Driver is ok).


It is not awesome that Brendan & Johanna's hero, Jill Homer, has had to quit the Iditarod Trail Invitational due to frostbite on her foot. She's still our hero, though. Also sad is that her roommate/boyfriend (she keeps her readers guessing), Geoff, is out of the footrace due to knee problems (and strangely not due to the horrible respiratory problem he's having). Maybe now Jill will set her sights on more sensible and warmer endeavors like winning the Leadville 100 or the Great Divide Race. Read more!

Before the snow

All weekend I was terrified about the over-hyped snow storm that showed up yesterday. Not so much because I was worried about whatever it is that makes snow storms scary and cause people to stock up on canned goods, but because it would threaten my ability to mountain bike. (Remember all those other posts about me either being self-centered or a weirdo? I wasn't lying.)

On Saturday, I only kind of wanted to go mountain biking. I could have also taken a hike. Johanna wanted to buy a cool car. At first we were going to go car hunting and then go for a hike. Johanna decided that she'd rather do some extensive research on cars instead, which paid off because she made a good offer. It subsequently was not accepted, but car dealerships are crooked anyway. So, while she did her extensive research, I hopped on the 'cross bike and went down to Rocky Hill for the reverse version of what I'd done earlier in the week. Nothing really exciting to report.

Riding back home on Fairfield, I spotted a pink purse in the road. I stopped and picked it up. There was a woman nearby in a parked car and I tapped on the window to ask if she dropped it. She shook her head and strangely reacted as if I had done the rudest possible thing. Very strange. Upon arrival in my apartment, I opened it up and found some IDs and a few bills, which I didn't count. I checked on 411.com and whitepages.com, which yielded nothing. I don't have a regular phone book, so I took the wallet with me to go the car dealership and to my parents, because they have a phone book. I found the owner, called her, and she was much relieved. She was concerned about the cash in the wallet, so I checked to see how much was left in there and it turned out to be a lot of money. She was now very, very relieved and I was glad to have found it for her. I told her my address and she came by later to pick it up.

The moral is that you should ride a bike so that you can return peoples' wallets (or shut their trunks and gas doors).

On Sunday, it was colder and snowed a tiny bit. I also had no encumbrances, so I went to the reservoir. Waiting for a colder day was a smart move on my part because judging by all the ruts (which you'll have to take my word for because there are no visible ruts in these pictures), it had been nasty the days before.

My bike is there to prove that I brought a bike with me.

Now, the snow has fallen and I'm walking everywhere because I'm deathly afraid of getting salt on my bikes.



Remember, The Eel 2 is Saturday! And fear not, it's on the road and the road won't be gross on Saturday!

This picture is scary, though.

ps. 3 posts in one day? our blog is awesome!

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