Eel X(treme)!

All zero of you readers probably thought that (a) the eel didn't happen or (b) I never came back.

Well, I'm here to tell you that it did and it was probably the best one since the first one.

There was nearly 20 people and all but two made it all the way through the ride in some fashion. No one did the 70 miles route the right way. Since even though I came up with the thing, I led a group astray through People's State Forest. Though in sacrificing some dirt, we rode the extremely fun road ("road") descent through the middle of the park. 

I think the route road extremely well, so no plans to change it for next year in an meaningful way and I think the date was perfect for "fall color". Maybe I'll charge $2 and get some kind of food option. Maybe not. I got a whole year to think about it. Read more!

Eel eel eel eel!

Remember The Eel? I've thrown like sixty or five of them, but now I'm bringing back. Bringing it back to the level putting it on BIKEREG! https://www.bikereg.com/eel-x/

~70 miles on Oct 13 at 9am. Meet on Tunxis Road in Tariffville. Plenty of parking on the street if drive here. Up to Mass and then back to here. And, of course, it's free!

These are pictures from the actual route. Can you believe it???

This ride has a river-centric air to it, too-- headwaters of the Farmington, another river containing eels https://lowerfarmingtonriver.org/learn-about-the-river/biodiversity/.

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Second postponement of The Eel

Regrettably, too much has got in the way of organizing the ride, so I'm going to push it back again to a date uncertain. No big deal. There are other bike rides in the world for you. Read more!

Eel postponement

Hello! I have decided to postpone the proposed Eel by a week. There are some people who can't do it the day I picked and I have a potential conflict that day, too.

So, let's switch to Nov. 13 instead. Still a Sunday, still same details. It even allows you to do a ride I heard about it in New Haven on Saturday the 12th.



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Eel in a strange place

Studying for the bar exam has cut into the amount of time I allocated to do fun stuff. While writing beat bike blog posts doesn't really count as fun, it has also cut into that. I have some time periodically to ride a bike, but not additional time to write a well thought out and thought provoking blog post about the ride.

However, when doing some practice questions today, I found a great beat bike blog tie-in. While this doesn't seem to be the same eel chronicled on the hallowed pages of this blog, it is a dangerous eel none the less.

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A Very Good Eel for You!

 Photo credit: Daniel

As someone once said, The Eel is a ride of attrition. From its humble beginnings, as a wet race in original and East Hartfords to the present day, generally everybody doesn't finish. Sunday's ride was no exception. We started with 11 and ended with 2. Not that there's a problem with that, but what am I doing that discourages people from coming back? I suppose I usually ride home from Glastonbury during the Detour.

Photo credit: Marko

Anyway, the ride was great. We rode on every surface that I could think of: road, dirt, grass, sand, train tracks, gravel bike path, paved bike path, highway, skatepark, farm field, water, bridge and levee. I met some new people and the new people met some old people. Injuries appeared only be cosmetic. There was also a good mix of styles of bicycle, no BMX or downhill bikes or mid-aughts fixed gear style.

As you may or may not know, it started in Hartford, went to Middletown, back up to South Windsor and then back to Hartford. The rest is a secret and that's why you have to come next time.



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Tomorrow, I wear gloves

Brendan put on a great Eel and there was much bike diversity and trail diversity.  Only at an Eel will there be a Huffy and a Peter Mooney with pretty much everything in between.  I was nervous for Dario's skinny tires, but I think he only weighs 100 lbs - and they were sew ups.  We rode train tracks, rooty single track, sheer rock ridge, flood plain powder silt, sand pits, river bluffs, mud truck stomping ground, banked quad tracks, and even some paved roads.  The length of the ride was perfect.  Tired, but not bonked.

This is a time of change.  Change of season.  Change of outlook.  Changing out my summer clothes for the bin of wool socks and layers.  Putting on gloves in the morning and considering when it will be time to christen my new winter shoes.  Cold weather is a welcome change to me.   It gives me an excuse to pull out the feather comforter and double up my socks.  Things summer just won't support.  Tomorrow morning will be in the 30's and I'll get out the light gloves.

The Eel busted my saddle rail, but Terry said they would warranty.  Excellent.

As a bicycle commuter, I've found that hands are my first priority.  Holding onto the handlebar and actuating the brakes are activities requiring at least some functionality in my fingers.  Appropriate gloves are key to keeping my hands in a condition that isn't just comfortable, but useful.  Skiing mittens are capable down to about 5F, and they seem to work with both bar-cons and brifters.  Below that, I've heard that folks use silly looking Pogies to keep the wind off their mitts.  At that point, I typically just take a walk and put my hands in my pockets.

Feet are second, and become more important if the ride gets to be more than a half hour.  During the winter in Connecticut the roads are often clear and I'll go out for multi-hour rides with the temperature in the teens or 20's.  I'm seriously addicted to clipless pedals, which are evil when it comes to heat conduction away from your feet.  This summer (looking for sales) I upgraded to Lake MXZ303 boots.  They look much hardier than any other winter cycling shoe I've ridden, and I bought up a couple sizes for extra wool sock layers.  I have a suspicion that this year will be nearly into the comfort zone for my feet, whereas last year there was some near frostbite.  I'm getting ahead of myself.  It's not that cold out yet, and if you're bagging you bicycle commute right now you are an intolerable wimp.

In honor of the change of season I'll be making the work-a-day-commute a little less lonely with the first IceBike to Work of the season.  Thursday, October 31st, we will be informally meeting for breakfast at Maddie's in East Hartford.  Maddie's is on Main Street, right across the street from Pratt & Whitney.  Anyone passing by on bicycle, walking, or just curious about non-car transportation modes can stop by between 7AM-8AM and they will find some folks to chat with.  It seems the folks in Canada really take their winter bicycle commuting seriously.  They have an international conference or some such in February - International Cycling Congress.  Registration for the conference is north of $300 - that is f'ing serious.


Reminders for some upcoming bicycle goodness:

• Aforementioned IceBike to Work on Thursday, October 31st.
• There is this mysterious under promoted cyclocross race on November 5th in Colt Park.  I live right next to Colt Park, so I guess I'll wander down there to see what kinds of carbon, cross specific curiosities show up.
• Sunday, November 10th.  Traffic Skills 101 Course.  Taught by yours truly and the honorable Chris Brown.  Registration is open, but capped at 20 students.  Last I heard we already had 11 registered.
• Tuesday, November 12th.  Bike Walk Connecticut Annual Dinner and Silent Auction.  If you want to get a seat at my table let me know.  All you have to do is hand me two double sawbucks.

Everybody loves riding the train tracks into Middletown.

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Eelin' and Congealin'

First of all, I want to thank the participants of the river cleanup this year. Lots of Trinity students + Joe, Greg and Rich. We cleaned up a bunch of stuff and no one fell in the river. I almost did, but caught myself.

Second, big news for people who ride the eel: I'm going to do another one. It'll be the river route from years past, because I just cleaned it up and it's safe to ride now. Oct 20, 10am, leave from Fairfield Ave section of Hyland Park in Hartford. Park on Fairfield Ave or ride your bike there. 60 miles or so. Ride a mountain bike or 'cross bike or whatever you want. It's going to be awesome again. I'm going to make a .gpx of the route at some point soon, so that you can ride at your own pace.

Oh, I took a picture of this guy who crashed his ATV into a tree and got it stuck at Mansfield Hollow State Park yesterday. Schadenfreude!

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Second great idea of the day

As a visionary thinker, I like to start off my day with really good ideas. My first good idea was I should start a hip hop news site. This grew out of a conversation I had with Johanna yesterday where it was determined that no one has ever asked me about what's going on with contemporary hip hop or rap. Apparently, there's a new Eminem song, but I had no idea really. I thought he'd retired. The only reason I know who's hot in the game is from the Hot 93.7 signs on the sides of busses. This site would be a good idea, because you'd get the outsiders' perspective. Moms and Mormons could use it to figure what everyone is listening to, who's beefing with whom, who just had a nasty break up, etc.  I think it's going to be huge.

My second great idea was that the Beat Bike Blog should become the title sponsor of the Hartford Marathon. Apparently, ING is dropping its sponsorship of marathons. Like contemporary hip hop, I don't really know anything about running. I do it every so often, but the further I've ever run is maybe like 10 or 11 miles. I know a number of people who are good at running, but that doesn't matter, because I would totally change the format into The Eel. You could run it or ride it and the since The Eel that goes up and down the Connecticut River is about 60 miles, there'd be an ultra-marathon class.

I think this idea is awesome and I'm going to go set up a kickstarter page ASAP.

In the meantime, why don't we give another Eel a whirl on Oct 19? How does that sound?

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Eel massacre

I rode down to New Haven yesterday to get some lunch. I was split between pizza and Mexican food, but the view from the Mexican food is better and the food is cheaper. Upon my arrival in Fair Haven, I went out on a dock to look at the mouth of the Quinnipiac. The view was industrially pretty, but much to my chagrin there was a pile of dead eels on the dock. It didn't ruin my day, but I was bumming to see these eels.

Anyway, I ate the Mexican food. Rode around the city a bit, rode to Avon to say to hi to my dad and sister and came home. New Haven is pretty nice.

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Race Eel

The Eel has not been competitive in awhile. That's ok and all, but I think it should return to its speedy roots. The first was no doubt the most prolific.

Ideas I've had are to steal Salem's idea of a point to point race (head to head? head x 4?) along the Hockanum in East Hartford (can't do that in Manchester, competitive racing events are prohibited from the boardwalks of the Hockanum without approval from the Hockanum River Linear Park Committee. § 304-7 Manchester Code of Ordinances). Or, closer to my house, do a secret cyclocross race along South Branch of the Park River. It'd have two river crossings! That's as many as this famous race.

What do you think? Which is more attractive? Tell me!

The plan is to do this maybe early April. De Tour training. Read more!

Chips on a Mother Fracking Bike

Brendan left out this priceless photo of Ken K riding hands free and cheesing it up on our early hour on the Eel.  We both dropped early for other Sunday plans.  I was meeting a beautiful woman for lunch and Ken had actual work to do.  I know.  Horrible excuses.

I want to include a product placement here.  Uncompensated of course - unless the good folks at Pan de Oro want to drop another box of chips on me.  These are organic corn tortilla chips made right here in the Heartbeat.  Up on the Northend off main street.  You can drop by their factory / HQ / warehouse on Main Street between the hours of 9AM-3PM M-F and score an amazing deal (not published on the internet) on a case of 12 bags of tortilla chips.  This "Bread of Gold" is also sold at Whole Foods if you live in West Hartford, and you'd rather get shelled than drive into the Northend (sissies).  The box fits conveniently onto the back rack of your bike.  

And just another plug here for Icebike to Work in East Hartford on Wednesday, December 12th.  7AM at Maddies, right across the street from Pratt & Whitney. 

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The Eel Goes West

Thus far, The Eel has never gone west of Prospect Ave in Hartford. Today, things got real and went to the New Hartford. Have you been to that place? Independent grocers, a popular movement against satanic parks, summer camps, haunted summer camps and we didn't even go to the site of Salem's first cyclocross race.

We weren't thick in ranks, but I realized when I got home that it was a beat bike blog reunion of sorts. You had new faces like Tony, medium faces like Salem, old people like Ken and me, and then beat bike blog ghosts like El Presidente de Chine. Ken and Tony left early on business, Salem left in Simsbury because he lives in some obscure town east of the of the river. 

The route wasn't exactly how I planned it, but that's ok because no one actually knew what the real route was. There was some Newington meandering, then we went through the mall. We tested a non-existent short cut at the mall, that was a very small mistake, but seemingly a large source of derision. We did half of the stations of the cross. We went by Miss Porters. We went through Farmington's only park. We saw how water gets made. We ate sandwiches. We went above Ski Sundown. We went where Brendan learned how to mountain bike. We went home.

Tony took second two pictures, not me.

This is where the things went.

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Nobody loves us in the winter

Seems like the BeatBikeBlog only gets a quarter of the page hits in the winter.  What's up with that you fickle nancies?  Perhaps we write worse in the cold weather.  Too cold to type.

Anyway.  To instigate some year round bicycle goodness I've started back up a monthly Icebike to Work on the East side of the river.  At Maddies, across the street from Pratt & Whitney on Main Street, four year round bike commuters met on November 20th.  The bikes locked up front clearly confused the regulars.  An enjoyable time was had hashing on about lights, runny noses, and such.  We'll be meeting again the morning of December 12th (a Wednesday) at 7:00AM if anyone else would like to stop in for some breakfast or a coffee.  You don't have to be from P&W.  All are welcome here.

Bike Walk Connecticut is keeping up the bike advocacy momentum into the winter with their Annual Dinner, which will be held on Thursday, November 29th at Central Connecticut State University.  If you wanted to get tickets, but didn't, it's probably too damn late.  With 150 bike loving friends and a huge silent auction (great deals yo!) I'm pretty excited.  I'll be sharing a table of 10 with some pretty awesome people.

And Brendan is bringing it to the streets (and trails) with the Return of the Eel.  Get your bike out.  Season schmeason.  We'll be riding on Saturday!

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Another Eel

It's been awhile, huh?

Let's ride another Eel this Saturday. Meeting 10am on the rocks at Hyland Park in Hartford. A 'cross bike will be a good bike, but you don't like that on singletrack, ride a mountain bike. Of course, Jobst Brandt can ride anything on a road bike with slicks. Plan on six or so hours, so lights may be needed. I don't have a route in mind yet, but I will in a few days.

Also, how come people keep spray painting roots? It seems like every time I'm on a trail these days in a park, someone has spray painted the roots.


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This was life changing

As you may recall, I do The Eel.

Well, now you have to watch and read this.

And another thing, when should we do another eel? Read more!

E2L1

Despite the terrible snow storm yesterday, six intrepid men with facial hair, five with old mountain bikes, four who have at one time written for the beat bike blog, three with twitter accounts, two without cantilever brakes and one with a pea coat (21 people, by my math!) set off into the bowels of Hartford. I can't go into too much about the route, because I have no idea where we went. However, I know that it involved Olive St. and the geologically significant sand dunes near the go-kart track in Keney Park. I don't know why you didn't come.



Additionally, if you've ever wondered why we call it "the eel," here's why. Read more!

Eel: undeterred

You may have heard that it is going to snow tomorrow. That will make the ride more fun.

10am Hyland Park on Fairfield Ave. Email me if you've got any questions. Read more!

Eeeee L

Ok ok. I think the world is passable enough so that we can do that thing we were going to do a long time ago. This time, the ride will almost all be in Hartford and if you've ridden with me, you've probably ridden some of it. However, I don't think you've ever ridden all of it in one fell swoop. And some, I'm pretty sure you haven't ridden. So, Feb 11 meet me at 10am at Hyland Park (or my house) for the fifth or so riding of the Eel. Email me if you have any questions. More details to follow. Ride a bike for mixed media. Read more!

Bogus theory

I had this idea that limbs in the woods not would fall down as much as the trees and limbs in yards and along roadways. In the woods, they'd be able to lean against each other and do some kind of tree mutual aid. That's not the case. The woods are a mess and it's going to be a long time before any trails are passable on a bicycle. It's depressing and I guess I should sell my mountain bikes. Also, no eel on Sunday. Maybe we can go for a road ride. Or, canoeing.

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