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!

Day 1

I received two texts from my friend Joel today.

This is the first one:
And, this is the second: "Made it!".

Joel is on his way to Michigan and is presently in Rhinebeck, NY on his 61cm Bianchi Volpe. He's a tall guy. I still haven't figured out why he's riding there, which is great because it allows me to speculate wildly. The official reason I got on Saturday at the Spigot was "to visit family", which I don't think is an adequate explanation. Our meeting at the Spigot was ostensibly an "interview", but it was far too alcoholic, so I can't remember that much about what we talked about. It was also Dan's last Hartford visit before he moves to SF.

I first met Joel four or five years ago when he arrived in Hartford with his then girlfriend Anna. She was going to graduate school for the 'cello and he was doing Americorps. I met him through mutual friends. Anna had a car and Joel rode an old Miele road bike around town. I didn't know that Miele made bikes, I thought they made fancy appliances.

Anna and Joel broke up awhile ago and she took her car to Boston with her. Since then, Joel has been living in West Hartford with Alicia, Jacob and Will. He's a free lance art handler, doing work for Real Art Ways, the Wadsworth Atheneum and the Cartin Collection. If you've seen art hanging in the last few years, he may have done it. He's really good at it. He's been doing the Catalog thing with our friend Joe. He gets to those places on his Miele.

For a guy with no car and who gets around the Hartford area by bike, he's very low-key about. He's not one of those vicious bike commuting proselytizers. In fact, I never could quite tell if he liked to ride the things. Up until the weekend before last, we'd never even gone on a bike ride together.

Around two months ago, Joel told me that he'd been drinking one night and decided to ride his bike to Michigan. I say weird shit like that a lot, so I figured it wouldn't come up again. Although, we did spend considerable time that evening talking about websites like crazy guy on a bike.

The subject didn't die, though, he started asking me about my Long Haul Trucker (I'm a poser touring guy) and potential touring bikes. Joel had a hard time finding bikes, because he's really tall. Eventually, he found a big Volpe on eBay at a pretty good price. And lo, he bought it, though not off eBay. He went to down the Newington Bike and bought it through them. He also got some panniers and other stuff. Strangely, Joel and I wear the same size bike shorts (medium), but he's a foot taller than me. Since they look like half shorts on him, he hides them under regular shorts.

The 80 miles out to Rhinebeck puts him at 10% completion of his trip. I'm totally jealous and very impressed. Much of the trip will be on the Erie Canal route. When I was younger, I rode on some of it with my parents (so, not very much) and then he'll go into Canada on his way to Grand Rapids, MI (that website doesn't really make me want to visit Grand Rapids).

I got another text from him during the process of writing this: "Meeting my friend in Red Hook. It's cute. Must find beer."

Expect more updates as more texts arrive. Read more!

More Michigan

Some of you readers maybe remember that our friend Dan Shoup rode from Michigan to Connecticut last year to come visit us. I guess MI-CT trips are the cool things to do, because my friend Joel is preparing to ride from CT to MI next week. He's got himself a new Bianchi Volpe and seems good to go. At some point soon, I'm going to do the BBB's first ever interview with him. Read more!