Sir, come Burke

Since it started three years ago, I'd been interested in riding this thing called "Circumburke". It's in memoriam of Dave Blumenthal, whom I've never met, but seemed like a really cool guy. It goes around Burke Mountain, but doesn't really use Kingdom Trails much. Now that Kingdom Trails is expensive, I've only been there once. The first two years, I guess it was pretty small, but it's quite big now. I think there were like 170 mountain bikers and like 40 runners or so. It is said that the lap was 24 and participants could sign up for one or two. I signed up for two. I've never done a long mountain bike race before (further, I'm not sure if this counted as a race anyway), but I like mountain biking for a long time. Those Cat 2, 'cross race-style mountain biking races are for the birds. I upgraded to Cat 1 this year, but I don't know, mountain bike racing really hasn't interested me much this year. It's a lot less fun than just going for a bike ride. 'Cross racing is different, because it's such a silly concept that it is fun.

Anyway, I think some number of people signed up to do the two lap version, but we weren't organized into groups and there weren't different numbers or anything like that. So, I'll never really know. There was a mass start from the parking lot at the lower Burke lodge. There were a whole bunch of people, but it was pretty easy to get a spot in the first row. The start was medium pace, though I thought a bit fast for having to ride like almost 50 miles. I stayed out in front, because I didn't want to have a lot of traffic going up the singletrack climb to the CCC Road mid-mountain. I had the hole shot for the first quarter mile or so, but the pace was too fast, so I let a few people start passing me as the field stretched. They were going way too fast. I figured they'd either blow up or they were doing only one lap. The grade lessens at the CCC Road, but it gets way rockier. It being fall and all, the rocks were all covered in leaves. It made line selection sort of difficult. It wasn't really bad on the climb, but there's a long descent after all the climbing and I rode it very conservatively because I had no idea where the rocks were and I was riding a rigid bike. Lots of people passed me, but we were only like four miles in, so I wasn't too worried. 

After the leafy descent, the course came out on a dirt road. There was some farm equipment to avoid. After the dirt road, the course went through a really nasty bog. On the second lap, I ran sections of it because it was so gross after all the riders going through. Eventually, I arrived at the singletrack section. It was super twisty and loamy and went on for a long time. I got stuck in there with a bunch of super aggressive weirdos, which was pretty unpleasant and put me in sort of a sour mood. Eventually, we got out of the singletrack at some point after the first aid station. That gave way to the Gold Trail and North Pasture Trail, which were pleasant forest roads except for terrible water bars. I rode with this guy on a nice singlespeed for awhile, who was also a pretty nice guy. He wrote a blog post about the event, too; I'm the guy on the rigid green bike. Eventually, we got to Trillium or some boggy trail or something and he railed this descent and I never saw him again. When the trail came back out to the road, I knew the lap was almost over, so I started to take it easy, because the big climb was coming. Also, my back was starting to hurt something fierce. On one of the water bars, I tried to hit it like a double, but I wasn't going fast enough or I just suck, because I cased it bad. It didn't hurt at first, but it was starting to get pretty painful. When I got to the start finish, there were a bunch of people milling around, so I assumed that they were the one lap people. I saw one other guy starting on lap two and I went that way, too. The first lap was 2:24, I think, so I was well under the cutoff. 

My back was killing me on the climb, though not as much when I stood. So, I stood when I could and spent most of the climb very unhappy. The guy whom I saw start on the second lap had made a wrong turn and I went an got him. I rode ahead of him up Camptown, but I were reconnoitered at the water station on the CCC Road, because I was crouching down trying to stretch my back. He said that he hadn't seen anyone else start lap two and I hadn't either, so we were fairy sure that we were the only two lappers. I found that surprised, especially since it cost more money to sign up for two laps, so why wouldn't you get your money's worth. Anyway, I kept riding and my back loosened up slightly. The singletrack was much more enjoyable in solitude. Eventually on the Gold Trail and on the North Pasture trail, I caught up to some of runners. I was starting to cramp up and by the grace of God or the race organizers, there were pickles at the last aid station! I took a big gulp of pickle juice and my legs were instantly better. I had no idea how that stuff works, so it must be magic. The second lap was more or less like the first, but I rode somewhat slower. The other two lap fellow never caught back up to me. 

It turned out we really were the only people who did the long version, so I finished first out of two. It was fun. For insurance purposes, the event isn't a race, so I'm not sure if I won anything. The weather was really nice and the course had that back country feel so that I like so much about riding in Vermont. My back still hurts, but it responds to ibuprofen. The end.

I had really nice conversation with John McGill, the director. Very cool guy and he wants to put on an ultra cross event up there, which I think would be totally awesome.

Since I didn't take any pictures while I was riding, here are some pictures from canoeing the day before. The top one was from the day of and its beautiful sunrise.

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Alley! Cat!

Every so often I wonder whatever happened to alley cats. Then, I get an email about one.

Here is one such example coming soon to Hartford. Details are below and speak for themselves.

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Chris is a Richard.

Not really.  We love Chris.  But I did take a compromising picture of him on the way back from Middlefield.  Although we didn't have the promised breakfast at O'Rourke's in Middletown, we did meet up with a fascinating group of ladies from the New Haven area at the orchard and they gave us cider donuts to avoid the bonk.  A stop at the Blackbird Tavern provided the fuel for a trip back north.

Note.  The Yuba (loaded with Chris's 20lbs of miscellany) is not the best bike to take on a hilly 60 miler.  Quite capable on dirt and train tracks though.  I couldn't decide which train track photo I preferred. Your thoughts.  Maybe we could do a long river ride before it gets too cold to enjoy it properly.  I really enjoy the out of control feel of floating on leaf litter.

And then my sister came to Hartford.  We rode bikes, marched in parades (as a Dragon and Foot), and danced until we nearly collapsed.  Kristen knits and I tried on her hat.  It made me evil.  Maybe Kristen will come back and stay a while... All in favor?

I woke up late for the Bike Walk CT Traffic Safety 101 course on Sunday, but one of the instructors, who I insulted in the title, gracefully let me sneak in.  I've decided to take this course because I'm an incorrigible scofflaw and need re-education.  That and being a League of American Bicyclists Cycling Instructor seems like something I could use in the future once I tire of silly jet engines.  One poor fellow managed to endo during the emergency stop exercise - no permanent damage though.

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Flower Street Decision

The gist of it is that the road will be closed to motor vehicle traffic, but the DOT should created a reasonable option, like a bridge, for pedestrians and cyclists. I think it's an ok resolution, though I don't think should is a very binding word, the hearing officer doesn't give any reason why people were denied intervenor status and doesn't mention any written testimony. I think the process was pretty messed up and I think there should have been some chastisement of the DOT by the hearing officer.

Here it is.

Thanks to Robert Cotto for sending me the PDF. It was mailed to him. Read more!

Apple problem

I went to Glastonbury yesterday and bought some apples and corn at the farm stand on tryon rd. Then, I rode home through the Glastonbury meadows. This added to the fallnessity of the ride, but really bruised my apples.

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More fall riding

I feel compelled to give a shout out to Haywood farm in New Hartford, because they gave me a free apple yesterday. I stopped in wanting cider, but they only had half gallons, which is a bit much in one sitting. So, I decided to have an apple instead and they only had bushels. (Or maybe pecks.) (I'm pretty sure a small basket is a peck.) I asked if I could buy just one apple and they gave it to me for free. It was a good apple, too. Head out to Hayward farm in New Hartford, very near the Harwinton line with more than a jersey pocket and buy some apples.

More trappings of fall!

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Pretty bikes and leaves.

I agree with Brendan.  Fall in CT is a short, but beautiful time for riding - when it happens to stop raining.

Friday I tagged along with Patrick from Hartford Bicycle Studio to Providence Rhode Island for the Builder's Ball, a regional custom bike builder show.   The Builder's Ball is the nearby, accessible, and cheap ($3 entry) alternative to the annual North American Handmade Bicycle Show.  Lots of expensive eye candy about.  I was particularly taken by the Connecticut builder, Watson Cycles.  Photos of their commuter bike and a monster Iditarod bike included below. The snow bike included not one, but two flask holders.  I was fantasizing about rolling in to work or to the coffee shop with that beast.  What an over the top, yet still functional, bike!

Patrick had kindly tied my road bike to his roof.  Yes. No roof rack needed, just some ratchet straps.  My plan was to see if I could drum up a couch surf arrangement for the evening.  That didn't pan out.   After checking the weather forecast I headed out into the clear, cool Providence evening and followed the Washington Secondary Bike Path Southwest out of the city.  Smooth rolling to West Warwick, RI where I found a quiet city park where I rolled out the sleeping bag and air mattress.  Under the stars, as I didn't bring my tent or hammock.

The ride back today was quite nice.  Very quiet, rolling terrain leaving RI and I haven't done much riding in the far Eastern parts of CT so those were fresh tracks for me.  Took a pretty swamp photo, but it looks kinda creepy.  Maybe it was the ghoulish month of October that fouled it up?

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Fall riding

When I was in middle school and high school, fall used to be my favorite time of year. I actually liked all those new England trappings of fall. For some reason, I get a lot more enjoyment out of daylight now. So, as it starts to get dark early, I get depressed. It's especially bad when day light saving time is over. Everything feels very claustrophobic.

The one upside is that leading into this bleak period, the weather becomes pleasant and the trees are.pretty. I think we're at the onset of that now. I got to enjoy some of that when I rode up to westfield the other day. Apparently, they extended the bike path over passed the really sandy section, but not over the scary train trestle.

Also, will there ever be a time when I'm next to the southwick dirt jumps and I'm not on a road bike?

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Take back Farmington Ave

Get out, make some noise.  Tomorrow (Friday) morning.  Put bikes and feet on the street.  West Hartford citizens are taking action.

http://www.courant.com/community/west-hartford/hc-west-hartford-bike-event-1004-20121003,0,2963673.story

http://www.bikewesthartford.org/news.html

http://www.facebook.com/groups/ 481797585166434/

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Canoe race!

Envisionmess?

Discover Hartford? I live in Hartford! There's nothing left to discover.

What you really need is a canoe race. I missed the one on the Hockanum back in the Spring, but another one is coming up and it partially benefits a good cause (not that the other part benefits a bad cause, I think it just benefits canoe racing, which is still a pretty good cause).

So, anyway, come down to the Nayaug Canoe and Kayak Race on Oct. 7. Here's the schedule of events. From a cyclist's standpoint, the race can be watched from the meadows, which always a nice place to be.

The part that benefits is the paddle with a pro and it benefits traumatic brain injury. Joe Damon, who has tbi, is organizing that part. Here's some info about paddle with a pro:

• Can you describe the new Paddle With a Pro event?  Who is eligible to enter and how and when do they register?  When will it take pace?  What is the cost/suggested donation?  How many people can participate?

PWaP is a benefit event of the NCR, which teams up a novice canoeist. The pro should offer casual paddling instructions. Paddlers must be over 10 years old and are selected by a random drawing of tickets in a hat. There will be  6 paddlers selected to paddle with one of 6 pros. The minimum donation is $10 and we hope that folks will purchase several chances to improve their odds of being selected in the drawing. Proceeds benefit the Brain Injury Alliance of Connecticut. The PWaP event will be held at 12:30, after the pro races and before the novice level races. The paddler drawing selection is at noon.

After paddling with a pro, you'll totally be ready to win the race next year.


Pictured above, of course, is the Hockanum, where I missed my chance for canoe glory this year. Read more!

Are you ready to get out and ride (greater) Hartford?

Open letter to folks that like to have fun,

Get off your ass and ride both these great events in Hartford happening within a week of each other.  Tell your friends, co-workers, and perfect strangers that they are total dorks if they don't show.  Hartford's bike culture is rising like ocean sea levels - started slowly, but now we're picking up speed.  Watch out for bike flooding in low lying areas.

Real Ride - Riding Around a Tree - Saturday, September 22nd.  

• There will be three sound systems (think boom box times 10) blasting tunes from bike trailers.  Front, middle, and tail of the group.  An upgrade over previous rides.
• Meet at Real Art Ways (56 Arbor Street, Hartford) to fancy up your bicycle. Cover yourself with things that glow and blink. We ride once the sun has set. Light up the night on this guided bike party through Greater Hartford.  We all leave together, pause a few times to regroup and finish at Real Art Ways for snacks, sips and tunes. 
• Highlighting this ride: Adam Niklewicz 's "Walking Around a Tree" projection will make its debut on Saturday, September 22 on the facade of the AT&T building downtown. "Walking Around A Tree," along with the sculpture/installation "The Charter Oak" on 215 Pearl Street, is a collaborative effort between the artist, the City of Hartford, The Wadsworth Atheneum and Real Art Ways. 
• The ride is FREE. Refreshments and light-up accessories will be available at the cafe for purchase.

Discover Hartford Bicycle Tour - Saturday, September 29th (NEW ROUTES)

• Family-friendly, leisurely ride to discover Hartford's neighborhoods, parks and architectural and cultural gems.  Choose from 10-,  25-, or 40-mile routes.  Registration / check in begins at 7AM in Bushnell Park and the rides leave at 9AM.
• Online Registration is open.  $30 for Bike Walk CT members and $40 for non-members.   Online registration ends on September 27th, and goes up to $45 for everyone day of the event.  
• Proceeds benefit Bike Walk CT, the organization making you safer with the 3-foot law and vulnerable user legislation.  Bike Walk CT gets more bike commuters on the road with the very successful Bike to Work events.  You can learn how to ride the streets safely with their Traffic Skills 101 course.
• Volunteers are still needed.  You can sign up online.
• Spread the word by inviting your bike loving (or bike curious) friends to the event on Facebook.

See you out there.

Tony C

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Cheap or expensive?

 

When people started singlespeed mountain biking back in the Tour de France or the 1870s or whatever, there weren't really any singlespeed frames. People took old ones with vertical drop outs or horizontal drop outs and used tensioners or didn't. Therefore, the bikes were pretty cheap. I've only read about this, because I think it took a long time to get to Connecticut and I wasn't born yet or something. Now, as you know, they make whole bikes of this sort of and they're fancy and not fancy, but with the exception of Redline Monocogs, I only ever see the fancy ones.

Anyway, which way is it meant to be? The lowest functional thing that can get you through the woods or the artisanal jewel? Can they co-exist?

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Very slow ride

Some years ago, erstwhile beat bike blogger El Presidente de Chine (de Cine?) wrote about riding slowly. People were way into it. I don't own a Raleigh 20 folding bike, so I was unable to get into it. I wish I owned a folding bike, because I'd like something that I could take on an Amtrak train. Johanna has this old JC Higgins kid's banana seat bike in Vermont that makes me ride slow, but in addition to being very hard to ride  farther than a mile, the tires are always exploding. So, I don't ride it very much.

I do like the idea of going slow. I mean, if you've seen me race, you've seen me go slow. I also like walking slowly. I canoe slowly. When I grill things, it usually takes four hours.

So, to add that ethos to a bike ride, I decided that I should go fishing in the middle of it. This is distinct from riding to a place to go fishing, this is fishing during a bike ride. I rode 15 miles yesterday in 3 1/2 hours. Very slow!

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Broken Shoes

How long are cycling shoes supposed to last? I used to have a pair of Cannondale shoes and they broke after two and a half seasons. The plate where the cleat mounted detached from the rest of the sole and would flex a lot and make it difficult last night. Up until last night, I had a pair of Answer shoes. I knew they were on the way out because they were developing holes, but they failed because the left shoe's sole detached from the upper. It was an interesting feeling. Those lasted three and a half seasons. May my knee over pedal spindle is all wrong.

I bought a pair of Carnac shoes. I hope these work ok. Maybe four and a half seasons?

Also, I narrowly avoided this cute guy and wowed him with my bike handling skills.

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It's not alright. He was 8 yrs old.

Last Thursday Elijah Montalvan was struck by a car and he died on Saturday, September 1st, 2012.  He was riding at night, pretty damn late, and was struck by a driver with a suspended license and no insurance.  It doesn't say in the article, but I can almost guarantee that there wasn't a bike helmet or bike lights involved.  How many things are wrong with this?  Too many.

The street where Elijah was hit is a curving, dense neighborhood drive thick with parallel parking.  No one in that neighborhood should be driving over 25 mph.  When we put up the entirely avoidable ghost bike on Monday  there was a lot of car traffic, much of it moving much too quickly.  When someone gets in a car, why is it that  concern for others usually gets left behind?  Shaving 20 seconds on my 5 minute drive to the grocery store somehow warrants risking life and limb of children in the neighborhood.

Linda was our inspiration for putting together a ghost bike for Elijah.  She is just one year past the death of her partner, Will Laramie, who was struck by a repeat drunk driver.  Linda was planning to put up a ghost bike back up on Burnside, locking it securely this time so the bike isn't lifted by scrappers.  The intersection where Will was struck, Burnside and Larrabee, needs some work.  While mounting the bike, we chatted about how the intersection would be safer for bikes and pedestrians if instead of a speed encouraging Y-intersection, the streets came together perpendicularly.  This would reduce speeds through the intersection and provide better sight lines.  Much thanks to the always vigilant and motivated Kevin Sullivan for finding the youth bike and towing the bikes over to East Hartford.

The question is, "Will East Hartford take the tragic death of Elijah, and many other cyclist deaths in their city, and choose to take action?"  Bike Walk Connecticut has education programs that can be implemented in schools, and the annual Will Laramie Benefit Concert was organized to help benefit / support that type of education.  Ghost bikes can only do so much.  The next step is making bicycle safety education part of a child's education.  Kids learn how to play bean bag dodge in gym class, why not basic cycling safety?  Cycling safety education could even be worked into a recess program.

Note:  For those that know me well.  The Burnside ghost bike is the Huffy Sweekstakes, also known as Good Vibrations Deluxe.

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East Coast Greenway comes to Hartford

Wrapping up a seven day tour from Portland, Maine to Hartford, Connecticut, a triumphant group of cyclists finished with a 60 mile leg starting in Putnam and finishing in Hartford.  The cyclists are experiencing and celebrating the East Coast Greenway one week at a time.  Last year the cyclists rode from Calais, ME to Portland.  Next year the cyclists will be starting in Hartford, CT and finishing 7 days south of here.  Where?  I'm not sure.  The rides are FREE for ECG members.  Pretty sweet, huh?  Something to keep on the radar for next year.  At some point I'd like to ride the full route from Key West to Calais, ME ~ 3,000 miles.

The riders were met in Bushnell Park by Mayor Segarra, who recently showed his bike / ped chops by riding to the Bike to Work Breakfast.  The Mayor has a real bicycle advocate on his staff, Thom Deller, so expect change in a good way.  Thom came to Hartford from Providence, RI and did great stuff for that city.

The enthusiastic DJ welcoming the riders was perhaps a little hard of hearing...

Have you registered yet for the Discover Hartford Parks Tour?  Rapidly approaching on Saturday, September 29th.  Still looking for volunteers too if you can't cough up the dough to ride. Read more!

Bald Mountain Failure

Several months ago, I endeavored to ride a difficult ride. It was to be in Vermont and go up Bald Mountain (in Westmore). Bald Mountain is taller than Burke, but shorter than Gore and an East Mountain that is somewhere in Essex County. I thought it was the tallest one around, but it looks like it's only the tallest one in Orleans County and the third highest in the Northeast Kingdom. I snowshoed up it this winter and it was enjoyable. I even wrote about it on this very blog, sort of. The icy window is the observation tower. There are two trails that go up to the summit, so an out and back isn't required. This led me to the conclusion that I should ride my bike up it. There'd only be like a mile or two of hike-a-bike. So, in May I attempted that, but got lost because I couldn't find the eastern trail head and wandered down some moose trail for a while and cut my legs up pretty bad. Two days ago, I did it and didn't get lost. There was a bunch of hiking, but it wasn't all hiking and the descent was fun. Hikers were perplexed.

It just goes to show that there's much more to the Northeast Kingdom than Kingdom Trails. Not that I have anything against Kingdom Trails.

I also put a sweet grocery basket on the Pueblo and rode it with flip flops on.

The spring in Sutton quotes Auden now.

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What a difference an inch makes

That's what she said!

Sorry. Our blog is usually lacking in terrible humor (always lacking in good humor). Anyway, I took the ferry over to the Meshomasic State Forest the other day and went mountain biking. It was very enjoyable. I was thinking, while going down some rocky, washed out descent (as they are there), I'm not crashing and generally out of control like I have been lately. I realized that it's probably because my tires are about an inch wider than they are on my 'cross bike. It's realizations like this that make people think I'm not too bright and they're totally correct.

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Diminishing returns

It's another one of those transitional periods when I start to neglect the beat bike blog. Sorry, beat bike blog.

Limed fields in the meadows look like summer snow.

In other news, I have become quite terrible at riding a bike. I went down to the Blowhole Monday afternoon and crashed five times! Really, five times! I also almost lost my pump. Maybe it's 'cross bike overload or something. I rode out to Penwood last week and double flatted. The bike is definitely trying to tell me something.

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I need some bike mechanics.

Heya kiddos.  The Discover Hartford Parks Tour is Saturday, September 29th.  I'm looking for 6-8 mobile bike mechanics / route marshals.  Anyone interested should drop me a line.

You'll need some basic bike maintenance skills, and the ability to ride 10-25 miles - slowly.  Will also want 1-2 folks to be mechanics / sweeps for the 40 mile route.  I've heard that there are some world class bike mechanics that read the Beat Bike Blog.  Time to come out of the shadows and support a great event.  You'll need to bring your own basic tools and a pump - basically what you might bring on a multi-day tour.  I'll round up some tubes and patch kits to distribute.

You also get a free entry - and probably a t-shirt from the event.

Note:  Registration for the tour is now open.  If you don't want to volunteer, you should register now.  It's only $25 for Bike Walk CT members if you register before August 29th.  And help us spread the word with this Facebook invitation! Read more!