A beat bike blog reunion of sorts

Since I live here, I ride in Hartford a lot. It's not really new and interesting any more. Last night, diverging my usual form, I went out and rode with Tony, Kenny, Chill Will and newcomer Kerry. We rode across some bridges. It was like the old days, except now we're old and everyone wants to go to bed. The above video is not really great film making or great bike riding, but sometimes it's fun to be a dork in a yellow jacket and ride around a glisteny city.

Some of us even went to Kenny's the bar and drank some beer. It was like George W Bush was still in office. Read more!

BBB Bike Pub Crawl II: Repeal Day (+ Chill Will is back!)

Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

Friday, December 5th marks the 75th anniversary of the ratification of the glorious 21st amendment to the US Constitution, which gave us back the hooch. Did our country, the home of the free and all that, really outlaw alcohol from 1919 to 1933?? That's a serious WTF.

Some trivia: The 21st is the only amendment ratified by state conventions rather than the state legislatures. It was rejected by South Carolina, and eight other states to this day have not ratified it. Michigan was the first to ratify on April 10th, 1933. But can you guess which 3 states clinched the passage on Dec. 5th, 1933? Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Utah. Yes, that's right...UTAH put us over the top. Oh, what a night that must have been. I'm thinking similar to the famous VJ Day photo but much more embarrassing and grope-tacular.

So get gussied up in your best rum-running 1930s attire. This calls for the 2nd Bike Pub Crawl. This Friday night Dec. 5th, in and around Hartford.

There is even more reason for celebration, as beatbikeblog denizen Sir Chilliam William is back in town and will be attending! He has repealed his stay in California! So this is the perfect opportunity to come ride and hang with Chill Will!!!

I'm going to sketch out a suggested route here, but I'll take suggestions in the comments and update this post as needed.

• 8 pm - 8:50 pm: Sully's Pub*, 2071 Park St., Hartford, CT
  
• 9:00 - 10:00: The Spigot, 468 Prospect Ave., Hartford, CT
  
• 10:10 - 10:45: Vegas Boulevard, 233 Sisson Ave., Hartford, CT
  
• 11:00 - 11:45: Federal Cafe & Mad Dawgs, Union Place, Hartford, CT
  
• midnight - close: Kenny's (Red Rock Tavern), 369 Capitol Ave., Hartford, CT

* Sully's has a band that starts at 10:00. If they're charging a cover at 8 pm, we'll call an audible and start at West Wings (which is around the corner on Prospect next to Wendy's) instead.


Read more!

Discover Hartford Walking and Bicycle Tour 2008

Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day for a wonderful event here in Hartford. I have no idea what the turn-out was this year, but from all the smiles I saw, it seems like a raging success. Thank you to the CCBA, all the volounteers, all of the sponsors, and to the walkers and riders for a great morning and afternoon. I got some great photos of all the shenanigans!

I saw many more police officers corking intersections this year, it was great. As soon as cyclists arrived at a manned intersection, the officer stopped traffic to let us through. Yeah baby! I also saw riders, not just marshals, stepping up and corking a bit! Well done! We all felt like VIP’s! I also really liked the waterproof maps and cue sheets. Well done CCBA! Great idea! But, just curious, who uses the cue sheets!?!? Who!?!?

I think Keney Park once again stole the show. The cool shade of the tree lined roads felt great as the day warmed up a bit. Enroute some hateful, racist yelled, “Go Home!” from his car on the bridge near Weston Street. I found that sadly funny as I, along with many others, live in Hartford. Ha! I guess that’s why it’s called ignorance! Anyways, Keney Park! Woo-haaa! The riverfront was also nice, but I spent a lot of time in the beginning of the tour helping people with my mini-pump. I really wish I had brought a floor pump, but I wasn’t expecting to be a marshall!


This dude and his doggy are ready to pedal the city!!!

Not sure what else to write. There’s a bunch of photos of the tour and our afterparty @ Kenny’s (Red Rock Tavern) after the jump. They are all in chronological order since I’m kinda anal like that somethines! Enjoy.

Click read more to see more!




“I do it in Hartford” I want that woman’s t-shirt!!!!


Joel and Kristen hard at work at the registration table! Hey, i think he likes you. Get a room!!!


Bianca and a Velomobile with a sticker saying “Bianca Signs” She's says no relation...but who knows!?!? I think she secretly makes bicycles and signs at night in her basement. I forget the dude’s name…sorry!


Krash and Wizzy on the tandem. They later arrived at Kenny’s (Red Rock Tavern) on another tandem. There’s atleast 3 in town right now scooting around. NICE!!


Rick, ohhh Rick. Another flat! Dang dude! What's with you and flat tires. There’s Babaganoush and Lindsey just about to ride past him wondering the same thing!


I dub thee, “The Yosemite RV!” WOW! What a set-up! I love it! Notice the kid's bike on the rack on the trailer!


Sonny showing how much of a safety man he is…tubes and patches! Good thing too, as he later entertained us with an amazing over-the-handlebars dismount on Fern Street. The average judges' score was an 8.6! We were stopped for Ben’s 2ed flat and the homeowner came out with a floor pump! Yeah! Go Hartford! I have no idea why everyone who got a flat…got two? Wierdness indeed.


Do not attempt to adjust yer computer monitor. The water in this pond in Goodwin Park is indeed green...really green! So green, that stuff floats on top of it!


I actually discovered something new about Hartford!; this pathway between Wethersfield Avenue and Brainard Road. I don’t think its usually open though, but what a great little shortcut!


I always seem to get people into situations like these! I wanted to continue along the riverfront and not backtrack so we went this way to avoid being seen and having people mistakenly follow us. Atleast she has a cross bike and well... this is what it is made for!


Donnie taking orders and making us laugh at Kenny’s. I respect and like Donnie a lot, though I pretty much refuse to call the bar by its new name, Red Rock Tavern! I am going to get him elected mayor someday because he runs a great business and really knows how to treat people and keep them coming back. Corner of Capitol and Lawrence Street. Lots of lockable bike parking along the patio fence.


hmmm…Rick again…and now on a different bike! After his second flat, he stopped home and went for the burly mountain bike!


Amy Z and Big Nick chatting amongst the dozens of bikes in and around the bar!


More bikes at the bar. Krash and Wizzy switched to Amy Z’s and Rick’s tandem, seen here. Lots of tandems around. I like that.


Dawn and I took a ride around the block while waiting for our food. It was each of our first times on such a bike. Fun! I’d like to go on another short ride on one.

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"Heeeeey…..White People?!??" Critical Mass June 2008

The sweet, light rain really cooled things off a bit before blue skies began appearing along with the sun. Mother Nature appears to be down with the ride, good lookin’ out! The beat crew met up after work by the river to trade flyers, brews and bullshit a bit. We arrived at the Carousel to 20 people milling about; chillin’, meetin’, greetin’, hydratin’ and wrenchin’.


There was a floor pump courtesy of Dave and a few bikes were getting tubes swapped out and hubs debated. Rick! Another flat dude!?!?!? Super cool to see everyone helping each other out and sharing beta. Caresse's hands are blurry fast when she's working on a bike! Dang! Breck seems to be trying to pump with Jedi mind tricks whilst Dave handles the valves! Also super cool to see a banana seat! I really should have taken more photos, but this ride was just too much fun.

A few more riders arrived. Brendan returned from the portapotty. And then my dream came true… Critical Mass left for Keney Park! Woo-haa! There are a lot of lights between Bushnell Park and getting’ onto Main Street and we worked out the kinks of dealing with traffic lights. We quickly forked left on to Albany Avenue.


Yep, we took The Avenue!



Most everyone cheered and yelled as much as we cheered and yelled. One 'round the way dude looked up in honest bewilderment and a smile, “heeeeyyy…White People?!??!” We took a right onto Woodland and left on Greenfield. I corked the Woodland/Greenfield intersection and had a great conversation with a family in a mini-van, waiting at the green light for the bicycles to pass through safely as a group. I thanked them for waiting and keeping people safe and talked about the ride. I invited them to come next month and they seemed interested in coming! Right on! I saw them two more times with the pops giving us the thumbs up out the window. They were following us! I had a great time talking to drivers all along the ride and most were receptive, patient and super nice. The drivers of the North End were much friendlier than the drivers we encountered on last month's ride into West Hartford!


The ride through Keney Park was a mix of roads and car-free greenway. We saw the skyline of Hartford overlooking lush grass meadows, passed through dense forest and pedaled alongside a golf course. This is a great park. I always love spending time here on a road bike or exploring trails on mountain bikes. We didn't pass the pond and fountain though...this time.

We exited onto Rt. 159 and pedaled south on North Main, Windsor Street, left over the railroad tracks and crossed Weston Street; entering into the mess of traffic due to Pearl Jam and some jack-ass drivers. We got onto the riverfront via Riverside Park and continued south along the river to the Colt Building and Colt Park. Ahhh...riding along the river is always a good idea!


We passed the remains of the Virgin Mary Shrine and returned to Bushnell Park on Wethersfield Avenue.

more funny photos after the jump from the afterparty that happened afterwards, Read More!



After regrouping at the park the group split a few ways. We had already lost a few people needin’ to get to the concert and a few chilled in the park for a bit. A group stayed in the park and went to the Bushnell Park Café and another to Kenney’s (Red Rock Tavern) a few minutes away on Cap Ave. There’s some serious mileage of iron patio fence there, perfect for bike locks. The always-friendly Donnie keeps the show runnin’ smoothly and really makes sure everyone’s always got a smile on their face.


Check the reflection of the view of the skyline from our patio seats!


Check it. The rule of three people in a photo = weird shit continues!


I have absolutely no idea what the hell I am doing. Hi Joey Barber! I owe you a bell!


Brendan is a triceritops! And i just realized i never spelllchecked this before posting.

We really stepped things up on this ride as far as corking and Joel enjoyed sweeping and ensuring no one was left behind. Many others stepped up too! Thanks to everyone for making it such a great ride.


Read more!

Pesky Kids (an update concerning my recent absence from two wheels)

I've been off the bike for the past few days, unfortunately, because my dear wife is away doing research in Nicaragua until Monday the 23rd, leaving me in sole control of my two young terrorists. Usually, the whole family can travel by bike, because Anna has a seat on the back of her rig for the little one and I tow the bigger one in the trailer, but with two kids and one adult, the equation gets complicated. Also, their preschool is in Middletown (near Anna's work), and even if I did have a two-kid trailer, I couldn't get them to school then get me to work in a timely fashion if I had to ride all the way there.

All of which is to say, I am going crazy because I have a great new bike but I'm not getting to ride it. I can say that before the wife went away, I got to ride from Middletown to New Haven and back on my Swift folder, and the hype is true: The thing really does hold up nicely on long rides, with many of the favorable long-distance attributes of full-sized road bikes. Unfortunately, it also suffers from some of the same deficits of full-sized bikes, namely, if you make the stupid mistake of riding 50 miles on a 100-degree day, it will not help you to feel less overheated. Also, if you ride it to Kenny's for PHH on a Tuesday night and it has a slow leak in the back tire and you are stupid enough not to carry a spare tube, it will not save you from having to walk home.

In other sponsor news, the Manhattan Portage businessy commuter bag is performing admirably. Before I was de-bike-ified by my wife's departure, I took it on a mid-sized grocery run, filled it to the brim, and switched from shoulder strap to backpack straps for carrying comfort. That was great. And since then, I've been lugging my laptop and lunch and voluminous court filings around the state in it and it has been everything I'd ever hoped for in a bag. Also, the "waterproof fabric treatment," about which I was skeptical, did pretty well in one of the recent torrential downpours (which I rode through to go get beers at Kenny's): Everything in the bag actually stayed dry! Thanks, Manhattan Portage, you champion of companies! Read more!

this week in the beat. may 20-23

grease your chains y’all cuz its gonna be a wet week and there’s much going on in the city.

Progressive Happy hour at Kenny’s (red rock) 9:30 pm til close usually! Corner of capitol and Lawrence street. Look for the outdoor patio with lots of bicycles locked up to it! There’s more iron fence to lock a bicycle to than you can shake a stick at! Or a lock! Or just come inside and shake it! There’s Karoake! Join a bunch of progressive thinking, veggie growing, meat eating (well, some of us!), bicycling, political debating, beer drinking, curly fry eating boys and girls! The nickel and dimers that make it happen! The true best and brightest of Hartford!

The Ride of Silence will begin at Elizabeth Park at 7pm on Wednesday, May 21st. The Hartford ride will be about 12 miles and is expected to take just over an hour. This is one of 277 rides being done on the same day in 17 countries around the world. It is a memorial ride to remember and honor fellow bicyclists who have been killed or injured on public roads. Please check the Ride of Silence website for more information. The ride will be led by Dave Rinquest of the CCBA.

Thursday, May 22, the Farmers’ Market at Billings Forge opens with many vendors, live music, picnic tables and a grand ‘ol time from 11am to 2pm. Its fresh! The market is located in the Firebox parking lot on Broad street only a few buildings south of Capitol Ave. (Shell station) You can pay with EBT/Foodstamps, credit card, debit card and they even take US cash! Bring your own reusable bag and buy fruits, vegetables, honey, locally roasted coffee, salsa, local beef, fresh ice cream, arts and crafts, falafel and empanadas ready to eat! Dang I’m getting hungry. Mad props to the Market Master Hanna Grant!

The market will be open Mondays and Thursdays though the month of October, 11am to 2pm. Its Fresh!


Friday House Happy Hour @ the Tiki Bar @ sully’s! yeah baby! get down with dj mike Johnson keepin’ the house beats bouncin’ outside and dj darkman inside with old school hiphop and r&b early and the band sirsy later on. $5 donation requested.
Free pizza, drink specials, chair massages and the usual chill vibe. lots of fence to lock to, but harass chris and rob to make it easier for bicycles to lock to it!! Also check the new waterfall, its super mad ridiculously chill there now.


it says READ MORE!

but there ain't no more to read suckas!


HEY! i said there wasn't no mo to read fool!

Read more!

bridges and mud. and mud.

Bridges and mud and gin and juice. Well, as my esteemed blogging collogue mentioned; last Tuesday night was all about the bridges. Unknown to us before the ride, it was also gonna be about mud, river mud! We prolly ended up on a dozen bridges, including the nice metal pedestrian bridge over the Hock in East Hartford.


The pedestrian bridge over i91 from the back of a Market Street Parking lot to Riverside Park is like pedaling in prison. The only thing missing was razor wire, but as you can see, Joel doesn’t seem to mind. None of us did, it’s BRIDGE NIGHT! And we were laaaaid back.


We had a nice break on a dike with a great view of the city, but noisy due to the interstate. This was the first spot Josh whipped out his musical camera tripod. I took the above soon afterwards on the next bridge. T’was much more peaceful and quiet there.


We rode another dike in East Hartford and wound our way back to the riverfront to cross on the Bulkley Bridge (i84), which is super loud and hectic due to all the traffic. Not fun. And we realized getting back down to the river to bike along the water to Charter Oak Landing wouldn’t be quick and easy. We pedaled up to Constitution Plaza, crossed a bridge over Columbus Bulevard and then carried our bikes down the stairs to the river, under the Founder’s Bridge. After a rest we decided to head north, just to see the flooding. The river walk dips down under the Bulkley Bridge and the path we were on would soon be under water. We sped up, racing to the edge of the water on the sidewalk…soon realizing…well before hitting the water in the dark…there was slick river mud! Like ice, but oozey. Fun!





Josh ain’t the only blogger with rare shots of a lost sneaker in the mud! (no, it doesn’t belong to us.) (and no, I am not sure how we all managed not to loose a sneaker too.)


We turned around muddier for the visit and headed south along the river, criss-crossing sides of the dike and flood wall and arrived at Charter Oak Landing. Here’s a massive amount of trees and random stuff that floats and is really big; all collected on the lower dock area. Oh yeah, there’s Josh too!



Our next bridge was the Charter Oak Bridge. We all had issues getting to the beginning of the ramp. My short-cut wasn’t shorter. It actually wasn’t a good idea at all. Joel had a chain issue as soon as he hit the path and Josh dropped something...i think. But we all persevered. I still like the view of the city from this bridge, but its super noisy.



Here’s a trilogy of GREAT ideas:

Carry our bikes down the stairs, down lots of stairs
Assume the East Hartford Riverfront is not under water
Assume any leftover mud will be pedalable. (don’t play scrabble with me if you don’t think that’s a word)

All went as well as one might expect. Joel bravely lead the way and took one for the team as the slick mud took him down. Soon we were actually pedaling on slick mud that was under water. It was treacherous and energy draining. Joel wisely (insert juvenile verbal attacks on his manhood here) bailed and fled for higher ground; but Josh and I somehow pushed on through deepening mud on the sidewalk until the path ahead was completely submerged. We didn’t want to leave the river. We talked of a boat, perhaps building a raft, but the upstream paddle didn’t appeal to us. We had to retrace our steps and find a way around, eventually passing through a school parking lot and regaining river access, and Joel, at the boat launch parking area. Mud. We actually pedaled through water!


This is the best photo I have of the three of us. We’re crossing Founder’s Bridge; returning to the Beat; and really wanting to eat chicken tenders and sweet potato fries at kenny’s…and drink beer. The freakin’ barrel of gin and juice was long gone at this point.


The other half of this pair of gloves was also gone at this point. If you find it, holla at me! The only exciting thing I can remember after the last bridge and before Kenny’s was hearing Joel come down the stairs behind me. Then I immediately saw him in front of me and realized Josh just took the stairs on his folding bike. Yeah!


Read more!

Progressive Happy Hour @ Kenny's Red Rock

P to the double H was bangin’ Tuesday Night over at Kenny’s Red Rock. Great crew, great crowd, and the Karaoke with the most love. We dined on some sweeeet, sweet, sweeeeet potato fries and many pitchers of beer. mmmm……sweeet potato fries. I won’t even try to remember who sang what except for The Joel’s rendition of The Band’s The Weight. Who freakin’ knew what all the words really were?!?! Fanny?!?! There was even birthday cake tonight! And homemeade kombucha later on.

Lots of bike talk tonight from sharing folding bike commuter experiences to talk of a Hartford Restaurant Bike Tour, nibbling and noshing while pedaling though the city. Ital, bar bites and liters of beer…oh my! The farmers market at Billings Forge will begin soon, hopefully Hanna will comment with some details about this twice a week market on Broad Street near Capitol Avenue. Perhaps a ride to the Beyond Green Show at UHA and on to the Auer Farm in Bloomfield. And hopefully some other rides involving food. And beer. But especially food. There’s a ridiculous amount of good food in Hartford.



Seven bikes locked up outside too! I bet two weeks from now we could have a dozen bikes out there at 9pm, fresh from a night ride through out the city and the riverfront. An hour and a half would be plenty of time to cruise Park Street, check out Keney, Elizabeth and Bushnell, loop around the riverfronts and work up a good thirst. Read more!