Squatting. That's a funny word.

I'm squatting.  On this hashtag - #HartfordCyclocross.  Look.  There it is on Beat Bike Blog.  First.  Nobody can Columbus that.  Except I don't know how to use the Twitter.  Can somebody competent help complete this transaction?

Cyclocross in the dark.  Whiskey assist.

If anyone of consequence (or intelligence) reads the Beat Bike Blog and races bikes - the course is pretty damn soft.  Just sayin'.  You might want to choose your tires accordingly.  Last year was hard and jittery.  Not this time.

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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!

Truth in advertising

My ankle is still bothering me, so when I went up to Vermont this past weekend I spent most of my time plumbing instead of riding my bike. Then the plumbing started bothering me, so I went for a bike ride. Not a very long one, but I found a new road or two, road the much beloved Nishikis (Pueblo & Comp III) an discovered a unhappy wheel bearing on my Privateer S.

For those of you who drink beer, you probably don't realize this is a picture of the most famous brewery in North America.

I had always wondered where Swamp Rd. in Greensboro went and I decided to find out. Believe it or not, Swamp Rd goes into a swamp. I think in the winter it may be a useful road that is a shortcut to Hillcrest Road, but the rest of the year it goes into a swamp and you sink. Or, maybe it's for getting swamp resources, like mud. I also went down Highlander Rd., which is one of the coolest road names going.

In non-Vermont news, my friend Jason got his bike stole-- a Schwinn Le Tour no less. Here are some pictures. He lives in West Hartford, so if you this rolling on West Hartford or something like this on craigslist. Shoot me an email or something. It's got thumb shifters. That's sort of a unique identifier.

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Stay away!

I was reading on Doug's blog that his leg is better and he is back on the bike in the woods. That's cool. In reading what he wrote, I noticed that he had gone to the Reservoir and it looked pretty passable. After school on Tuesday, I ventured forth and it was miserable. Down low it wasn't so bad, but up high it was either muddy or four inch deep wet snow. I felt bad. I'm bad for the environment. Upon returning home, I checked the date of when he wrote what he wrote and noticed that quite a bit of time had passed. I mitigated  damages by getting out of there when I realized they were too wet.

So, anyway, the moral of the story is that much of the woods are still too wet to ride your bike. I know people can't wait, because I saw lots of tracks. I guess I'm part of that bad group.

At some point, I really need to write something interesting in here, but it's almost been 5 years and you can only say so much about riding bikes in greater Hartford. Read more!

Erosion Psychologist

Awhile ago, I wrote a short story about an erosion psychologist. I didn't really elaborate on what the job entailed, it was a passing description of a 4'9" air traveler named after a guy I worked with at a coffee shop in West Hartford center. The real version of the fellow barista wrote a book called Displicit, went to divinity school and became a UU minister. I am also a minister, but mostly for the purpose of officiating weddings in California, where my Justice of the Peace status doesn't transfer.

Yesterday I was in Rocky Hill looking at an eroded hill caused by a new, ugly subdivision. It's right of the hill from the Connecticut River and the Goff Brook. There's probably enough space between the eroded hill and the water to prevent it from silting out, but I don't really know anything about that.

The moral of the story is that mountain bikers should refrain from riding most woods until they dry out more. However, bad subdivisions and ATVs cause far more harm to the environment than mountain bikes and feet.

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America's Saturday (Continued)

Brendan properly celebrates America's Saturday by bailing before the good parts of a fixed gear century (or so).  I'll finish the story for him.  Salem and I found a new rail bridge at the end of the Airline Trail in East Hampton, and there was some unexpected graffiti.  Salem's routine throughout the day was, "You should put this (25 mile out street art) on the next graffiti tour."  Eye roll.

On our way back in we decided to cut through the Portland Meadows rather than ride the boring and somewhat hilly Route 17.  This is a known mudhole / quad haven, but on past trips I've only seen a couple straggling rednecks.  We ran across what appeared to be every redneck in CT having a bear soaked, mud slinging party.  Salem and I found ourselves practicing our drawl, just in case we had the need to interact.  Unfortunately no photos.  We didn't know if the natives would appreciate the gesture.

After leaving the Mad Maxx excitement we were puttering along idyllic Tryon street in South Glastonbury and were nearly run off the road by an aggressive Jeep pulling a jet ski.  After being told to "get off the road" we were informally challenged to a duel.  Fortunately we were able to wave the jerk on his pissed off way and were surprised to be yelled at again by his girlfriend who had been in the next car back.  We took this opportunity to call the police who were quite responsive.  We took a break and waited for the patrol car to take a statement.

There was some swimming, although I only waded.  You'll notice that Salem wore shorts.  It was an excellent ride, although the premise was questionable.  I was really surprised that Salem had four people take him up on the idea. Read more!

The far afield posts begin again

As you know, I like Vermont. Since there was no winter, mud season ended early this year and Johanna and I decided to go up there. That caused me to learn how to do rudimentary plumbing. Next: bike frames!

I rode my old familiar haunts and discovered that some of them had developed Strava segments. This was almost as weird as having marginal cell phone coverage and the synchronized blinking of the wind turbines after dark.

I also ate a lot of fiddleheads. Read more!

Disc brakes on 'cross bikes and head injuries

Many are opposed and many are for disc brakes on 'cross bikes. I've ridden a 29er with discs, so I'm assuming it's the same thing: overkill. I guess I actually own that 29er, I don't just ride randomly one. I've never really had much a problem dragging the brakes after riding through gunk, except on like two occasions. Once, in a race a few years ago, I had frozen stuff on my rims and I tried to brake going into a corner and nothing happened. I careened into some trees and lost a position. Yesterday, I was riding on this sort of boardwalky thing: little sections of planks with gaps in between the sections. It was kinda technical and there was mud in between two of them. Since it was technical, there wasn't a lot for room for the brake dragging, so I had to use the brakes instead of dragging them before I used them. Needless to say, they didn't work so hot, I went off the boardwalk and landed on my head.

So, frozen mud and technical 'cross bike riding seems to be the application of disc 'cross bikes.

Also, the title of this post is sort of misleading because I didn't actually hurt my head. My neck was a little sore, though, but now it's better. Read more!

Hipster Ponies with Beards?

Brendan and I headed out for a mixed media ride on Saturday.  Starting out down Main Street East Hartford, some a-hole driving a Porche Cayenne (am I restating the obvious?) laid on the horn a couple of times before revving by and taking a fast right onto Riverside Drive.  I'm guessing it's because he never learned how to change lanes to pass.  We spent the next mile discussing the best way to communicate with courteous drivers while wearing ski mittens or bulky black gloves at night - fist shaking and the facetious parade wave.

The temp was just around freezing with a good hard freeze last night.  With the heavy rain this week, there was a sloppy mix of hard frozen mud, just barely frozen mud, and not at all frozen mud.  The ride headed south on the east side of the river, through the Glastonbury Meadows with an attempt to get all the way to Portland fairgrounds, but unfortunately the water was up - and we found oodles of mud - backtracked to Old Maids Lane and were roundly insulted by the digital speed detector.

Then turned up Isinglass to Meshomasic State Forest for some speedy dirt roads.  Brendan pulled off a spectacular endo trying to clear a downed tree.  Seems he WAY over lifted the rear wheel due to concern with jamming his big ring into the rather sizable tree.  Whatever caused it, I enjoyed watching the topple.  Had several over bar bike dismounts of my own when attempting to roll some ridiculous tree falls.  Hey, why not try?  Maybe someday I'll get better and they'll look less ridiculous.

On Coldbrook Road, one of the most fucking bucolic streets around, we found these odd little ponies with beards.  Left when one starting eating the other's shit.  Shit eating bearded ponies.

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An after school special

As I think some blog post stated, I am no longer a bureaucrat and am instead a law student. The books are heavy and are taking a toll on my world's greatest panniers. I'm trying to adjust, but it's weird not having a job. There are also way more laws than I thought there were and I'm spending all this time reading about them. Apparently, there's a lot more to the legal world than the Hartford Municipal Code (Ordinance 08-10 made mountain biking legal in Hartford parks).

Today, however, my morning class was canceled, so my book load was light. Coaxed by the nice weather, I went on a nice little bike ride starting from campus and into the flood waters of the Connecticut. I hadn't stood thigh-deep in the river since the Detour last Fall. The immediate environs of the river of starting to develop the mournful look they get in Fall. It's nice.

Also, you may recall that Windsor wanted to put a bike path along the Connecticut River between Windsor Meadows State Park and Hartford. It appears that they've broken ground.

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Passat own risk

My Passat was a car to be reckoned with. It had five gears, four cylinders, a turbo charger, leather seats, an aluminum skid plate that could withstand nasty rocks, almost entire soda bottle of displacement and some other stuff. While I might write about riding my bike all the time, when I do drive, I really enjoy it. The Passat was already to go up to Vermont on Friday with a bike, a cat and two ladies, but it wasn't meant to be. Turning on to Trout Brook, the suspension broke and the car ostensibly ceased to be.

This trail will improve when it dries on in the summer. Some parts were a tiny bit muddy.

After regrouping and traumatizing the cat, we eventually made it to Vermont, whereupon I explored the Craftbury Outdoors Center. Nice people over there. They let me ride their singletrack and I bought a cliff bar. I tried to find some roads that didn't exist. I almost repeated the same thing a day later, but by inadvertently trespassing. After some course correction, I found a pretty cool ATV trail over Dunn Mountain.

The famous Bayley-Hazen Military Road near Craftsbury Outdoor center.

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Brendan and Class 4 Roads

I doubt that anyone reads this blog closely enough to recall my last foray up Mt. Hor. Willoughby State Forest is a big old state forest next to Lake Willoughby. It's got some trails and forest roads that are very awesome. For awhile, I've been trying to figure out how to get into the forest from the north. I finally figured it out (Big Valley Lane). I have a mediocre map of the forest and the late, great Dave Blumenthal did some mapping through there as part of XVT, but I kept taking some wrong turn and ending up back on RT 16. Once in the state forest, I ended up deviating from the road and riding/walking all the way to the Mt. Hor summit. Descending from Mt. Hor back to the CCC road was pretty exciting on a 'cross bike.

I also did some exploration closer to Shadow Lake and found an awesome descent down from the Sheffield Square area on Quarry Road back to RT 16, which led me to a climb that brought me through the Black Hills and right back to Shadow Lake. That was quite a find, but the final descent back to the lake was super muddy and kind of ruined my bike.

Anyway, it was a weekend of yard work and class 4 roads (I believe I was on a few that had been reclassified with trail status).

I got a new camera, what do you think of the image quality?

Next week I plan to explore Dunn Mountain.

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Pasta on the move: Spring edition

The tulips bloom for my puttanesca.

The Spring floods still haven't abated for us. Look at this forlorn snail as he dares to cross the Scheldt.

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Giant

I live in the end of Hartford with giant grinders. I try to follow suit by putting giant tires on my bike. A little more than a year ago I bought this lot of a couple dozen (or maybe more) tires. There were a lot of downhill tires, which aren't much use to me because the front fork of my Stumpjumper is the only place with clearance for them. None the less, I really enjoy putting a giant tire on there. For awhile, I had a super tacky 2.5" Maxxis High Roller. It was pretty good, but I knew I could do better. A couple months ago while wasting time on eBay, I spotted 2.8" Bontrager Big Earls at a good price. So, I bought them. I finally took it out yesterday and it's quite the experience. And, it has surprisingly low rolling resistance. However, I think I've met my match in terms of tire width with rim brakes (or at least V-brakes), because under heavy braking, the left arm hits the outside knobbies. Read more!

Flood porn

The Connecticut River is high. NOAA is saying intense things (IN ALL CAPS and spelling "officials" wrong) like this:

THIS IS A SERIOUS FLOOD EPISODE. FOLLOW THE DIRECTION OF YOUR LOCAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT OFFICALS. IF ASKED TO EVACUATE...DO SO IMMEDIATELY. ALL FLOOD PROTECTION MEASURES MUST BE RUSHED TO COMPLETION IN FLOOD PRONE AREAS. TOWNS FROM WINDSOR LOCKS AND EAST WINDSOR SOUTH THROUGH HADDAM AND PORTLAND WILL EXPERIENCE SIGNIFICANT FLOODING OUTSIDE OF LEVEES AND FLOOD PROTECTION WALLS.

So, I rode down to the river yesterday evening and look around.

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Suitably epic

While we didn't get a Nor'easter of snow in Hartford, it did rain and was kinda gross. No one else wanted to ride with me on Friday afternoon, but I wasn't about to let that stop me. So, in the twilight drizzle I rode off in the boardwalks of the Hockanum. Descending the stairs behind the East Hartford town hall, two nice young men with bmx bikes warned me that it was slippery and pointed at muddy pants. Of course, I'm Brendan the awesome mountain biker. Therefore, I crashed about a half mile later. Believe it or not, wet wood with a fine coating of river mud is slippery. My left foot still hurts. Other than that, it was a pleasant Friday evening ride.

That was the warmup for yesterday's reconnaissance ride for the Detour de Connecticut. I don't want to divulge too many details, because it should be something of a surprise for those who embark. At 113 miles, it took me about an hour and a half or so less than the D2R2, but I also stopped more during the D2R2. It's though, but I recommend. It's funny that rides like this beg so much comparison to D2R2, but I guess that's the ride that most accurately captures the New England dirt road zeitgeist.


Of note is definitely how ignorant I am of CT east of Willimantic and I bet most people are. When riding on dirt and paved roads out by Riverton, the Barkhamsted Reservoir and all those scenic places out to west, you'll still see some cyclists because it's still relatively close to some population. But, when you head out that way and the biggest population center is Willimantic, nary cyclist (or person, really) is to be seen. It's cool, our suburban state generally doesn't feel so remote.


So, mark your calendars for May 7.

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