Time to Start Acting Like a Thirty-Seven Year Old

First - December 1st is Giving Tuesday.  Consider the Center for Latino Progress and their new project, BiCi Co. when you give back.  Hartford has been without a bike shop since 2014.  Our city needs BiCi Co. to support safe, sustainable, and economic transportation for both existing and newly arriving Hartford residents.  BiCi Co. will help transform Hartford into a cycling friendly city, a city where teens can get brakes for their bikes, bike lights, and locks.  Bicycles don't just connect us to destinations, they connect us to new friends and opportunities.  It won't be Heaven, but we'll get closer to it.  Thanks for your support.  Please donate now.

Second - The last Slow Roll of 2015.  Sunday, December 6th.  Meet at 3pm at Majorca (2074 Park Street, near Prospect).  We will ride to BiCi Co., get a short tour, and then back to Majorca for happy hour and appetizers.  If you aren't one for December rides, you can still meet us at Majorca at 4:30pm.  FB event invite - share and invite others.  Did you know that the building that Majorca is in was a Columbia Bicycle factory?  Hartford's bicycle history runs deep.

Third - I had a ridiculous adventure on Friday.  One day after my 37th birthday, Ken K and Brian joined me for an impromptu mixed terrain ride.  Global weirdness put us in the 60's, and it was just too nice to stay indoors.  I lied to Brian and told him we were going to be road riding.  After taking the secret MDC road and jumping the gate that's always closed, we rode toward the Wethersfield meadows.  We may or may not have crossed on the closed Route 3 bridge pedestrian path.  There seem to be gates at both ends with signs saying that, "None shall pass."  

Leaving the secret MDC road.  

Transported to the Glastonbury side of the river, as if by magic, we continued our 'not a road ride' on the dirt roads and double track around Keeney Cove.  Ken K found a large, huge really, slab of Styrofoam and I immediately thought, "That would make a swell raft."  After a test float, I suggested that I would put my bike on the foam raft and see where it would take me.  Ken and Brian thought that was an obvious course of action and helped me shove off.  

This is a great idea!  

Plenty of room for the touring bike and myself. 

Remarkably stable.  Even in the windy chop at the center of the river.

Not the stupidest thing I've ever done.

Closing in on Brainard airfield.  The planes come in low.

The raft was very buoyant, and comfortable to boot.  Plenty of room for both me and the bike.  Rather than floating down river as I had expected, the strong wind pushed me upriver back towards Hartford.  I had a short stick and a longer tree trunk for poling.  The wind took me across the river towards Brainard air field.  I pushed the block up on shore and gathered up a long poly rope that I found tied to a tree.  It seemed like something I might want to have with me on a rafting trip.  I shoved off again.  With my long beard, I didn't want to hazard riding my bike in an airport.  Confusing airport security isn't prudent.  I relaxed on the raft (you can't hurry a raft) and kept going north.  The bend in the river and the wind took me back across towards East Hartford.  A couple of boats zipped by, but neither came over to see what I was up to or if perhaps I needed assistance.  "Oh, just another bike on a Styrofoam block."

The weather was stellar.

I picked up a rope.  Might be useful for a guy on a raft.

 The foam block is now resting on a dock in East Hartford.  I tipped off a couple of artists, as this could be really fun to work with. Imagine carving a sled out of that block.  Or building a giant puppet head.  Or formalizing the raft setup and taking it for a much longer trip next time.  So many possibilities.  If I wasn't neck deep in starting up a community bike shop, I'd be going back tomorrow myself to pick it up.  I consider this a first dibs opportunity to claim the block for a future project.  Not saying exactly where this is, but you can probably figure it out.

That looks like a good place to land.

Another photo for scale.

After landing, I kept riding.  There is a concrete flood wall behind the East Hartford water treatment plant that I only have the guts to ride every tenth time.  This was that time.  I was feeling pretty good about the foam block ride, so I rode the wall.  The Hockanum River Trail was pretty empty, as per usual.  An under used gem of a trail that starts behind East Hartford town hall.  A quick stop at the top of Wickham Park, and one of my favorite fast descents down the sledding hill.  Some coffee and a muffin at the Riverfront rounded out what may have been the best ride of the year.  It's hard to compare rides, but this was by far the most unique.  I feel closer to Mark Twain today.  It's time I start acting like a thirty-seven year old.

A new spot for graffiti.  I hadn't looked under this bridge before.

Riding the wall makes my tummy feel funny.

One of the better views of Hartford, and a nice ride to get here.

Amazing that the weather was so pleasant today.  Soaked up all the Vitamin D.

Nothing to see here.  The article is done, but since you're so thorough, you should go over to the BiCi Co. membership and fundraising page and make a sizable donation.  Wink.

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It Feels Like Mode Shift

Before - Dead?

Yesterday was a fabulous Summer Saturday in Hartford.  I spent most of the day transforming my crushed touring bike back into an everyday rig.  A little over a month ago the bicycle was underneath a Nissan Maxima on the Park Street sidewalk.  It was 9:00am on a quiet Saturday morning and I was on the second floor preparing for the school year end celebration.  A loud crash gave me time to look out the window and watch a car roll onto my parked bike after slamming into a parked car.  The replacement parts all came in last week, and I've been contacted by the driver (no insurance) who agreed to pay me back in $50 installments for the damage.  I never expected to hear back from the driver, and that makes me feel a little better about humanity.

After - New fork, wheels, handlebar, brake levers, cranks, front rack

Steel is real!  The bike was operational just in time to zip over to the Youth Play Institute production at Hartbeat Ensemble's Carriage House Theater on Farmington Ave.  YPI takes a team of fifteen diverse teens and young adults and starts with a relevant social justice question.  The team researches the issue and interviews local experts.  From that research they create an originally written play, with lighting, set design, and costuming.  The play is performed in three shows to a live audience, and all of this goes down in a short five weeks.  I'm always stunned by the process and product.  What blows my mind the most is that the team operates using consensus decision making, which I've never seen result in quick decision making.  Both of the facilitators, Hannah Simms and Vanessa Butler, must be wizards.  (Side note - Vanessa is Juliet in the outdoor production of Romeo and Juliet at St. Joe's.  This is their last week and it is amazing! Not to be missed.)

Over the last three years, I have seen a noticeable uptick in those using bicycles to commute.  The low 0.8% bike mode share in Hartford never made sense to me, with greater than 35% of households not owning a car.  One of the issues is paltry support.  The only bike shop in the city, Taskar's on Franklin, closed last year due to retirement.  Many note that the shop didn't observe typical business hours.  Absent a legal way to obtain bike parts and quality bicycle service, there is an extra hurdle for those that would like to use a bike in our city.  On top of that, Hartford's transportation planning is non-existent.  The city really doesn't have a traffic planner, ridiculous in a city of our size.  Bike lanes are segmented, and there isn't a network of connected bike routes.  The Department of Public Works Director looked at me like I was speaking French when I asked if they were using Sharrows on the recently repaved Park Street.  Park Street is popular for utility cyclists.  Sharrows would send a positive message to both motorists and the cyclists.

Posting (finally) for a Traffic Engineer in Hartford.

Behind the wave of rising bike use by residents, there is some painfully slow change coming at the government level.  The Department of Development just started a Complete Streets Challenge Team, which is working a list of bike and pedestrian improvements.  The city also has a posting up for a Transportation Designer.  Now all we need are some bike, walk, transit users at the Department of Public Works.  For a department that is focused on road issues and infrastructure, it's telling that there isn't a bicycle rack out front of their offices.

Special delivery to BiCi Co.  Donation from Tom Brown of the Wethersfield Bike Swap.

Since we collectively can't stand the snail pace of government, we're taking a lot into our own hands at the grass roots level.  Center for Latino Progress is kicking off BiCi Co., a teaching bike shop with members and volunteers.  Right now BiCi Co is working with thirty Hartford teens in a Summer program.  The teens are learning about bike safety, Hartford's rich bike history, science and engineering, and bicycle mechanic skills.  The group is tuning up bikes that will be donated to grandchildren in CRT's Generations Program.  Stay tuned for the BiCi Co. membership drive and crowd funding campaign to support the larger project.  It starts with our youth, and it changes the whole community.  A group at Aetna with David Hildebrand just partnered with the Hartford Police and donated 150 bikes to youth and teens.  Those youth will need somewhere to get replacement parts, locks, helmets, and lights.  Cue Bici Co!

Trying to figure out where the noise is coming from.

Proud team finishing their first tuned up donation bicycle.

Hartford Slow Roll is this afternoon, 8/2 at 3pm - 1429 Park Street, (1st and 3rd Sundays of each month) and we'll be stopping at Wethersfield Avenue.  The Wethersfield Ave stop was supposed to mark the recent completion of the bicycle lanes that were added to the paving job at the last minute.  Unfortunately, snails pace government strikes again.  The "No Parking" cones have been up all week, but no lanes.  Leaving "No Parking" signs up all week is particularly dysfunctional.  Rather than postpone again, the show will go on and we'll ride the bike lanes in spirit.  The Slow Roll events are being organized by Breakfast Lunch and Dinner (BL&D), another grass roots effort connecting new friends (and bike lovers) in Hartford.

Future bike lanes - Wethersfield Ave

Winds of change.  The bike lanes coming to Wethersfield Ave were the product of a scramble by multiple neighborhood groups (NRZ's) when they realized the city hadn't planned any Complete Streets improvements on this corridor. When the MDC multi-year sewer separation project was done and the road was finally paved, no thought had gone into this important connection  Hartford needs to capitalize on all the paving happening across the city to pivot towards sustainable transportation and Complete Streets.  Unfortunately, there is dysfunction and car-centric thought among those in leadership positions.  In the meantime, our citizen groups and grass roots efforts will have to do a lot of change making.

Interested in being part of the conversation?  Tune in to and participate in the discussions on Transport Hartford.  

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My study plan

It is once again the sad time in during the year when I have exams. It's sad, because I have free time all of the sudden, but it's free time during which I'm supposed to be studying. As you can imagine, I am terrible at this and sneak out for a bike ride every day. While obviously I have done this the past two semester, strangely I haven't failed out yet. I wish that I rode with headphones, because I could probably find "Evidence on Tape" or something like that.

Anyway, here's a picture of a really, really rocky trail I found the other day at the Reservoir that I don't recommend.

Unrelated, I am taking "Boats" this semester, but I really wish they offered "Bikes". Sadly, most cases, except Blonski and Martel and mountain bikes involve divorces. I am encountering the same thing with canoes for the paper I'm endeavoring to write about canoe law.

Also, I just discovered that they have mountain biking license plates in Idaho. See I.C. § 49-419E. I thought they were for your bike, which is bizarre, but they're for your car, like the Sound plates or those greenway plates here.

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On why maybe I should become a NEMBA trail ambassador at the West Hartford Reservoir

I'm not much of technical rider, anybody can attest to that. Heck, I can't even ride backwards. Though like people better than I am, I enjoy a good cut of singletrack of moderate difficulty to ride. I've been riding at the West Hartford Reservoir since I was 11 and have seen trails evolve and mostly devolve and now I think that I have come to an understand of what happens to the poor trails there.

1) A stretch of cool single track comes into existence. The terrain at the Reservoir lends itself to good trails, so the trail might be pretty good.

2) Trails gets more popular, but it's hard. So, cheater lines and trail braids develop. However, sometimes a section was so difficult that a whole cheater trail develops.

3) Trail has become to decimated that it doesn't really have any good lines left and then people start adding stupid stunts to it. Why am I seeing people with chainsaws at the Reservoir now? I guess it's ok for maintenance, but I get the sense they're doing more than just that. Also, why are all these "jumps" so lumpy and misshapen?

I bring this up because there's newish trail that avoided a big mud pit (legitimately avoided it, it was wasn't one of those trail widening dealies). It had this tight hairpin that had a small ledge at the apex. I liked it, because it was difficult. Well, apparently most people who ride it found it too difficult and made this cheater trail that has become vastly more popular than the original trail. I tried blocking off the cheater line once, but my blocking was moved away.

There is one case where the trail degradation has helped. Someone attempted to make some bike park-esque thing off the the rt. 44 lot. It was terrible, all the "stunts" were really poorly constructed, to the point that they'd fall apart when ridden. The trail avoids them now for the most part. I guess it beats riding on the levee, but just barely.

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Mountain biking popularity

I think in the 1990s, 117% of all bikes sold in the US were mountain bikes. Everybody was mountain biking and therefore not everyone mountain biking was great at it. Being not great at mountain seem to make you much harder on trails. Trails got beat up and then got closed. Then mountain biking got less popular and trails started to heal. However, the Salem-theory of full suspension is that the learning curve for mountain biking is now much shorter. With the ubiquity now of those kind of bikes, people can ride on trails much more easily that before. So, I guess popularity is increased. To that end, the trails at the West Hartford reservoir are beat to hell this year, but I hadn't noticed because I haven't been riding much there. I did yesterday: The braiding is worse than I've ever seen it, like it's so bad that it's tough to tell what the original trail is, so braids get worn deeper. The cheater lines have cheater lines. The trails that have steep ascents don't even seem to be ridden anymore because they're too hard to get up. Puddled areas are so wide, they've become quintuple track.

I'm not trying to be holier than thou. I'm happy that popularity is increasing in the sport, but the poor and worn down reservoir probably can't sustain this. I know there have always been complaints about lack of NEMBA presence in West Hartford, but there desperately needs to be some trail maintenance. I don't know anything about trail building, but I'd be willing to learn. Either that, or I could just stop riding there. Maybe Salem's got something in his revulsion of the place.

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Bugs

I've never been to Seattle, but I'm supposing that we're having Seattlesque weather right now. Undeterred at quitting time yesterday, I rode off for the Reservoir with a rain coat, some fenders, plenty of racks and an awesome pannier. Winding my way through West Hartford, I happened upon some secret dirt jumps in an undisclosed location. While only a couple feet tall, the doubles seem pretty well constructed. If you're nice to me, perhaps I'll take you there.

Then I rode the Resvervoir, which was probably a mistake because it was much wetter than I anticipated. Saturday's storm was no joke. While I regrettably added a couple of ruts, I did unblock a creek that some doofus had put a clog-bridge in, thereby flooding this whole low spot. So my trail impact probably zeroed out.

Clam sauce on the move, with fancy bucatini. Perhaps my best clam sauce to date.

And, perhaps my finest beer-battered cod to date!

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Flinging Mud

In the spirit of the Red Sox, I also had a completely bootleg opening day for cycling. Now, it's not that I stopped during the winter. It's just that my cold weather cycling was transportation-only, not joy riding. So, with today's forecast of temperatures in the 50s and sunshine, I was excited to get out and go down by the river, where it would not be flooded anymore.

I loaded up the Jenny, who does not go out when there is snow and ice on the ground. The plan was to ride around, read a book in the sunlight, and maybe stop for coffee before meeting up with friends on the other side of town. Everything is all set and ready to go, and I realize the tires are really soft. I usually make such observations once I'm miles for home. Oh, and I have no idea where my pump is. I had to unload everything and take Starry Starry Bike, which does not have a basket and which still does not have the seat/handlebar arrangement quite to my liking anyway. I like to sit upright, not hunched forward.

Since the tires are all inflated and I needed to get out for fresh air, I was not going to be too annoyed about it. Anyway, it's got working brakes, which is more than can be said for most local bikes.

The first thing I notice is that everything is out of whack. The shifting is rough. There are three separate sounds coming from the bike that ought not be. But the brakes work and the bike can move, which is all I need for the time being. I just wish it would be a more stealthy ride.

The public path is, of course, blocked with a gate. There's enough room to walk my bike around it, but a cargo bike wouldn't fit. This is total bullshit and there are other barriers that could be put into place that would allow bicycles to go through more easily, while blocking cars. Patrolling of the Riverfront is sporadic -- heavy during the week and less so on the weekend -- which is only a concern in so far as I wanted to immediately complain about the gate to someone.


So, there is a new crop of graffiti, none of which is impressive. Really, if you're going through the trouble of making illegal "art," why not write something worth reading? Step it up guys!

My irritation with how inaccessible this awesome path is continues. The elevators to the elevated plaza were marked "closed for season." It's April, sunny, and warm. What season are they waiting for? So, I have to either go all the way around from the edges of the Riverfront path (which I do) or I have to portage my bicycle up all the friggin steps. I can't walk up half the stairs without getting winded. Those are crap options.

A large section of the path is now muddy from what the Connecticut River gifted us when it overflowed its banks. It ended up being better that I took Starry Starry Bike because the Jenny's tires probably would not have liked it. As sloppy as it was, the mud only got on my boots, thanks to my fenders.

It was fun watching people sliding around on the path. Looked like the MDC trucks had trouble with the path too. Suckers.


When I got to the Riverside Park I saw that there was a festival of fire or something on the East side of the river.
One marvels at the things that go on over there. Fires. Dirtbikes on sandbars. It's comforting to have a river in between us and that nonsense. We only have to contend with uninspired graffiti and drunks passed out on the stone benches.

Like a drifter I was born to bike alone.

When I finally abandoned the riding around in circles aimlessly, I thought I'd stop off for a late breakfast. After manhandling the quaint sidewalk cafe so that I could lock up my bike, someone came over the inform me that the new cafeteria-with-canned goods has a bike rack inside of the parking garage next door. They might want to post signs advertising that. Anyway, I sat where I could see my bike just in case some ironic young professional decided to mess with it. Next time, the bike is coming in with me. If people can bring strollers into stores, I can bring my bike. There's nothing on my bike, after all, that wails or shits itself.


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I, testify!

Public hearing season is almost done and there's one more recreational liability bill up for a hearing, this time it's before the judiciary committee. Go testify or submit written testimony. Here are the details:

If you care about recreational access to your municipal lands, you need to help NOW.

Last July, over 700 people attended a public hearing in West Hartford to let the MDC know that closing its lands to public recreation because of liability concerns would be unacceptable. Since then we have been working with State Legislators to restore recreational liability protection to municipalities. This is the same liability protection enjoyed by private landowners and the state of Connecticut, and the same protection that municipalities had enjoyed for 25 years before a court case (Conway v. Wilton) took it away.

On April 4th at 10:00 a.m. in Room 2C of the Legislative Office Building in Hartford, the Judiciary Committee will be holding a public hearing on H.B. 6557

remainder of writeup on the CFPA web site

thanks

charlie [Beristain]

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A groomed world

Close followers of snow will note that there's about 12-18" of packed snow. With the addition of last night's much need 2", the world has become like those fancy groomed places for cross country skiing. I went off the reservoir for a few hours of skiing and it was awesome. Actually, let me qualify that: off the tails it was awesome. The postholed, tracked trails were kind of miserable because they hardened into super bumps.

Anyway, I went skiing today and had a lot of fun. Happy James Garfield Day!

Nature's fury again!

Take a close look at my tracks in this picture.

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Weekend Weekend!

I did lots of things this weekend and now I'm going to tell you about them.

The parts of cyclocross that are exciting on a bike generally do not photograph well.

On Saturday morning, I went out to Mansfield for the Mansfield Hollow Cyclocross race. I love that race. They're so friendly and they've got free seasonally appropriate food and drink. Every year the course changes a little bit. It was harder this year than last, but hard in a fun way. I had a good start again, faded a bit, but ended up finishing 9th. I should probably start running a 12-28 in the back instead of a 12-15. Or perhaps a 39t chainring. 42:12-25 is too tall for me.

Then I got home and put on pants instead of tights so that I could help plant trees on my street. Since I was late, Johanna and I only planted one tree. Usually, I try to plant more. Also, have you realized that you can't spell street without "tree"? I just did. That's why street trees are important or something.

Looking south from Heublein Tower at what I would ride my bike on the next day.

Also, it was the Avon Land Trust's fall hike (my dad is their treasurer), which corresponds with the Heublein Tower "Tower Toot". So, Johanna and I went up there and tooted. We love the Tower Toot. Since you probably haven't done it before, you should go next year. You can see these guys.

Then, we ate some Korean food from a stone pot.

On Sunday, it was the big river cleanup. The Snails and Trinity College were well represented. As it was the third anniversary of the beat bike blog's participation, I rode a bike and transported supplies with my indefatigable ortleib panniers and snake bike. Snake bike painter, Peter, waxed poetic about his days of racing on the snake bike.

Then I went mountain biking and figured out how to ride south of reservoir over to Mountain Rd. in Farmington and then back to rt. 4. It was cool finding trails I imagined to exist, but had never ridden on. I also broke in a 2.3" Hutchinson Bulldog because my beloved Panaracer Smoke wore out. I'm not particularly impressed with this new one. It was more of an experiment to see how well a 2.3 would fit in the back. It fits fine.

Then, Johanna and I went to Johanna's mom's house for dinner.

The end.

Oh yeah, on Friday I pixilated my coworkers by transporting a large box contain my new synthesizer home on my bike. The hardest part was getting it out of the building.

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Pubic Herd

The MDC's public hearing on the future of recreation on their (our) lands was last night. Unsurprisingly, everyone who spoke was in favor of keeping the trails open. It's clearly a hot button political that has attracted numerous Democratic candidates (and people who are already elected): Blumenthal, Glassman, Slifka, Rep. Baram (D-15), Rep. Fleischmann (D-18), Syd Schulman, and Malloy, Wyman and Cotto in absentia. There are obvious a lot of voters in the West Hartford and reservoir-abutting towns. They talked about the imperativeness of keeping public lands open to the public and the necessity of amending the statement's municipal recreation liability statute. The public, myself included, talked about the same thing. I also delivered Hartford's keep-the-trails-open resolution to the commissioners (which I think is a pretty kick ass resolution).

A few people assailed trial lawyers, though not as much as one would have thought. That surprised me, because I figured there would be Republican candidates there to take that position. I mean, Linda McMahon's office is right in West Hartford, mere yards away. I guess she doesn't either hates public land, the woods, mountain bikers or all three. There was one sort of crazy, Republican throw-the-bums-out member of the public, who spoke after me. For reasons I don't understand, he singled me out as a lawyer who was to blame that the CGS hadn't been amended after Conway v. Wilson. Since, I'm not a lawyer and didn't represent myself as such and also didn't talk about that case at all, I'll assume that he's just out of his mind.

While I was waiting to speak, I emailed my state rep, Hector Robles, and asked him to cosponsor Rep. Baram's proposed bill (though, yet to be written). He consented, which was nice.

So, I guess mountain biking and democracy go well together. I'm cautiously optimistic about all this now.

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Pubic Hearing

Lots of emails have been flying around email distribution lists that involve trails and land lately, so you've probably already heard about it like eighteen times, but... The MDC public hearing on the future of recreation on our rate-tax-payer-funded land is tonight at 5:30pm at the West Hartford town hall. Come, sign-up, speak and hopefully the commissioners will listen to us and maintain status quo.

I rode at the Reservoir this evening, it'd be a shame if they closed it.

In other news, I got a new phone/camera, so I can take pictures again.

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Saving the MDC Trails

MDC trail access advocates have launched a new site where you can learn more about efforts to fight threats to public access to the reservior trails and add your name to the list of supporters.

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