Can't mountain bike with glasses on

On Saturday, I went mountain biking briefly over at Cedar Mountain. The trails there aren't that difficult, but I kept crashing. It was mess. I'm very bad at mountain biking, but I'm not this bad. The difference between this time & all other times was that I was wearing my new glasses. Apparently, the change in focus screws up my depth perception, my balance and timing just enough to crash a lot. I rode the next day with no problems and no glasses. I Googled this problem and nothing came up.

It'd be nice to wear glasses while mountain biking, so that I can see the beautiful vistas of Connecticut, but I'd probably just fall off of them.

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On the Move

Ken K is headed for some new digs.  I helped him move a couple of loads yesterday and dropped off a housewarming curb picked trailer.  Ken has a trailer, The (Infamous) Coffin, but I think he'll benefit from a smaller, lighter version for more frequent use.  After a couple of hours painting we kissed the river - a short ride that makes it down to one of the river side parks in Hartford.

It's not just Ken who's on the move these days.  Hartford is moving on up in my opinion.  You can't chuck a 40oz without hitting an awesome event, many of them FREE.  Right now I'm sitting in the Hartford Public Library listening to free jazz.  What an amazing series and use of the library space.  In my opinion it's this sort of unconventional event that is really exciting about Hartford right now.  These events fill in the edges and week nights, pulling folks downtown.  I'll bet post jazz, the nearby restaurants bustle with some welcome Sunday dinner business.  The suburban empty nesters may even wonder why not look at a downtown condo, so next winter they can simply walk to all the events and restaurants that they frequent downtown.

Wouldn't it be awesome if UCONN's branch campus that's coming to Hartford takes up residence at the historic Hartford Times building?  That would be a shot in the arm and logical continuance of the Front Street developments.


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Are you bike curious?

There are a lot of folks out there that are bike curious, but maybe haven't taken the plunge yet as a full fledged bike commuter.  Maybe you're a weekend bike path rider that thinks it might be fun (not to mention healthy and cheap) to ride your bike to work or the grocery store on a more regular basis.  Perhaps you're like my co-worker at P&W whose truck just failed emissions and you don't want to cough up the $2000 to fix it.  Whether bike curious by choice or by situation, there are some educational opportunities out there.  Better to do it right, than not.  I mean, when you're riding in the company of several ton vehicles, it's best not to approach the situation like amateur hour.

For example - local bike shops often put on short seminars on Bike Commuting.  REI has come to Pratt & Whitney a couple of times to do Bike Commuting and Bike Maintenance 101 courses - and the classes were full of bike curious engineers.  If you are interested in a bike commuter seminar for your employer or school, get in touch with Bike Walk CT and they can see what makes sense for your organization.

More specifically, there is a FREE bike commuter course at Manchester Community College planned for Friday, April 5th.  The material is being presented by League Cycling Instructors (LCI) certified by the League of American Bicyclists.  This is an important point, since in Mid-May Bike Walk CT is hosting a LCI course to train another 16 more local LCI's.  With more LCI's there will be more quality bike safety and basic training in CT.  Bringing knowledge to the people.  I like it.

 

This weekend I rode up to Northampton, MA with Kristen to check out the burlesque show that is put on monthly.  It was awesome and disturbing - and I will highly recommend it to others.  On the way back we found Ray Bradbury keeping an eye on dinosaur footprints just off Route 5 north of Springfield.  Route 5 is remarkably pleasant between Northampton and Holyoke, then it quickly turns to shit as you come into West Springfield. 

 

We veered West to avoid the craptastic West Springfield segment.  On our way back into Northern Connecticut we stopped at Sunrise Park just off Mountain Road, a very nice gem.  I'd like to head back there later for hiking and some warmer weather swimming.  They had a detailed and unique hand made map board up by the reservoir.

 

If you're a bike commuter and you're passing through East Hartford on Friday (3/15) morning, stop by and catch breakfast with us at Maddie's.  IceBike to Work is what we call it.  Currently dominated by Pratt and Whitney folks, but all are welcome.  We'll be there between 7-8AM.

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Snowboarding

One time when I was 14, I went snowboarding. My parents got me a snowboard rental, lesson and lift ticket for my birthday. It was pretty cool. My friends were all better than me, also owned their equipment and had parents who would pay for them to go do those things. Between the ages of 8 and 10, I also went skiing a few times with my dad. One time, my mom and dad went to Sugarbush and it scared the hell out of me. Those Vermont mountains are huge! Their blue squares are like 10x black diamonds in Connecticut. When I was 20 or 21, someone took me skiing again. It was fun, but the bindings on the rental skis were really loose and one of the skis kept falling off.

A couple of years ago, back when I had more money to waste on eBay, I bought a snowboard for $86.52. I  think that's a good deal, though Static Snowboards seem to be an unknown quantity. Last year, I bought some snowboard boots, but we got no snow. Also, lift tickets are wicked expensive. I thought maybe I could start hiking up stuff and then snowboarding back down, but using cross country skis to do that is way preferable. So, the snowboard has just been sitting in my basement. Well, that's not entirely true. I took it to Vermont back in January when it was really warm and slushy and I rode it down the hill in Claire's parents' backyard.

I had a feeling that some place must be inexpensive to go snowboarding. I looked up Otis Ridge in Mass and it was cheap during the week, but closed Monday and Tuesday. I looked up Mowhawk and found that you can ski there during the week for four hours for $20 and it's open all week. That's only $5/hour. That's an awesome deal in the world of skiing. Sundown is never cheap, must be its proximity to the Farmington Valley.

Sunday night, I watched this. Monday, I rode up the lift without falling and rode down a green circle and sort of remembered how to connect turns. Then, I went down a couple of bigger green circles. Satisfied with that, I decided to go down the terrifying black diamonds of Connecticut's largest ski area. So, apparently I'm like 35 years late in discovering that snowboarding is fun. I couldn't figure out how to ride moguls and there's definitely a distinct lack of going uphill.

Perhaps I'll try this again next year.

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My favorite holiday

My favorite holiday is Daylight Saving Time. Those naysayers at Wikipedia say this:

[Daylight Saving Time] clock shifts present other challenges. They complicate timekeeping, and can disrupt meetings, travel, billing, recordkeeping, medical devices, heavy equipment,[15] and sleep patterns.[16] Software can often adjust computer clocks automatically, but this can be limited and error-prone, particularly when DST protocols are changed.[17]

Obviously, they're shut ins with Vitamin D deficiencies.

Come Monday, even after 5pm, there's still at least 90 minutes of sun. Why would anyone object to that by saying that meetings and heavy equipment are disrupted?



In other news, I got glasses. According to the optometrist, my vision is 20/100. Apparently, I was very good at squinting. I went for a ride yesterday with glasses on and the ground seemed much closer and my bike smaller. This is unlike when I've ridden with sunglasses, when the ground felt very distant and my bike huge.

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They're back!

Who are they?  The skunks.  They are out and about.  It smells funny.  Must be getting on Spring.

But that's not what I'm talking about.  Cyclists.  I've seen them peeking out, trying to decide if it's warm enough to ride about.

Good thing there are tons of fun stuff planned for them.  Take a gander:

• IceBike to Work - Friday, March 15.  East Hartford.  7AM-8AM.  Meet for breakfast at Maddies on Main Street.  Right across the street from Pratt & Whitney.
• Reveal the Path movie screening - Tuesday, April 16th.  7:30PM.  Wadsworth Atheneum Aetna Theater.
• This mountain biking / adventure / travel movie came through Hartford in February and sold out.  Sold out faster than any movie this promoter has ever toured with.  Faster than NYC.  Faster than Boston.  Kudos Hartford.  This is your chance to see it if you missed it.
• Informal Happy Hour meetup ahead of time at Arch Street Tavern.  Get there early if you want to eat so you're not scrambling to get to the movie on time.
• Get your tickets here online!
• Part of the proceeds go to Bike Walk CT.
• Bike Walk CT Summit - Saturday, April 27th, New Haven, CT.
• The 2013 Bike Walk Summit will bring together people from all over Connecticut to talk about how to improve bicycling and walking in our state.   
• Don't miss the chance to learn from experts and connect with others working on these issues. Come away energized and inspired and with tools you can use to make a change.
• The Detour! - Saturday, April 27th, Manchester, CT.
• Salem's signature romp.  He suggests a route.  You can decide to follow it - or not.
• If you decide to do the whole thing make sure you are prepared.  Unlike me, don't just show up without route sheets and hope to hang on with others that actually planned ahead.
• It's sorta long too - if you decide to do the whole thing.  Something like 115 miles.  When you include the extra time / effort for the off road bits it feels something like 150 miles.  Bring lights and chubby-ish tires.

The photo below I took last Friday night heading home from South Windsor on the 291 Bissel bridge pedestrian crossing.  The DOT had snowblown the highway into the bike / ped path.  Several weeks after the super storm there were still 3 foot drifts of icy slush.  I put a note in to the responsive CT DOT Bike Ped Coordinator (Kate Rattan - katherine.rattan@ct.gov) who said she would put in the maintenance request.  Trying to get the clearing of DOT bridges to be a more automatic thing for the DOT, but we're not there yet.  Until then - you need to point out the issue.  Now you know who to bother.  Be nice.  Kate does her best from the inside of a slow changing organization.

 

 

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Race Eel

The Eel has not been competitive in awhile. That's ok and all, but I think it should return to its speedy roots. The first was no doubt the most prolific.

Ideas I've had are to steal Salem's idea of a point to point race (head to head? head x 4?) along the Hockanum in East Hartford (can't do that in Manchester, competitive racing events are prohibited from the boardwalks of the Hockanum without approval from the Hockanum River Linear Park Committee. § 304-7 Manchester Code of Ordinances). Or, closer to my house, do a secret cyclocross race along South Branch of the Park River. It'd have two river crossings! That's as many as this famous race.

What do you think? Which is more attractive? Tell me!

The plan is to do this maybe early April. De Tour training. Read more!

In search of winter

Can you catch the error in this photo?

I didn't know what to do with myself today. I went for a bike ride yesterday and it was pleasant, but it made my feet really cold. Today, I decided that I would do something else. Johanna is working on a thing for a conference, so I had no one to go to New Haven with and stare at art. I'm not really good at keeping friends anymore, so I don't really have any right now.

So, I decided I'd go up to Granville. It's nice there and I had a hunch it'd still be winter. I brought boots and skis and when I arrived, I was surprised to see that there's still like two feet of snow on the ground. It's not perfect snow, but you don't sink. It's pretty icy, but there's a scintilla of powder on top, so you can almost track straight. However, for a many miles, snowmobiles had "groomed" the trail and it was a lot of fun. It snowed all day and the temperature hovered around 30. Winter lives in Graville, Mass.

I feel like I didn't get enough snow time in this winter, even though we got that big storm. It turned to gross so quickly (or at least I thought it did).

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Cedar Mountain lives to fight another day

Toll Brothers pays people to file permits and make arguments. People who like Cedar Mountain are unpaid. It takes a lot of effort to be an activist for free. People get tired and have lives. You can only testify so many times before you get testimony fatigue.

But, it looks like even those weary folks got a victory last night, because the Newington Conservation Commission rejected Toll Brothers' wetlands permit. Hooray! See this Courant article. Read more!

Found Things

Everyone likes finding things.  Well, finding good things.  Finding things like bed bugs or dog shit on your shoe.  Those aren't good things.  I found some very good things this past weekend.  Kristen and I went for a drizzly ride Saturday through the cemetery.  I was interested in checking out the quarry that was fog shrouded when I last passed this way.  It's an enormous quarry and has an overlook that is worthy of a future picnic.  I can't believe this exists so damn close to Hartford proper.  You can find it too if you wander out through the far south westerly corner of Cedar Hill Cemetery.  As with many found things, don't get caught finding it.

Brendan and I rode South on Sunday afternoon.  He was intent on finding his way to Castle Craig.  Castle Craig is, "reportedly the highest mountain within 25 miles of the coastline from Cadillac Mountain in Maine to Florida."  At just 1000 feet above sea level that isn't particularly impressive, but it was still a bit of a climb for an over wintering cyclist.  The view, although misty, was still impressive.  There was a goodly amount of icy slush for the last several hundred feet of roadway, which was rather fun to ride / sled down on road bikes.

And on the way back from the Meriden area, I spotted a lonely cold beverage on the side of the road.  Abandoned.  I adopted it.  Very refreshing and the small calorie boost was appreciated.

For those that like riding (relatively fast) in the winter and think bike advocacy (or just hanging out with cross racing monsters) is a good time, the Tim Johnson Ride on Washington is coming up.  They pass through Hartford (April 24th), have some beers, spend the night, and then ride on to NYC the next day (April 25th).  They are totally cool with you riding in with them or leading them out.  If you want to donate money or contact your legislator in honor of the National Bike Summit in Washington D.C., that's cool too.  As I get more information I'll post it here.  You can also follow their 2013 plans on Facebook.

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Ice event

It wasn't good for finishing my criminal procedure homework, but I decided to go ride around on the snow and ice, because it is finally possible. The Wethersfield Cove is nicely frozen over and I rode out on to it with the ice fishermen. It's great, except a gust of wind blew me over. Then, I rode through the ice-rut laden meadows, which was a lot of fun, too. I was surprised that while riding my chubby bike that I didn't see any fat bikes, because I thought they were everywhere now.

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When you honk your horn...

...I am judging the shit out of you.

Especially when I'm riding in the dark, 40F rain on my home from a long day at work.  You have to be able to see me.  You actually proved that you can see me by honking, and passing with plenty of room.  I've got one Planet Bike Superflash Turbo (known to cause discomfort at about 200 ft) on my helmet, and another Superflash classic on my left pannier.  Now let's count reflectors.  One on the rear rack.  Reflective piping and stripe on jacket.  Reflective, rear facing stripes on both panniers.  Reflective accents on shoes and both pant leg elastic bands.

You are a dick. 

If for some reason you can't see me or you don't feel comfortable passing a cyclist in the right third of the lane with a center buffer lane between you and periodic oncoming traffic, they should take your license away and flog you with a seatbelt for thinking that you are safe behind the wheel of a multi-ton weapon. 

Perhaps you haven't changed your windshield wipers in three years.  This is a more common problem than one might think.  There is also the buildup of 3-4 years of plasticizer sublimated from the plastics from your car interior.  What your lungs don't filter out gets deposited on things like the inside of the windshield.   This is something one needs to clean off at least a couple times a year if not more.  Surprising this isn't covered in drivers training courses considering how much it impairs vision at night.  Imagine a thin layer of dirty vaseline. 

Suck less car drivers.  You should be embarrassed about getting basic car safety tips from a guy without a car. 

The next time you pass a well lit, responsibly riding cyclist and think of laying on the horn, think for a second - Why am I such a douchebag?  Then lay on the horn anyway because douchebags don't think.  Who does this smug prick on a bike think he's kidding?

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New boots, bad snow

Johanna got me new hiking boots for Valentine's Day, because my heel has gone through the insoles (and below whatever the next layer is) in my old boots. They started giving me weird blisters and I was leaning back all the time. I went into the woods yesterday to see if the new boots worked and they do. While I was walking around and not sinking deeply into the snow, I thought maybe I should try to go skiing. It just so happened that I had brought skis with me. It appeared that there was a very thin layer of powder on top of very packed and icy snow. I remember conditions like that from a few years ago and the skiing was awesome.

I was wrong, generally. Or maybe, if I had metal edges I wouldn't have slid around so much. I think what I remembered from a few years ago had lot of more powder.

Well, anyway, as part of my new quantity, not quality philosophy for this blog, here's a post of skiing not working that well and new boots. Maybe I should start posting some new videos of commuting or something. Read more!

Sunday afternoon

I have always disliked Sunday afternoons. They mean finishing homework, driving home, going to bed early, finally shedding bleary eyes just in time for nightfall, etc. In short, they've meant death, silence and misery.

Today is a Sunday and I was riding home from parents' house. I had a brisk tailwind (on the way there, I had a terrible headwind) and the sun was setting. The roads were quiet and it was too cold for melt to muck up the road. It very actually quite pretty.

As I crested the hill to my house, untrue to form, I thought that I was enjoying a Sunday afternoon. Read more!

Pasta, back on the move

It's been awhile since I wrote a really interesting blog post about transporting pasta to work. The reason is not because I haven't been taking pasta places, but because I thought no one wanted to hear about it. I was incorrect, though. Hundreds of emails have been pouring in asking me to reprise taking pictures of pasta on the front rack of my bike, so I have obliged.

Also, a hearty shoutout to the use of Phil Wood's tenacious oil as chain lube when the conditions get nasty. When the weather gets nasty, the nasty get Wood.

I plan on selling that line to Phil Wood, so I can retire to the moon. Read more!

IceBike to Work and Stuff

I've been riding studded tires all week.  They sound funny and make me go slow.  I get over the slow going frustration by reasoning that I'm riding less over he winter and therefore my fitness level benefits from a little extra resistance.

Went out a couple times during and after the storm this weekend.  Was amazing.  Confused by neighbors who seem to have holed up in their apartments for the entire weekend.  When they tell the grandkids about the "Blizzard of '13", its going to be about how they sat on their butts and watched cable TV and spent endless hours posting pictures and commenting on Facebook photos of their hopelessly buried cars.  I just now whimsically wished it has snowed concrete.  That way we could start fresh.

On Friday, this Friday the 15th, there will be two IceBike to Work breakfast meetups in Hartford area.  One in East Hartford at Maddie's from 7-8AM, and the other in Hartford at JoJo's from 7:30-8:30AM.   It appears that some folks in cold places are trying to make February 15th the national day for promoting this sort of thing.  This month, let's talk about Bike to Work events.  Do they make a difference in the number of bicycle commuters?   Why doesn't Brendan like them?   

And if you haven't yet - you need to bother your state representative or senator to make sure this truly disheartening bill that requires single file riding doesn't go anywhere.  There is also a Vulnerable User bill that is goodness for pedestrians and cyclists.   Bike Walk CT has been pushing the Vulnerable User bill for several years now, and they think they will be able to get it through the wickets in 2013. 

The pictured bike is a 1971 Schwinn Traveler 3-Spd that I just built up.  Shiny.  All stock at this point although I'll probably replace the tires and saddle.  I just love getting my hands on old barn kept bikes in good condition.  Trying to decide if this become my daily beater, or if I sell it...

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Man, you should ride a bike

Unless you live like 50 miles from Hartford, you should probably ride a bike. There are universal complaints about traffic, because most streets in Hartford are no lanes wide. Intracity drives took like three hours and it was seven to West Hartford. The only change I noticed in my commute was that I had to ride in the middle of the road and I couldn't cut through Pope Park. Read more!

We need your voice!

Please contact your state representatives and let them know how you feel about these three bills currently under consideration.  I am particularly annoyed by the "Single File" bill that is being proposed.

Link to more information from Bike Walk Connecticut.

Take action! Complete this simple survey for you to share your thoughts on the 3 bike related bills being considered by CT legislature.

Three bills being considered by the Transportation Committee.

- Please SUPPORT the Vulnerable User bill, SB 191 (more)

- Please OPPOSE the single file rider bills, SB 103 and HB 5246 (more)

- Please SUPPORT funding for bike lanes and sidewalks in West Haven, HB 5126 (more).

And anyone looking to challenge the elements is invited to IceBike to Work this Friday (2/15) in East Hartford and downtown Hartford.  We will be at Maddies from 7-8am in East Hartford.  Downtown riders will meet at JoJo's from 7:30-8:30am.

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Lest you thought the snow could keep me from my love.

I got out on my bike today for a little while. The packed paths and sidewalks at Trinity were lots of fun. After tonight's ice rain, they're probably be even more fun. Sheets of ice are when studs are fun.

Also, I dug out a car yesterday to go get Johanna's from her mom's. That's where the title of this post comes from.

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Blizzow!

I spent the day shoveling, but before the immense snow fell. Wait. Strike that. While the immense snow was falling, I had a chance to take one last bike ride into the dirt. It was brief and it was fun. And, it yielded a pound of cheese and bottle of bourbon. I guess it also wasn't in the dirt, because the dirt was covered in snow.

I took some pictures and put them on Google+, because I really want Google+ to take off. It's not that I'm against the idea of having friends on the internet, I just never want to be on Facebook again. Two months in 2004 was enough. Read more!

The dream of the 1890s

How I look without blood running down my face.

As you no doubt know, I am totally up on the latest trends. I stopped riding fixed gear bikes ages ago and  transitioned into cyclocross and touring bikes. I only eat artisanal sausage and pickles. And, of course, I am an urban lumberjack.

I was urban lumberjacking yesterday by getting some blown down limbs from the park across the street, as I periodically do. I trying to dislodge a large one from a pile on the side of a hill. The branch I was pulling on snapped and I hit myself in the head with it. It hurt. A couple of seconds later I felt some liquid running past my eye and then the blood start dripping. So, I went back to clean myself. There was a kid walking on the sidewalk whom I totally freaked out because I emerged from the park with lopping shears and blood running down my face.

I probably would have called the police on myself.

How I look after I hit myself on the head with a stick.

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Wild Life

It was a nice quiet day for a bike ride and as often happens, I saw some deer. Then, I saw the more deer. The second group, of three, seemed to consist of a mom and two yearlings. It was an interesting experience, because the mom was either standing her ground or thought I was a nice, non-threatening guy. I spotted about twenty feet away and we just looked at each for awhile and then she did this strut wherein she kind of stomped her hooves. She didn't bolt, though, and wasn't even phased when I started riding again. 

Then, I saw a bear. I didn't get a picture of the bear, because s/he was too far away. 

I wonder if I'll ever see a mountain lion. 

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Sometimes, it all just works right

Yesterday, I went out to the secret trails in Manchester. It was transcendent. Everything was flowing right, I saw several otters swimming in the Hockanum and solitude abounded. Today, I rode down to the Blow Hole and there are all sorts of people where there usually aren't and they were peeing. Also, I fell down an escarpment when my bike ghost shifted going up a steep thing. Then, I got into an altercation with some miserable middle-aged woman (damn, couldn't complete the alliteration) in Wethersfield. Originally, I had all this deep and philosophical stuff to say about the ride along the Hockanum, but today ruined that.

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Blow! Down!

The other night, it was windy. It kept me awake, but I didn't hear a lot of things crashing to the ground. However, trees falling in the forest, sound or not, end up all over the ground. Was it a hurricane? I haven't seen this much blow down since the Snoctober thing. Do trees snap easier when they've got less water in them due to cold temperatures and winter things? Are these questions answerable?

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Don't always buy stuff online

I needed a washboard, so I bought one online. I figured no one sells them and I'd get a better deal if I bought it online. Ace has free shipping if you ship it to an Ace Hardware store, so I had a shipped to Park Hardware. I picked it up today and discovered that they sell them there, have more models and they're cheaper! I guess Frog Hollow needs washboards. It makes sense, since I wouldn't want to run to the laundromat every time I needed clean underwear. The people who run Park Hardware couldn't figure out why I bought it online for more money. I can't either. Read more!

WTF?

There are TWO bike centric events next week in downtown Hartford.  Just found out about the East Coast Greenway info / social yesterday.

Tues, February 5th - Reveal the Path movie has just about sold out. Limited number of tickets are available online.  We'll be meeting before the movie for happy hour at Arch St Tavern.

Thurs, Feb 7th - East Coast Greenway social get-together (also featuring Bike-Walk CT) and presentations, Thurs Feb 7th 6-9 pm.  Newly minted Spotlight Cinemas and Bistro on Columbus @ Front Street Downtown Hartford. Get up to speed on ECG progress in CT and elsewhere, an statewide bike & walk endeavors. Please share this with bike-minded people.  The ECG is extra special and it needs an army of supporters and advocates to keep the pressure on to close the gaps.

Huzzah CT!  Huzzah Hartford!  Maybe a few folks will even ride or walk...

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Bizarre winters, my fault?

I was thinking today that back when I used to drive more (~25,000 miles/year), winters were much more normal. I remember this because I was bad at driving in the snow. Or, I bought bad tires. Or, a combination of the two. Now, I drive very little (~5,000-6,000 miles/year [Ed. note: I overestimated, it's about ~4,000-5,000. Dario gave me a hard time about driving too much]). It seems that the extra carbon I added to the air was what was keeping the weather regular. Or, it's because I moved to Hartford. Either way, it is definitely me to blame and no external forces.

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