Warm today, around 42F, but I'm fighting a light cold. Sought a little light exercise, and thought about MTB at the PR, but decided to road ride instead. The latter has less overhead - no packing of the car - and the PR trails are likely muddy. I headed out on SlushBike along a very old route I used when I was new to bike commutes, out toward Billerica. Along the way I noticed the road looked familiar, and found I was on the approach to my usual entrance to the PR! All the times I've gone there, I never noticed I was on an old bike commute route. After a long but gentle climb I took a right turn into the PR as if I were starting an MTB ride. I didn't go far, but did hop a ~6" log on the way in, something I haven't done much on this bike. I turned around soon after that, back to the road then on toward Billerica. I didn't go much further though, heading back to home upon reaching a detour. On the way home I did the short MTB spur again, for a total of 4 log hops, the last feeling more sure-wheeled than the first.
With my rigid fork and drop handlebars, I suppose the 100m or so of trails I did was a bit like cyclocross. If so, my take-away is 'youch, my hands!' (SlushBike's position is road-style: low and stretched out to match my summer bike. I suppose a true cross bike should have a shorter top tube for a more upright position, like a mountain bike?)
Monday, December 29, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
Ice Storm
Friday (12/12) I checked my email and weather forecasts around 6AM and all looked clear for the bike commute in. It was raining pretty hard at home, but was supposed to clear by midday, and was around 34 degrees, so no real chance of ice along the way. In fact, I picked the summer bike (in its winter mode with fenders and wide tires) for the trip. But just before I left, A suggested there could possibly be some ice for the return trip out West where I work. So I switched to SlushBike for the first ride of the season on it with studded tires.
The first half of the ride demonstrated to me all the water leaks in my normal winter clothing. By the middle of the ride in, my gloves and boots had soaked through, and I wished I had picked a different jacket. A town later, in Acton, I saw light flooding, a nice distraction from my extremities getting cold. The rain tapered off, too. Then, very near the town line of Boxborough, the trees suddenly grew the beautiful shimmer of a layer of ice - a real ice storm! It was just pretty at first, but then branches appeared on the road. The first ones weren't very exciting in themselves, but they lay in fingers of loose ice granules they'd grown in the storm and which shattered loose in the fall. I was suddenly glad to have the studs. As I continued to my work building, the fallen branches got bigger, including whole trees by the end. At one point I heard a sound like a rifle shot, immediately followed by sh-sh-Sh-SH-sh-sh - sounding just like a big breaking ocean wave. It was a big pine branch breaking nearly above me, and the shock apparently kicked loose a lot of the whole tree's ice.
The finale of the ride in was a downed tree within sight of the door to my building. It blocked the whole road and had branches sticking up along it, in addition to the mess on the ground. But there was a large branch sticking up then bending back down again, creating a gap over the trunk, and I was able to ride over the trunk and through this gap without pausing. Fun! (SlushBike is based on a rigid mountain bike, and the studded tires are very like true mountain bike tires, so the bike felt at home hopping these trees.)
Seconds later, I found the sign declaring the building closed for the day, due to lack of power. (It turns out power was out in the whole town.) Luckily, I was able to enter briefly, to swap gloves and socks with spares I keep at work, and refill my water bottles, etc. Then it was back on the bike for the return trip. I took it easy, but by the time I got home I was quite tired. I need to rebuild a tolerance for the weight and slow rolling of the studded tires. (The tire is Nokian Hakkapelitta 26 x 1.9" - a whole different animal from the 700x35mm version I used years ago. The 26" (MTB) model is much wider, more than is suggested by the width in the model name, making it softer and less prone to sinking into a rut.)
---
At home we never got any ice, so aside from the radio news, I mostly forgot about it. This morning I tried to mountain bike, but once again as soon as I entered my destination town the ice appeared. So instead of riding much, I spent most of the time clearing my favorite trail - still a lovely way to spend a morning.
The first half of the ride demonstrated to me all the water leaks in my normal winter clothing. By the middle of the ride in, my gloves and boots had soaked through, and I wished I had picked a different jacket. A town later, in Acton, I saw light flooding, a nice distraction from my extremities getting cold. The rain tapered off, too. Then, very near the town line of Boxborough, the trees suddenly grew the beautiful shimmer of a layer of ice - a real ice storm! It was just pretty at first, but then branches appeared on the road. The first ones weren't very exciting in themselves, but they lay in fingers of loose ice granules they'd grown in the storm and which shattered loose in the fall. I was suddenly glad to have the studs. As I continued to my work building, the fallen branches got bigger, including whole trees by the end. At one point I heard a sound like a rifle shot, immediately followed by sh-sh-Sh-SH-sh-sh - sounding just like a big breaking ocean wave. It was a big pine branch breaking nearly above me, and the shock apparently kicked loose a lot of the whole tree's ice.
The finale of the ride in was a downed tree within sight of the door to my building. It blocked the whole road and had branches sticking up along it, in addition to the mess on the ground. But there was a large branch sticking up then bending back down again, creating a gap over the trunk, and I was able to ride over the trunk and through this gap without pausing. Fun! (SlushBike is based on a rigid mountain bike, and the studded tires are very like true mountain bike tires, so the bike felt at home hopping these trees.)
Seconds later, I found the sign declaring the building closed for the day, due to lack of power. (It turns out power was out in the whole town.) Luckily, I was able to enter briefly, to swap gloves and socks with spares I keep at work, and refill my water bottles, etc. Then it was back on the bike for the return trip. I took it easy, but by the time I got home I was quite tired. I need to rebuild a tolerance for the weight and slow rolling of the studded tires. (The tire is Nokian Hakkapelitta 26 x 1.9" - a whole different animal from the 700x35mm version I used years ago. The 26" (MTB) model is much wider, more than is suggested by the width in the model name, making it softer and less prone to sinking into a rut.)
---
At home we never got any ice, so aside from the radio news, I mostly forgot about it. This morning I tried to mountain bike, but once again as soon as I entered my destination town the ice appeared. So instead of riding much, I spent most of the time clearing my favorite trail - still a lovely way to spend a morning.
Friday, November 21, 2008
17°?!
Winter commuting is fun in a strange way, but this morning was simply cold. No fun snow, only one smidgen of ice. It was 17 degrees F when I started this morning, cooler than most of my winter riding, and it's still autumn! But of course it was nice to ride, the sun was out, and along the wonderfully wild Mill St. I had to cut through a bold group of 14 adult turkeys.
The thing I had most forgotten is how bad the car exhaust smells in the cold. I guess it's just that the engines are cold, but it really feels like the pollution is a couple times worse than when it's above freezing. This will be an incentive to take lower-traffic routes, even though they're longer.
The thing I had most forgotten is how bad the car exhaust smells in the cold. I guess it's just that the engines are cold, but it really feels like the pollution is a couple times worse than when it's above freezing. This will be an incentive to take lower-traffic routes, even though they're longer.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Post-Carbon Comics
I saw this in a recent DirtRag magazine, and a couple clicks in google located it for you. Interestingly, the next-to-last panel was bowdlerized in DirtRag - is it too gory on the blog? Also, there's a prequel comic on the April 2008 page that's a bit different from what I would have guessed.
Almost my favorite part of the comic is the logo for Post-Carbon Comics, a bit too small to read on the blog. The center of the logo is a mound labelled "world oil production", and an arrow pointing to about 1/4 of the way down the slope to the right with a tag "we are here". Nice!
Almost my favorite part of the comic is the logo for Post-Carbon Comics, a bit too small to read on the blog. The center of the logo is a mound labelled "world oil production", and an arrow pointing to about 1/4 of the way down the slope to the right with a tag "we are here". Nice!
Monday, November 3, 2008
Mine Falls
E and I had a beautiful ride at a spot in southern NH long recommended by MF. It's a relatively easy place to ride, and we had no injuries. But E did have a rather spectacular crash, captured here. He laughed as he slid in those pine needles.
Later, he found the steep and tall, but smooth descent shown here. I was nervous about him riding it, and if I were alone I probably would have skipped it, but E really wanted to try it and a few minutes later we were both enjoying it. (The picture is at an angle, making the path appear less steep than it really is. You can see how the bases of the trees are bent to make them vertical.)
Halloween
E dressed as a space alien, adapting a homemade costume A and I made two years ago. I became a lounge singer; my main song was Brandy. M, the dog, always looks ridiculous, so she's not really dressed as anything - just extra ridiculous.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Commute Foliage
The best part of Autumn bike commuting in New England is the foliage. These pictures are from a spot where I cross a reservoir on Trapelo Road. This is an early morning shoot, when the water is generally still and the sun just coming up. I cross on a low bridge and these pictures show the view off either side. A mile before this I had the unusual visual treat of riding toward a setting full moon, but it was below the tree line when I got the camera out.
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