ciclovia october 2016

Today was the New Brunswick Ciclovia, where the city closes a few miles of streets to car traffic, and people walk, bike, scooter, and skateboard; I even saw one of those hoverboard things, and there was a security guy on a Segway. The New Brunswick Bike Exchange hosts a bike-maintenance station, and I went to help for a while. All kinds of folks come out, especially kids, and kids and families, and I'm just a sucker for it.

This post is mostly pictures, and a little explanation, and I may break it up into two posts. If I do, come back for the other one; there's a little girl with the most excellent bike outfit - you wouldn't want to miss it.

Setup:

Above, Ben T, my partner for the day. I should EVER have his enthusiasm!

Above, Ben and his wife Rosa. Neither one of them should forgive me for that picture, especially after treating me as well as they did today; Rosa kept me supplied with coffee and food. Below, the start of the stand.

Below, our first customers. Most of what we do is pump up tires, and lube chains, with the occasional tube-change.

Aren't they cute ?

One of the Freewheelers likes to tweak my nose about the supposed high crime in this neighborhood. These are dangerous-lookin' folks, aren't they?

There was a farm stand with a petting zoo for the kids...

... and some of the kids were older than others.

Below, Cuqui, from the parent organization of the Bike Exchange, PRAB.

Ben, earnin' his keep...

OK. More in the next post.

back in the saddle again

After four years of hard use including a crash, one of my beloved Specialized BG2 saddles is giving up the ghost (I had referred to my purchase of the last two as the finding of the Holy Grail; the other one is still on the Krakow Monster). I'd done some research and shopping, and bought a Specialized Ruby Expert Gel at Kim's, but it's not suited to the way I ride. The Ruby Expert is a light, hard (if flexible) saddle, best for sprints and brief powerful efforts - but not for the long, leisurely, chatty rides I like. I put about 100 miles on that Ruby, and almost wound up with decubiti on my rear. So that wasn't gonna get it, and the Ruby will go on Ebay when I get my act together.

I really didn't want to get another Selle AnAtomica, but I wound up placing the order. I've written about the Selle AnAtomica before; how I had high hopes for it that were dashed, and how I had to salvage it. But my researches kept bringing up riders who said it was just the thing.

I had a number of problems with it, and all of them seem to have been addressed:

• It was noisy. (But the company has started installing a nylon washer at the source of the noise, and it seems much better now.)
• It flattened out and caused thigh pain. (Yeah, well, on reflection, I realized I had been monkeying with it too much, in my maternal grandmother's memorable phrase. If I'd paid a little more attention to the instructions instead of going with how I thought it was supposed to behave, I'd probably have been better off.)
• And the company gave me a lot of trouble when I bought it through an off-price online retailer; they initially wanted to cancel the sale. But now they sell discontinued colors and factory seconds off-price, and sometimes have sales to boot.

I happened on the site when they had a discontinued color, during a sale, during a week when they were offering free shipping. Bottom line is, I got a saddle that retails for $159, shipped to my door for $102. The color is called "Merlot", which is kind of a purply-red (and since the actual colors of the Yellow Maserati are various blacks and greys, there's nothing for it to clash with except the electrical tape holding the bar wrap down). And it feels great. I can ride it in my civilian clothes; I don't need to have bike shorts on.

 (Plus, you get to maintain it; you can put leather prep on it every couple of months, although you don't have to. But I love an excuse to maintain the bikes.)

I think it's just the thing. I hate having to admit I was wrong, but I was wrong.

freewheelers all-paces rides and fall picnic

Today was the Princeton FreeWheelers All-Paces Rides and Fall Picnic. The Excellent Wife (TEW) and I like to go together; although we don't do the same ride, we go together, hook up after, and get to see a number of people we don't always see. There's a bit of chaos because the groups that go out are people who don't often ride together, so some of my fellow riders don't like the all-paces rides. Today's was no exception, but I was with a group of (mostly) experienced riders who were able to clean up the detritus of the unpredictability.

There will, of course, be a link to the picture album below... but before that, of course, I get to bloviate about my experiences on the ride. I went out on a ride with 18 or 20, and we split into a fast and a slow group. I'd promised the leader I'd sweep, and I kept track of the folks in the back. But we got to the top of the Assunpink, and got split by traffic on a left turn, and we lost track of the riders in the front! (If you're going to use a sweep, it's a good idea to make sure you let him see when then rest of the group makes a turn. Hrmph.)

The slow group wasn't that slow; it included Laura OLPH, Winter Larry, and John K,along with Andrew, Mindy (whom we met while volunteering at the Event), and another young woman whose name I didn't get. The anonymous young woman was initially hanging on the back, but after we got split up, she surprised me by catching up some distance on a long straightaway. (Remind me never to underestimate riders with whom I'm not acquainted). She later had a series of mechanical oddities, which turned out to be the computer pickup on her chainstay rattling in the spokes; it finally got bent too far in and was decapitated. Alas.

Our dropped ride tried to find the others at the Ptomaine Ptower in Clarksburg, then were unsuccessful in finding Roy's (which was apparently where some of the rest of the group went), and finally got to the Stonebridge in Allentown. From there, we took the straight route back to Mercer East for the picnic.

But you're here for the pictures, aren't you?

You can find the album here.

misty metric, and need another saddle

I don't think any of us were planning on a mostly misty, rainy ride today.

Tom wasn't up for a hilly ride after the ride that my tire problems kept me out of last week, so he opted for a ride to Delicious Orchards over mostly flats, and he invited a few of his Insane Bike Posse to add a few miles from his house. The weather was supposed to be OK-if-cloudy, so the mist and occasional raindrops on my windshield didn't put me off much. Still, I dug the arm warmers out of my bike bag for today.

Laura OLPH and I met Tom at his house, and we rode to Etra Park, where we met Peter G and John:

And still it was misty and rainy. We thought it would clear in an hour or so.

It didn't.

(Mist on the camera on those last couple.)

The ride to Delicious Orchards is over many roads that had traffic, at least today, so the banter, complaining, and character assassination that occurs on many of Tom's rides didn't come out much until the break. The fare at the Orchards is high-carb, and potion sizes are extra-large. I didn't take food pics because, well, what is this? Instagram?

On the way home,the weather cleared up some, but the skies were still dramatic. Across from Etra, when we left off Peter G, Laura went to get a picture of the clouds, and Tom got a picture of Laura getting a picture of the clouds. I couldn't resist:

Yep. That's a picture of Tom getting a picture of Laura getting a picture of the clouds. This may be the first double-deep self-referential picture in Princeton Freewheeler history.

I'm proud to be part of it.

Ride page.

In other news, I've now got 100 miles on this new Specialized Ruby Expert saddle. It's got good flex, which I like, but I don't think it's for me (I think 100 miles is a good enough time to tell, and plastic saddles don't break in the way leather does... and my posterior doesn't seem to be breaking in, either). It'll probably go up on Ebay as soon as I replace it, unless somebody makes a reasonable offer. It's sold as a women's saddle, but the BG-2 it replaced was also sold as a women's saddle, and I loved that one, until it just didn't do it anymore.

mcbride ride

After missing out on the Hill Slug ride on Saturday (well, mostly), I was most eager to do the McBride Ride the next day. I was beat, thought, and almost didn't get to Sawmill Road for the early start. But I did.

(Yeah, I know, too many pictures... but one of the things I like about this ride is that there are a non-trivial number of people who come out whom I don't know, and who are not regular riders, and they're out to have a good time anyway.)

Below, the team:

Dave H, Chris C, Marco, and Laura led me around the course. There was a larger (and slower) group of Freewheelers ahead of us, too.

Chris got a picture of me getting a picture of him. Oh, the self-reference! Oh, the irony!

After we passed the other Freewheeler group, Ken got ambitious and decided to catch up to us; he stuck with us the rest of the way.

At the stop:

I am not hip enough to have a beard like the guy in the picture above.

A team of four came rolling in with the jerseys in the pic above. It was too good to miss.

At the finish:

The fellow in the center, above, reaching across the table, was this year's recipient of the McBride scholarship.

Ride page. We don't do this one for speed, but for fellowship. That's good enough for me.