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Bicycle Rides, Rambles and Blogs

Riding Season is in Full Swing for 2014

May was a month of starts and stops for me.   I had good times and bad.  Thankfully no accidents but a couple of mechanical breakdowns that should not happen to a bike that is less than 6 months old and does not even have 600 miles on it.   I won’t bore you with the details since they are covered under warranty, but it is pretty damn frustating and one could have been almost dangerous to a less experienced rider.

I spent a lot of this month preparing to lead my first ride for my club the Charles River Wheelmen (CRW).  I had to set up a long and short route, map it out, ride it to see if there if the route is appropriate and safe and then go back and arrow the route.  It’s not as simple as it sounds.  Arrowing is best if you do it with someone because you can carry more spray cans and have someone to talk to.  I had some obstacles to overcome which included bad cracking pavement, sand, wet weather, time and street cleaners.  Street cleaners have a nasty habit of obliterating arrows.  I retouched the best I could, but the I found out the arrow that the dreaded street sweepers might have messed up one turn.

As for the ride itself we had about 20 to 25 riders.  About 1/3 went on the long ride and the rest on the short ride.   I received a lot of compliments.

As for my other riding activities I volunteered to help park cars for the CRW Spring Century and then took off and rode the metric+ (65 miles).  I road at a pace of over 15 mph which was one of my best in a long time.

Now if the weather, my home improvements and bike all align and cooperate, this should be  great summer to ride.

 

 

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