April is 30 Days of Biking Month!

March will soon be at an end and I have ridden how many miles in preparation for Single Speed-a-palooza?    40 miles and 40% of that has been on a geared bike.  Not a good showing if you ask me.  However, next month I am going to try to push myself to ride every day for 30 Days of Biking, which I signed up for again after seeing a tweet on it.  I am going to have to start commuting to work again, which I should be doing anyway to save gas and get more exercise.  

In preparation for next month I put some slicks (38c) on the Qball that I have never used before, went to a 2:1 ratio (32:16) and removed the bash guard, which I don't know why I left it on after going back to the Monster Cross platform.  Lazy, I guess.

Just need some orange bar tape and some orange Crank Brothers pedals but in the meantime, this is going to be my main source of transportation and riding rail trails with the kids.  I might even put on fenders.  That is I sell the diSSent quickly and get my next Monster Crosser, which I haven't quite decided on.  I am torn between the Salsa Fargo and Van Dessel WTF.  The WTF frame set is about $100 more than the Fargo.  The WTF sports an EBB (Eccentric Bottom Bracket) and it even can go belt drive.  The only draw back is that you are limited to a max 29x2.1 tires.  The Fargo, on the other hand is more of a mountain bike with many hard points for mounting things like racks, extra bottles, and fenders, but it's made for gears only.  In the end it could boil down to price but that dayglo green on the WTF is insane.

That is some virgin tread!

Surveying the damage of North Newtown by bike

Went out riding with my son, Brodie, to survey the damage of the non-tornado that ripped through North Hanover Thursday afternoon.  Hanover Road is blocked but you can get around it by taking Tamarack to Echo Valley - and it would be nice if someone from the town of Newtown could publish that somewhere!  You will see in the pictures below all the damage that we came across by bike.

Hanover Still Blocked

Downed wires just past the old Rail Road Trestle

Brodie making faces

Hamming it up for the camera

After this point there are wires on the side of the road.

Always the actor

Guess this guy figured he could make it

Broken breaker

Other side, near Echo Valley

Downed wires on Echo Valley - now why isn't this blocked off?

Pond Brook was this way up until late Friday afternoon.  I know this because I drove in on Pond Brook Thursday afternoon but I never realized I was driving over wires.  I discovered that fact Friday morning while driving to work.  I came home this way Friday afternoon, too, but then my wife tried to come this way after running an errand only to find it finally taped off.

Once you drive over the wires then you just have dodge the downed tree

Pond Brook

Dingle Brook

Tree down on Dingle Brook

This guy drove under the tree.

He told me there four other trees blocking the road further up similar to this one but he was still able to drive underneath them.  Brookfield still hasn't gotten around to blocking off their side of the road.

He decided to let himself through

After driving through he put everything back

Hanover and Lake

You can drive around this

Like this guy

Even a tree down at the town boat ramp

Brodie poses

A Monday Commuter Cross Commute

I think this is my best route when I have the time.  The top part is pretty flat and 10 miles to work, which is the route to take in the mornings, which bottom part is 14 miles, relatively flat as well and can do it pretty much in the same amount of time with the geared bike.  In fact, my time on the ride in was 1 hour 7 minutes for 10 miles and 1 hour 8 minutes for the ride home.  Of course, I would have quicker times if I didn't stop to tweet.

Day 11 of the 30 Days of Biking challenge, still riding the Commuter Cross both out of love for the bike and haven't gotten to replacing the BB on the Stinson.  What about the Lambert you might ask?  With those really skinny tires and new BB I was to test it out locally before I try riding to work.  I heard that we were to have a very warm spring day so I checked the weather at 5:30 Monday morning and it said it was supposed to be nice, however, when I got out it was foggy and misty, and really humid.

I tried to dress conservatively so I wouldn't overheat but still stay dry but by the time I hit the first bridge over Rt 84 I had to open the zip pits.  The Timbuk2, however, was behaving amazingly well.  I think that is because I have a better way of carrying it so that it stays put and that is to hold basically all the way on the left side of my back so that it's almost falling off but held in place with the strap.  At least I think that helps but the true test will be when I am riding fixed again.

I keep noticing this BMX bike (below) sitting at the side of this apartment every time I passed by here and I amazed that it has lasted this long without being stolen.  Not locked up and next to a busy thoroughfare.  Could the flat tire be preventing it's theft?  Pretty brazen of the owner to just leave it there.

Bike only needed two trays because it wasn't dripping wet.  Tires were wet and I didn't want to have it on the carpet.  Not sure how much longer I will have an office to park the bike in because it sounds like we will be moving to more of an open office seating arrangement in the near future so people can be more collaborative. It makes sense from an IT persecutive and that's only if you have a bunch of IT teams working together but where I am located that is not the case.  Our IT team supports an operations group located in Danbury, and even that is kind of limited.  What I hope this doesn't mean is that we will be moving locations.

On the way in, I was dressed for cooler weather but the ride home, it was shorts and a T-Shirt because it was so warm.  After taking this picture a roadie passed me and asked if I was OK.  I tried to catch him and almost caught up to him but he blew me away on the next climb.

Even though the sun was mostly hidden behind the clouds it was really nice riding home.  There was a slight tail wind from the west that made me feel like I was flying at times.  While the Timbuk2 was staying in place the strap buckle was digging into my shoulder.  I tried to adjust the padding but not really sure it helped much.

Commuter Cross and Tandem Trail-a-bike

Here is the Qball, rigged as a Commuter/Cross Bike, or Commuter Cross (CCX) pulling an Adams Tandem Trail-a-Bike.  I am rolling with Kenda Kross 700x40c tires, 2x8 gearing (soon to be 3x8), Brooks racer saddle, and Misfit Fme bars.  Great bike configuration for riding rail trails and commuting to work.  Seen here on the Berkshire Division of the Housatonic Rail Road Company Rail Trail in Monroe, CT.

Commuter Cross (CCX) - The view from between my legs

Rt302 Blind Corner from Cycle Snack on Vimeo.

Commuter Cross (CCX)

A friend of mine and fellow mountain biker enthusiast that runs a website called East Coast Trail Riders Review coined a new term for me when I am commuting on my Monster Cross (MCX), Commuter Cross (CCX).   Since I am running a commuting tire on the Qball rather than my fun 29x1.95s it seems only fitting.

For Day 8 of the 30 Days of Biking challenge I got up at 5:30 am with the intention of getting to work much earlier and also wanting to get in a little extra commuting miles by taking the longer way to work.  Night before I mounted my helmet cam to my seat post facing forwards to try and get a different perspective.  For the most part it was pretty good, that is until I started pedaling, the video framed by my pumping legs.  It would have been fine if I were wearing cycling tights but I was wearing my baggies and the loose material sometimes got in the way of the shot.

While coming down to the end of my driveway I heard a really loud Tom Turkey calling out to a hen in the woods.  Haven't seen the flock all winter but I guess it's getting to be that time again.  Spring Turkey Season in Connecticut starts on April 27th.  Another quick saison du l'orange.  Meaning riding in the Upper Paugussett with bells and plenty of orange, or as my youngest son likens it, I am the Annoying Orange Daddy.

Dear of Alive?  Probably Dead.

It was a cold morning, hoar frost covered every where and it must have been 28 degrees out.  Stopped off at the Newtown Christian Church to contemplate their latest spiritual message.  Kind of disturbing when you think about it because the only way you are going to get there is if you are dead but the irony is that it assumes you have been good so if you have been bad are you still on the Most Wanted List?  Maybe someone else's Most Wanted List.  Oh well, mine is not to reason why, mine is to ride my bike.

This was an unusual Friday because I actually had to be home in the early afternoon to meet my boys at the bus stop while my wife and daughter went to Springfield for a dance competition for the weekend.  The weird part was leaving around noon, I was expecting it to be much warmer than it actually was and upon exiting the building I was shocked at how cold it really was but that didn't last long because I took off strong.  I discovered how to climb with the Fme bars earlier this morning so now rather than drop to a lower gear and hammer up hill, I can stand in a higher gear and charge up the hill. 

 It still feels awkward being out of the saddle in the Commuter Cross because I am more used to climbing on my SS MTB  where I am up and over the bars mostly, occasionally shifting backwards depending upon the terrain.  On the Commuter Cross, I am more centered in the cockpit because there is only one spot to hold the bars, that is in the grips.

If I could make one suggestion to the purveyor of these bars is that they should be wider and by making them wider, it could give you another hand position on the downward slope of the bars, however, one thing I haven't considered or tried just my looking at the photo above is trying to hold in the curve of the drop.  It might be that my Timbuk2 bag is preventing me from that position but I will have to test that out.  Speaking of which, I am really loving the bag because with the fleece jacket it always stays in one place.  When it warms up to the point where I have to wear my green riding jacket that is made of a PVC like material then I am going to have a problem because it will slide and then I really hate the bag.

As I mentioned, midday on Friday was a mixed bag of temperatures compared to the morning.  Starting out I was chilled especially since coming out of the office is big down hill and then it goes right into a climb.  At the top of that climb I had to open the zip pits to cool off.  I won't buy another jacket for riding without them because they are essential in regulating body temperature.

Does this house look like a robot to you?  It does to me so I finally took a picture of it.  I pass by this way a lot and I always find that it looks like one of those Rock'em, Sock'em Robots from that game back in the day.  I wonder if the owners see that.

Funny, I mentioned that I heard a Tom in the forest calling out to a hen and then on way home I see this car parked in spot that usually only hunters park in with a license plate that sounds awfully similar to a date rape drug.  I hope no one is trying to bait a turkey in order to have sex with it.

And here I was starting to think that my commutes were beginning seem like I was riding in the Swing Dog position.  I need to be more observant of my surroundings.