Selling the Sex Machine

After purchasing the Waltly I found myself in a bit of conundrum - do I need three gravel bikes?  With the CAADx now my most favorite gravel bike since giving it a makeover and the Waltly being an any road bike, did I need my REI Adv 3.1 anymore? 

Dirty, cold and wet, Thirty Roubaix

The weather boffins predicted a break in the rainy weather on Saturday around 3 PM and Mike and I were batting around different ride ideas earlier in the day but didn't come to any conclusions. I started rebuilding the CAADX and just happened to check my phone at 2:45 PM and discovered that Mike and Marshall decided to do a gravel ride from the Roxbury Market at 3:15 PM.  I told them I would meet them and got hopping.  Roxbury Market is a 10 to 15 minute drive from my house.

I threw on a pair of bib shorts, a long sleeve base layer and a long sleeve jersey, grabbed a vest and my cycling rain jacket and drove like a bat out of hell to the Market only to get stuck behind someone on the road to Bridgewater who decided they should drive the speed limit the entire way to Route 67.  I got to the Market at 3:15 and was rolling in 10. I love that I live so close to some of the best dirt road riding in the State of Connecticut.

Northern Rail Trail - fka B&M Northern Line

The Northern Recreational Rail Trail, also known as the Northern Rail Trail, is a 58-mile multi-use rail trail in western New Hampshire, USA, running from Lebanon to Boscawen. It uses the right-of-way of the Boston and Maine Railroad's former Northern Line, which was acquired by the State of New Hampshire in 1996. - Wikipedia

My goal for this ride was to ride the entire length of the trail from Boscawen to Lebanon and back. I decided to go with 5 water bottles for this trip because in my reconnoiter of the route I didn't see many places to stop near the trail and didn't want to be caught short. The weather report wasn't looking good either, there was 60% chance of rain today so I was glad for the fenders and I brought a rain jacket, too.

5 Bottle Mounts on the Sex Machine

I am starting to explore new areas and some of them can be remote so access to stores along the route could be limited or non-existent during the Pandemic. So I mounted two more water bottles holders on the fork of my bike.

Pandemic Roubaix to Brew: OEC revisited

One of the things that I like about where I live is that my gravel/mixed terrain rides can start on a dirt road as close as a quarter of mile away. Today's ride hit First Dirt on Tamarac Road.

The goal of today's ride was to explore Stiles Road that used to connect Southbury to Woodbury.  Ride up the Trolley Bed to Tuttle Road and then check out Old East West road that runs through the middle of the Whittemore Sanctuary. Ride the Middlebury Trolley Trail, to Hop Brook Park, get on the portion of the old Railroad bed through there and then take the Larkin Bridle Trail down to OEC Brewing. Lastly ride the top part of Nelson Road.

Dirty Social Distancing

I had not ridden the intervening days between returning from my ski trip and the weekend. I had planned on riding anywhere between 36 and 76 miles starting from the Roxbury Market to start training for the Frozen Apple next weekend but an email arrived saying that it's being canceled due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.  I guess it was good thing no one wanted to ride so I could practice social distancing. I decided to do a solo ride from Chez Cyclensack and just see where I would end up.

Birthday Dirt

For my birthday this year I planned on riding my age in miles and I designed a mixed terrain route that was exactly 55 miles. However, 15 minutes prior to driving to Exit 14 in Southbury from where the ride was starting, Gavin texted me and ask if I could reverse the route so that we would initially end up at OOF (Ovens of France). I redid the course on Ride with GPS, sent out the link and headed out.

A front fenders for the Sex Machine

I have had this Planet Bike Mountain Bike fender laying around for years and finally decided to try it on the gravel bike. The hole at the bottom of the fork was too big and since it mounts using an expander I cut up an old tube and wrapped it a few times and then put into the whole and tightened it. The fender piece was a snug fit but I got it in the groves. 

It performed reasonably well, granted it's made for 26" wheels so while it protected me and the bike fairly well it wasn't 100%. I still need something for the rear wheel, which might prompt me to get full wheel fenders at some point.

Spring Gravel in January

Gavin and I left from Cover 2 at 7:30 am. Originally I was planning on an all day ride of about 70 miles but Gavin didn't have that much time so I had to knock off 30 miles from the route.

First things first, we had to stop at OOF (Ovens of France) for breakfast. We did, however hit a few dirt roads before riding through Soutbury, though.  After breakfast we headed to Scuppo Road for the first serious climb of the day.

Before hitting the dirt portion of Scuppo I noticed that the old trolley bed had been graveled and so I rode down through a gated access way to check it out. Turns out a contractor was hired to repaint the water tower and to bring in equipment and materials they had to improve this section of the bed.

Easter Eggs and Melon Heads

There have been a few roads on my to do list to see if they really go through or for that matter are truly dirt roads. With the early winter warm up taking place I was not going to ride the trainer again this Sunday so I headed out on the Sex Machine to hit a few of these roads.  Also, it would be a good test of some gear that I recently added to the bike as well as a pair of shoes that I brought out of retirement since my Lake303s are now out of action.

Nelson Road Right of Way

I rode down to the steel bridge from house and crossed over into Southbury. I rode up Fish Rock for the first time and I started shedding clothes. Good thing I had the handlebar bag! My first quest was to see of Sanford Road West actually went through. On the maps it showed a dead end, however, the property lines showed that there was still a right of way.  However, when I came out of North Georges Hill I noticed a dirt road off to the south and rode over to it and it started climbing.  The dirt road ended but the right of way continued.  I turned around and headed back to Sanford Road because that was my main objective. However, looking on the Southbury, CT GIS map they still show Nelson Road as a town road!

I never new handlebar bags were ever out of style!

Well, that is if you are a gravel rider, according to the Bike Snob in Outside Magazine.

I don't really go for any of the style that the Bike Snob professes to be in vogue, however, I do have a few different handlebar bags that have collected through the years and so I thought it would be appropriate to dress up the Sex Machine with some gear. Too bad Cannondale never made and orange bag because it would go so nice with my current gravel bike.  At some point I might try to have one made.

Pilgrimage to Mt Riga

Every year since I started riding at D2R2 I have used Mt Riga Road and Sunset Rock Road as my training ground. If I can climb those two roads without having to stop I am ready for anything. This year however, I never got to Mt Riga in the spring for some reason, and when Will mentioned that he had nothing going on this Saturday and wanted to ride some gravel I suggested that we ride Mt Riga. 

2nd Farmer's Daughter

Will & Nigel

I missed the 2017 & 2018 Farmer's Daughter rides because they were scheduled on the same day as the Bloomin' Metric and I try to ride that event every year with my father.  This year, the Bloomin Metric moved to June, thus opening up an opportunity for me to ride the Farmer's Daughter again. 

A Rainy 156K Mystery at D2R2

The first thing we did Saturday morning was download the Long and Short Mystery Routes and then it started to rain! 

The weather report was saying rain in the morning and a midday shower. This was turning out to be the wettest D2R2 on record, for me, however not the wettest gravel grinder.

Surly Bikes!

Returning to the Depot Deli after my Bastille Day Gravel Grinder I noticed these really nice Surly Bikes in the rack. At first I thought the black one belonged to someone I follow on Instagram who lives in the Hartford area but when I introduced myself to the owners I realized it wasn't him.  

Bloomin Metric double header

My father, who is 75 years old has been riding the Bloomin Metric every year for the past 20 years! That's longer than my riding career, which started 13 years ago.  Granted, I rode a lot in college but afterwards not so much. 

I have always wanted to ride down to Sherwood Island from Newtown, ride with my father, and then ride home.  I have never done this before because I was always tandeming with one of my kids or letting a relative borrow the tandem for the ride.  This time, however, I thought I was going to do it. That is until I woke up to a rainy, wet morning, that prompted me to drive down to Sherwood Island.

If I was riding from my house, I would have ridden the Voodoo, however, since I was riding with my dad and didn't need to worry about speed, I brought my new gravel bike, the REI Coop ADV 3.1.  Kind of a stupid name, so I call the bike the Sex Machine, because riding gravel is kind of like sex. I can be dirty, slippery, fast, bumpy, hard, and it's a lot of fun.  

Also, I wanted to try riding with my new front trunk. It was made in Korea and supposed to arrive at the end of the month but it came 5 days later from when I ordered it.  I put on my front rack to hold it. For the Bloomin Metric I put my rain jacket, rain pants, and a pair of gloves in it for the ride since it was supposed to rain and it did for about 15 minutes.  I only used my rain jacket and then afterwards I used the top tie downs to hold it for the rest of the ride.

From the pictures online the color of the bag looked like it was going to match the color of my bike perfectly but it doesn't. Its close enough.

I have been riding through Westport 2 or 3 times month, and quite often along Hulls Farm Road where this picture was taken.  Only this time I noticed this plaque and it says that this location was where Richard Rodgers lived, of Rodgers and Hammerstein fame.

Towards the end of the ride the sun came out and the day went from cold and crappy to warm and lovely. I think my dad was eager to get back to Sherwood Island so he pulled almost the whole way.

 

And yes, my father is a total Fred.  I told him to take off his helmet but he didn't want to.  I picked up some good swag from the MS Society table.  Got a hat and some cycling sox.  Stopped in at the LOF Booth to say hello.  The Lake to Lake to ride is just two weeks away and I can't wait because this will be the first time in two years that I will be able to do the ride once again.

Since we still didn't have power at home, my wife planned to meet up with one her girlfriends whose kids like to hang with my kids, so I took this opportunity make it a double header.  It was so nice out it would have been a shame not to enjoy the nice weather after such a horrible week.

I tried to ride the causeway between Sherwood Island and Compo Beach but found it gated off.  So I rode out on Greens Farm over to Hills Point and into the Compo Beach area.  I used to fish off the jetty for snappers and black bass when I was a kid.

After the beach I rode up 136 towards Cross Highway and then across the top of Westport.  I have ridden most of this before but then I found a stretch of road, still Cross Highway but not as highly trafficed and kind of bucolic, that goes into Fairfield.  I made my way over to Rt 135 and then over further till I ended up Bridgeport and the highlight of this ride, Aspetuck Brew Labs.  Not a true Roubaix to Brew ride because it was all pavement except for the a little dirt at Sherwood Island, but there was still a beer stop.

I had my favorite beer, the Cosmic Siesta.  I also happened to have my 32 oz hydroflask with me so I got a fill of the Cosmic Siesta, too.  Although billed as an IPA its more of a New England IPA. A little juicy and hoppy.  I love it. I struck up a conversation with the guy sitting next me.  Turns out he used to work for GT and coached a BMX racing team in the area.  He is also a mountain biker who knows Trumbull like the back of his hand.  We exchanged info and plan to meet up sometime at Trumbull to ride.

I headed back on the bike route towards Sherwood Island. This ride was kind of a first because it was the first time I wasn't following a route.  I forgot to load the route and decided to just wing it.  I had to stop a few times for bearing checks till I got to the brewery.  Afterwards, it was easy peasy.  However, by the time I got Southport the Back Teeth were Floating and I stopped at Sasco Beach for a Papa Romeo (Personal Relief).  When I got back to Sherwood Island and loaded the bike in the car it started to rain again but it was a quick shower. It felt really good.

Tour de Dirt & Destruction

I took a little ride around the neighborhood Friday after work. 

 Everyone north of Route 84 is still out of power.  Wires are still down all over the place but it looks like most of the trees have been cleared.  However, I didn't ride up Butterfield or Georges Hill.  Even the Taunton Lake area and Taunton Hill Road still seemed to have a lot of power outages, still.  You could still hear the din of generators running.

I rode to the top of Holcombe Hill but I missed the sunset

I have to say, I really love riding this bike. I am still making tweaks to it. I think might get a Brooks saddle and try a seatpost with a longer set back.



Rode over Castle Hill.  The Newtown Flag is once again at half mast due to another school shooting and yet our government who is supposed to protect it's citizens does nothing.

It was getting dark so I headed home



The telephone pole at the intersection of the Boulevard still hasn't been dealt with.

And there is still a tree on the wires on Tamarack Road