Newtown Lunartics OOF Metric+

The Newtown Lunartics Saturday Morning Ride to OOF started out with some twists and turns. Someone, who shall remain nameless, said they would meet us at the end of Flag Swamp Road at 8:40 AM. Scott, Gavin, and I left Cover 2 at 8 AM and I knew that we would probably get to the meeting point early, which we did. So we rode up Flag Swamp to find our cycling sister who was riding over from Gaylordsville.

MINI Bicycle Holder

I have never been happy with my rack mounted bicycle trays for the MINI Cooper. The road bike rack just never seemed to hold the bike tight enough and I could hear it rocking. Don't get me wrong, they worked fine, none of my bikes ever came off but the rocking noise is what bothers me the most.

Summering with Buddha

I took Friday off and decided to go on a big ride up into Litchfield County. I would first ride to Ovens of France for a danish and then ride north to Morris to visit the Buddha Ariyamettaram Temple and then continue north into Goshen. 

Originally the forecast was for thunder showers by mid afternoon but that changed to the evening so I was able to delay my start to later in the morning. When I has leaving the house I had my arm warmers and a base layer underneath but it must have been 65 degrees because it was so warm in the sun that I went back in and took everything off, except of course my new Team RWB (Red White and Blue) jersey.  

One thing to note, their hours have changed. There was a line of about 4 people outside but everyone had face coverings on were staying 6 feet apart.

It was worth the wait. I got the biggest Chocolate Almond Croissant, too. It was a meal!

After another breakfast I started riding the backroads towards Middlebury trying to hit roads that I haven't ridden before to add to my Wandrer total.

It was a perfect day and the views from the ridges were breath taking

One thing I love about my new Garmin Edge 530 and the Climbpro feature. It tells you the grade, how far you have to go on the climb and how much there is left to climb. It only works on routes that you have loaded and are following.  On this ride I was heading up Hickory Lane and there is new color that I have never seen before, a maroon band. 

Garmin needs to add another color this - black, for anything over 20%. It seems though the grade calculation appears to be exaggerated. The maroon color says the grade is over 12%. Unfortunately, Garmin Connect doesn't let you see the grade after your ride.

Looking at Ride with GPS on this section, the max grade is 12% but if I remember correctly Garmin displayed the grade around 15%.



That portion of the hill in front of me does look pretty steep!

One routing faux pas was that I didn't know this road turns to dirt and there was no alternative so I took the Bondeye on a first road for the first time since I bought this bike.



If figured since I was climbing and going slow that I wouldn't have a problem and I didn't.



Another great view, this one from Benton Road in Morris



My bike is called a Voodoo Bondeye. Bondeye is short for Benevolent Deity, met another Benevolent Deity today, Buddha.




The ornate artwork for this temple was amazing.



I can't believe how many times I have ridden past here and not have noticed this.



From the Temple I rode north on Rt 63 through Litchfield and onwards to Goshen.

What I found totally ironic about this route was that there were 9 climbs calculated by the device and the 8th one was right before Goshen. That meant that is literally downhill all the way back to River Road in Southbury with the last climb being from the Steel Bridge to the Boulevard.

In Goshen I had lunch at the Shell Station on Route 4 consisting of a bottle of Powerade Extra with Salt and Vinegar potato chips. Then I road Route 4 and eventually turned south to head back to Southbury.

A few miles down the road I discovered another mistake in my routing which had me on another dirt road.  The funny thing is that I looked at my Roubaix to Brew dirt road map and thought this would be OK. I missed something, obviously. One thing I have found with planning routes with Ride with GPS, is you really need to view the course step by step because it seems to make decisions for you that you may not agree with.  I don't think this dirt road was the fault of the RWGPS routing interface, but I have had other issues.

By 3 PM the clouds were starting to role in.

30 Days of Biking - Day 30

I rode all 30 days!

My watch said it was 54 degrees when I was leaving the house but as soon as I started riding and felt that wind coming from the south I knew it was going to be a lot colder. The rain had stopped around noon but I wasn't sure how dry the roads were going to be so I fendered up. I was wearing my Fitzgerald Cycles Merino wool cycling sweater and it didn't want to get it dirty, either.

Riding by the big stone cock at the top of Taunton Hill I thought about how far and long I wanted to ride. I never recharged my light from Saturday's ride and I forgot to put it on the charger earlier so I only got a half an hour of charge on it. I wasn't worried about the Garmin and it didn't take long to charge the helmet blinky. It was just the main light that had me concerned it I was going to go on a longer ride.

One discovery on today's ride was Taunton Road finally got paved but I couldn't tell how old it was. I know I have ridden this route before I would have noticed new pavement but I couldn't recall noticing it before.

Seven thirty in the center of Newtown, CT and it's dead, thanks to the Pandemic.

When I got home the beer fairy came through with two six packs of Jack's Abbey House Lager!

The last time I rode all 30 days for 30 Days of Biking was 2011.

30 Days of Biking - Day 11

Pandemic Spring

I waited till midday to go out and enjoy this glorious spring day but was disheartened to see flags at half mast commemorating those that lost their lives up to this point due to the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Still, I was going to make the best of it after two days of riding indoors and started out with a climb up Castle Hill to take in the view of Church Hill.

Perfect temps for Bib Shorts

I took a new route this time trying to get some more Wandrer miles by riding through Bethel to Redding and then taking Umpawaug Hill over to Route 107 which took me over to Georgetown, which by the way is named after one of my fore fathers on my mother's side of the family, George Abbott. Then I rode down Rt 57 to Cobbs Mill. During all the descents there was no hub noise but on these fast descents I did have to worry about the wind.

I stopped off at the defunct Cobbs Mill Inn to enjoy a Layla Bar.

The wind was keeping the temperatures kind of chill and while I brought a cycling jacket just in case I never needed it. 

Before I started my ride, the Voodoo fell over in the drive way and it would appear that my hanger got bent because as I was climbing Kellogg Hill I shifted into the spokes. Fortunately, I have a straightener at home that I am borrowing from a friend that I could fix it with.  I think I might have to get one for my tool box.

Riding down Lyons Plain, there were a lot of other cyclists and walkers that I covered up for, just in case.

Entering back into Newtown I noticed that the temperatures had fallen somewhat but I was still fine. I made one routing faux pas. After Eden Hill I headed up Hattertown Road to Mount Nebo but Mount Nebo is in horrible shape. Should have taken Hundred Acres.

30 Days of Biking - Day 7

9 Climbs after Work

I was looking at someone's walk on Strava in Bridgewater, on the other side of the lake from where I live and saw that there is a little turn around at the bottom. It's funny but in the 15 years I have lived in Newtown, not once have I been over the Bridgewater side of the lake. So I rode down to this turn around only to find half of it is dirt so I just stayed on the pavement.

On the way down my bike was making that noise again that I heard two days ago. I figured it must be one of my hubs but I couldn't tell which one.  Once at the bottom, through the trees you can see the mouth Pond Brook.

There's even a road that goes down to the lake but before the dam was built there was a road that ran along the banks of the Housatonic River from Southbury to the Hanover Road bridge.

There were a lot of walkers on this road so I covered up every time I got close to them.

One of the real big climbs on this ride was Town Line Hill.

At the top of the first section there is this barn or chicken coop with an American Flag on it.

But wait, there's more! The max grade on the hill is 17%!



Looks like another ride where I will be coming home in the dark.

One thing that I wanted to accomplish with this route was a route that could commit to memory and just ride it for when ever I wanted to a climbing workout. Seeing cows at the top at Bottsford Farm is bonus. The other thing that I don't like about this initial route is the descent down 67 because I get a lot of speed but have to slam on the brakes to turn onto Old Turnpike so it looks like I will have to descend Bottsford Hill and find another climb or two get back to 9 climbs.

I really like the climbing tracker on the new Garmin Edge 530.

30 Days of Biking - Day 5

Ride After Work

I got up late Sunday and as I was contemplating what to do with myself when my boss called and wanted to know if I had some time to finish up an analysis that I had been working on the week prior that was needed for Finance. I said sure and worked the rest of the morning, through lunch, had a few conference calls and by 4:00 PM we called it quits. I decided to jump on the bike and ride North to visit the cows at Topland Frams in Roxbury.

Although overcast, the afternoon warmed up somewhat that I felt bib shorts would be fine but complimented my kit with long socks and arm warmers. 

I only saw one car while riding up Painter Hill

And this cow greeted me at the top

The weather looking omniscient but it never rained 

There's a new heard of cows at Toplands.
I think the last heard in the freezer now.

I wish I could have hung out on Painter Ridge to see the sun shine up from under the clouds. While descending Davenport Road I heard this roaring sound coming from my bike and thought at first might brake was sticking but I wasn't slowing down.

No matter where you go these days there is always someone walking or riding and while its not an N95 mask I figure my neck gaiter would give me some protection. Granted, moving as fast as I was and given the trajectory that any droplets from someone else's respiration produces there is a slim to none chance I would come into contact. Still, given the thickness I think it would still provide some protection.

I got home in time to have a socially distance happy hour with the neighbors. The say on their side of the driveway and my wife and I sat on ours.