188 Acres = 5 miles

Kind of hard to believe that you can ride 5+ miles in an area less than 200 acres but it can be done at Wilton Woods. Met up with a bunch of people from all over CT at Branch Brook Road Sunday morning. The weather was cold but when the sun came out it warmed right up only to cool back down when the clouds rolled in.

I think we started out with 9 people and then midway through a tenth showed up. The ride in was a good warm up by climbing to the highest point in the park and then working our way down. The first stop along the way was an exposed rock ridge. One of the guys on the ride, on the last part went down hard and nearly broke his arm. Even in pain he continued riding.

Then we headed onto the black diamond trail which was a twisty, flowy, droppy ride with tons of stuntry along the way. The trail basically makes a serpentine flow down a steep incline that has tons drops and up-and-overs.

The Ride leader pointing out that you can go this way for pure technical hell or that was for more technical hell, basically if you don't like technical trails you shouldn't ride Wilton Woods.

Meet Holly. She attempted a rock up and over which was actually a huck. Her front tire snagged a root and she went OTB with a face plant in the dirt for good measure.

Check out this skinny, complete with extra traction and guard rails.

Rally point: Waiting for everyone to catch up for more punishment.

Map of my last two rides here. I am amazed at what you can get out of so little area.  Kind of looks like a chilli pepper.

The Northampton Road Ride

I took the boys on Saturday to ride from the Chesire section of The Northampton Road, which is now known as the Farmington Canal Greenway.

Didn't get enough last weekend so the Boys and I went back for more. This time we started out on the Chesire side of the trail and parked at Cornwall Avenue. It was a lot colder yesterday and it was a good thing I planned for that. The "trunk" of the Burley was filled to the top with extra jackets, hats, gloves, and a vest for me in which Brodie insisted wearing like a Poncho.

The highlights of the ride for the boys were before riding having lunch with their Great Grandfather whom they just call Grandpa Earl and the stop at Brooksvale Park. We rode down to Mt Carmel Station where we can get a good look of the Sleeping Giant:

There is a really interesting history of the area called Born Among the Hills by Nancy Davis Sachse that I found on line that is worth reading about the area.

All the historical Topography maps indicate there was a station here and the buildings that are still standing appear to be arranged as such.

In the image above I merged the 1892, 1914, 1954 and 1976 topography maps of Mt Carmel Station into one image.Had a snack and some water and then turned around and rode back to the park. Elliot wanted to go all the way to the end of the line but we didn't have enough time.

At the park everybody need warmer jackets and hats because it started to get really chilly. Brodie liked to go down the slide on the little jungle gym, then run across the path to swings, jump on and do a belly swing and then scoot back.

Once they were good and hot from all the running around it was time for some Juice boxes.

Sipping juice in tandem

I love this birch tree at the park

The boys sipping their juice boxes from another angle

For the ride back to the parking lot I mounted my camera to the arm of the Trail-a-bike and filmed Elliot almost the entire 2 miles back to the car. It's a long video but he is so cute between his questions from left field and singing to himself. You will notice a few times where I had to stop and appease Brodie a few times.

Elliot Cam from Mark on Vimeo.

The Friday Fix: Tired of all the fixie hoopla?

The Crazy Eddie of Framingham Sales Technique seems to be spinning off to other place. Take for example this amped up obviously generic branded mountain frame. The only thing going for it is the front cranks and the wheels. In reality, you are buying an overpriced wheelset.

Reply to: nnnnnnn@craigslist.org
Date: 2009-03-08, 1:14PM EDT

Tired of all the fixie hoopla? Do you feel like you are about as zen-like as you can be? Well I hope not! This is a fixed gear mountain bike (yes, it's rideable). This vintage steel frame was built up with a Tange steel rigid fork and heavy duty components.

As you hipsters know, fixed parts take a beating (if you ride your bikes, you posers, you). So this rig has a steel 34t Surly chainring, an E-13 poly bashring, and a steel 16t Shimano cog.

Furthermore, the wheels are overbuilt Sun RhynoLites laced to Shimano hubs with 14g DT Swiss spokes. The frame does a great job of taking a bit of the shock out, but I've also installed a suspension seatpost for a bit of extra cush.

Pedals are Welgo platforms. Install clipless at your own risk and probable demise. Saddle will not be the one pictured - I love it too much. Instead, you'll get a Velo or none at all.

Let me know if you have any questions or need further clarification. Fear not, I will not make fun of you, think less of you, or reply in sentences containing "gnarly", "wicked", "bobo", or the like. This has been built and ridden by a professional mechanic and, as such, is safe, fun, and godawful to look at.

Facebook Biking Ads

Social Networking means social engineering to the tune of determining your interest in something and then bombarding you with advertisements about that subject. Not sure who does them better, Google or Facebook. The difference between the two seems to be Facebook in that it's a little more graphical and thus eye catching. I normally don't click on the ads because they seem to have been misleading by drawing you to a site in which to get information from you but not give you anything in return, that is until this ad caught my attention.

The RASE (Rapid Adjust Seatpost) is interesting and I have been thinking about getting something like this. Here are some of the features from the website:

• Instantly raises or lowers “on the fly” up to a full 9 inches and locks securely into place at all intervals
• Operates easily from a remote lever on the handlebars
• Is constructed of lightweight but highly durable 7075 Aluminum with a cool “black mamba” finish
• Provides the ultimate in control when faced with tackling challenging and variable terrain

Of course the price tag is a shocker: $349 but what do you expect for American ingenuity and creativity.  Seeing that the company is from New Hampshire I am surprised to not see them advertising in NEMBA's Singletracks.

Fat, Dumb, and Happy

Saw this at Brooksvale Park in Hamden on my ride with the boys this past weekend. This is an electric bike where the motor is upfront. That big, thick rack in the back is the battery that powers it. Not only did it have a front shock but a shock post as well.

We passed the guy who owns this bike on the Greenway and he clearly relied on the electric motor too much. You know, this is technically a motorized vehicle and they aren't allowed on the Greenway.