This time around I did have some Thoughts [bicycling]

[rebeccmeister]

I might not get to articulate things for another day or two, however, because it's Finals Season and I'm playing catch-up on everything. To wit, the house did not get vacuumed this week but we're just going to live with it.

Anyway - 300k done, in 16 hours.

Just prior I finally read the Renee Hearse treatise on supple tires, and now I want to experiment on that front.

I am also thinking I need to change up Froinlavin's gearing, but I don't pay too much attention to gearing so I have some work to do there.

I have a lot of bike maintenance I need to catch up on in the near future.

The short version of the 300k: We started in Westfield, MA, dipped down into Connecticut, then turned noses north and rode up into southern Vermont, then back south to Westfield. It was a Phenology ride: Connecticut was in full bloom - dogwoods, lilacs, redbuds, still some cherries, some daffodils, tulips, phlox, everything in all those beautiful shades of bloom and green.

There were places in Massachusetts captured right at that stage where the fiddleheads were just barely beginning to leaf out. Fairy tale landscape and I regret I didn't pause for one particularly beautiful moment to take a photo but the image will live on in my head.

The hillsides in Vermont were still the gray of late winter/early spring, certain things just barely starting to leaf out.

Parts of the ride were somewhat surprisingly remote, but I guess that's a good thing to have learned about the northern Berkshires.

My hip and back are still pretty creaky today.

I missed my chance to look at the Housatonic Tunnel!! I need to learn more about that.

I think I lost my cycling gloves at the finish line, sigh. I need to modify the next pair so they are less Stealth and more Obviously Mine.

Route URL, photos to follow later: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/380962991

Better go to work now...

Comments

[mallorys_camera]

❤️❤️❤️

[annikusrex]

i was talking to some bikepacking people about tires and they swore by tubeless tires. any thoughts? I want to buy a gravel bike at some point. how's the fleet looking for a bike i can ride to montreal?

[rebeccmeister]

Every tubeless tire person I've ever encountered swears by 'em, but I've also noticed that when they fail they can fail HARD and it can be a real chore to stick a tube in there and get going again.

Re the bike fleet, I'm pretty confident I'll have something good for you to ride! The students still have the bikes checked out at the moment but I'll be getting them back early next week and will scope things out from there.

Do you happen to know your bike's top tube/standover height? (measure from the ground to the top of the tube)

[annikusrex]

ah, interesting/thanks. my bike is 53 cm

[annikusrex]

but i don't know what that corresponds to, probably not standover height?

[rebeccmeister]

I think it can be converted to standover height, except I don't remember which brand it is! I think people usually measure from the bottom bracket (where pedals/cranks attach) to the top tube.

[twoeleven]

Connecticut was in full bloom - dogwoods, lilacs, redbuds, still some cherries, some daffodils, tulips, phlox, everything in all those beautiful shades of bloom and green.

Should we expect photos? :)

[rebeccmeister]

Alas, not many! Too busy turning the pedals, and a lot of stuff would be surprisingly tricky to photograph. I do have some related photos from my college's campus, though, that I should get posted one of these days...

[twoeleven]

Oh, ok... :) I don't know how often one needs to stop on these sorts of rides.