Neil Fein's Blog

Summer Streets is an experiment where NYC is blocking off just under 7 miles of streets for the use of pedestrians and bicyclists. The route includes Park Avenue from 72nd street down to the Union Square area, then taking Lafayette Street down to the Brooklyn Bridge.

I had an incredible time, and I'm planning to go back next weekend and do the whole thing in reverse.

Bruce and I parked in Weehawken and took the ferry into Manhattan. The event was very crowded indeed. The crowds are fun to watch! We saw cyclists, runners, skaters, walkers, families with strollers, wheelchairs, and a couple of horse-drawn carraiges.

At the Brooklyn Bridge, the crowding got even worse. The pedestrian/cyclist walkway is raised over the roadway, with a lane for bikes and one for pedestrians. (This concept is a bit too much for many, many people to grasp, but I digress.) The bridge itself is beautiful in a way that's hard to appreciate by car.

Labels: bicycle, bike

My winter project. This box contains my old touring bike disassembled. I threw out the bent frame, front wheel and the fork after the shop gave me back this box.

I have a new frame to hang all this on - at the least, as many of the components as will fit with the used frame I bought.

Bruce has claimed this saddle already, and I know the seatpost and headset won't fit.

Labels: bicycle, bike

Neil Brennen and I have come to realize that we have different touring needs, and we've decided that Shake, Rattle and Roll has been our last tour together.

I'm sorry to see this happen, but I'm glad we rode together for the time that we did. It's been fun, and we learned a lot from each other over touring 700+ miles together, not to mention day rides and organized rides.

Even if not explicitly stated, NOW has always been at least somewhat about learning and improvement. "What can we do better next time?" was a standard conversation after a tour.

• Packing - I tend to overpack, and I still do. I like to think that I've improved since I brought 4 paniers and a huge camp roll for a 2-day trip.
  
• Climbing - the hills of Chester county (where Neil lives) are truly epic. Our tour to Bethlehem highlighted that there are always steeper hills.
  
• Camping - I've now camped 4 times with NOW, the only camping experience I have to date. I'm at the point where I can set up and break down in a reasonable amount of time, and can get a decent night's sleep in a small tent.
  Planning - Mapping appropriate roads, setting the length of the day to something realistic, and planning to ride in an area that's interesting to begin with are all important things to know how to do if a tour is to be successful.

Labels: bicycle, bike, neilsonwheels, touring

Train across from the campsite. Trains on this line kept us up all night. Campers are advised to bring earplugs.

Labels: bicycle, bike, touring

Neil B had to bow out of the ride after a fall, but he made it pretty damn far, riding 90 miles on a broken rib.

Neil and Judy followed me in a car, in my mad dash to cover the last 100 miles to DC in one day. They made sure I ate properly, didn't overheat, and drank a lot of water.

Thanks again to everyone who sent donations - I exceeded my target of $1000 for epilepsy research. There are a lot of people who made this ride possible, and thank you to everyone involved!

I have many more pics to sort through, and a journal as soon as I can get it all finished. I filled many notebook pages that I have to type up and edit.

Click on the pictures for a larger version and more information.

Labels: bicycle, bike, touring

So last night I didn't actually talk to Neil until I was about to go to bed, so I wasn't sure if I could keep my eyes open long enough to post. And by the time I got here tonight, Neil had already posted a bit. But let's see if I can fill in some of the back story.

The big issue yesterday is that Neil got a flat. He had spare tubes -- so no problem, right? Well, actually, since this is a new bike, neither Neil had checked to see if the pumps they were bringing on tour with them worked with the valve. After going through two tubes, they called a guy from bike forums to come meet them. Neil had one tube left, but he also had a rip in the tire sidewall. So they planned to go to a bike store to get him a new tire and another tube. (And a pump that actually works with his bike, I assume.)

So during the day, they crossed the Mason-Dixon Line at the same time that they crossed from Pennsylvania into Maryland. And before they did that, they passed Deale, PA, which is the highest elevation on the trail. They went through the Big Savage Tunnel, which is an old railroad tunnel that's been converted for the trail. It's about 7/10 of a mile long, and it also represents the divide between water that drains to the Atlantic and water that drains to the Gulf of Mexico. (Neil called it the continental divide, but that's in the Rockies.)

After that, it's all downhill from there. Literally -- they got past the highest point. They stopped in Frostburg, MD for the night, and stayed in a dorm at Frostburg State University.

I'll post more for Neil once I actually talk to him. (We've been leaving each other messages all day.) You can also see below for more info.

Labels: bicycle, bike, touring

I'm in the library in Cumberland, so here's an update. Sorry it's brief. I'm keeping a notebook so I'll have more when we get back. Most of this entry is cannibalized form an post I just made on bikeforums.net.

Neil B took a spill, and he's is resting up in the Bruce House, a local B&B. He seems okay so far and may be able to ride tomorrow, but we'll know a lot more in the AM. We've stopped early in Cumberland, which is just as well since there's a thunderstorm coming and there's a tornado warning - the second we've had on this tour. Much contingency planning is occurring, since this puts us 30 miles behind.

Everyone we've met on the road has been great! It's great to finally put faces to the names.

Neil's trailer is pretty wobbly, and the quick release hitch keeps jamming. It was checked out; apparently the quick-release retaining pins were bent, and forcing the hitch onto the skewer was making it worse.

A sharp rock jumped out to bite my tire on a few miles west of Frostburg. I had to get a new tire in Cumberland, and I rode it around town a little bit while under the full load and it seems fine. I have three spare tubes. I may tour with a spare tire next time. Martha is correct that I could be traveling lighter, I've learned a lot from this tour. We're having a great time, despite the setbacks. (More mechanical issues... sigh.)

It's amazing to see everyone commenting here and keeping the thread going over on bikeforums; I feel pretty pumped from seeing y'all following our progress. Keep it coming! I'll check in again when I can.

Labels: bicycle, bike, touring

Neil called me tonight from his campsite approximately 15 miles from Confluence. (No, I have no idea where these things are. Apparently Confluence is near Cumberland, if that helps anyone. I think they're still in Pennsylvania.)

During the ride today, the Neils met up with Judy (from Bike Forums) and her 14-year-old daughter Libby. Judy and Libby took the Neils in their car from the trail to visit Falling Water, a famous house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Also joining them was a guy they met on the trail who is doing the same trip. (Sorry, but I forgot to write down the name of the other guy.)

After getting back to the trail, Judy and Libby took all the bags from the Neils and drove on, which meant that the Neils could ride unencumbered for a bit (although Neil says that the bike is holding up well with the load). Then all four of them went about 15 miles up in the mountains to a campsite, where they're going to spend the night.

Tomorrow is going to be what Neil thinks will be the toughest day -- 49 miles over hills. But both Neils decided to mail some stuff home (or in my Neil's case, to DC), including the guitar, which was making PA Neil feel unbalanced. That should make it easier.

Neil's been doing laundry about every other day, and he says that seems to work fine. But he also told me that the guy they visited Falling Water with is doing the same trip with just two panniers and a Solitaire tent. So maybe Neil could reduce his load even further for future tours.

As y'all can probably tell, I finally remembered to take notes tonight, which is why I have details about where they are and who they're with. I'll update again tomorrow night.

Labels: bicycle, bike, touring

Well, the Neils spent last night at an inn that has recently been refurbished. Apparently there's even a Las Vegas room with lots of Elvis memorabilia. They got caught in a downpour about 5 miles out yesterday, so they arrived soaking and muddy. Luckily, today they found a combination bike shop and restaurant that let them use their hose to clean off their bikes.

They rode on the trail today, and made an average of about 10 miles per hour. (12 or so on the flats.) Both Neils are feeling a bit wobbly as they get used to their equipment: NJ Neil has his new REI bike that he's still breaking in, and PA Neil is dealing with a trailer.

Tonight they're camping at a site on the trail that includes a laundromat. They're having fun and haven't had any major arguments so far. My Neil is considering mailing his guitar back, since he hasn't really used it at all, but he'll make the decision later.

More to come as I hear it.

Labels: bicycle, bike, touring

Well, I've heard from Neil, and the trip is underway.

Neil and Neil drove out to Pittsburgh on Friday, and stayed with a guy from the bike forums. This morning, the Neils left Pittsburgh, and biked what my Neil described as the most harrowing day of the trip. That's because the two of them needed to get out of Pittsburgh in order to get to the beginning of the trail that they'll be following most of the way to DC. They're spending the night in a hotel, and tomorrow should start on the trail.

Unfortunately, Neil hasn't been able to talk for long, so he'll give me more details when he gets the chance.

Labels: bicycle, bike, touring

The trais were running late last night, but NJ Transit made up the time between Jersey Ave and Princeton Junction. I got into Philly on time and Neil picked me up in the Neilmobile.

I was putting the front rack back on the bike (I had taken it off to get the bike in the Neilmobile) and an allen screw got cross-threaded in one of the front eyelets. In the midst of visions involving 4 panniers and the ability to carry only two of them, Neil's roommate Josh saved the day using a Dremel, a drill,and a screw extractor. The eyelet has no threads to speak of now, but the rack is firmly on that side with a bolt and nut. My joking around about using zip ties to attach the rack had been becoming a bit less of a joke each time...

Must shower and get dressed. when Neil and Josh get back with the rental car, we'll pack up stuff and bikes and head out.

Labels: bicycle, bike, touring

I'm going to be biking the Great Allegheny Passage and the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Towpath trails starting this weekend. That's over 300 miles of riding, mostly on crushed limestone and gravel.



Many generous people have donated to the Epilepsy Foundation for this ride, and I've raised just over $1000. Thanks again to everybody who donated! If you've been meaning to send money but haven't, it's not too late. (Here's the donation page.)

Needless to say, I'll be pretty out of touch next week. I'll probably leave my cell phone off for most of the time as well.

Labels: bicycle, bike, touring

...for an hour or so. I just finished a new tour journal, and it's chock full of cool stuff, including:

• Dead animals!
  
• Tension!
  
• Camping in the freezing cold!
  
• Fighting between the Neils!
  
• An awesome vanilla malted!

The whole thing is here. Please read it and let me know if you enjoyed it, I'd love to hear from you.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/greenlane

Green Lane campground just before sunrise, Green Lane Park, PA

a quickr pickr post

Labels: bicycle, bike, camping, touring

This picture has been making it's way around the net. There's a good blog entry about it at Cozy Beehive that goes more into depth about it.

Riding a bicycle is safer than driving a car, swimming, and walking, but it's more dangerous than flying and playing with fireworks.

Labels: bicycle, bike, me too, statistics

It's been a while since I posted. Here's the latest route I use to bike to work. The different crappy bits are from around mile 5 to mile 8, a side route to avoid the nastiness that is Raritan Road between Walnut and Westfield avenues. This section goes from Clark into Cranford, I think, but the Clark bit is where I've been cussed out and honked at more.



There are turn-by-turn directions here, but they don't print worth an 90's Schwinn. That's the biggest problem with bikely; otherwise, I love the site.

Labels: bike

I'm back from the latest bike tour. There was some good, some bad. I finished the Crazyguy tour journal.

Festive cyclist in Philadelphia, the Art Museum in the background.

Light show at Macy's department store in Philadelphia, PA

a quickr pickr post

Click on the pictures for a larger version and more information.

Labels: bicycle, bike, touring

I'm almost ready for this Saturday morning, that is, assuming neither myself or Neil have a rough time while riding because we haven't ridden all that much lately... assuming my bike doesn't explode (I had to replace a rim today, surprise!)... and so on. Oh, yeah, and assuming I don't get sick again (I'm mostly over my the cough I had last week).

That's enough whining. Here's the plan, the links are maps with cue sheets:

• Day 1: The Neils meet in Philadelphia, we ride around the city, see stuff, do stuff, crash in the hotel. (All the nights are hotels.) Maybe 20 miles for the day? Not sure. (Neil will be riding there from Kimberton to meet me, I'll take the train.)
  
• Day 2: Philly to Doylestown, 33 miles
  I have no idea what's to do in Doylestown, but I'm sure there'll be something interesting.
  Philly art museum to Doylestown
  
• Day 3, Doylestown to Bethlehem, 34 miles
  We'll be arriving in Pennsylvania's "Christmas City" on December 24th. I'm Jewish, but still looking forward to seeing the spectacle.
  Doylestown to Bethlehem
  
• Day 4: Bethlehem to Kimberton, ~50 miles
  
  • Part 1
    
  • Part 2
    
  • Part 3: Green Lane to Kimberton (Neil knows this part).

Last I checked, the weather looked decent, but we'll be prepared if it rains or snows.

Unless I get sick or have more mechanical problems or... naaaah. Never happen. What could possibly go wrong? Um, I never said that.

Labels: bicycle, bike, touring

I've finished transcribing and making the journal I dictated on tour generally enjoyable to read. Enjoy! (There are more pics on the photosite that didn't fit into the narrartive.)

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/nov2007tour

Labels: bicycle, bike, touring

It was raining while I was riding home from the carpool today. I was wearing my $6 yellow rain cape I bought in Walgreens; it billowed out behind me the whole way hom. I felt like Safety Yellow Superman!

Crossing Ethel Road, I was singing the Superman theme to myself:

Dum da da duuuum... da da da da daa daaaaaaaa...

... and at that very moment, a guy in a car yells out, "Hey, Superman!"

Labels: bike

I rode my bike yeserday from my carpool to the Apple Store (in the Menlo Park Mall). Once I got on route 27, I was the only vehicle not stuck in traffic.

Labels: bike

Martha rode 22 miles on Sunday, her longest yet. We did the 20-mile route on the Central Bucks Bicycle Club's Covered Bridges Ride 2007.



Half the ride was on the Delaware and Raritan Towpath, the other half was on River Road that parallels the Delaware River. The ride was a lot of fun, and I always enjoy chatting with other bikers. And doing a ride with Martha is a rare pleasure, of course.

Click on the pictures for a larger version and more information.

Labels: bike, bikeclub

The shop called and told me that my bike was finished on Wednesday, and I rushed to the shop after work on Thursday. A comedy of delays caused us to barely squeak in the door maybe fifteen minutes before they closed.

The rear tire was uneven, but they fixed this in five minutes. I paid and tried riding it around the parking lot before putting the bike in the car. I forgot to roll up my right pants leg, and it has a but of a rip in it now. But I have a shiny drivetrain, a new rear shifter that actually works well, and replacement (non-defective) tires.

I was excited to ride the bike to work Friday morning; I got on the road by 5:45 AM, and realized I was feeling lightheaded. After a few blocks of this not going away, I turned back. Riding when I'm not at 100% in the light rain and cold could be dangerous. My wife would have dropped me at work with the bike. But, as I discovered when I got home, I have a slow leak in the front tire. I may have ripped the valve when inflating it, but this is the same wheel I had a flat on last weekend.

Oh, and the zipper on my rain jacket broke. I'll try to return it, but I'm not sure if the shop will take something back without a receipt that I bought it in August.

Labels: bike

Despite all the planning in the world, there's nothing like experience. Here's what I learned on my first bike tour:

• Mud puddles, dead ends, and heavy gravel are great fun - on a mountain bike with the right tires, not so much fun with 30 pounds of stuff hanging from the rack. this was clear in Cheesequake State Park, of which we had no trail maps. Possibly because you really can't call them proper trails when they're overgrown and blocked by bogs. In the future, I'll avoid planning routes through large parks without knowimg more details. touring is a blut seeing stuff and exploring, but stuff like this slows you down too much.
  
• I could have left the extra cycling outfit, book, and iPod at home, but I wish I had taken a rain jacket.
  
• Even in warm weather, it gets cold in the early morning. Arm and leg warmers are invaluable, even if they do make you look like a jazzercise refugee.
  
• Rain can be a good thing. We had one burst of rain for 20 minutes or so, and I found it very refreshing.
  
• Utility roads are evil. Water Works Road in Old Bridge, NJ, looks like a perfectly respectable road on maps and satellite photos. Water Works Road is a dirt and gravel road blocked by scrub and a downed telephone pole.
  
• Compasses and non-intertubes Hagstrom maps rule. Where bikely cue sheets failed us, "real" maps saved the day, and where Hagstrom county maps were (infrequently) misleading, the compass saved our lycra-clad sore asses. Bike-mounted compasses suck if you have a steel frame; I took along a small hiking compass I picked up for $10.

So... what's next? Neil and I have been kicking around a few ideas. I'd like to do a week-long tour of 200+ miles, but the next time I'll have a week off will probably be December. You can tour in the snow, but I'm still new at this. I really don't want to be changing a flat or fixing a brake cable on a county highway in a snowstorm.

Labels: bike, touring

Neil and Neil on the bridge over the Navesink river in Red Bank, NJ

I think that bike touring is my favorite kind of biking, and I've only done one proper tour. (It becomes a tour when you ride for a bit, stay overnight somewhere away form home, rinse, repeat.) Just you, a bike, a friend, and 30 pounds of stuff in side bags, is somehow very cool. Neil and I rode from Edison to Red Bank yesterday, and in the morning continued on to Monmouth Beach to see the shore, then returned.

Over the 100 mile ride, Cheesequake State Park was our first real stumbling block. Hagstrom County maps and Google Maps-generated cue sheets are great tools, and both have incorrect and unclear information. In the park, we didn't even have that; we used luck and a compass to get across the park, doing our best to avoid unbikeable trails and deep mud puddles. That compass saved us several times, and it takes a lot of the guesswork out of map reading.

We took the Henry Hudson bike path for 7.5 miles, from Matawan to Belford. It was a nice break from road riding, but there were a lot of bugs. I had to scrub insect corpses off my skin when we got to the hotel room later that day.

When we were heading into Red Bank, we decided that we wouldn't continue on to the shore that day. The hotel was kind enough to let us bring out bikes up to the room. Martha, Grazina, and Asad drove down to Red Bank and we all went for dinner at a very good Italian restaurant.

At 6am, we woke up and got ready for the road. When I was packing and loading the bike, the front tire looked like it had when I pulled the bike out of the basement this past spring, after two years of no riding. I inspected the tire and tube carefully, and I found no nails or glass. There were no errant spokes that could have poked a hole in the tube. There was, in fact, no hole in the tube that I could see. (It might have been a pinch flat, which can happen from a pothole or jumping down a curb. I'm glad I was able to change the tube with a minimum of fuss.

I packed carefully to avoid taking stuff I didn't need, since the more you have the slower you will go. I learned this lesson on my first bicycle commute home from work. Once you're down to the bare minimum, it's quite satisfying to be able to keep a good pace with full panniers and trunk bag.

We rode to Monmouth Beach in about 45 minutes and had breakfast in Amy's, an omelette/pancake place on the main drag that MArtha and I found while we were scouting road conditions for this tour. We rode over to the beach After fueling up so we could touch the Atlantic Ocean. I graffitied the ephemeral "Neils on Wheels" in the sand.


Seen on a front lawn near route 35.

The trip back went a lot more quickly. We replotted the route when having breakfast, spreading the county maps over the table, trying not to knock the drinks over. We missed a couple of turns (two major streets weren't marked or didn't exist) but we kept a decent pace and didn't make too many side trips. We also avoided the dirt road Water Works Road in Old Bridge, along with the downed telephone pole blocking the road.

Click on the pictures for a larger version and more information.

Labels: bike, touring

Monday morning, I left the house at 5:40am. I improvised a little on the route, and got in in 1h 50m, and was working at my desk by 8am.

This is the first time I've done the entire commute without Martha dropping me off partway in the morning. Honestly, it's really not all that hard, although I had to nerve myself to get going in the morning. And I could do without getting up at 5am.

The trip home was 3 hours long, but that's because I was exploring. No, really, that's not a euphemism for "getting lost". My cue sheet holder broke about four miles into the ride home, so I stuffed it into my bag and kept going by the seat of my pants. I finally got clever and realized that you can pretty much always tell what town you're in by looking at the manhole covers. I ended up riding 49 miles for the round trip.

A couple of guys in a driving range on Inman Ave in Edison thought that riding to my house form there was "a long ride". And apparently, asking which direction is north sounds like I'm asking how to get to Newark.

There was a hairy moment in Scotch Plains, but a friendly jogger pointed me towards Inman Avenue. When I got to Oak Tree Road and Grove Street at 8pm, I knew I was 25 minutes from the house. (Scotch Plains is pretty hilly, by the way. Lots of rich-people houses on the top of a hill, and twisty, steep streets going past houses with huge lawns and tiny barking dogs behind fences with manicured shrubs. Pretty, though.)

What was hard about it was that I worked 10.5 hours yesterday. I spelt very, very well last night.

Labels: bike, commute

Bruce and I been rehearsing a lot this week for our set on Saturday, and I rehearsed last weekend and tonight, for my solo set. This is for a gig where I am sound guy and play two sets during a 13-hour show. I've already started obsessing over my packing list. (Stuff like the PA, speakers, mics, duct tape, and, oh yeah, the guitar would be helpful.)

Meantime, I pulled my bike out of the shop I had it in; seems they won't get the parts in until at the earliest Thursday the 4th. I told them to keep the parts (tires and right shifter) on order and I'll bring the bike back then. I spend the drive to the bike shop seething and calming myself down. No use antagonizing one of the better bike shops in the area. But they could have called me about this.

Labels: audio, bike, music, notbike

I brought my bike into the shop today, to have them look at my wobbly, deformed tires. The mechanic told me that yes, they're defective, and they'll throw on new ones. (I'll be able to return the tires to the tubes I bought them from.) The good news here -- aside from the whole thing where I end up with tires that don't try to throw me on my ass when cornering -- is that, according to the mechanic, I did a fine job when I put on the tires. These are just sucky tires. Actually, tires -- Continental Town and Country -- have given me an incredible speed boost, it's just that these two particular ones are made from mutant terrorist petroleum products that don't understand the concept of balance.

I'll be riding Martha's bike home from my carpool for a few days. (I already raised the seatpost about four inches.) But my bike should be in fine shape for the shore. But I'm without my bike until probably Friday.

On the up side...

I reached 1001 miles for 2007 today. I'm pretty sure I hit 1000 when I was trying not to get blown over by rush-hour traffic on Livingston Campus.

Labels: bike

I saw this while bicycling in Rock Creek Park, Washington, DC, when I stopped for water.

Labels: bike, notbike

This was a weekend to remember. I had planned to be doing a weekend of riding in Lamncaster, a metric century and a Bike Forums forst-timme-mmeeting internet folks social ride the day before. A memorable weekend, for certain crappy values of memorable...

On Friday, I left the house to pick up Brian and his bike, at his work north of Philadelphia. There was traffic on route 27 as soon as I turned off my block. After spending a half hour travelling 30 miles, I looked up and say that 287 was barely moving; I called Brian and set up for me to meet him the next morning. I called Neil to let him know (Brian and I were meant to meet him at his house) and headed back home.

The next morning, drove to meet Brian, a trip that went without incident. Brian is pretty cool; turns out we have venn-diagram-like semi-overlapping tastes in music. I had a lot of fun driving with him to Neil's.

On Saturday afternoon, we all got in the car and drove west to Lancaster. We met up with about a dozed or so Bike Forum folks. For me, this was the first time meeting most of these people. Since we were still waiting for more people, I started to dismount my bike, in the process catching my right foot on the top tube and falling on my ass, in the process twisting my left knee pretty badly.

Of course, I missed the social ride, but I insisted Neil and Brian go ahead and ride. I spent the time sitting in the hotel lobby holding ice on my knee.

When the ride was finished, we went to meet the rest of the Bike Forum people in a Ruby Tuesdays. To make a long story short, we were in the wrong Ruby Tuesdays. Silly me, I assumed the one closest to the hotel was where they would meet.

I also missed the Lancaster ride the next day, hanging out in Neil's house for the day. Around noon, Neil called me that Brian had hurt his foot and was out of the race. He mentioned that Brian had been picked up by the SAG wagon (SAG wagons are support crew for organized rides like these) and was with the ambulance. He called me back later and told me Brian was okay.

Reading through the forums now, I'm pretty depressed about the weekend. Brian is incredibly cool, and it's always good to see Neil, but I missed out on a weekend I've been looking forward to for months. My usual cure for the blahs is to go ride my bike, but that's not an option until my knee heals.

A great start to my week of vacation.

Labels: bike, whining

Neil B. talked me into doing a 50 mile club ride this weekend, the Brandywine Dog Daze in Westchester County, PA.

We were originally meaning to do local riding by his house, to train for next week's Lancaster Century, which is also very hilly. But Neil wanted to show oif his new hybrid bike, and he is faster; he dropped me twice, and finished the course a few minutes ahead of me.

I made decent time on the new tires, but I ended up walking my bike up the steeper hills. I like the speed I'm getting out of them, although I miss the control of knobby "mountain" tires.

Here's a map of the course. (I forgot my camera, and have no pictures.)

Labels: bike, neilsonwheels

Over the Hills, by David Lamb

Wanting to travel across America on a bicycle could strike many as an incomprehensible desire. Over the Hills is a memoir of a middle-aged journalist's 3000-mile afternoon ride. The book is well-written, fun to read, and strikes an excellent balance between travelogue, personal memoir, and barely disguised worship of middle America's relaxed way of life.

The author is decidedly not part of bicycling culture. He wore ordinary-looking clothing on his trip, ate in ordinary diners and truck stops, and stayed in ordinary hotel rooms, with his bike standing by the side of the bed. Mr. Lamb is very much a character in his own story.

I'm not sure whether it's that the writing got better after the first few slower chapters, or that I grew to appreciate the style as I read. The latter slow acclimation would be particularly appropriate. Highly recommended to cyclists and considerate cagers alike.

Labels: america, bike, books, journalism, notbike

Commuted home again on my bike, and also rode 1/3 of the way to work that morning, the last third. (Martha dropped me off in the car with my bike.) The ride home was a lot easier this time, I was able to pedal for longer without getting tired. Reducing the weight on my bike helped: I was carrying a godawful amount of stuff last time, including boots.

I kept a good pace, and didn't go too fast on the long straightaways no faster than, say 18mph, or I'll be in granny gears on the next hill. Since I don't know all of the route yet, I kept having to stop last time I did this to check my directions. I got smart this time and made myself a cue card holder:



Since you brake with your hands, you can't exactly hold directions while you ride a bike.

I also found a somewhat better route this time, mostly by looking more carefully at satellite views, but also with the advice of a fellow commuter from work, who I ran into on the way up. While I missed the turn for the back way he suggested, even riding nearby it was a much easier rise -- e.g., streets that have shoulders but not a lot of traffic. Shade is also nice.

---

The HP musicians' coop's first "demo clinic" was today, a free demo recording session to area musicians. It went rather well. I hope more people sign up for this. And completely unrelated to the clinic, except that it inspired me to do a demo after the musicians had left:

I recorded a demo of a song I recorded today and wrote earlier this week: Knobbies, MP3, not dialup-friendly.

---

Edit: I almost forgot; here's my commuting route:




Click on the pictures for a larger version and more information.

Labels: bike, commute, HPMC, music, notbike, work

Graffiti poetry seen on the Rutgers Livingston Campus, Piscataway, NJ by the barracks. I got a little dizzy standing in the middle and trying to read this while spinning clockwise.

We racked up 60 miles riding Neils on Wheels V and VI this past weekend, and I impressed Neil B. with my abilities to get us lost two miles from my house.

Neil got along well with friends of ours we were able to meet up with. He seemed to hit it off with Steve and Grazina in particular. And I think he has more in common with Martha than with me in some ways. (They have academic writing in common. He's been published a lot writing about the history of chess.) It's always fun to succesfully introduce a new friend to old friends. We now return to your regularly scheduled cynicism and bitterness.

Labels: bike, neilsonwheels, rutgers

Neil's come over for the weekend, and I showed him around the Rutgers Busch/Livingston campus (Pisacataway, NJ) yesterday. We explored a lot, and we found things I'd never seen. Such as a helipad. I had no idea there was such a thing here.



I'd say Neil is making me look bad by being deadly earnest. Good ride today. After a day of pointless noodling, we have a planned ride for tomorrow.

Labels: bike, neilsonwheels

Bicycling on New Dover Road on Wednesday, I saw a couch perched on somebody's front stairs. I'd like to think that there's a good reason for this.



Craig and I spent most of the day installing home stereo speakers in his walls. He had already done a fair amount of work, and we didn't get it quite finished, but we got the speakers wired and fished the wired through the walls, across the attic, and back down. Now he has to actually hook up 5 speakers to the amp.



Heavy-gauge speaker wire likes to tangle itself up. I was untangling the wire so I could feed it into the wall and Craig, squatting up in the attic, could grab it. He insists that as he was reaching for it, the wire knotted itself before he could reach it. Rrrr...



When we got home, I spent the evening working cleaning up the sound for a WordsPicturesMovies film.

Click on the pictures for a larger version and more information.

Labels: bike, sound, wire

Debbie mentioned to me recently that this site is hard to read, and that got me to thinking. I picked the simplest Blogger template (i.e., the only one without a sidebar, I'm sick of having to squish photos down on the page to fit in the narrow text column).

The advantage is, I start with a quickly-loading page, and I can add changes slowly. Since I'm much quicker in HTML than CSS (i.e., blogger template-speak), I figure that whatever I manage to do here, it'll be easier to duplicate in HTML than if I did it the other way 'round.


Neil B. says, "Cheers for the new look, Neil!" How perceptive!

So expect to see a lot of minor tweaks. When I'm happy with the design, I'll port it to the rest of the site.


As your reward for reading this (or skipping through it, how would I know?), here' s a picture of me painting my bike headlight. And it's not a tiny, squished preview pic! Mmm... yellow.

Labels: admin, bike, blog, tree, yellow

The day after riding a metric century, and I feel pretty good. This was my second 100-kilometer ride, and I'm getting better at them. The first took 9 hours (a lot of breaks!), and this time it took around five and a half. It's somewhat easier when there are rest stops set up by the bike club, and you stop at a designated point and only then. Aside from pulling over to have a sip of water or have a quick stretch. Neil and I are counting this as Neils on Wheels IV, even though it's a larger ride organized by the White Clay Bicycle Club in Delaware. (Neils on Wheels III was a warmup ride the day before, by Neil's house.)

It's very different riding with a large group, and this was my first organized group ride of any sort. It's more of a structured ride, which makes for a more disciplined attitute to riding. The first metric I did was a 50-mile ride with a friend a few weeks back (Neils on Wheels II) , where we met at the trailhead. Riding to and from from the train station brought my distance for the day up to 100km. 100 kilometers on a bike sounds like a lot to ride, and it's certainly not a to be undertaken by a noob biker without some training. (Go here if you need this in miles.)


Cyclists at the 25km rest stop in the middle of the first loop of the doublecross metric.

The ride was divided into four parts of 25 kilometers. The first two combined made up "loop 1", which took us north and into Maryland for a few minutes, then back around in a rough circle. We ended up at the starting point, a high school, where we had a quick lunch before getting back on the road. A map might make this clearer:








It was mostly a flat ride, although the hills seemed to get harder as the ride went on. That really has more to do with me than the terrain, I suspect; looking at the elevation profile, the hills did get a little steeper near the end, but not by much. (The bottom of the map is a link, you and poke around there if you want to see more about the route map.)


Tandem pulling into a rest stop.

There were a lot of tandem bikes, and I spotted one fixed-gear bike. We ended up at the high school we started at, where we had a quick lunch before getting back on the road.

The ride was all on local roads, mostly long, straight county roads or major town streets, but staying away from congested areas. The areas we went through are mostly farmland.


Tandem setting out on leg 20 of the ride (25-50km).

I couldn't have fathomed it if I'd been told a few years back that I'd be riding these kind of distances. I'm proud of this, and very happy I can pull it off. Best of all is to see how I get better with each long ride. Thea "covered bridge" metric century in Lancaster this August if going to be fun! It'll have less traffic, but more hills. Mmm, hills...


Myself, Henry, and Neil, after finishing the ride.

And thanks again to Neil, and Henry for shuttling me around, and to Martha for meeting them halfway and driving several hours to meet them halfway. And thanks to Henry's rad hitch bike rack. I think the purpose of SUVs is to transport multiple bikes.


In the car, going home over the Delaware Memorial Bridge.


(Click on the pictures for more information and a bigger version.)

Labels: bike, neilsonwheels

While I was bicycling in Highland Park last night, I stopped in front of a friend's house and rang the bell. (She's hard to get on the phone, and we haven't spoken for a while.)

They must have been on the way down the stairs already, because they came out of the door and were surprised I was standing there. I said what I had to say and chatted for a minute, then started on my way. "Did you ring the bell?" she said, as I was getting back on my bike. Apparently it's possible that I might have been camped out in front of her door waiting for her to leave.

Um... I know I'm intense and opinionated. But do I come across as that creepy? Is the answer is yes, I'd be better off not knowing.

Labels: bike, notbike, sciencefiction

Trying to work out the logistics of how I could commute to work by bicycle one or two days a week. 19 miles... that'd be around 2 hours to ride, including time to clean up and dress when I get there. So I'd have to leave the house at 5:30 am. Urrgh. I get up that early on the weekend for bike rides, but it somehow seems different to do it during the week.




Questions I still to answer:

• How will I pack my stuff? I'll need to get panniers (bags that hang around the back wheel) or somesuch. Scrunching up work clothes into a backpack is probably a bad idea, if I don't want to walk around all day looking like a songwriter's wastepaper basket.


• Where to leave the bike? The nearest bike rack is all the way across the site.


• Need to do a dry run to fine tune and time this route. There's no route that avoids all traffic that's not gonna add 4 or 5 miles to the trip. How safe will these roads be? At this early hour, they may not be too bad. But I'm a little worried about Talmadge Road and Brunswick Ave in Edison, Park Ave in Plainfield, and Raritan Road (Plainfield to Cranford). Drivers are pretty inconsiderate on Talmadge in particular. I think/hope that route 28 in Cranford isn't too bad.

Update: Since this site has been down the last few days, this entry never got published.

The panniers and trunk rack I ordered came in the mail today. Loaded up, my bike looks like this:



I stuffed them with towels and sheets to get a feel for how they change the weight of the bike. Not all that much, although mounting uphill is a little harder.

Now I have a little bit of the feel of them before I take them on my weekend biking trip (Pennsylvania west of Buck's County at Neil's for some local riding, then the White Clay Bicycle Club Doublecross Metric Century in Delaware.)

I'm not planning to take the bags on the 100-km ride, of course, they can stay in the car. But maybe the trunk bag; it's good for tools, a spare tube, some food, and a first aid kit.

I picked up two half-gallons of milk on the way home, and the clerk asked me why I wasn't buying a full gallon. I suppose a gallon would fit, although it'd be awkward.

Labels: bike, commute

Funny post from Neil B. over in PA.

Historian On Two Wheels: From 0 to 100: The Seatpost Letters

Labels: bike, teh funny

...that title sounds like a bad TV show with a cylon talking Trans Am.

Riding a bike at night is very different from pedalling along in daylight. Folks don't expect to see you. And speed is a bad thing, unless your aim is to rur over teenagers in the dark - they like to frequent parks and parking lots after dark, I know I did.

I've also found that most bike headlights suck. I may break down and get one of the expensive halogen systems, LED headlights don't eat up batteries so badly, but there's no point if you keep running over gravel and potholes you didn't see coming.

Potholes also have a way of breaking cheap headlights. What's the point of a headlight if it can't take abuse? I'm on my third headlight and only one so far has stood up to shocks from potholes and gravel. And that one isn't all that bright, but at least it's still there. That would be this one:



Found this on YouTube. For your cylon enjoyment:



I have an urge to put a cylon eye on the front of my bike.

Labels: bike, sciencefiction

I'm testing embed code, return to your regularly scheduled time-wasting life-sapping intertube.

Labels: admin, bike, blog, test

Bruce and I on the trail.

Bruce and I ride the D&RC towpath, starting in New Brunswick. The path here is a lot rougher than the western leg of the path Neil and I did last weekend; there are a few miles of rough gravel and rocks, and big, big cobblestone-things with sharp tire-eating edges. We turned back a little past bound brook, maybe 7 miles into the path.


Vertiginous bridge!

It didn't help that Bruce was riding Martha's bike, which has semi-slick tires, which are good for roads but nor for rough terrain. (He needs to get his brakes fixed, a local shop did a bad job with them - the brakes are so tight he can't get the front wheel off to put the bike in the car.)

Didn't do all that much riding this week. Some local stuff, found a new park in Edison (new to me, anyway), and some fun deserted parking lots to practice cornering in.

Week ending 6/16 - 52.8 miles.

Labels: bike

I registered for my first Metric Century! It's going to be on August 19th in Lancaster.

100 km (62 miles) is not am unreasonable amount - I rode more than that last Saturday, and I rode 17 miles after work in an hour and a half. But doing it as en event makes it "official", somehow. Click on the picture to get to the event site, including a link to online registration.

Labels: bicycle, bike

Great ride along the Delaware River Towpath Canal. Neil and I racked up over 50 miles together. We started from Lower Ferry Road in Trenton. I've never ridden this far in one day before, neither has Neil. Thanks again, Neil for pushing me to do this!

I am sore all over, particularly all over one particular place.

Neil mentioned a funny post over at fatcyclist.com that mentioned that men who take cycling pics tend to go for pics of them in action, and women tend to take posed shots. So here are some posed shots of us in action.

Neil (not me) on his bike:


Me. Pic by Neil.


This is an amazing trail. The entire thing is actually around 70 miles long. It runs from Landing Lane Bridge in New Brunswick, down to Trenton, then up north again, ending in Milford.

We're already planning the next ride, probably in Bucks County, PA.

And here's this week of riding:

3 Jun - 3.47 miles, local roads, bugs
4 Jun - 8.6 miles, pavement, grass and lots of mud. Had to hose caked mud off my tires.
5 Jun - 6.42 miles, streets and traffic. I hit 25mph on a long, gentle uphill (Woodbridge Ave in Edison.)
6 Jun - 3.79 miles home from carpool, 5 miles later in the day.
7 Jun - 13.4 miles. Hit 25mph several times! Averaged 16.75 mph.
8 Jun - 64.7 miles, Delaware River canal towpath

Total for the week: 105.38 miles

Edit: This ride was Neils on Wheels II.

Labels: bike, neilsonwheels

Unless you ride, blog posts about where I rode and clouds of bugs and bike equipment are probably pretty dull. If you don't want to see the blog posts, go to http://www.neilfein.com/labels/notbike.html, and you'll get everything else I post. (You can do this with any of the keywords, actually.)

Labels: admin, bike, blog, notbike

Biked into Highland Park/Piscataway today. This one was a recovery ride from yesterday's Neils on Wheels ride in Philly, and not particularly noteworthy but for the first-time experience of doing a whole ride in the rain.

I quickly confirmed that it takes a little longer to brake and that traction is an issue. The handlebars (and shifters/brake levers) are slippery, no surprise there. Goggles would be nice! I hadn't anticipated that the pedals would be slippery as well! Riding around Highland Park, I found myself looking for streets with lots of trees...

There were a few other bikers out there, and a few people gave me looks of disbelief. I was hoping someone would ask me why I was riding in the rain. I would have pointed out that my choices were to wait for the raint o stop so I could ride and be hot and sweaty, or ride in the rain and be wet and quite comfortable. (Gentle rain isn't all that cold, because your body stays warm by the work of riding.)

I went into Johnson Park, and it was quite nice to ride there. But the thick clouds of bugs were back! I turned around pretty quickly. I see the advantage of sealed goggles over glasses, but decent goggles with rubber grommets are pr