spilth.org Blog Archive

My bike was finally ready from it’s tune up on Friday, so I went over to Danny’s Cycles in the afternoon to pick it up. While there I decided to get a short sleeve jersey, a second pair of biking shorts and a better helmet.

Previously I had been using the skateboard helmet I had. Biking helmets have a lot more ventilation which should result in a bit less sweating on my part. It’s also more aero-dynamic so I should be going like twice as fast now.

On Friday night I drove over to Mianus River Park in Connecticut to meet up with one of the guys from The Stamford Bicyclying Meetup. We met last week at Mianus when my derailleur was acting up. Fresh from the it’s tune up, my bike was performing a lot better! “I’m staying away from the easy trails today,” said John. We took on some tougher trails than last time and I was holding up pretty well. Unfortunately about 20 minutes in John’s derailleur snapped off and was beyond repair. He was able to get the chain off using the multi-tool I have and we headed back to the cars. He felt bad that I had drive 40 minutes to get there so he suggested I tool around on the main trails for a bit, which I did for another 20 minutes or so. I was hesitant to check out any of the single track because I was by myself and there were only a handful of people in the park.

On the way home I decided to stop at the Tarrytown lakes and try to find the mountain bike trails in that area. I had no luck so I decided to head up the North County Trailway for a bit. I went about 6.5 miles up before deciding to turn around. It was getting close to 9pm on my way back so I put on the new lights I had gotten for just that reason. By the time I got back to the tree-covered path along the lakes, I definitely needed them.

On Saturday I was debating getting up early to go help with some trail maintenance at Mianus but my body wanted to sleep instead. There were no other rides going on that I saw on the meetup groups or WMBA forums, so I figured I’d give the Bronx River Trailway another go, see if I couldn’t run into anymore turtles or german runners. My friend Stu was planning to go for a ride that day so I picked him up and we headed over together. He was on a road bike but the trailway is mostly paved so it was really I that was the outcast. We rode down to Hartsdale, figured out how to get to Scarsdale to where the path continued, stopped for some bagels in Scarsdale and felt like we probably only had enough energy to get back from Scarsdale, especially after stopping to have lunch for a while.

Saturday evening was spent at a barbeque at my friend Nelson’s place. His boyfriend Jack did the cooking and boy was it good! Burgers, sausage, corn on the cob, eggplant, peppers, cookies, chips, salsa, iced tea – yum! After dinner Nelson talked us into playing some poker. This was probably my first time really playing. The basic rules were fairly easy and I was enjoying it by the end. We were betting with chips but not with real money.

Around 10pm I was feeling pretty tired and VERY full so I headed home. The fireworks in my town were still going so I hopped back on my bike and rode down near the river to get a closer look. It was crowded as hell but the bike made it really fast and easy to get around. I stopped at the Sunflour Cafe for some cookies and an iced chai tea. I don’t know if that was the best way to end my riding for the day, but I guess it’s better than having them without having done any riding at all.

Today (Sunday) I figured my ankle needed a rest from all the biking and put aside the day to do some cleaning up and chores around the apartment. It’s 5:30pm now and I’ve got the majority of them done, so I’m tempted to reward myself with a little bike ride, perhaps along the Croton Aqueduct. Although I could always wait until the evening and use my snazzy new lights to ride in the dark the next neighborhood over…

I think next week I’ll probably get another jersey. Since I’m supposed to be hang drying this stuff it’s nice to have an extra set that I can use while the other one is hanging up to dry.