North Jersey Trip

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There are some inviting bicycling trips in the back of Bicycling Magazine, each month, but you don't have to travel far to find a nice bike trip. This past weekend I headed to North Jersey for a weekend to do a couple of rides I have been wanting to do for a while. I did a lot of exploring in North Jersey when I wrote the book but haven't been back up since.

The north west part of New Jersey is very rural and if you don't mind doing some hills there are a lot of nice roads to ride. It's a 2 hour ride for me to get to this area so instead of doing a long day trip I decided to make a weekend of it so I could get a couple of rides in.

I have talked up the trip for a couple of months and had a lot of people interest but when I finally picked a weekend I only got 3 other people to join me (Laura, Cheryl, and Lynne). The plan for the weekend was to drive up early Saturday to Milford PA and ride from there to High Point and back. Sunday we planned to ride around Newton NJ including the famous Shades of Death road. (High Point ridesheet here, Shades of Death ridesheet here)

We got an early start on Saturday morning. Laura, Cheryl and I started out a little after 6am and despite some detours made pretty good time to Milford where we were met by Lynne. We planned to start the ride from Milford Beach but there was a fee to park there so we parked at the Grand Union in the middle of town.

The first part of the ride was relatively flat as we crossed back over the bridge to the Jersey side and headed down Old Mine Road along the Delaware. We continued through Peter's Valley towards Walpack and then had our first real climb through Stokes State forest. Before the climb began we saw a bunch of people standing in the field. We thought they were bird watching but it turns out they were watching butterflies.

The climb through Stokes was long but not too tough and the scenery was nice. We then headed through Layton and some more rolling hills and had a nice rest stop at a deli and bait shop when we crossed Rt 206. A few miles after the stop the real climbing began. Most roads that lead to Highpoint State park are continuous 600 or 700 feet climbs that have a couple of steep spots. The easiest way up is to use Deckertown Rd to Sawmill. You do the same amount of climbing or even a little more but it is a series of climbs that give you some breaks to recover in between.

As we started our climb up Deckertown there was a sign that said the road was closed in 4.5 miles which was exactly how far it was to our turn so I though it might be OK. It turned out there was a bridge that was out about 500 feet before our turn. There was actually a section of bridge missing. If we couldn't cross the bridge there was no way we could make it to High Point.

Even though a section of bridge was missing there were two large cement pipes a few feet below the road so it looked like it was possible to walk across the missing section. After talking about it for a few minutes I decided to give it a try and lowered myself down to the pipes walked across them and jumped up to the road on the other side. We then moved the bikes over the missing section and all made it across to the other side.

We were back on course again and when we make the left turn on to Sawmill there were a couple of Motorcycles that saw us coming over the closed bridge. They asked if they could make it across the bridge like we did. I said that I doubted that they could carry their "bikes" over the missing section like we did. The only way the would get across it was if they jumped it like Evil Kenevil.

We continued slowly climbing and made it to entrance to High Point State Park. The monument was in sight so we continued on to the top. The last quarter mile to the monument is the toughest part. Its very steep with a couple of short section that are around 20% grade but with the monument so close you just suck it up and do it.

It was a little overcast when we got to the top but the view was still pretty good and we hung out for a while to rest our legs. We lost Cheryl for a little while and didn't know where she went until she returned from climbing the 6 flight of stairs to the top of the monument I guess she still had some energy left.

We relaxed by the monument and took some pictures to prove we made it then started to head back to our starting point. Since we were at the highest point in the state we had a lot of downhill ahead of us. We headed out of the park and down Rt 23 and went from 1800 ft to 600 ft in about 5 miles which was a lot of fun. We were then back in the valley and had a few more rollers(which felt tougher then normal because of all the climbing) to go over before we made back to Milford Bridge. The bridge has a pedestrian walkway that we used on the way back. It was a metal walkway that vibrated as we rode across and didn't feel real stable.

The original plan was to get a hotel in Milford but Lynne's sister, Mira, had a house in Milford and was nice enough to let us crash there. Mira and her husband Ron were really great hosts. Not only did they provide us a place to stay but also made us a dinner. We had a nice evening with good conversation and great food. It was a perfect end to a good day.

The plan for Sunday was to drive to Newton NJ and do a 50 mile less hilly ride but unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worst. On Friday when I checked the weather the forecast for Sunday was slight chance for afternoon showers so I did think it would be a problem to get the ride in. I could go on and on about how Accuweather isn't but the truth is weather is unpredictable.

Because we couldn't ride we just hung around a little longer and then headed home. We made a quick stop on the way out at Raymondsskills falls and took a quick hike to the falls and back since the rain had let up a little.

On the way home we hit some traffic caused by all the people leaving the Poconos we also hit some really heavy, wrath of god, rain in spots. Despite the traffic and rain we did OK on time on the way home. Even though we didn't get the Sunday ride in it was still a good trip and something I would like to do a little more often.

Pineland Cruise

I have been spending a lot of time in the hills this year and only been down to the Pinelands a couple of times. The first time was a few weeks ago during one of those 90+ degrees days so we only did a little over 50 miles and really didn't get to far into the Pinelands.

This past weekend we had some nice riding weather so we were able to do a longer ride(62 miles). We also started the ride from Columbus which is a little farther south and let us get down to the heart of the Pinelands. This let us make a rest stop at Nixon's General store. Its a nice stop with decent food and comfortable rocking chairs in front.

I'm heading to North Jersey to do some more hills this weekend but plan to head back to the Pinelands a couple more times this year. If your interested in heading down this way you can check out the Bordentown and Columbus rides on my Ride Sheet Page or join me on my next club ride.

It's Just a Flesh Wound

Riding is very safe sport if you keep your equipment in shape and follow some common sense. If you ride a lot however eventually you will make some mental mistake or come across something in the road that will cause you to take a fall. The result is usually a little road rash and a new story to tell.

This past Saturday I did an adhoc ride with Laura, Cheryl, Chris and Blake. This was a route that Blake came up with that gave me a chance to continue to break in the new Cannondale since it was going to be a hilly ride. The route started in the CVS in Lamberville and went up to Milford on the Jersey side then came back on the PA side. If you want the details of the route I have posted a ridesheet here

For once the weather was perfect, clear mild and no wind. From Lambertville we climbed up the familiar roads to the ridge then cruised along some roads that I hadn't been on before. It was just a perfect day for a ride and the route and the group made this a really enjoyable ride.

At Milford we crossed over to the PA side and had a rest stop at nice general store on Bridgeton Hill Rd. After the stop we headed up the toughest climb of the ride. It's a 400 ft climb that has grades in the ~10-12% range. I totally flub the down shift at the start of the climb. I tried to switch to the lowest front chain ring while trying to up shift on the rear cassette. I ended up in way too high a gear and came to a complete stop. After I got the bike back in to the correct gears for the climb I continued up the hill which was pretty tough. Still I am getting use to the gearing of the Cannondale and really starting to get a good feel on how it climbs.

The PA side of the Delaware has a lot more ups and downs than the Jersey side after a while on the ridge we had to come back to the river and then head back up to the ridge on Dark Hollow. Dark Hollow is a long shallow climb that never seems to end but I actually enjoyed it once I got into a rhythm.

We headed back down the ridge down by Stover Park. Blake warn us that this was a tough decent and to be careful. I kept is slow but probably not as slow as I should because I came around an inside of one of the corners and ran into a pile of gravel. I tried to wrestle the bike through the turn but I had too much momentum and the gravel was too deep. I went down in a semi controlled way and tried to keep the new bike from hitting too hard. It was a relatively slow fall and I slid for about 10 feet in the gravel sand mix. The fall really didn't jar me too much but I came down pretty hard on my elbow and hip and could feel the burn of some road rash.

I yelled back to the rest of the group about the gravel. Luckily Chris took the turn slower and wider than I did so he missed the gravel. The only thing worst than falling is having somebody else ride over you. Chis also yell back that I was down so everybody else missed me and the gravel.

I got up and dusted myself off. The slide had caused some gravel to slide up and into my shorts which didn't feel good. I had a deep gash on my elbow that was bleeding but not real bad and some road rash on my thigh and side of my knee. After every asked me if I was OK their next reaction was hey let's take some pictures of bloody Tom to post on the Internet. This makes be think that if I every have a more serious accident on the road, there would be a chalk outline of my dead and mangled body and bike on Internet before my wife got word :-)

I cleaned my self up as best I could. I had some bandaids but they won't stick though the sweat and blood on my arm. The road rash burnt a little but it really didn't stop me from continuing to enjoy the ride. The most important thing here was the bike was fine and only had a little tear in the handlebar tape as a result of the fall.

In another 5 miles we were in Carversville at another general store where I cleaned most of the sand and gravel out of my wounds. Cheryl was getting tired of climbing since she had taught a spinning class the night before so we took the easy way back to avoid the hills.

The hot shower after the ride got the rest of the dirt out of my wounds and felt great. The road rash is still ugly. It feels like a mild sunburn and will take a few weeks to heal. Despite the accident the bike and I are doing fine will be back in the road in a couple of days.

The New Bike

Anybody who really gets into riding usually owns more than one bike. I bought my first real bike over 18 years ago. It was a Miyata 7-21 It was a relatively low end bike but it was so much better than an the 10 speed Schwinn I had. It was the bike that allowed me to actually keep up with the people on the B rides and start to become a serious rider. On the Miyata I went through the usual progression of a new riding and slowly increased my mileage until I did my first century. I also learned how to ride with a group and improve my bike handling skills.

After 8 years on the Myata I was a serious rider and was looking for an upgrade. I was looking for something lighter with better components and after a lot of research I was lucky enough to run into Tom at Speedway in Hightstown. He showed me the Feather and after a test ride there was no doubt that is was going to be my new bike. The Feather is a very light titanium bike with Dura Ace components and handles like a sports car. I was amazed how much better it felt than my Miyata and with it I was able to increase my average by a couple of miles an hour.

The Feather became my everyday bike and the Miyata was used only occasionally on vacations or on the rare instances when the Feather was in the shop. 10 years ago when I started doing hillier rides I would take the Miyata out on the tougher hillier rides because it had a triple and allowed me get up the tougher hills without my heart rate hitting its max or blowing out my knees.

The last few years I have started doing more hilly rides as I explore the areas around Califon and Schooley's Mountain. There are a couple of tough climbs on these rides so my Miyata is getting used more. The bike is showing its age and needs some upgrades if I am going to keep putting miles on it. The wheels bearing are shot and need to be replaced. The brakes also need replacing and the index shifters no longer indexes. I thought about stripping the bike down to the frame and building it up again will all new components but the Miyata is a pretty old and although a decent frame it's really not worth rebuilding.

This started a search for a new bike. It is amazing how many different bikes there are to choose from. I thought that the fact that I had some pretty detailed requirements for the hill climber I wanted would help narrow the field but it really didn't. I spent over a month looking around the Internet and stopping into bike shops to look at bikes. I narrowed it down to the Specialized Robaix, Cannondale Six or Cannondale Synapse. I considered a couple of the Bianchi and Trek models but none of them seem to be exactly what I wanted.

A couple of weeks later I test drove all the bikes and finally decided the Cannondale Synapse was the bike for me. The Cannodale Six was almost as good but the Synapse seemed to fit me a little better and the model I wanted came standard with most of the components I wanted.

So a week later I had a new bike a Cannondale Synapse Carbon 5 courtesy of Hart's. The bike is an all carbon frame. I was never a big fan of carbon because 10 years ago when I bought the Feather carbon bikes were a lot heavier and tended to have structural problems after a few years of riding. Today however the technology of carbon frames have really advanced and they are as reliable as any bike frame. They also can really tune the frame to be stiff and comfortable all at the same time. They have also been able to make carbon bikes a lot more affordable.

The Synapse is the most comfortable bike I have ever rode and is amazingly compliant yet has great power transfer so its also very efficient. Cannondale has really done a great job designing this bike and has really advanced the state of art here which is why it has got a lot of good reviews.

The bike has Shimano 105 components which is a good compromise between performance and price. If this was my one and only bike I might have sprung for Ultegra or even thought about Dura Ace but since this is my hill climber which I will ride about 30 % of the time the 105 components should be just fine. As with bike frames components keep advancing and the major difference between the 105, Ultegra and Dura Ace is weight and the difference is not real important for a recreational rider like me.

I opted for a triple on the bike since this bike will see a lot of tough hills. I have heard all the arguments about a compact versus a triple and the trade offs between each. For me it wasn't that hard a decision. A triple gives me a bigger set of gears to get up the hills. Yes I do have more overlap than a compact and yes it weights a little more (1/3 pound) and makes shifting a little more complicated but the lower gearing will keep my heart rate down and my knees happy when I'm headed up a 15 or 20% grade. If I had gone with a compact it would have been fine for 90% of where I go but for some of the real tough climbs I would either be standing or walking which I don't want to do.

To make this a bike that could climb ANYTHING I even changed out the rear cassette from the standard 11-28 to the new SRAM 11-32. This may seem real extreme to some people but I'm not one of those super thin 140 pound zero % body fat racers so I need a the extra low gears on some of the tough hills I climb. As I have become more adventurous I have shed my fear of hills and will try any climb. This has lead me to some of the steeper parts of NJ. On my hillier rides I will now climb some hills in the 10-15% ranges and may even do a 20% grade every now and then. So although the gearing is extreme it allows me to spin up any hill no matter how steep without burning myself out.

So how does it ride. One word. GREAT!!!

I only have a couple hundred miles on the new bike but so far the it is exactly what I wanted. I'm still making a few minor adjustments to the bike but almost have it dialed in and I am starting to get comfortable on it. One of the nice things about the bike is how comfortable it is. It really soaks up all the little road bumps and makes for a very smooth ride. But one of the amazing things about the frame is that the cushy ride doesn't cause any lost in efficiency. When you apply power to the pedals it is completely transferred to the rear wheel. I can tell that the power transfer is very efficient because I am spending more time in the big gear on the front chain ring.

The efficiency makes the bike a great climber. This is especially noticeable on 3 to 5 % grades where I'm climbing a gear or two higher than I do in my Feather. It also has no problems on steeper grades but the difference isn't as noticeable. A couple of days after I got the bike I headed to one of Michael's hilly rides and as expected he went up a couple of steep grades including the top half of Federal Twist.

For those of you who haven't been up to the top half Federal Twist its a pretty nasty climb in the with parts as steep as 15 to 20%. It's a tough climb but with the triple and my extreme gearing I was able to spin up with the top of the pack. It still took a lot of energy to do the climb but I still had something left when I got to the top.

On the flats the bike also cruises pretty well. Laura pulled in front of me on the flats at the top of the ridge I asked her if she was actully pedaling at which point she gave me the finger. I then said "let's see what this thing and do" and shifted up a couple of gears and stood on the pedals and took off. The bike really accelerated quickly and I was able to maintain a good pace and leave Laura in the dust although she quickly caught up at the next light.

Going down some of the down hills I tested the handling . I didn't push it to the edge because I am still getting the feel of the bike and don't know where the limits are. One of the criticisms of carbon frames is that they sometimes feel like dead wood and don't allow the rider to get a good feel of the road. The cushy ride of the Synapse definitely deadens some of the road feel so it takes a little more work to carve the bike around turns at high speed but I suspect that this will get better as I become more familiar with the bike and become more tuned to is ride.

All and all I am very happy with the bike and know I made the right choice. I'm a little sorry to see my Miyata be retired after many great years and rides together but I suspect after a some more quality hours in the saddle of the Cannodale we will become good friends. My Feather is still my main bike and it's sports car like handling makes it a joy to ride. But when the roads get hilly and I want more of a luxury ride I will be more than happy to bring out the Cannondale.