Single Speed Tom

After five weeks of cold and crappy weather it was finally nice enough, (sort of). to ride on the road again. The road was still wet from rain when I got up to put the dog out but it was sunny and 40 so I made a last minute decision to go to Larry's ride.

There were five of us there including Laura and Ron. It has been a while since I have been on a group ride so it was nice to see everybody again. Larry took out towards Freehold. As we road we talked about some of the rides we were planning for the spring. The roads were still a little wet but we weren't really kicking up any spray so it wasn't too bad.

After a stop in the Battleground orchid head back up through Millstone on our way home. As I was coming down Perrineville road I up shifted and immediately knew something was wrong with my rear derailleur. A quick look back and I saw that I was stuck in my top gear. I coasted down the rest of the hill and stopped in a driveway.

It became clear pretty quickly that the cable snapped. With a little help I was able to wrap the cable around the water bottle cage and lock the derailleur in one of the middle gears. A piece of duct table from Laura helped make sure the cable won't be come undone. This is similar to what we did when Mike M broke his cable in Califon. Luckily I only have 5 miles to go and no real hills.

It was a little strange riding with out the being able to shift. I did reach for the shifter a few times out of habit but really did have a problem muscling the bike up the few small hill I encountered. Having only one gear did make me concentrate on pedaling a little more and helped me remember to pull through the upstroke when I needed some extra power getting up a hill.

After riding home on a single gear I have a better appreciation of people who ride single speeds and understand the attraction but I prefer shifting.

Pennypack in the Snow

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Since Punxsutawney Phil predicted an early spring it has gotten colder and we had our first major snow storm of the season. What do you expect from a stupid pampered rodent. Of course real weathermen aren't any better at long range forecasts. The cold weather has limited my riding to the mountain bike. I've been to Mercer and the Canal trail but with the 6 inches of snow we got made most trails too deep to ride.

Back when I was researching the Philly book I discovered that the city actually plows some of their bike commuter trails including the trail along Pennypack Creek. Pennypack Creek and surrounding park is a nice place to ride so I decided to check it out so see how it looked in the snow.

It turned out to be a cool place for a winter ride. The main trail is paved but on Sunday it was still covered by some packed down snow. Pennypack is a popular place for people to walk, run and ride so any snow is quickly packed down even before it gets plowed.

I started at the north end of the park which is in north east Philly and only about 40 mins from my house. Although the trail was snow covered traction wasn't too bad. The only thing I forgot about the trail is that the first part has a few steep little hills. Going up them wasn't the problem is was coming down because breaking on snow is tricky. After the first few hills I got the hang of it though.

The main reason I came to Pennypack was the scenery. It was a pretty place in the summer and was even nicer looking with the snow. I stopped and took a number of pictures although they really don't capture the real view.

After the first 3 miles I got to a part of the trail that had been fully plowed and was mostly clear of snow. Except for a few spots the rest of the 7.5 mile trail was clear. I spent a little less then 2 hours going out and back on the trail and am glad I decided to get out for a ride.