The Frozen Bastard Ride

I didn't really expect a crowd since it was cold with possible snow flurries but they all showed up anyway. I had sent out an email late Friday to the usually suspects after trading some emails with Laura and Jim earlier in the week. I had to ride Saturday since I was busy on Sunday and I had decided to do the Lawrence Hopewell trail. I knew Laura would be coming since she was desperate for a ride after spending a couple weeks in England off the bike.

By Saturday morning I got replies from almost everybody and when I got to the starting point Dave, Joe, and Jim were already there. A few minutes later the other Jeff L surprised us by riding up followed by Laura who also road in about 5 minutes later.

With everybody showing up it felt like one of our normal summer rides expect for the fact that it was 31 degrees, we were all on mountain or cross bikes and we were riding through the woods on gravel instead of the roads.

The Lawrence Hopewell trail is well laid out trail and a good way to get some miles in the cold. Its a series of connected paved paths, gravel paths and roads that take you through Lawrence and Hopewell. You can see the trail map HERE.

We did a 20 mile loop starting at Princeton Pike just south of Province Line and then headed through Lawrenceville up to Rosedale Lake and Pennington before circling back through ETS. It was cold and didn't get much above freezing for the entire ride but once we got moving I was mostly warm.

Most of the trail is well maintained and it goes through a lot of the locale parks so it is somewhat scenic. The only issue is that the trail is a little mushy in areas and because of the recent snow and cold weather there was some ice we had to deal with.

Despite the cold and ice it was nice to have a ride with most of the regulars and hear them bitching and moaning about me about getting lost which I kinda did when we road around the roundabout at the hotel in ETS. I eventually got back on the trail and we made it back to the start where Laura distributed some chocolate from her trip. I don't plan to have any rides in the book for the winter but hopefully we can do some of these adhoc rides and get together as the weather permits.

Lug Nuts

The bicycle as we know it has been around for over 100 years and there are many interesting stories on how innovations occurred along the way. This Sunday I attended the Philly Bike Expo mostly to attend a seminar by Gary Helfrich on the history and theory of titanium frame building. For those of you not familiar with Gary he was one of the founders of Merlin Metalworks, the first company to build titanium frames. As a proud owner of a titanium bike(a Feather not a Merlin) I wanted to learn more about the history of the titanium bike.

I didn't know much about Gary before the seminar but it turns out he is a crazy mad scientist and a very entertaining speaker. He had a lot of great stories not only from his 10 years as a roadie for Aerosmith but from the insanity that ensues when starting a new business while trying to do something  that other more knowledgeable people had tried and failed. Although Gary did a lot of drinking and drugging along the way his passion for bike building and titanium made him the leading expert in both disciplines.  For a glimpse of his genius and crazyness you should check out this link. as it will give you a general idea of his story.

I really enjoyed both his talks. We also got to see the Bike Snob who I think is even more funny in person than on his blog. All this was besides the actual show itself which is a exposition of cool custom bikes along with many cool bike accessories and cloths. I have included a few pictures below but you can see more pictures on Jim's post.

The main difference between this years show and the one I attended a few years ago was that I saw a lot less lug construction and a lot more welds. I know some people have an almost pornographic attraction to lugs but I think welds can be as attractive if they are done right. And after understanding how difficult it is to do a titanium weld properly I have an even better appreciation of how good they look.

I was lucky enough to have Jim along with me as he is a titanium bike geek and didn't mind getting up for an early ride. We ended up getting to Philly at 7am and doing an hour an a half ride around the city and through the Wisahickon before riding to the show. On the way back we found some public art that you see below. All in all it was good day for a couple of bike geeks.

Missing Friends

I have met a lot of people while biking who I would call friends. I don't see them much out outside of riding with them because we all have our separate lives but when you ride with someone 4 or 5 hours week after week you get to know them pretty well. The social aspect of biking can be as beneficial as the physical part. I enjoy the people I bike with because they don't take life too seriously and when we ride together it is more about having fun than sitting in a paceline and averaging a certain speed.

That is why I look forward to the weekends when we usually get together. I usually ride on Saturday but this Saturday was a rain out so I headed to Cranbury on Sunday to ride with Winter Larry. I figured it would be a good ride because I had not seen Larry in a while and I knew a few other of my friends would be there. I was wrong of course.

The weather wasn't the best. It was in the mid 40s and the wind was blowing 20+ with gusts in the 30s but it was rideable. I suspected Larry might bail as he tends to do this when the weather is at the edge of riding. I'm not calling him a wimp but this is not the first time I showed up for a Larry ride and he wasn't there and it won't be the last.

There were 4 other people there waiting for Larry. Marc, Barry and a couple of other people I didn't really know. Since they were looking for a ride leader and I was looking for some bodies to block the wind I lead them on a loop up through Dayton, Helmetta and back through Jamesburg. It was about a 30 mile loop. There were a few spots where we almost came to a stand still because of the gusts of wind but it was manageable (I averaged 15mph). Since I rode into the ride I ended up with 43 not bad for a crappy November day.

Although I knew there would be a chance Larry would not be there today. I did expect Laura or Jim or Ed or a few of the other regulars as they rarely miss a change for a ride. No matter I will catch up with them on the next ride. And can talk about last weeks Columbia trail ride where I convinced them to head up one of the steepest hills we've ever been down. Laura looks like she is about to fall over. And I thought she looked slow going downhill!

And the stupid picture we took where they put the wall in front of the trail. It more slowed us down then stopped us. 

Of course this week we got the news that our friend George passed away. He was a great person and always livened up the ride. He was proof that riding can keep you young at heart. He was part of our riding family and he will be missed.