Evil Spirits

Before my next ride I plan to perform a blessing of the bikes ceremony. I'm not superstitious but after two major mechanical failures on rides I lead, this month, I want to do everything I can to get rid of the evil spirits.  

Today I lead a ride out of Frenchtown to Washington Township NJ. There are actually five townships named Washington in NJ. The one I went to was the one in Warren county. This was instead of going to Bloomsbury which no longer has a good rest stop. This gave me a chance to explore new roads.We did this route.

After doing flatter rides the last couple of weeks I wanted to do something hilly. Like my last group ride I only had a couple other people join me Laura, and Blake. For once there was no chance of rain and the temperature was warm enough to not have to think about needing a jacket or tights. In fact it felt more like a hot August morning than a late spring weekend.

As we headed up hill from Frenchtown we felt the fact that we weren't acclimated to hot weather yet. Although we had climbed up from the Frenchtown and across Rt 78 to Spruce run we really hadn't had any steep climbs yet until we went up Henderson Hill. It was a short climb but at just over 10% it hurt a little. Once at the top we road along some easier rolling hills on some new roads that were nice enough to explore again.

By the Musconetcong river there was a steep downhill. I was the first one down followed by Blake who took it slower. Then we waited for Laura who had stopped because she thought she had a flat. When she came down the hill she was walking next to the bike. She didn't have a flat but had somehow realized that the tire was coming off the rim. I suspect that hard breaking on a hot rim caused the tire to slip or flex enough to unseat the bead. When she took her front tire off it was easy to see the bulge where the tire was not seated correctly. Luckily the tube had not popped out the side.

We deflated the tire which reset it on the rim then pumped back up and continued on. A few miles later Laura was dragging behind and then stopped because the front tire had gone flat. I guess the tube got pinched when the tire got unseated. A quick change later we were on our way the rest stop.

I had decided to go to Washington township because it had a Duncan Donuts and a Deli/Bagel shop. We stopped at the Bagel shop to see if this could be good stop or not. However a block before we got to Bagel shop Blake stopped because he dropped a chain. Even after he put the chain back on the front derailleur was making a lot of noise. When we got to the Bagel shop we took a closer look at the the front derailleur which was behind the big ring and not at the correct angle. We tried to adjust it but could not get it aligned enough to get it to work. That meant we had to leave Blake at the Bagel shop and come back for him. There was a bike shop directly across the street but is was closed. Not closed for the weekend but out of business closed.

After getting something to eat and drink at the Bagel shop (which was average at best so we probably won't come back here) Laura and I set off back to Frenchtown. The way I design the ride was that most of the climbing was before the stop. The only real climb was getting out of Bloomsbury on Tunnel Rd. This is a two mile climb of about 600 feet. It a constant grade so although it is long its just a matter of finding a gear and grinding away. I was really feeling the heat at this point as it was over 90 degrees.

At the top of the hill we meet people from Michael H's ride and gave Blake a call. He was able to get in touch with his wife which meant that we didn't have to go back to get him.

The best part of climbing Tunnel Rd is that you have a three mile down hill on Sweet Hollow. Then mostly more downhill to get back to Milford before a straight run to Frenchtown. We got back to Frenchtown around 1:40 pm and spent some time talking to Michael and a few others before heading home.

I don't like rides when we all the people and bikes I start with don't come back in good shape. Luckily this time is was just a mechanical failure with no injuries. Logically I know these failures are caused by random chance but it still feels like I have some bad mojo going on.

Mansfield Metric

For the third week in a row I was on a ride where we were riding the opposite way of a large group ride. This week it was the Urban Promise Ride out of Tabernacle. We had started in Mansfield and were riding to Nixon's Deli and back on a metric ride in the pinelands.

For once it was a sunny date and warm in the low 70s. I expected a good turn out but the only people to show up were Joe and Jim. We did this route which is one of my better routes from the Road Biking NJ book.

For about 70% of the ride we were on the same roads as the Urban Promise Ride so we saw a constant stream of riders. The ride was one of the best marked ride I have ever seen. Not only was there arrows on the roads but signs in the grass announcing busy intersections and rough spots in the road. They also painted the large cracks and pot holes to make them easier to see.

This ride was different than my last ride in the pinelands. There were no bridges out, no riding on dirt and no bike problems of any kind. The only thing of note was the level of pollen. At the second rest stop we all noticed coating of yellow pollen on our body, bike and cloths.

All in all it was a good day on the bike.

Here Comes the Sun

The last 8 days have been bleak and blurry because of the lack of sunshine. It has been a very cold spring where it has been near or close to raining almost every day. I had to move/cancel 2 of my first 3 rides.

Today however we had glorious warm sunshine and I was off from work. I took today off in hopes of seeing the transit of Mercury. This is when Mercury goes across the sun when viewed from earth. This happens about once every 12 years although the time between transits varies a lot. You can see more details on Mercury transits here. Having a transit in May is rare and this particular transit was a very long one over 7 hours so there were a lot of opportunities to see it. It started at 7:12 am so I had to go out to a field to see it since the trees by my house block the sun until around 9am. I ended up on Herbert Road and with clear skies I was able to see the moment Mercury touched the edge of the sun which is the coolest part. When Mercury crosses into the sun it produces a teardrop affect which I saw clearly. I also got a picture of it although it is very bury because I don't have the equipment to get a clear picture at that magnification, trust me it was a lot clearer in though the eyepiece.

 Here is what is looked like in a good telescope in an observatory in the UK.

I am casually into astronomy so I don't have a lot invested. I bought a small telescope about 15 years ago and it allows me to see some of the easy things in the day and night sky.

I stayed at Herbert Rd for about an hour taking pictures. I took pictures with my IPod Touch using a special holder that I built that allows me to align it and attach it to the eyepiece of the telescope. This worked really well.

I was back home by 9 am and set up the telescope in the backyard to watch the rest of the transit. I went out every half hour to take a few pictures. You can see my full set of pictures here.

My clearest picture was near mid transit which is the one at the top.Unfortunately the clouds returned around noon so I wasn't able to see the end of the transit but it was nice to to be able to see most if it.  

Here is the last picture I got around 12:30 pm. You can see Mercury at the bottom right half of the sun. Its about 3/4 of the way across. The black spot in the middle is a sunspot.

 

Here is a close up clearly showing Mercury. Its easy to tell it apart from sunspots since it is perfectly round. 

For people who don't care about astronomy staring at a dot on the sun may not sound interesting but it was a fun day for me.  

Speed Wobble Addendum

Found another good article on "Speed Wobble" on Dave Moulton's Blog. I figured I would post it since there has been a lot of interest because of Jack's crash. This one goes a little more into the physics of the phenomenon.  Here is the link

Jack Fall Down and Go Boom

As an alternative to the Spring Fling group rides I decided to start getting my hill legs back with a ride along the Delaware. I got Laura, Ed, and Jack to join me at Bulls Island at 9am and we headed off across the river to the Pennsylvania. Fleecy Dale Rd which has been closed for a couple of years is almost open. There is just a small section of dirt you need to ride through that hopefully will be finished soon. It was cloudy and cool in the mid 50s but after the climb up Wismer we were all warmed up.

I ended up doing this route which is from my Best Bike Ride Philadelphia book. Its the covered bridges ride that goes through 3 covered bridges and has about 3000 feet of climbing. Except for the hill on Wismer nothing is very steep but there isn't a lot of flat spots so it is a good way to ease into building up some hill muscles.

With any hill ride I try to included and even end on a nice down hill and today we ended by going down Federal Twist. It is a steep and straight downhill where you can really let it go if you have the nerve. I have hit 50 mph on my Feather and I know a few people who have gone even faster.

Jack and Ed were ahead of me and quickly sprinted ahead even though I didn't touch the brakes. Ed loves downhills and now that he has disc brakes he is even more fearless. I lost sigh of both of them as I was concentrating on holding it together as I pasted 30 mph then 40 mph. My GPS says I maxed out at just over 45 mph which is good for the Synapse as it doesn't feel stable over 30 mph.

I meet Ed at the bottom and Laura was about a minute behind me. We figured Jack had gone ahead since Bulls Island was just a half mile up the road. When Jack wasn't at the parking lot we figured he stopped at the bathroom. As we got ready to leave a biker came by and told Laura that some one named Jack on a Trek on Federal Twist was asking for her to come help him. We though he was wrong since we knew Jack was ahead of all of us and didn't see him on our way down but after a few minutes we assumed that Jack must have gone off the road and we all missed him somehow.

I drove up to see and found a police car 3/4 of the way up the hill talking to Jack. He was standing next to his bike talking to the officer. At least he was awake and alive. Besides a scrape on his ankle and a broke left handle bar (on the bike) he looked OK. It turned out his bike starting shimming on the way down the hill and he lost control and crashed into the rocky ditch on the side of the road. He had pain in his back and left shoulder and a cracked helmet.

I brought him and the bike back to the parking lot where Ed and Laura were waiting. Jack was sore but in good enough shape to drive himself home. We all felt bad that we past him lying in a ditch and didn't notice him or stop to help.

Biking is very safe if you practice some common sense and keep your equipment in shape so  it is scary to think that a bike can go into a sudden uncontrolled wobble that runes an otherwise good ride. I did some searching and found that this is a real problem called "Speed Wobble". There are a couple of links here and here that explain it in some detail and give a few ideas on what to do in case it happens to you.

Jack sent us an email later Saturday that said he had been to the emergency room to get checked out. He definitely hurt a few body parts but is optimistic that he will be back riding next week which is good news after such a bad crash.