No Paces Ride

Last weekend was Memorial Day which is usually the time of the first all paces ride of the year. There was no ride this year, of course, because of the pandemic. I'm not sure there will be one in July or Sept either. However because of the holiday weekend and a day off work I did get a lot of riding in.

This riding season is going to be a lot different this year than other years. Although I have been doing some rides with a few of the insane bike posse most of the rides I have been doing have been solo rides this year.

Even in this new normal I'm starting to get into a rhythm and taking advantage the current situation. I was off the Wednesday before Memorial Day and decided to explore Veterans Park in Hamilton. It was sort of a spur of the moment thing as I saw on Facebook a picture of a Cobra helicopter in a park somewhere. After a little research I saw that the picture was taken from Veterans Park in the middle of Hamilton. Normally I won't ride in this area as Rt 33 and Kuser road have more traffic than I like to ride on. However traffic is lower these days and I found a circuitous route that kept me off most of the main roads.

Veterans Park is a lot bigger than I realized and has 3 interesting military displays. The first is at the entrance is where there is a F4 Phantom.

 

There area also a tank and Cobra helicopter at the east parking lot. 

Besides these displays there is also a lake and some paved and dirt paths around the park. I spent a couple of miles on the paved path and mistakenly got on to a dirt one which I managed to make may way though on a road bike. This might be a good place to check out in the winter on the mountain bike.

On Memorial Day weekend I ended up riding two days in a row as Saturday was a rain out. On Sunday I did a solo ride to Segantville from Rocky Hill and met Laura and some of the slugs there. This was a hilly ride so I rode my Synapse. The ride ended up being 46 miles and about 2500 feet of climbing so I was pretty tired by the end.

On Monday I led a group from Etra to the Manasquan Reservoir. It was a bit of a cloudy day but when we got to the reservoir it was packed and the parking lot was full and there were a lot of people on the paths and a lot of boats in the water. We spent a few minutes at the reservoir before heading back.

This weekend I led a ride from MCP to the south of New Egypt to see some long horn cows. When I went to pump up my tires before the ride I saw that my rear tire on my Feather was flat. I had done a short ride on Thursday night and didn't notice any problem with the tire. I was planning on changing it soon as it was a little worn. When I checked the tire for any problems it was easy to understand why the tire went flat.

The tire actually ripped so the reason for the flat was clear. The tire had a complete failure. Some of the belts must have been damaged and some time between Thursday night and Saturday morning the tire ripped. I'm glad this didn't happen on the road.

When I got to MCP there were about 20 other bikers there doing some other ride. We left right after them and had a good flat ride and found the long horns.

I ended up with almost 60 miles which is about as far as I can go with the supplies I can carry. Although most Wawas and coffee shops are open carrying all my food and water with me has been working well so I don't think I will inside one anytime soon.

 

Riding Apart

Two months in to the pandemic and things are getting a little better. The parks have re-opened and the beaches will be opening next weekend for memorial day. There are still social distancing restrictions in place for people in these public areas but it is an attempt to give people a little more freedom.

I have taken advantage of the new freedom to actually drive to a park to do a ride instead of riding out of my house. Last week I drove over the Rocky Hill and parked across from the quarry. The parking lot was open but they had the back half of it blocked off I guess to reduce the number of people who could park here.

As we have been doing in some of the past weeks I let everybody know my plans in case they wanted to meet up for a few minutes to catch up. Ricky, Jack and Laura joined me for the ride out from Rocky Hill to the base of the Sourlands where we found Bob. Pete was suppose to be there too but didn't time it correctly.

A few of the gang followed me along most of the route, although at a distance. We all kept some where between 20 and to a couple hundred feet apart for the ride occasionally stopping for a break. The main advantage to this is that if one of us breaks down or has some accident or problem there is some one nearby to help.

It felt good to do some hills as I haven't been able to get to the Sourlands this year. I'm still not in as good as hill shape as I'm normally am this year but now that I can start rides from other locations I should be able to get to my normal fitness in another month.

This Saturday the weather was almost summer like so I planned a ride down to the Pinelands. This time I got most of the Insane bike posse to join me. We actually spread out into two different groups about 5 mins apart from each other.

Riding with other people 50 to 100 feet behind me feels more like and event ride that I'm riding by myself. Its still a very solitary experience but it is probably the only way to safely do a ride together until there is a vaccine.

I know the club is still not allowing club rides but are talking with other clubs about if and when to start them again and if they do how to do them safely. I will be interested to see any guidelines they come up with. Until then we will probably still be riding apart from each other even it we ride the same route. 

Gearing Up

At the beginning of the riding season I always look for a few things that will make my riding experience a little better. Sometimes I'm looking for a better pair of gloves or a jersey with big pockets. But before I explain a couple pieces of gear that I found this year let me explain the picture at the top of the post.

This is a picture of a statue of Thomas Paine in Bordentown by the river. He actually lived in Bordentown in the latter years of his life. I guess it is appropriate for a man who wrote the famous pamphlet "Common Sense" to be wearing a mask. A few of us passed by this statue on Saturday after meeting up at the Peter Muschal school. It was a little winding but warm day and a good day for ride.

Back to the new gear. I have had a little bento box, for the past few year, on the top tube of my bike that I use to store my camera and phone for quick access. The one I have but was a little small and moved around a bit. When I got a new phone which was a little larger it was hard to fit in the box. So I looked for a new one and found one a little bigger.

This one has a lot more room and is a lot stiffer than the old one. I can easily fit my phone and camera and even fit a few bars in there. I was a little concerned that it would be too big and I would be banging my knees on it but because the bag is so stiff and doesn't move at all that isn't a problem.

This bag is a the ROCKBROS bike frame bag. It opens with a zipper in the middle so its a little harder to open than the old bag but it is also more water proof. They have two sizes large and medium and I got the large although the medium would have probably been big enough I'm glad I have the extra room since I am bring more on the rides these days.

The second piece of gear I just got was some new lights for the bike.

I never had a headlight but since I'm doing more solo rides I thought it would be a good idea to have a flashing light on the front of the bike. This set came from amazon and is a small usb rechargeable light. They have 6 different light modes and seem pretty bright. The rubber mounting bands make them easy to put anywhere on the bike. The headlight isn't for night time use but should help me be more visible in low light conditions.

The last product I wanted to mention Cold Shrink Tape. Its like a combination of electrical tape and shrink tubing. I got it because I had some frayed wire on a power cord I needed to fix. I tried using electrical tape but the diameter of the wire was wider by the plug so I could never get the tape to wrap correctly and it would start to unwind after about a month. This cold shrink tape a is silicon tape that stretches and bonds to itself. It was a lot easier to apply. You actually stretch it so it better conforms to what you're covering. It is not sticky but just bonds to itself and feels really durable so I think it should last. I'm thinking it will be perfect for wrapping the end of bar tape. It should be more durable than electrical tape and because its not sticky won't leave any residue. 

 It amazes me how much equipment and accessories for bikes change over time so I will continue to keep looking for stuff to make riding easier and safer.