The Social Aspect of Biking

 

I started riding bikes as a way to keep fit but as I starting doing rides with bike shops and clubs I built some relationships with the people I ride with. I have known some people I ride with for more than 20 years. For the most part I have a small group of friends that I normally ride with called the Insane bike posse because they come on my rides and mostly complain about them but keep coming on them anyway. They are an odd bunch but we get along and more or less ride at the same pace. As the years have gone on a couple of people have come into my small group and few people have left although the core has stayed constant.

The move I made last year put me about 15 miles east of where I use to live and has caused me to find new routes to ride for my solo after work rides. There is still good riding outside my door. I don't have as much variety as there are not as many hilly road near by. However there are some very nice flat and quiet roads so it's easy to put together 15-25 mile rides that keeps me in shape for the weekend rides. 

It now does take me about 15-20 mins longer to get to some of the starting points for some of the rides I normally do. I am only a few minutes from 195 so I have not minded the extra time although I have changed some the rides I lead to a closer starting point. This still let's me hang out with the same people I normally ride with so my riding schedule hasn't really changed that much. 

There are times however when I need to stay close to home on a weekend because of some home project or family thing. Because of that I actually started looking at a couple of other bike clubs that are closer to where I live. Some may call this cheating on my current club but I have always occasionally ridden with other clubs. The closest club to me is the Jersey Shore Touring Society and as I found out a little over a month ago they have ice cream rides where the club pays for ice cream for everybody at a rest stop (in the ride I did it was at Four Brothers in Englishtown). I actually didn't plan on riding with the club on the day I stopped by their starting point but when I heard about the free ice cream I just had to go. 

The Jersey Shore Touring Society is a smaller club and doesn't have as many rides as PFW but it's a good group of people. I enjoyed riding with them and will do so again if I want something a little closer to home and don't want to ride by myself. The good thing about bike riding with a club is once you've done it with one club you know what to expect and how to act in a group so it is easy to fit in to a new group even if you never have ridden with them before. This club also has a lot of mountain bike rides in the winter so I definitely will go to some of those rides to learn some of the trails and parks that are near me that I haven't explored yet.

Last weekend I rode an event put on by the Suburban Cyclist out Doylestown. It started out of the Shine of our Lady of Czestochowa. I haddn't done an event like this in a while but it was fun even though I knew most of the roads I like the route and found a new way through Doylestown. They also had good food and good ice cream at the end. And as always it is fun to meet some other bikers and share stories with them. I may do a few more of these events now as things are returning a little more towards normal. 

So even though I will keep riding with my normal group is has been fun to also expand the possible rides I can do and meet a few new people because for me riding is as much a social interaction as it is a physical workout.

 

The Shrine of Our Lad

Cooling Down a Bit

It's been a hectic couple of weeks for me as my Baja decided to shoot a spark plug out of it's cylinder head. When it happen I thought I might need a new engine or car but it was not as bad as initially thought. They did have to lift the engine out and re-thread the cylinder head, which was not exactly cheap, but the Baja still lives and should have many more good years in it. 

We also had some construction at the house where we had a sliding door and some windows replaced which had me doing some spackling and painting. This along with some long days at work has not given me much free time. I have been biking but mostly from my house by myself as I didn't have the Baja to get me to a ride.

That why is was nice this week to connect with the posse again. Laura had her ride to Belmar where people get to choose the distance they want to ride. From 100 miles from her house to 68 miles from Etra. I chose none of the above as her first rest stop for the ride is about 7 miles from my house. So I rode in and met them there and followed them to Belmar and about half way back until I broke off for home and ended up with a respectable 53 mile ride. 

It helped that the heat wave we have had for the past couple of weeks broke and we had a day in the upper 70s with low humidity and not much wind. It was a perfect day for being outside and at the stop in Belmar it was as crowded as you would expect on a perfect beach day.

I'm always a little concerned riding into and out of Belmar on a Saturday as the streets are crowed with cars and people but even though we were a big group of 12 we didn't have a problem navigating the congestion. 

It was a good day for a ride and as we are moving toward the end of August the weather should be cooling off a little. Also with my house projects over and the Baja back in service I should have more time to do some more fun and interesting rides.

Summer Heat

We are in the dog days of summer now. That means riding in hot weather. Last weekend the temperature was close to 100 degrees so had to get out early for a short ride in order to beat the heat.

This week was a little cooler so I lead a 60 mile ride from Mansfield. I had a good turnout and we maintained a fast pace. We were over 17 mph at the rest stop. The route is pretty flat with a lot of long stretches with no turns which makes it easy to crank out quick miles. Heading back from the rest stop we had a slight headwind that slowed us a little be we mostly stayed together as it got a little hotter. 

Most of the roads are relatively smooth except for Eayrestown road which was didn't have a lot of pot holes but was just rough with a lot of cracks and patches. It will be off my list of ridable roads until it gets paved. 

The fast pace caught up to me about 3 miles from the end as I cramped up. It took me a couple of minutes to stretch it out and be able to ride again but I made it back with out any more cramps. As I have gotten older I cramp up more than I use to need to watch my miles and pace. I also have to continue to experiment with Gatoraid and Gu and other supplements to see if I can reduce the amount of cramps I get. 

Still even with the cramps I came in at 16.7 which was one of the faster ride I did on this route so am riding strong and definitely feel better this year than last. I just would like the weather to cool off a little bit. 

Still the summer does provide some good sunrises.

 

 

 

I ended up stay down the shore one night and got up to see the sunrise. It was a clear morning so ended up getting a couple of nice pictures of the sunrise which was a nice deep red.

 

We probably have a few more weeks of hot summer rides so will try to stay in the shade and keep cool until the the summer heat waves end.