Thank You Mount Holly Bicycles

Every bicycle ride is an adventure and some more so than others. This past Saturday I headed to the pinelands with Herb and Mike M for a long but flat ride. I have been doing a lot of hills lately and wanted to do something flat to work on endurance.

For the most part I do my own maintenance on my bike and try to detect problems before they occur. During my normal quick check of my bike before loading it in the car I saw that the sidewall of my front tire had a small bubble in it. It might have been fine for the 60 mile ride that I had planned but I grabbed my spare tire and threw it in the car. When I got to Bordentown where the ride started I quickly changed the tire and we all went on our way.

Everything was going great until about 15 miles into the ride. I went to start pedaling after stopping for a light and the TOP of my speedplay pedal fell on the ground. Speedplay pedals are the ones that look like lollipops The bottom of the pedal was no where to be found and neither were the two screws that held it together. About a half mile before the light I remember hearing something bounce off my bike. I thought it was just a rock but it must have been the bottom of the pedal.

Mike and I go back and find the bottom half, the metal plate the cleat clicks into and 1 screw. We can't put the pedal back together because we are missing the other metal plate for the top of the pedal and the other screw. Although I have lost a pedal I still have a spindle so I can ride but not real fast and I don't want to ride that way for too long.

At this point we have two choices. We can find a way to fix the pedal or we head slowly back to the start. Mike pulls out his Blackberry, hits the web and looks for a bike shop (Sometimes it pays to have a smart phone). He finds one about 4 miles away. So we head out pass Smithville then ride along Rt 38 to Mount Holly Bicycles.

When I walk in the door the shop owner ask what I need and I point to the pedal. He doesn't have any speedplay pedals or replacement parts but goes in the back to grab a few screws to see if he can jury rig something. I'm figuring worst case I have to buy a pair of SPDs. As I'm walking around the shop a metal plate pops off my shoe. It was the missing plate from my pedal and was stuck in my cleat. With the times I was off walking around looking for the other pieces of the pedal I'm amazed that it managed to stay there until I in the bike shop.

It was a lucky break because now with both pieces of the pedal, both metal plates, and one screw Steve at the bike shop was able to put the pedal back together. He found another screw that fit but was long and stuck out of the pedal on one side but this was OK. Now at least I had a working pedal with the only problem being I could only use one side of it. No big deal.

The guys at the bike shop were really nice and friendly, they didn't even want anything for the repair so all I could do was to thank them and head out back to the ride. The rest of the ride was uneventful. We had a good stop at Nixon's down in Tabernacle and then made our way back to Bordentown.

The incident reminds me that bike shops aren't like a lot of other business. Yes bike shop owners want to run a successful business and make money but most of them love biking and are very knowledgeable and helpful. That's why it is always a good idea to get to know your local bike shop and if you are in the Mount Holly area may I recommend Mount Holly Bicycles.

One other thing I would like to point out is that being able to use Mike's Blackberry to find a bike shop was a great thing and saved the day but what if you don't have a web enabled phone or are not in an area where you can get a web connection. Well the answer is GOOG-411. It's a service that allows you to call an 800 number and do a google search. All you have to do is call 1-800-466-4411 or 1-877-466-4411 and then you will be asked for the city, state and type of business. After that you will get a listing of the closest businesses of the type you want and be able to connect to them or have a text message sent to your phone with their address and phone number. The service is free and is a good number to have in your phone in case you loose a pedal and need to find the nearest bike shop.

Hill Training

For the past couple of weekends I have been working on hills and improving my climbing. Last weekend I did my Lambertville Cruise which has a couple of moderate climbs up the Sourlands. This weekend I headed to Frenchtown to do Michael's ride to Bloomsbury. When you head to Bloomsbury you have to expect at least one tough climb on the way in or out.

Michael took it easy on us and headed up the Delaware and took the easy way into Bloomsbury. There were a few climbs on the way there but nothing major. On the way out of Bloomsbury we had the big climb up Turkey Hill. This is a 500 foot climb over a couple of miles. There are no really steep parts but it is one of those hills that just doesn't want to end. At the top of the hill I actually felt pretty good so I guess the hills and intervals that I have been doing are paying off. I still want to improve a little for some of the rides I want to do in July but I am close to being in good hills shape.

The best part of climbing out of Bloomsbury is the down hill afterwards. After Turkey Hill we head down Sweet Hollow which is one of the best downhills in NJ. It is a 3 mile downhill that follows a winding stream through a rural forest. At the bottom of Sweet Hollow we headed back up the ridge above Frenchtown.

We were a little short of the planned 50 miles so Michael decided a to add another climb to the ride. We ended up going up Hickory Corner Rd which I hadn't been on before. It was 340 ft shallow climb that we grinded our way up. From there we made a couple right turns and headed back down hill on Woolf Rd. This was another road that I hadn't been on before but it will definitely be one that I will do again. It is a screamer downhill that lasts for a while and made the climb up Hickory Corner worth it.

About halfway the way down the hill a kamikaze squirrel ran under Laura's bike. It went under her back wheel but luckily she only ran over its tail so it was able scamper away into the woods.

By the time we got back to Frenchtown we only had 43 miles and although it was a hilly ride it was actually easier than the usually ride lead by Michael. Its was a nice route. I have posted the ridesheet here if you want to check it out. This was a nice way to continue to build up my climbing ability.

Southern Sojourn

Riding in southern Jersey is different than riding any where else in the state. Its very rural, flat and a little strange. There are a lot of empty roads with almost no traffic. I try to get down south a couple times a year just to explore a little and revisit some of the nicer roads I have found. This past Saturday I decided to do my Fort Mott ride again. This ride starts just north of the Delaware Memorial Bridge so it's easy to get to. I had done this ride a couple of years ago and wanted to come back and explore the area again.

There is really nothing special about this area. It is mostly composed of a lot of farmland an rural roads as well as some wet lands in and around the Delaware. There aren't a lot of towns in this area and the ones that are, like Salem are a little old and run down. Still it is a nice place to ride especially if you like flat roads with no traffic.

From our starting point at Fort Mott State Park it took us about 7 miles to get through the town of Salem and out to the farmlands. Along the way Mary picked up a hugh spike that went through her tire and stuck into her rim tap. Needless to say the tire when flat instantly. At least it was easy to find out where the hole was. A quick tube change and we were on our way again.

Once we got into the farmlands there was a lot of nothing but it was a good nothing. No cars no hills just quiet roads and easy cruising. We had a little bit of a head wind but this was a good sign for the return trip. Last time I rode down this way there was a house that had hundreds of polka dot pots strewn on the lawn. It was one of those strange things you see down here. This time most of the polka dots pots were gone. The weather was a little overcast so I didn't take a lot of pictures if you want to see the pictures from my last trips down here you can see them here and here

Our first rest stop was in the town of Alloway at Bud's deli. It's an old deli but is has all the usually stuff and a nice table to sit at. There aren't many places to stop down south so you don't have a lot of choices.

After Alloway we continued south and ran into some rolling hills. Normally I won't have notice the hills but the flatness of the first part of the ride make them seem steeper then they really were.

We made it down to the town of Roadster (yea, I never heard of it either). This was new territory for me and although I new exactly where I was on my map it felt like the middle of no where or actually we where 10 miles south of no where in to the territory of "where the heck are we"

Once we started heading back we had a really nice tail wind which felt good. The deli/bait & tackle/liquor store that I wanted to stop for the second rest stop was abandon so we just continued on. Luckily about 7 miles later we found a post office/deli to stop at. It was a real post office on the left side with a small deli on the right. When I say small I mean the entire deli was about 10 square feet. You take one step through the door and you hit the counter to your left is a cold case with drinks. On the counter is a box of doughnuts and to the right is a small two person table. That's it. But is was a perfect unexpected stop and after a quick break we were one our way again.

We had a tail wind all the way back which made the return trip back easy. All in all it was a good ride and something I will do again in the future. Maybe in the fall when all the farms are full of crops.

Vacation in the Cascades

I haven't posted for the past couple of weeks because I have been on vacation. We went to the west coast and spent a lot of time in the Cascade mountains between Portland and Seattle. It was a great trip and I got a lot of good pictures. We spent a lot of time driving up and down mountains. It was like one long scenic drive. You can see more of the pictures from my trip here.

I did not do any biking on this vacation but saw a number of bikers while we were driving around and talked to a few. There aren't a lot of paved roads around the Cascade mountains so most of the biking is done on the county roads. They all have wide shoulders so riding with the traffic is not a problem. The view are spectacular as long as you don't mind long climbs of 1000 to 2000 feet.

The weather is very unpredictable it can be 60 degrees and sunny and then 15 mins later its 35 degrees and hailing. So as one of the bikers told me you can't depend on the weather report and have to be prepared for any type of weather whenever you go riding.

Now that I am back from vacation I miss seeing the beautiful Cascade mountain every day as it was almost like being in the Alps. It was a nice change of pace.

After 10 days of vacation it was nice to get back on the bike and start riding again. I went for a ride with Herb, Mary, and George down towards Bordentown and although the I didn't see any snow capped mountains the scenery was still nice. We ended up running into a Rotary club ride and saw a bunch of riders filing by. We ended stopping and checking on one of the bikers who had a fall. He had a couple of bad cuts on his face and some road rash on his arms and legs but he didn't appear to have broken anything. So after he called for the sage wagon we left him with a car that had stopped to check on him and continued on our ride.

Because I was on vacation I did not put in any ride in the book for June so keep watch on the blog here in case I decide to do some off the book rides.

Shades of Death

This past Wednesday I had a presentation and book signing at REI in East Hanover. This is up in north west Jersey. Since I don't get up to this area to ride as much as I want, I decided to take the day off work and do a ride up in the area. I decided to do a ride around Allamuchy since this area is nice and quiet and isn't too hilly. I also wanted to ride on Shades of Death again since I hadn't done this in a couple of years. Although the name sounds bad Shades of Death is a nice rolling road with some good scenery especially by the meadow.

The last time I rode in this area the weather was a perfect 80 degree day with calm winds(see pictures here). This time however the weather sucked. It was an overcast 40 degrees with 20 mph winds gusting much higher. It didn't really rain but there were a couple of times when I got hit with a few rain drops. I event rode through some intermittent pea size hail. If I didn't have the book signing later in the day I would have canceled the ride.

Even with the poor conditions I still enjoyed the ride, which just proves that a bad day on the bike is still better than working. I didn't stop to take a lot of pictures this time because of the weather but I did see something strange that I couldn't help but take a picture of. It was motorcycle made out of logs. It looks like something I would see in the Flintstones.

The presentation at REI went well. The store in East Hanover is relatively new and very nice. They have a full bike shop and more bike merchandise then most big outdoor stores. The store even had a special room just for presentations and events. The staff was great and the bike mechanic was pretty sharp he noticed my stretched chain on my bike almost immediately.

I had around 35-40 people of all different levels of experience. After the talk they had a lot of good questions and even after the presentation was over a number of them hung around. It is always fun talking to other bikers and exchanging stories. It is something I never get tired of.

North west Jersey has a lot of nice places to ride if you don't mind a few hills so I hope to be back up in this area later this year for some more rides.

Raritan River Ramble

This past Saturday I had a good group ride through the Sourlands. This marks the beginning of my hill training to try and get my climbing legs back. Although we climbed a few hills this route was relatively easy and I was even able to convince a few flatlanders to join me. This was a some what new route that I made up of some of the normal roads plus a few new ones I explored last year. This will definitely be one I will do again as it had some nice scenery. I will be posting the ride sheet soon to my web site but until then you can check out the route here on google maps. I have been experimenting with the new directions feature they added a little while ago and must admit the more I use it the more useful I find it. With google maps it is still a little hard to get to route to go where you want it but once you do the street level pictures at each turn are really cool and are very useful when trying to see what the road really looks like.

On the Road Again

After a cold and snowy winter, spring has brought some really nice weather. For the past few weeks I have been able to get in some nice 40ish mile rides to start building my miles.

Now that the official riding seasons is beginning I'm looking forward to doing more exploring and catching up with everybody again. I already have a lot of ideas about places I want to go this year. I didn't make it up to northwest Jersey last year so I am thinking about a trip up there in late June once my legs are in good enough shape to handle the hills up there.

For the next few weeks I have a couple or Adhoc rides in the book so keep a watch here for details and come join me for a ride.