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.  

Alone Together

The current pandemic has eliminated group rides so all my rides are solo rides and I suspect that will be true for some time. There is talk about starting to reopening certain parts of the economy but they are just in the planning phase (except for a few crazy states who think that barbershops and salons can operation safely). You know its bad when even Insane Clown Posse is shutting down all concerts and gatherings because this stuff is too insane for even them.

To fill in the social gap from not riding with the gang I have been scheduling a zoom meeting every Friday to catch up with them. At this point, over a month into the lock down, everybody is getting good at these meetings and if you look at the top left corner of the picture you can see that even my dog knows how to join a zoom meeting.

These zoom meetings are not the same as physically getting together but they are fun and help us get together and check up on each other. And that is the important part. Even though we are riding alone its still important to get together in other ways to help the Insane bike posse be a little less insane.

Today I did a 50 mile ride to Rova farms. Laura was in the hills and was planning on crossing paths with some of the gang. It was too far for me to ride from home so I sent her a picture of me instead and told her to say hi.

I did notice today on my ride that there were a lot more people out in both cars and bikes. Although all parks are suppose to be closed Etra was open and people were out in the park walking around and playing soccer. As the weather gets nicer I'm wondering how many people will stay home and inside.

Over the pass few weeks of solo rides I have noticed that although most people are keeping their distance some are not. I saw a couple of group of bikers who riding as close as we use to and even got passed by a few bikers a little closer than I should of. I'm trying to take a sensible approved to riding out in the real world to minimize my chances of exposure without becoming paranoid about it. So here are my general rules.

• When moving I try to be at least 20 feet from any other rider.
• When I'm stopped I try to be 6-10 feet from anybody.
• If I have to pass another rider I try and wait until there is no traffic and pass as far to the left as possible. 
•  Although it is against my normal way of riding I'm now avoiding or going around road closures if there are workers or police there. I don't want to add any extra problems or anxiety to people already in a tough situation. I also don't think interacting with police is a good idea since there is no doubt that most of them have been in contact with people who have been sick. 
• I bring all I need to eat and drink with me so I don't have to go into any store
• I try to avoid town centers where it could be crowded. 

Basically I am trying to avoid any unneeded contact with anybody. It makes for a bit of a lonely ride but I'm still glad to be able to get out and ride.

Signs of Hope

You know things are bad when you are excited to see toilet paper at the supermarket. We are able to get most of what we need to at the supermarket, except flour. Sometimes we can't get the brand we want but each week we are finding the shelves a little more stocked. We even found some hand sanitizer this week.

 Now it was from some local distillery and smelled like some horrible bath tub gin (which is more or less what it is) but we put it in a spray bottle and can use it to wipe down surfaces we have to do now after they have been contaminated from something coming from the outside world.

Things are far from normal and even when they do return to normal it is going to be a different type of normal. As to when we will be able to ride in groups again who knows so for now all my rides are solo rides from my house.

Since traffic is low I have be doing rides across Rt 1 on roads I'm usually a little reluctant to ride. Although it is spring the weather hasn't been great. I have gotten rained on during my last three rides and yesterday when I went out it was a little cold and really windy. I am known for a certain ride signature. My rides start with some climb close the beginning of the ride and somewhere along the way there is usually a bridge out. When I'm leading rides I get a lot of complaints about the hills and the bridge outs. When I'm riding solo there are also lots of complaint (mostly in my head). I would change my ride signature but I got to be me.

Yesterday's ride went from my house across some open farm fields and up New Rd to the canal. The first 20 miles of the ride was painful as I'm not in great shape yet and I was fighting a 20 mph headwind most of the way. At Blackwells Mill I ran into Jack and road a few miles together.

My ride took me through the middle of Princeton on Nassau Street. I normally won't ride on Nassau Street but knew there would be light traffic and wanted to see what the town looked like with things shut down. There are some cafes and restaurants open, for take out, and one of them smelled amazing. Princeton is quiet but has not reached ghost town status yet.

The purpose of going through Princeton was to check out the bridge on Alexander Rd that is being replace. It has been a while since I went passed a bridge out sign so it felt like something I needed to do. I headed pass multiple signs and barriers and checked out the bridge.

It looks like they have the bridges finished and paved and are just working on the curbs and walls surrounding the bridge. Even though it was Saturday there was some construction workers working on the bridge. I approached one of them and asked if the bridge was passable. He said yes but that there was a lot of construction with heavy equipment going on at the other end. He said he was glad I asked because a few people and even a car drove right through and pissed off the guys at the other end. From what he said I implied that he was saying only assholes would try to go over the bridge while they were working on it. I'm willing to walk through water, mud and take the risk to go over partially finished bridges but don't want to be an asshole about it so I turned around and took Washington Street back over Rt 1.

Alexander Rd will probably be finished in another month or so. It is probably safe to go over on Sundays and nights when no work is going on but should be avoided otherwise.

Moment of Zen

When my wife and I go on one of our driving trips we usually try to stop for lunch at some kind of scenic vista. We call it our moment of zen. It's a way to make sure we have a few minutes of relaxation on our vacation instead of just rushing around to get some where or see something. 

Riding has always been a stress reliever for me and I know it is that way for other people too. Part of the stress relief of riding is just getting out of the house and exercising. Part of it is getting into a different mind set. When I'm riding I forget about work and other things going on in my life and just concentrate on turning the pedals. On a good day when I'm ridding by myself I can really connect to the bike and tune into my body and get into a meditative state.

As part of the wellness program at work I have taken some mindfulness and meditation courses. I did it to get money put into my HSA account and the mindfulness and meditation courses are the shortest and easiest to complete. Most of these courses were a bunch of guided meditations with a guy talking in this droning soft voice telling you to empty your mind and find your center. It reminded me of those Saturday night live affirmations skits. It was useless.

However it did get me curious about meditation and led me to a book by Dan Harris (of ABC news) called "Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics" which explained meditation from a scientific point of view with out the religious overtones. After reading the book and a couple of others I came across a good description of what meditation is.

Your brain is like a highway with thoughts racing back and forth. You are the dog, on the side of the road, frantically chasing after each thought. What meditation does is calm the dog down so it just sits quietly on the side of the road and watches each each thought go by with out chasing it.

Some of the meditation practices have helped me recently during the passing of my mother. They helped me keep my anxiety in check as she was in the hospital and hospice. Some of these same practices are easy to apply when riding and was something I was sort of kinda doing anyway. These practices should come in handy as I will be doing a lot more solo rides.

Based on the latest guidelines there will be no group rides for quiet a while. Its just not worth the risk. I have been scheduling some zoom meeting with the insane bike posse to check in with them and socialize. This past weekend I also posted the route of my ride and some of the posse intersected my route so we could have a quick safe distant conversation. However I expect all my rides for the next month to be solo rides. It is tough riding 40 to 50 miles by myself but it does help that it is spring and the trees are starting to bloom. The hawthorn trees are at peak now as are the magnolias and cherry trees. There is a certain joy to watch the rebirth of spring.

It is going to be tough not riding in a group and still be motivated to go out and ride but I'm comforted by the words of Winston Churchill after the battle of Dunkirk.

 "We shall go on riding our bikes to the end. We shall ride them in France, we shall ride them on the seas and oceans (?), we shall ride them with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our right to ride bikes, whatever the cost may be. We shall ride them on the beaches(unless they are closed), we shall ride them on the landing grounds, we shall ride them in the fields and in the streets, we shall ride them in the hills; we shall never surrender our right to ride (unless of course Dr Fauci tells us to )"

So okay maybe Winston Churchill wasn't talking about biking in this quote and I might have changed it just a little but you get the idea. In any case stay safe out there and keep in touch.

It's the End of the World as We Know It, and I Feel Fine

In the "Before Times" people gathered in crowds to celebrate momentous events. For birthdays, weddings, and various holidays people could gather in reception halls and eating establishments and eat an amazing variety of food. There were places where people gathered in large auditoriums and watched moving pictures showing epic stories. There were large stadiums filled with 30,000 to 50,000 people watching overpaid athletes play sports with millions more watching on TV. If you didn't want to be part of the crowd you could go to any of the many well stocked grocery stores and buy food and cook an intimate dinner at home.There were endless travel options available from cruises to the Caribbean, a trip to Rome, or tours of mysteries of far away lands like China. We didn't know it at the time but it was the golden age of humankind.

                                            
I am a science fiction fan and have watched many apocalyptic end of the world movies This week as the number COVID-19 cases increased and the government took more actions to try to slow the spread and flatten the curve I got the feeling like we are in one of these movies. To be clear I'm actually not overly worried that the world will descend into a state of lawless chaos. I think our state is doing the right thing and in a few months we will all make it out the other end of this with some interesting stories. I think the best analogy is that this is similar to what felt like to during WWII when the government had to put restrictions on travel and ration food and supplies.

Even with the new restrictions my situation isn't too bad. I work from home anyway so work is more or less the same as usual. We were well stocked before the crisis and have been able to get most of the stuff we need to hunker down and carry on. These restrictions will mean, however,, that I won't range as far and wide on my normal bike rides as the weather gets warmer. The PFW and most other clubs have cancel all club rides to support the push to slow the spread and have everybody practice social distancing.

Even though the governor has asked everybody to stay home and only travel to get essentials it doesn't mean you can't go out and exercise. You just can't congregate in groups and must keep your distant from other. With this in mind I did go out for a ride today and invited a few people along. The people I ride with are losers, loners, insane people nobody would go near, people who understand the seriousness of the situation and know how to follow CDC guidelines to keep themselves and the people around them safe. We did ride farther apart than we normally do and when we took a break we still kept our distance. I actually brought a visual aid with me (a six foot string with a nut on the end) that I spun around my head to show what a safe distance is. Jim took a video of it so I hope he posts that.
 

 

It was good to catch up with everybody and see how they were fairing during this crisis. Everybody is anxious, of course, so its important to get out and exercise not only to feel better physically but also to improve your mental state. I intent to keep riding as much as I can. I will probably keep the rides a little shorter and stay close to home. That way I can bring all the food and drink I need and won't have to worry about going into a store and possibly leaving with more than the food I bought. 

This is definitely one of the worst crisis to befall our country and really the whole world. I am both heartbroken and encouraged by some of the things I see people doing around the world. There are many wonderful random acts of kindness. Especially seeing the people sing from their balconies, in Italy, as way to come together and lift their spirits in amid their tragedy.

I do believe we will get through this even though I think there has been a few missteps in the initial response. As Winston Churchill said 

"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else"

So hunker down and stay safe. Here are a few tips to help you. 

• To escape a pursuing zombie you will need to out-run it, and this means being in good shape
• Always double tap. When in doubt, don't get stingy with your bullets.
• Wear a seat belt. You won't be driving along easy roads anymore: with numerous things to avoid you need to be ready for a crash!  
• Before getting into the car and driving off, check the back seat for any hiding zombies.

Sorry, these are for the zombie apocalypse. That will be next summer after something goes awry with the COVID-19 vaccine causing some people to turn into zombies. (I'm sure the SyFy network is already working on this movie.) In any case just follow the CDC guidelines and you will be fine. I also recommend reaching out on social media and keeping in touch your friends and family.  Although we can't physically meet we can still stay in touch and help each other through this.