Fixing My Sagging Sack

I took off Friday from work and decided to do a ride since the weather was good. I decided to do something hilly out of Yardley so I used my Synapse for the ride. Whenever I take my Synapse out I notice how much different my sack looks. The one on the Synapse is much straighter and firmer.

Yes I know the bike is 11 years younger than my Feather but as far as I know age should not make things sag. At least not on a bike. 

Just because my Feather is old doesn't mean it can't perform or look as good as a newer bike. And for the most part my Feather is a fast good looking bike except for its sagging sack which get ridiculed. People tell, me all the time, that my sack is sagging and might fall off. The bag is secure and hasn't fallen off in 5 years when it almost took out Dave. Still it is a source of some embarrassment so I decided to take closer look at it after my Yardley ride.

I checked out the bracket that holds the sack on to my seat. I use the Jandd Klickfix system that has a bracket on the seat that allows you to easily clip your bag on and off the bike. This makes it easy to switch the sack between bikes so that I don't have to have a separate sack of gear for each bike. The Feather has a carbon fiber seat with the rails built into the seat so the bracket is a little harder to mount and makes it hard to get in on at the right angle. 

However after taking a look at the bracket which is probably at least 10 years old I noticed that the end of the clip was thin and broken. This was definitely causing some of the sagging.

I did have a spare bracket in stock so I replaced it and tried to position it better to keep the sack a little straighter.

It looks much better now its still not as straight as when this sack it mounted on my Synapse but that has more to do with the angle of the seat and rails than anything else. This just goes to show that with a little maintenance something old and sagging can be made to look and function almost like new. 

Lucky Happenstance

Today was one of those days with very unpredictable weather that made it hard to plan a ride. The forecast said rain by noon. I got up a little after 6am and the sun was out. There was nothing on the radar and the hourly forecast said there wasn't a significant chance of rain before noon. I decided that I would head to Cranbury and then do a ride to Englishtown. I sent out an email letting the posse know what I was doing in case anybody wanted to join me.

By the time I left my house I didn't have any takers so no posse no problem I'll just do a solo ride.

I got to Cranbury about 20 after 8 and found Herb sitting there. He was waiting for Bruce. I hadn't see Herb in quite a while so it was good to see him and catch up. Then somebody else walked over to talk to us and it was Ron who was going on Dave's ride at 9am. Bruce rolled in soon after with a new bike. It was one of the new Cannondale Ebikes. I think it was the one of the Synapse Neo models. So now Bruce is now stronger, faster, better (i.e. Bionic Bruce). These bikes are getting more efficient and more practical so I can see these becoming more popular especially for older riders.

Right after Bruce showed up Jack came by. He was planning on going on Prem's ride but apparently he didn't realize Prem's ride was at 8 am not 8:30am. (Not sure how Jack missed it since it was clearly stated in the ride title and ride details) In any case it worked out for everybody as Jack ended up going with me on my loop to Englishtown. It was suppose to be a 40 mile loop but when it didn't look like it would rain as early as expected I added a few more miles and visited the lake in the Assumpink. As you can see from the picture above there were no rain clouds in site when we got there around 11:30am.

On our way back as we crossed 130 on Windsor Rd we ran into Herb and Bruce again as they were heading home. We road with them along Windsor.Then Jack took off for home as we headed up South Lane,  We ended up having to turn around. Some car had hit a telephone pole and there were live wires across the road. I ended up going back to Windsor and up Old Trenton to get home. I ended up with just over 50 miles.

So though some lucky happenstance my solo ride ended up not being solo and I got to catch up with a few people I haven't seen in a while so sometimes unplanned circumstance make for a good day.

Vacation Days

I don't think I will be going on any real vacations this year. I definitely don't want to get on a plane anytime soon. I could drive some where for a vacations but a lot of the surrounding states have travel restrictions that would require us to quarantine for 14 days before doing anything so I really don't see the point. If the restrictions get lifted in the fall we may consider going to Cape Cod or maybe down to the outer banks. But for now I'm using my vacation days to take a days off from work to do some riding.

This past Tuesday I headed towards Princeton. My main goal was to try out the new Alexander road bridges that had recently been completed. I had tried to get across a month or so ago but was stopped because the construction wasn't yet completed and a crew was still working on the bridge. Tuesday I flew right over the new bridges. These are definitely an improvement as they are a lot wider and have a large shoulder. I don't normally ride on Alexander road on any of my normal rides but this may be an option at times if the traffic stays low.

After Alexander road I headed along Carnegie lake towards Kingston sticking to residential streets. One of my other goals of this ride was to check out a path through the Herrontown Arboretum. I was inspired by Jim who was trying to map out some of the interesting paths in this area. The path was paved and not too bumpy. The Arboretum wasn't much to look at except for an nice pond.

However it was a good short cut to get to Kingston and back towards home. It ended up being a good 30 mile ride even though I got rained on a little.

This past Saturday I led the posse to Round Valley. Because of the hot and humid weather I went for a shorter route than usual from Hillsborough. It ended being a good choice. I did a lot of sweating during the ride so would have probably cramped if I did my usual 58 mile route. It also helped that there was a little less climbing.

Our rest stop was the boat launch at the reservoir.

Even with all the rain we had the reservoir is still low. I didn't understand why they would keep it so low until we tried to ride the rest of the way around the reservoir. As the picture at the top of the post shows there was a gate across the road. Since the gate was open we were going to ride through but there was a guard there telling us to go around so we did. It looks like they are working on one of the dikes on that side of the reservoir which might be why they are keeping the water low.

We had to briefly ride on 22 and then through Lebanon before getting back on course but the detour only ended up added about a mile and a half. We cruised back quickly to Hillsborough and were back close to noon.

I may not be able to travel away from NJ to do any riding trips this year but there is plenty of good riding here so its not a bad place to be stuck.  

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.