Local Group Rides

This page is way out of date. I just don't do group rides any more, partly because of the extreme amount of crap that groups have been getting from the cops, and from car-people. Both of the Portsmouth/Rye rides got pulled over by the police in September, a couple people even got arrested on one ride. There have been problems with drivers being malicious towards group rides. The 2009 Seacoast century was a complete and total shit-show; there were something like 4000 riders, and they were basically all jackasses. I'm just not interested in large group rides.

I am, however, totally in favor of riding bikes around with a couple friends. If you just want to go for a ride, please feel free to contact me.

Originally, I had hoped this page would get some more feedback from local riders, and that people would submit their rides and I would keep the page updated. If anyone wants to start a collaborative-effort page about local seacoast New Hampshire-and-around group bike rides, please let me know. In the mean time, watch this space, and I'll probably eventually add some links to the local shops' group ride pages. Of course it's December as I post this, so it may be a couple months before anything interesting happens.

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This is from Summer 2008--I can't guarantee non-defunctness on many of these. On the other hand, please do let me know of any rides that you know of.

Please include:

• day
• time
• meet location
  
• relative or absolute level (speed/distance/time)
• any other details or requirements

I'll try and get out there and ride your rides and post about 'em!

So I guess people are wondering about local group bike rides, particularly out of Prescott Park. I hit up the seacoast area bike shops and chased down any group rides I happened to come across in an effort to put together a list of local rides:

Monday

• 5:15pm @ Daily Grind, York Beach
  
• 5:45pm @ Exeter Cycle - 18mph, 30+ miles, no drops
  

Tuesday

• 6:15pm @ Gus' Bike - moderate pace, 20-30 miles, no drops

Wednesday

• 5:30pm @ South Berwick Post Office
• 5:45pm @ Exeter Cycle - "Wednesday Night Worlds" - 25+mph, 40+ miles, drop=bike home alone
  
• 5:30pm @ Prescott Park - Granite State Wheelmen "Slouch Potato Ride" - easy cruise to Rye Harbor, full-on race home. Wicked fun. ~20mi
• 6pm @ Rye Foreign Auto Works
  

Saturday

• 7:30am @ Gus' Bike - Amesbury Ride. 40-50 miles, includes good hills.

Sunday

• 9am @ Bicycle Bob's - 30-40 miles, no drops
• 9am @ Lee Traffic Circle -
  

These are just a few that I've heard about so the descriptions might be a bit fuzzy. And of course one person's moderate pace is another's leg-breaker--I'll try and make an effort to check out every ride at least once or twice and give a more objective description.

If you know of any other local group rides that I've missed, please leave a comment with the days, times, distances and any other pertinent information, and I'll add it to the list.

Thank you Josh "Monster Jam" Austin for the additional information.

Touring Equipment: Arkel T-42 Panniers

Okay. I got the bike, I got the best bike rack. The next logical step for a bicycle touring setup is the bags, which are called panniers when they are on a bicycle, for whatever reason. My approach to buying cycling equipment is to do research on my own, online, then go to the local bike shop to buy. This is as opposed to the obnoxious habit that some people have, which is to spend the bike shop sales guys' time with questions, then buy equipment online. With that in mind, I scoured the internet for best option for panniers, and everything came back to the same Canadian manufacturer, Arkel. It happened that Bicycle Bob's was one of their vendors, so I went there to order them.

They had quite a few options, but I ended up going with the T-42's. The Arkel T-42 is so-called because the pair has a total capacity of 42 liters, or 42 litres for my Commonwealth readers. That's not to say that you can put five gallons of water in each bag. Also, some nerds might point out that 42 liters of water would weigh about 84 pounds, which is more than the 60-pound capacity old man mountain bicycle rack which they will attached to. The T-42's are billed as being for "weekend touring", while my trip is for an entire month. The next larger pannier, though, had a thing to carry a tent, and a detachable fanny pack. I'm not camping, and if you're thinking I'll get caught dead wearing a fanny pack, you are gravely mistaken.

Here's what the pair of panniers looks like empty and off the bike. The Arkel site shows them individually, over-stuffed, and off the bicycle. As you can see from the picture here, these saddle bags have reflectors on the side and rear. That isn't photoshopped or anything, that's just from the camera's flash! They also have a few cool features that make them great. Without getting too much in to the website's copy which you can read for yourself, they have good features like ease-of-access zippers and really sturdy tear-proof fabric.

A couple people have asked me about front panniers. No thank you. I am entirely uninterested in having weird awkward weight on my front wheel. So far I've used my bags for groceries a few times, and having like 30 pounds sitting underneath my center of balance is weird enough. I can't imagine having to swing more weight around every time I wanted to make a turn. Forty-two liters of capacity will be more than enough to carry the few things I'll be bringing.

Touring Equipment: Old Man Mountain RedRock Rear Rack

So I was thinking about exactly what equipment I'm going to need for a bicycle touring adventure through southeast Asia. Adventure. I don't really like that word. It sounds ~fun~. I am not doing this for fun, I'm doing it for the physical brutality that my body will endure cycling a hundred miles or more a day, and the mental duress and loneliness of being in the farthest place possible from home, in a country where no one even speaks the same language. It's just something that a man in his mid-20's needs to do, to break out of . . . whatever. We're here to talk about equipment, not the philosophy of a quarter-life crisis.

So, the first thing I guess I need is a bicycle. I've got that, my Fuchikoma. I guess the next thing is a rack. I did a bit of comparison shopping, read a whole lot of touring sites, and I came up with with the Old Man Mountain RedRock rear rack. I guess you're supposed to try to say that ten times fast, or something.

There's a picture of it that I got off the site. I can't be bothered to show it on the bike at this exact moment but I'll show you before I go. This is the most highly recommended rear rack that I've found, and every time I show it off to seasoned touring veterans they whistle with appreciation. My theory on matters in which I don't know what the hell I am doing, is to exhaustively research before I dive in. In other words, it is better to spend 10 days online reading forums and sites and spend $50 on a rack, then to spend 10 minutes, spend who-knows how-much, and get some piece of crap that screams "newbie".

On the other hand, please don't mistake me for someone who knows what they are doing.

So the deal with this rack is that is has all the specific attachments that my bike was built for, in other words it bolts to the frame which was designed to take a rack. Other racks connect to the rear skewer and/or brake bolty-things. I guess this one can too, depending on how you set it up. Whatever, it was a good fit. The Old Man Mountain RedRock is specced to hold up to sixty pounds, which is the highest of any of their racks. Also the copy on their website said, "When someone tells us they're headed around the world, this is what we reach for", which was pretty much all I needed to hear.

Anyway, I've got a bike and a rack. Up next (Wednesday): Panniers! (also knows as "bags")

Return of the Jedi

Ah. Ah ha. Yes. Cycling.

Citing a lack of funding, I have retired from racing. Maintaining equipment and paying for registrations and licensing and all that is not worth it for me, ITTET. Anyway my focus and interest in racing faded. Maybe it was the two forced weeks off the bike while out of the country. Maybe it was the distraction of the last eight months. Maybe it was the group rides in the fall got ridiculous--ignorant and aggressive police backing up ignorant and aggressive drivers made it not worthwhile to ride in groups. Further, the same cast of characters would show up and totally miss the point of a particular ride. Anyway, those are my excuses. Also my race bike got damaged in an car-versus-Giles accident.

I don't think that anyone who doesn't ride with me has noticed that I am not 'really' riding. I still have my Fuchikoma which I ride every day to work and on errands and all that crap. At least twice a week, someone wants to talk to me about bikes, or ask me about what bicycle to buy, or show me their bike. Twice this month people have inquired about my blog stickers which are still on every sign post within a ten-mile radius.

Well, whatever. Once again, distractions aside, here I am. The "well I don't really write or ride any more" thing was getting kind of boring. See, that's what I do, I get bored and change my mind.

So I think I've told everyone about this, but let me publicly announce now that I am going on a month-long bicycle tour of Vietnam, in February. In the coming months, on the blog I'll be writing about the process of preparing for the trip, equipment, all that stuff. Enjoy.

2008 Vuelta Independencia (3/3)

2008 Vuelta Independencia (2/3)

2008 Vuelta Independencia (1/3)