Spring [sic] Butterfly Ride - November 6, 2024

 RIDE REPORT

Wednesday, 6 November 2024, Spring [sic] Butterfly Ride

Ride Leader:  Clyde Kessel

30 miles, 10:00 am start from Carlisle, MA

Clyde, Dave Balaban, David Goldberg, Ed Hill, Frank Aronson, Gary Williams, Keren Hamel, Marc Webb, Marie Keutmann, Todd Palmer, Tom Allen, Wing Chow, and first-timers Barry Slosberg and Steve Hoffenberg.

Yet again, we had fantastic weather for cycling.  One of these days, winter will arrive and we will realize how spoiled we have been this fall.

The rider leader (who rides a recumbent) was happy to see another rider in the group on a recumbent.

By 10:05, we were all briefed and safetied and the human arrow system was explained to the new guy on the block.  We were missing Barry who had registered but hadn’t arrived.

We headed out of the parking lot and on the way out, Barry drove in.  Frank knew that Barry didn’t have navigation equipment, so Frank kindly stayed behind to help him out.  The rest of us proceeded on our merry way.  The group never got very spread out because we had lots of regrouping stops.

On the return, just before the climb up Scribner Road, there was a construction crew replacing a culvert.  We asked if we could walk through on the side of the road and the police officer kindly escorted us.  A few weeks ago, on a different WW ride in an identical situation in Harvard, the police officer refused and sent us off on a long detour on a busy road.  It’s kind of like calling medicare - sometimes you get a good person and sometimes you don’t.

Four of us stayed for lunch at Chelmsford Pizza.  After lunch, as we got back on our bikes for the one mile ride to our cars, Frank and Barry showed up - they had finally caught up to us.  For a couple of minutes, we had perfect attendance . . . . .

Thanks go to all the arrows and, especially, to Tom for sweeping.

Report by Clyde Kessel.

Apple Pi (short) Ride - October 30, 2024

 RIDE REPORT

Wednesday, 30 October 2024, Apple Pi (short) Ride

Ride Leader:  Simon Lingard
~37 miles, 10:00 am start from Bedford, MA

Riders (9):  Simon, Betsy Kimball, David Goldberg, Ed Hill, Frank Calabrese, Frank Scibilia, Marc Webb, Martin Hemler, and first-timer Todd Palmer.

The VA carpark was huge and mostly full, so the ride leader arrived early to direct riders to an area where there were enough parking spaces.  The roads were wet after overnight rain, a fact we discussed during the safety talk.  

About ten miles in, Frank C's vintage bike made a pop sound, and the rear wheel skidded to a stop.  A bulge in the tire had forced the rim to bend jamming the brakes.   After releasing the rear brake caliper Frank was able to slowly cycle to the nearest bike shop, while the remaining eight riders continued.

In Westford, the ride leader had a little difficulty finding the Dunkin’ Donuts rest stop location - it required the group to cross a busy four-lane road.  After the break, which was slightly off-route, Frank S. and Ed helped the ride leader find the route, somewhat limiting his embarrassment.

We did not use human arrows, but Ed graciously swept and let the ride leader know when we needed a re-group.  And, the sun came out, the roads dried out, and we all returned together!

Report by Simon Lingard.

Harvard and Bolton - October 23, 2024

 RIDE REPORT

Wednesday, 23 October 2024, Harvard and Bolton

Ride Leader:  Tom Allen

31 miles, 10:00 am start from Boxborough, MA

Riders (12):  Tom, Betsy Kimball, Clyde Kessel, Dave Balaban, Dmitry Gorenburg, Ed Hill, Marie Keutmann, Martin Hemler, Phyllis Evan, Simon Lingard, Wing Chow, and first-timer Lisa O'Connor.

Most of us found our way to the rear of the building at the ride start location.  Those who parked at the front side were rounded up by Wing who circled multiple times and herded folks to the right place.

The weather was delightful, the scenery spectacular, and the route was challenging and fun.  We started on the flat and were soon in climbing mode as we headed into Harvard.  Despite the hills, we were able, with some regrouping pauses, to stay together while employing the WW arrowing protocol.

The first porta-potty stop was quite popular and provided a pause during which Clyde took the initiative to drum up some interest in ride leading among some of the participants.  He pointed out that, while showing up for WW rides was important, it was not enough to keep the program going.  He may have recruited a couple of candidates.

Things progressed as we traveled from Harvard to Bolton and Berlin and back around over some fun roads.  Ascending Prospect Hill we paused for a photo and proceeded to our planned stop at the General Store.  That was interrupted by a bridge construction project that we couldn't sneak past – we were forced to take a detour that was a bit less satisfactory than the planned route, but only a half mile longer.

From "The Gen" we headed back to the start via an extended 2.5 mile downhill and some flat terrain.  Seven of us stayed at the Boxborough Craft Food Hall for a congenial lunch al fresco on their patio.

Thank you to the willing arrows and, especially, to Clyde for ably and patiently performing as sweep.

Report by Tom Allen.

Annual Circling Wachusett Foliage Ride - October 16, 2024

 RIDE REPORT

Wednesday, 16 October 2024, Annual Circling Wachusett Foliage Ride

Ride Leader:  Clyde Kessel

37.6 miles, 10:00 am start from Sterling, MA [remote start, 61.7 miles, from Bolton, MA]

Riders – core ride (11):  Clyde, Aiko Pinkoski, Barbara Martin, David Goldberg, Ed Hill, Greg Stathis, Judith McMichael, Julie Dodd, Simon Lingard, Tim Dodd, and Wing Chow.
Riders - remote start (1):  Marc Baskin.
Summitted the mountain:  no-one.
Present at lunch:  Elizabeth Wicks.

Yet another beautiful day for riding (every day is a good day to ride - some are beautiful).  It was chilly, but the full sun was warm and there were no complaints.  Riders started to arrive at the start point at 9:30 am.  Pickleball was in progress at the park.

Shortly before 10:00, we proceeded to set the ground rules for the ride.  The leader rides a recumbent and tends to be pretty slow on the climbs, so he made it clear that faster riders should feel free to go ahead and not arrow and not wait.

Barbara and Greg volunteered to be joint sweeps (and as the ride progressed, they traded off being at the back).  Hot on everyone’s mind was the question:  “will we be using arrows?”  The leader said “Yes, of course” and was immediately threatened with mutiny.  The group unanimously wanted to dispense with arrows, since everyone had a navigation device and no one wanted to stand around in the cold to pointlessly arrow a turn.
So, we happily settled on a simple ride format:  let’s just ride and regroup at the lunch stop.

 

Now we were ready to leave and someone said they had seen Marc riding from the remote start.  However, he was riding the wrong way and seemed to be lost.  Not being sure if and when he would show up, we just (virtually) wished him good luck and launched into our ride.

We immediately and informally broke up into an A-group, a B-group, and a C-group.  The A-group blasted off up the initial hill and was never seen again (except that Tim was patiently waiting in the parking lot at the end of the ride because he couldn’t really abandon his wife, Julie).  Before long, the B-group and the C-group melded back into a single group and stayed mostly together for most of the ride.  Marc was, again, spotted behind us on the correct route and he eventually caught up with us, just as we rolled into the lunch stop.

During the ride, it clouded up and several riders remarked that it was getting colder.  However, the sun came back just in time for our climb up Mountain Road - it was not entirely welcome at that juncture, but was great to have during our lunch stop.

This is a lovely ride, mostly on back roads with little traffic.  However, it does not work so well with the arrow system because people really do climb at such different speeds.  Also, arrowing at a turn in the middle of a climb or descent can be a problem.

Thanks to everyone who came and made it an enjoyable ride.

 

Report by Clyde Kessel.

Dudley Ramble - October 9. 2024

 RIDE REPORT

Wednesday, 9 October 2024, Dudley Ramble

Ride Leader:  Clyde Kessel

31 miles, 10:00 am start from Wayland, MA

Riders (16):  Clyde, Barry Kaditz, David Goldberg, Ed Hill, Everett Briggs, Frank Aronson, Frank Calabrese, Gary Williams, Gene Ho, John Trotter, Marc Baskin, Phyllis Evan, Renee Rees, Susan Broome, Tom Allen, and Wing Chow.

Present at lunch:  Helen Greitzer.

T’was a beautiful fall day, warm enough for shorts.  Our group of sixteen naturally split into two groups.  As far as the leader could tell, the second group stayed together pretty well, while the front group tended to fragment since it was the reservoir of arrows.  As a whole, the ride was pretty uneventful and we never got spread out much.  The leader only missed one turn, which is below average for this particular leader.

This lovely route was designed, years ago, by Brett Serkez.  Brett has since moved to Florida and we only see him occasionally when he comes back for a visit.  Hurricane Milton was scheduled to cross Florida Wednesday night, so I checked in with Brett.  He said the predicted path was south of his location and he was just going to hunker down and ride it out.  Update Thursday morning:  Brett did fine with very little damage.

Thanks to all the arrows and, especially, to Tom for sweeping.

Report by Clyde Kessel.

Island Cruise - October 2, 2024

 RIDE REPORT

Wednesday, 2 October 2024, Island Cruise 36

Ride Leader:  Alan Cantor

36 miles, 10:00 am start from Sherborn, MA

Riders (16):  Alan, Barry Nelson, Dave Balaban, David Goldberg, Ed Hill, Frank Aronson, Frank Calabrese, Gary Williams, Gene Ho, Janusz Wicher, Joel Bauman, John Kitchen, John Trotter, Kim Wach, and Renee Rees.

After a forecast of clouds and possible rain, we enjoyed a mostly sunny ride on beautiful roads.  At the water stop we learned that Gene had a flat.  After waiting a while and speaking with the sweep, Renee, we rode on.  The sweep, Gene, and another rider made it safely back, as did everyone else. 

 

Many thanks to the arrows and to Renee for a diligent job sweeping.

Report by Alan Cantor.

Ipswich to Cape Ann - September 25, 2024

 RIDE REPORT

Wednesday, 25 September 2024, Ipswich to Cape Ann

Ride Leader:  Simon Lingard

34 miles, 10:00 am start from Ipswich, MA

Riders (6):  Simon, Adam Walpert, Ed Hill, Frank Aronson, Gene Ho, and Scott Mandell.

We all decided on the 34-mile route option and the group kept together the entire ride, without using human arrows, and maintained an overall 15 mph average.  The weather was cloudy, low 60s - perfect cycling weather.  We enjoyed country lanes, many of which were newly paved, and the magnificent ocean views along the Manchester and Gloucester coastline.  We stopped at White Beach to take the attached photo and had a rest stop at Stage Fort Park.

Five of us had post-ride coffee at Zumi's (sadly they'd run out of pastries).

Report by Simon Lingard.