Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Spring riding

This has been a good year for cycling for me so far.  I have about 10 hours on the trainer and 120 miles outside.  Almost half of those miles have been in the dark with my new generator lighting system.  I just did 15 miles this evening.

I took yesterday off from work for what was billed as a 50 degree day.  I rode the same route as we did for our date ride last year.  I didn't use the Freeman Trail since it was largely snow covered, though it won't be for much longer:


The snow was pretty deep in places.  I couldn't find a tree to lean my bike against for a bio break but could use the snow on North Road in Carlisle, near Great Brook Farm Park (I had nothing to do with that little bottle to the right of my tire):


It was a fabulous day for a ride and while I enjoy night riding, I really enjoy riding in daylight.  And I was very happy that I had enough in my legs for a decent ride this evening.


Friday, March 15, 2013

Bianchi Volpe Commuter

I saw a great commuter this morning, a 1992 Bianchi Volpe:


It is well used but in fine shape.  The owner did tell me that the front derailleur wore clean through.  The lighting system is part new and part old.  The light is similar to mine but the generator is an old Schmidt:


The tires look familiar but I'm not sure what they are.


Winter riding, or not

My last ride of 2012 was the Jingle Bell ride in December.  Since then it's been spinning in the basement and a couple of night rides.  The first was last month on a 25 degree evening.  The second was earlier this week on a 45 degree evening.  The latter was 18 miles and, except for the time when I headed back home, 9:30PM, I would have made it a longer ride.

The current set up for spinning (the stroller gets moved):



Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Firefly Party

A friend is a customer of Firefly and he invited me along - his wife was doing something else that evening - so I had a chance to see their new space.  The party was a lot of fun and I had the chance to talk to a lot of the local frame builders: Brian from Royal H, Brian from Circle A/Chapman, Mike from ANT, and all three of the Firefly crew.  Jamie gave me a tour of IF in 2007 when before I bought my Club Racer and I met Tyler that day as well.  I also talked with Matt Bracken, who was the president of IF before their recent changes.

They have an amazing shop and I hope they continue to build beautiful bikes long into the future.