The bicycle thread

[fleabite]

Any bicyclists out and about? I think we need a two-wheeler thread. I'll start it off on a happy note, because my experience today should really be titled "the kindness of strangers."

I had a flat when out for a lunchtime ride. It was on the rear wheel, so my hands were covered with chain grease by the time I'd patched the tire. As I was trying to rub off the worst of the grime with wet fallen leaves from the sidewalk, a young woman passing by handed me one of those prepackaged wet wipes (delivering it in a socially distanced fashion with an arm outstretched to full-length). Then, when I had abraded the wipe almost to shreds with vigorous scrubbing, a maintenance man from an adjacent building appeared with a handful of paper towels and a big jug of hand cleaner. As if that weren't enough, a maintenance man from a different building spotted me giving my hands a last rub and stopped to ask if I needed some more towels. I'm not sure if there was something in the air today, or whether it was just a particularly friendly block, but it was the nicest flat-tire experience I have ever had.

[mamselle]

I'll contribute one in long-view retrospect.

My sister and I bicycled through England in 1973 (I was just out of high school, she had a year to go; our aunt had re-discovered relatives in the UK and BE and we were going to visit them, with some added side trips to places like Scotland--where my voice teacher had relatives) and Italy--where I fell in love with Florence for the first of several times).

One really cold, moist, chilly, windy, wet, soggy day while tooling up the hills near Monkton, we stopped at a house to just ask if we could stand inside the door for a few minutes and wring out our scarves and gloves, so we could stand to go on.

Like about a dozen folks before and at least that many afterwards in the 10 weeks we were there, she said, "No." Then she said. "You come right inside, it's far too cold to be out there, and I just started a nice fire in the fireplace. You come in and have some tea and cheese toast."

We sat there for several hours, while she told us stories, and every time we got up to go, she'd say, "I just put the kettle back on, it's about to boil, have some more tea," or "Why not have another slice of toast each, it's almost ready..." (it was toasting on the fire in those little prong-things like the ones we discovered a couple years ago among my grandmother's kitchen supplies.)

Finally, we really did leave--we had youth hostel beds booked and had to get there that night or forfeit our deposits--but she was trying to get us to put our sleeping bags out in front of the fire and just sleep there...(sore temptation, I feel it still!!)

I can just feel the warm fire, and think how cozy we were after being so raw, and cold, and numb and uncomfortable...it's like a little yellow-gold glow inside when the outside is blue-grey-dreary.

I'd also never had cheese toast before that.

I've never stopped having it since.

M.

[apl68]

Bicycling through Britain must have been the experience of a lifetime, especially in the 1970s!

[mamselle]

Well, sorry for the double, but this is a cool forward-looking note: Bike path from NYC to Canada!

   https://boingboing.net/2020/11/12/a-new-bike-path-directly-connects-new-york-city-to-canada.html

The Empire Bike Trail holds promise for the summer!

M.

[apl68]

I like to ride.  As I noted on another thread some time back, I was seriously injured by dogs while bicycling the summer before last.  I'm fully recovered now, but have done little riding outside of town.  I've made preparations to fend off dogs.  However, I seem to have much less motivation to ride than I used to.  Yesterday I was off work and did some riding.  It was still a good deal less than I had originally planned.

[mamselle]

Bicycling through Britain must have been the experience of a lifetime, especially in the 1970s!

It was. We made a scrapbook, but I don't even need to look at it to remember the cow looking over the byre in the barn beside our first-night's resting place (it woke us with a loud "mmmooo-ooo") or the cool old City gentleman who walked ahead of us in his top hat and monocle (not kidding!) and swinging his cane as he conducted us, wheeling our bikes on the sidewalk, to No. 10 Downing St. (We weren't going to go in, but we wanted to walk past and got lost in Londin's twisty streets).

M.

[mamselle]

Good for you for getting back in the saddle, apl68!

M.

[uni_cyclist]

Bicyclist here. I haven't gone on any epic rides, certainly nothing like bicycling through the English countryside. However, I've been a regular commuter cyclist through harsh weather in different locations -- ranging from relentless rain, to summer riding in the desert, to winter riding through snow and ice.

I moved 2,000 miles away this past summer to yet another climate, and I haven't yet had a commute here. Sadly, my bike hasn't left the garage. I keep thinking that I'll go for a leisure ride at some point but I haven't.

[fleabite]

Sadly, my bike hasn't left the garage. I keep thinking that I'll go for a leisure ride at some point but I haven't.

My bike says it messaged your bike, and yours is severely depressed from isolation and lack of exercise. Consider this encouragement to liberate it from the garage this week.

apl68, I'm very sorry to hear of your injuries. I hope you have healed well. Congratulations on getting back in the saddle.

mamselle, many many moons ago I did a little bit of biking in the UK. It was the only place I visited where youth hostels had warming rooms to dry wet clothing.

Also, thanks for the heads up on the Empire State Trail. It looks remarkable. The stretch from New York City to Albany is almost entirely paved and off-road, except for a bit on-road north of Kingston. At Albany the trail goes west all the way to Buffalo, mostly paved and off-road, or you can go north to Canada on a marked but on-road bikeway.

[mamselle]

Bumping because this is NOT the kind of cycling we did in the UK, but the planning issues were indeed interesting....

   https://www.bicycling.com/rides/a34721651/honeymoon-bike-park/

We did make it to Newcastle-under-Lyme, but that was a close as we got to Wales.

M.

[nebo113]

I like to ride, but am not much for hilly terrain, which is where I live, but here in Winter Quarters, it is flat, and I'm out every day that it isn't rainy (or gusty) and loving it!

[apl68]

I've done very little riding in recent weeks for various reasons.  Today I'm planning to run errands by bike, IF the rain holds off.

[uni_cyclist]

Sadly, my bike has still not made it out of the garage, and New Town is covered in a layer of ice with a wind advisory for today. I'm promising my bike that we'll go for a ride early in the new year.

[larryc]

I have been riding more in the last five years, and two falls ago I bought an ebike.

Friends, it is the very best thing I have ever purchased. Getting in an ebike produces an instant sensation of being 30 years younger. I look for excuses to get out there for a few hours or a day. I hang out and keep up with some much younger colleagues on long rides on gravel roads and single track trails. I go in random exploration rides of my city. I do the 49 mile round trip commute to work some days.

Now I am planning a ride across the state in the spring, making it a public history social media event. We'll see if I pull it off.

[nebo113]

GO Larryc!!!!