Bicycling
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New York to New Haven via the East Coast Greenway
Did I say that the season for long bike rides that involve the train is over? I was wrong. Yesterday, I went on yet another weekend club ride. This ride was from Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx to New Haven, Connecticut.
Cycling to New Haven in mid November might not seem like the greatest bike ride. The high temperature this time of year is in the low 50s, not 60° as it was yesterday. (We did however get some rain.) The route is reasonably long, about 77 miles from the Bronx to Union Station in New Haven, but it’s a very flat route. We followed the proposed East Coast Greenway, along Long Island Sound, with a mere 2,857 feet of elevation gain. That allowed us to keep a good pace and finish before sunset, arriving in New Haven around 4:15 PM.
Although the temperature was warm, the sky was overcast from start to finish. The threat of rain started around mile 20, and then started a light mist. Around mile 40, the mist turned to drizzle and then to light rain. Thankfully it never got worse than that. At mile 47, we ate lunch and waited out the rain. By the time, we headed out, the rain had stopped, and it never started again.
The rain, however, left some very slick road conditions. Just after leaving Fairfield, I rode around a corner and my back wheel grazed a wet steel grate, and I went down. In the summer, this would have ended my day. But because it was autumn, I landed on a pile of leaves. I had a small scrape, but that’s it. Once I brushed the leaves off my clothes and realigned my chain, I was fine the rest of the day.
The rest of the day was peppered with spills and near misses due to slippery conditions. One guy in our group also slipped as we were crossing railroad tracks east of Bridgeport. He fishtailed and then hit the asphalt. He recovered and finished the ride, but it seemed he hit the ground much harder than I. Crossing a steel bridge is hard enough on a bike, but please don’t attempt it on a rainy day. We all successfully crossed one near Stratford (I think), but not without some very scary slipping and fishtailing. Had one of us fallen, one rider speculated, we would have been bloodied by the steel grates on the bridge.
Holy Crap, I Can’t See
Nearing the end of the ride, the humidity and the dropping temperatures combined to create some very thick fog, especially along the shore. For a five-mile stretch, I actually took off my glasses because it was easier to ride with blurry vision than without seeing more than ten feet in front of me. We rode prudently, keeping a slow pace and with our blinky bike lights set to the solid position.
Today is the first day of our clocks reverting back to Standard Time. There’s a lot of opposition to Daylight Savings Time and ending it once and for all, but I actually enjoy it and wish we could observe it year round. Those of us living on the eastern edge of Eastern Time can get more out of the day if it sunset would be after 5:00 PM. In other words, make our Standard Time one hour later.
As Daylight Savings Time ends, so does the opportunity for eight-hour bike rides away from the city that require morning train rides. Even if the weather holds up, the days are getting shorter and our rides must also accomodate the dwindling daylight. In short, any ride must end by 3:30 or so because by 4:30, it’s already too dark to ride safely without lights.
For this final Saturday of Daylight Savings, I joined two other club members for a ride east of the Hudson River. The ride started in Central Park and headed up to the Bronx and Yonkers then along US–9 until Irvington. After that we headed up to Pocantico Hills, but didn’t stop at Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Not only is it hard to get a reservation, but they don’t have a place to stash our bikes.
From there we headed to Croton Falls to stare at the dam. This is not the same place I visited back in the spring and again along my heat stroke ride to Cold Spring, but it’s still very nice. It made for a nice rest before heading up to Carmel.
The eighteen-mile stretch from Carmel to Cold Spring, along NY–301, is one many cyclists know well. It has a nice seven mile stretch of rolling hills along the beautiful West Branch Reservoir and then you climb for about five miles. Once you reach a peak after passing lovely Canopus Lake, you coast downhill for about six miles into Cold Spring. That last part is fun as you reach top speeds around 40 mph and make that satisfying six-mile descent in about 15 minutes.
After a couple of weeks of cycling in California with my brother and in Indiana with a gang of Weitlaufs, I nudged my friend Andre to ride in the Hudson Valley. We considered a few routes and settled on a relatively easy 60-mile ride to the Peekskill Brewery using two long multiuse trails in Westchester Country, the South County Trail and the North County Trail.
For whatever reason, I have never taken many trails around here. Usually, trails better serve novice cyclists, who are just getting used to cycling and for families taking a leisurely jaunt, than roadies, who are trying to keep their heart rate elevated. But yesterday was a cool and sunny autumn day. It was cold enough to keep the trail relatively empty, but pleasant enough for riding thirty-plus miles on beautifully paved, tree-lined trails. And there was that foliage everyone goes gaga for this time of year.
One downside of the trail is that there aren’t many opportunities for rest stops along the way. There’s some opportunities in Ardsley and in Elmsford, but really the best place to stop was the Millwood Market, off Route 100, in Millwood. There was food, a bathroom, plenty of water, and even a bike rack. We even ran into an experienced cyclist, an emeritus member of the NY Cycle Club, who informed us that part of the North County Trail was closed. We would have to take a detour. After crossing the Croton Reservoir over a wooden bridge, we took a left at Route 118 and followed that road until we came to Revere Drive. From there, a right turn and a quick left will put you back on the trail.
The route I followed had us take US–202/NY–35 west from Yorktown to Cortland Manor just south of the Blue Mountain Reservation and north to Peekskill. Along the way, there’s some really nice countryside which takes on a nice luster during the fall.
Once we arrived at the Peekskill Brewery, we found about a half dozen cyclists hanging there after a ride. The brewery has become a popular destination for cyclists because it offers delicious food, great beer, and easy access to the Hudson line train back to the city.
A week after shuttling off to California and riding a Breast Cancer charity ride with my brother, I got on a plane again to ride my bike in a state that is not New York or New Jersey. This week it was the Hilly Hundred, a two-day ride and festival in Central Indiana.
The Weitlaufs began the tradition of riding the Hilly Hundred back in 1981, when two brothers took their bikes from Kentucky to Indiana. The group grew to include their wives, a sister and a few of their children. It became an almost-annual ritual for them. Over the years, the tradition stopped, although one of the children kept the tradition alive by riding each year with his friends.
This year, the family planned to return to Indiana to revive the tradition. I had signed up back in May because the family had discussed returning to the ride, and I figured that if someone not related had signed up, it might encourage the rest of the family to participate. In fact, getting ready for this ride was a a big reason for my riding with the New York Cycle Club STS group and for pushing myself to ride 150 miles to Montauk.
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Having travelled quite a bit, I had become used to getting myself from one place to another, but getting my bike to another state was an entirely different matter. After investigating several options, which I will save for another post, I settled on shipping my bike by train. Three days later, it arrived safely in Indianapolis and from there we drove it to Bloomington, near the start of the weekend’s ride.
Day 1
Riding in this year’s Hilly were four Weitlauf men, one woman, and me. The first day presented a sizable challenge. A steady rain fell, starting overnight and continuing into the ride’s 9:00 AM start time. Rain in itself is not the end of the world, but every cyclist hates cold rain. I’d rather ride in “30° and dry” than “40° and wet.” But the rain stopped around 10:30, and once the sun started shining, we headed to the ride’s starting point in Ellettsville, Indiana. By noon, we were pedaling on the road.
Climbing some of the course’s biggest hills had terrified me. I had read that the Hilly Hundred included some very steep hills, with grades between 15% and 20%, and significantly more challenging than the steepest climb I had done with the club Little Tor and its 10% grade.
But as I rode, it wasn’t as bad as I had thought. Sure, there were some steep hills, but it turns out that those grades were maximum grades. Little Tor, however, was a 10% average grade, and the steepness on that climb varies greatly. It turned out that the hills on the Hilly Hundred were similar to those found north of New York City, in Bergen and Rockland counties, and along the Hudson Valley.
Once I had realized that this ride was as challenging as some club rides, I stopped worrying about the challenge and enjoyed the scenery. There were plenty of signs of autumn: dried out corn fields, trees with brown and red leaves, and fallen foliage sprinkled on the asphalt. It was a much different experience than the previous week’s ride alongside the bays and creeks of Newport Beach, California.
Day 2
The second day was considerably warmer, even with our starting at 9:30 AM, and the route was considerably shorter: 43 miles versus the previous day’s 55. That made for a much more pleasant ride, even if some of us were still a bit sore. The hills did seem a bit more challenging than the day before.
On the first day of the ride, my biggest accomplishment was that I didn’t have to walk my bike up any of the hills. The same remained true on the second day, until the very last big climb of the day: Mount Tabor Road. Although the climb is short, about 0.2 miles, it is a steep 20% grade, requiring you to get out of the saddle. But I jumped off the saddle too early and by the time the hill was steepest, I couldn’t stand up anymore. I ended up walking up like these people, in this photo from 1977.
Riding on consecutive days wasn’t as tough as I had feared. I treated the second day’s ride as a recovery ride and kept my heart rate about ten beats lower than the day before. It also helped that there was plenty of food, such as fried chicken, couscous, quinoa, pasta salad, pumpkin donuts and muffins, ice cream, fresh-picked apples, and apple cider. Also, on the first day of the ride, I had bought a pair of wool Sriracha socks at the vendor tent. Having forgotten to pack any wool socks, these were a great pickup. I’ll treasure them always!
The Hilly Hundred is a great ride. In terms of difficulty, it’s about the same as the full 100-mile route of Escape New York, except that the latter takes place in one day not two. But this was a great excuse to ride with a great group of people and in a place a little different from New York or California.
The bicycle bug has bitten my brother. Years after his wife bought him a bicycle for a birthday present, he started to ride the bike in earnest over this past summer, including regularly pedaling ten miles, each way, to work.
This Saturday, he and I rode twenty-two miles together in Costa Mesa, California, to benefit the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. The ride was a milestone for both of us. It was his first organized ride, and his first single ride longer than ten miles. And it was the first organized ride where I didn’t ride for pie or beer.
Riding for Family at Two Wheels, One Planet
As skeptical as I am of these charity rides, I rode for family. Not only did my brother and I ride together, our mother has had breast cancer twice, most recently in 2011, and she benefitted both times in no small part due to early detection. Last year, when the Susan G. Komen Foundation withheld funding from Planned Parenthood, as a way of punishing the organization for its family planning efforts, I was furious. A significant number of poor and uninsured women get breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood, and shortening the lives of adult women to protect the unborn seems counter to what I regard as “Christian values.” I swore I wouldn’t give a penny to that organization, and it soured me on similar breast cancer events. But I got over that since my brother was really excited about the ride, decking himself out in pink, and both my mom and dad, sister-in-law, and nephew came to meet us at the finish line. Also, this ride benefitted a different organization anyway.
The ride itself was very pleasant. We started from the Two Wheels, One Planet bike shop in Costa Mesa, and rode on two very nice multiuse trails, one around the Newport Bay and the other along the San Diego Creek.
Pedaling in Pink
Shipping one of my bikes seemed impractical so I rented one from Bicycle John’s, just a few miles from the Burbank airport. It was a neat little road bike: a steel Serotta frame with a mix of lightweight Ultegra and DuraAce components. Beautiful!
Why ship when you can rent?
Because my suitcase was getting full, I left my pedals and bike shoes at home and opted to ride with a set of track pedals and Converse high-tops. It kept me from breaking away since I couldn’t get good sprint going, but that meant I could escort my brother throughout the entire route. And he could keep up.
We finished about 100 minutes after we started. As I mentioned, the ride was a bit slow, averaging just under 13 miles per hour, but we made good time because we were on bicycle paths without stop signs and traffic signals. Flat rides, as this one was, can be both easy and difficult. Sure, it’s nice not to climb hills all day, but for every uphill, there’s usually a downhill, and that’s always nice. Also, climbing helps raise my heart rate, helping to sprint on flat terrain. If I maintain an even effort throughout a ride, my body won’t bother expend more than that effort.
My brother and my nephew at the finish line outside of Two Wheels, One Planet.
At the finish, our family was there waiting for us. Not having my same “experience level” with organized rides, my brother didn’t attack the pizza, beer, and snack table as I did. We both did spend an hour browsing the wares inside the bike shop and watching people win prizes as our raffle-ticket numbers were never called. But what can you do? It’s family.
At the beginning of the spring, I promised that I wouldn’t let softball take over my life. I can’t even begin to count how many Saturdays I squandered because I had a game later in the day.
But on Saturday I had a dilemma. I was committed to riding in this year’s Escape New York ride as I was more active with the cycle club than in years past so I felt like I had a stake in this annual event. Moreover, I also had a free entry since I had helped mark the route. I had done the same job for the last few years, but I hadn’t ridden because the Robots were in the playoffs. To paraphrase a line from a movie, the problem is not when your hobbies get in the way of work, but when they get in the way of each other.
Route marking for the 65-mile route of the Escape New York ride.
This year, I had the same conflict. The Robots were playing a single-elimination playoff game against Matchless at 4:00 PM. As a means to not let softball take over my cycling, I compromised. Instead of riding the full 100-mile course, as I had hoped to do when I was racking up miles every week, I “settled” for the 65-mile, metric century course. That would allow me to finish by 2:30, head home to shower, and make the game in Williamsburg. The appeal of doing a supported ride, such as Escape New York, is that I aim for longer distances than my usual weekend ride. It’s a special occasion after all. And this year, my weekend rides were each about 65 miles long, so this amounted to one of those.
Although it had been about a month since I rode my bike, I pedaled from Long Island City to the ride’s starting point at Sakura Park at Riverside Drive and 122nd St. From there, I was feeling especially strong, and managed to maintain a little better than a 14–mile-per-hour pace throughout the entire route, including the slog from Queens to upper Manhattan and the rest of the 65-mile course. I finished by 2:25 PM, five minutes before my goal. I grabbed some food and liquids at the finish line, headed home just after 3:00, showered and changed from cycling to softball clothes, and arrived by 4:15 to fill in as a pinch hitter. By that point, however, the Robots were well on their way to big 20–9 win, and advancing to the finals.
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I’ve been feeling sore from Saturday’s Climb-a-thon ride: no wonder I got dropped. My calves hurt more than usual so I’ve been taking it “easy” over the last couple of days: I didn’t bike on Sunday to Beacon, as I had wanted to, but I did jump on the track bike on Monday for my daily commute.
It was on this ride that I began to hear my chain slip off the gears, both of them, a problem that has been getting worse throughout the summer. The slipping was so severe that I decided not to ride the bike hard the rest of the day. On Tuesday, I didn’t ride the track bike at all and instead rode my road bike for my daily commute. It was a little much, and I felt like such a dork every time I had to clip out at a stop light. I looked even worse trying to clip back in to my pedals.
Exclusively riding the road bike is not a permanent solution: I have to fix my drivetrain. Hugo from Spokesman Cycles told me that I had to get a whole new drivetrain: a new chainring, a new freewheel, and a new chain. It would set me back about $80 for the parts and about another $40 for the labor.
Although that pricing doesn’t seem terrible, I’d like to try to replace it all myself. I’ve been snooping around and it appears that there’s a lot to this.
Chainring
I need to figure out the size of the Chainring that I want. I currently have a 46-tooth in the front, and I would like something a little bigger so I can ride a little faster and a bit harder. I’ve settled on a 48-tooth.
Chainrings have a specific size, depending on the diameter of the bolt pattern, known as a bolt circle diameter (or BCD). One very nice guy at a very nice bike shop told me it’s 110 mm, and another guy at a shop down the street, run by some sketchy dudes, told me it’s 130 mm. The spec sheet for my FSA Vero crankset says that my BCD is 130 mm. Credit the sketchy dudes for possibly being correct, although they did try to upsell me on a used (possibly stolen) Sugino 75 crankset for $200.
Freewheel
I also have to replace the freewheel in the rear. I currently have a Shimano 18-tooth freewheel in the rear. I am considering a 17-tooth to significantly increase my gear inches.
| Teeth |
46 teeth |
48 teeth |
| 18 teeth |
67.2 gear inches |
70.1 gear inches |
| 17 teeth |
71.1 gear inches |
74.2 gear inches |
To install the freewheel, I can either have a bike shop do it, or I can buy the parts necessary to do it. A single-speed freewheel remover has to match the pattern of the freewheel. It turns out that I need to get one, such as the Park Tool FR-6, that is designed for BMX bikes and those with a specific Shimano pattern. I also need something to torque the removal tool, as the tool is basically just a screwdriver bit. I can use a regular crescent wrench, but a lot of gear heads recommend the Park Chain Whip tool since it has a chain on it to better secure the freewheel to the hub. It also has an hex opening that perfectly fits the FR-6.
While the chain whip is nice to have to secure the freewheel, installing the freewheel apparently only requires a little bike lubricant. Pedaling the bike will tighten the freewheel onto the hub, particularly on uphill climbs.
Chain
I need to replace the by-now worn chain. My bike requires a single-speed chain, which is sometimes marketed as a 8-speed chain, that’s either 1⁄8" or 3⁄32" wide by ½" long. I also probably have to remove some links. Hugo recommended I get the KMC Z510.
The collection of drivetrain parts are such that I should decide between 3⁄32" and 1⁄8". I’ve settled on the larger 1⁄8 since they’re thicker and presumably tougher, but going smaller might reduce some weight. It also appears easier to get 3⁄32" parts.
And such is the joy of bicycle repair and maintenance.
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On Saturday, I rode Richard Rosenthal’s celebrated Climb-a-thon through the New York Cycle Club. It was a tour of five notable hills in Bergen (New Jersey) and Rockland (New York).
Those climbs included:
- River Road (actual name is Hudson River Drive) and its .75 mile ascent to the Palisades Interstate Police station in Alpine, New Jersey.
- a loop down to Snedens Landing in the town of Palisades, New York, to glimpse the priceless views of the Hudson, and right back up via a steep, winding road.
- Bradley Parkway and Tweed Boulevard, a continuous climb through Blauvelt State Park that according to local legend is haunted.
- Tallman Mountain Road that connects Tallman State Park, Route 9W, and the town of Piermont, New York.
- Eisenhower Drive (affectionately known as “Ike”) in Demarest, New Jersey. I rode this back in June, and I distinctly remember as part of the climb through “Presidents streets.”
Well, I got dropped. Not because of the climbs because of the flats. The group had been advertised as a 18-mph ride. I was a little slower than that, just shy of 17, but whoever was pulling the group was going around 20. Keeping up with that would have been almost impossible for me. One rider also objected to this fast pace. He and I rode on our own and kept a respectable pace, doing about 18-19 on the flats, and about 4-5 on the really steep climbs.
My plan today was to follow up the climbing with a ride from Poughkeepsie to Ellenville to Beacon, where I would meet up with friends, much like I did on Bastille Day. But I was too damn tired. Not only did I burn out on those flats, I didn’t do a “good recovery” by playing softball and going to a friend’s late-summer BBQ. But it’s Saturday, and I didn’t want to spend it only drinking a protein shake.
Of all the complaints that the Citi Bike software has received, such as bikes not being checked in with a reassuring green light or your entire trip history disappearing, the combination of yellow and red lights appearing at the same time was new to me.
I first saw the red light appear when I docked a bike at 21st St and 6th Ave, in Chelsea. What does that mean? I tried to remove the bike from the dock, but it would not come loose. I tried to checkout the bike, but the red light came on and would not let me take it. Was the bike just now totally unavailable?
My gone-yesterday-here-today-gone-tomorrow list of trips shows that the bikes I borrowed yesterday were returned. Maybe this particular station is buggy. Who knows?
Having missed Saturday’s ride to the Ashokan Reservoir in the Catskills, I took a day off on Thursday to make up the ride. There were two complications. First, the earliest weekday off-peak train for Poughkeepsie leaves at 9:44. That’s two hours later than the first weekend bike train and under the best of circumstances I wouldn’t start pedalling until well after 11:00 AM. I had resigned to getting a late start and finishing sometime in the evening. That was fine since I kept the whole day free so I could ride, but something happened on Wednesday.
My weeknight softball team, the Ramblers, had to play a third game in our league’s semi-finals. We had split the first two games of the series on Wednesday and we had to play the third and deciding game on Thursday. I had to come back by 7:00 to play in that game. Riding to Ashokan would have been out of the question.
Instead of taking two trains and riding nearly eighty miles in the Catskills, I rode to Cold Spring via the tried-and-true Bike Route 9. I would have to take the 4:19 train from Cold Spring to make it back to New York by 6:00 and the 7:00 game.
In all, it was a tad over sixty miles to Cold Spring. I had planned on riding through Harriman State Park but I was concerned about having enough time so I opted for a more direct path along Bike Route 9. I had never taken this route past Rockland State Park so it was a new experience for me.
The route is clearly marked and with signs so it’s easy to follow. However, there was one place where the route appears to disappear. Between Tompkins Grove and Iona Island, the path directs you off US-9W to a lightly travelled road. But the road ends.
I backtracked a mile to the bike route’s junction with 9W and continued north along US-9W/US-202. A good deal of this route was uphill but nothing overwhelming. There were some nice views and a nice downhill after the climb. About three miles later, I was reunited with Bike Route 9, and I continued through Bear Mountain State Park and across the Bear Mountain Bridge over the Hudson River and on to Putnam county.
As I did when I rode to Cold Spring in July, I ended the day at Whistling Willie’s on Main Street. I could have made the 3:21 train but opted for a burger and a beer. The food and drinks are great after a ride, and better than the Depot, but the staff is a bit cold. “Good Food. Fresh Service,” as Ed Debevic’s used to boast.
