Snowy Coffeeneuring 2015-5; Type1 Fun

10.18.2015 21m

There is a pathology of large groups: they take longer to use the bathroom, longer to get seated and served in a restaurant, and the odds of one person having a problem increases with the size of the group. Just like: multi-engine airplanes have more engine problems than single-engine airplanes.

This was Day2 of a weekend group ride, with 14 cyclists, and it was good to have a van staged at the overnight. One of the riders had an eye infection and needed to skip the return trip. Another rider wasn't feeling well but decided to ride anyway. It was great to have the resource present to give people choices to make.

It was a cold and snowy morning. There was no graupel /sleet /freezing-drizzle ambiguity; it was just snowing out. Between Saturday and Sunday, this was a Rule9 weekend. I'm so impressed at the folks in the group.

Rather than stopping to smell roses and take photos, we pretty much decided to ride fast and skip the blue herons and group lunch. Karen and I were off the front, so we stopped in at Fisher's Cafe in Peninsula Ohio for French Onion soup and coffee (Coffeeneuring 2015-5 for me, 2015-3 for Karen).

Coffeeneur 2015-5: Oct.18, 2015 Fisher's Cafe Pub. Peninsula, Ohio 21 miles. Coffee, cream & sugar


When we came out and got back on the trail, I figured we were behind the group but thought we'd catch them. Then I had a front flat tire. This was a bit of a puzzle; I found the hole in the tube but couldn't find the cause. Then my newish pump didn't seem to be working, and I was saved by my CO₂ backup.

We got to the Botzum trailhead just as everybody else was closing up their cars. Great ride, good company, Type1 fun. Also it was a great weekend for shaking down the cold weather gear.

Graupel: When Drizzle Fo' Shizzle Hits the Fan

Sat 10.17 25m

This weekend involved the annual Family Reunion Bike Ride of the Cleary Clan; always a fun time.

Our plan was to ride the Cuyahoga Valley National Park trail from just north of Akron to just south of Lake Erie. Our plan was that on Saturday, the group would park vehicles at the Botzum Trailhead 2730 Riverview Rd, Akron, OH 44313, stop in Peninsula Ohio for lunch, and leave the trail at the Rockside Trailhead
8196 Rockside Rd, Independence, OH 44131. It's 20 miles on the trail, and another mile from the northern trailhead to our hotel.

In an attempt to do logistics, Karen and I started out quite early and drove to the northern trailhead, parked our van, and hopped on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad for $3 each (bikes included!) The CVSR ferried us and our bikes to the Botzum Trailhead, where the ride was to start. This park-north, train-south, bike-north was a really terrific way to approach the ride.




The front of the train, which was a half-dozen cars for travelers with reservations, was sold out. The last two cars are kept open for cyclists only. You never need a reservation. You can stand at any of 20 train stations, wave at the train, and it will stop for you and carry you on your way. Absolutely tremendous.

Although the front of the train was Sold Out, there was a lot of room in the bike cars and I indulged in bikespreading, a new variation of manspreading on trains.



They distribute a really great trail map. It's abstracted to the point that it only shows the trail, the trailheads, and train station. I love this map.


This is a video of our karass getting started at BostonStoreStation.


This is a video of our party exiting the trail to transition into Peninsula, Ohio


After lunch, we got back on the trail and the weather turned a bit bitter. I couldn't tell if it was freezing drizzle, or melting sleet. Anyway, it was cold and wet and reduced the visibility a bit. At times it seemed like snow, at times it seemed like lumpy rain. It was Drizzle Fo'Shizzle, although I think the most-correct term is Graupel

Graupel (English /ˈɡraʊpəl/), also called soft hail, snow pellets or 'sago' is precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water are collected and freeze on a falling snowflake, forming a 2–5 mm ball of rime. The term graupel comes from the German language.

Graupel is distinct from hail, small hail and ice pellets: the World Meteorological Organization defines small hail as snow pellets encapsulated by ice, a precipitation halfway between graupel and hail. The METAR code for graupel is GS.

By the time the group got to the north end, folks were cold and wet and several had enjoyed enough of it, so it was great to have the van pre-positioned and we used it to shuttle some folks up the hill to the hotel.

Flocktober

10.16.2015 13m
This was the monthy 412Flock ride, with a hint of Halloween theme and a possible CosPlay appearance from the Japanese-American Society.

It was raining lightly until just before the ride. Angela appeared in a unicorn outfit and Drew appeared in an anime kit, but that was the extent of the costumery - although it must be said that cyclists often affect a costume of their own.

I towed the music cart for the ride. We didn't have a playlist, but Ray suggested The Cramps who have a horror-movie / scifi sound and it worked well.

While Thursday was a ride of expected conflict that never appeared, Friday's ride was an anticipated milk-run that turned into a bit of unexpected agita. Several drivers overtook and passed us in very aggressive maneuvers; they certainly gave us 3 feet of clearance, and they crossed the centerline to do that, but they did it with oncoming traffic approaching. They gunned their engines and put others at risk, all in order to stop at the next red-light a minute or two ahead; now that they were in front of us, their position was perhaps forty feet further along than if they'd stayed behind us.

One man pulled abeam our group and starting yelling at us. Then he pulled over and stopped in front of us, engine running and headlights on. He shouted back at us, and M. quite wisely said I don't need to get in front of that car. So we waited, then he pulled off.

We continued along to Free Ride, which was having a going-away party for one of their staffers. It was a nice group and a friendly room, but the agitation of the aggressive passing and the shouting drive stayed with me for a while.

Route51 Commuter Ride, ClohnArt Sighting

10.15.2015 20m

I got started very early, in Mount Oliver at about 0600. Rode through Carrick and Brentwood to arrive at the McDonalds on Banksville Road at Route 51 at about 0620.

By 0730 I'd been jointed by StuS, PaulH and Marko. Our goal was to ride Route51 from Brentwood to the West End Circle, which has been considered as a very bike-unfriendly section of a major stroad. One cyclist had been told by a gendarme that cycling wasn't allowed on Route51. So this was a sort of freedom of navigation exercise.

Funny thing was, the ride went as smooth as could possibly be; it was very pleasant. The road was recently paved. Everybody played really nice. Before I expected it, we were at West End Circle where Paul took this photo:


Then we rode across the West End Bridge. This bridge has a sidewalk, which leads to a three-flights staircase; bike fail so we took the lane. Coming off the bridge and stopped at a red light, a driver in an adjacent Mercedes rolled down the window to assert, that's not right, it's just not right.

I said, Excuse me? What's not right? He explained that us taking the lane and slowing down cars wasn't the right thing to do.

I said, We're both entitled to use that bridge. He said, But I pay for that bridge. I said, hey I pay for that bridge, too. I'm not bothering you about your using it, why are you bothering me? Don't bother me.

And he shrugged and rolled up the electric window. He wasn't mean or vulgar, he just engaged in conversation at a red light. I disagree with him, but he was a gentleman and civilized.

If they want me on the sidewalk, I'll ride on the sidewalk - when the sidewalk transitions to a ramp and not a three-story staircase.

Rode to GTBR. Thence to Big Dog for pourover coffee and to spend an hour. When it turned 11:00 I rode out onto East Carson Street. I happened to see a man gluing a poster up on a storefront and it turned out to be @ClohnArt, which is very cool.



I rolled over to Thick and picked up a small item I'd ordered. On the way back I tried to spot the street number of the place with the poster, but the poster wasn't there anymore. Later a tweet from @ClohnArt explained that the police had stopped and made him take the poster away. It's too bad, it was attractive and brighted up the space. I hope it ends up in a good spot.

Rode back up 18th Street which is always fun, to Mount Oliver.

Coffeeneuring 2015-4 at 4121Main

10.13.2015 20m

Started at the Bastille. Rode into Oakland, ran some errands. Rode over to 4121 Main for Coffeeneuring 2015-04.



My #coffeeneuring drink was "Ashram Afternoon" tea and it was wonderful.


The shop had a series of sketches on the wall by Maybe Sadeghi called "Constellations", I really liked this one (in fact, I bought a small copy)


Coming through the neighborhood, passed the house on Main St with the rotating murals on the side:

I believe this is Hazards of Modern Living by Gary Duehr.

The Postman Took Today Off

10.12.2015 17m

Another beautiful fall day, the sort of Western Pennsyltucky climate that I love.

I felt very utilitarian as I loaded up my panniers for some errands. I biked to the local drug store and made a purchase. I biked to the Post Office and womp-womp-womp-womp: the Post Office is locked!

It's Columbus Day National Look What We've Done Day except we don't want to look at it, so we mumble Indigenous People's Day but I would really prefer the Canadian elocution of First Nation's Day. But nobody asked me.

But this is kind of a threshold event for me, because I had no frontal-lobe awareness of the fact that it's a federal holiday, and pre-retirement the timing of federal holidays was a very important thing to me. To the point where, most federal employees know exactly how many US Presidents are still alive, because you get a day off when they die. (Carter, Bush41, Clinton42 as we may soon be referring to them, Bush43, and Obama.

That's five days off, sitting on the shelf, just waiting to be used. A true hound-dog federal employee would always prefer one-term Presidents, just to maximize the potential holiday pay.

I choose to interpret the fact that I wasn't thinking about the Federal Holiday as a sign that I have more fully transitioned into Retirement. Breathe in, breathe out, cough like a geezer.

Since the Federal Govmint was closed in a ritual celebration of looting and genocide to make a clear space for the slave trade, I turned to the free market for my next destination and rode to Bruster's Ice Cream in Bridgewater to contemplate this turn of events. Then I rode to Bridgewater Crossing and caught some rays in what is sure to be a future field of gentrification.

Rode back to the Rez, stopped at Starbucks for a cold water refill, so much goodness.

Coffeeneuring 2015-3 La Prima Espresso & Whale Sighting

10.11.2015 24m

Today was a magnificent fall day: bright, blue skies, no wind.

Started at the Bastille, rode past the start point of the 321 Ride which was just forming up. Seemed very well organized and there were signs all over the course.

Coming across the Ft.Duquesne bridge I picked up a piece of glass in my front tire. Heard it, pulled it out after a few rotations. I thought I'd dodged a bullet, but shortly thereafter I was flat. I need to get Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires for this new bike and stop with the nuisance flats.

Took a group of CMU grad students out on a tour. Riding through the SouthSide we took the designated detour around the new at-grade crossing at the Frank Bryan concrete plant



We used the official detour because the generally-used previous route has been blocked by somebody who seems to have a pent-up need to say, "nanny nanny boo-boo, follow the rules!"


It was a serendipitous pleasure was seeing a long-time colleague, TommyH, walking along McKean Street with his wife. It was a surprising place to see him, people generally just stroll through there. Thirty years ago when I reported to Pittsburgh, Tommy was one of the old-timers. He's still there! More than 50 years of government service. Among the older bunch his nickname was The Whale but I never knew why.

As we crossed the Smithfield Street bridge we picked up two lost transients who were trying to find Point State Park and told them: follow us. That worked well.

I think the high point was riding under the Convention Center (fortunately, the rainbow waterfalls were operating; I will miss that this winter).


Then we rode inbound on the Penn Ave bike lane, where I chanced to see Stu working an intersection for the 321 Ride, rocking a videocam on a chest harness. I dropped off the tour group and they seemed to have had a good time.


Rode to the Point again. It was so nice and sunny I hung out catching rays for a while. But #Coffeeneuring calls, so I got back on the bike and rode out to La Prima Espresso on 21st Street at Penn.

I had an Americano Doppio and a scone, and they were both excellent.


I sat outside at one of several tables. There was an interesting bunch of folks, including a few tables of older Italian men playing cards and making small-talk. You could probably get a leg broken by somebody they know; it might be your leg, it might be somebody else's leg, you'd have to find out.

There was a great two-person band playing on the steps of the closed bank next door to Enrico's Biscotti. Unfortunately, there was a road closure on Penn Avenue and several drivers needed to honk and yell at each other, which kind of confirmed riding the bike to get coffee. Quite a bit of agita.