Biking Dude Blog

It's not a bicycle built for two, but it is going to get me to California. After much waiting and some adventures with a stuck seatpost, I now have a bike equal to the challenge of crossing the country. In other news, the ORO live album sound great, many thanks to those guys for putting on a great show and giving me such a fun project to work on while my bike was being built. I've been stay with friends in Boston since my last post, but I was back at Olin yesterday and today for expo and SCOPE expo. I saw some very cool projects that the Olin students have done this past year. Tomorrow I will get bike shoes and start collecting the last few items that I need for my trip. Five days now until I leave, I'm very excited.

I wanted to write a little bit about where I bought my bike. It's a rebuilt Fuji touring bike that I found at Cambridge Used Bicycles. Spiros, the gentleman on the right side of this picture, recently bought the business from the previous owner, Vinny. Spiros was a huge help in the past week and a half, from putting a priority on getting new parts on my bike to waging all out war on a stuck seat post and tinkering with the derailleurs to getting the shifting just right.
Spiros, thank you for everything, I'll send you a post card from California. I wish you the best of luck until we meet again.
For anyone in the Boston area that is looking for a bike, I would highly recommend stopping by Cambridge Used Bicycles, which is located at 201 Monsignor O'Brien Highway, in the basement of the antiques market.

At 8:05 pm on May 12, 2016, I officially began my bicycle trip across the country when I wetted my wheels (and my feet) in the Atlantic ocean. I don't start in earnest until Monday and have a few things to take care of before then, but the timing worked out for me to go to the ocean tonight. It will make things easier on Monday when I don't have to bike into and out of Boston at the beginning of the day. This picture was taken by Skip, a really nice guy that I met when I was walking down the rocky beach to the water. We talked a bit about my trip, and he told me about taking a motorcycle in a loop around the country for his honeymoon. I've started contacting people on warmshowers.org to stay with for my first week of biking, and I have things pretty well planned out all the way to Ithaca. Olin college graduation is on Sunday, and I'm going tree climbing with some friends on Saturday to retrieve a weather balloon, so it should be a fun weekend.

But I'm leaving on a bike, not a jet plane. Today, I begin the great American bicycle adventure. My first stop is in Princeton, MA with the parents of an old friend. The distance will be about 40-50 miles. I did a test pack yesterday and rode my bike around for some final trouble shooting. After raising the seat post and making some minor adjustments to the brake pads and derailleur cables, I am all ready to go. I will undoubtedly continue to make adjustments as my trip progresses, but I am now as ready as I can possibly be to start.

I traveled about 61.1 miles today.
I actually only went 46.1 miles today, but my post detailing the 15 mile journey from Cambridge to Olin was eaten by cyberspace monsters (I can only assume...), so I added that millage to today's post. I spent a lot of today battling headwinds and/or climbing hills. Even so, I managed to average 13.8 mph, which I consider to be a fairly respectable rate for a first day. I am staying with my old roommate's parents tonight, and they have been very kind and generous hosts. Tomorrow, I will be getting an early start on my 75 mile trek to Chester, MA. Luckily, the first chunk will be mostly down hill (my reward for today's hills). This picture is from a farm that I rested at during today's travels. It was so idyllic that part of me just wanted to camp next to that pond

I traveled about 79.9 miles today.
What a day. About five miles longer than expected due to a (very worthwhile) detour and plenty of hills to make sure I wasn't slacking off. I spent some of my morning bike ride on one of the Massachusetts rail trails, old railroad paths that have been converted to walking/biking trails. I really liked these trails because they were so flat and car-free. The only downside was that they were dirt roads, and I had to keep an eye out for large rocks. This picture is from one of those trails. I stopped at a little reservoir thus morning for a rest, and meet Scott and Jeff, who were fishing for trout. We chatted a bit before I hit the road again. If you're reading this, hope the fishing went well. I also met Debbie, Bruce, and Allie at a rest stop on the Norwottuck rail trail, just outside of Amherst. We talked about my trip for a while, and they gave me done good advice about the roads in this area. I was able to visit one of the breweries in Northampton this afternoon, before making my final push to Chester along the hilly route 66. My host tonight is John, who had been very gracious in letting me stay with him and feeding me dinner. Thanks John! I'm quite tired from today's ride, and tomorrow will be another long one, but I'm confident that I will be able to complete it successfully.

This is Dave, from Building 8 Brewing. I stopped by their location in Northampton MA this afternoon to sample the beer. They're less than a year old, and only make one beer (an ipa), but it sure is good. When I stopped by, they were working on installing a second set of fermentation tracks to step up their brewing capacity. Dave was very supportive of my trip, and offered me two cans of their beer that had been short filled for free. Taking on an extra quart of liquid before a step hill climb may not have been the wisest choice, but it was definitely worth it to have a tasty beer at the end of the day. Thanks Dave!

Hi RFA. Hope all is going well. I found a cat on my travels, thought you might appreciate the picture.

I traveled about 75.3 miles today.
I didn't actually go down the road less traveled today, opting instead for the paved county road. Today was good, a few big hill climbs, but nothing unreasonable. I caught a little sun today, despite putting on sunscreen this morning. I'll have to be better about that in the future.
Tomorrow looks like it will be rainy, which will give me a good opportunity to test my rain gear (that's how I'm choosing to look at it...).
I'm staying with Al tonight in Freehold. Al is a very cool guy, his background is in electrical and computer stuff. He's worked at companies that develop audio equipment for recording and radio studios, and has also taught at university, so we some great discussions about audio equipment and engineering. His current venture is in making kits for radio station mixing consoles, specifically for the low power community radio market that has cropped up in the last few years. He has a very cool modular design scheme that he designed for these consoles. You can check out his company, Kaatskit, on the supporters page.

I traveled about 67.6 miles today.
Today was pretty uneventful. Had a few good, but manageable, climbs. No rain today, which was certainly nice. I briefly met Eric in Windham today when I was stopping to check my directions. He walked over to see if I needed any help. Turns out he's also a cyclist, and gave me some advice about the roads in the area before I left. Thanks Eric, if you're reading this! My gear has been working well so far. I'm going to try adjusting the cleat on my left shoe tomorrow, it's been feeling a little off the past few days. Al rode out with me for a few miles this morning, it was nice to have some company to start the day. Tonight I'm staying with Ed, who lives near Delhi in an awesome mountain cabin turned into a house with his dog Huck. He's been cycling for many, many years, and shared some pretty interesting stories about how touring was done before the advent of the internet.

Ed rode out with me for 20 miles this morning, which was really fun. We saw some great scenery, and Ed knew the best roads to take out of town. Thanks Ed!