This weekend was an awesome one to be out on a bike! On Saturday I managed to log 75 miles worth of riding for the day, although I probably shouldn't call it a "training ride." It was more like an extended meander/gawk/goof-and-drink-beer day on the bike...
I trucked my bike to the Bedford terminus of the Minuteman Rail trail around noon then biked eastbound to Harvard Square to meet up with my buddy Dave Curado. After a couple of wrong turns and phone calls, I finally found Dave, then we headed off into Boston. We rode all around town: close to the Commons then down to the South End, then up along by the Rose Kennedy Greenway and up to the North End. Traffic wasn't too bad, and Dave got to play "tag" with one of the "Duck Tour" amphibious bus things. After stopping in the North End for a calzone at
Bova's bakery (great place! open 24 hours), we started back West toward Belmont, where we would commence "part 2" of the day's ride...
For "part 2" of the day's ride, Dave C and I met up with 2 more recumbent riders at Belmont Wheelworks: Scott Chamberlain and Dave Pinal. Scott (great guy, good friend, and all-knowing about bikes) works at Belmont Wheelworks and had organized a "Boston Bike & Brew Tour" for the evening -- a recumbents-only pub crawl all around the greater Boston area. Dave P. (aka "New Dave") is a newly-minted convert to the wonderful world of recumbent bikes, with less than a hundred miles on his shiny new Giro. The four of us struck out from Wheelworks at about 6:30 PM. FYI - you can also read Scott's accounting of the evening ride on his "
Boston Recumbent Users Group" blog.
We rode down to Waltham along the very scenic Charles River to our first stop, a little pub called "
The Gaff". After a round of IPA we left Waltham for Newton, where we stopped at a little place called "
The West Street Tavern". By the time we'd finished our pints, it was dark, so we
lit up the bikes and hit the road again. Next stop was a new bar/restaturant in Allston called "
Deep Ellum" (presumably in honor of the Deep Ellum district in Dallas). Nice place -- need to get back there. Finally, the last stop on our night ride was the old standby "
Boston Beerworks", not too far from the Boston Garden. After our rounds at Boston Beerworks, Dave C went on his way and Dave Pinal Scott and myself pedaled back westward to the Minuteman Rail trail terminus at Alewife in Cambridge. At Alewife Scott split off to ride home to Dover and Dave P and I continued West on the rail trail. I managed to catch a flat tire near Lexington on the trail, so was able to give Dave P an on-the-spot tutorial on how to change a tire in the dark. Thankfully it was too cold for mosquitoes, and we were back underway in about 10 minutes.
We arrived at the parking lot in Bedford at 1AM, where my truck was patiently waiting. After we strapped the bikes down, everyone was home and dry within a half hour.
Like I said at the start of this post, I probably shouldn't call it a 'training ride', but it was a nice long day on the bike -- and I managed to log 75 miles before it was done. Got to hang out with some great folks, riding around Boston (day and night) seeing the sights. Regardless, it was a day worth noting and I wanted to share...
Thanks for stopping by!
/doug
