Blake (first time!), Lennart, Patrick, myself (and Marc Bertucco), met up at the GWB to ride north to the Tappan Zee, then over to the Trailway, then home.  

Looks like Blake made it back ok, even has all sorts of PRs to show for it, even at the end.

Simple ride, conversational pace.  Good times.

https://www.strava.com/activities/10286886147

Thanks JP for leading us through Westchester and the Bronx. It was a nice alternative to the west side of the Hudson

Had a great time despite some rough patches, thanks all for the warm welcome and JP for leading us all the way. 🙏

Sorry I couldn’t make it , looks like fun , I had to be back early so headed out with Jeff , wahoo was saying 26degrees in creskill🥶

Hey, anyone up for riding Saturday?  9am at the GWB.  Maybe 3.5 hours from the Bridge?

Figure Sunday will be pretty bad, so looking to get in some extra miles.

I may try to make it out.  I've got an FTP test to do for Basecamp so we'll see.  Don't wait for me.

It was about 46f when I rolled out to the GWB.  Roads were wet, but I was rear fendered.  The GWB was partially shrouded in fog.  No one was waiting at the GWB.  (Marc Bertucco was rolling on the bridge). Chatted with some guys going another way. Waited 'til 9:12. 

The two of us rolled out.  My goal was basically make it out to the orchard via some different roads and home via some different roads.

But, Marc was playing devil in my ear.  "It's pretty nice out."  "Not a lot of days like this."  "It's going to be raining all day tomorrow."  "You haven't done the roads out by Tompkins Cove in a long time."  

At South Mountain, where if you turn left, the road takes you up to the Orchards of Concklin, it was drying up a bit.  So, we went right, down to Haverstraw.  Down the ramp to Bike Route 9, taking the low road through town.  The Hudson was pretty high, probably a combo of rain and high tide, but not so high that the "road flooded" sign was accurate.  

9W in Stony Point is in terrible shape.  But we rolled to the Cove Deli, site of Kissena's Bear Mountain Century rest stop, got a snack (someone, not me, forgot to bring food), and then climbed Buckberg (ouch--forgot how hard this climb is) and headed back.  

Tried to keep off the usual roads for much of the way.  

A good ride. And long.  84mi from Harlem.  

I made it as far as park slope , tubeless failure 😩

@mugwump I rode up that way last week. 9w further north past the deli (basically between the deli and where 9w goes uphill to get to Bear) is absolutely horrible. It's better coming south towards the deli but still bad. I'm sure you guys hit them, but Havestraw's newly paved roads down by the river are buttery smooth and fast

Would anyone be interested in doing a metro-north gravel ride in Bedford/Katonah this Saturday? Here's the route I was thinking: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/45118308

Two good starting points along the route would be either the Katonah metro-north station (Where Acme's other location is) or Bedford Hills (Where our new sponsor Ride Brooklyn's new store is!!).

We could also add another 17 miles each way by riding from the Greenwich train station (right by my place).

@GrantSeltzer  It's a nice offer, though I don't know if I can make it--the extra hour or so of train time each way might be a bit over my time budget.

That written, it seems trains get to Bedford at 17 after the hour, like 8:17 and 9:17.  And trains leave Bedford at 19 after the hour, like 12:19, 1:19, 2:19.  Either way, it's about an hour of train time. 

I chose bedford because it seems like it might be a bit closer to NYC.  

Fair enough @mugwump! Anyone wanna brave the train ? 

I’m moving on Saturday, but am very interested in riding Sunday morning

@GrantSeltzer  I think if you're still up for it, I'm in.  

The Harlem Line Train arrives at Bedford Hills at 9:17am on Saturday.  IF that can work for you.  

Last minute, but planning on hitting Cunningham on my cross bike tomorrow (Sat Dec 9th) — expect to be in the trails around 9;30 am. Lmk if you wanna join, text or reply here — 347.225.1058

Saturday is tough, will be looking to do standard Sunday GWB 9a or if anyone is into an early bird special, can be convinced to roll 8a GWB. Tempo chill ride.

Grant, 
     Nice route.  I was on the fence last night.  When I got up this morning and contemplating going, my son suggested I'd regret it if I didn't go.  With that endorsement, I had to.  

     As my 'cross bike didn't have a bottle cage on it, I grabbed a spare cage before riding to the train station.  As I was installing it there, I found that either the mounts or the cage isn't to spec(!). So, since I didn't have a place to stash the cage, I put in the top bolt, cinched it down, and hoped for the best.

     There were seven other cyclists on the train with me.  A group of three, a group of two, and two other solo guys.  All but the group of three got off before me.  Several of those used threaded their helmet straps through the luggage rack to lash to their front wheels and secure the bikes vertically.  Each bike took up a bank of seats, but the train was empty.

    after a quick tour of dowtown Katonah, I found the start and headed out.  Pretty dark out still, but the roads were empty.  And, the "gravel" was largely smoothish unpaved roads that could be ridden on a road bike with 20mm tires.  That changed with teh climb of Bailey Mountain in Mountain Lake Park.  This was real chunky gravel, the kind you need at least 32mm tires for.  You might be able to climb it with 25mm road tires, but I don't think you'd be able to descend it.  And I pinch-flatted at the end of the gravel descent.  It was the toughest gravel of the day by far.

     The route twists and turns so much, I kept the map page on my computer.  Never felt like any road was straight for more than a half mile.  Any busy-seeming road was never more than a minute or two.  And rarely did I have to deal with cars on the unpaved roads at all.  It was fun to be out on my own on new roads just rolling.  The bottle cage was even staying put.  While I wasn't racing myself, I was wondering if I could do the ride in less than three hours, and catch the 12:28 train back to the city.  Stopping for a nature break, I glanced at the time.  It was 11:41 and I had 15 miles to go.  Definitely wasn't making the 12:28, which was a little freeing.

    THe sun finally came out in the final 10 miles, which was the long way to go from Bedford to Katonah.  But, it was a good way to get in more gravel.

    One surprising thing is that the RideWithGPS file stated there would be about 3400' of climbing in the 40 miles.  My Bolt says it was 4,042', which might explain why I felt so slow.

    And on the train ride home, the two guys who got out in Bedford, got back on the train in Bedford.  

https://www.strava.com/activities/10355225110

Chappaqua was so civilized.


The cyclists on the way out really monopolized space.  Do bring a toe strap, and it's probably more polite to remove the front wheel, so the bikes don't take up so much room.



There was alot of this.


Not quite enough of this.


And because any good ride needs a little bizarre, I'm sharing this.


I thought maybe the boats belonged to a summer camp and had been stolen and busted.  Or maybe the water had been higher before a storm came in. Turns out, the water behind the boats is a reservoir, and people can row on the lake so long as the boat is flat-bottomed, doesn't go into any other bodies of water (minimize contamination), and the owners have permits.  So people leave their boats in makeshift dry docks like this, sometimes locking them.  They need to bring their oars on each visit.  

The guys who got on the train in Bedford told me they passed a peacock farm.  

JP that looks like an awesome ride and can't wait to do that with you and others. 

Does look pretty sweet, but wait…, you did the ride Grant proposed, the day he proposed, but didn’t ride w Grant?!?

eloy said:

Does look pretty sweet, but wait…, you did the ride Grant proposed, the day he proposed, but didn’t ride w Grant?!?

@GrantSeltzer went radio silent yesterday.  I posted here and messaged him.  

Hope he's ok.  

As mentioned, forecast tomorrow is not amaze, might just try to do tomorrow’s (Sunday Dec 10) Basecamp zone 2 thingie in Prospect Park — GAP start 8am, lmk if you wanna join — if I don’t hear from anyone i might start at a slightly different time

If it's supposed to be dry at 9, I expect to be at the bridge.

My movers had a solid 8 hour delay today, so I’ll not make it tomorrow - have fun though!

Not surprisingly, no one was at the bridge at 9.  No worries.  I had a rain jacket, rain gloves, and toe covers in case I was faced with rain.  The plan was for two hours from home.  Figured I'd just tool  around near the bridge to have an easy ride back of the rain came.

It didn't. The roads were wet in Cresskill, which got me a bit nervous, and caused me to skip a few slow hills, but no rain showed and all was good--that is, except my legs, which were pretty dead.

https://www.strava.com/activities/10361083382/

@mugwump omfg I can't believe I didn't see your message, I didn't think anyone was in and forgot to check back I'm so sorry about that, i'm glad you had a good ride though!

Wow i'm feeling so dumb right now, I ended up riding on zwift because I didn't want to ride alone... Sorry again. From now on I'll put my phone number in posts like this...

mugwump said:

One surprising thing is that the RideWithGPS file stated there would be about 3400' of climbing in the 40 miles.  My Bolt says it was 4,042', which might explain why I felt so slow.

Feels like maybe we discussed this before?

The default of all GPS bases cycle computers (Wahoo, Garmin, Hammerhead) is to record an estimated elevation based on barometric pressure, while ride with gps, strava routes, etc... will use actual topographic elevation.

The barometric estimate mostly works, but it is just that, an estimate. This is specially obvious when we do laps in the park and the weather changes around us.

Both Strava and Training Peaks have a little button to edit post ride and use the actual topography elevation.

What's interesting is that these computers also have access to the maps, and topographic elevation, which they show in their newish "Climber" screens -- i.e. the elevation this screen shows and then the device records might actually differ!

On the other side, almost all topographic maps will underestimate the real life max gradient you'll experience in the field -- i.e. if RidewithGPS or Strava say max 16% expect it to be way over, likely 18% to 20% -- This is good to know for obvious reasons. 

-- and generally, maps can be slightly off from the field.

& of course, if you deviate from a route in anyway (add to the start finish, etc) you can easily add elevation

@eloy

All that is true.  I've even written a story about it. (https://alliedcycleworks.com/blogs/stories/measuring-the-metric-that-matters)

"I don't see an option to correct my elevation.

This means that your activity has already been corrected by cross-referencing your GPS data to an elevation database. Please also remember that elevation correction is only available on the web version of Strava."

Use the little 3 dots on Strava -- I am a Premium user, no idea if that matters.

On the Strava web app, right now. "Correct Elevation"

On the Strava mobile app, a second ago “Adjust Elevation”