Ride Report

The FLCC’s Sunday Rides started this weekend and given the lovely weather and the announcement that the first ride would be taken “as a social occasion more than a serious ride” the accomplice and I decided to join the party. When we arrived at the meeting point, however, basically everyone on the parking lot looked pretty serious to us—lycra clad, road bike-equipped guys. Well, we joined the ride anyway but it became clear pretty quickly that we couldn’t/wouldn’t want to keep up with their pace. Thus we decided to let the other guys do their thing while we’d be doing our own. At a pace comfortable to us, we rode out on NY-89 to lovely Taughannock State Park, up to Trumansburg with a pastry stop at Gimme!, and back to Ithaca on nice, quiet back roads. It was a really nice ride, except for the fact that we had forgotten to put on sunscreen and the accomplice got burned quite a bit. We might give the Sunday Ride another try, hoping that there will be more like-minded (and like-speeded) cyclists. ...

Finally the weather has been nice enough for me to take out Gunnar for a couple of rides. After a short loop through the city and a ride to the FLCC spring seminar two Sundays ago, yesterday I took Gunnar on a real test ride, out to Taughannock and back on Route 89. And Gunnar rides like a charm. I pushed it pretty hard and averaged at 30.7 km/h for the out-of-town portion of the ride. I think the geometry works pretty well for me, but I will keep tinkering with it: saddle height is maybe still a bit too low, but the current seat post is already at its max. And if I have to get a new seat post anyway, I might get one with a different set-back. Currently my KOPS (knee over pedal spindle) position is about 6 cm behind the spindle and my saddle is as far forward as possible. I’m well aware that several cycling gurus are rather skeptical of the KOPS method and their arguments are making a lot of sense to me. But given that my saddle is at the margin of adjustability, a zero-setback post would give me more options to tinker with my position. Probably I should just ask Glenn for advice. Handlebar height might get readjusted downwards, too. At the moment my posture is fairly aggressive, but I think I could drop a spacer or two and still be comfortable. I’ll go for another ride with another German guy today and we’ll see how Gunnar feels after 2 or 2.5 hours. I definitely expect my behind to hurt, as the Selle Italia Flite Gel Flow (I have the one without titanium rails) saddle is just too tiny. My knees might also be a trouble spot, as I messed them up a bit yesterday, courtesy of a downward sliding seat post… I also shot some outside pictures of Gunnar. I hope you’ll enjoy: Odo Wolfgang: 3924 km Odo Gunnar: 991 km (point zero is at 954 km) ...

What’s a good indicator of the coming spring? That my kilometrage is up and my blog-postage is down. Just a quick maps-con-pics from last week’s lovely ride to Taughannock Falls. If you want more details: I think the accomplice might blog about the ride soon. Oh, and I've done the first couple short rides on Gunnar. Verdict: nice ride, but still needs some adjustments. More detailed account to follow sometime.

In a last-minute effort to increase my February mileage a bit and to figure out the road conditions for part of my planned ride to Lake Ontario, I went on a loop ride from campus to Genoa last Wednesday. Conditions were mediocre: around 0°C, cloudy, no precipitation, but a really gross film of dirt, salt, and water on the roads. A second pair of pants would definitely have been good. My route led me straight north from Cornell campus, past the Lansing malls and up to the intersection with NY-34. There I turned left to follow 34B for a short portion (lots of trucks on there, going to and from the Cargill salt mine in Lansing) and then turned right onto Brickyard Hill Rd. This road leads you down into the Salmon Creek valley. Salmon Creek Rd is one of those great Upstate New York rural roads: good surface, mostly flat and almost no traffic. ...

Quick ride report: Temperature only slightly below 0° C made me jump on Wolfgang and do my standard round to Trumansburg and back. When I started it was very grey and snowing, making the ride to Trumansburg not terribly pretty;. I love those quiet country roads... I was, however, rewarded with a nice view of the icy falls in Taughannock State Park. From Trumansburg ride The reason for riding to Trumansburg (aside from it being a nice ride) is that it allows me to work for a couple of hours at the Gimme!Coffee there. Wolfgang parked in downtonw T-Burg On the way back, I made a quick stop at the lower Taughannock Park (the Gorge trail is open, btw) and at Allen Treman Park in Ithaca to shoot some pictures of the lake. It was pretty windy From Trumansburg ride Not the right time of year for a BBQ The Cayuga inlet is completely frozen Ride stats: 48.6 km, 588 m elevation gain, average moving speed 21 km/h

The weather forecast for Saturday looked good -- 4° C and sunny -- and after a foggy early AM, Saturday delivered on its promise. I decided to ride out to Spencer and back, using a backroad alternative on the way there and NY34 on the way back. As Spencer is 180 m above Ithaca, this puts almost all of the climbing into the first half of the ride. The advantage of this: your legs are still fresh and, more importantly, the climbing is on scenic backroads, away from traffic. While NY34 isn't the most busy road and has relatively decent shoulders, it still has a good amount of traffic. Going Spencer to Ithaca, I probably had an average speed of around 30 km/h, making the traffic much more pleasant to deal with. General ride notes: I left Ithaca on Spencer Road, going parallel to the busy NY13. There is a little foot trail connector between Spencer Road and Buttermilk Falls State Park. If you have a road bike with skinny tires, you'd probably have to walk your bike there, but it's only 50 meters or so. From the state park parking lot you again have to go on little foot trails to get to Sandbank Road. Sandbank Road is the first major climb with a pretty steep grade. Fortunately, the climb is not too long, and once you've reached the intersection with W King Rd, the route continues to go up, but rather gently. Up on Jersey Hill Road The next intersection is with Comfort Road, and a few kilometers in from there, you hit the first dirt road parts. The road condition is fairly okay, but I'd recommend at least 28 mm tires and possibly more if it's really wet. (For my ride, the ground was still mostly frozen.) Comfort Rd, shortly before it turns into a dirt road Around km 15 you enter Danby State Forest and soon get to an intersection with Bald Hill Rd. Well, actually this turned out to be a T-intersection, with Comfort Road ending. I was rather surprised, since my original plan, made on the basis of Google Maps, was to just continue through the intersection on Comfort Rd. However, that part of Comfort Road does not exist or, at best, it exists as a hiking trail. This is supposed to be Comfort Road. I see neither "comfort" nor "road." I've had that problem with Google Maps before. Just compare the following two maps. View Larger Map View Larger Map Lesson learned: if riding on minor roads, also cross-check the existence of roads. My Garmin Topo map had it right (while Openstreetmaps has it wrong, just like Google). Anyways, instead of taking Comfort Road, I turned left on Bald Hill Rd, which leads you down into Danby. Turn right on NY 96B and take the next right onto Michigan Hollow Rd. Michigan Hollow is maybe the nicest part of the ride. You're following the stream into the state forest on a wide dirt road with almost no traffic. Once again, in wet conditions and with skinny tires you might run into problems. Around km 23 you could turn left on Smiley Hill Rd but this is a "minimum maintenance road" which is not ridable in winter. Minimum maintenance indeed. Thus, I just kept going on Michigan Hollow all the way through the state forest. If you keep going further on Michigan Hollow you will eventually reach NY 34. If you don't care about going into Spencer, this would provide a slightly shorter alternative. Instead, I turned left at km 28 onto Signore Hill Road. This, again, is a dirt road and the first part is short but very steep, making my wheels lose traction a couple of times. Signore Hill will slow you down all by itself After you've reached the high point, the road follows another stream, providing another very nice part of the ride. Back in Danby State Forest Signore Hill eventually connects with Irish Hill and Fisher Settlement Road, leading you right into Spencer. The valley opening up on Fisher Settlement Road In Spencer you can re-fuel at the local inn, the gas station, or a supermarket, before taking the speedy downhill route back into Ithaca. Downtown Spencer Buttermilk Falls Odo Wolfgang: 3217 km

Short ride report for a short ride. I had to go up to campus to get a couple of books and I didn't feel like taking the direct route. So I went up South Hill and hit the trailhead for the South Hill Recreation Way. I was worried that it might be all ice, but actually it was a very rough, frozen snow surface. Traction was okay (I couldn't go much faster than 10 km/h anyway) but it was as bumpy as a washboard. I had never taken the trail before and it was completely dark, and thus I missed an intersection and was led back to Coddington Road instead of taking the trail all the way up to Burns Road. Notable events: I used my Toasti Toes foot warmers in my normal cycling shoes for the first time. Result: Numb feet after the uphill part, but got back to normal much faster than usual. And on the short descent into Ithaca they kept my feet surprisingly warm.

On my other, mostly inactive blog I’ve posted a tutorial for creating embedded maps with GPS tracks and geotagged images. Not quite sure why I didn’t post this here, and thus I at least wanted to link to the post.

Two ride reports in one: As announced previously, there was the Tour de Solstice, the “shortest ride on the shortest day.” It was cold, but not insanely so, the roads were mostly clear, and it was great fun to ride around Ithaca with 30 or so other cyclists. BikeIt, the co-organizers have posted a ride report with a bunch of pictures. The next day my accomplice and her sister went to the spa and I thought I’d dial in a couple more kilometers for December. Following the Finger Lakes Cycling Club’s Newfield/Odessa sunday ride with some modifications, I went on a 105 km ride. It was really cold (about -5 C and windy), but my outfit more or less worked in keeping me warm. I wore wool socks and a plastic bag in my cycling shoes and neoprene booties on my feet, bib tights, old men thrift store wool pants, bike jersey, hooded sweater, rain jacket, and a balaclava. As expected, my feet and the freezing water bottles were the weak spots. I had pre-warmed the water bottles and they lasted for about 1.5 hours before becoming all slushy and finally freezing after 2 hours or so. At my first rest stop, the Alpine Junction Dandy Mini Mart, I refilled them with warm water and some coffee. Second rest stop was at the Trumansburg Gimme!Coffee, with a tasty coffee and a vegan date bar. Total ride time was about 6.5 hours, moving time 5 hours, moving average 21.2 km/h, overall distance 106 km. Last year, after a long and really miserable ride I had promised myself that I’d never do it again. But now, with improved equipment, I actually enjoyed the ride and would do it again. ...

I’m not a big fan of winter (especially of the kind of winter we have here in Upstate NY) but I must admit that riding in the winter does have its appeal. I went for a quick spin out to Trumansburg yesterday and worked for a while at Gimme. By the time I started my way, via Enfield, it was totally dark and riding through the night on quiet backroads is pretty cool. The experience is quite different from daytime riding because you focus almost exclusively on riding. Something I tested for the first time yesterday were chemical foot warmers. I have serious cold/numb foot problems and so I thought I’d try something new. The combo of wool socks, foot warmers, summer cycling shoes, and neoprene booties was pretty good. I still ended with numb feet but it was much better than usual. I might buy more. On a different note: I bought a new frame on ebay! More on that later. ...