Cycles of Change: Part ? Of ¿

This month has been a crazy one...but before I write the bulk of this post, I want to thank Facebook for reminding me that exactly one year ago today, I took The Bike With No Name out for her maiden voyage. Approximately 3,000 miles later, you can literally see what kind of a difference a year makes:

That's actually the under side of my handlebar grip, which I flipped around some time ago because I had already worn out the top half. That also kinda ties into why I haven't been blogging lately, even though I have been biking. Lookit:

Those of you closest to me know this already, and maybe I mentioned this on here before, but this hobby blog has actually been a great contributor to my personal and professional progress. In the first 2 months of this year, it's really moved me further than I'd ever imagined.

My higher ups (including my amazing former director of marketing) noticed this special space I've carved out in cyber space some time back in 2015 and offered me an opportunity to do part-time marketing work at Wash Cycle Laundry. As the saying goes, the rest is history.

I spent the next year-ish learning on the job, and when my supervisor left for her own bigger dreams back in December, the door opened for me to step into a larger role in marketing and sales. I've been away from the blog for the last month or so as I trained a replacement for my commercial route. Happy to say, my replacement is doing awesome, and I'm expecting big things from the both of us. Let's just say we both had good trainers (I promise no more shameless self promotions).

Nearly 2 years to the day that we opened our North Philly plant, it was tough to let go of my route this past Monday - much tougher than I thought it would be - but riding onward to bigger and better things is also exciting for sure. What a difference a year makes, indeed...

So that's it. Sort of. I'm off the bike for work-related purposes, but just because that was a major reason why I started this blog doesn't mean it's going anywhere. I've got some big plans for the remainder of 2017, of course. Remember, 30 Days of Biking is just around the corner in April.

With continued thanks for all of your support on this ride we call life, let's ride on...

Down With the Sickness

Down, as in, actually down. Not in the good kind of "down" way.

Anywho, I get sick usually once a year. Last week happened to be that once a year, and let me tell ya, it sucked horribly. I was all but forced to take 2 days off from work-related cycling and 3 total cycling days last week because I literally couldn't breathe. Sickness aside, taking any sort of absence from riding kills me more than anything.

So, with a relatively mild forecast on tap (pun intended) for Super Bowl Sunday, I decided I had to venture at least a little bit, if for no other reason than to "sweat it out." I wanted something only mildly challenging, so I decided to keep it to about 5 miles one way. As usual, my midpoint would be a brewery/brewpub, in this case, the recently opened Flying Fish Crafthouse in Brewerytown. Some of you already know this, but in case you don't, it's a resurgent area that's still in transition:

Not sure what's going in that empty lot, most likely more dime-a-dozen condos, but who cares about that? The abandoned Red Bell Brewing Company building in the background is the real story here. Much like its Brewerytown brethren, it's been left to rot for decades, yet still stands because back in the day, they used to build things to last. It's been recently purchased and will likely be redeveloped in the near future. Across the street, that's already happened:

That's the Crafthouse, which looks rather unassuming from first glance. In fact, I drove by here a few weeks ago and almost didn't notice it. What was once a decaying factory is now a large brewpub, which makes me hoppy. See what I did there?

The place is yuge. I'm excited to come back for the various events they have talked about hosting (live music, game night, etc). I mean, anything to give me an excuse to go on a medium-length bike ride. There's also a full menu but not many vegetarian options, so I decided to skip the food side of the equation for now. I got there in the middle of the day and wasn't really hungry anyway. Besides, you go to a brewpub for beer, right?

And plenty of it. 5 samples for $12 is a steal. Just enough to get you feelin' good, but not too much that you can't ride home. Speaking of which, I did eventually make it back to South Philly:

The ride was decent, nothing epic to report, so I post that pic only because of the mileage total. Combined with my ride to and from my friend's house for the Super Bowl, I logged more miles on Sunday than I did the entire rest of the week combined. You can definitely tell I was in rough shape earlier in the week. Anyway, I'm going to try to get back into my Sunday Cycling Series routine once the weather gets 100% nicer, but this was a good start. Of course, if you have any recommendations for future Sunday rides, please let me know.

Laying Low

I've been devoid of much activity on this here blog, and maybe that's because these days I'm not doing all that much biking, relatively speaking.  I've not moved my car in more than three weeks, and my bike has clearly seen more miles.  It's a strange month to be a cyclist, where things can range from sunny to rainy to snowy all within a couple days, and usually it's cold to boot.  I bike in any weather, but the pleasure biking definitely takes a bit of a hiatus this time of year.  That said, I have sneaked in some fun rides every now and then:

This was from about 2 weeks ago, when I joined for a small portion of the monthly Full Moon Ride.  I branched off and headed towards home while listening to the Flyers on the radio.  They went to a shootout and actually won (!), at which point I was passing by the arena and could hear the goal horn from well over a quarter mile away.  Some have told me they can hear it from their houses that are actually much further away.  Still pretty neat.

A little more than a week later, I joined my first Night Cycle ride.  Also pretty damn fun, especially the campfire at the midpoint:

Again, I had to leave a little early, but I got in a solid 14 miles on a Friday night nonetheless.  The next day, I was supposed to cat-sit for a friend all the way out in West Philly.  This prophecy appeared to me on her fridge:

That day happened to be a historic day across the globe, as hundreds of millions of people joined the Women's March. Philly was no exception, and I joined for the early part of the day, via bicycle of course on my ride home:

You can see from the above that the weather was threatening.  That continued through Sunday and it broke on Monday, so much so that I was forced to take the train home from the office.  I don't like it any more than you:

Though less than ideal, I'm always glad I got out and did something, even if it's just biking a mile down the street.  I get really bad cabin fever.  Apparently it's rubbing off on the cats, too:

Tomorrow promises to be much better, so we'll see what happens.  January is a strange month for another reason.  Even though I bike every day, I'm just not that motivated to write about it.  You might call it a holiday/birthday hangover, or something.  At any rate, it's already almost over.  Can you believe it?

A Tale of Two Weeks

For the most part, this January has very much looked like January.  In fact, it's been downright brutal at times.  It was so cold earlier this week that my pipes in my kitchen froze, which isn't an irregular occurrence in Winter, but nonetheless...

It's been pretty cool (pun intended) to see just how many people are still willing to brave the cold and ride every day, myself included.  OK, I'm not gonna lie.  I took this weekend off.  I literally had no reason to ride other than for pleasure, and when it's 20 degrees outside with 3 inches of snow on the ground, there's very little pleasure to be had, even for a cycling enthusiast.

One awesome thing about this though, when I was forced (yes, forced) to ride to work on Friday, I finally popped my baby's snow cherry:

Hard to believe since we've logged well over 2,500 miles together in less than a year, but last Winter, I kept her in the stable until we had some more palatable weather.  Now, she's been around the block more than enough that I'm not so paranoid about her getting a little dirty.  I gotta say, she did very well.  Wouldn't recommend doing it every day tho...

In any case, the weather broke sometime between last night and today, and we were greeted with beautiful sunshine for most of the day, with temps near the 50s.  Hard to believe, really.  At times, I'm totally alright with global warming (not literally of course).

It was perfect riding weather, so I made the most of it.  Besides commuting and other less-than-exciting errands, I had to make a detour to a friend's house in West Philly and took a few extra detours on the way home.  Most notably I paused at Drexel Park, which was the launch point for the Naked Bike Ride 2 years ago, and also features a gorgeous view of the Philly skyline:

My crappy phone camera really doesn't do it justice.  What a town, I tell ya.  Without a doubt my most enjoyable ride of 2017 thus far.  Not like it has much competition, but you get the point.  All good things must come to an end, and as I re-entered South Philly, it started to rain.  I made it home just in time to avoid getting soaked.  There's another positive though.  With a forecast in the 60's tomorrow, I'm anticipating a lot of riding...and if nothing crazy happens, the full moon bike ride.

33 on the 33rd

I sneaked in one final adventure in 2016, and it just so happened to occur on my birthday.

Back during 30 Days of Biking, I was inspired by my friend Todd, who told me he always rides the distance of his age in miles on his birthday.  Oddly enough, he's also the guy that inspired me to do 30 Days of Biking.  We rode together with several people from Wash Cycle Laundry on April 16th, and I decided that day that I wanted to do the same on my birthday.

Weather permitting, of course, it was a great idea.  I don't know if you're aware, but December is historically much cooler than April.  My birthday last Friday was no exception, but despite the chilly temps (I think at ride start, air temp was 40F) and high gusting winds, it was a beautiful day for a ride:

I didn't expect everyone who rode along with me to log 33 miles (yes, that's how old I am), so I set the meeting point at the Philadelphia Art Museum.  From my house to there it's about 5 miles, and I added a detour or coffee in the early morning in hopes of ensuring a 33-mile total.  The destination, you ask?  Iron Hill Brewery in Chestnut Hill.  You knew I had to pick a brewery as my waypoint:

I hide my exhaustion well under a Winter jacket and 3 layers.  The ride there was awesome at times, arduous at others, mostly due to the wind.  I didn't even mind the hills.  But that wind...I kid you not that I was literally dripping in sweat by the time we got there.  Give credit to the garment makers - my Winter gear did its job a little too well, but later on, I would be glad to have it...

Anyway, FOUR of us survived the trek up the hills of Northwest Philly.  Our reward, some excellent bar junk food (Hey, it's my birthday. Birthdays are for stepping out of bounds.) and local craft beer:

It was definitely worth it for that and one other reason; some members of my immediate family joined myself and friends for lunch as well:

Couldn't have asked for a better experience, and it wasn't but halfway over.  Remember, I still had to ride back home.  One of the best parts of riding up a large hill is that you eventually get to ride back down.  On blistering cold days, a downhill can be a blessing and a curse, especially if you're not dressed properly.  That Winter gear came in handy when we dropped downhill at nearly 18MPH...

I branched off some time after we got back to the Art Museum and headed back for South Philly for an almost exact 33 mile round trip.  You might think I had planned it:

Some said it was pretty crazy.  I just think it's crazy that I biked this distance without leaving the city limits.  This place seems so small to me at times, but this reminded me how sprawling it can be.  It also was yet another reminder how lucky I am to live here and keep the company I keep.

And thus starts a new tradition, with many thanks to all who joined, whether in practice or in spirit.  I hope you all had a safe and happy New Year's celebration.  Here's to another fantastic year of biking.  Who wants to be crazy enough to join me for this ride later this year?!?!?!?

We Only Come Out at Night

I told you I had a couple more adventures planned...this one was sort of planned, but the random circumstances around it made it much more adventurous than I originally thought.

You can't tell right now, but less than 48 hours ago, Philly was in the midst of a brief but blistering cold snap, with temps in the teens and wind chills in the single digits.  Of course, that didn't dampen the holiday spirit around here at all.  Myself and about a hundred others did something crazy on Thursday night: we rode our bikes!

All sarcasm aside, we were all out braving the cold for a couple hours to participate in the Bicycle Coalition's annual Holiday Lights Ride:

It's a ride through some South Philadelphia neighborhoods that are known for setting up fantastic light displays, and also an excuse to decorate your bike in festive apparel as seen above and below:

Of course, there are varying degrees of enthusiasm.  As you can see from the second picture, I took the modest approach.  We met at Performance Bikes on Columbus Blvd, not too far from my old house on 2 Street.  I think the air temperature at ride time was somewhere around 20 degrees, that just right temperature where you have to layer up so much to stay warm outside that as soon as you walk inside you're dripping in sweat.  Wahoo.

Ordinarily, I enjoy biking in the cold weather.  Actually, I enjoyed this ride, too.  However, with group rides such as these, we keep a moderate pace, certainly not as fast as the normal pace I ride on a daily basis.  As such, the blood flow was a little slower than I'm used to, so my usual layers almost weren't enough to keep me comfy.  That said, as we zig-zagged through the streets of South Philly, I did adapt eventually, and it wasn't that rough except when we were heading West into a headwind.  All this considered, you can understand why there was reluctance to stop for pictures, but I'm glad we did:

I mean, look at that.  I would have stopped anyway even if the group hadn't.  There's something so warming (not literally, but whatever) about this.  Just like leaves in Autumn, this only happens once a year.  I'm a little annoyed that I forgot my real (see: non-phone) camera at home for this one, but hey, I'll always have the memories.  Of course we rode up South 13th Street and experienced its splendor...I took a video which I can't upload here for some reason, but here's a poor quality photo I took of it several years ago.  It's blurry, but you get the idea.

All told, we logged about 6 miles:

The ride was shortened by a few miles, and you can probably guess why.  I'm sure I could have made it the full length, but I have no complaints.  An after party of sorts followed at the Garage on Passyunk Avenue, which included a raffle for some gift cards and a touring bike in exchange for a donation.  Sadly, I didn't win BUT, I ran into an old friend who used to work for Wash Cycle, which was kinda awesome.  Speaking of donations...

Since it is the holiday season, I'll throw out the obligatory "Donate now" message, and not just because I'm a member of the Coalition.  They do more for the cycling community than I think a lot of people know, and this city is constantly changing for the better bike-wise because of their efforts.  Interestingly enough, this was actually my first ride as a dues-paying member, but certainly not the last.

Just in case I don't check in before or during, happy holidays everyone!

Moments From My Year 2016: Bicycling Edition

A new calendar year is on the horizon, and as is customary, many of us are reflecting on what we've done this year and putting plans in place to make improvements in the next year.  Facebook likes to generate "Moments From Your Year" videos based on their algorithms, and they usually do a pretty terrible job.  I guess I'll always be a critic of anything that's not my own work, but anyway...

It's helpful to occasionally look at where you were in figuring out what to do to get where you want to be (you follow me?), and whether or not you know it, this was a huge year for me.  In its' simplest phrasing, I feel like I have finally turned the corner in "coming into my own," using cycling as a vehicle (forgive the pun).  I have many of you to thank for your enthusiasm on my journeys and adventures that have yielded more for me than just logging miles on a bike.

Because I like lists, here are two.  First, the top 5 posts on this blog this year by viewership:

1. The Bare Necessity a.k.a. the Philly Naked Bike Ride
2. 30 Sense - A recap of 30 Days of Biking
3. Arc de Triomphe - I climbed the hill up to TV-13, among other things...
4. The Vanimal - Ehh...nothing special
5. The Dog Days of Biking - Announcing my second monthly biking challenge

Second, MY favorite blog posts of this year:

1. 300 - Biking over 60 miles in one day for a friend's birthday
2. New Kid on the Block - Breaking in my new Trek
3. Beach Bikin' Away - Riding 22 miles to Dogfish Head brewery!
4. Bicentennial Man - Pennypack Park & Cobbs Creek in the midst of a heat wave, my 200th mile that month and also the 200th post on this blog
5. Bikes, Blues, Broad Street - Kinda a self-explanatory title

And finally, as is my annual blog tradition, I present you with a scroll of pictures and occasional commentary of some memorable moments from my year.  Thanks for riding along, and here's hoping 2017 is even more memorable.

First ride on "The Bike with No Name," who's logged over 2,500 miles since!

Over 200 pounds of laundry & floor mats

After riding to Glenside to see Straight No Chaser

Flower delivery guy

The beginning of 56 miles for a friend's birthday ride!

I Bike for Bernie

Believe it or not, the first time I ever rode to a hockey game

You think it's full, but...

It can get fuller.

Embarking on 22 miles up the Atlantic Coast from OCMD to Dogfish Head/Rehoboth

Wash Cycling in the midst of a heat wave

The DNC closed down Broad Street

This was also during a heat wave

I climbed Flagstaff Mountain...

And also Cherry Hill, to work at TV-13

This was as I crossed over 500 miles in a month for the 2nd time this year

Philly Naked Bike Ride!

First time biking to an Eagles game, too.

OCNJ Boardwalk

First time biking to a Phillies game, too. All that's left are the Sixers...

Cape May

And the year's not quite over...I'm going to squeeze a couple adventures in before the calendar flips.  Thanks, as always, for riding along, and here's to many more miles and adventures.