Slower Lower Cycling

Last week, I was privileged to spend some time in one of my favorite parts of this grand old country, the "slower lower" of Delaware. Two things:

1. If you don't know what the "slower lower" means, read this.
2. You read that correct that a part of Delaware is one of my favorite parts of the USA, and if you know me, you know I've been around.

I can't quite explain why. Maybe it's the beach, maybe it's the laid back atmosphere that's such a departure from my day-to-day life, maybe it's the food or (more recently) the beer, who really knows? Point is, I visit the area several times a year - sometimes for a day, sometimes for a weekend, or longer. Every time, I find something new to love. Last week, I added a few new trails to the list, mostly on a whim. I mean, you can only bike the Coastal Highway so many times before it gets boring...

My family and I were situated just outside Bethany Beach, a quaint little beach town that still has plenty to offer beyond the beach. On a gray Monday morning with threatening skies overhead, the first trail I decided to explore was the Assawoman Canal Trail less than 2 miles from our house (thankfully so, in hindsight). I decided to borrow my Mom's mountain bike for the adventure, as I'd found the trail online but wasn't quite sure what it would look like (my hybrid can't do sand, ya know). Turns out it was a relatively easy ride over a mostly gravel terrain that culminated in a dead end:

After only being on the bike for a little over 15 minutes, I definitely wasn't satisfied. But, there were a couple crossings along the way with some nifty stop signs:

At this point, I decided to make a turn towards the coast to see what I could find, rather than simply backtracking. What would be the fun in that?

My detours led me to the Fred Hudson & Prickly Pear Trails, not more than a couple miles from where I'd turned off. I started the first leg of the trail when it started to rain. I knew I was still close to home, so I decided to head back before things got too serious, knowing full well I'd be back later in the week. A couple days later, I did indeed return:

As you can see, I borrowed a mountain bike again. This time, it was my stepdad's. Mom's bike was unavailable because I roped my girlfriend in to joining me for the second go-around:

This trail was a bit more challenging, changing from roots & packed earth to sand with regularity as it zig-zagged through the forests and along the bay near Beach Cove. Gotta give her credit for being a trooper and keeping up with my crazy ass. I do this shit every day...sort of. Remember what I was saying yesterday about getting people to ride along? Well yea. That's what it's all about.

She rode along with me one more time as we finished out the week with what should have been a mild trail further north of Rehoboth Beach, in Cape Henlopen State Park: 

I say should, because it turned out to be much windier than I'd expected. It was also pretty flippin' humid, so by the end of a 13-mile loop, we were both feeling pretty salty, and it had nothing to do with the ocean air.

All things considered, it was a nice trail, following the shore line of Gordons Pond and looping around many of the camping grounds, nature preserves, and even old military barracks in the northern area of the park. We paused for a walk on a fishing pier (not pictured) before lunch and also took in a brief beach walk (also not pictured - sorry) before we headed back. It cost us $10 to get our car in the park for the day, but well worth it for just the 2+ hours we'd spent there. I'd go back and spend a whole day some time.

We also rode to and back from the beach several times last week, but that's just an average day at this point, right? Henlopen pretty much wrapped up our explorations for the week, and got me thinking about what else is worth exploring down there. Say what you want, but it turns out the "slower lower" is just my speed sometimes...

Tricentennial Cycloblog - A Love Story

My blog turns 300 today. 300 posts, that is.

This is by far the longest-running creative stream I've ever kept going on a consistent basis aside from music, but even that ebbs and flows. I haven't written a song in 6 months. The blog, on the other hand, I've contributed to regularly for more than 2 years. That's something special.

It's been a bit of an adventure on several fronts. I'll be the first to admit that there's still a hell of a lot I DON'T know about bikes, and yet I realize that I know much more today than I did when I started this blog.

Believe it or not, less than a year before I started writing in this space, I hadn't even owned a bike since mine got stolen in college back in 2004-ish. I don't know how I survived for 2 whole months in this city without one. Even up until the time I decided to start working for Wash Cycle Laundry, bikes were still very much an afterthought in my life.

Then, a funny thing happened. I discovered that this job I took on a whim just to "do something different" and make some extra cash, it happened to suit me quite well. You might say, I fell in love with riding a bike, so much so that I decided to start a blog. Similar to my friend Julie who started a blog that became her job, I started a blog mostly because of my job that eventually led to me getting promoted to my current role.

The (quite literal) adventures began to come up more frequently soon after. I'm not sure if it was the blog that made me want to adventure or the adventures that made me want to blog, but I'm not interested in a "chicken or the egg" debate. Whatever the reason, it's led to an estimated 10,000 miles in parts of 6 states on more than 20 different bikes and countless amounts of pictures and memories.

I think the reason is something completely different, because truly there are three times when everything feels right in my world: when I'm playing music, when I'm with my girlfriend (You can all go throw up now, but it's true. I'll wait. You're back? Great.), and when I'm on my bike. The outdoors come in a close 4th, but I'm usually on my bike in that case, so anyway...

The best part is when someone reads along and then decides to ride along, exploring the same trails and doing more than just living vicariously through some dude writing about his rides. In fact, if you've been a regular reader, you'll know that reading about others' adventures has provided a great deal of inspiration, and that's really what this is all about.

Bikes can be a vehicle (pun intended) to amazing things. They've helped people in recovery from serious injuries, illness, drug addiction, and many other ailments. They've helped people get back into the workforce. They've helped people like me find a true passion. They've helped countless people create countless memories.

So, for the love of my blog, I decided to buy it a present...a new bike:

Actually, the bike is only new to me, and it's not really for me, it's for my girlfriend. Her name is the "She Beast" (don't ask), and I bought her off a dear friend and former co-worker who's unfortunately (for me) moving cross country very soon. It's a Breezer Downtown 8 ST (different year, but the same model) if you're interested. Now she'll have something to ride along with me every time she comes to visit! This past week, we were far outside Philly, on or about Southern Delaware:

Yea, I know. Tough to see, but I was trying to be aloof. I actually didn't take a whole lot of pictures with the new ride last week, but we did ride quite a bit (some not on the new bike - more on that some other time) and made it up to Cape Henlopen State Park for a quick day excursion among other things:

I'm sure I'll take the beast out for plenty of rides even when she's not around. Y'know...gotta keep the bike in working order, right?

And of course, I'll have many more adventures to write about (of course) in the future, but for now, thanks as always for reading and riding, and cheers to 300 more and 300 more after that and...

Break Stuff

I've mentioned before that I don't mind getting called in to front line duty for Wash Cycle every now and then. After all, I was a delivery cyclist for 2.5 years, and being outside on a bike...OK you've heard this story before. Anyway, that said, some days it's awesome and other days it's not all peaches & cream, just like any job.

Monday morning, I was scheduled for Center City commercial deliveries again. It seemed like a really beautiful morning at first, sunny with a light breeze and a high of 85 in the forecast. I actually got to the office ahead of schedule, and other than having to repair a flat tire on the trailer first thing, the morning went smoothly. So smoothly in fact that the barista at Grindcore House actually pointed out that I was smiling: 

I used to frequent their shop when I lived in Pennsport, and I have a few good memories from there. Add this one to the list.

Around this time, the humidity really started to pick up, and it wasn't long before I was sweating bullets even with a light load. BUT, I ran into my old boss (who's now the executive director of Theatre Philadelphia) at another coffee shop we service, so I paused to chat with her for a few minutes (and enjoy the air conditioning).

My workload also picked up. An hour later in Center City, this was the scene:

I wasn't dehydrated by any means, but I was sweating pretty profusely and it seemed like a lot, even considering the amount I was towing. That said, I've done this countless times before and I was doing just fine minus looking like I'd just got out of a swimming pool.

There's that old saying that you're only as strong as your weakest link, and I found mine on the ride back to the plant. That flat that I fixed earlier in the day was riding on a less-than-optimal wheel/rim and I thought I could nurse it throughout the day (actually, I had to - it was the only one available at the time). All things considered, I did pretty well to get 3+ hours out of it, but with 250ish pounds on its back, it eventually folded (almost literally):

It might be tough to see from this angle, but two of the spokes are completely "free" from the center hub. Even at slow speed, there was no way the tire would hold up to that kind of wobbling. I had to call our West Philly cyclist to offload some of my trailer to avoid any further damage, and I replaced the wheel. I couldn't really be upset about the whole thing - it was only a matter of time before this happened.

This considered, I still finished 30+ appointments in less than 4 hours:

The oddities really began after I got back to the plant. I unloaded the last drop off and noticed my front tire on my personal bike was flat. Apparently I'd picked up a shard of glass on the ride in, this after I'd JUST REPLACED the tire and tube on Sunday. Even worse, that wheel I'd replaced on the trailer was ALSO flat, likely meaning it had a slow leak even before I put it on. SO, I fixed those too, and mercifully headed home. Let's just say I've gotten my fill of flats these last few days for sure (pun intended).

Nice Rack: Germantown & Southampton

You won't find a more bizarre street combo on this blog. This rack is next to the parking lot of the Chestnut Hill Brewery. It's a set of 4 stylized bikes. Neat looking, and orange is always a good colour choice:

It's also highly efficient and effective. Not only can I easily lock my front wheel and frame to the rack, there's also room to lock another bike directly across from mine. Nice work.

Beer Biker

I had a Saturday with no plans for the first time in what seemed like forever. Bet you'll never guess what I did...

There happened to be a Bikes and Beers ride sponsored by the Bicycle Coalition (or maybe in support of, either way), but I decided not to participate for a few reasons:

1. I don't particularly like paying $50 to participate in a ride, especially since only a portion of that revenue would go to the Coalition, who I already donate directly to on a regular basis.
2. They start these rides at 9:30AM, and on my usual Saturday, I'm not even out of my PJs by that time. I get why the organizers do this. They don't want people out too late in the heat of the day, but hydration's rarely been a problem for me.
3. I've already been to Flying Fish Brewery, so it wouldn't have been much of an adventure.
4. None of my friends were participating (that I knew of), and I wasn't in the mood for socializing with new people.

Plus, I prefer to get purposefully lost from time to time, which is not encouraged on a group ride, especially if you pay to participate. Anyway, so I decided to do a solo bikes and beers ride. As I mentioned, it was a beautiful day:

The destination (or halfway point I guess) I chose was Chestnut Hill Brewing, which had just opened in April of this year. Apparently Mt. Airy/Chestnut Hill is becoming a microbrewery hotbed:

The beer was awesome and as you can see, it's a cozy little place, nestled in a grocery store and behind a hotel. It's actually very close to Iron Hill Brewery and Earth Bread & Brewery, both of which I visited last year, so the route I took to get there yesterday was very similar. I did decide to take a few detours through North Philly instead of just taking the Schuylkill River Trail. I did take it on the way home, and decided to be a tad touristy:

The dark picture may have been foreshadowing, as I noticed I had a tire going flat soon after I hopped back on the bike. I had enough air to make it to the grocery store further on the way home:

I was going to patch it up, but realized there were actually TWO holes in the tube. Not worth it, especially considering I had already patched it once. I decided to take the bus home from there. Still, I got a 25 mile ride in before this happened, not too shabby:

Nearly 25. Who's counting, though? I replaced the tube and tire this morning. The more I think about it, I need to upgrade the front tire to a reinforced tube/tire like the rear, which hasn't seen a flat in more than a year.

Today has been a day of rest, as I'm back on the Wash Cycle for a day tomorrow...

City of Angels

I stopped to pick up lunch in Rittenhouse Square awhile back when I saw a familiar sight:

Yes. A bike. You see those a lot on a bike blog.

It's a Fuji Folding Bike, which longtime readers may know as my "old" bike that I was riding when I first started this blog. Her name is Angel. I decided to put her into retirement after a gruesome crash back in 2015, but rather than selling or discarding her, my Dad held on to her in his shed. After seeing this sight, I decided to bring her out of retirement, sort of:

It's pretty tough to ride in the basement.

I did some work on the wheels, getting them back to true and the like just for fun (maybe in the hopes of selling). I also re-calibrated the brakes and lubricated the chain and whatnot. I knew she could have used a full tune up, some cable replacements and some new tires, but for the time being, she was in pretty good shape.

All this work appeared like it would come in handy last month, when I was about to leave for a camping trip and broke a shifting cable on my everyday bike. I took Angel for a spin around the block the night before just to be sure everything worked fine, and it did. I mean, I needed to have a bike with me, right?

So, I folded and packed her into my car that night. After a half day of work the next morning, I set off for Western PA, only to arrive to find the rear tire completely destroyed and the tube inside shredded beyond repair. I have no idea what happened after I put the bike in the car, but obviously someone (or something) was telling me not to ride. The only possible thing I can think of is that the tire pressure increased too fast from the bike sitting in the back of my car, causing the tube to over-inflate, which in turn burst through the tire.

Anyway, back to Dad's house she goes until I can get some new tires, but mark my words, she WILL be back...

Hot & Heavy

Last week I hinted that I might get called into active duty at Wash Cycle again this week. Guess what? I did:

That's the only picture I took from Monday & Wednesday, when I was covering the Center City commercial route. Sometimes getting pulled off my regular duties can be kind of stressful, but in this case it was for all the right reasons: our regular Center City commercial cyclist is in Spain getting his visa renewed. I mean...that shows commitment. He's quite possibly the best cyclist we have on the team, too, so I'll look forward to having him back.

In addition to being a full schedule to begin with, we also had to reschedule appointments due to the 4th of July, packing even more into the usual day. I was on the bike for nearly 4 hours on a hot, humid Monday, not including the actual deliveries and pick ups:

There's no way that calorie total is accurate, either. I'm estimating I moved 1,000 pounds of laundry, not to mention how much sweat weight I lost. Did I mention our Center City delivery guy is awesome? He does this every damn day!

Back to somewhat normal now, I'm feeling like I need an adventure some time soon. A Bikes & Beers ride this weekend, maybe...