Riding of late

[bironi]

Things I have noticed riding around the capitol city of Washington State, U.S.A. and in a close radius are:

More bikes out and about.
Mainly small groups and single riders.
Only one large family (assumption) group spotted today.
Fat people out walking.
I can run most lights due to very low traffic.
Nearly all businesses are closed.
Lots of home and yard work by residents with new found time.
Some days I feel like I'm in a Twilight Zone story.

Just what I've seen in my little world.

What's up in your's?

[DJB]

On the West side of Detroit- no Covid-19 cases nearby in my immediate circle. All businesses save some take out and grocery are closed. Lots of bikes out but the group rides are thinning if not gone. I'm out solo or with my wife. She has a new E bike and pulled me through the wind a couple of days ago which was actually pretty cool. This might be our new thing. Anyone want a tandem?

[CJones]

Nobody on the road
Nobody on the beach
I feel it in the air
The summer's out of reach
Empty lake, empty streets
The sun goes down alone
-- Don Henley

IMG_2696.jpg

[Mabouya]

Living easy, living free
Season ticket on a one-way ride
Asking nothing, leave me be
Taking everything in my stride
Don't need reason, don't need rhyme
Ain't nothing I would rather do
Going down, party time
My friends are gonna be there too
:
:
You know the rest...

[TTX1]

IMG_2696.jpg

Nice. Tell me more about the Hutch.

[bcroslin]

Unfortunately, the Fred's are still riding in groups that start small but then swell to 10 or more here in the Tampa Bay area. Someone posted a photo of flat change on social media this morning and you can clearly count 8 people in the photo and there was definitely a few more you can't see. Bums me out because I care about several of these people but nothing gets through to them. It's also such a bad look for road cyclists.

[steve garro]

I be all like:

IMG_9280.JPG



- Garro.

[lavi]

HUTCH

Gonna need to see more of that bike! I was a GT man myself back in my BMX days. Def liked Hutch too! Seemed like a badass brand.

[CJones]

Nice. Tell me more about the Hutch.

Gonna need to see more of that bike! I was a GT man myself back in my BMX days. Def liked Hutch too! Seemed like a badass brand.

I've been leaving my BMX bike out back and handy to do short rides around the neighborhood's empty streets in an effort to not go crazy. Racing BMX was a big part of my childhood. I was pretty much obsessed with it and have never been without a BMX bike even as an old guy. I still have my race bike from back in the day -- a Profile Champ Pro. I also have 3 different retro 26" cruisers -- a Firemans Texas Cruzer, SE Racing OM Flyer, and a Hutch.

Bike is a Hutch XL-26 cruiser. It's a 2018 but looks like it's from the mid-80's. Details:
Hutch: frame, fork, bars, pedals, seat post clamp, headset, and pads.
Parts: Redline Flight cranks, TNT revolver hubs, White Ind. freewheel, ESP stem, Paul brakes, A'me grips, Comp III tires, Haro 1B numberplate, and of course dice valve caps!

Need to get some better pics but:

Hutch_XL26_1.jpg

[Wisco]

In the small midwest college town environment of Madison, WI, the bike trails are indeed packed with the Bironi notes in the original post in this thread. Wisconsin and most of the upper midwest (except Milwaukee in our state) went to social distancing early and have been pretty good overall in compliance. I for one haven't been to my office in more than 3 weeks and that is true for the majority of employees. We are well set by corporate IT for remote work and they quickly upgraded the VPN at the first sign of trouble.

That said, the local police have given out 10-15 tickets/fines for college house parties, people congregating in parking lots and a lunkhead high school football coach to held a clandestine practice for 15 kids. What an f-ing moron.

Since the bike paths are crazy, I mostly ride early or avoid them. Too much traffic, little opportunity to truly distance and lots of people swerving along. I am fortunate to live on the edge of town and can thus get out on my normal low traffic county roads. I go shorter, stay closer to home and don't push the downhills all to err on the safe side. The air seems cleaner and people wave or say hello more. It's good to see humanity even if it's not physically close.

My only worry is my primary care MD wife. Life is stressfull in the clinic, though they're seeing fewer patients... who are sicker. She is not a hospitalist, but they are requesting or transferring MD/PA into the hospitals to help. She may do that and then her risk of getting infected goes way up. We'll see. One of her colleagues has seen a precipitous drop in her patients and so she volunteered to go work in a hospital in New Jersey for the next 6-8 weeks. She used to work in a ER and wanted to help. She ships out on Monday.

[rwsaunders]

I had a group of four pass me this morning but over the past month or so, I really haven’t seen more than two cyclists riding together. I’m solo for about 75% of my rides, especially in the Fall and Winter, but I have a riding bud who’s joined me as of late, as we are both working from home. Very little car traffic which is spooky in itself and a lot more walkers and runners. I’m not sure what the local MTB trails look like in terms of bike traffic and most small business in the Pittsburgh area have definitely been closed for a while and it’s very noticeable.

[Saab2000]

Solo every day. Learning new routes and making the best of it. I have much to be thankful for. Not a great cycling area but maybe I can make it my own. It’s a severe spiderweb here and learning all the strands will take time. But some strands are decent within this new context of Chicagoland.

[Clyde]

Did the classic Greenville bakery ride yesterday; park at North Greenville University and ride up the watershed to Saluda NC and jam down some bakery goodies for the ride back. Saw lots of cyclists, couples, and several groups of 8 or so. Was a gorgeous day here high of 66 sunny and perfect shorts/short sleeved weather. The Ritchey disc is the nicest bike I've ever ridden.

[Too Tall]

CJones > B@dass. Love hearing all of that.
Well it's Garro what did you expect? Doing it right, keeping it tight.

I've got my little routine. Stick to my daily 35/40 miles on mostly same route away from people and traffic as much as practical. All plans go to he!! when you space out and realize I'm about to dive into the busy part of NW DC...what an idiot. Decided it would be fun to play in traffic for the next 10 miles because no walkers, no riders just cars. It was not awful.

The new riding dynamic, if you can call it that, is that NOBODY wants to ride behind me regardless of (their) ability. I'm generally honkin' along at an 17+ to 18 pace on rolling terrain. Not fast not slow YET nobody wants to ride behind so they BLAST past me and usually predictably commence with a slow miserable death.

Can somebody send me a Roadrunner audio file? I'd like to play that on loop.

[Bobonli]

I have a little loop in the neighborhood. I do it two ways: hammer as best I can on days that I have to clear my head and just want to kick ass; mellow if I need to wind down after a rough day. It’s boring but there’s comfort in routine and I can be done in 30 mins if I have to.

Some solo commuting off hours to check on my team. The office shower is locked up so the regular commute is on hold because the body wipes I would use in place of the shower make me smell like a pine tree! More riding in the woods than I’d normally do on the weekends for a change of scenery and keep the mind and skills sharp.

[rwsaunders]

CJones > B@dass. Love hearing all of that.
Well it's Garro what did you expect? Doing it right, keeping it tight.

I've got my little routine. Stick to my daily 35/40 miles on mostly same route away from people and traffic as much as practical. All plans go to he!! when you space out and realize I'm about to dive into the busy part of NW DC...what an idiot. Decided it would be fun to play in traffic for the next 10 miles because no walkers, no riders just cars. It was not awful.

The new riding dynamic, if you can call it that, is that NOBODY wants to ride behind me regardless of (their) ability. I'm generally honkin' along at an 17+ to 18 pace on rolling terrain. Not fast not slow YET nobody wants to ride behind so they BLAST past me and usually predictably commence with a slow miserable death.

Can somebody send me a Roadrunner audio file? I'd like to play that on loop.

Let’s get you started...

[mzilliox]

oddly, here theres more traffic on the usually rural and uncrowded roads and less traffic in town. Its kinda annoying really, haha. what are all these folks doing out in the country now? theres quads and dirt bikes on my gravel too! My usually peaceful areas have become more crowded while the crowds have left their usual haunts.

[lumpy]

Let’s get you started...

Yes, and:

[lavi]

I've been leaving my BMX bike out back and handy to do short rides around the neighborhood's empty streets in an effort to not go crazy. Racing BMX was a big part of my childhood. I was pretty much obsessed with it and have never been without a BMX bike even as an old guy. I still have my race bike from back in the day -- a Profile Champ Pro. I also have 3 different retro 26" cruisers -- a Firemans Texas Cruzer, SE Racing OM Flyer, and a Hutch.

Thanks for sharing. We could probably have a BMX thread. Very cool. I too was obsessed with BMX as a teen. I had passion and heart, but no balls. I couldn't clear doubles and thus was never "fast". Anyhow....seeing those old names: Hutch, SE, Profile...sweetness!

[steve garro]

Thanks for sharing. We could probably have a BMX thread. Very cool. I too was obsessed with BMX as a teen. I had passion and heart, but no balls. I couldn't clear doubles and thus was never "fast". Anyhow....seeing those old names: Hutch, SE, Profile...sweetness!

In the MTB sub-forum there is a "pre-1996 MTB and BMX" thread

- Garro.