September 28 Rides

[spindizzy]

Nice ride Berkeley!

Did hills today. Beautiful weather.

[mudmucker]

I rode a solo 38 miles. There is an unimproved gravel rail trail I discovered, that goes through Phillipston and goes for 25+ miles to the south. So I rode 16 miles of it to Barre, and took to the pavement for another 22 miles through Petersham and back home.

I just got some 28c Vittoria Randonneurs for the red steel bike, specifically to ride some of these gravel dirt bike trails like the rail trail, or those that go through the Quabbin Reservoir Park. These are by no means mt bike trails at all.

I had a blast. It was a cloudy but very nice warm day, and a bit humid as Ike was off-shore heading to Maine. It was so fun to be able to comfortably ride both pavement and dirt, to have that off-road option and still have some zoom zoom on the road. The rail trail was in very good condition, enough not to need a mountain bike or fatter tires. It was very peaceful, as I was the only one on it for 16 miles. Not a soul around.

I love these tires. It had rained overnight so some of the roads were still wet and the tread pattern riffled off the water quite nicely when on pavement. When I was on the rail trail, I specifically rode through the most mud, water, and soft sand as much as I could to test them. They performed really well. There was only 1 quarter mile area that had super soft sand where I might have wanted more tire float. It was actually really fun and a little different with the skinnier than mt. tires, going through the muddy and sandy areas; just accelerate through the sand when the back starts to fishtail. There were also, mildly so, some cobbly and large stone areas where I bounced around, but no more than I would with a mt. bike. I also saw that Vittoria had Randonneur Cross tires in 28c, with a deeper tread. I'll look at them, but I don't think I'd need them.

The foliage is not peaking yet here in MA, but the reds are starting to come in quite nicely.



View from Old Stone Bridge, looking south.



View from Old Stone Bridge, looking north. Sun is peeking out.



View of trail.



Getting close to Barre.

[Aggie_Ama]

The colors! The colors! Our leaves have two colors- green and brown. Most of them stay green year round, thanks for showing me what I don't have I love the photos.

[SadieKate]

(yellow posting as "SadieKate" )

Nice colors, mudmucker! Noticed a few on our mtn ride today. But we were mostly in the green, green trees. Here's a follow up to yesterday's video (except this one is BETTER!!!).

(click on the green screen and watch...)