Back-to-back centuries -- almost

This past weekend I planned to do two centuries.

On Saturday, the Alfred Century ride, going from Almond to Olean and back, on the Bacchetta Giro 20 recumbent.

On Sunday, the Southern Tier Bike Club century picnic ride, a series of loops out of Owego that add up to 100 miles, on my Felt Z80 road bike. Unfortunately I didn't manage to finish that because of bike problems.

But first things first...


Alfred century route, Almond to Olean and back (with Finger Lakes to show location)Alfred Century ride

This ride is a fundraiser for the Alfred branch of Habitat for Humanity. The route follows the original route from 1895, going from Almond to Belmont to Cuba to just outside of Olean and back the same way -- I can't imagine riding those old high-rider bikes on what must have been unpaved roads. Must have taken them forever. In our case, we made pretty good time.

Since the start of the ride is a 2 hour drive from home, my biking buddy tommie -- who rode his Giro 20 aluminum frame with disk brakes -- and I drove out to Alfred the night before. We got up early on Saturday morning, drove into Hornell for breakfast -- french toast and fried eggs! -- and got to the Almond Town Hall for registration. By starting time, 8am, there were about 20 people, only four of them recumbents (the ride had been listed as "recumbent friendly").


Scenery along the routeThe forecast had called for rain, and when we left our hotel room in the morning it was raining, but then it stopped, and the day turned out to be dry and very nice.

We'd been told that the total climb of the ride was 1000 feet, and over the first 7 miles a 400 feet climb. We quickly realized this was wrong. The start of the ride is a climb out of Almond from 1400 feet to 2100 feet, about 700 feet of climbing, though mostly gradual.

The ride was on good roads, very nice. The group gradually spread out, and Tommie and I were riding together. Then from behind us came hndlebar, who I'd met at a few other events. Tommie, hndlebar and I rode the rest of the route together.


hndlebarI'd been riding the Giro 20 for about 2 weeks, and had put on about 150 miles. I had discovered that my 900 miles on the Rans Tailwind 'bent hadn't totally prepared me. The Giro's bottom bracket is higher than the Tailwind, and so it takes different muscles. My first rides were a lot slower, but by last week, when Tommie and I rode out to Burdett (48 miles rt) I was feeling better on the Giro.

On the Alfred ride the Giro felt great. It was still hard up hills, but on some hills I managed to use high cadence to maintain a decent speed. On flats, and into headwinds, the Giro was good. Overall I felt good, my legs lasted the entire time, no crashing or bonking at all. My final average speed was 15.9mph -- I was very happy with that.



STBC picnic ride: My 85 mile routeSouthern Tier Bike Club century picnic

This ride started at Hickories Park in Owego, and was set up as a series of loops so people could decide how far to ride. The century ride was made up of three loops. I've ridden a number of STBC rides and have really enjoyed all of them, and the STBC folks are great people, so I was really looking forward to this. I was hoping that the century ride on a 'bent the day before wouldn't wipe me out, especially since it used different muscles. So I loaded up the bike and drove down to Owego on Sunday morning a little before 6am.

The forecast for the day was rain, and as I looked at the radar pictures I could see a huge swath of rain headed in our direction. So I packed extra clothes just in case.

It wasn't raining when I got to the park. But by 7:30am, just as we started to leave the park, the rain began, and turned into a real downpour.


Yours truly at the start of the day; rain not yet fallingThe first loop of the ride, 48 miles, went up Rt 38 to Richford, turned west onto Rt 79, then turned south onto West Creek Rd, back to 38 and into Owego. This is a pretty flat course -- 800 or so feet of climbing. The ride up Rt 38 is a gradual uphill to Richford. I stopped at Richford, and others doing the loop did so as well. My speed on 38 was disappointing -- it was about the same average as when I have done this stretch as part of a century ride, but on those rides this is the last stretch, and here I hadn't climbed out of Ithaca and hadn't ridden 60 or 70 miles already. I think part of the reason was the ride the day before, which I guess did take something out of me, and part was that I hadn't eaten enough in the morning. So at Richford I chowed down. After refueling -- eggs and sausage pizza! -- and after seeing karcod zoom by up Rt 79, I started up again, and felt much better.


At Hickories ParkI'd never ridden the Rt 79 hill at Richford, though I'd driven it many times. Turns out it wasn't as bad as I feared it would be. West Creek Rd is a route I have ridden a few times, and I really like it. Very little traffic, through forests and by farms, overall a gentle downhill with only a couple of very small climbs. Turning left in Speedsville and continuing onward, I ran into Regina and Jim SAG-ing, headed the other direction. They told me that karcod was just a mile ahead, and Regina egged me on "Go! Go!" So I went. The pizza and other food had just kicked in, so I maintained a good pace 19-21mph on this stretch.

I didn't catch up with karcod, but I managed a great average for this loop, 17.2mph.

At the Park, I changed into dry clothes and a warmer more waterproof jacket, and drank and ate to refuel. Karcod suggested doing a longer version of Loop 2 so we wouldn't have to do a third loop at the end to reach 100 miles. The longer loop was one I'd done before and was very familiar with -- out to Candor on 96, over to Spencer (the official loop turned down Halsey Valley), continuing on to Van Etten, down 34 through Lockwood to Waverly, and back to Owego on 17c.

We left the park, headed out to Rt 96. We were lucky that the rain had let up, and it was no longer pouring, just drizzling. Karcod showed me a back way to get to 96, and fortunately the unpaved part of 96 just after the bridge was pretty minimal. We had a headwind headed north into Candor, not too bad. We continued on into Van Etten, up the hill, and then cruised down Rt 34 at a great pace.


My seat post: notice the crack on the rightI was feeling the need for some refueling, so we stopped at the convenience store in Lockwood, where I got pizza (of course), potato chips, peanuts, and drink. Karcod and I sat outside and finished up our refueling. As I was getting ready to leave, I unzipped my seat bag to put my phone and money back in, and I felt the seat move. I checked, and yes, the seat post -- carbon fiber -- was moving. Looking closer, I saw that the back half of the post was sheared almost half way through. I hadn't noticed any movement when I was riding, but this must have been developing over time. I had read about this kind of thing happening with carbon fiber seat posts and here it was in real life.

I decided not to ride any further -- I'd done about 85 miles. I'm really glad I discovered this at a stop, rather than having the seat post break while I was cruising along (I don't even want to think about what would have happened...)

Video of my broken seat post moving back and forth

I called Don to see if he could SAG me back, he was in Owego so it would be a 1/2 hour wait. I told karcod to get going, he was beginning to get chilled and there was no sense in him waiting with me. He resisted at first, but I insisted, so he took off. I waited about 30 minutes and Don showed up, put my bike on top of his car, and we drove back to Owego. We passed karcod on 17c at Halsey Valley Road.

I have to admit I was pretty disappointed at not being able to finish. I was feeling really good, and while my speed wasn't what it would have been if I'd not ridden 100 miles the day before, I was very happy with it, and I probably would have broken my previous century record of a 16.7mph average. As it turned out, my average for the entire 85 miles was 16.8mph.

At the park I changed into dry clothes and hung out. When Regina got back to the park from part of a loop, I took her up on her offer to try out her new T-Rex recumbent. I rode a loop of maybe 1/2 mile around the park, and boy did I feel those recumbent muscles. I don't think I could have ridden 100 miles (or 85) on a recumbent. But I felt great on the upright.

Despite the rain, and my disappointment at not being able to do a whole century, this was a great ride. I finally got to ride with the legendary karcod, and almost got to do back-to-back centuries. There's always tomorrow...

Route: Alfred Century Ride
Bike ridden: Bacchetta Giro 20 recumbent
Total distance: 108.66 miles
Ride time: 06:49'43
Avg speed: 15.91 mph
Total climb: 3325 ft
Low point: 1342 ft, Almond at start of ride
High point: 2051 ft, outside of Almond
Avg climb: 30.6 ft/mile

Route: STBC Picnic ride
Bike ridden: Felt Z80 road bike
Total distance: 85.06 miles
Ride time: 05:03'19
Avg speed: 16.83 mph
Total climb: 1701 ft
Low point: 820 ft, Owego
High point: 1385 ft, just west of Richford
Avg climb: 20.0 ft/mile 

Commuting up South Hill

Morning commute up South hill: 530 feet of climbing over 1.2 milesFor at least the past ten years I've been commuting to work in the morning up South Hill. The first mile or so of my ride, through downtown, is pretty flat, maybe 20 feet of climbing over about 3/4 of a mile. But then the climb begins.

The steepest part is at the start, heading up Aurora St and then turning onto Hudson. The maximum grade here is 13%. The average grade of the entire climb is about 6%.

I do this commute summer and winter. When it starts to get snowy and icy, I put on studded snow tires (Kenda Klondikes).

When I first started doing this commute I wasn't so comfortable biking in traffic, especially up this climb. When you're biking up a hill like this, you're going maybe 5-6mph, while traffic is going by at about 30mph. It took me a while to get comfortable with that.

Coming downhill is a breeze, no climbing at all, just a 530 foot descent. In fact, I have to use my brakes as I go by the elementary school -- a friend of mine got a ticket there for biking over the 15mph speed limit.


Uphill bike lane on HudsonAlso, up until last week, Hudson St was pretty treacherous. The downhill street was full of potholes, bumps and other paving obstacles that meant you really had to slow down.

But then, last week, they repaved Hudson St. It's great now. Smooth. Very smooth.

And they've added an uphill bike lane!

The city seems to be getting serious about encouraging biking. The city buses have had bike racks for quite a while now, and they're discussing putting uphill and downhill bike lanes on East State Street (Rt79), which is a relatively gentle climb out of downtown.

When I saw that Hudson was being repaved, I emailed the city employee who deals with bike lanes, and he confirmed their plans.


My commuting bike: 1992 Univega Activa Country Hybrid, with Arkel Dolphin 32 panniersSo I was happy to see the bike lane a reality this morning as I headed to work. I know that separate bike lanes are seen as controversial by some biking advocates, but on these uphill stretches, where there's no way you can bike at car traffic speed, they're important. I think they'll slow the cars, and give bike commuters some breathing space.

I didn't get into road biking until last summer, but what I found is that my morning commute really helped me; climbing 530 feet is a great workout, and now that I'm doing longer distances, I find that I can take the hills on most rides at a pretty good pace. Actually most of the time those hills are not as steep as my morning commute.

Of course the commute up South Hill is not as steep as some of the routes up East Hill. But I'll cover that in another blog post sometime.

NYC Century Tour: September Century #1

Headed down Broadway towards Times SquareOn Sunday I did what was probably my favorite and most interesting century ride yet: the annual New York City Century Tour.

This is a 100 mile ride that takes you through Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. As their promo material rightly claims, you see the city in a way you've never seen it before.

I lived in NYC for 9 years in the '80s and early '90s, mostly in Manhattan, and loved it. But that entire time I didn't have a bike, so I'd never cycled in the city. On the other hand, I bike-commute here, so I'm used to riding in traffic -- not that traffic here is anything like in NYC, but riding in traffic instills certain habits that are very useful no matter where you are.

The ride started at 6am at Central Park North. I left the place I was staying, on E. 44th St near the UN, at about 5:15, biked over to Central Park South, and got onto East Drive in the Park. The road was totally empty, except for a few cyclists headed the same way. It was beautiful, still pretty dark, since the sun hadn't yet come up.

There was a big crowd at the start, but pretty well organized. I managed to meet up with a group from the Southern Tier Bike Club, including Regina on her new Rans Ti-Rex recumbent (titanium!!), Steve and Nancy, who I'd met at the Keuka Lake ride, and a few others -- easily found by the fuzzy balls sticking up out of their helmets. We started out in the early morning dawn, headed out on 110th St over the Riverside Dr, through my old neighborhood.

We cruised down Riverside Dr to 72nd, then cut over to Broadway and headed downtown, around Columbus Circle, through Times Square. It was very early Sunday morning, so there was little traffic, and the bikes dominated the streets. It was very cool.


Crossing the Brooklyn BridgeWe crossed the Brooklyn Bridge as the sun was coming up. We then headed into Brooklyn. Though I lived in Brooklyn for a couple of months, and had visited parts of it, I don't know it very well, and Queens and the Bronx are total unknowns to me. The ride took us through all kinds of neighborhoods in all those boroughs, as well as along bike paths through forested parks, bike lanes along the shore, along busy roads, over highways, alongside highways, over bridges. It was fantastic.

Overall the route was good. The roads were pretty good, the bike paths too. There were a few bike paths, especially in the Bronx, that were not so great, bumpy and not well maintained. The bridge crossings were also a bit of a challenge in places; the Triborough Bridge crossing includes a number of places where there are steps, so you have to carry your bike up and down in those places. There's also a stairway at the end of the ramp, leading to the street, that isn't obvious. Some places in the Bronx were also roughly paved, or gravel. But overall, the route was great and very bike-able.


A Brooklyn beach, taken from somewhere along the Shore ParkwayIt was cool to ride as part of such a large group too. After the start, people spread out, and there would be clumps of people biking together, some of them together because they knew each other, others just because they happened to be together at that time in the ride. In a few places, the markings on the road were hard to see, so I missed some turns. The good thing is that others did too, and so we bushwhacked through together, with the help of some cyclists who knew the areas, and got back on track. A few times I was by myself, but just ahead I could see another group, which I joined for the next part of the ride.

The rest stops were about 15-20 miles apart, just the right distance, and they provided just what I needed. Lots of apples, bananas, orange slices, and even plums. Pita bread and hummus! That was a treat. Also sports drinks, and of course water, as well as bagels with pbj, and Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I'd had lasagna and my wife's leftover penne for dinner the night before, topped off with a couple poptarts and fig newtons, so I was well loaded up on carbs. For breakfast I'd had juice and a bagel with cream cheese. And I really chowed down at each of the rest stops. I felt great by the end.


Crossing the Triborough Bridge, headed to the BronxMy energy level was really good. I did great on the hills (not that there were any major ones on this ride...), pretty much passing everyone else -- there are some advantages to living at the bottom of a gorge!

Of course, since we were mostly riding in traffic and on streets -- none were closed off, the entire ride was in "real time" -- we had to stop for traffic, at least slow down for red lights and stop signs, and deal with the traffic which in a few places was heavy. (Or at least I stopped at red lights when there was cross traffic, not everyone did, but the day before in Brooklyn we'd come upon a horrible scene, the aftermath of an accident where an 8 yr old had been hit and killed while riding his bike with his dad. That kind of thing makes you much more careful when you ride in traffic...)

Anyway, riding in traffic really cut down on my average speed -- which ended up being 14.71 (as compared to 16.89 for my last century, which had about the same amount of climbing as this one) -- but it was well worth it. The one segment where I did the best was between Prospect Park and the Canarsie Pier; a very large part of that was along the shore, on a bike path that was well paved, wide and very very flat. The rest was on roads with little traffic. On that section I averaged 18 mph.

As for the climbing, this seemed to be a very flat century. My altimeter measured about 2830 feet of climbing, about the same as the last century ride I did, but it seemed like it was flatter, and looking at topographical maps I think that overstates it. In any event, relatively, it seemed like a very flat course, and it definitely avoided some of the climbing that it could have covered, in northern Manhattan, for example.

All in all, this was an amazing ride. If you love biking in urban areas, love NYC, or just want to have a great time, this is the ride to do.


The route

Route: Manhattan - Brooklyn - Queens - Bronx
Total distance: 100.95 miles
Ride time: 06:51'53
Avg speed: 14.71 mph
Total climb: 2831 ft (this might be overstated... altimeter was a bit off I think)
Low point: 0 ft, along Brooklyn waterfront
High point: 167 ft, near Ridgewood Reservoir, Brooklyn
Avg climb: 28.04 ft/mile (maybe less)