2015-2016 BIYF online winter complaint repository

Been slacking but here's what I done did lately. Pedals were pushed, wheels were turned ... commuting at night in winter sucks.

Feb 10: 18.2 miles / 1 hr. 26 minutes

Ride to: https://www.strava.com/activities/490483823 ( 9 miles - 38 minutes )
Ride home: https://www.strava.com/activities/490754454 ( 9.2 miles - 48 minutes - fuck you wind )

Feb. 18: 17.9 miles / 1 hr. 24 minutes
Ride in: https://www.strava.com/activities/496516394 ( 8.9 miles - 37 minutes )
Ride home: https://www.strava.com/activities/496797956 ( 9 miles - 47 minutes - seriously wind? )
 
2/19 - 6:57:30 https://www.strava.com/activities/497328135

Yeah, so I rode from Mahlon to Mountain Creek on almost all dirt today. I have some vacation days I need to burn before April, so I figured I would duck out of work to ride today. I jacked some GPX files off Strava and rode from the park and ride on Rt 15 to the powerlines, to some neighborhood off Glen Rd in Sparta, up Ridge Rd which turns into a dirt road and then some powerlines, gets to the Edison memorial on Edison Rd, then some trails through Sparta WMA, then across Rt 23, then through Hamburg WMA, and up into Mountain Creek. It was pretty awesome to explore all this stuff.

Sparta Mountain WMA was cool and included all the old Edison property and a bunch of old mines. There were utility people cutting down trees on one section of the powerlines. There was some cool single track once you got near 23 that some locals must have built, then there's a graveyard and you are at 23. I crossed there and rode some railroad tracks and then tried to avoid a road segment on the GPX that I was following, which went fairly well. The Hamburg Mountain WMA section needs some work. You have to cut through a huge area of private land, including climbing over some barb wire fences. One of them I didn't have to climb over because there was some logging going on, so a gate was open. I asked the old dudes logging what the story was and they didn't give a shit. They said go for it.

I eventually got to Mountain Creek and rode most of a previous year's race course. I also stopped off at the Vernon Peak to get a picture of the gondola and downhill trails. It was hilarious how it was all dirt and then all of a sudden it was all snow by the peak. They've got that whole snow making thing down to a science.

Coming down the back side of Mountain Creek, I ended up on Rt 515, which I guess is Stockholm Rd. I ended up taking that all the way back to Rt 23. There's a whole bunch of Newark Watershed trails on both sides of that road, including an old woods road that basically parallels 515 back down to 23. I skipped it to save some time and energy to do some more exploring in Sparta WMA on the way back. I scoped out the connector to Cannistear Rd, which can be used to connect into Waway. That connector looks very easy to figure out, but I didn't have time today.

Here are some pics in a fairly random order.

Edison Memorial:
IMG_2054.JPG


Old mine, hard to tell how deep it is here:
IMG_2055.JPG


Random:
IMG_2056.JPG


Cleanest party site I've ever come across in the woods, must be actual adults hanging out here:
IMG_2058.JPG


Hard to read the sign, but it says "Please respect our ancestor's graves 1793 - 1864":
IMG_2060.JPG


Mountain Creek Bike Park:
IMG_2062.JPG


50 feet from the previous picture, winter time at the Vernon Peak:
IMG_2063.JPG


Mountain Creek bike park again, most of the features have gates blocking them off:
IMG_2065.JPG


Another old mine:
IMG_2066.JPG


Another old mine:
IMG_2067.JPG
 
JimN said:
2/19 - 6:57:30 https://www.strava.com/activities/497328135

Yeah, so I rode from Mahlon to Mountain Creek on almost all dirt today. I have some vacation days I need to burn before April, so I figured I would duck out of work to ride today. I jacked some GPX files off Strava and rode from the park and ride on Rt 15 to the powerlines, to some neighborhood off Glen Rd in Sparta, up Ridge Rd which turns into a dirt road and then some powerlines, gets to the Edison memorial on Edison Rd, then some trails through Sparta WMA, then across Rt 23, then through Hamburg WMA, and up into Mountain Creek. It was pretty awesome to explore all this stuff.

Sparta Mountain WMA was cool and included all the old Edison property and a bunch of old mines. There were utility people cutting down trees on one section of the powerlines. There was some cool single track once you got near 23 that some locals must have built, then there's a graveyard and you are at 23. I crossed there and rode some railroad tracks and then tried to avoid a road segment on the GPX that I was following, which went fairly well. The Hamburg Mountain WMA section needs some work. You have to cut through a huge area of private land, including climbing over some barb wire fences. One of them I didn't have to climb over because there was some logging going on, so a gate was open. I asked the old dudes logging what the story was and they didn't give a shit. They said go for it.

I eventually got to Mountain Creek and rode most of a previous year's race course. I also stopped off at the Vernon Peak to get a picture of the gondola and downhill trails. It was hilarious how it was all dirt and then all of a sudden it was all snow by the peak. They've got that whole snow making thing down to a science.

Coming down the back side of Mountain Creek, I ended up on Rt 515, which I guess is Stockholm Rd. I ended up taking that all the way back to Rt 23. There's a whole bunch of Newark Watershed trails on both sides of that road, including an old woods road that basically parallels 515 back down to 23. I skipped it to save some time and energy to do some more exploring in Sparta WMA on the way back. I scoped out the connector to Cannistear Rd, which can be used to connect into Waway. That connector looks very easy to figure out, but I didn't have time today.
Click to expand...

WOW, that's some impressive exploration ride! Nicely done.
 
First ride since monday's crash-a-palooza at Wharton. Back/shoulder still sore but oddly it only bothered me when I raised my arms horizontally to signal a turn. Anywho, ridiculously over-dressed with upper and lower base layers - it was obvious when the same guy blew by me twice wearing just a short sleeve jersey and shorts. Wind was brutal the first 7 miles heading west but nice coming back, managed a wind-boosted 8th place on a local segment.

Stopped at Otto's farm for a Kind bar and port-a-potty visit. Two vultures were eyeing me from a nearby tree

media


2/20

2:30:53, 40.6 miles

https://www.strava.com/activities/498067076
 
Saturday 2/20, 22.5 miles 1:38 moving time - https://www.strava.com/activities/498100146

testing out new bars which RULE, new brake levers and way better routing on rear brake means my brakes are actually decent now, score.
actually went out for some food shoppings but i made it a big stupid loop and hit one of the "big climbs" on the island. <10sec behind my PR on the loaded rando pigsteel townie bicycle cycle, awesome.

nice weather and kickass new cockpit made me aggro AF, i was hauling ass today on an old slow bike and it put a huge shit eating grin in my face the whole time. ITS GODDAMN SPRINGTIME AND ITS GLORIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my hub is definitely fucked up though, i should take it apart and see whats happening in there but im not in the mood for all that crap right now.
something tells me the internals are in a state that wont go back together once i open it up
 
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