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This Wed night ride out to Ipswich is still ON through May. Meet at gravel lot next to Conte's 21st Street in Ghent. 40 min ride out to the trail, 40 min ride on trail, 40 min return ride. Mountain or cross bikes with lights, roll at 6pm. (Pictured Mike Underhill, Kirk and Mike Park)
After lots of volunteer work during 3 days of trail maintenance and cleanup (October, January, March), Ipswich is looking great! The trails are groomed, the trash minimized, trail features updated, and most importantly all users seem more invested in keeping our patch of woods in shape! (Before and after photos of "Graffiti Bridge." above)
The highlight of cycling this weekend was a quick discovery of singletrack near the airport. Sadly, this half mile stretch of singletrack got me excited. There are so few wooded areas in town!
It's close to this popular intersection on the Airport loop. There are 2 more sections of singletrack along the same Miller Store Road stretch, and I want to start stringing the 3 sections together for quick cross bike riding during the week.
In other news, I have been laboring over a piece Wes and I are co-writing for AltDaily.com about the Handmade bike show. Here is a draft excerpt from the forthcoming story:
Notably not on display but etched in the psyche of all cyclists is the idea that buying a handmade bike is investing in a relationship with the builder during a time that we know virtually nothing about the individuals who make what we own. While there's always been a market for handmade bikes, it was a niche market. For every handmade titanium bike we saw, there are a hundred robot-welded Wal-mart bikes, and a dozen decent pseudo-racing bikes. As I walked down the packed convention room isles, I got the sense that I was part of a punk culture on the verge of becoming mainstream. But I was glad to be there, backstage with the band before they signed with the major record label.
(Pictured above is Wes photographing bike builder Dan Polito from Cleveland.)
