ABC Ride: Saturday, September 13 at 10:30 a.m. from Jefferson Elementary School, Franklin, Ma
Joel Arbeitman
The next Ashland Bike Club ride will be held this Saturday, September 13 at 10:30 a.m. starting from Jefferson Elementary School in Franklin. Be sure not to miss the big post-ride bbq (see details below)!
GPS Address: 628 Washington St, Franklin, Ma (aka Jefferson Elementary School, Franklin)
Directions (see map
below for roads
inside the school complex):
As a gauge, the drive from
Ashland should take
just about 35 minutes.
1. From Route 495
South, use exit
41 to King St.
2. Turn right
onto King St (which
becomes Washington St) and go 1 mile to Lord Way.
3. Turn left
onto Lord Way.
4. At the t-intersection,
turn right
and follow the school road until you are just past the
school keeping the
school on your left.
5. Turn left
when you reach the
playing field just before the road curves to the right.
The parking lot we’ll meet in will be on your left. If you are
not
geographically challenged, the lot is on the west side (i.e. the
right side) of
the school.
Route Name: ABC – Nancy’s Franklin Ramble II (get the right version!)
Ride Rating:
Distance: Easy
(23.2)
Elevation: Moderate (43)
Total Gain: 997 feet
Steepest: 7.5%
Saturday’s Weather
Saturday’s forecast is calling for a spectacular day for riding with temps ranging between 66 and 73 degrees under mostly sunny skies.
Saturday’s Ride
As we
get later and
later into the riding season, we plan to start mixing in routes
we haven’t done
yet this year to add some variety to our ride calendar. Some of these routes will
involve a little
more travel as we expand our horizons. With
help from ABC’s Nancy and Mike Collette, Saturday’s ride offers
not just
variety, but some beautiful country roads, some great water
views, and a snack stop
at The Ice Cream Machine.
Just a little more than half the route takes us through some great Rhode Island scenery including the Diamond Hill Reservoir. You might want to spend a little time before the ride brushing up on your Rhode Island accent.
And
here’s some good news … we removed the killer hill from the
route. While there still
is a tough hill on the way
back, it’s a 7.5-percent grade instead of 9.5-percent.
We’re really excited about this route. We hope you can join us!!
And
a
great big THANK YOU to ABC’ers Nancy and Mike who not only will
lead the ride,
but they
have invited the
entire club back to their house (nearby) for a post-ride
barbecue. Mike is a professional chef
so the food should
be great! Their address will be provided just before the ride
begins.
Here's a link to a map of Saturday’s route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/52606477
You
can print our “official cue sheet” for the ride by clicking the
link above,
then click “More”, then click “Print Map and Cue PDF”, and
finally click “Print
Official”.
Off the Route
Our “Off the Route” feature includes interesting topics we’ve come across that we think are worth sharing. Please let us know what you think.
Ashland
Bike Club Radio
Chuck Brodsky – Schmoozin’
“Intelligent”
Speed Assistance
The more I research this issue,
the more
articles I’ve been finding. What,
at
first, seemed like something of a wacky idea, and might still
be, has been
gathering far more momentum than most of us are aware of. It appears to be the law
of the land throughout
the EU, it might be coming to California sometime soon, and it
might just be a
requirement in your next car.
One thing is for sure, it’s going to be highly controversial if it ever happens.
Everyone knows there are tens of
thousands, usually around 40,000, traffic fatalities a year. A new program might be
about to introduce
speed limit controllers into government vehicles. Will our cars be far
behind? These “pilot”
programs have a way of
expanding.
Is this just a little bit too intrusive for you? Who gets to decide on issues like these? Saving lives is great but don’t we need to draw the line somewhere?
Would you support this “pilot” program?
As one of many variations, suppose rather than restricting the speed of your car to the speed limit, that drivers received a ticket for exceeding the speed limit by some number of miles per hour? Instead of external speed cameras, your own car would rat on you?
The
question remains,
what’s the best way we can reduce driving speeds to help save
lives. Few want a
“big brother” society but what, exactly, would you do to
reduce the carnage on
our roads?
Read the article: https://visionzeronetwork.org/the-promise-of-intelligent-speed-assistance/
How
much data are too much data?
There are all kinds of bike
riders. Some are
“metric junkies”. I
used to be one but, finally, I was cured.
It’s great knowing how many miles you’ve gone or your average speed or how far it is to the next turn. And I don’t begrudge those who are training and want to measure every little thing like their heart rate or their power output or their VO2 max.
For me, though, I would rather enjoy the beautiful countryside with its autumn foliage, its glistening lakes, and the sound of the wind. I leave all that metric stuff to the bean counters. I’m not a competitive cyclist. I don’t measure my rides by what a spreadsheet tells me. Give me great company, great scenery, a little bit of exercise, and maybe even some food, and I am one happy camper. Truthfully, I find all that metric stuff kind of depressing.
What about you? Do you record every little detail when you ride?
Here’s an article on the subject: https://cyclingmagazine.ca/mtb/is-overdosing-on-data-destroying-your-ride/
To recap this Saturday’s ride, we’ll meet at Jefferson Elementary School in Franklin at 10:30 a.m. And, please consider coming to the post-ride barbecue at Nancy and Mike’s house near where the ride ends. We would love to have you join the club for some great eats! They will supply the food; feel free to BYOB.
As always, check your email after 9:00 a.m. on Saturday to make sure we didn’t postpone or cancel the ride and … don’t forget those helmets!
See you soon.
Joel