ABC Ride: Saturday, June 27 at 10:30 a.m. from Davis Field, Sudbury
Joel Arbeitman
This Saturday, June 27 at 10:30 a.m., the Ashland Bike Club has scheduled one of our newest ABC routes. We’ll meet in the Davis Field lot in Sudbury, Ma.
GPS Address: Davis Field parking lot (195 North Rd – aka Route 117), Sudbury
Route Name: ABC – Three Bike Paths and Lake Boon II (get the right version)
Ride
Rating:
Distance: Moderate (25.0)
Elevation:
Moderate (36)
Total Gain: 901 feet
Steepest: 7.1%
The Weather
The
forecast for Saturday is calling for a cloudy day with temps in
the upper-70s
and just a wee little bit more humidity than we’ve had recently.
Dew points
should remain in the low-60s which is not too bad.
The Ride
Saturday’s route
takes advantage of
all the new bike trails in Metrowest to get us to Lake Boon a
much safer way.
Our modified route, now version II, gives us multiple chances to ride on the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail (BFRT), the Mass Central Rail Trail (MCRT), and even a very short section of the Assabet River Trail (ART) in Hudson. Although there are a couple of hills on the route, overall, using all the bike paths gets us a very flat route. Version II has reversed the direction on Morse Road to make its big hill a little less steep.
Here’s a link to a map of the route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/55829733
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 often includes tidbits we’ve come across that we think
are worth
sharing. Please let us
know what you
think.
Ashland
Bike Club Radio
Why do they call it the
“blues”? Too many songs
to list …
The Allman Brothers – Blue
Sky
Bob Dylan – It’s All
Over
Now, Baby Blue
Chris Isaak – Blue
Spanish
Sky
Carl Perkins – Blue
Suede
Shoes
Adrian Monk & Willie Nelson – Blue Eyes
Crying in the Rain
Emmylou Harris – Blue
Kentucky
Girl
Joni Mitchell - Blue
What do
you think of
RCUT intersections?
On ABC rides, we often ride
past our left turn,
make a right, a u-turn, and a left, and then turn right where
we could have
just turned left in the first place. Some think what we do is
kind of nutty. We
do this because taking a left off a busy road, especially with
a long string of
riders, can be dangerous.
Although I haven’t seen an RCUT intersection design in Massachusetts, or anywhere for that matter, the goal of making left turns safer is the same.
After studying the following video, though, RCUTs seem to introduce new dangers while resolving others.
Okay, so what is an RCUT intersection?
The basic design eliminates left turns and, instead, provides a u-turn configuration past the intersection you want to turn at. After the u-turn, you can then make a right turn instead of a left turn which is much safer.
I see two major problems with this design. First, to get to the u-turn location, you have to cross all lanes of traffic in a short distance to get to the extreme left. Then, in reversing direction, you need to merge into the high-speed travel lane and then move across all lanes before the intersection so that you can turn right.
Eliminating left turns is good but crossing all lanes of traffic, twice, to achieve it seems very dangerous. As a cyclist, the design seems totally unworkable.
Should
Massachusetts implement
the RCUT intersection design? Check out the following video
and let me know
what you think.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzpdTdXDfRw
One in
five seniors
supplement with Omega-3 spending about $1 billion a year
Omega-3 supplements can be made
using fish oil
or, for vegans, they can be algae-based. Many believe they can
help with dry eye
which is a fairly common condition.
But many seniors take omega-3 with the belief that it will help with brain health as they age. The goal is admirable; the results … not so much.
While no study ever seems to “get the final word”, the recent USC study funded by the National Institute on Aging and linked below has concluded that if brain health is the goal, omega-3 is not the answer.
Read the details here: https://www.inc.com/kevin-haynes/new-research-casts-doubt-on-a-go-to-supplement-for-brain-health/91363468
To recap, Saturday’s ABC ride will meet at 10:30 a.m. in the Davis Field parking lot (195 North Rd - Route 117) Sudbury, Ma.
Check your email on Saturday morning after 9:00 a.m. to make sure we didn’t postpone or cancel the ride and … don’t forget those helmets!!
See you soon.
Joel