ABC Ride: TUESDAY, May 5 at 11:00 a.m. from 151 Davison Ave, Woonsocket, RI
Joel Arbeitman
Hi everyone.
This TUESDAY, May 5 at 11:00 a.m. the Ashland Bike Club will be doing one of our easiest rides on the Blackstone River Greenway. We’ll meet at the trailhead in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. Plenty of free parking is available.
GPS Address: 151 Davison Ave, Woonsocket, RI
Route Name: ABC - Blackstone River Greenway (get “Greenway”; not “Bikeway”)
Ride
Rating:
Distance: Easy (20.3)
Elevation: Easy (22)
Total Gain: 450 feet
Steepest: 3.7%
TUESDAY’s Weather
The current forecast for TUESDAY is calling for a
mostly
sunny and warm day with temperatures starting out around 71
degrees and then
rising to around 79 degrees by the end of the ride. It
will be fairly breezy throughout the ride.
The Ride
We’ve gotten several requests for bike path rides recently. Well, here you go!!
The Blackstone River Greenway is ideal for casual and beginner cyclists. The paved path is level most of the way. Our round-trip bike ride will total right around 20 miles. When completed, the greenway will cover 48 miles from Worcester to Providence. It will also be linked to the East Bay Bike Path resulting in a trail more than sixty miles long (one-way).
The ride includes an optional lunch stop on the patio of Angelo’s Palace Pizza in Cumberland, RI. The food is great there and the patio provides a stunning view of … the parking lot. We hope you’ll consider joining the club for lunch. Here’s a link to Angelo’s menu.
Here’s a link to a map of the route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/13265852
SPECIAL NOTE on Rhode Island E-Bike Laws
RI only allows Class I e-bikes on their bike paths; other
classes are prohibited.
The following sign has been installed along RI bike paths:
Off the Route
Our “Off the Route” feature
includes topics that
we think are worth sharing with the ABC cycling community. Please let us know what
you think.
Ashland Bike Club Radio
Are you familiar with the Traveling Wilburys? I recently
saw a
short interview with George Harrison in which he was asked how
the group was
formed.
Harrison said he had received a call from a friend of his, Jeff Lynne (ELO), to meet him at a restaurant for lunch. When Harrison arrived, he found Lynne sitting at a table with Roy Orbison. Harrison told them that his record producer had asked him to record one additional song for his album before the album could be released.
Harrison was searching for a studio he could use to record the track. Lynne suggested giving Bob Dylan a call because he had a studio in nearby Malibu, California. Dylan said his studio was available and that Harrison could use it. Lynne and Orbison asked if they could tag along. On the way, Harrison stopped off at Tom Petty’s house where he had left his guitar. Petty went along as well.
Harrison wrote and recorded the song “Handle with Care” by himself. The song was recorded again later that year after the five superstars formed the Traveling Wilburys.
All songs below were performed by the Traveling Wilburys:
Handle
with Care
The
Wilbury Twist
Runaway
Rattled
End of
the Line
Note: Roy Orbison died before
the song “End of
the Line” was recorded. The group paid tribute to his memory
in the video by including
a rocking chair they made rock back and forth and a picture of
Roy on a nearby
table.
What does a real bicycle culture look like?
In the US, we rejoice if we get a new bike path or even a
bike lane. Our
progress is painfully slow. The car culture has such a hold on
the people and
their representatives that transitioning from a car culture to
a cycling
culture seems almost impossible.
It’s not like that everywhere though. Cycling can be so much more than a recreational activity; it can play a major role in transportation policy. If we want to cut down on traffic, and cut down on greenhouse gas emissions, and cut down on obesity and the diseases it causes, bicycle travel needs to be incorporated far more than it has been.
If you want to see what could be, check out the short video below. FYI, Utrecht is a city in The Netherlands.
Utrecht Morning Bike Rush Hour - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEpjPRs4Iio
The Massachusetts “Midstate
Trail” Ranked in
America’s Top 100 Hikes
Did you ever hear of this trail? I hadn’t.
It sounds pretty nice, though, and it’s not too far away. This year, the trail is celebrating its 100th anniversary. If you’re a hiker, this looks like a great place to see some new scenery. If you’re a biker, well, maybe one of ABC’s hikers will take some pictures to show us.
For details about the 92-mile-long trail, click here.
See you TUESDAY morning at 11:00 a.m. in Woonsocket.
Be sure to check your email after 9:30 a.m. on TUESDAY morning to make sure we didn’t postpone or cancel the ride, and … don’t forget those helmets.
Joel