ABC Ride: Saturday, September 20 at 10:30 a.m. from Cornell's in Hopkinton
Joel Arbeitman
The next Ashland Bike Club ride will be held this Saturday, September 20 at 10:30 a.m. We’ll meet at Cornell’s Irish Pub which is located at 229 Hayden Rowe St (Route 85) in Hopkinton.
Special Note on Parking: Please park on the left side of the restaurant.
GPS Address: 229 Hayden Rowe St (Route 85), Hopkinton, Ma
Route Name: ABC – Eli’s Ramble V (get the right version)
Ride Rating:
Distance: Moderate
(27.8)
Elevation: Moderate-Challenging
(46) (Note:
calculation = gain in feet / distance in miles)
Total Gain: 1290 feet
Steepest: 7.2%
Weather
Saturday’s
forecast
promises a sunny day
with temperatures ranging from 60
to 67 degrees.
Saturday’s Ride
This is
a route that
blends some great country roads with a seven-mile roll on a
section of the
Upper Charles Trail in Milford.
The base
route was designed by ABC’er, the late, great Eli Post. Eli was
a close friend
and a giant in the world of Massachusetts cycling. Eli passed
away this past
January. The route he
left behind for us
offers spectacular scenery throughout the entire ride.
Saturday’s version of the route, version V, adds some new roads and a little extra distance to Eli’s original route.
For those interested, lunch will be available after the ride at Cornell’s where the ride starts and ends. Here’s a link to their menu: https://www.cornellsirishpub.net/menus They have a huge fenced-in courtyard right behind the restaurant that provides a great setting for lunch. Please consider joining the club for a late lunch or perhaps just a beer after the ride ends.
Please note that Cornell’s is “cash only” and does not accept credit cards! They do, however, have two ATMs on site that you can use.
If you don’t
plan to
ride on Saturday but would like to meet the club for lunch, we
should arrive
back at Cornell’s by roughly 2:00 – 2:15.
Here's a link to a map of Saturday’s route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/51975053
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”.
Cornell’s in Hopkinton, Ma (43 riders!)
Off the Route
Our “Off the Route” feature includes topics we think are worth sharing with the club. Please let us know what you think.
Ashland Bike Club Radio
As this will be the last ABC ride notice we send before
autumn
begins (September
22 at 2:19 pm), we think this song is the most
appropriate. Nice video,
too.
Cheryl Wheeler – When Fall Comes to New England
“Bait” Bikes
There are all kinds of bike locks with all kinds of price
ranges. Some
definitely work better than others. The problem is, though,
that none can
guarantee your bike won’t be stolen.
With portable angle grinders, bolt cutters, and all
manner of implements
of destruction, it is sad but true that the best protection is
not a bike lock
at all. If you leave
your bike
unattended in a public place, regardless of your lock’s
quality, theft is
always a possibility.
With some bikes costing thousands of dollars, the question needs to be asked whether local police departments are doing all they can to fight bicycle theft. In most communities, police don’t have the resources to investigate every reported theft. But they could be doing more … much more.
There’s really no excuse for every community not having a “bait bike” program. How would this work? A bike would be locked up in a public place and left. Hidden inside the bike would be a GPS tracker chip that would notify police if the bait bike were moved and also where it was currently located.
Simple! Low cost! Fairly effective! The GPS trackers don’t always work but they often do.
Why isn’t this being done everywhere? Perhaps we bike riders need to request a program like this in our own communities.
Here’s an article about how this could work: https://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/2025/09/bait-bike-helps-kalamazoo-police-catch-thieves-as-they-pedal-away.html
One piece of advice, though. Never confront the thief on your own if you’re able to track your stolen bike. Doing so could easily put your personal safety at risk. Show the police the tracker information and let them handle it.
And here’s a video on the same subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InkgO4G4Utw
This bicycle seat “fashion model” might surprise you
Charity Ride
Rider: Judi Burten
Event: American Cancer
Society Ride
(See attached for more information)
To recap this Saturday’s ride, we will meet at Cornell’s in Hopkinton at 10:30 a.m. Please remember to park on the left side of the parking lot!
As always, check your email after 9:00 a.m. on ride days to make sure we didn’t postpone or cancel the ride and … don’t forget those helmets!
See you soon.
Joel