ABC Ride: Saturday, August 16 at 10:30 a.m. from Haskell Field, Sudbury

[Joel Arbeitman]

The next Ashland Bike Club ride will be held this Saturday, August 16 at 10:30 a.m.  The ride will start from Haskell Field in Sudbury. 

GPS Address:  38 Fairbank Rd, Sudbury, Ma

Route Name:  ABC – Verrill Farm for Hill Haters

Ride Rating:
Distance:  Easy-Moderate (23.3)
Elevation: Easy (35)
Total Gain: 815 feet
Steepest:  5.4%

Saturday’s Weather

The forecast for Saturday calls for a perfect riding day with temps ranging from 76 to 82 degrees under totally sunny skies.

 

Looking ahead, we have some great rides coming up in the next few weeks including:  Blackstone River Greenway, Magical Mystery Tour, Oscar’s Burritos, Three Bike Paths and Lake Boon, Nancy’s Franklin Ramble, Red Rock, Hog Island and the Cape Cod Canal, and many more.

Saturday’s Ride

Saturday’s route is one of the flattest we could find.

Earlier versions of this route used to take us to Lake Boon before heading over to Verrill Farm.  This version of ABC’s Verrill Farm route eliminates the trip to Lake Boon and also avoids Hudson Rd.  As a trade-off, we’ve added some highly scenic roads in the Water Row area of Wayland and a few new roads after the Verrill Farm lunch stop as well.

With an average gain-per-mile of just 35 feet, it’s hard to find on-road routes anywhere in Metrowest much flatter than this one.  This route is “almost” bike path flat.  Are there hills?  Sure … but, overall, this one falls into the “easy” category and should be no problem for most ABC riders.

We’ve been doing lots of really challenging rides lately.  This is not one of them.  With great weather, great scenery, very few hills, and even a visit to the fields at Verrill Farm, this one should be a treat.

Here's a link to a map of Saturday’s route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/52200325

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”.

 

Free Bike Rack Update
The Saris rack is no longer available but the hitch rack still is. The rack appears to be in excellent condition.  If you’re interested, please reply to this ride notice.

 

Bicycles for Humanity Boston
ABC’er Aiko Pinkoski is hoping that a few of us will volunteer a little of our time this Sunday and or Monday.

 

Aiko writes: 

 

“A coworker's family runs "Bicycles for Humanity Boston", a charity that collects bikes and ships them to Botswana.

 

They have 500 bicycles this weekend to get ready for a shipment by container.

 

On Sunday afternoon, the bikes must be moved (from a house nearby) to Lincoln-Sudbury High School in small moving trucks.  Help is needed loading and unloading the bikes at the school on Sunday ... on Monday, they need help loading them into the container.

 

Volunteers are needed on Sunday from about 2 – 5 pm and on Monday from about 9 am – 12.”

 

Can you lend a hand?  Please consider volunteering a couple of hours for this worthy cause!

 

For more info, please contact Gretchen (Aiko’s co-worker) at findlay...@gmail.com.

 

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

Richard and Mimi Farina – The Falcon

 

The Latest Helmet Ratings
How do you choose a helmet? By price? By color? By fit? By weight? By ventilation? By … safety rating?

 

One of the best rating services for helmet safety is Virginia Tech’s Helmet Lab. The lab recently made major changes to the system it uses because so many helmets received the highest rating that it was becoming harder to differentiate one from another.

 

So, the cards have been shuffled. Some of the top-tier helmets remained in the top tier; others dropped down.

 

Where does your helmet stand in the new rankings?

 

By the way, is it time (or way past time) for a new helmet? Opinions vary but a new helmet every 5 – 8 years is probably a good idea.  If you bought yours during the Clinton administration, it might be time to treat yourself to an upgrade.

 

Read about the Virginia Tech helmet ratings:  https://velo.outsideonline.com/news/100-helmets-lose-5-star-virginia-tech-safety-rating-heres-why-thats-a-good-thing

 

Psychopaths!!
I recently read the following recap of someone's conversation during a train ride.

A man sits down next to me on a train.

Man:  Loads of psychopaths around here.
Me:  Really?
Man:  Loads mate.
Me:  How do you know?
Man:  There are signs, aren't there?
Me:  I guess?
Man:  I love them.
(47 minutes of silence follows)
Man leaves the train with his bicycle.  Only then did I realize he was saying "cycle
paths".

 

To recap this Saturday’s ride, we’ll meet at Haskell Field in Sudbury at 10:30 a.m.

 

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