L’Enfer D’Hunterdon
March 25, 2017 § 3 Comments
The Hell of Hunterdon is a tribute ride to what is arguably the best of the European one day “Cycling Monument” races, Paris Roubaix, a.k.a. L’Enfer du Nord, The Hell of the North. For those that are ignorant of this cycling classic, Paris Roubaix is jaunt through the old WW1 war grounds of France between Paris and Roubaix. The route stitches together 29 “sectors” of cobbles for a total about 55 km, and count down as they are encountered, so the first sector, Troisvilles to Inchy, is hit at kilometer 97, and is numbered 29. There are sections that are ancient even to an American audience, for example, Trouée d’Arenberg, a Roman era road that is off limits to all forms of travel but foot traffic year round, except for this race. A 2.4 Kilometer line of carnage for many, and the place where this race begins to break apart, and many find that this is not their year.
My Life – Bike by Bike
February 7, 2017 § 4 Comments
Other than walking, and maybe sleeping and eating which can be considered activities, cycling is an activity that I have engaged in pretty much, most of my life. When I was young it seemed like all the kids had some kind of bike. I can only assume that I started on a tricycle in nursery school, and later at home, as I do have memories of my youngest sister riding my tricycle. Myself? Not really.
Surf Taco Challenge 2016
October 31, 2016 § Leave a comment
I am not sure who had the first thought regarding this event, but it was Andrea Brennan who created the event, and it was an invitation from her in my Facebook notifications to ride this inaugural 2016 event. The original date and I had a conflict, and as it turned out, so did the weather, so rescheduled it was, and as luck would have it, Andrea was treated to a terrific warm and sunny late October Saturday for this event. (video here)
Never Got Warm
October 31, 2016 § 1 Comment
And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar; And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: "Please close that door. It's fine in here, but I greatly fear you'll let in the cold and storm— Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it's the first time I've been warm."
From “The Cremation of Sam McGee” by Robert W. Service.
I thought about poor Sam McGee often during this day. It was to be one of those days where I knew ahead of time it was never going to get too warm. We were not going to find ourselves in the midst of a late October “Native American” summer day. No, that wouldn’t come until the next day. This day was going to start out in the low high 30’s low 40’s and it would never get out of the 40’s. For that matter we wouldn’t even see the sun until it could clear the Kittatinny Ridge to our east.
Bringing Cliff Home – Final
August 17, 2016 § 1 Comment
When I first started to help Cliff plan this trip, we talked about his final day on the bike, and it just felt like that day should be a Bear Mountain to Sea Bright via Manhattan ride. Most of the route is very familiar to us already because we have utilized Fort Lee as a starting point for more than a few round trips to Bear Mountain. Cliff and others did once take the ferry to Manhattan, do the round trip to Bear Mountain, and then the ferry home again, so even the West Side Bike path is not unfamiliar territory.
Bringing Cliff Home – Day 2
August 16, 2016 § Leave a comment
The morning began relatively early because we were planning on a big day, and we couldn’t start that big day until we drove back to Albany and got started from where we left off the day prior. Our accommodations included a “Continental” breakfast which consisted of Bananas, Yogurt, Coffee and various pastries. It was very spartan. We wanted to be leaving by 7am so by 6:30 we basically saw everyone come and go from the food table.
Bringing Cliff Home – Day 1
August 15, 2016 § Leave a comment
The day began relatively early. Although there wasn’t much in Little Falls, the Travel Lodge did offer us some breakfast, and we were able to get a solid base in for the long day ahead. The plan was to set off with Cliff’s PAC Tour buddies (The EFM Crew) and ride with them into Saratoga Springs where they would stop for lunch. There we would split off and head Southeast while the PAC Tour continued East. Along the way about every 20 clicks or so, the support vehicles would set up a snack and water stop. A place to regroup, and recharge. There would be two of these, and we had our own Sag wagon being driven by Michael. Michael did a fantastic job provisioning everything. By my estimates, we probably could have made it all the way to Florida just consuming all the consumables that he put together for us. In addition Michael brought fold up chairs, and a shade canopy, so we were going to Sag in style and comfort.
Bringing Cliff Home – Getting Started
August 14, 2016 § 1 Comment
Cliff approached me almost two years ago regarding his desire to do a trans-continental bicycle ride. In those early days the basic idea/hope was that in our advanced years, there may be others among his friends that would be interested in doing some part of or the entire journey with him. This plan also included a really good friend who would be willing to sag the entire trip with a support vehicle, as it was Cliff’s intention to stay in motels along the way, and not carry anything on the bike other than bare necessities.
Thirty Years Ago – The Adventures of Frank & Stein – Part II
July 21, 2015 § 1 Comment
June 1st 1981 was the set departure date for the journey that would become known as “The Frank and Stein Route”. We had everything we needed, and the time had come to put the plan into action. We weren’t shipping our bikes and gear to San Diego, so we had to get bike boxes from a local shop, and disassemble our machines enough to re-pack them in these boxes. Fortunately there was room in the box to stuff many of the other items we had as well. What didn’t fit in the bike boxes we crammed into two other normal packing boxes, one each, so that we each had one huge bike box and one rather large box to manage at the Airport. We didn’t need suitcases, because we couldn’t carry them back with us, so disposable cardboard was the way to go.
The Adventures of Frank & Stein Part I
July 3, 2015 § 1 Comment
Every year is an anniversary of “The Adventures of Frank & Stein” played by myself as Stein, and a college friend and roommate Frank Falcione. The name really has to be credited to Thomas Dudek, another college friend. Tom was a somewhat streetwise Philadelphia fanatic that played a great game of pool, and lived in the same student housing slum as both Frank and I. We were in the same small Engineering Science department at Penn State, and we spent a lot of time together in class, at the Rathskeller shooting pool, at The Hub shooting pool, and drinking lots of beer. Somewhere along the line in this friendship Tom gave me the nickname Stein. Pretty soon that was how my circle of friends knew me. Very much the same way that I am known today amongst my cycling contingent as Bird (yes, it is short for Big Bird). I don’t really recall how Tom came up with stein. It was not like we were all looking for nicknames. We weren’t sitting around drinking and smoking dope thinking out loud “We should all have some nicknames….Eric you be stein”. Suddenly it was there, and that was who I was. So the following (and subsequent posts) is a recollection of an adventure that was hatched by me, and drew in Frank so that by the time we left for this adventure it was already being called “Frank & Stein’s Big Adventure” or something like that. “What route are you taking?” “It’ll be the Frank & Stein route.” “What the hell is the Frank & Stein Route?” “It will be the route that we travel, where ever that takes us.” Mostly it should end up being a tale of friendship, and the people we meet along the way. What are stories, but the recollection of past events shared with friends? So here is the recollection of one of my major past events.
Big Bird's Adventures 