Brewster...

Last Thursday I took my bike out for the first time with a full load. As mentioned earlier, I decided to push back leaving for New England in favor of a quick test-run down to the Cape. And what better way to test out one's gear than immediately riding 104 miles on it?


Mostly following the Claire Saltonstall Bikeway (some intentional liberties were taken leaving Boston and approaching Brewster, while some unintentional liberties were taken getting confused in one or two places), I departed Thursday morning. I set my alarm for 6:00am so that I could be on the road about 7:00am; however, when I got out of bed at 7:30am to check the time I noticed the alarm going off but not making any noise. Oh well, that would still give me plenty of time to make it down to the Cape.


I had packed all of my gear the previous night, so after a morning shower and oatmeal breakfast, I went down to the basement to get the bike. The way I've been packing, it's impossible to remove the rear panniers without un-bungeeing the rear rack (the panniers are locked to the bike, and the lock is underneath the luggage on the back). So, rather than fussing with unloading/reloading, I thought I'd just carry the fully loaded bike out. While doable, it's very challenging. The bicycle is very heavy when loaded - I'd like to think I'm relatively strong, but I need to be well-positioned in order to lift it; I need to put it on a scale but I'd guess it's over 100lbs right now. Either way, I'm going to need to figure out a good way to move it if I ever encounter stairs or other obstacles on my journey.


I remember when I first got my road bike (an Allez) in 2008 how, after riding mountain bikes all my life, different it felt. It was so light! So smooth! Balancing was a little tricky at first and you had to be careful not to take turns too quickly, but it was amazing how different of a feel such similar machines could have. A loaded bicycle is similar: the principles are all similar, but the feel is completely different. All the agility and acceleration one enjoys with a road bike is gone. In its place you get stability (after this trip when I first got on my road bike again, I had to check the tires because it felt so wobbly). As long as I was moving, falling over or holding my line (going straight) was never a real concern for me.


Keeping moving however, was more of a concern. On my Allez, 18mph is an easy pace, 22mph is a focused but sustainable pace. 30mph can be maintained for shorter distances when properly motivated. Going up hills you just stand up and sprint up - probably not dropping below 16mph; long hills you sit down and spin a comfortable 14mph. On a road bike, 12mph is an easy pace. 16mph is a focused but sustainable pace. I could probably maintain 22mph or so for a shorter distance, but I was never properly motivated. Going up hills - any hills - you spin for your life and are happy to maintain 9mph. Anything steep you're at 6mph. Another thing: with a road bike you can usually preserve momentum for a downhill and use that speed to help power up the next uphill. With a loaded bike, not only is the amount of speed you get disappointing (I never topped 30mph, 24mph was good for going downhill... plus you're reluctant to shift into high gears because...), almost as soon as you start to level out you rapidly lose momentum and it's long gone by the time you're pedaling up the next hill. Overall, you need to keep a high cadence (as one always should), but it's much more challenging because so much more energy is needed to move the bicycle. Never before (not even running the marathon) have my legs protested so much!


Enough about all of that, though. Here's a quick summary of the trip:


Overall, relatively uneventful. Being a Thursday morning, I saw very few other cyclists on the road. The route took me mostly through back roads, so traffic wasn't much of an issue either. The torrential downpours of yesterdays had dissipated and given way to blue skies and abundant sunshine - sunshine that bested my sunscreen (which, apparently, expired December of last year... note to self, purchase more sunscreen).

I took my lunch about 35 miles into the ride (pictured below) in East Bridgewater (pictured above).

I pushed myself pretty hard to get to the next place I stopped - the route follows a single road for quite a ways, and even though I wanted to stop I didn't let myself until I got to the end of the road. Luckily there was a CVS there, and I picked up a cold gatorade to drink with some of my food. It was after 3pm at this point and my trip meter said I had traveled just under 70 miles. Judging by maps I knew I had 30 or so miles left and, since at the moment a nap sounded much more appealing than a bike ride, I didn't think I'd be able to cover them fast enough to make my 5pm ETA. So I called Karen to let her know I'd probably be a little later - 6-7pm. After a feeling adequately refueled, I hopped on my bike and proceeded to get lost. I asked directions at the fire station (which was on my map, but not where I thought it should be) and, while I'm certain they gave me accurate directions, I don't think I executed them correctly. Regardless, after talking to two other locals I eventually found my way to the Sagamore Bridge (below), which was terrible.

The route advises all riders to walk their bikes on the sidewalk. This is excellent advice, as I'd be nervous biking across this on an unloaded bike (and I've biked across some sketchy bridges before). What the route fails to advise however, is that there is a sidewalk on only one side. And, as luck would dictate, it was on the opposite side. But once you're close enough to find this out there's no turning back (unless you want to go the wrong way on an entrance ramp). So you're forced with two options: ride with traffic or play frogger. While crossing a busy highway with a loaded bike may seem like a bad choice, it unfortunately seemed like the better choice. It took a long time, a lot of cursing, and a few perturbed/confused motorists, but I did make safely across and was able to walk my bike over the bridge and get back on the route. And once you're safely on the sidewalk, the bridge is sort of nice.

The rest of the ride was predominately on 6A. I stopped once more to refuel about 20 miles out. I had to stop rather quickly after that to finish off my water because my legs were cramping up beyond functionality - it was a hot ride and I didn't drink enough fluids; there were numerous stores that I could have stopped at to re-fill water bottles or purchase drinks, but I opted to tough it out. Rule #5. The last 18 miles were characterized by this attitude and I basically put my head down and made myself keep pedaling. It was getting dark and the sooner I finished, the sooner I could eat a meal and rest.


The hospitality I received at Karen's deserves its own post, so I'll end this here. Suffice it to say, about 11 hours and 104 miles later, I arrived in Brewster safely (and eventually made it back home to type this, too).