miles is a metric century (100km) unless my conversion table is off.

though I think my days of long drives for scenic rides are drawing to an end. Martha’s Vineyard is lovely, but 5 hours of travel round trip between car and ferry is a bit much – basically doubled the time of the trip.

50m were on the island and 12 on the “mainland” (to and from parking). would rather’ve done the 10m stretch to South Beach but ran short on time with the ferry schedule.

best part was the “bike ferry” across the Memensha Pond: the ferry only covers 100 feet or so but saves you at least a half hour by going around the pond.

next up: a REAL century!

Normally you would think me UNlucky when a pedal falls off my bike. Not so this morning…I was about halfway to work when my left pedal started feeling loose. I stopped to check, but it looked fine so I continued on. A few minutes later though, not just my pedal but my left crank fell off entirely!

I needed to get to work, and it was too early to call home for help, so I walked the bike to the nearest subway stop and begged them to let me get on even though it was rush hour (no bikes 7-10am). Got off a stop early by mistake, and almost decided to take the commuter rail home instead but got back on the subway. Following my transfer from the Orange Line to the Red Line, had to wait for the second train which had space for me and my bike (first train was packed).

Got to work eventually, figuring I would kill some time until local bike stores opened. But on the way up the ramp to our building, I bumped into Ken P., whom I knew from working with Sloan A/V. He hadn’t seen my road bike and wanted to give it a look. When I pointed out that my left crank & pedal had fallen off, he said “No problem, let’s fix it up for you.” Less than a half-hour later, I was back on two wheels. Ken happened to have all of his bike tools with him, including wrenches, lubricant, and a leather hammer (for aligning the crank on the bottom bracket).

When the crank fell off, I figured I was out a couple hundred dollars and wouldn’t have my bike for a few days & I was cursing my decision to buy via craigslist. But thanks to Ken, I’m all set! So here are all the ways I was lucky this morning:

1. I’m lucky the crank fell off less than a mile from a subway station and not somewhere more remote on my 13-mile commute.
2. I’m lucky the crank fell off ten feet after I got on the bike path and not anywhere earlier in the nine miles I pedaled, where I would have had to go into the road/traffic to retrieve the lost pieces
3. I’m lucky that I got off the subway one stop early by mistake, and that the first train after the transfer was too full for me. If either of these hadn’t’ve happened, I wouldn’t’ve run into Ken
4. I’m lucky that I had a crummy classroom last semester without any A/V equipment, which is how I got to know Ken in the first place
5. I’m lucky that, despite our frequent bike conversations, he had never seen my road bike so that he was curious enough to stop instead of just waving and moving on when he saw me from a distance
6. I’m lucky I left home at 6am instead of my more common 9am departure
7. I’m lucky this happened today and not last Saturday, when I was doing a 40-mile ride on Martha’s Vineyard and would’ve been completely stuck

I’m thinking I should buy a lottery ticket or something 🙂

OK, so I’m officially over the hill. “Picking up speed” though, as they say, since I took up cycling last fall.

the plan was to do 40 miles for my 40th birthday…not a huge undertaking, though I am still on the hefty side and haven’t done more than 50 miles yet. It was also a chance to try out my new-to-me road bike. I’m hoping to clear a metric century this month and prep for the MassBike imperial century in August as well as the Seacoast Century in September.

I had never been to Martha’s Vineyard despite living here off and on for a dozen years, so given the great things I had heard about its scenery and bike paths I thought I’d give it a shot.

Then I read the weather report. One of my two buddies backed out last night, but the other two of us made it to MV today despite the weather. in fact, I’m thrilled we went, because the rain scared off all the cyclists and we had the bike paths pretty much to ourselves!

it was raining a bit when we left home at 7:30, and by the time we got to Cape Cod it was buckets/thunder/lightning. I could barely see where I was driving and felt like an idiot with two bikes on the back of my car. we almost turned around and came home but plunged ahead. the Bike Bus driver asked us “what possessed you to bring your bikes today?”

then, miraculously, the clouds parted when we got on the ferry, and it was perfect thereafter: warm enough for short sleeves, but not so hot/sunny that you sweat profusely and need a Camelbak.

we got in 31m on the island (and finished off “40 for my 40th” back on the cape). we didn’t have time to do the extra 20 miles to see the cliffs, but we did manage to take in South Beach – pic below – and of course Beach/Seaview Dr from Edgartown to Oak Bluffs.

craziest part was that the only other cyclist on the ferry home had the exact same bike I did (’07 Roubaix), just a different paint scheme. coincidences, coincidences…