Fall Centuries: Upcoming TOH, NYC-MS and Port Jeff Rides

I'm definitely in. I've done the TOH ride a number of times over the years (my first time, many years ago, even before I had my road Schwinn, on an old borrowed mountain bike with knobby tires... looking back at it, I can't believe I did that) and it's always beautiful, especially the first part through south shore's mansions and the last part, through north shore's pine forests. The route is well marked, so you don't even need the turn sheet. Being relatively flat, it's not a challenging ride in terms of climbs, but it can be very fast. Last year I averaged 18+ mph over the 100 mile course. (It did help to draft behind Locomotive Bob for most of the ride.) It's two weeks from today, on 9/26.

I'm also considering the MS ride the following Sunday, 10/3. I've done that a couple of times with the Wheelmen. It's very crowded during the loop around Manhattan, with all kinds of recreational and occasional riders. Riders have exclusive use of the northbound FDR and the southbound HHP. After you ride the tunnel under the Hudson, also with no car, trucks or busses (it's very cool to ride the tunnel with nothing but bikes around you), you can enjoy a great, hilly route in northern NJ and southern NY, until you return to Manhattan via the GWB's walk/bikeway.

I'm most definitely doing Dubya's proposed, still-in-the-planning Port Jefferson Century on Sunday, 10/17.

Can we get some more interest than the tiny handful of confirmations we have so far?

Beast

On Sep 12, 2010, at 12:17 PM, Robert Leighton wrote:

That's great Arthur; we'll have apple pie and ice cream waiting for us at the end of the ride to encourage you to keep up before it's all gone.  Sounds good? Or maybe we'll just stick to the sub sandwiches they provide.  Looking forward to riding with you again!

 

Who else is in?

 

Bob

 

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From: Arthur Finkel [mailto:quasiguru@gmail.com] 
Sent: Sunday, September 12, 2010 12:07 PM
To: Robert Leighton
Cc: Oriel Mor; Isaac Seinuk; northshorerenegades.chainring@blogger.com; David J. Shereck; David Wargin; Gus Condiles; Barry Feirstein; Greg Keller; George Uribe; Bill Eisenberg; Mitchel Lang; Larry Nipon; Todd Manas; Jan Lemerman; Yihao Ou
Subject: Re: 9/11 Ride

 

I am interested in the Tour of the Hamptons.  I am busy the weekend of the MS Century.  You may need to wait for me a while at the end of the Tour of the Hamptons so bring some reading material or I will bring my own car.  I have not done a road ride since early July.

On Sun, Sep 12, 2010 at 9:50 AM, Robert Leighton <rleighton@leightonassociates.com> wrote:

Who's interested in either the Hamptons century in 2 weeks on 9/26, or the MS Century the following weekend in NYC Oct 3^rd?  please let me know so we can organize a group for each ride.

 

Bob

 

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From: Arthur Finkel [mailto:quasiguru@gmail.com] 
Sent: Saturday, September 11, 2010 8:25 PM
To: Robert Leighton
Cc: Oriel Mor; Isaac Seinuk; northshorerenegades.chainring@blogger.com; David J. Shereck; David Wargin; Gus Condiles; Barry Feirstein; Greg Keller; George Uribe; Bill Eisenberg; Mitchel Lang; Larry Nipon; Todd Manas; Jan Lemerman; Yihao Ou
Subject: Re: 9/11 Ride

 

It certainly was a sin not to ride today.  I set the alarm for 7:15 but when I woke up thought I could use more sleep (lame excuse - i have a cold).  I still have a couple of weeks to throw away sins.  I have not done a road ride since early July.

Greg, Ori - I am going to Glacier Ridge tomorrow at 7:30 if you are interested.  This will be a social pace.

On Sat, Sep 11, 2010 at 5:54 PM, Robert Leighton <rleighton@leightonassociates.com> wrote:

Most excellent ride today!  As someone else put it, it was a 10 1/2 on a
scale of 0 to 10.  Not sure I can ride Sunday; will decide in the am.
Cheers.

Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: Oriel Mor [mailto:oriel61@gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, September 11, 2010 2:33 PM
To: Isaac Seinuk; Arthur Finkel; northshorerenegades.chainring@blogger.com;
David J. Shereck; David Wargin; Gus Condiles; Barry Feirstein; Greg Keller;
George Uribe; Bill Eisenberg; Robert Leighton; Mitchel Lang; Larry Nipon;
Todd Manas; Jan Lemerman; Yihao Ou
Subject: 9/11 Ride

You guys missed a perfect riding weather day. It was just Bob and I at
home base. I wore my 9/11 memorial jersey. Bob was in his full Radio
Shack kit.

We did one of our usual routes, straight out to West Hills, back to
108 and up Lawrence Road, to be followed by the Snake Hill and
Huntington segments. Just as we started attacking Lawrence, my chain
broke, right in the steepest part. I then understood why my gear had
been skipping earlier. One of the outer plates had obviously popped
and, under the full load of the steepest of climbs, the link gave out.

In this case I couldn't just push the link back in its place. I had no
choice but to remove a pair of links and close the chain back, making
it just a little shorter than before. I had to get my hands really
dirty, because I never clean my drivetrain. It was tough to start
pushing the good pin out of its link, because my portable chain tool
has very little leverage on the fixed part. But with Bob's help and a
couple of sticks, I was able to improvise a longer handle, got that
work going and quickly finished the job.

There's nothing like starting off again on a 20% incline (it felt like
20%, anyway). From that point on, my only concern was to watch my
gears and avoid the largest one or two rear cogs whenever I was in the
large chainring.

There was a street fair going on by the Syosset train station with
partial road closures. We had a short stop at the 7-11. We completed
our ride the usual way, including the campus. We didn't pick up any
new members today, even though we were temporarily joined by one or
two riders every now and then. We dropped all but one.

Beast

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- Arthur -

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- Arthur -