Dot Bike

DotBike “Winter” Meeting

Wednesday March 24th 6 p.m.

at VietAid 42 Charles St. Dorchester MA – right next to the Fields Corner red line station.

The weather is turning and the fair weather riding season is upon us.  And it’s time for a meeting.

Do you have ideas on what DotBike should be working on this coming year? How would you like to be involved in advocacy, outreach, events, and organizing?

For the past two years DotBike has been working to make cycling more fun, convenient and safer for all in Dorchester.  We’ve held community rides and participated in community events.  You’ve hopefully noticed more city bike racks around the neighborhood.  And this year we expect to see concrete results of our ongoing advocacy including a bike parking cage at a Dorchester T station, bike lanes on several Dorchester streets and bike riding officially allowed in Franklin Park.

But there is still lots more to do.   We need to hear from you.

Spring ahead DotBike commute ride home.

Wednesday March 17th meet on the common by the Brewer’s fountain at 5:30 p.m.
View
View dotbike ride route in a larger map
In celebration of impending spring and the extra hour of evening light we’re having a ride from the Boston Common down Dorchester Ave. to Peabody Square.

We will be passing the Blessed Mother Theresa Church on the corner of Dot ave and Columbia around 6pm if you are in Dorchester and want to meet up with us.

Some of us will likely go for a bite at a local restaurant.

If you want to be part of our ride you have to have a helmet.  Everyone of every skill level is welcome and we won’t leave you behind.

The Mayor’s Boston Bikes Program is getting ready to produce the first update to the Boston Bike Map and they want your input.

Here is the section of the map that includes Dorchester.  Lot’s of Blue and Red meaning streets for intermediate and advanced riders, respectively.  Do you think they got it right?  Do you have routes that were not included and you think should be?

You can download the full map as a PDF file here.

If you have comments you should submit them using the survey available here.

This could be you.

I freely admit it – I’m not much of a winter cyclist.  I am not a fan of riding on snow, ice, streets narrowed and cluttered with snow plow crud, dark evenings etc …

While there are many DotBikers and other city cyclists who ride the year round I am not one of them.  But that doesn’t mean I become a total slug during the winter.  I do a bit of indoor spinning and other workouts and more enjoyably I make use of that snow that is unconducive to cycling for cross country skiing.

It’s fun, easy to stay warm and great exercise.  Snow permitting there are some great local places to ski.  Here’s my quick take on a few options.

First off is Dorchester’s own Franklin Park.  The golf course makes for some fairly flat and easy going and you can be virtually guaranteed that someone will have laid down some tracks if there has been any significant snow fall.  It is also quite fun to explore the ‘wilderness’ and some other paths that go through the more wooded and hillier sections of the park.  Join the Franklin Park Ski and Snowshoe club on facebook where members can plan meet ups and post upcoming events.

Also nearby are the Blue Hills.  There are some really great trails and paths that are perfectly suitable for skiing or snowshoeing.  As you might imagine from the name you can certainly find some pretty hilly expertish terrain but there are also plenty of easier options.  A couple of good places to launch from are the small lot at the intersection of route 28 and Chickatawbut.  Follow the logging/utility road that exits the back of the lot for a nice wide flat warm up before you venture into more challenging terrain.  If you park at the Houghton’s Pond Lot there are some nice flat loops out past the pond.

You will need to have your own skis or snowshoes or rent some (REI does rentals) for either of these options.

If you don’t have equipment and/or aren’t sure you will want to take up XC then you can check out the Weston Ski Track where they have groomed trails, a lighted loop for night skiing, lessons and rentals.  I hear it’s a good place to get started.

Another fairly local option is Great Brook Farm in Carlisle.  I’ve skied there and they do quite a nice job.  Again grooming, rentals, lessons and night skiing are all available.

I have peripherally touched on snowshoeing, which is an activity I am less familiar with having only tried it once.  I did enjoy it.  It was very much like a hike in the woods but in the winter where I didn’t need to worry about post holing in over a foot of fresh snow.  If you are interested in trying this DCR and BNAN are holding several events in January and February where you can try out snowshoeing.  I include the details such as I have them below.

Well enjoy the winter weather as best you can and hope to see you on the trails.

Bigfoot Stomp: A Blue Hills Snowshoe Hike
Sunday, January 24, 1:00 p.m. Call DCR at 617-698-1802 x212 for registration and meeting place.
Did you just get a new pair of snowshoes or looking to get a set? Join a DCR Ranger and an REI Outdoor School Instructor for a guided romp through the Blue Hills. REI will also have a limited number of adult size snowshoes to loan. No experience is necessary! Sponsored by DCR.

Fowl Meadow Snowshoe/Winter Walk
Saturday, January 30, 1:00 p.m. Meet at parking area on Neponset Valley Pkwy & Brush Hill Rd. Hyde Park/Milton
We’ll saunter through Fowl Meadow with Dave Hodgdon of Blue Hill Adventures and learn about this lovely site in winter. Bring your own snowshoes or skis, or call to borrow a pair of snowshoes. Without snow, we’ll enjoy a walk. Registration required. Contact BNAN at 617-542-7696

Stony Brook Winter Wildlife Discovery
Saturday, February 6, 1:00 p.m. Meet at parking lot on Enneking Pkwy opposite Smithfield Rd., Hyde Park
Join the Friends of Stony Brook and BNAN to explore the woods and look for signs of creatures that make Stony Brook their winter home.

February Break Snowshoe/Winter Walk
Thursday, February 18, 1:00 p.m. – Ryan Playground, River St., Mattapan
The riverside trail just behind Ryan Playground is a lovely place to walk and view the winter landscape of the Neponset. We will snowshoe if there is a good layer of snow on the ground, otherwise, we’ll go for a walk. Snowshoes to borrow are limited, registration required. Contact BNAN at 617-542-7696

You can also contact BNAN via email at info<AT>bostonnatural<DOT>org.

Here’s hoping you get lots of fun new toys for your bike this holiday season and remember during these oh so short days of winter – from now on the days are getting longer and it’ll be no time until spring riding season is on us.

image courtesy of feuillu’s flickr photo stream

The City of Boston is conducting a brief survey of people who bicycle in Boston. If you ride a bike in Boston–rarely, occasionally or even every single day–please take a moment to complete this very brief but very important survey.

Click here to take the survey. Let anyone else you know who bikes in Boston about this too.

by Nicole Freedman, Director of Mayor Menino’s Boston Bikes

Hosted by LivableStreets Alliance
Thursday, December 10, 6:30-8:00 PM (doors open at 6)
@ Rabb Lecture Hall, Boston Public Library, Copley Square, 700 Boylston St

Free and open to the public

Nicole Freedman, Director of the Boston Bikes Program, will present her second annual report on the past achievements and future goals of the Mayor’s efforts to create a “world class bicycling city.” Ms. Freedman will discuss plans for the city’s bike sharing program, bike lanes and off-road networks, bike parking facilities, youth programs, bike festivals, and more.

LivableStreets Alliance is a non-profit organization that believes urban transportation has the power to make the Boston region more connected – and more livable.

For more information:
events<AT>livablestreets<DOT>info, www.facebook.com/LivableStreets, 617-621-1746
www.cityofboston.gov/bikes

19th Cycle-Smart International Cyclocross Race – November 7th and 8th

Look Park in Northhampton, MA

Cycle-Smart is putting on a cyclo-cross race in Look Park Northampton, MA this weekend. It is the oldest UCI sanctioned race in the US and is expected to draw much of the top U.S. talent to western Mass this weekend. There are races on both Saturday and Sunday.

This president and founder of Cycle-Smart is Dorchester’s own Adam Myerson so if you have a chance you should head on out and check out the great action.

There is a write up on the race on cycling news or you can visit the official race site for more info.

The first Boston Tweed Ride happened this past Sunday afternoon.  There were approximately 100 people who participated most dressed in stylish tweedy attire.

(photo courtesy of BostonBiker where you can go to view lots more excellent pics)

And for even more and better quality photos check out the tweed ride flickr photo pool.

DotBike was well represented with some natty dressers including Phil and Maggie dressed to the nines.

Sorry the dark photo doesn’t do them justice.

The pace of the ride was VERY relaxed.  There was a stop at the Otherside Cafe, location of Boston’s first (and currently only?) on street bike rack – which unfortunately was temporarily moved to the sidewalk while road resurfacing was taking place.

Because both Debbie and I had colds we had to cut out early so missed Phil winning the mount/dismount contest.  Hoping to get some photos or video of that event to add to this post.

All in all a quite fun event so make sure to catch it next year.

Debbie and I just recently got back from vacation.  The bulk of our vacation was spent cycling most of the length of Wales.  Wales is not a huge country – just a couple of hundred of miles longwise and they have this very well posted cross country cycle route Lon Los Cymru (roughly translated as the Wales Green Way).

We did this trip as a self-guided tour which was offered by Drover Holidays a local Wales-based company.   They were great.  This is the second self-guided style tour that we have done and they are quite enjoyable.  For a much more affordable cost than a fully supported tour they booked our lodging for us, transported our luggage from inn to inn, provided maps and route descriptions, nice bikes and in this case threw in a ride to the train station in a neighboring town on our last day so we didn’t have to take a slow bus to our next stop.

This style of touring has advantages over both completely self-supported tours – eg. you don’t have to cycle with your luggage and local knowledge ensures reasonable lodging and  fully supported tours – eg. no pressure to finish at a particular time and you don’t need to wait for anyone for to finish to get dinner.  As long as you are comfortable dealing with minor mechanical issues (only 1 flat the entire time for me) and don’t mind getting a little lost on occasion self-guided tours are certainly worth considering.

And I must say that it was pretty hard to get lost.  We followed sign posted markers like this the entire way and there was only a single intersection that lacked a marker in the direction we were  going – although we did miss one other turn to due lack of attention.




Well back to the trip.

The first thing we noticed was the width of the roads.  What here in the US wouldn’t be deemed safe as a multi-use bike path, were pretty much the standard for country lanes in Wales.  I’m not quite 6 feet tall and as I demonstrate in this picture the roads weren’t much wider than I am tall. 
And the other thing is that they are often without shoulders and bordered by tall hedges.  So this took some getting used to but fortunately the lanes along our route were very low traffic.

There were a couple of other things you couldn’t help but notice.  The first was the sheep.  They were everywhere – even occasionally in the road.

The other was the hills.  We were quite worried when on the first day, which was stated in the description as mostly flat, we were sent up this godawful climb with over 20% grades – they had a sign to warn you at the bottom – with switchbacks and all.  It wasn’t too long – certainly less than a mile – but I know that I was thinking that if this is one of the less hilly days we are in trouble.  Thankfully, while the terrain was almost always rolling and there were indeed some significant climbs remaining, some that were several kilometers in length we didn’t see many more of those warning 20% grade signs and we managed just fine.  And the views from the high points really were worth it.