Lakeshore TNUA
Okay, I admit it. I haven’t ridden north to the lake before because I’ve been intimidated by the long, 400 feet of climbing back. It’s not steep—maybe 1% average for the whole thing. But it’s relentless.
And that’s exactly where tonight’s Tuesday Night Urban Assault ride went—Lakeshore Blvd. Any further north and you’re on your way to Canada.
And I’m glad I went.
Even as late as mid-afternoon, I had myself talked-out of riding tonight. It’s the first day since Friday’s 70 mile ride that my legs haven’t felt so sore I was afraid I’d topple over. I have some client work to do, the bike needs some maintenance, and the forecast was for drizzle.
But, the ride to Presbytery and back today felt wonderful, and I arrived home with plenty of time to recharge my NiteRider from the day’s commute. I refueled too, having a can of soup, a granola bar and an apple.
Forty-nine riders showed up for tonight’s ride. That’s a lot of bikes to find road space for. I kinda figured the places where we’ve been riding would be a little too congested with over four-dozen riders. Scott, apparently, felt so too.
Right out of the circle in Corn Hill after our warm-up laps, we headed north. Exchange St through the legal, financial and government section of downtown, becomes State St right at the four-corners. And north we continued, past Kodak Office, where groans about hill repeats at BeeBee Station were heard. Yet the ride kept going.
We crossed the river on the Baush St bridge, regrouped in the DSS parking lot, then turned left on St. Paul Blvd and kept going north. These were all good choices. Nice, wide four-lanes with turn and parking lanes. Plenty of room for all the riders and plenty of room for passing traffic too.
Four-dozen riders also attract a lot of attention. Especially when we’re obeying all the traffic laws and riding properly lit. Downtown, one guy who made a left from a side street stopped next to the group. He could barely control his enthusiasm. He wanted to know all about the ride, how he could join, and thanked us for being so easy to see, riding to the right, and for stopping at the stoplight so he could turn.
Later, a couple of homegirlz walking down the street shouted, “What is this, a marathon?”
“No,” I shouted back. “Just a ride for fun. It sure beats cable!”
Another notable was the car coming towards us that slowed down and turned its lights off and on in imitation of our blinkies.
It’s shit like that that I love about the TNUA.
The ride stretched-out into three groups. As rider 44, I’d started five from the back, but soon I found myself in the second group. Further along on St. Paul, I was amazed to find myself at the back of the first group. Thinking about it, I realized that the second and third groups were mostly mountain bikes. I was closing in on the roadies!
Thinking some more about it, I realized that the roadies were practicing energy management. Cruising downhill, and I was cranking. I eased back and soon was the leader of the second group.
We pulled into Seneca Park to regroup after word got to the front about two riders with flats. We circled a section for a while. This passed right up to the river gorge, which at that point is nearly 200 feet deep. It was beautiful at night. I kept slowing down at the overlook in order to take in the view.
Across the gorge, were the lights of Kodak Park, the largest industrial park in the northeastern United States. KP’s size is measured in square miles, not in acres. End-to-end it’s over six miles long.
To the south were the lights of the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge carrying the Keeler Street Expressway, (NY104) across the river to Ridge Road. And below, was the inky blackness of the gorge itself. I couldn’t quite spot our new $600,000 bike bridge. I’m thinking it’s a little more to the north.
That particular loop is a little short, maybe a quarter mile around. Still waiting, we headed north on Zoo Rd to, well, the zoo. That was a nice piece of road. It’s recently repaved, flat, and twisty. No streetlights either. It was through here that I noticed that among those of us with proper headlights, ten-watt halogens, like mine, seem to be the sweet spot.
Maybe two-thirds of us have proper headlights, and half-of those are 10-watt halogens. The rest seem evenly split between HID (high-intensity discharge—mega buck lights) and LED. The halogens give a nice beam far enough out for riding 20–25 MPH. They’re focused to avoid blinding oncoming cars and riders, and even the most expensive ones are less than $200.
HIDs just seem too bright and too scattered. Every single rider with a HID has their light pointed down maybe ten feet in front of them in order to avoid blinding people. They’re certainly cool, but I’m not conviced they’re practical if you have to point them that close. All that brightness so close has to screw their night vision completely, and by the time an obstacle is in the beam, it’s too close to avoid safely. Plus, even the cheapest start at $350.
Now it be be bit different when riding solo, or under streetlights, but I’ll stick with my halogen and backup LED for now.
Once the others had joined us, we left the park and kept going north on St. Paul Blvd. In order to keep the entire ride together, the lead group would get out a ways ahead, dive into a side street, do a U-turn and come back out, just ahead of the next group. That worked-out real well.
We regrouped again at St. Paul and Lakeshore Blvd. Most everyone thought we would continue north on St. Paul to Summerville. The rest of us kept looking up Lakeshore wondering, is he gonna do it?
A couple of MTBers dropped at this point. I can’t say as I blame them. They were probably expecting rides like we’ve done the past few weeks. A guy on a fixie (a fixed-gear rig—meaning one speed, and no ability to coast, like a kid’s tricycle) had already dropped too.
I can’t blame them. A fixie, well that’s what the cool kids ride, and they don’t ride them very far. Mountain bikers don’t like riding in the road, and MTBs just aren’t built for it anyway. Oh well. Maybe next time.
The rest of us headed east on Lakeshore Blvd. The shore swings in and meets up with Lakeshore Blvd a little more than a half-mile from where we regrouped. For the next mile and ahalf, there’s the lake on one side, Durand-Eastman Park on the other.
Even at night, in November, this is one of the most beautiful pieces of road in the county. Five lanes wide, but striped for three, it gives us nice, fat shoulders. There’s almost no traffic and with the lake to our left and pines, hardwoods and a few ponds on the right, it’s a beautiful ride.
And then, there’s the rollers.
To give you an idea of the rollers along here, they’re a geological feature called “drumlins”—huge, hill-sized piles of dirt and stone left behind tens of thousands of years ago as the glaciers retreated. Even the lake hasn’t been able to wear them down. They’re of sufficient height and length that the Soapbox Derby races (gravity powered, homebuilt race cars) are held on Lakeshore Blvd. every year, drawing racers from around the country.
And it was fucking excellent!
Riding Lakeshore to the switchbacks, turning around and riding it back was the highlight of my night. Possibly, the highlight of my month.
And I had to cut is short.
I dropped, rather than turn around for a repeat when we got back to St. Paul. As much fun as I’d had the ride tonight, and as good as I was feeling, there was still that long climb back to the city, and I wanted to do while there was still gas in the tank, so to speak. Plus, I wanted some juice left in the NiteRider’s battery when I hit the city.
So I rode the nine mile return trip solo. I shut down the NiteRider and rode using my backup LED headlight for much of the trip home. There was almost no southbound traffic with me and except for one intersection, no cross traffic. Here, I felt safe with only the LED. I don’t feel safe in the city with only the LED.
I sort of set my cruise-control for 85 RPM and cranked my way back to town. I stopped for a bit to rest after crossing the Keeler St. I attached my second rear blinkie to my backpack. Riding with one through the ‘hood is fine when there are four-dozen other blinkies with you. Riding solo, I wanted a little bit more to be sure drunk or high homeboyz would see me in enough time to swerve away.
About a third of the way through the ‘hood, I switched-on the NiteRider. Passing under the streetlights, I looked at the cyclometer for the first time since leaving the group. I was cranking along at 93 RPM at nearly 18 MPH. Holy smokes!
That killer ride followed by two rest days sure fixed-up my bike’s tired old engine!
I cut through downtown and just as I was a half-mile from home, the NiteRider quit. I’m so glad that I’d left the ride early so that I had the halogen through the ‘hood and through downtown.
By the numbers
- 49 riders
- 44°F, winds calm
- 20 minutes of light drizzle
- 30.11 miles
- 02:08:31 ride time
- 14.0 MPH avg speed
- 23.5 MPH max speed
- 66 RPM avg cadence
- 112 RPM max cadence
- 85,000 crank revolutions
