Spring is Coming — Honey Bikes

Most people think of Cape Cod as a summer vacation destination - warm beaches and lobster rolls. For Boston-area cyclists it is a winter escape portal. During the winter it is usually the only place within an hour of Boston that has trails that are rideable. This winter has been unusually harsh. People make do. They ski, snowshoe, ride fat bikes. But at some point your need for dirt hits a breaking point. This past weekend we fled our ice and snow encrusted trails of Boston to see how the Cape was riding.

The last two years we have been toying with putting together a Kranberry Kermesse. The Cape has lots of great trails. The key is to link them up into a good loop. The dream is a 40 mile loop mainly comprised of nice woods and paths. On Sunday we took the new F100 and CX race bikes down for some shredfesting on dirt. The conditions were perfect. No snow or ice. And even more important this time of year-no mud! You can easily wreck the trails this time of year by riding them as they are thawing out. The Cape has great drainage and all the trails we rode were dry and loamy. Early Spring is one of my favorite times of year to ride. The Cape is beautiful in its starkness in mid-March. It was so good to finally be railing corners and hitting berms on knobby tires.

We found some great trails. Took the time to stop and climb Scargo tower and look out over the water to see if we could see Boston and P-town in the distance. As the ride went on it became a battle between SRAM Force and Shimano Ultegra. SRAM won one townline and Shimano won another. Nothing is more fun than a spirited ride with a good friend on new bikes. Both bikes performed flawlessly. First rides aren't supposed to go this well. I don't think we had to stop once for anything bike related. Coffee-related of course! Spring is almost here. The Kranberry Kermesse is shaping up rather nicely. We bumped into a pack of SS Mtn bikers down for some stealth training for SSPalooza and exchanged pleasantries and admired each others bikes. Everyone is coming out of their WInter hibernation!