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Northborough RAL (ride at lunch)

wa-loaf

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Pumped up the rear to 185 and the front 170! Tires were a little low too. Taking it out tomorrow.

Felt much better today with suspension pumped up and the seat pushed back a bit. Only hit the pedals once on the ride. I do have trouble getting around tight turns especially hairpins. That might just take me some practice since the geometry is different than what I'm used to.

Rear brake squeaks a bit from rubbing. Anybody know the best way to take care of that?
 

o3jeff

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Felt much better today with suspension pumped up and the seat pushed back a bit. Only hit the pedals once on the ride. I do have trouble getting around tight turns especially hairpins. That might just take me some practice since the geometry is different than what I'm used to.

Rear brake squeaks a bit from rubbing. Anybody know the best way to take care of that?

The brakes are mechanical, turn the red knobs(one on both sides of the caliper) to adjust in or out.

I can only do a tight hairpin turn to the left for some dumb reason.
 

bvibert

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Felt much better today with suspension pumped up and the seat pushed back a bit. Only hit the pedals once on the ride. I do have trouble getting around tight turns especially hairpins. That might just take me some practice since the geometry is different than what I'm used to.

Rear brake squeaks a bit from rubbing. Anybody know the best way to take care of that?

Take it off...


Seriously; make sure the rotor isn't bent, it's not hard for them to get slightly bent and then rub in one spot. If it's bent then try to bend it back. You won't get it perfectly straight, but you should be able to get it straight enough. What kind of brakes are they? BB7s, or BB5s IIRC? You'll generally want to make sure the caliper is centered over the rotor. If it's a BB7 then you can cheat a little with the pad wear adjustments on either side of the caliper. There's pretty good setup instructions for Avid brakes on SRAM's website. I'm not really sure all of the details since I've never actually worked on any cable actuated disc brakes, but I've done a lot of reading on the BB series of brakes since I was going to get a set a while back.
 

wa-loaf

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Got another ride in today. Getting into the groove with the bike and the trail so I'm making much better time. The trail is also getting a little more traffic so the pine needles and what-not are getting cleared off some. Crossed over rt 20 today and there's a lot more trail over there. More rolling and twisting stuff that's not very technical but very fun. It also seems to be in better shape as far a debris on the trial goes. Found a bunch of junked cars too.

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o3jeff

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Always nice to explore new trails and see what had been left behind. I wish I had trails near my house that I could ride to.
 

wa-loaf

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Always nice to explore new trails and see what had been left behind. I wish I had trails near my house that I could ride to.

If you are passing through on a Thurs or Fri around noon, give me heads up and we can go for a ride.
 

wa-loaf

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FINALLY got back out on the bike again. It took taking the afternoon off so I can fit in everything I need to do before heading to Maine tomorrow. Good ride all the running is paying off fitness wise. Got all the way to Boundary street this time around. Didn't take pics, but I did get the gps going on it so here's the ride: http://rnkpr.com/a65wqa

Lots of poison ivy has popped up since I last went. Don't think I hit any, but I feel itchy ... so I washed myself down. Now lunch and lawn mowing.
 

HD333

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wa-loaf

I was thinking of doing part of that ride on Wed after work around 6:45, starting at Boundray Street hitting RTE 20 then turning back, what do you think just under 3 miles roundtrip? I want to make sure I am done before dark. If I don't pass out on the ride out maybe I will cross 20 if time allows for it.

Seems like a pretty flat ride, which is what I am looking for.

Are there any signs at the start of the trail on Boundray, how is parking?

TIA.

HD
 

wa-loaf

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3 miles sounds about right. I did both sections in about an hour so you should have no trouble finishing in time.

They are rebuilding the bridge on Boundary street, during the day the parking lot is full of workers trucks. Afterhours might be better. Or you can park on rt 20 at the pull-off right before the Jehovas Witness church and ride it the other way.
 
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HD333

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Rode the Coyote trail last night. Went across rte 20 to the AHS fields (bird something or other trail) and back. GPS said 4 miles about 35 minutes (still getting my legs/lungs in shape)
Nice trail, like wa-loaf said not very tecnical but a few small obstacles that made it fun. No real climbs either which is exactly what I was looking for. A couple of nice switchbacks.

Saw some deer during the ride 3 of them in one of the open fields. Hoping to do the same ride Friday AM or late afternoon.

HD
 

wa-loaf

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Saw some deer during the ride 3 of them in one of the open fields. Hoping to do the same ride Friday AM or late afternoon.

HD


If you can meet in the HS parking lot around noon. I'll ride with you.
 

HD333

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When and if you get out on a weekend post it up here or PM me and we can try to meet up. If you ever see a black 4runner at the trail head on Boundry St then I am out there sucking wind somewhere on the trail.

HD
 

wa-loaf

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Rode the Coyote trail last night. Went across rte 20 to the AHS fields (bird something or other trail) and back.

FYI if you wound up at the athletic fields you took a wrong turn. The trail wraps around the HS and either ends up in the front parking lot or on Bartlet St. The round trip would be more like 6 miles.
 

HD333

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I went out again, same loop, and I apparently never went on Birdsong Trail. I stopped again at the AHS Cross Country trail. Where I stopped I could either go left or rigth (looking at the fields) Whateveer I was on was pretty flat and fun. I am going to start tracking it with Runkeeper on my phone and see what it looks like.

I did take the trail that starts in the AHS parking lot once to the same spot. Sounds like when I hit the AHS Cross Country trail from Boundry I need to go left to get over to the Bartlet St entrance/exit. Tomorrow AM (8:30ish) may be the day for that if I can clear the cobwebs out from the DMB concert tonight, may be a good idea to sweat out some toxins...
HD
 

wa-loaf

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I went out again, same loop, and I apparently never went on Birdsong Trail. I stopped again at the AHS Cross Country trail. Where I stopped I could either go left or rigth (looking at the fields) Whateveer I was on was pretty flat and fun. I am going to start tracking it with Runkeeper on my phone and see what it looks like.

I did take the trail that starts in the AHS parking lot once to the same spot. Sounds like when I hit the AHS Cross Country trail from Boundry I need to go left to get over to the Bartlet St entrance/exit. Tomorrow AM (8:30ish) may be the day for that if I can clear the cobwebs out from the DMB concert tonight, may be a good idea to sweat out some toxins...
HD

Once you cross over rt 20, it becomes the stirrup brook trail. There's a map of the whole trail here: http://northboroughtrails.org/MAPS/ARHS.pdf
 

wa-loaf

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I did the Coyote trail yesterday. That seems like the toughest one of the bunch (not saying much), but it has more up and down and a small rock garden. Ends up running parallel to the Assabet River on an off angle trail that was tough to ride. I turned around because the ground was still really soft from the rain over the weekend I kept sliding down toward the river. Here's my track which got pretty screwed up, but I did attach a pic of the section near the river: http://rnkpr.com/a6hize
 
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