ride to Babylon

Sunday 25th, Sayville to Babylon. Nothing exciting, just one more great winter group ride.

And a nice detour and loop around Hecksher Park on the ride back. Thanks for the good ride!

Wind Chill 17F

After a long cold, missed rides and boarding, PyZahl was getting very nervous and needed fresh air. The sun was bright and the sky steel blue and clear, but a steady icy NW wind was blowing, he waited almost until noon to let the air warm up just little above freezing...


Riding out on North Country, taking his favorite hills warming up was quick, but the extra wind protection was a must to keep the arctic wind away. A few patches of black ice, sand and salt mix all over made road looking like dried out creeks at sections and some not so welcome thick frozen over sections were forcing PyZahl to very slow motion... but a easy ride out in the sun with tail wind... let PyZahl already thinking on the long way home with the wind in his face...

All the way out along the "tanks" to Iron Pier Beach Park several frozen ponds and a nice view to the rough Bay...


A very quick stop.


And back home, PyZahl picked up a bag of apples and a great looking apple pie as he stopped at a farm stand half way back and stowed away 1kg in his Camelbag -- back home, a hot shower never felt so good and the apple pie turned out to be on of the best he ever had :-)

Nothing as planned

Day 11. PyZahl made it back to the icy and all frozen over Long Island from his trip to Switzerland. He was planning for a winter vacation in deep power in the Alps with his swiss friends but it all came so different. We all are wondering if this very irregular warm temps of January and February so far are only an exception or if this may become more usual in future... It felt like spring, green meadows, warm air (Föhn), rain up to elevations above 2000m. PyZahl should have brought his road bike for a comfortable spin along the Rhein valley.

A quick review:

Day 1 was buisness, visiting ZRL.

Day 2 and 3 were dedicated for a birthday party with good old friends.

Day 4 was planned for Snowboarding with friends but due to some previous misshappen one was not able to participate and otheres decided in X-Country skiing, so PyZahl joined those and had a first taste and some fun in little wet snow around Davos Dorf.

Day 5 started out feeling very sick and having a cold -- PyZahl can only speculate about it's origin, bad luck. Changing location from Seewis to Amden, taking it easy trying to overcome that cold.

Day 6 -- visiting STONEBITE, small talk and great dinner, TF-brainstorming. Most surprising news: Esther Suess rides on STONEBITE COBALT RACE soon.

Day 7, 1st attempt to go snow boarding, but felt very bad on the way -- hard decision but to yield to reason, backing home to Amden. The afternoon called for a summer like hike... how strange, temps in the sun were way above 24C. Amden, the sun terrace.

Friday - Day 8, 2nd attempt -- Davos. Snow conditions were quite reasonable and better than expected, staying inbetween 2200 m and 2844 m.




Day 9, back in Seewis, again chilling out the cold until Day 10.

Mud on Frozen Sand

Sliding in mud on frozen sand in CP... this ride was a good slide training on the frozen dirt below. Here back at the parking lot -- also a great testground for your car's ESP and TCS and ABS and so on... but most fun on two wheels.

When a Cliff bar turns into a cliff

This is what NOAA was showing this morning:

Point forecast for 40.87N -72.92W
Locations within 5 miles of this point include...Coram NY...Medford NY...Mid Island NY...Middle Island NY...Ridge NY...Rocky Point NY...Upton NY...Yaphank NY

Sunday, January 21 at 8am
Temperature: 16°F Dewpoint: 3°F Wind Chill: 1°F Wind: NNW 16mph
Precipitation Potential: 0% Sky Cover: 8% Relative Humidity: 56%
Rain: <10% Thunder: <10% Snow: <10% Freezing Rain: <10%

Sunday, January 21 at 10am
Temperature: 21°F Dewpoint: 4°F Wind Chill: 8°F Wind: NNW 14G24mph
Precipitation Potential: 0% Sky Cover: 23% Relative Humidity: 47%
Rain: <10% Thunder: <10% Snow: <10% Freezing Rain: <10%

There may has been a Trevors ride this morning, PyZahl does not know because he decided that is too freaking cold this early morning for any early birds flying and possibly been dropped on the way back against the NNW wind what would be double worse at this conditions than usual...

Waiting for better times, well, it seamed the wind calmed a bit down towards noon and the mercury climbed its way up to some number close to 26F.
PyZahl put his polar suit on filled almost hot water in his Polar bottle and jumped for a quick hilly ride on his bike, especially to try out his new saddle, it felt different.
Riding out on east NC, passing the Duck Pond, doing the WR hills, proceeding to WWSP and out south to 25A on Hulse Landing Rd



-- that big puddle looked good for ice skating -- and back, down to WWSP beach, returning to WR -- the fast DH felt like needles in his face, then a cruise out to the WR beach.


A quick snack, PyZahl was doing hard eating the Cliff bar which really lived up to its name as it was hard like a cliff. And last but not least, the warm water in the insulated bottle turned almost icy. **** A hot shower never felt as good...

Cold and Sunny

Was a great day and not too cold at all and the sun felt good.

PyZahl need the first full CP lap to get warmed up, the full throttle (almost) cross lap at end of that warmup was fun and after that he did a second half of that cross lap and proceeded on the CP trail, did the whole CP thingy about 3/4 once again now almost in the big ring. The frozen ground changed over time fomr frozen to partly wet on top, but it was sill a quite clean ride.

Foggy -- a misery or messy ride

What a looog weekend, Saturday, rain and dense fog -- OK, let go shopping to Kreb's, Sunday -- Hmmmmmm still so dark and foggy and wet, there is one more day to come and PyZahl slept better in long like a marmot, that feels also good a times. So but some thing is driving PyZahl and make him nervy even the third day was as dark, at least no heavy rain, just that tiny dropplets of water in the air. So he hooked up all the extra safety lights to be seen well, jumped into his well visible red bike suit and took off east on North Country finding all the hills and some extra loops aroud Wading River (the famouse duck pond is there)


proceeding out to Wildwood SP. Returning and all the way west almost to Stony Brook, well cutting off into XTalHollowBrook to Shore Road...


... and returning via NC, stopping by a good friend for a warmup and Energy refill and back home.

Here PyZahl was greeted by one of his friends and constand house observers:


A bike cleanup filled a good part of the remaining day.