rons bikes blog dot com

another one has come and gone! oh what a way to track time — holding an event at the most nostalgic time of the year, year after year. well first off, thanks for entrusting your nostalgia with us — 2nd mmmm, thanks for having such cool bikes and the personalities to match! all 500 of you.

we were treated to some very nice weather this year — lucky us! last year was a soggy forest saunter, this year was a crispy dry autumn splendor. enjoyment is generally universal if I do say so .

9 routes through some of my not so secret stash of local lifetime roads in and around Middlesex county CT. the other good county for riding in CT is Litchfield if you are considering. 3 of the routes went through a rest stop at J.P. Weigle’s shop in Lyme CT. due to the rain last year we had about 10 people make it out this far — so it was nice to have around 200 make it to the east side of the river this year. J.P. does such a great job hosting and displaying some of the coolest stuff around — we are lucky to have his hospitality year after year.

so many cool bikes everywhere you look at this event. I really think that is one of the coolest parts for me. you probably know I like bikes.

saturday glid-glided on in the kinda way you want it to just stay suspended. the light this time of year kinda makes it feel that way — something that certainly plays into the nostalgia of it all. the bikes and the setting. the lack of billboards and industry banners — riders at one with the bucolic setting

we had a few New Haven bands play from the Bradly Street Bike Coop. Spit take and Missed Cues. they both put on great 30 min sets — loved the music, but I will admit it was a bit loud in the hall with concrete floors and all. I thought it sounded really good outside though.

the local Skunk Misery Ramblers (named for a nearby road) played some old time in the morning as everyone left on their rides. nice to have them back after a few year hiatus.

Edd and Joe Cruz photo is my fav of the week. these guys are great. Jess from Cold Spring Farm made so much food. they seem to be enjoying it.

saturday was winding down and now it was time for a dance party. we had a DJ come from Detroit this year and it was cool! I am not a DJ person, but I guess I just never saw it live before. I can see how people like that sort of thing a little more now.

meanwhile the pizzas keep coming from Fire in the Kitchen outside. they made 480 this year. worked out a lot better to just have it included in the ticket price this year — the pizza rush had always been a stress point in years past. Fire in the Kitchen has been with us every year!

sunday had the scorcher fixed gear race. I don’t have any photos of it because I was racing in it. below is a photo of Rons Bike Blog favorite, Joe Cruz, installing his fixed cog on the single speed he rode on the chunky 55 route the day before.

lovers by the lake. it was such a nice sunday morning.

the vendor areas inside had some really cool stuff. I scored some pretty good parts from a few of the booths, others had everything from bags to swords made of bike parts.

then it was time to pack it up. another year, another falling of the leaves spent together in Nutmeg Country.

thanks my true love Tenzin for being my true love and doing this stuff with me!

XO RR

P.S. I used my well used Fuji XPRO 3 for the weekend. the auto focus does not work, nor does the flip screen — so it’s pretty dang analogue as it goes. I used a 7 artisans 35 f1.2 — it was fun, but I missed the focus on a lot of key moments — I left it wide open too much. just a little out of practice with manual stuff since ive been using the Ricos primarily.