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Originally Posted by giannifive
If you ever get back into it you could hit the Middlesex Fells. It's only a 30 minute bike ride from where you are, and has some decent riding. PM me if you want directions.
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So Jon and I went riding with two friends of mine today - turns out Middlesex Fells is probably closer to 15 minutes from where I live - 15 from Jon's place, actualy, and we're pretty close.
It felt great to be out there again riding, but holy shit this was the first time I'd ridden dirt since getting glasses, and I figured I wouldn't need them so I left them in my car back at Jon's place. Huuuuuuuuuuge mistake - I couldn't see rocks coming at me until they were like 5 feet away from the front of my tire. I damn near killed myself time and time again.
Add into this the fact that I switched to clipless (Speedplay Frogs, those things kick ass) right before I moved to providence, where I basically stopped riding, and it was sort of a recipe for disaster.
It was actually kind of a good experience for me, I think, in that after 20 minutes I just had to bite the bullet and let myself trust the bike to carry me through anything I threw it at. Aside from the final descent where I hit a rock I didn't see and the bike jumped sideways on me, and then kicked out when I corrected and then somehow remained upright and rode it out things went pretty smoothly, and honestly that probably had more to do with the fact I was dead tired by that point, and just getting sloppy.
It was a fucking blast to be out riding again, though.