Location: Ride Headquarters in Sherborn, MA
Ride Type: Mixed Terrain or Road - Weather Dependent
Date & Time: January 1, 2019 at 11:00am
Distance: Distance: Depends on ride type - weather dictates, approx 3-4 hours in the saddle
Price: Free
**December 31 Update: The forecast for tonight shows 100% chance of rain. Therefore, this will be an awesome road ride headed south to Rhode Island and back. The views are beautiful and there isn’t much traffic. The route is 46 miles long. We have had a strong response on RSVPs, so four speed groups are running: 14-15mph average, 16mph average, 17-18mph average, and over 18mph average. BE SURE TO RSVP below so you get our ride communication(s) being emailed out to you today. We’ll send out the route and further information. We are providing bagels and pastries from Blue Moon Bakery pre- and post-ride!
Description: Start the year off right by riding together! We’re headed all over the back roads of Sherborn and far beyond. Depending upon the weather and trail and road conditions, the ride will be what’s appropriate for the day. The distance and paces offered will vary so there are a lot of great riding options.
Schedule
Route: We’ll share the evening before the ride with participants. We will email many more details, as well, so everyone knows what to expect where it comes to route, distances, paces, which bike and tires are most appropriate.
Rollout: 11:00am
Ride Notes: We have designated Ride Headquarters ride leaders leading the ride and pointing out turns.
Last Minute Information: We are emailing participants, all who RSVP will receive an email with any last minute info.
Contact Information: Email - connect@rideheadquarters.com, Phone - 508-975-4678
Riding Rules, What to Bring, How Our Rides are Different: All riders are required to read and are expected to abide by These Rules.
Waiver: Ride Headquarters requires a signed waiver before your first ride. Please fill it out online prior to your first ride.
RSVPs are Required to Participate and to receive all ride news!
Proper Bike for this ride:
depending on conditions, riders will be on road bikes, gravel bikes, mountain bikes or fat bikes. We’ll let you know the evening prior to the ride what the plan is and which bike will be most appropriate for the conditions.
Clipless pedals and shoes. These are important elements of bike control. If you ride with platform pedals you’re likely to be over your head in some of the more technical parts of the ride.
A bike that’s in safe working order. We don’t stop for preventable mechanical issues.
Higher tire pressure than you’d ride on a cyclocross ride. We recommend about 80% to 90% of maximum rated tire pressure, for two reasons:
First, we want to minimize flats on the ride; waiting for someone to change flats is not why we ride. We typically see zero flats on our ride. One of the primary reasons for this is due to higher than average tire pressure.
Second, on average, about 30% of the ride is on pavement; having slightly higher pressure makes the road sections go by faster.
We do not recommend fenders since sticks and twigs can get caught in them.
How do we decide if we’re riding? Keep reading.
Rain or sleet: There are a few variants of this. We don’t ride sensitive trails when they’re wet; this can cause damage that’s not repairable. Fortunately, we have some rain-friendly routes that don’t damage sensitive trails.
If it’s raining at the start of the ride we probably cancel the ride. If it’s only threatening rain, we ride.
If it’s misting or drizzling at the start of the ride, with less than 50% chance of rain in the coming hour, we ride.
If it’s been raining a lot for a couple days, but not raining the night before, we ride. Our rain-friendly routes avoid sensitive trails. Of course, every few years there’s such a bad storm that we won’t ride; we take the force majeure very seriously.
Snowing: We ride; it is so much fun to ride during a snow storm.
Snow on the ground: We ride. It doesn’t matter if there’s 1 inch or four feet, we ride. We recommend studded tires or fat bikes for these kinds of conditions. The only exclusion to snow riding is when there is a state of emergency and we’ve been asked to stay off the road.
Icy conditions: We ride. For this you have to have studded tires in order to ride with us.
Cold: It doesn’t matter what the temperature is, we ride.
If you'd like us to do any work on your bike prior to the ride, please email us the day before so we're ready to do the work as soon as you come in; we want you to be ready to roll before the ride starts.