bike – Changing Way

Rails to Trails, Coffee at Station

We are now even closer to the East Bay Bike Path, having recently moved. That wasn’t the main reason for the move, but being closer to the path, and to Providence, is an excellent and intended consequence.

We’re also closer to Borealis Coffee, one of the many refreshment stops along the way. I love their coffee and their cafe.

Borealis Coffee is located in the old Riverside train station. As you can see, they have a cool building, with seating outside as well as inside.

I love repurposed buildings. I just checked to see that one of my favorite such buildings is still going. Yes, the Bookmill is still a bookstore in a gristmill, selling “books you don’t need in a place you can’t find”: said place is near Amherst, Massachusetts, where I went to graduate school.

Back to Rhode Island: I’m glad that the route is now a bike path rather than a disused railway line. (I haven’t researched the rail line or its closing, so I’m not sure how good or bad a the closing was.) I’m glad that the old station is now a coffee company rather than a tanning salon with a Coke machine outside it. Here’s a link to a photo of the building in 2013, and to a historical note.

Any favorite repurposed buildings, trails, or similar you’d like to share?

Three Cycling Things

The East Bay Bike Path is rather wonderful. It’s never very far from the water; perhaps its name gives that away, and it is in Rhode Island.

It was a lovely morning to cycle up the path from Barrington to its northern terminus in Providence. A breakfast wrap and coffee at Amy’s Place fortified me for the ride back. It’s about 10 miles in each direction.

The second cycling thing of the day is not so positive. This afternoon, I tried out the Komoot app on my Android phone. Komoot allows you to plan your ride, provides navigation along the way, and… Well, I asked it to help me go to a particular bike shop right on the East Bay Bike Path.

Komoot seemed unaware of the bike path. It wanted me to turn onto a main (by Barrington standards) road. I ignored it, crossed that road, and got onto the path, heading toward the shop. Komoot advised me to U-turn, presumably because it thought I should be heading back to the road.

So I deleted Komoot from my phone as soon as I got home. Perhaps that’s harsh after one ride, but for me, bike ride planning and navigation needs to include bike paths, and especially the East Bay.

The third cycling thing of the day, and the bike shop in question, are one and the same: Your Bike Shop. It’s in Warren, the next town south along the bike path from Barrington. (There is another location in Riverside, which is on the way to Providence.)

I bought a mirror (this one by Mirrcycle, to be specific). They fitted it for me right away, then we discussed bikes and related matters for a few minutes. I’m happy to have Your Bike Shop as my local bike shop.

So it was a good cycling day. Two out of three ain’t bad, as the song goes.

BeZazzled Bike

We recently got Maddie, our 4yo daughter, her first bike. We got a good bike at a good price from Craigslist. My wife then embarked on the project to turn the black bike into less of a boy’s bike, but not too girly a bike. She found a lot of the stuff she wanted on the web, but couldn’t find any stickers that were just right.

I suggested that she use her graphics skills to design her own, and have Zazzle make them. She did. We are very pleased with the result.

Maddie is very pleased with her bike, although she gets a little nervous sometimes. Her little brother is rather jealous, even though the trike is now his.