Dirtbag Machine Works

  The Filthy Flyer **The Worst Publication in Cycling** Headset Hey look!  It's Spring already!  Winter was annoyingly busy, and just wet enough to throw a wrench into my pristine schedule of all things.  Oh well.  I'm sure there's some worn out old saying to encapsulate both the frustration and resignation.  Anyone? In better news, bike-weirdo and fellow tinfoil hat technophobe Salem (that Salem) is writing a blog now.  Surely, this is a sign (one more) of the apocalypse, but maybe read it anyway. Salem's sorta-social media Jawn As noted, stuff got bumped.  The conveniently hyperlinked paragraph heading will take you to the schedule, but here's a quick rundown: March 12 S&R:  Canceled.  Heavy rains and heavy mud.  Wrecking the trails was not how I wanted to kick this off April 2 S&R:  Pushed to April 9.  We will launch from here at 9:59 am. May 8 S&R:  New date.  Route TBD August 12-15 PD:  Pos...

Inspired by the XVT in Vermont, the XCTtrail (Cross Connecticut Trail) has been something of a grand hallucination dancing about my head for at least a solid three years now.  The general idea is that of a predominately south-to-north touring route, maximizing time and distance spent off pavement.  Giving credit where it is due, my first go at this was to simply follow my friend John's dual sport motorcycle route (this guy: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/10732116 ).  John's route is largely a mix of flowy dirt roads and asphalt.  Overall, it rides fairly well on a cyclocross/gravel bike, but the occasional exposure to traffic and general lack of technical challenge left room for improvement (From the cyclists perspective.  I'm sure it's just fine at the helm of a motorcycle).  The Elm City to Waramaug Loop was the next evolution, with much of the road sections swapped for the Larkin State Park Trail.   After a couple of rather memorable excursions wit...

The truth is that the whole blog thing has long since jumped the shark, but since I'm fanatically social-media phobic, and too frugal for an actual website, this is what we're doing.  The purpose of this remote little electronic outpost is to share my dedicated cheapskate perspective on all things outdoorsy and adventureish.  I'll try to keep the narcissistic navel gazing to a minimum, but there may be some words and photos comprising a trip report every now and then.