themorningride.com

cycling, cavorting, and racing in ellicott city


What is this?

Discover ride times and find out what's going on with themorningride (aka TMR) on themorningride listserv. Some of us like to race (on road and off), but we all like to ride our bikes and taste good beers now and then. This mail list is private, but we welcome newcomers. If your bike is dusty, and you feel the need to get off your butt, set your alarm for 5am and join us!   A typical morning ride looks something like this.

Our friends at Adventures For the Cure (AFC) have found numerous ways to apply their love of cycling and sport to some great causes.  Their big hearts don't seem to slow them down much! 

A funny spoof of themorningride page can be found here.  The Washington Post did a small writeup on us as well.  The Baltimore Sun and Howard County Times have talked with us a couple times as well. 

I don't like asphalt.

In addition to riding on the road, we also enjoy dirt and ride many of the trails 'inside' or near the TMR route (PVSP).  Because we care about and contribute to local trail maintenance, we developed this handy trail condition scale:

  • A+So good you'd feel guilty if you DIDN'T ride. Hero dirt, beautiful weather, Fall foliage, Snow ride, etc.
  • APerfectly fine. No need to even have the discussion. This drought is lulling you in to complacency. You consider skipping a ride because some of the turns are getting a bit loose and sandy. You've forgotten about the weeks of no mountain biking during the late winter thaw. Shame on you. Go ride!
  • A-/B+Trails are good, but people that live more than 20 minutes away are asking to make sure. Get it while you can.
  • B/B-Trails are rideable but somewhat marginal in select spots. Guilt-free. Be thankful that the years of trail work has the trails draining and way more durable than 10+ years ago.
  • C/C-Trails are not great, but if you know what you're doing you can route a ride that is mostly guilt-free. You and your buddies are keeping this one off-list, need to know, text only. Some guilt, but you avoided the bad sections. You're only riding if you are jonesing hard.
  • DTrails are not good. You should feel guilt and shame if you somehow find yourself riding them.
  • FTrails are a fucking mess and you are a horrible person, even worse than the log rampers.