Al's Blog-o-Sphere

Well, I’m on the road. I made it as far as the tiny burg of Hulberton and was deciding whether to go on or go back a half mile to see if I could camp at an RV place I saw.

Well, the bike made up my mind for me. The seat frame broke right at the bracket where it attaches to the bike. I can ride it but it’s poking me in the butt. I could stick something in there for padding, but I think it’s just a matter of time until the other side goes.

[insert photo here]

If I was far away, I’d just camp somewhere and find a local weld shop to fix it. But since I’m so close to home, I’m going to go back to Lockport.

I recently found more information about NY bike Route 517. Apparently, after a couple of years, they finally got around to adding it to their website.

State Bicycle Route 517 is a signed on-road bicycle route that extends 90 miles from the Pennsylvania State Line near Jamestown to the Hamlet of Olcott. This route connects with Pennsylvania State Bicycle Routes , the NYS Canalway Trail and the NYS Seaway Trail It also intersects with State Bicycle Routes 5 and 17.

You may have seen these signs around and wondered what they meant. Or not. They are easy to miss. The Bike Route 5 signs have been here for a long time along Route 31 in this area, and some information about them was found online, but the 517 and others were a mystery. I wrote here about it a while back.

So, having found some real, official information about this route, I decided to ride it the other day and see what kind of a bike route it was. I had already formed some opinion on it just from my own knowledge of some of the roads I had seen the markers on, but kept an open mind as I headed out from the northern end of BR 517 where it begins, in Lockport, about a block from where I live.

[Photos to be updated soon] Continue Reading…