About Me

My name is Mark and this is my blog about my cycling life, drinking beer, and sometimes other things.

Many people always want to know where the name Cyclesnack came from and the short answer is that it's my English translation of an old Swedish cycling forum called Cykel Snakken. 

In 2008 I experimented with a Ghost Chain Ring that I saw someone else do on their bike so I decided to try it and then I posted about it. Back then I had a traffic sniffer that told me what posts people were linking to and where they came from. 

I noticed that there was a lot of traffic coming from the Swedish cycling forum and I instantly new what it translated to because it sounded a lot like Platdeutsch (low German - the dialect spoken where I was an exchange student back in 1983). Translated, it mean Cycling Talk. So I just converted it English and thus, Cyclesnack.

I started mountain biking when I turned 40. Life begins at 40! Was this my mid-life crisis? If so, it was a cheap one as I bought a $300 Trek Mountain Bike from the now defunct Bethel Cycle in Bethel, CT, and used this blog to chronicle my cycling and other outdoor activities.

My cycling rebirth.

My first commuter

When I changed jobs in 2007 and started working closer to home I decided I wanted to try bike commuting. I found an Old Crappy Ten Speed at a tag sale that no one wanted, converted it to a singlespeed/fixed gear and started riding to work. From this point I started a little side hobby of finding older bike frames and converting them singlespeed/fixed gears and then selling them.  I also experimented with different styles of mountain bikes. Have a look at my Former Lovers page to see the different bikes I converted and rode and eventually sold.

1999 Cannondale XS800

Bike commuting led me to riding pavement and gravel with the acquisition of a Cannondale XS800. The beauty of this bike was that it had a Headshok, or front suspension with a lock out. I could ride it on roads with the suspension locked out and it behaved like a road bike. With the suspension unlocked I could ride it on gravel roads like I would a mountain bike and down hills.  

2013 D2R2 100K

My gravel riding to date was confined to riding mostly the dirt roads around Litchfield County and for awhile I had been wanting to try riding the D2R2, Deerfield Dirt Road Randonnee. However, a yearly fishing trip was always planned around the same week of D2R2, that is until in 2013 when we moved the trip to earlier in the summer leaving me open to ride my first D2R2, the 100K Route.   

Since that first ride from South Deerfield, MA I have been totally hooked on Gravel Riding, as well as road riding, and up until the pandemic bike commuted to my office in Norwalk at least one day a week, a 27+ mile each way commute. 

My mountain biking has taken a back seat to road and gravel riding and truth be told, since a good friend of mine died mountain biking on a trail that I built I have had no interest in going back into the woods. I still have a mountain bike and ride it occasionally.

Now, I just ride. Whether it's indoors on Zwift to keep the legs in shape when the weather is bad, or outdoors, you will most likely find me on my bike.

Photo Cred: Leslie Palmer