Deerfield, Massachusetts
“Deerfield is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. Settled near the Connecticut River in the 17th century during the colonial era, the population was 5,090 as of the 2020 census. Deerfield is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area in western Massachusetts, lying 30 miles (48 km) north of the city of Springfield.” – Wikipedia
“Deerfield includes the villages of South Deerfield and Old Deerfield, which is home to two museums: Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association and Historic Deerfield, Inc. Historic Deerfield is designated as a National Historic Landmark district, and the organization operates a museum with a focus on decorative arts, early American material culture, and history. Its eleven house museums offer interpretation of society, history, and culture from the colonial era through the late nineteenth century.”
Deerfield, Massachusetts, Ride Experience Video
Alternative Video Link for those reading via email subscription
In this video, JOM of the Gravel Cyclist crew rides an abbreviated variant of the 100km course of D2R2. His route ends up being about 85km in total, with a ton of climbing. A fun day on the bike in Massachusetts, late September of 2024.
Continued from Above:
Deerfield is also home to D2R2, the Deerfield Dirt Road Randonee’
“We celebrate the landscape, the history, and the rural culture of western Massachusetts, and work to ensure, through a program of land protection, that the historic pattern of field, woodland and village will endure for the benefit of generations to come.” – D2R2 Website
“The Deerfield Dirt-Road Randonnee was conceived in the 1990’s as just a favorite dirt-road loop in the hilltowns of Franklin County, Massachusetts. Since its birth as an organized event in 2005, many have hailed D2R2 as the hardest, most beautiful, most fun, most traffic-free, most unique, and overall best ride that they have ever done.”
Reminder: ALWAYS BE A STEWARD FOR GRAVEL CYCLING: Respect the roads, respect the locals, respect the land, respect your fellow cyclists.
Additional Photos
Learn more at the D2R2 Website
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Links of Interest:
- Link to JOM’s Drop Bar MTB from 2013
- Officina Battaglin Pave’ Steel Gravel Bike: First Look
- D2R2, the Deerfield Dirt Road Randonee’
- How to Descend on a Gravel Bike – Including Tips from Dave Zabriskie and others!
- JOM’s original D2R2 Video from 2015
- How to Create Amazing & Fun Gravel Routes!
- Gravel Cyclist’s Route Library
- Gravel Bike Tire / Tyre Pressure Recommendations
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Glad to see you made it back to the northeast! We rode together for a little while in the Dirty 40 in 2015 (I was one half of the tandem team, if that rings a bell), and I live just up the road from Deerfield, so I get to savour these roads all the time.
I’m a confirmed 1x fan, but I won’t hold your preference for 2x against you! 😉
It’s unfortunate though that SRAM chose only to go to 46T with the new Red XPLR, despite having 13 sprockets to play with.
Hey Sean, I remember the Tandem Team well, just a shame the Dirty 40 is no longer. I will say, the new SRAM 1×13 groupset is pretty spectacular, review posting soon. I’d also like to see them offer not only a slightly wider ratio for the 1×13 cassette, but also a smaller, tighter ratio cassette for flatter areas / rolling terrain. A 10-36T 13-speed cassette would be perfection 🙂