'Tis the tweason!

It's another one of those damn times in Michigan.   Daily seasonal changes become a season of their own and happen a couple times a year. The November tweason means it's sunny, cloudy, foggy, rainy and snowy in a matter of hours and we just have to adapt because it will change soon (fifteen minutes according to legend). 

But  real winter is around the corner which turned into NOW this year. It's enough to send the spandex hamsters to their spin classes and video cycling.  I'm spending the Thanksgiving holiday giving the bikes a cleaning and tuneup before putting most away for a few weeks,

The Park Tool Cyclone cleans my chains.  I've seen many internet "experts" claim that this gadget simply does not work.  My question is; If it doesn't work, why is it full of  grease and grit when I'm done?  I don't normally worry about getting my hands dirty but the gloves keep my fingers warm when the garage temps are in the twenties.

The brakes on the Soma needed adjustment and it's a simple method to use a small clamp to hold the pads to the rim.  Then adjust the barrel adjusters to about 50%, loosen the cable bolt, pull the cable taut, re-tighten the cable bolt, remove the clamp and loosen the barrel adjusters until you have exactly the brake tension you like. There is a tool called "Third Hand" to hold the caliper, but I found the clamp works better since it's adjustable, the Third Hand is not.

It seems a bit early, but I'm swapping the regular tires on  the Brompton for the studs.  It's possible we'll have snow and ice on the streets until March, so err to the cautious side. Now I can choose between the winter beater with 50mm studs and the Brompton with it's 32mm studs. the Riv's and Soma will rest in the rafters until we get a  thaw.

That wasn't the best way to spend a holiday weekend, but I am several weeks ahead and ready for any day that gets warm.

It doesn't have to be an EPIC trip

The usual signs of spring have passed

as traffic waits for the annual parades of goslings

crossing city streets from one pond to the next

and those of us on two wheels are treated 

to watch mothers extending their families.

     I was miraculously spared a tragedy when my bike rack broke in the middle of an urban drag race. The rack and bike tumbled off the car at 50 MPH! 50 or 60 cars managed to avoid the mess in the middle of the road. This could have been a 5-10 car pile up. Traffic was fast and heavy enough that it took several minutes before it was safe to get out of the car. It was several more before I could collect the mess between traffic.

This broken adjustment buckle seems to be the culprit

and this was the only damage suffered.

Steel is real and my Rivendell Sam Hillborne 

survived with an admirable piece of "beausage."

I think I'll keep it that way for some sick reason.

So, a week before Summer, we started to ride for the shadows

to escape the heat.  My relatives in Florida will laugh

but up here in Michigan 90's is EMERGENCY TIME!

     It is unusual to have a heat wave before Summer hits but it's here. I loaded the Hunq  to take a few days in the forest.  The plan was the usual trip to the Yankee Springs forest, camp for a couple of days and ride the Barry Roubaix route for a few hours.

     It all worked out, except for a puncture just before I got to the campground.  No problem, I thought, the sealant in the tubes took over, I went to the tool kit for CO2 popped a bit in the tire and rode the last mile or so,  No problem, until morning. The tire felt spongy again.  Hmm, Probably didn't ride far enough to get enough sealant into the hole.  I went to the tool kit again and found the other CO2 cartridges were spent.  Damn, I wobbled to the entrance of the campground where there's an MTB trailhead.  One of the arriving bikers had a pump I could borrow. I got it up to pressure and figured it would seal as I rode, but I cowered out and took the paved route instead of the gravel to Hastings where the Ace Hardware has a nice bike dept and a 6 pack of cartridges for insurance.  

     The rest of the day was spent tooling around Hastings which has a nice trail along the Thornapple River. I enjoyed lunch at Walldorr's Brew Pub.  It's a rural community

and you don't have to get far from town 

to find unusual "pets" in front yards.

          The night was good,  I left early to avoid the heat and it was still brutal.  At 73 I have the right to claim wisdom or maturity, but at any age it's just common sense not to challenge this kind of heat and humidity.  I enjoyed the countryside, riding a few miles at a time between shade trees.  By the time I reached the Kzoo outskirts the pavement was good for boiling water and the last ten miles was a matter of gearing down and taking it slow.  It was a bike trip, it's always different, always fun, always good.

 

"April is the cruelest month..."

     April always feels like "Are we there yet!"  A couple hours at a time we are teased to wear shorts and t-shirts only to go back to long johns and sweaters.  "Hope it doesn't rain," is what we cling to every time we choose to ride.  A little cold ain't bad, a little rain ain't terrible but together are just plain dangerous.

Of course the puddles and mud give the bike some real character, dirty the way a bike should be.  And, it's still a relief from the ice and abominable snow tires.

Turkeys are brave near the trails but scamper off to the safety of their natural camouflage. They go off in a huff, at the sight of an intruder on "their" trail.  

We get to welcome a new trail segment which, although only a mile long, 

connects an east/west route free of cars

all the way across town. 

Streams and ponds are coming awake

and a chorus of frogs is out to entertain.

After last year's tornado devastation 

the forest will be in recovery for years

while the early blooms are trying to wave goodbye to winter.

I did it again!

    Some people have noticed I writ me another book.  Well, really, it's more of a booklet. It'll only be an e-book.  That makes it cheaper and easier for more people.  this one focuses on the the experiences I've found urban cycling over the past 50 years and the hows, whys and whynots to use a bicycle rather than slump into a sedentary lifestyle around town. Like the first, it'll get under the skin of a few people (hopefully a lot), but if you don't piss somebody off, you're not being honest. 

 

NBD

 New Brompton Day!  

    I'd been toying with the idea of upgrading my Brompton with a 6 speed model for quite a while.  I was in the Chicago dealer (JC Lind) a few months ago and mentioned that.  The owner, Jon, told me to do it in the following six months because Brompton is changing the drive train specs and the six speed would not be an option for long.

    After looking at the new options, I decided the 6 speed was what I wanted.   I kept an eye on their website and snatched up a bargain before it disappeared. 

It's the six speed model marked down $200 with $300  in accessories thrown in.  I would have liked a different color, but red and black is OK.  In fact it looks pretty sharp for the strange bucket of bolts that is Brompton. Any way it's January,  so the first business was replacing the tires with studs, then rust proofing the frame with Cavity Coater, change the grips and give it a once over with turtle wax.

 

The first ride was on the snow but I like it.  I took it with me to Chicago, 

a few days later and the extra range is a real pleasure.  The six ratios are reached by way of a 3speed IGH with two external cogs. So. It's a 3 speed hub with a high and low range. The range is selected with this curious derailer. 

  With the 6 speed the range is 33-100 gear inches compared to the 3 speed range of 47-85.

Although the gear selection isn't really needed in Chi-Town, I leaned to the lower range riding the heavy, slow studs in the heavier icy sludge on the streets.  

    It was a sunny winter Saturday in the Loop and people were out and about making use of the cold at the Millennium Park skating rink.  

    By the time I returned home from the city, it was a dark winter night for the ride home and the optional light I'd gotten for free proved itself.  Not only is the 500Lm light (made for Brompton by Cateye) penetrating on a totally dark icy street, Having it that low to the ground over the 16 inch wheels provided details that really enhanced the safety for the few miles home.

    A new bike in January is tough to deal with, it just looks at you like a puppy waiting to go for a walk, but it will be held to grocery-getting until I take the studs off.  "It'll only be a few weeks, I promise."

 

Just had enough...

 of this crappy weather in Michigan.  The past few weeks the weather from day to day has ranged from 60 to 20 degrees and changed seemly on an hourly basis.  Driving snow with 10 degree wind chills one afternoon to find the snow gone and 45 the next.  I decided to find some kind of sanity, loaded the car and headed south.  

The Hoosier National Forest along the Ohio River sounded good.  It's a 6 hour drive, straight south, and clear 70 degree weather was predicted.

The weather guessers delivered and the first evening was beyond beautiful.  The forest was just coming awake with early buds on the trees, violets and daffodils sprouting around the sides of the roads.  I didn't come for any epic ride, just some casual cruising in a warmer clime.

Did I say clime?  I meant the other "C" word. There is something wrong with my vocabulary these days.  It seems there's something about the term "German RIDGE"

that I did not get when I chose the desination.

Every blind winding turn on this side of the river valley

 brought a new climb with it.

It's always 50% downhill but I seemed to find inclines 

which also delivered some pretty

spectacular scenery

leading to the inevitable honky-tonk where the juke box was wailing country tunes I remembered from grade school (I'm 72!).  Sitting at the bar, I saw some  good looking burgers come out of the kitchen.  I could see the kitchen through the swinging doors and decided to stick with bottled beer (the locals probably develop immunity).   Chatting with a local, I was laughing inside listening to a guy complain about the wind while he was on his Harley.

Just a six hour drive was worth it to ride around in shorts, in some beautiful countryside and forest.  It might be an excellent destination in the fall when the colors come out, and the temps in Michigan drive me South again.

New shoes

     After weeks of gut wrenching I caved and bought new tires for the Sam Hillborne. I loved the Rene Herse 44 mm tires I put on the Hunq, it was a trans-formative experience. The Hunq rode like a different bike, faster, smoother, more nimble and much more comfortable.

  I had to see if the same would be true for Sam. The past year I used Gravel King slicks on the bike and, although they were quick and sturdy, the ride quality is stiff compared to the Panaracer Pasela I've aways used.  After mounting the new Bon Jon Pass tires I took a quick 10 mile ride into a really obnoxious wind and came to no conclusion except that they were seated properly. I'm running them with tubes like the Gravelkings and inflating them between 50-60 psi.

    The next day I took a casual ride around town to test them a bit more. I rode a bit through town to get my hair cut, then headed downtown to have lunch at one of the deli's.  

After a great Rueben I headed across town to the mall to find myself a new pair of shoes and meandered through town to get home before the raindrops fell (just in time in fact). So, I put about 35 miles on the tires the last couple days and they feel really good. Not a game changing feeling like I had on the Hunq, but they are as fast as the Gravelkings on asphalt and a much nicer ride than either the Gravelkings or Paselas. The Pasela gum sidewalls are pretty close in ride quality but the Rene Herse produced no vibrations or chatter to my hands, so they were rolling much more efficiently. Bear in mind that Panaracer manufactures all three tires and if I could compare them I would say the Rene Herse Bon Jon Pass combines the tread of the Gravelking slicks with a refinement of the Pasela sidewall.  

     The dilemma is the price. On the Hunq it wasn't such an issue, I was already spending 50-60 dollars a tire on the Hunq, so upgrading to standard sidewalls on Rene Herse was only a $15 jump for a huge increase in performance and pleasure. Pasela's and Gravelkings go for around $40-45, so that's a bigger jump, but I wanted the extra light casing on the Sam for the luxury ride. Rene Herse tires with the xtra light casings are $94. Ouch! They are a little faster and a bit more comfortable than the Pasela's. The question is, "Are they worth twice as much?" We'll see. Time will come to replace them, but you know the life of a bike addict; once you get a sniff, you're a slave.

Last year, all over again!

The past year was a pretty good time for cycling. 

 I hit an all time record low, in auto mileage that is. 

 For the first time ever I was not stricken near bankruptcy by N+1 syndrome.

I just put a lot of mileage on the bikes themselves.

From the early spring without a leaf or blade of live grass to break up the wind, 

I did a four day trip to the lake and back.

I enjoyed the epic W Ave ride across Kalamazoo county.

A route so sublime that a Twizzler is used for a map

and nobody got lost.

At another vintage bike weekend in April, 

 I learned there is a hill in Chicago's west suburbs.

In the beginning of June I found a new annual destination

The Waterfront Film Fest.

   I met my first Warmshowers guest, an intrepid cross country rider from South Korea.

       

The Old Dog Tavern continued it's tradition of Vintage Bike shows.

I bought a few new camping gadgets.

And found a couple new favorite spots.

Amtrak is trying to make it easier to travel with a bike.

The ride to the city of big shoulders was pleasant, but

more pleasant was finding I can avoid this type of neighborhood in Gary

and ride home on a pleasant network of trails like this from Chicago to Michigan City.

Somebody tell this girl to put a helmet on please!

The bigger trip of the year was going to Minneapolis

where I was able to test the full selection of Surly 29er's and Fat Bikes.

As well as enjoy a day around the river bottoms and another exploring

 the incredible infrastructure of Minneapolis.

For a change we had a beautiful day for the Forest and Foliage in the Fall ride!

I captured a year in Haiku.

Revisited the Lakeshore with another Chi-town Vintage Pornfest.

The year desolved into a colorless and bleak,

although warm winter.