Beatin' Heat

This month has been a deadly scorcher. August is usually hot, but weeks exceeding 90 is rare. My relatives in Florida laugh at me, but here in the midwest, 85F is EMERGENCY TIME!

The asphalt in the city was becoming a bit much, so I loaded the Hunq to take the trail out to the coast for a few days of respite.

It's so nice to pedal through the shade trees for 40 miles to one of the best coastlines in the world.

The tourist town of South Haven provides enough amenities to entertain yourself and cool off for a few days.

I'll leave it for the academics to explain, but we humans never seem to tire of big blue bodies of water.

Traffic on the beaches and in the shops and restaraunts was slow, it was a weekday, mid August, kids are getting ready for school, families are in turmoil, dad's credit cards are maxed out from the summer and everybody is trying to get organized. But I was enjoying the lower traffic on the beaches.

Gear I'm using for camping hasn't changed much, but in the past year I've added a Trangia cooking kit. I was using some small backpacking pans and a Trangia alcohol stove for years. Now, cooking with the full kit has been an upgrade.

The windscreen is a piece of engineering, focuses the heat really well

and the kit includes two pots as well as a non stick frying pan. All this stuff nests together neatly for travel,

it's bulkier than the backpacking stuff, but with it you can put together a real meal. Of course that depends upon what the local groceries have to offer. Most of us know that food can always be found but it's hard work foraging for nutrition at Dollar General.

After a few days of cooling off in the water and watering holes, the ride back was hotter but still enjoyable. I stopped often and didn't get in a hurry to test myself. So it was all a nice break.

The Stable

N+1 is the formula we all use to justify our bikes. Some of us are figures of blatant American consumerism, some are collectors and some try to explain it as practical. Most bikes have some overlapping abilities and are not really pigeonholed into one specific use. At 73 I'm still riding as frequently as ever if not as fast or as far. but I have developed a collection of bikes purely around the theory (or pretense) of practicality. My bikes are all of the multi use designs, which of course could mean I don't "need" them all, but that's poppycock. "Oh reason, not the need!" screams Shakespeare.

The Rivendell Hunqapillar is a heavy duty all terrain touring bike. Designed by Grant Peterson to be ridden on any terrain and field tested on the Continental Divide trail from Canada to Mexico,it's a wonderful machine that I've ridden thousands of miles fully loaded on self supported tours. It's also good around town, to work, the store and, despite being heavy, I've ridden a number of group rides at 15 mph or better. Riv's are incredibly comfortable bikes. They are famous for their fancy paint jobs and lugwork, but the quality of the ride is what keeps us on them.

After riding the Hunq for a season I HAD TO HAVE the lighter faster version. The Sam Hillborne from Rivendell was the best choice. The basic difference is in the tubing. It's lighter, the geometry is nearly the same, but it sports narrower tires and is not built to carry the load the Hunq will tote. It's a fun everyday bike, and is the bike of choice for charity/club rides or credit card touring. I'm not a fast rider at all, but I've ridden this bike on several metric centuries in less than 4 hours and run with group rides averaging 18 mph. It's only as slow as the rider and good for gravel, asphalt, rail trails, commuting,just about anything.

The SOMA Buena Vista is a modern take on the Mixte frame design. I built it as a brisk cafe racer to ride around town. The nice convenience of a Mixte is being able to step over the top tubes (something you appreciate as you get ah...more mature). This guy gets a lot of activity during the school year going to work.

Rivendell Yves Gomez is another take on the Mixte design. This is my "luxury" city bike. Like the Soma Mixte it's capable of riding a brisk group ride but it's really a classy, comfortable town bike.

The Brompton is the legendary folding bike. I've never had a bike that was easier to ride. It's surprisingly comfortable, this year I rode it in the 5 Borough Tour in NYC. It was 50 miles riding and I was comfortable all day. Folding as it does it's easy to transport by car, train, bus, subway or airline. Every thing considered, it will probably be the last bike I ride simply because it is so versatile, easy to transport, mount and ride. So, I'd like to believe I've reached the end of N+1. For now the selection I have is all I could want, certainly more than I need. But, Brompton did just release the G-Line model...

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.

 

The cosmopolitan bike

April has gone

Spring has come

trees are flowering all around the Michigan landscape

and it's time to make an escape and see

 if the Brompton travels as easily as I imagined.

The wheeled suitcase folds flat to be carried while riding,

 or set aside while having breakfast.

It takes about a minute to unfold and wrap around the bike.

Putting the bike into the suitcase is a breeze and having the saddle up through the zipper a bit makes a great handle to navigate through the train stations and airports.  Checking it as luggage was simple and cheap as a suitcase.  They placed it with the over sized luggage without charging extra.

It handles in the subways easily. 

After the planes, trains and subways

I found my way to the center of the universe early Sunday morning

before having breakfast and riding down to Wall St.

for the beginning of the 5 Borough Tour.

Of course the Brommie is right at home 

in the most urban of environments.

I was fortunate that Leah Peterson and her sister Heather were coming, they were kind enough to pick up my registration stuff and meet me.  I got to spend the ride with two country girls from the wilds of North Dakota 

enjoying their transplanted cosmopolitan status

along with 32,000 other like minded  two wheelers 

taking a trek through Manhattan, The Park, Harlem,

across the East River to the Bronx and further to Queens and  Brooklyn.

It's a bit overwhelming to see NYC from the two wheel perspective let alone sharing it with thousands of rolling spectators. The weather was kind, in the 70's with a passing rain shower to cool the crowd.

Despite the size of the group it was easy to manage. People maintained a consistent slow roll and good distances throughout the trip.  I'm sure some spandex hamsters were making a race of it but it was largely a huge group of urbanites enjoying the day together.

At 73, I was far from the oldest in the 41 mile ride  and the youngest I found was an 8 year old riding with her mother, whom I encountered on final stretch to Staten Island where an army of food trucks waited to serve the after party.

From there, the ferry carried us back to the Battery

and the Freedom Tower.

I'm such a lousy tourist.  I made to and from NYC again without a photo of the Statue of Liberty, but the rest of the trip was not without adventure.  On the return I managed to leave my hotel in the morning with plenty of time to get to JFK.  I rode across town to the stop for the express train to the airport, got off the bike and realized I forgot to bring the suitcase for the bike.  I rode back across town, found a hotel manager to let me back in the room to get it from the closet and ride back to the subway station. By then, time was tight.  I arrived at the ticket counter JUST in time to be denied a boarding pass.  They were kind enough to reschedule my flight, the earliest into O'Hare would land JUST as the last train home would leave Union Station. That led to another night in Chicago, which is something I always enjoy.  

Traveling with the Brommie is a real pleasure.  I was skeptical about riding 50 miles on it but found it really comfortable.  The handlebars give no place to put your hands for variety,  but the body position was comfortable throughout the ride, it feels like cruising on the hoods.  I still  have the original saddle on it.  It's good around town, but after a couple of hours started to create chaffing.  That wouldn't happen with a Brooks so the Brooks will happen in the near future.