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.
Simply Cycle
The daily joys and challenges of an incurable cyclist.
This is a shameless attempt to save the the most advanced civilization in
history from imminent self destruction by eliminating carbon emission,
dependence on foreign sources of fuel,obesity, hypertension and diabetes.
Cycling accomplishes all those things at once and helps us develop a better
understanding of ourselves, each other and our relationship to the cosmos.
Oh, horse puckey!
I like to ride bikes, have been doing it all my life.
The rest of that crap is just a fringe benefit,
and the blogosphere gives me a chance to share my interior
monologue with virtual rather than imaginary friends.
Sunday, January 19, 2025
Sunday, January 12, 2025
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.
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."
Monday, December 23, 2024
Baby, it's cold inside!
So we had a cold snap a week or so ago. It's Michigan, it happens, like for months sometime. Temps were down in the teens, wind chill in single digits. Schools were closed one day but not the next. I went to work and back without any discomfort. Winter jacket up top and base layer under my slacks and was perfectly comfortable.
After work, I had an appointment and two quick errands to run. The streets were still frozen, icy and rutted, the temps in the teens and it was getting dark early. I decided to drive my car in the evening. Sitting in the car, in the same clothes, I was freezing and shivering. In and out of the car, bundled up as I was while riding my bike, I was totally uncomfortable while I was perfectly comfortable riding my bike in the same temps and clothing. Sitting to go places ain't good. Biking is the warm cold weather sport.Tuesday, September 24, 2024
Leelanau Harvest
I was waiting and waiting to see if the weather was going to cooperate and fulfill the long range forecast hope. Hey it worked! I had great weather for a weekend in the woods. The Leelanau Harvest Tour is a charity ride I hadn't ridden. Starting a few miles northwest of Traverse City
on the Leelanau Trail which is also part of US Bike Route 35 following the lake shore from New Buffalo to
Mackinaw City.
We didn't do that, but the trail is a beautifully paved trail to start the ride, cutting through the orchards and vineyards of the Leelanau peninsula.
Dancing ornaments were found
as well as the ripened orchards of the area
until we reached the main attraction.
Lake Leelanau is enourmous and was peeking
through the trees all along the roads.
Unlike the Paw Paw harvest tour
there were more orchards than vineyards
and I missed the fragrance filling every breath.
E-bikers were out gliding through the hilly course,
not with monsterous mountains

but frequent steep climbs.
I'll admit to some conceited smugness as
I pedaled my Sam Hillborne past a number of
spandex hamsters pushing their
crabon crotch rockets up the grades.
It was a windless 40 mile ride through the fruit industry
back to the village of Suttons Bay on the big lake
where a few hundred surviving riders shared
lunch, ice cream and stories.
It was a welcome break from the routine and another
night in the woods by the lake at Interlochen.
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