A Monday Cocktail and a Cat in a Hat

In the time honoured tradition of celebrating aging, today I shall pry myself away from the internet, thus sparing you from the usual tediously long post. My cat advised me to follow this course of action, and when she has something to say it is usually wise to listen.



But lest you feel that your visit was for naught, I would like to share a recipe for a splendid non-alcoholic cocktail - in response to popular demand after an earlier post. This here cocktail is as refreshing as it is safe for work, and I myself shall be enjoying it throughout the day with abandon:



The Sober Cyclist's Delight

. 4 parts mineral water (not club soda)

. 1 part lemon juice

. a sprinkling of brine from some Italian olives

. a handful of fresh cucumber slices, thin as they can be

. lemongrass as garnish, if you are so inclined

. and a brass bicycle bell



Place cucumber slices at the bottom of a cocktail glass and sprinkle with olive brine. Pour in lemon juice, followed by mineral water, and garnish with lemongrass if desired. Ring a substantially sized brass bicycle bell over the glass, until its vibrations cause the ingredients to swirl, their flavours mingling exquisitely.



Have a happy Monday and thank you for reading Lovely Bicycle. And for those who speak my native tongue:Soupytwist!

Campobello Island :: Mulholland Point and Seals in the Narrows

Thursday, September 20th - - In 1958 the governments of Canada and the United States entered into an agreement to construct a bridge across the Lubec Narrows to provide easy access to and from Campobello Island.






The Roosevelt Memorial Bridge was opened for operation in 1962. A portion of Campobello Island can be seen on the left while the town of Lubec, Maine is on the right. Taken from Mulholland Point.





There is a small park at Mulholland Point, which includes the Mulholland Lighthouse. Several signposts provide information about the bridge, the lighthouse, and give a brief history of the town of Lubec, Maine.



But what fascinated me, not visible in that first photo, was the high waves caused by the out-going tide. And then, there were those little black specks in the water, which upon closer examination with the help of the zoom lens, turned out to be seals!





I happened to arrive just as the tide was starting to go out. The water was moving very fast out in the middle of the narrows where the waves were the highest.





The larger seals would fight their way up the current and then rapidly float back downstream. They were certainly having fun, and I was certainly enjoying watching them.





There were probably about 25-30 seals in the group. I'm guessing that it must have been a good feeding area. The seagulls were flying all around also dipping in and out of the water.





The seals were continually diving and disappearing into the water, resurfacing some distance away from where they went under.





The next morning on my return to the United States, I stopped to get a shot of the Mulholland Lighthouse and the town of Lubec, Maine on the other side of the narrows. Even though the tide was low and not moving rapidly, there were seals floating in the water. I even saw an eagle flying amongst the seagulls.

Bear Valley Road Wildflowers

Wildflowers in Bear Valley, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

After hearing much about the wildflower displays in remote Bear Valley, I decided to take a trip up there to check things out. The wildflowers were indeed spectacular, with seas of lupine and cream cups extending all the way to the base of the mountains. It was a beautiful day.

A Most Excellent Adventure :: Sawyer Glacier Number Two

Friday, August 27th - - You may have noticed that I've been saying Sawyer Glaciers rather than Glacier. That's because there are two of them! Twin glaciers. Two “branches” of the same glacier that were divided by a mountain as they came down to the ocean. After spending about two hours at Sawyer Glacier the Captain said we would go on over to “the other one” for a little while. How cool was that?

The first thing we noticed upon approaching Sawyer II was that there wasn't as much ice floating around, compared to the first glacier. Captain Steve said that it wasn't because this one wasn't calving but because there is more wind in this cove and the wind blows the ice out to sea.

If you look very closely (double-click on the image to view a larger version), there is another tour boat in front of the glacier. It is in the middle of the half-circle of rock that is just to the right of the center of the face of the glacier.

The boat isn't as close to the glacier as it appears. They usually stay at least a quarter of a mile away from the face of the glacier.

This one section was so much more intensely blue compared to than the rest. The pressure must have been tremendous to cause it to compress so much.

There were a few seals swimming around, but not nearly as many as at the first glacier.

The snow at the top of the glacier.
Within a few minutes of our arrival the clouds parted a little and the sun came through in spots. It was fascinating to watch the colors of the snow and ice change as the sunshine moved across the face of the glacier.

Again, as with the first glacier, there was quite a bit of activity with falling chunks of ice. Steve kept telling us to keep an eye on two specific areas, one of which was to the right of the intensely blue ice.

As if on cue, the glacier released some of the ice from its grip and down it went!
More ice cascaded down as the waves started building.
A very short time later, the wave reached the boat and we rolled with it for a few seconds.
And then, another big mass gave away and fell...
Which caused another, even larger wave.
Captain Steve told us all to either sit down or grab hold of the railing as we were in for a short but wild ride! He then moved the boat so that it was heading in the same direction that the wave was going. It was an exciting few seconds! We lingered a few more minutes but then Steve said we had to go.

Our stay at Sawyer II wasn't long but it was truly amazing and awesome! From a distance, there doesn't appear to be much change in the face of the glacier. But if you look closely at the left side, you can see where the event occurred. It had been a fantastic day – no rain, whales, seals, beautiful scenery, incredible calving – all shared with strangers who for a short time became friends experiencing amazing sights. It was indeed, a most excellent adventure!

Back and Forth: Lessons in Positioning

Last week I rode my RivendellSam Hillborne for the first time in three weeks after riding exclusively the loaner Seven on a close to daily basis. It's hard to believe that the body can adapt to one position so quickly as to find other positions unnatural. I confidently got on my bike, expecting that old familiar feeling of riding it to welcome me back. But I was in for a surprise. The ride was as comfortable as I remembered, but everything felt off. It took me a while to understand what was wrong. Initially it was just a vague sense of not feeling as connected to the road and as much in control of the bike, which was disconcerting. As I kept cycling, I became aware that it was really two specific things: I felt that I was seated too far back, and that I wasn't out far enough over the front wheel. I kept wanting to shove my weight forward, and it was frustrating to feel almost as if I were sitting "behind" the bike.

Looking at the way the two bicycles are set up, the difference makes sense. On the Seven, the saddle sits further forward and the handlebars are further out. I was aware of this difference before, but assumed that I would find the Seven's set-up aggressive and uncomfortable, while the Rivendell's set-up a welcome relief. Instead the Seven's set-up now feels "right" and anything deviating from it feels "wrong" - as if I don't have sufficient control of the bike. That feeling is hard to shake. I think my Rivendellneeds a little make-over.

While moving the saddle forward is easy enough, changing the handlebar set-up will be messy, because I will have to replace the fairly short (6cm) stem with a longer one. When I fist began trying to ride with drop bars, I found it extremely difficult and a short stem was recommended to make the transition easier. I cannot say that it was a poor recommendation, because it worked. I rode with this set-up for a year, gradually becoming more comfortable with the whole idea of a roadbike, and feeling increasingly natural in a forward-leaning position. Some would look at my bikes and point out that my stems are too short, and I was perfectly aware that by most standards they are. But these things are highly personal, and last year I was concerned not so much with speed and agility, as with just being able to ride the bike. The way a bike balanced with a shorter stem felt better to me at the time. For what it's worth, I see many roadbikes from the 1970s-80s that were ridden by women set up with short stems. My previously owned vintage Trek had an even shorter stem than this bike, and that was the original owner's doing.

Going back and forth between the Sevenand the Rivendellhas been educational; each has what the other lacks. It is fairly clear to me that I "need" a lightweight, purely-roadish roadbike like the Sevenand that I also "need" a wide-tired, befendered, dynamo-hub, luggage-bearing long distance bike like the Rivendell. I would not want to turn one into the other, or to combine them into something in-between. If I could make changes to the Seven, it would be to magically decrease its size. If I could makechanges to the Rivendell, it would be to alter its positioning and to make it lighter. The former we will be doing shortly. The latter is not really possible without getting rid of the very things that make this bike practical. But I am very curious now whether it is the positioning, more than anything else that accounts for the difference in speed between the two bicycles. I am also wondering what the "ideal" stem length for this bike would be. The top tube is unusually long, so it would have to be 8-9cm tops. It's frustrating that experimenting with stems is not easy, but I will report the results of my trial-and-error fumblings.

Counting the hours to South Korea

Yep, we are counting the hours to our departure to Seoul, South Korea! However, I am not yet ready. So many last-minute stuff to do tomorrow at work and I now have a headache. I want to sleep! Anyway, I am afraid I may not be able to finish everything in time and may have to work a bit while on holiday. *sigh* (ugh)

Fire Tower and the Milky Way Galaxy

My favorite shot from this weekend :-) This photo was taken while we were watching the Perseid meteor shower. My camera had been set up doing a sequence of images for a timelapse video when I noticed the nice alignment of the Milky Way between the fire tower and these trees. I had to take a break from shooting the timelapse sequence in order to capture this photo before the Milky Way moved too far to the west. Sure was a beautiful night for photographing the Milky Way.



Below: A couple more shots from the weekend.

Boys and Bicycles

A week or so ago, the Co-Habitant and I met up with Somervillain as part of the Boston Retro Wheelmen project. It has taken me a long time to upload these pictures, because I would start laughing when trying to process them. Behold what happens when you get two obsessive men and their bicycles together...

Somervillain brought his meticulously restored 1984 Shogun 2000, which he built up as a classic randonneur. The Co-Habitant brought his 1976 Motobecane Super Mirage (a lower-end model than the Shogun - but still nicely done up) to compare.

And compare they did.

This went far beyond test riding each other's bikes, and gradually turned into what seemed like a millimeter by millimeter comparison of various measurements.

There was a question of whose top tube was longer and no effort was spared to investigate the matter. I wish I were joking.

My Mercier stood back and stared in amazement. Having no top tube, she could not understand what all the fuss was about.

Having resolved this issue to their satisfaction, a discussion of component choices ensued.

I think the conclusion is clear: Both bicycles are gorgeous, because I helped choose the accessories when they were being built up. Obviously! I will post more about Somervillain's newly built up randonneur soon - it really is something, and I took detailed pictures.

The same morning, Somervillain helped us out by replacing a cotter on the Co-Habitant's 1972 Raleigh DL-1. Yes, that is a cotter press right there on the sidewalk.

Cotter press in action.

Cotter.

Crank.

And voila.

Boys. Bicycles. Boston.

There will be a group meet-up of the Boston Retro Wheelmen this coming Saturday, so come join us if you want to experience the fun for yourself.

Big Bend National Park

Continuing on U.S. 90 from Seminole Canyon, there really isn't much along the way. Basically, 140 miles of nothingness. Well, not really nothing. I'm not sure I'd call it beautiful, but it was an interesting drive. And a bit eerie at times. So different from what I'm used to. There wasn't a lot of traffic either and the cell phone couldn't get a signal and I kept wondering how long it would be before someone came along if I broke down.

It wasn't totally nothing. The town of Langtry has a museum honoring Judge Roy Bean. But I didn't stop, the town looked so forlorn and desolate, with only a few cars around. Then there was Dryden, and Sanderson and finally, Marathon. Turning south on U.S. 385 at Marathon and driving another 40 miles through the high desert gets you to the northern entrance of Big Bend National Park. And then, another 30 miles to the Park Headquarters and Visitors Center in the middle of the park at Panther Junction!

Of the half dozen other campers that I'd talked with at Seminole Canyon, all of them were on their way to Big Bend National Park! And they had heard that there were no camping sites available, and yet they still came, as did I. The truth of the matter is that there are a certain number of sites that are reserved and others are first come, first served. There were no more reserved sites available but there were plenty of other sites, so it was no problem.

There are three main camping areas at Big Bend. The Chisos Basin in the center of the park (and in the middle of the Chisos Mountains), Rio Grande Village on the east, and Cottonwood in the south. My first choice was the Chisos Basin, since it was closest and it was early evening. I'd end up spending five nights at Chisos. It's an amazing place. Actually, all of Big Bend is incredible. There are so many trails to hike and so many “things” to see it is impossible to do everything.

My camp site at Chisos Basin. The “little hill” in the background is called Casa Grande and it dominates the southern view from the basin.

Shadows chasing the sun up Casa Grande Peak on my first evening at Big Bend, February 20th.

Civia Halsted: the Compact Basket Bike

Civia is a Minnesota-based manufacturer of transportation and utility bicycles, known for its unisex designs and reasonable price points. I do not see many Civia bikes in New England. But for some time now I've admired the look of their Halsted model and wondered what it was like to ride. Last week I finally got the chance to find out.





The Broadway Bicycle School in Cambridge, MA uses one of these as a shop bike, and they allowed me to take it out for a spin.





The Civia Halsted is a modern variation of a classic front load delivery bicycle. It is designed around a standard size (26") rear wheel and a small (20") front wheel, above which sits a frame-mounted platform. This type of construction creates extra space to accommodate a large front load, whilst also positioning the load lower to the ground.





Because the platform is connected to the bicycle's frame rather than the fork or handlebars, it remains independent from steering. This, together with its low placement, is aimed to minimise the front load's impact on the bicycle's handling.



The front platform ("rack deck") is rated for 50lb of carry capacity. It can be used on its own, or built up as a front crate/basket using modular side panels (as shown in the pictures). The deck and side panels are made of HDPE plastic. The tubes securing the platform to the bicycle's frame are steel, painted to match the bike.





The Halsted is available in one size only, and will fit riders between 5'2" and 6'5". The frame features a dropped and moderately sloping top tube. Thanks to the small front wheel, this results in a very manageable standover height for someone of my size (I am 5' 6 1/2"). I did not have to swing my leg over the back of the bike, but was able to step over the top tube after slightly leaning it toward me.





Another feature of the Halsted frame is the possibility for attaching a plaque to advertise one's business. This is nicely integrated, and makes for a fabulous-looking shop bike.





The Halsted's cro-moly frame and fork are TIG-welded in Taiwan. The finishing is smooth and attractive. The straight, unicrown fork is tiny, on account of the small front wheel, and looks good on the bike. The colour pictured is from , and the current one (shown here) looks to be a light periwinkle-gray.





The front wheel is equipped with a disc brake.






The rear with a v-brake.






The standard drivetrain is 1x9 derailleur gearing, but the semi-horizontal dropouts make it possible to build the frame up with an internally geared hub.






The "cockpit" includes a threadless stem, swept-back handlebars, rubberised grips, city brake levers and MTB style shifter.






Fenders, a rear rack or lighting are not standardly included with the bike. A double-legged kickstand is included (though I did not find it especially stable in windy conditions).




The low bottom bracket is great for toe-down stopping and full leg extension while pedaling. There is no chance of toe overlap with the small front wheel. The components included in the stock build were easy and comfortable to use.




Considering that the Broadway Bicycle School has been using this bike for over a year and storing it outdoors for large portions of the day, I thought it to be in good condition. Aside from surface rust around some bolts and components (namely the disc brake and rear derailleur), I saw no sign of weather-related damage.






My Civia Halsted test ride consisted of cycling down the road to buy groceries, then riding home to drop them off. After this I circled the neighbourhood with the front basket unloaded, before taking pictures and returning the bike to the shop. In total it was about 4 miles, on a cold and windy day. The groceries I carried were distributed between two shopping bags, and included heavy items such as milk, wine, vegetables and a 5lb sack of apples. In addition to this, I carried my camera and laptop bag, as well as a couple of books and some spare clothing. Loading all of these things into the crate, I felt that it could have been made a bit deeper, with the modular panels sturdier (they rattled a bit in motion). But I was nonetheless able to stuff everything in securely, without the use of bungee cords.




The Halsted's handling felt distinct, but fine, with and without weight in the front basket. Steering did not require special effort, though it had a quality to it that felt particular to this bike. I could definitely feel the weight in the front, but this did not result in any difficulty controlling the bicycle. One thing I noticed, was that I was taking corners wider than normally, but I cannot be sure that this is related to the handling and not to my awareness of the wide front crate. The bike rolled easily uphill and generally felt fun. I also liked being able to keep my eye on my stuff in front of me at all times. In that sense, it was kind of like riding a larger version of my Brompton.






I did not see the Halsted's geometry chart until after my test ride. But once I did, I noticed the high-trail front end (trail in the 80s, according to my calculations). Some might consider this unusual for a bike designed to carry so much weight in the front. While I cannot say how the Halsted handles at its maximum carry capacity, with a moderate front load I thought it very ridable.




When I look at pictures of Civia Halsteds in use, it is apparent that the bikes can also carry substantial weight in the rear. Owners attach rear racks, child seats, even Xtracycle extensions. The Broadway Bicycle School often uses a trailer with theirs.




Still, one major benefit of the small front wheel design, is that it increases the bike's carry capacity while keeping the wheelbase reasonable (1134mm). The overall size of the Halsted is the same as that of a typical city bike, and at 33lb it is manageable to lift and maneuver. The compact basket-bike design is worth considering for those interested in a front-load utility bike. And priced at $1,195 the Civia Halsted is a good value.




Many thanks to the Broadway Bicycle School for the test ride! More pictures of this storied local establishment here.