Hyak Nordic ..

Jennifer and I went out to Hyak Sno Park to ski again. She had a good time last time and she is eager to get some type of exercise while pregnant. Fortunately Nordic Skiing is pretty low impact, and we went to Hyak due to the extreme flatness of the trail. (It is a converted railroad grade.) Jennifer is concerned about falling on anything remotely hilly, so the flat trails fit the bill.

Momma zipping along

Conditions were windy when we got out of the car. Not surprising being at a mountain pass and near a five mile long lake. I was wishing I had brought more clothing. We both started out with our poofy jackets on and eventually stopped to take them off once we had warmed up. I went considerably faster than Jennifer, but kept checking on her to make sure she wasn't overdoing it. We got a special treat in that the track got groomed while we were there. Although truthfully the track was in pretty good shape prior to the grooming. It would have been more special if we were skate skiing.

Along the lake

At some point Jennifer decided it was a good time to turn around. I told her I was going on further and would catch her before the car. I probably went about a half mile further before turning around. I was slowed by seeing someone I knew and chatting for bit. But I did catch Jennifer with at least a half mile to go before the parking lot. I think I did about six miles total.

This was a fun outing and Jennifer is caused less pain from skiing than walking. She is having fun getting exercise, and her exercise level had picked up since we started skiing because the pregnancy usually causes her to lose steam when walking.

Visiting Rich and Donna at The Villages

We planned to take a trip to visit Rich and Donna the weekend that we were visited by the tropical storm, so we moved it to this past weekend. It was well worth the wait! We have only been to The Villages to visit when we were buying pickleball paddles and we did not even begin to truly see all this interesting place has to offer.



I decided while there that if I did not love to travel, this place would be where I could easily settle in and never want to leave again. The place is beautiful. Everything is manicured, perfectly decorated and laid out in a well planned, easily navigated fashion.



There is more to do here than I could ever fit in during my lifetime and most of it is things I love to do, like pickleball. There are reasonably priced restaurants, stores, movie theaters and town squares with entertainment every single night of the year. There are recreation centers full of every fun thing you can imagine to do! We might just have to be part time residents at some point and travel part of the year!



During our visit, we were able to play pickleball both days. Donna and I played at one place, the guys played at another. We had not played in months so it was great to play again. In the afternoon, the guys played again while we girls did other things. The first afternoon we went to play Bunco, which I had not played before. I loved it. Donna introduced me to So You Think You Can Dance so the second afternoon we watched some of those shows, which I loved! We also had happy hour and frozen yogurt. We visited both town squares, had a boat ride and learned more about The Villages history and ate at great restaurants. We were spoiled rotten and I loved every minute of it.



We were able to cram in so much and yet the weekend flew by way too fast. We ate dinner together before we had to head back home, and as was everything else during our trip: it was wonderful. Great food and great entertainment.







Thank you again Rich and Donna for such a wonderful weekend! We hope we can squeeze in that one more trip before you head back to Wauchula!

From Caterpillar to Butterfly

You may remember this post about a configuration of parts on a framebuilder's drawing board. In the"Remarks" section, I invited guesses about what it was, and Justine was the one who got it: custom-made rear dropouts for a mixte frame.

Here they are in their transition from "caterpillar" to "butterfly".

Another mysterious shot of the frame in progress.

And another... Gee, I have a feeling that somebody who loves lugs would really appreciate a frame like this.

Hooray for the beautiful work of framebuilders - in this case the fabulous Royal H Cycles of Somerville, Massachusetts.

Healey Nab, Chorley

Led by Mike. With Eddie, Gordon, Barry, Maureen and me. Excellent afternoon walk. Fine weather actually!

5.4 miles. Around 580 feet of climbing.




We set off from Froom Street and cross the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. I've never seen it so far west before, but greet it like a long-lost friend all the same. A very quiet stretch of water this afternoon.








We have to cross the M61 - not quite so quiet. After a bit of road near new housing estates we turn off to our left coming close to a couple of ponds and then head gently uphill through Healey Wood.

When we get to the top, Eddie's a tad disappointed to find that the quarry he remembers is so overgrown that it's invisible. All the same he adds a ritual stone to the summit cairn.

I may be wrong, but Mike could be explaining where we're walking tomorrow! Or it could be Blackpool Tower!

View over Chorley, with Blackpool Tower in far distance - see below.

The cairn

We make our way down, across Heapey Fold Lane and east to meet Moor Road, past the end of Anglezarke Reservoir, which looks a bit low just here.



Just past the reservoir, we turn onto a track by Joan Meadow Wood, which takes us north then west to wards White Coppice.

Down from the heights - I nearly forgot - this is the magical cricket ground?

Froglet? Toadling?

White Coppice village

We skirt a village and outlying domestic animals - geese and goats.

Noisy critters

Not long until we reach the car and head back, hungry and ready to hit the local Wetherspoons for a meal along with Mike and Jan.



- ignore the long straight line at the end!

Iceberg Coast

Boy, am I ever loving this winter so much more than last winter! Last winter was such a non-winter that I would rather just not remember it. This year we have more snow and more ICE! This scene was photographed yesterday morning near Cascade River State Park. Fellow photographer and friend Bryan Hansel (http://www.bryanhansel.com) and I met up to photograph this "Iceberg Coast" together. Huge chunks of ice littered this section of coast, some of them towering as much as 10 to 15 feet high, built up by the waves from Lake Superior. The temperature was below zero on this morning, which meant that there was some nice sea smoke drifting around over the surface of the lake. It also meant that the morning was very quiet, with barely a ripple on the surface of the lake. A sublime morning for sure!

French Inspirations II: J'Adore René Herse

As far as vintage roadbikes go, none have gotten to me quite like the impeccably elegant René Herse. For your viewing pleasure, I present some glorious René Herse mixtes throughout the years. Though Herse mixtes are legendary, photos of them are nearly impossible to find online, and I thank the collectors at reneherse.com for their permission to use these images. (For Part I of French Inspirations, see here.)

An early René Herse mixte with twin lateral stays, (c) 1947. To me, it brings to mind a woman in a shimmering evening gown with perfect posture, holding a glass of champagne in a slender hand as she looks out into the sea. Am I anthropomorphising? Well, maybe just a little.

Beautiful lugs and fork crown.

Lugged connection points where the lateral stays meet the seatpost. (This is so much nicer than the welded plate behind the seatpost on my Motobecane mixte.)

How amazing to see a 1940s derailleur. Notice the unusual derailleur hanger design off of the chainstay.

Original Lefol Le Paeon fenders. Velo Orange now sells a beautiful Honjo remake of these.

I am curious about the handlebars. They seem to be Northroads, but weren't these bicycles fitted with the Champs-Élysées bars that these are based on? I would love to see the original Champs-Élysées bars on an early Herse mixte like this one. More photos of this bicycle in higher resolution available here.

Here is a later model of a René Herse mixte - a touring bike (c) 1964. It is incredibly well preserved and part of a gorgeous touring pair. I know that some people do not like mixtes with drop bars, but I am not one of them. The beauty of the mixte is that it is versatile, and I think that the drop bars on the above photo look as natural and elegant as porteur bars. The frame design now features a single top tube branching off into twin stays at the seatpost. Personally I prefer the earlier design, with continuous lateral stays, but still this bicycle is gorgeous.

A close-up of the stays attachment point. I am not certain when the switchover from the continuous twin lateral stays design took place, but possibly in the late 1950s - early 1960s.

And this is one of the later original René Herse mixte designs, again with single top tube branching off into twin stays at the seatpost, (c)1972s.

Stay attachment looks a bit different from the '60s model, in that the stays lie close to the main tube. Because Herse made bespoke bicycles, I am not certain whether this reflects a change in design, or a customer's request.

These wrap-around seat tube lugs are not typical for a mixte. See here for more photos of this bicycle from different angles and in high resolution.

It is interesting that these Herse mixtes all have the characteristic "seafoam" colour scheme that I have also noted in these other early French lady's bicycles. More interesting still that it happens to be my favourite colour. It is a delicate, gray-blue-green, not as harsh as the aquamarine of my Motobecane. I can stare at it all day and I hope you enjoy these images as well. A big thank you again to reneherse.com for their terrific website.

Ambir and Daniel's Visit

This past weekend, Ambir came to visit us. She brought her boyfriend, Daniel, whom we were meeting for the first time. We were so excited to have time with her in person. I have missed my gorgeous girlie.





We were super excited to meet Daniel finally. We really liked getting to know him and we hope to spend more time with them together while we are here this summer.



We went over to the animal shelter across the street from us. They seemed to enjoy that.





We even got Austin to come with us.



Most important during this trip was the fact we got them out on the pickleball court to learn the game. Daniel was a natural, because he is an athlete. Ambir picked up really fast too.



We introduced them to our favorite Ice Cream place. They even ate breakfast at Paul's. We fit in as much as we could. Our time with them was too short, but they are hoping to come up and see us again soon.



Living the life in sunny Florida!

Have Bike, Will Travel?

Earlier, I mentioned thepopularity of folding bikes at Interbike - a trend that can be attributed to the rise of multimodal urban transport. But a related trend was evident as well: full sized bicycles that disassemble for travel. It seemed like every other booth featured at least one model with couplers- a method of construction that allows for the frame to be taken apart and fit into a standard sized suitcase. The separated parts of the tubes screw into the (usually stainless steel) couplers to form a complete frame, and the brake and shifter cables can be similarly separated using cable splitters. Couplers can be installed on all sorts of bicycles, lugged or welded, with thick or thin tubing - including enormous tandem frames such as this Co-Motion. Visually, I think they look best on stainless steel or silver frames - otherwise they interrupt the continuity of the tubing - though others may not agree (Royal H. has managed to pull these off on a small and elaborately lugged frame without making it overly busy).



An alternative method to coupling is the Ritchey break-away system - which I'd heard a lot about, but only now saw in person for the first time. I am not sure exactly how it works in comparison to couplers, but the connecting points are at the seat cluster and on the downtube near the bottom bracket, which has the benefit of making them seamlessly integrated with the frame.

The idea of taking bicycles apart for travel is certainly not new. While it is not clear who came up with the concept originally and when, I know thatdisassembleable military bicyclesfrom a number of manufacturers were used during World War II. And Rene Herse offered demountable models for personal use in the 1950s.

Today, the surge in popularity of such bicycles can be traced to the increasing complexity and expense of air travel. Until 2005 or so, many domestic and international airlines allowed full size bicycle boxes to be checked in as luggage for free, or at a minimal cost. Today some airlines do not permit bicycles at all, while those that do charge fees upward of $200 each way. For a couple of years, the ability to disassemble a bicycle and fit it into a standard suitcase allowed the cyclist to avoid this by simply checking in the bike as a regular piece of luggage. However, as of things have gotten even worse: Most international airlines no longer allow two pieces of luggage per person as before, but limit the amount to one. So even with a disassembleable bicycle, a traveler would have to either check in the suitcase containing it as their sole piece of luggage, or pay an extra fee for checking in two suitcases. As far as I know, no full-size disassembleable bicycle will fit into the overhead compartment of an airplane as carry-on luggage, due to the wheel size.

Even luggage restrictions aside, there is the very real possibility of a disassembled bicycle being damaged as part of a careless security search, for one thing. And then there is the question of the traveler being sufficiently competent to assemble the bicycle upon arrival - as failure to do this properly can result in safety issues.All things considered, is it worth it? As someone who travels fairly frequently, I am not sure whether a disassembleable bicycle would be more of a help or a burden. For the traveling cyclists out there - what are your thoughts?