Not today Justin
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$LAYYYTER
wallacepolsom
祝日 / Permanent Vacation
Love Begins
we're not kids anymore.
RMH
🪼
cherry valley forever
noise dept.
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★
Kiana Khansmith
Jules of Nature
todays bird
Claire Keane
Misplaced Lens Cap
occasionally subtle
Peter Solarz
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@stonehog
Return from Whidbey
I haven’t been writing for a while now. It looks like my last post was in 2018 and “A LOT” has happened since then. Highlights: a graduating senior is leaving us for college in a month and I will be very sad at her departure, I’ve been through some work changes, but work has been stable, and then there is this pandemic thing…
I’ve spent a lot of time on Whidbey Island this year – probably…
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Spring 200k
ridewithgps.com/trips/21379894
I did the ride up north the hard way today. I knew it would hurt, but I made it thru the ordeal. Beautiful day. Will post some pics if they turned out.
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Winter Cycling
In an attempt to get out for a quick ride today, I chose the MTB. I found reasonable trails even in the winter in the Trillium Park on Whidbey Island. I headed up the eastern edge on mostly damp leafy single track until I reached the access road on the north end. After the climb, the real fun starts. There were a few trees down that I had to stop and hop for, but it was a good flow, nevertheless.
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Trillium Forest
I recently explored a newly opened forest area on Whidbey Island that happens to be close to my house. After an easy 2 mile ride there on the mountain bike, I had high hopes that the trails would be single-track and awesome. They were, and it was!
Pics from the south end of Trillium
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For Sale: Bikey Stuff
For Sale: Bikey Stuff
I’m selling off some things I will no longer be needing.
Nitto Chocomoose bars in harlequin wrap with DiaCompe levers: $130
Nitto Alu Albatross bars in harlequin wrap (burgundy/grey) with 13cm stem and Tektro Eclipse (canti or v) levers: $140
Sidi Spider MTB shoes EU 40.5: $100
Sidi Diablo GTX shoes EU 40: $90
Time ATAC and MKS Urban ATAC pedals: $30 for both SOLD
Swift Paloma Bar Bag: $125
Shima…
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Seattle Bike Month
https://www.seattlebikeblog.com/2017/05/11/seattles-top-bike-commuting-workplaces-are-all-within-5-blocks-of-a-protected-bike-lane-or-trail/
My company, Comcast Technology Solutions, made the local Seattle bike blog news! Good stuff – it’s heartening to encourage folks to get out on a bike even after Seattle’s record breaking rain this year (45 inches since October). I’m proud to work for a…
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Winter Hills
Late January rides are hit or miss in the Northwest, but when a nice day comes along, they may be the best time to be on the roads. Little traffic greeted me a few weeks ago on a winter hill ride on Whidbey Island.
This one was to have some hills, and my bike was the fendered, Bosco’d island bike – an old Miyata RidgeRunner Team. Not the lightest bike, but it seems to go as fast as I can go on…
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2016 Redux
This was an odd year. A year where my wife and I turned 50. A year that a new nationalism is taking hold in the world. A year of great loss – it seems that a lot of folks relevant to my generation passed away. This was the first time for me that “a year” has had a felt impact on me and many that I know.
On a personal front, it wasn’t so bad. Business is good, I had some memorable vacations…
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Crashing
I had my first real accident of any consequence last night on my commute home. I was heading to our cabin for the weekend. It started with a short ride to the Sounder Train heading north to Mukilteo. From there, a quick ferry crossing to the island set me on my way. The climb up the hill from the landing was great, and when the land leveled out, I found myself speeding along the fast route…
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Whidbey Island Out(n)Back
Not much action on the camping front this year, so I grabbed a chance to do a quick overnight (S24O) from my place in Freeland, WA up to Fort Ebey. It’s about 30 miles one way, so about 100k round trip. A chance to try:
Hunqapillar on singletrack
New road exploring
Hammock camping
This also echoes the distance of a Lake Crescent trailI want to do later this year. That gig is mostly…
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Fort Ebey MTB
Sometimes I do something that jump-starts my love of cycling all over again. 25 years ago, it was a ride on my first borrowed mountain bike up near Whistler, BC – felt like a total kid flying over railroad grade grapefruit size rocks, and nearly losing control. That led to a 10 year segment of regular rides in the local Seattle rooty, muddy mountain trails.
After a few months of putting all my…
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View my 8 latest photos on Flickr: https://flic.kr/u/AsMCb/aHskCjbdAc
View my 7 latest photos on Flickr: https://flic.kr/u/AsMCb/aHskFwdyHe
Gorge(ous) Rides
Hmmm – finally getting back to this writing business. I just returned from an amazing 24-hr trip to Oregon. It was a make-up for a trip I missed a year or two ago with a great pack of folks I met on the Seattle/Portland Riv Rumble.
Ride Leader Aaron
Unfortunately, I missed the first ride on Saturday, and rolled into town around 6pm. I met Aaron at the new’ish Freebridge Brewery in The Dalles,…
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The spiel: So we here at Bantam Bicycle Works are officially announcing that we are going to be doing another run of adventurebikes. The first round took a little longer than we had expected, but things are all but wrapped up now and we are ready to start taking deposits for the next batch. Round two will be slightly different than round one. The options will be slightly limited. While you will still be getting a frameset that is custom sized to fit your person (no stock anything at BBW!!!), and the tubing selection will again be tailored to each individual customer (of course), we are going to keep it to one wheel size (well two, but more on that later) and aesthetically they will all look very similar to the first batch. The details: Geometry and handling optimized for bikepacking, off-road touring, weekend rambles through National Forest lands, and other such pursuits. In other words, if you want to carry some stuff on your bike, not a whole lot of stuff, but enough to go do some light camping, wilderness exploration, and the like, this is the bike you want to own. (The geometry of a Bantam adventurebike is actually quite different than your typical MTB. Send us an email, we'd be happy to discuss it with you). Each frameset will be custom sized to the customer. TIG welded construction. Clearance for 27.5x3.00" tires (will also handily fit 29x2.30" tires as well, see below) Disc brakes, ISO mounts, front and rear. Lowmount disc dropouts in the back. Cable stops and guides for mechanical disc brakes as standard (see options, down below). Spacing for a 100mm front hub and 135mm rear hub, standard quick releases. Head tube and fork for a 1.125" threadless headset (straight steerer). 73mm threaded bottom bracket shell. Segmented fork with Anything Cage mounts on both sides. Shift cables run along the top tube, rear brake cable along the top of the down tube. Bosses for three water bottle cages on the frame (two inside the main triangle, one under the down tube). Will take a 30mm seat post clamp. Single color powder coat (any color you'd like), with sprayed on decals and clear coat. The options: Housing guides for hydraulic brake lines (no extra charge). Additional rack mounts, front and/or rear (no extra charge). Metal head badge (+$50). We can also do custom racks and stems (additional charge, depending on design). Parts for your new bike. We are happy to provide you with a partial or full build kit for your bike at a reasonable cost (definitely an additional charge). The tire size: So for batch two we are going to limit the tire size for the entire run to one size, 27.5x3.00" (also know as 650b+, B+, or 27.5+). Why is this you may ask? For a couple of reasons: 1. This size tire seems to work well with both short and tall folks. And even all the sized folks in between tall and short. It's wide enough to provide good float and traction on all but loose sand and snow. Super smooth and comfortable riding on gravel and rough terrain. 2. It is interchangeable with the 29x2.30" wheel size. The outer diameter of the tires for the two sizes are nearly identical. If you want to run a different wheel size than either of these two, you are welcome to try it. But we are not going to take any responsibility for anything that might happen. 27.5+ tires and rims are increasing in popularity, and the availability is currently pretty good. The availability of 29x2.30" tires and rims is well more than adequate. In other words, you won't have a difficult time finding shoes for your new horse. The how to buy one: So the price of one of these framesets will put you back $1350. This is a little over the price of the last batch, but we've had a few increases in the costs of doing business and we've had to raise our prices to reflect that. If you want to get on board, we are taking deposits of $650 to get you into the batch. We'll be taking deposits until the end of March 2016 for this run of frames. We are currently looking at delivery by January 2017. Space is limited, due to our production capacity, so there are only going to be ten available spots in this batch. Thanks, and we are looking forward to hearing from you. Pics from the first batch here.
Nice custom local'ish bike packing rig.
Wet one
Nothing like a commute where it pours the whole way. I squeezed a cup of water out of my gloves tonight. Cold, too. I had a nice case of numb arms when I got home. Kind of great!
Something is grinding on my pedal stroke on the Toussaint. I figure it is either pedals, chain (needs lube), or bottom bracket (hope not).
Oh well – have to use the other bike while I figure it out. Off to DC for…
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Bar Width and Handling
Bar Width and Handling
As a follow up to my post on trail, this is a related experiential review on the role of bar width and the interaction with trail. This may impact someone’s decision on whether high or low trail is right for them by basing it on one’s comfort with wide or narrow bars. It also may impact the decision based on what you will be using the bike for, and where you plan to do most of your riding.
Low…
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