More Deer

Here you can see three deer in the grass. At the corner of the wall just beyond the deer on the walkway, by the tall tree is where they jumped over the wall to go meandering down through the meadow.

Review of "Lucy 3-Speed": Raleigh Lady's Sports

Lucy 3-Speed is a prototypical vintage Raleigh Lady's Sports, and I initially questioned the need to review her. But in the end I decided to go ahead and write the review, making it a sort of general commentary on buying a vintage 3-speed.

The benefits of Raleigh 3-speeds are that they are sturdy, comfortable, durable, easy to ride, have good front and rear loading capacity, and can be fairly easy and inexpensive to obtain. Some people, myself included, are also drawn to their aesthetics and history. The late Sheldon Brown wrote a great deal in praise of the English 3-Speed, and I invite you to read about it here and here.

From my own experience I especially stress the "easy to ride" aspect. Lucy 3-Speed is very much a "hop on and go" kind of bicycle. It is comfortable, but lighter than the Pashley. It is sporty, but more stable than the Motobecane. I don't think about it too much, I just get on it and go - and it always feels great.

A blurry illustration of the "lighter than the Pashley" factor.

My Lady's Sports is a 1970 model. It was "re-claimed" by me from the depths of my parents' garage, and you can read all about that here, as well as see lots of photos in its "before" state. In the classic "Raleigh green" colour and 21" frame size, this bicycle had all the standard features of a Lady's Sports, including a lugged straight step-through frame, 3-speed Sturmey Archer AW hub, North Road handlebars, matching fenders and chainguard. Though it sat abandoned for decades, there was nothing really wrong with the bicycle, other than a stretched out chain, flat tires, and some rust around the handlebars. Still, I made some upgrades to it that I consider crucial when one is buying a vintage 3-speed:

New Tires: As a rule, you should always get new tires after purchasing a vintage bike with original tires. It does not matter if the previous owner (or the bike shop you bought it from) assured you that the original tires are fine. Replace them anyway. The reason for this, is that vintage tires have a tendency to explode after their second decade of life, even if they appear "fine". You don't want this to happen while you are cycling in traffic. It is easy to find new tires for an English 3-Speed, because they come in standard 26" and 28" sizes. When you are buying new tires, spend a few extra dollars and get ones with kevlar protection to save yourself the trouble of getting flats. The nice cream tires on Lucy 3-Speed are Schwalbe Delta Cruisers, and I have written a detailed review of them here.

New Brake Pads: Vintage 3-Speeds have one tragic flaw: steel rims on the wheels. This means that in wet weather, the caliper brakes do not have great stopping power. Getting new, super-grippy brake pads will help with this, somewhat. The salmon Kool-Stop pads are generally considered to be the nicest and grippiest.

Lowered Gearing: Some find the standard gearing on Raleigh 3-speeds too high, making it difficult to go up hills. This is easily remedied. Simply ask you local shop to "lower the gearing" by replacing the rear cog with a larger one. For the hills in the Boston area, I recommend a 22-tooth cog. Lucy 3-Speed is now a great climber.

I also had the chain replaced, brakes and hub adjusted, and a general tune up. All this was done by the excellent Harris Cyclery in West Newton, Mass.

Other functional/aesthetic upgrades included replacing the old saddle with a sprung Brooks B67S in "honey", replacing the original handlebar grips with shellacked cork grips, installing a Low Rider Bullet Headlight by SunLite, adding a chrome pump from Old Roads, and adding a Pletscher rear rack. The bag on the rear rack is the Sackville Trunksack.

As you can probably tell if you have been reading this website, I am detail-oriented and tend to get carried away with aesthetics! Still, none of the updates I've made to this bicycle were expensive, except for the new saddle, which I could have done without. I hope this review shows that it is possible to make an elegant and comfortable bicycle out of a vintage 3-Speed. You might be surprised how many old, neglected 3-speeds are lying around in people's garages and basements, weeping and waiting to become somebody's beloved commuter!

More Balloons

Things Change and Stay the Same

image from the tentacles of the magnificent octopus

With upon us, I would like to wish everyone a happy, healthy, safe, exciting and all around fulfilling New Year, full of cycling and all the other things you enjoy.

I've been trying to think of "resolutions" for next year pertaining to this blog, and in the process I am realising that I don't have any. This may not sound very exciting, but more than anything I would like for things to remain as they are: to ride bikes, learn more about bicycle design, overthink everything as usual, make mistakes in the process, and write about it all without getting overly self-conscious about how silly I might sound. This year I was upset and surprised when two of my favourite bicycle blogs were discontinued. But I also understand why it happened, and I can easily see how the same could happen here. For that reason I feel that it is especially important to keep things low key and not overextend myself. This is something I will try to bear in mind throughout .

Other than this, I am quite happy to keep it open-ended. I have been cycling for transportation more or less daily since the start of this blog, and over time I've become increasingly interested in roadcycling. Within these two realms there are so many possibilities for exploration, that I feel as if I've barely scratched the surface. My interest in bicycle design continues, and it's been fascinating to learn about materials and methods of construction other than the lugged steel I love. There's just... so much to it all! As new people get swept up into this obsession every day, there are also those who've been at it for decades - no less enthusiastic now than they were in the beginning. I hope that will be me in future.

I've had some requests for a New Year's cocktail like last year, and so I offer you the following:

The Slideways:. real pomegranate juice. dry champagne or white sparkling wine. gin (of course). small lime. sprig of mint. ice

In a cocktail shaker, combine ice, 1 shot of pomegranate juice, 1 shot of gin, 2 shots of champagne, and a generous squeeze of lime. Keep a tall champagne glass in the freezer to give it that frosted look. Strap the cocktail shaker to a rear rack of a fixed gear bicycle, then pedal forward and backward, rapidly changing direction. Unstrap the shaker. Remove champagne glass from freezer and pour in the contents immediately. Garnish with mint. Recline on your bicycle, side-saddle, while drinking and listening to this. Repeat as necessary.

A hat tip to Andy Arthur for his adorable illustration of my clumsy bike handling skills, and my sincere thanks to everyone I've crossed paths with via this blog in - be it virtually or in person. A Happy New Year to all!

Traversing the Trail Ridge Road

On my “speedy” drive back to Indiana from Salt Lake City (1600 miles in 4 days) I chose to go through Rocky Mountain National Park. I knew I wouldn't have any time to spend there but also knew that it would be a nice drive!



Trail Ridge Road, the road through Rocky Mountain National Park, opened on June 7th, just three days before I arrived. The highest continuous paved highway in the United States, connecting the towns of Estes Park on the east side and Grand Lake on the west, it reaches an elevation of 12,183 feet and affords some spectacular views.





This winter, Mother Nature, dumped a lot of snow on the area. More than she has in 30 years. The amount of snow that the snowplow operators faced when they began clearing the road in April along with a big snow storm the last week of May, which produced 17 foot drifts in some areas, delayed the opening of the road. It is usually open by Memorial Day weekend.



I was fortunate that it was open by the time I went through. I was also fortunate that it was a most beautiful day!









A big snow blower at the Alpine Visitor Center.





This fellow was about 15 feet off the road.



If you look closely, you can see guardrails along the road on the right-center side of the picture. This is looking back from the Rock Cut parking area.

On Notching, or the Joys of the Hole Saw

This might surprise some of you, and it was certainly a surprise to me, but my favourite thing about the framebuilding experience so far has been learning about all the machines in Mike Flanigan's shop. I have never been into this sort of thing before, preferring to use the simplest tools possible for DIY stuff. The "shop atmosphere," with its various lathes and saws spinning menacingly, has always confused and intimidated me. I am not sure what changed now. Maybe the part of my brain that's responsible for this kind of stuff is just now maturing, but suddenly I am like a kid in a candy store. The machines are super-useful, physically easy to operate, and are proving to be excellent teaching tools when it comes to mechanical concepts I find difficult to grasp.For example: notching!






Building a bicycle frame is mainly about joining together pieces of tubing, which involves a lot more work than merely brazing or welding the joints. For instance, before the tubes can be joined they need to fit together properly.






Think about it: When we get a tube, its edge is cut straight across. But if we want that edge to join the rounded surface of another tube, weneed to sort of scoop out the center of that opening, to scallop it. This is what's called notching - also known as mitering or coping.






And because the tubes join at an angle that is almost never 90°, the notch must be done asymmetrically, to fit the precise angle. In theory, I understood the concept, but in practice I had a hard time imagining concretely how this was to be done. How were builders able to determine the shape of the scalloped edge with such precision and draw it on the edge of the tube? Too embarrassed to ask this question, I tried to read up on it. Unfortunately, the more I read, the more confused I got.






But the mystery was cleared up in a matter of seconds once it was time to notch my own tubes. Mike has what's called a horizontal milling machine, which can be fitted with all sorts of tooling - including hole saws of various diameters.






A hole saw is literally a round saw that makes holes in things. They are available in a variety of diameters. You choose the saw that matches the diameter of the dominant tube - the one to which you will be joining the tube you want notched.






After attaching the correct saw and installing the to-be-notched tube in the clamp, you then set the angle of the joint, according to your bicycle frame's geometry.






And that's it. As you turn the crank, the hole saw makes its way through the edge of the tube and notches it. Basically the saw forces the shape of the dominant tube through at the correct angle. Watching this happening I experienced a sudden flash of understanding and it was immensely satisfying.




Of course, by far not everyone who builds bicycle frames has this type of machine handy, and the low-tech notching method involves using lugs to make guide marks, then a hacksaw to make the cut.But even if I never have access to such machines again, operating them has done me more good than I can express.






I love the clean look of a notched frame; the way everything fits together perfectly and makes total visual sense before you get it all filthy with flux and leaky brazing marks. But also, watching the tubes fit and actually getting how and why they fit is wonderful.My head is bursting with the sudden understanding of concepts I've previously struggled with, and that is an exciting feeling to have. Whether it's framebuilding or any other subject-matter, it is never too late to learn new things.

Ah, Spring!

It's that time of year when Mother Nature can't decide whether it is should still be winter or if she'll let us pass into warmer weather. Last night saw thunder and lightening along with quite a bit of rain come through northeast Indiana. Then I heard it turn to sleet and freezing rain. I looked out the back door about 11 p.m. and there was at least an inch of slush on the patio. By then the mixture had turned to snow. The front of the apartment, which faces the south and which is where the flowers are, didn't get near as much snow/slush as the north side.

So, will my daffodils bloom when their time comes?


As always, click on the image for a larger version...

Happy New Year's!

To ring in the New Year, the pickleball players decided to have a party at our favorite place-the pickleball courts. What could be better than Happy Hour combined with playing games? We had a great time, even if we did have to leave early because I worked the next day. In fact, Austin was the only one that stayed long enough to see the New Year arrive!

Happy New Year's to everyone and we hope the following year brings wonderful things for you!

Boating and Tubing

We have been so lucky to be able to do boating on Daryl and Diana's new boat. The boat is just awesome and they are so gracious in sharing it with us by inviting us each time they go out in it.



We really appreciate you all and your cool boat! Today we spent a good bit of the day out, enjoying the water and doing some tubing with them.

An osprey and its nest:

Long ago Boracay

While waiting for the USB stick to arrive loaded with our Cebu and Bantayan Island holiday fotos–a replacement from the damaged fotos–allow me to muse over Philippine’s famous beach destination, Boracay. (I had my mom on the phone yesterday and she said we should receive the package this week or next week, yehey!)

I’ve only been there once which was a couple moons and eons ago. As you can clearly see my fotos below are already chipped, flawed replicas of the old pre-digital camera age.

I know this is a bit odd, but I don’t really hanker to go back to this numero uno desired holiday spot. I mean really, about every breathing creature in the Philippines raves about this place. No joke, until now the media moguls in the Philippines are still screeching with the headlines – Boracay is (still) it. But, whenever Dutchman and I are in the country, we prefer to discover new places and tread down unknown territories rather than exhibiting and carousing ourselves in trendy places.


Dutchman took this pristine foto (well, these fotos actually) of white beach and the outriggers being rocked by the waves at bay in Boracay.


Typically Philippines, the road master, the jeepney sprouting with passengers like lentils and his little cousin, another Philippine proudly made, the tricycle (other names include trike and pedicab) .

You can find a few more fotos here: Boracay - Aklan, Philippines

This year we didn’t go farther from the home base because the whole family went with us for the island getaway. My mom has problems with traveling far so I thought Bantayan Island on the northern tip of Cebu would sanction an effortless approval from her. And it did.

I’ll post fotos and stories about our stay there when the fotos arrive (in a USB stick!).

On our next Philippine trip, I have a selection of big islands-as per Dutchman’s request-on the list to explore: Leyte, Samar or Negros Occidental (we’ve been to Negros Oriental). So, I guess either one of these. I'll draw lots when the date draws near.
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Turtle egg mystery

Near the pond, a critter unearthed and feasted on turtle eggs. The evidence was originally scattered several feet from the hole - I gathered a few of the shells back together for a picture.



Eggs in another nest nearby suffered a similar fate. I'm guessing that the culprit was a raccoon, skunk or opossum, but other turtle egg predators apparently include the fox, armadillo, mink, otter, and weasel.



I tried figuring out which species of turtle these eggs had belonged to, but didn't get very far. Here's where the (as yet to be invented) portable DNA analyzer would have come in so handy.

Several species can be ruled out since the eggs were spherical rather than elliptical, but other than that I couldn't find any key to turtle egg identification.

The eggs may have belonged to one of the two snapping turtles I saw recently, although they seem a bit small for that (not quite ping-pong ball size).



Undisturbed turtle nest.

In researching the turtle egg mystery, I came across an interesting story about a snapping turtle hatchling at the Hilton Pond site, where nest building is also discussed.

And found some more great snapping turtle pictures. (Eating a snake! Eating a fish!)

Even more good snapping turtle info.

All Legs

Well, I finally watched the Triplets of Belleville. For those who have not seen it, this is a French animated film about cycling, music hall singers and sinister men in black - surreal and somewhat disturbing (in a good way). No subtitles required even if you do not understand French.



There are many fascinating details in this film, but I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't watched it. Instead I just want to note one hilarious element: the caricatured cyclist's body.



Ah, the gaunt, emaciated cyclist. Sunken eyes, protruding cheekbones. Head bobbing up and down as if the straining tendons of the neck can barely support it. Hunched back and shoulders. Spaghetti arms. Non-existent waist, narrow hips...And then, suddenly - bang! An explosion of thigh muscle, bulge upon bulge, tapering at the knees before exploding again into freakishly well defined calves. I have seen such exaggerated renderings before, but none as expressively done as in this film. The half-soulful, half-dead look on Champion's face completes the archetype.



I have now met a few real-life cyclists with similar body types. They disguise it surprisingly well when wearing regular clothing, but once in lycra the leg explosion is revealed.Seeing such marvelously distorted proportions in person,I try not to stare. But it's kind of awesome, and awe-inspiring. Gives "all legs" a new meaning.



PS: You can tell it's winter, because I'm falling prey tocycling movies. Any recommendations besides the usual suspects? For now, I'll just have to live with "Belleville Rendez-Vous" stuck in my head...

Excursion to Antelope Island

Wednesday, May 25th - - Today was a “play” day! Carol's husband, Man, had informed us yesterday that today was supposed to be a gorgeous day, and rain free at that!



Antelope Island, which is the largest island in the Great Salt Lake, was our destination. At the entrance to the State Park there was a sign warning us that the biting gnats or “no see ums” were out in full force and the midges, which don't bite, were swarming along the causeway.





We made it across the causeway and up to the visitor center, where this photo was taken.



These are midges. They covered the windshield and front end of the truck. Gross. And yeah, the biting gnats were biting. Bigtime.





The Fielding Garr Ranch was established in 1848 and was in continuous operation until 1981. This is a corner of the barn where a wide variety of objects are on display.









That white stuff on the ground (and floating on the breeze, everywhere) is the “fluff” from numerous cottonwood trees around the ranch. In some areas it literally looked like it was snowing.





Indiana has cottonwood trees but I've never seen this much of the fluff before. Definitely soft and fluffy.





Little bits of the white fluff even landed on the Iris. It just adds a little texture!

It was a most pleasant day. The clouds moved in during the late afternoon but no rain came. Man sure picked a great day for a little excursion! Thank you for a wonderful time, in spite of all the icky, little bugs!