Still on the Road...

I had a great time at the Joslin Reunion. A nice little group of 26 devoured a catered traditional Thanksgiving dinner the Friday after Thanksgiving. They came from Virginia, Alabama, Indiana, Louisiana, New Mexico and, of course, Missouri. We all stayed at the same motel in Springfield which had a poolside atrium where we gathered most of the time. Kudos to Linda and Kathy for all their time and effort in making the arrangements.

A Joslin Reunion wouldn't be complete without an excursion to some historic family site. One of the places we visited was the area where Virgil Newton Joslin was born on February 21, 1891 “in a tent on the Carry farm in Polk County, Missouri, 12 miles from Bolivar, 4 miles from Dunnegan Springs, 6 miles from Fair Play, while his folks were making a trip by covered wagon.” Virgil is a son of Luther Marion Joslin who is a brother to my 2nd Great Grandmother Malissa Mariah Joslin Brubaker Bower.

George and Jim Joslin, sons of Virgil, were able to determine the approximate location of Virgil's birth from discussions with former and current owners of the property who stated that a small community was established in the area in the late 1800s. Apparently there was a wagon trail through the area. The current owner also told them that the trail was still visible but was not easy to find. Jim said he couldn't find the trail the last time he visited the site. Saturday was a cold, blustery day so we didn't take the time to try to find it then.

George scraped away the moss in an attempt to decipher the name and year engraved on the header stone over what used to be the doorway of the spring house. The name appears to be “C M Racksy” and the year may be 1879. If so, then the spring house may have been built about 12 years prior to Virgil's birth.



Other historic family sites we visited on Saturday were the White Chapel Cemetery, where Virgil and his wife Mary (Hutcheson) are buried, and the house where they lived in Springfield.

The majority of the people left Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning. George and his wife Lorene invited me to their house Saturday, so I stayed with them until this morning. We spent yesterday looking over their Joslin family files. It was a very good day!

It was raining when I left Springfield this morning but by the time I got to Joplin, the rain had stopped and the sky was starting to clear. After a brief stop for gasoline, it was on into Kansas. The sun came out and the clouds disappeared leaving blue skies behind. It even warmed up with the temperature getting up to 50 or so. A nice day for a drive in the country...

Bee Balloons

This is Lilly and Joey Bee. They hold hands when going up. Maybe with velcro.

Beaker and TV

Beaker has become pretty excited about television lately. Particularly about trying to out-voice it. If the TV's on, you can throw that "parakeets aren't loud birds" business out the window. It's a new habit, and I'm not sure what brought it on. Maybe he thinks we should read more.

Trail running, The Laurel Highlands

One of the red efts I find regularly on the LHHT - Route 31 shelters

My blogging has been slow since February of this year, actually nonexistent. Here's a little to fill in my gap... Ice season was pretty much a bust, but ski season was unbelievable. The Laurel Highlands got dumped on with an abundance of natural snow this past winter. Laura and I spent a great deal of time skiing at Seven Springs in their award winning, Terrain Parks. This type of skiing is well known for producing an abundance of injuries to its participants. Here's a couple of skiing pics...

Railslide - The Streets @ Seven Springs

Light pole bonk over the gap - The Streets @ Seven Springs

My injuries included (but weren't limited to) a broken thumb, Injured (most likely broken) ribs. A bruised hip (which prohibited any running until about 5 weeks ago) and a second injured shoulder that has severely restricted my climbing. Unlike last season, I'm slowly trying to rehab it back to health. For now, I can barely dead hang on it. On a positive note, my injured shoulder from last season can now support free hanging body weight. The path back to stronger climbing might be slow and long, but climbing less challenging routes will produce an abundance of fun in the meantime. Throughout the spring Laura and I spent a fair number of days at various local crags climbing, doing trail work, etc. Bouldering has seemed to be our most focused style this year.




With my hip feeling better, I've recently been working my legs back into running condition. For the first couple weeks, I'd been testing my hip and seeing if limitations existed. I started with short, slow, road runs not much longer than 4 miles. Usually a rest day or two between runs. I felt good, with a only a couple days where my hip showed any signs of discontent. After two weeks back, the hip pain seemed to disappear completely. I quickly started stacking on the miles and feeling positive that longer pain free miles in the woods lay ahead.

Trusty footwear, Altra Lone Peaks and Powersox get my thumbs up!

This past week I managed to log 83 miles of running. All of them on the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail. For those unfamiliar with this trail it's a 70 mile hiking trail that starts in Ohiopyle State Park and follows the crest of Laurel Ridge north to Seward. It's a unique trail due to the fact that it has numbered, concrete markers at each mile along its entirety (a great feature for pacing and location). Built as a backpacking trail in the 70's it was designed to be covered over a week long period. Adirondack style camp shelters with additional tent camping areas are located approximately 10 miles apart along the trail. This distance makes for easy hikes between shelters. Note: (reservations must be made in advance to stay in the shelter areas overnight). While designed as a backpacking trail, the LHHT is an amazing trail for runners. The whole trail is completely runnable single track that flows over the mountains through amazing scenery. Hardwood forests, rock outcrops, streams, lakes, and wildlife are the normal backdrop along this trail. I feel quite lucky to live and have grown up a short distance from the Rt. 31 trailhead (middle) of the trail. Starting from home allows easy access to either end of the trail. I must admit that I do spend the majority of my time on the southern half of the trail enjoying the larger elevation changes. Along with the LHHT, there's plenty of other great trails in our neck of the woods. Roaring Run Natural Area, Ohiopyle State Park and The North Woods are some of my other favorite trails to run.

Typical mile marker along the LHHT

Yesterday I completed my first half trail run since last year. Laura dropped me off at 31 parking lot and I went south passing a record (for me) 106 trail users along the way. Outside of the Laurel Ultra race day, I've never seen that many trail users on those sections. I stopped to chat with some of them. Here's just a few that I recall... I got a "nice beard" shout-out from a group of resting backpackers while crossing county line road. I met three trail runners from the Virginia Happy Trails Running Club enjoying an out and back run from the route 31 trailhead to Grindle Ridge Shelters. They were up for "Stills in the Hills" whiskey and music event at Seven Springs and decided to run a bit before the festivities. I met a nice younger couple that had their chocolate lab with them near route 653. They were heading in to Grindle Ridge shelters for the night. He was an experienced packer, but this was her first trip. She was smiling as she explained of her new pack and gear required to make the trip. Her excitement was quite infectious as I recalled how much I enjoy new "toys" as well.

Seven Springs Mountain Resort, the highest point on the LHHT

I was met by Laura sporting the mobile aid station at Maple summit parking lot. She provided some love and a water fill before the last stretch into Ohiopyle. Our plan was for her to park in Ohiopyle and start hiking north until we met. That way we'd get to enjoy a little trail time together. Ohiopyle was packed due to the beer and gear festival being held Saturday night. Please note this was the second booze and bluegrass festival along the trail... All kinds of partying going on in the Laurel Highlands! Laura decided to park up at King Mountain trail head and avoid the congestion. Laura was sore from previous runs this week and decided to carry a large backpack to remove the temptation of running. While she hiked north, I managed to float the flatter miles from Maple Summit down to milepost 8 to begin the "hilly" section of the LHHT. As I ran by the 8 mile marker, missing paint on the number 8 had me do a double take out of confusion. This quick glance over my shoulder was enough for me to snag a toe and go airborne, I tried to recover, but my efforts were futile. Head first into the woods Ughhh, I landed with a thud! Quickly I sprung back up and moving again checking for any blood or pains. Slightly dazed, but unscathed. Yep, got my attention and milepost 8 was still 8, not an imaginary 9?!?!? I proceeded to bomb down "heart attack hill" more alert to my footing as a stumble like minutes earlier would surely produce a less funny story.

The view after ascending from Bidwell

I cruised along finally meeting my sweetie just before milepost 3 I was heading uphill and she was coming down. I slowed to a hike at this point and we enjoyed the last several miles hiking back to the car together. We stopped at the 2.5 mile overlook for a few minutes enjoying what we usually pass by at a brisk pace. The additional 1400' of elevation gain at the end hiking up to the trail head produced more heavy breathing and I officially stopped my watch at 6:26:55. Quite a bit slower than my personal best for this run, but still a respectable time given my "casual" approach. I'll wait a little while and do this run again and see how much I can improve on this time.



Upon reaching the car we unpacked the mobile aid station and set up our chairs. Laura had packed a primo after trail picnic for us. We proceeded to kick back, eat turkey sammies, and drink chocolate milk while listening to the sweet sound of live bluegrass music coming from the festival below. What a great end to another day on the LHHT.

Laura and the mobile aid station setup at the end of the day

Living As Locals and Neighbors

In an attempt to settle in and try to "live like the locals", Diana and I went out to see what kind of trouble we could stir up.

We haven't had this much fun since we ate dried bugs! As much fun as this was, we had to find some other things to do too. We started the day with pickleball with the women. The ladies have been starting at 8:30 so they can get in a few games before everyone else joins in. After that we took a walk around the campground. Then we took the kids to the library and to lunch. We had to do the daily Wal-Mart run too, of course. It was such an average, mundane day. And I loved that.



You see, for years Diana and I have said we wished we could live by each other. I lived in Michigan. She lived in Virginia. I moved to Virginia, and she moved to Florida. I moved to Florida and she moved back to Virginia. So that living as neighbors never really happened.



For the past few years, we've been able to travel together and spend much time together. It's been wonderful. We still haven't quite lived as neighbors though. And while I love being travel buddies, this week it hit me how much we are living more as neighbors since being here. It's been pretty cool in its own way.



Living the life in Virginia!

Copenhagen, City of Bicycles: the Book

When the Bicycle Quarterly Press asked me to review Copenhagen, City of Bicycles, I could not help but wonder what this book could offer that the world of bicycle blogs has not already familiarised us with. In 2007 a certain Mr. Colville Andersen flung open a virtual window into the pedaling soul of the small Scandinavian city with Copenhagenize and Copenhagen Cycle Chic, establishing its worldwide reputation as a cycling mecca. Since then, Copenhagen has become synonymous with cycling - with fashion-oriented bicycle bloggers paying homage to its style and progressive city planners eager to emulate its infrastructure. Given the wealth of imagery and information on the topic readily available online, what can a book aboutCopenhagen and bicycles tell us that we don't already know?



Of course, it's not always in the "what," but in the "how." In Copenhagen, City of Bicycles Cecilia Vanman presents a comprehensive, colourfully illustrated introduction to the city's cycling culture and history, painting a portrait of a magical, happy place that the reader will long to visit. The photography (by Robyn Maddock) makes liberal use of fading sunlight, infusing the images with a warm, dynamic and nostalgic feel. The layout is clean, contemporary and easy to follow - despite the side-by-side placement of Danish and English text. Divided into 9 chapters, it maintains a clear sense of structure and direction from beginning to end. The narrative flows easily, steering clear of dry technical talk and empty "fluff" in equal measure. The tone is friendly and never condescending.



While those uninformed about Copenhagen's cycling culture will undoubtedly benefit from this bookthe most, it is not without novel information even for readers who've been browsing bicycle blogs for years. I found the chapter about manufacturers and framebuilders informative, and many other random interesting tidbits throughout. I also enjoyed the pictures of some unique vintage and modified bicycles and wished there were more of those.



The one part of the book that did come across to me as redundant, was the chapter consisting of photos and brief bios of Copenhagen cyclists. This is a tactic that I feel is best left to the realm of blogs and flickr - it is more effective there than in print. But overall, I would say that City of Bicycles summarises and supplements, rather than competes with, the Copenhagen-oriented bicycle blogs.

Copenhagen, City of Bicycles is published by Nyt Nordisk/ Arnold Busck, and distributed in North America by the Bicycle Quarterly Press. If you would like to receive my reviewer's copy for free, please leave a comment by Sunday 11:59pm US Pacific time (with a functional email address where I can readily reach you - this proved to be a problem again for the last give-away) - and I will choose the recipient at random. Enjoy the long weekend!

Whoa... A cabin had to be built

As I understand it, the mountain has often been shrouded in clouds, rain and snow over the past few weeks. But how would you know unless you came here for yourself? Certainly I've done little to keep you informed through this blog... But what can I say? This ranger/blogger needed a vacation and along the way, I caught a batch of writer's block.

Thankfully an ultra-reliable IBM oriented PC is at my finger tips with MSFT software gliding me happily towards another post. I know - Mac's are cool and all, but I needed some sort of flimsy excuse to avoid another post while building a cabin in Alaska for Ted (the Camp Muir guru). BTW, I really appreciated all of the nice Mac folks who took the time to defend their product and offer help. I hope you'll still read this blog knowing that's it's driven from a virus prone, often crashing, operating system. ;)

So what's shaking on the mountain? Well, a few roads have re-opened, and a few ranger stations have closed. September turned out to be a very quiet month for independent climbers. Many (I suspect) gave up on the super-dooper extra long DC climbing route. Thankfully the guide services successfully kept it afloat when most of us would have gone home empty handed. But the past 2 weeks of inclement weather really shut things down on the upper mountain. As the snow settled in, the DC and other "kicked in" routes finally disappeared for 2007.

If you're a downhill oriented person, this sort of news has you jumping for joy as ski season is descending upon us rapidily. And after reviewing the current weather forecast for this upcoming week, Mount Rainier is going to see a lot of snowfall! Sharpen your edges, wax those boards, pack your backcountry avalanche gear and check out the Paradise and Camp Muir telemetry sites for updates on how much snow you could be playing in this weekend.

The first post back might be the hardest, but now that I've broken the bubble I intend to publish more information this fall. There has certainly been a number of neat events that should be shared... And hey, I mostly want to follow up on Maria Cantwell's visit! That's largely because we climbing rangers were star struck by the Senator, as she turned out to be quite hip and very down to earth. Who would have imagined such coolness in DC? Maria Cantwell with Jeremy Shank and me, photo by Mike Heavey

In the meantime, send me your thoughts and comments, and I'll try my best to kick this blog back into action. Photo above: Jeremy Shank cabin building on Bald Mountain near Talkeetna AK, image by Mike Gauthier.

Fire on the Mountain

Thursday morning early there was a fire started on the Sandia Mountains. It is thought it was manmade as their hasn't been any lightining in New Mexico in months. The fire was in a deep canyon between two peaks. We could see the smoke coming up out of the canyon from our back yard. I took the first photo through a dirty window. But there was so much smoke and blowing dust all the photos are blurry. The last photo shows the smoke coming up the best. This morning they said the fire was about 60 percent contained. It was in very rough country and hard for the firefighters to get to it. Mostly there were planes and helecopters doing water drops. We couldn't see them as it was just to far away from, about 50 miles or so.







On Friday morning my neighbor say smoke billowing up a few miles from us and was reaching for her phone when the fire trucks went out. Someone had already called them. They found an abandoned mobile home, and a couple of sheds on fire that they thought was arson. In about a mile radious there were 3 or 5 more fires set in piles of trash and brush. Really looked like an arsonist was at work. This was following 5 fires set within a few miles of each other at the foot of the Sandia Mountains about a month ago.

I can't understand how anyone can set fires that could cause the whole area to go up in flames considering the drought in our state. If the fireman hadn't got them out so fast many homes could have caught on fire or someone could have been injured or killed all because someone thinks it's fun to play with fire.

Fuel for the Soul

The first of the iris started coming out of their 'cocoons' late yesterday afternoon and this morning two of them were in full bloom. They are one of my favorite flowers, so delicate and a bit whimsical. Though pretty they have no scent. They are also not the easiest flower to photograph. There are so many aspects to them and the color changes a little depending upon the light.




I cut one Iris and took it inside to get a full view of it. From the petals tip-to-tip the flower is a little over 8" across. Several of the plants are "twins" with two blooms at the top of the stalk. There are 12 plants and most of them have 3 to 4 blooms coming on. Absolutely Gorgeous! flowers to feed the soul...

Go-Anywhere Gearing: SRampagnolo Drivetrain with 'Frying Pan' Cassette

For the past few weeks I've been riding with an experimental drivetrain on my main roadbike "Desdemona" (a Seven Axiom S).The goal of this drivetrain was to achieve very low (sub 1:1) gearing, for hilly long distance cycling, including brevets. There are several ways to get that kind of gearing, some of which I've tried in the past with mixed results. The tricky part is not the gearing in itself, but achieving it with a modern (i.e. integrated shifters), lightweight road drivetrain, while keeping everything working smoothly. At the moment no road group from Campagnolo, Shimano or SRAM is designed to handle gears quite this low, so modifications are needed.



A hybrid drivetrain means that the parts making it up (cassette, derailleurs, crankset and brake/shift levers) are not all from the same manufacturer or group.Since modern road groups are designed for all the parts to work together, modifying or mixing them is generally not advised. That said, there aretwo general methods of doing so in order to get low gears. One is to keep most of the group intact, except for the crankset - replacing it with either a triple, or a double with much smaller chainrings (either way, inevitably foreign to the group). The other is to keep most of the group intact, except for the cassette - replacing it with a wider touring cassette (and long cage derailleur to accommodate). Speaking purely for myself, I have not been 100% happy with what happens when a modern road group's native crankset is replaced with a foreign one. So this time around, I opted for the other method.After 600 miles, what impresses me is that, in addition to being useful, this is also the least finicky hybrid drivetrain I've tried to date.





The setup here is a "SRampagnolo" hybrid. We've kept the front end of my bike's native Campagnolo Chorus drivetrain (50/34t crankset, front derailleur and 11-speed ergo levers), but used a SRAM 10-speed 11-36t cassetteand a SRAM X9 long cage rear derailleur.





A Jtek Shiftmate (model #4 I believe) makes the SRAM 10-speed cassette compatible with the 11-speed Campagnolo levers. You can read all about this neat little converter here. Obviously, if you are starting with a SRAM or Shimano drivetrain, your setup will be different. Going with all-SRAM should be the easiest, because, as far as I know, their road and mountain groups are compatible. Shimano I am less sure about.







The decision to go with the SRAM X9 long cage derailleur was made, despite some reports that the new SRAM WiFli road derailleur (designed to handle up to a 32t cog) can in fact handle a 36t. Seven's Rob Vandermark tested the WiFli with the 11-36t cassette, and was not happy with the outcome. That was good enough reason for me to go with the X9.




As far as functionality of the drivetrain, there is not much to say other than "It works." The entire range of cogs, from 11t to 36t, is usable in both rings. Cross-chaining has not been a problem in either combination (the derailleur does not explode in big-big and the chain does not go slack in small-small). Chain drop has not been a problem.The fact that the shifters are 11-speed while the cassette is a 10-speed is not noticeable. The Jtek converter works flawlessly and does not call attention to itself. After 600 miles of using the entire range of gears and switching between big and small rings constantly (including under load, and including when cross-chaining) I have not yet dropped the chain, gotten the chain stuck between rings, or even mis-shifted. In all ways, the drivetrain functions as smoothly as it did when the original groupset was intact. To be honest, even in the best case scenario I did not expect it to work quite this well.





As far as usefulness of the gear range, this too has exceeded my expectations. The cassette is spaced asymmetrically, so that the smaller cogs are closer together and the bigger cogs wider apart. The exact combination is:11-13-15-17-19-22-25-28-32-36. With the 50/34t compact double, this combination almost feels like having two separate cassettes at my disposal: One for fast rides and the other with bailout gears for climbing either very long or very steep hills (or both!). Normally, I find myself riding in the big ring, in the middle of the cassette. One unexpected outcome of this, is that the setup encourages me to use bigger gears - something that has proven helpful over the past weeks of learning different climbing techniques and trying some interval training on flats. I was so focused on getting the low gears I wanted, it did not occur to me how much I would appreciate having the really high gears as well.The small cogs are not quite as tightly spaced as they would be on a racing cassette, but they are tight enough for me.



And of course at the low end of the range, the sub 1:1 ratio offered by the 34/36t combination is a dreamy bailout gear - especially considering how lightweight my bike is and how nicely it climbs in general. This end of the spectrum does come in handy on long rides over steep hills. For paved riding, this is now truly a go-anywhere bike.



While I expected the wide spacing to feel like a compromise, in practice it doesn't. On my dirt road bike, the spacing is tighter with a 12-29t Campagnolo road cassette. While my low gear on that bike is very similar to what is described here (28/29t with 650B wheels), on the high end it maxes out at 42/12t. I notice this more than I notice the difference in cog spacing.To be able to fly in 50/11t with my legs on fire and the next day spin up a vertical hill while humming happily in 34/36t,on the same bike,is, like, wow.



On the downside, the wide cassette does mean a bit of extra weight in the rear coming from the bigger cogs, long cage derailleur, extra chain length and Jtek pulley. Around 200-300g is the difference between this and my original drivetrain. Holding the bike up in my hands, it does tip to the rear a tad now, whereas before it was a masterpiece of perfect balance. In motion, I do not feel the extra weight. And whether it's bike related or not, my average speeds over the past few weeks here in Northern Ireland have been faster than previously. I really feel that I have the best of both worlds now with this bike.Since this is a temporary setup (an experiment for Seven Cycles, as much as for me - they may offer this option on custom builds in future), a different rear wheel was built for the purpose of testing it. I still have my bike's original Campagnolo wheel, derailleur and cassette, and can get my old setup back fairly quickly. But I think I will end up keeping this one, at least for the time being.



Visually, I admit the huge cassette does not exactly look elegant. The local roadies here have quickly dubbed it "the frying pan" and I've adapted the term affectionately. I may not be able to fry eggs on it, but I can can go far and I can go fast. Now we're cooking!

Welford - Canal - Hemplow Hills - Welford

Led by Barry, with Maureen, Gordon and me. Fine - dry underfoot. Just over 6 miles.



Covered some of yesterday's route as well.






We parked in Welford opposite this cottage. We took a path to the west north west and walked along a path in a field behind houses. This soon turned south west towards Hall Lane, which we crossed and turned right, along a path which diverged from the lane, slightly more to the west.

The path crossed several fields before reaching the Grand Union Canal - a quiet stretch here. At first the canal was on our right, thenwe crossed to take the towpath with the canal on our left as we headed more or less south-west.








We followed the canal round a fairly large loop for a good two and half miles as far as Bridge 31.

The Old Union Canals Societyplants living milestones along the Leicester Line of the Grand Union. You know the ones, the trees with black painted steel plaques next to them. Thank you to jakepithf and his blog

The path goes uphill through a field of growing crops, then into the woods of Hemplow Hills.

A snack-stop with a great view - Wood Cottage in the background.

Another 'permissive path'

Through the woods, - after the steep climb!

The tower-adorned gatehouses of West Hill Farm.

From Hemplow Hills we walk past West Hill Farm, and along Hemplow Drive. At the crossroads, straight on into West End and back to Welford.




We saw terns diving into the canal, a heron, and a hare in the field going up to Hemplow Hills.

Cycling and the Beach

If you live in a beach town, it is easy to hop on a cruiser and pedal to the shore, have a swim, more or less dry off, and pedal home. But what about incorporating the beach into long, strenuous and hilly touring style-rides? This has been our dilemma when taking trips to Maine this summer. In the absence of folding bikes (and frankly, I don't think folding bikes would be appropriate for the terrain here), we strap our roadbikes to the car, and get around entirely by bike once we arrive to our "base" location. In rural Maine, everything is far away from everything else - at least by Boston standards - and it is normal for us to cycle 5-10 hilly miles from one destination to another, multiple times in a day. We often pass our favourite beach in the area, but swimming can seem like such a project when your bicycle bags are already stuffed with photo equipment and other things, and the beach has no changing rooms.

Plus, when a 10 mile ride with plenty of uphill lies between the beach and the nearest town where you could freshen up, believe me that you don't want any sand to be stuck in your body's crevices, and neither do you want to pedal in a bathing suit. The Co-Habitant has tried wearing his swim trunks on the bike, and regretted it.

So here is my solution: I bring a bathing suit and a thin Pashmina or wrap instead of a towel. These take up almost no extra space in my saddle bag. Once at the beach, I remove my shoes and socks, wrap myself in the pashmina, and change into my bathing suit underneath it. If you don't have a pashmina or wrap, a long oversized t-shirt can work as a "changing tent" as well. After swimming, I "air dry" while either walking around or sitting on rocks (rather than sitting on sand); then I reverse the "changing tent" process. After this, the bathing suit can be wrung out, placed on a rock to dry off a bit, then placed in a plastic bag and packed away into the saddle bag together with the pashmina. After de-sanding my feet and putting my socks and shoes back on, I am ready to keep cycling. All this is a surprisingly low-hassle process.

Of course, one thing to make sure of before you stop at a beach like this, is that your water bottles are full. Also, never try to prop up your bike on the sand using a kickstand; carefully lay it down instead (drivetrain side up). Even if it seems as if the bike is stable on the kickstand, the sand's consistency changes with the wind and the tide, and the bike can easily fall. Oh, and if you go swimming, leave your bike as far from the water as possible - the tide can come in faster than you think!



Swimming in the ocean and cycling are two of my favourite activities, and it feels wonderful to combine them. Interestingly, the ocean water seems to be a great complement to high-intensity cycling - relaxing the muscles and giving me extra energy to go on. Anybody else have this experience?

Lightning Warning

There were signs warning that lighting up on the Crest could and is very dangerous. They warned that it is advisable to leave when there is lightning. But there was none that day while we were there.

Bad Vibrations

Riding my Rivendell last weekend, I was going downhill when I became aware of a strong vibration in my hands from the handlebars. At first I thought I was imagining it: This felt like "shimmy" and I know this bikedoes not have shimmy; this has never happened before. Was the headset loose? At the bottom of the hill I stopped to check, but everything seemed fine. Then I noticed that my lights were on. I must have forgotten to turn them off from the previous night. And then it hit me: Could this be the dreaded high-speed dynamo hub vibration? Jan Heine mentioned it in a recent Bicycle Quarterly article, and Somervillain reported it after building up his latest bike. In both cases, Shimano hubs were involved. The hub on my bike is a Shimano Alfine.

I turned off the light and began to cycle again, picking up speed. No more vibrations. Turned the light back on and picked up speed once more. Again the handlebars began to vibrate. Yikes. The only way I can explain not having noticed this earlier, is that I must have never gone this fast with the lights on before - which makes sense, because I normally only turn them on when it's dark and I cycle slower in the dark. This time I accidentally left them on in the daytime, and when I first noticed the vibration I was going about 25mph. But once I began to pay closer attention, I could feel it starting at 17mph or so.

The following day I rode the same route on the Randonneur and intentionally turned the lights on. This bicycle is equipped with a Schmidt SON Delux hub. I did not feel handlebar vibration at high speeds.Reading up on this issue some more, the vibration effect has been reported for many different hubs, including Schmidt - though not the SON Delux model specifically, as far as I can see. Is the SON Delux immune to this?

I am frustrated to experience the vibration on my own bike with the Shimano Alfine. At the time I was choosing a dynamo hub for this bicycle, the considerably more expensive Schmidtseemed frivolous, and everyone assured me that in practical use (as opposed to efficiency tests) the new Shimano models worked just as well. However, my recent experience appears to contradict this. It is disappointing to learn that I am limited to cycling at speeds below 17mph if I want to have the lights on without my handlebars vibrating.

Some have suggested that it is not the dynamo hub itself that's responsible for the vibration effect, but that it is a complex interaction between the hub, wheel size, and frame. That could very well be, and if so it will take forever to uncover the pattern of causality. What have been your experiences with dynamo hubs and vibration at high speeds?