Month: June 2014

Idaho Hot Springs Maps

hot springs and mountains — Snakepit Hot Springs, Idaho.
Photo by Casey Greene

Adventure Cycling Association has recently released their Idaho Hot Springs Maps. There are two maps; the Main Route which describes a 517 mile loop beginning and ending in Idaho City and the Single Track Options map which outlines about 227 miles of optional loops off the main route. The main route is divided into a sort of figure eight with the inclusion of the Lowman Cutoff. There is a spur into Boise for those who want to start and/or finish in Boise. Like all Adventure Cycling maps, these are well researched and very detailed with easy to follow cue sheets and descriptions of conditions to be expected. As of this writing we only have one complete set of the maps available in the Bike Touring News store but will be getting more- these have been popular!

Adventure Cycling Association also pioneered the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route which is popular on the bikepacking circuit, and from all the response we’ve seen, the Idaho Hot Springs route is going to be as popular or more so. We’ll try to get some reports from people we know who have done the hot springs route or portions of it. If you have experience with any portion of the route please share it in the comments and/or send us a link if you have an online journal you would like to share.

Crossroads Music

Little Jimmy Scott

As I write this I’m listening to David Byrne’s song Heaven as interpreted by Jimmy Scott. Jimmy Scott passed away Thursday, June 12, 2014. He was 88. This article at theguardian.com highlights five of his performances and gives a little bit of background about his life and career. I became a fan of his during his second career and so I guess I might be accused of being a Jimmy Scott hipster. I’m always mystified by his phrasing and by the way he can completely transform a song and make it his own. At first I thought the same pianist played on all his later recordings because the accompaniment is inspired, but when I researched it I discovered that he recorded with Michael Kanan, Junior Mance, Renee Rosnes and others- all great pianists, but it’s interesting that when playing with Jimmy Scott their playing is transcendent while still completely in service of the song and the singer. The only conclusion is that Mr. Scott himself was the inspiration for these players during the sessions. Rest In Peace, sir and thank you for the music.

Cockpit Handlebars and Stems Touring Bike Components

Jones Bars

Journalism is a tough business. Those not involved don’t understand the sacrifices reporters make in order to enlighten and entertain them. As an example, I could not get the wi-fi connection to work at the Woodland Empire brewery and I had to walk almost 200 feet to Pre-Funk tap room in order to find a decent connection. Somebody’s got to do it though.

It’s always encouraging to me when I talk to an entrepreneur who has been involved in the bike business for a long time and is still so excited about what they do that they will talk my ear off about their product or service. Channing at Old Man Mountain is one example, as is Chris Kostman at Rough Riders- Any Bike Anywhere (Chris, why are there no new blog posts?)
Jeff Jones has to be included in this company.

He is an iconoclast who developed his own line of bicycle frames and what may seem like a somewhat unconventional handlebar; The Jones Loop H-Bar®. Surly Bikes even commissioned an extra long version of the bars from Jones for their ECR, Troll and Ogre bikes. We have sold several sets of these bars and are currently experimenting with them- the Bike Hermit has them on the Big fat Dummy and Sky King has them on the ECR.

We even installed them on a Surly Disc Trucker, an experiment which revealed that bar end shifters fit.

The other interesting feature that has become apparent, thanks to friend Wendell, is the ability to annex bags ostensibly made for saddlebags, as seen in these photos:

handlebars and bags — Jones Loop Bars, Revelate Designs Harness and a Salsa Minimalist rack.

The astute reader will notice that in most of the photos the ends of the bars have a thick foam grip. These are ESI grips for the Jones bars and they come in two lengths; 6.25 and 8.25 and two thicknesses; Chunky and Extra Chunky. Surly chose to not use the matching grips on their bikes…an oversight I hope is remedied in the next production run.
Some of the pictures also show padded tape wrapped around the welded junction of the loop part of the bar. This turns out to be a fine alternative hand position with these.

Two widths; the original 660mm and the Surly inspired 710mm. Two colors; black and silver. Aluminum or titanium. One clamp size; 31.8. Mr. Jones doesn’t allow us to sell them online but if you are in Boise, we have them in stock. Otherwise, order from jonesbikes.com