I caught up with Craig Calfee before the waste encountered the air handling device on the second morning of NAHBS 2012 in Sacramento. One of the pioneers of the use of bamboo for bicycle frames Mr. Calfee uses bamboo sourced in Africa and the tubes are joined by laying up sheets made of local tree bark with resin, similar to fiberglass or carbon fiber.
Category: Living Vicariously
Podcasts and interviews, ride journals and stories.
The theme for the 2012 North American Handmade Bicycle Show is fat-bikes! At least in the bike hermit’s feeble mind. First up is Joseph Ahearne’s take on the genre. I was able to squeeze in this interview when he wasn’t bombarded with customers and we talked about this bike as well as the other off-road tourer he brought to the show.
Stay tuned. More to come.
In October of last year (2011 that is. I know it’s over 3 months ago) We received an email from Grace Johnson who is publishing an online bike touring magazine called Bicycle Traveler. She sent the following about the September, 2011 issue:
About Bicycle Traveler magazine:
Bicycle Traveler is a free international magazine on bicycle touring. It’s full of entertaining stories and inspiring photography which will have you dreaming over new destinations, as well as information over cycling gear.
In this issue:
Articles in issue #1 September 2011 include Checkposts & Magic Letters Long distance cyclists Hiromu and Peter Gostelow cross into the Central African Republic. Riding high in the Dolomites the Cycling Gypsies pedal over Italy’s Passo Giau with the help of their dogs Paco and Jack plus Tibet a photo story inspiring photos from Nathalie Pellegrinelli as well the short stories Small town America and the Hungry Cyclist.
The magazine contains no advertisements and can be downloaded for free at the bicycletraveler website
Their plan is to publish an issue 3 times per year in January, May and September. That means a new one will be coming out soon, so go to the site and download a copy and sign up to be notified when the new one comes out. Could be good reading while dreaming about your 2012 tour plans.
“That fool brought a knife to this gunfight, whereas I brought a gun. To this battle between guns primarily. If I were to rephrase this using the present participle, I would say “He is bringing a knife to a gunfight. What a dumbass.””
One could still call us a group, albeit a loosely organized and somewhat scattered one, far less coordinated than the flocks of geese overhead. Unsure of where we are going or who we are following, we present as an unpredictable flock to the motorists in the adjacent four lanes of one-way traffic. One 4 x 4 driver lays on the horn as he passes….can’t say that I blame him. Some riders skirt the left side of the traffic island with what appears to be mere inches between them and the box vans and pickup trucks, while some of us take the right side and rejoin them after crossing Broadway. Somewhere ahead of us (maybe? we don’t really know) is the main group which left about five minutes earlier and we form a paceline in order to concentrate and mitigate our individual efforts to catch them. In a few miles, with the group still not in sight, I sit up and am immediately left on my own.
I had been considering taking part in the annual New Years Day ride for the past few days and the weather was almost perfect so I decided I would have a go. In other years the ride has been very civilized with an easy to follow tempo and a reasonable 20 mile or so route. I reckoned there would be some people I haven’t seen in years and that it might be good for me to emerge from the hermit’s cave. But I was not at all prepared for or interested in a hammer fest.
Before the reader might think I’m whining, let me say that it’s my own damn fault. First of all, I should have been on time, and even though I have a good amount of miles in my legs this year, few of them have been ridden at any intensity. And I will turn 58 this year, too old to have anything to prove, and too weak if I wanted to. Let me say too, that Mike Cooley and Tom Platt, the owners of George’s Cycles and Fitness in Boise deserve most of the credit for the vibrant cycling community in Boise, not to mention building a successful business.
I normally avoid group rides in Boise because they often turn into competitions. Even the so called “no drop” rides will stop after a few miles and riders will be asked to seed themselves based on how far and fast they want to go. Then riders show the other members of the subsequently formed groups what bad-asses they are (or think they are). Not that there is anything wrong with that, in fact I used to be that guy. Every ride was a training ride. Sometimes I was the dropper but most of the time I was the dropee. Being able to ride with a fast group and stay with them on a ride or in a race was a rush and, to me, the point of riding and training. Now, not so much. I would still like to ride with a group at a lively, workmanlike pace, but suffering no longer has any appeal to me.
So, how was my ride? you ask. Very nice. Thanks for asking. I stopped here and ate my sandwich.
Then I stopped at this little pocket park somebody built in the industrial wasteland off Gowen Road. There is a mini storage and a construction office adjacent but no signage of any kind, and no apparent public access to the park. Somebody made this just to try to improve the built environment and I think that’s pretty awesome. I’m relatively certain the riders in the grupettos were too busy watching the wheel in front to see this.
I rode about 28 miles in just under two hours. I was tired enough when I got home. I guess that is the point for me these days.
Ian Hibell was a British bicycle tourist who spent the better part of 40 years traveling by bike. At an average 6000 miles per year, that is ten time around the equator. He wrote a book called “Into The Remote Places” published in 1984. Hibell was killed by a hit and run driver in Greece in 2008.
http://youtu.be/tsQxt9-vK-k
Categories
Another Bike Overnight
I can’t shake the impression that these mountains know what’s coming and that they are preparing for it. The water in the Payette River between upper and lower Payette Lake is far below the high water marks, and the surface is smooth and unhurried. Waiting. The leaves on the trees and the “needles” on the Tamaracks are turning, preparing to drop. It rains off and on throughout the day, heavier towards evening, soaking the ground so that when the temperature drops, the first snows will stick.
Every piece works towards the same goal, the same vital task: Storing water for the long hot dry summer in the high desert cities 100 miles downstream. The rain will turn to snow within the next few weeks, uncountable individual flakes of snow filling in every crack, crevice, nook and cranny accumulating until there is an unbroken floor several feet above the ground, but with a cosmology only generally resembling the underlying surface. The streams and rivers and lakes will freeze solid. Waiting.
When the earth tilts back into a more sun-favorable position in six months or so, the snow and rivers and streams and lakes will begin to melt, delivering their collection to the reservoirs, slowly at first and then in a crazy, violent torrent, until it’s all gone and the country begins it’s preparations all over again.
These are the thoughts that go through my mind as we work our way from McCall, up to Burgdorf, Idaho, 30 miles away.
As we start out again the clouds which have been building all afternoon begin to spit rain on us. At the summit we regroup and begin the descent. We turn off Warren Wagon road onto the gravel road leading to Burgdorf as Warren Wagon Road continues on to Warren, before tying into a spiderweb network of forest service roads, some of which peter out in the wilderness near the Montana border. There is a way to loop back to McCall past Warm Lake on forest service roads. Years worth of adventure touring out here!
There are no showers at Burgdorf and we soak in the hot springs pool, which is replenished at 150 or so gallons per minute by the natural springs. The pool itself is lined with logs and has a decomposed granite bottom, which is not unpleasant on the feet, and has a uniform depth of about five feet.
The cabins are primitive; only a wood stove, a couple of tables and beds, but with all our supplies carried up in the sag wagon, ours feels luxurious. The rain comes down heavily throughout the late afternoon and into the evening and we feel cozy and smug in our hideaway.
Getting out of town to make this trip was easy and relaxing and just as memorable as the longer tours we have done, and it all fit inside a weekend- we left home Friday afternoon and returned Sunday. Short trips like this can be fantastic stress reducers, especially for someone who might be intimidated by the planning and logistics involved in taking longer tours, or who may simply not have the time. Being easy to plan and execute, with no need to take time off from work, a bike overnight can be a good introduction to touring or just another excuse to get out on the bike.
Categories
Overnight To Montour Report
Well, the weather finally cooperated this weekend and we were able to complete our Boise-Montour-Boise overnight bike trip. We were attempting to find a passage over the foothills without traveling on the main highways. That didn’t exactly work out, but the adventure and the exploration were really the main point.
And the timing couldn’t have been better. It had been a difficult week and the combination of work-a-day events and everyday average life events were beginning to feel oppressive. Funny how halfway through the first day the thought patterns in the brain were beginning to be a little bit more objective and coherent. Such is the power of getting out on the bike!
Eagle Road becomes Willow Creek road as one travels north from Eagle and about 17 miles from our front door it turns into dirt. A fairly well maintained dirt road which goes basically straight up for the next 8 miles, and becomes Pearl Road along the way. We were watching for a road which, according to Google Maps, veered off to the left shortly after the abandoned mining town of Pearl and wound back down towards Montour. We never saw this alleged road and finally ended up on Highway 55 just outside of Horseshoe Bend. Dropping down into Horseshoe Bend on the old highway and then about 11 miles on scenic highway 52 along the Payette River brought us to Montour. About 10 miles more than we had planned on, and the 47 total miles for the day took us almost 5 hours to ride. Luckily, we were able to replenish our carbohydrates and spirits at the general store!
Being so replenished, and having set up the hammocks, we proceeded to cook our pasta primavera and to enjoy the sunny windless evening, with mosquitoes. Sitting in the sun and reading, we could have been anywhere….Texas, California or Croatia, and yet we were only a few hours from home.
The next morning we decided to take the dirt road on the north side of the river into Emmett instead of taking the main highway. According to the campground host, the road was well maintained with little loose gravel and only one climb. Never listen to a cigarette smoking diesel pickup driving campground host. I’m sure the road is a piece of cake driving the pickup home from the bar in Emmett. It’s just that the climbs were numerous and sharp, and the washboard effect was in place on most of them….. heck of a way to start the day.
After a big breakfast in Emmett, the ride up Old Freezeout hill and then on highway 16 back into town was relatively uneventful. And so, with just a little bit of planning and just a little over 24 hours, we were able to get away for a little adventure, recharge and come back raring to go and ready for the next kick in the teeth.
Categories
Overnight, Boise To Montour
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The forecast for this Memorial Day weekend features the possibility of snow! So the planned overnight excursion from Boise to Montour, ID will be postponed. We could do it but it’s not designed as a test of endurance, it’s supposed to be fun. At any rate this is the route. From Boise we will head west to Eagle and then north on Eagle road which is paved for only a few more miles. Then it’s gravel all the way to Pearl and Montour. Total distance from Boise to Montour will be about 36 miles, and I’m guessing it will take us about 3 hours. There is a campground in Montour that we have visited on earlier trips, and it will probably be less crowded after Memorial Day anyway.
UPDATE!
We finally got to do this one. Read the account at Bike Overnights Adventure Cycling’s most excellent blog.
Categories
Alaska’s Lost Coast
Lost Coast Trailer from Eric Parsons on Vimeo.
In 2008 Dylan Kentch and Eric Parsons rode and carried and rafted with their singlespeed bicycles across 300 miles of wild Alaska coastline from Yakutat to Cordova. If one were to look at this on a map and/or Google Earth they might not think it possible. But these guys did it and lived to tell the story. What’s most impressive to me is that they never complain about the difficult conditions, they had fun, and they were sad when it was over. Epic.
Their blog is called Bike The Lost Coast
In 2010 some homies from Bozeman, Mt. did it too. Their blog is Biking the Lost Coast
Eric’s company is Revelate Designs LLC
He makes frame bags for expedition touring and for bikes which are rack challenged.
Looking at these photos and reading the ride reports gets me to thinking about different ways to set up the bike, and it gets me thinking about an off road adventure touring bike. Of course, being a Surly groupie, the Troll or Karate Monkey come to mind. I’m sure Sky King will be happy to know I have a new obsession! Anybody else use these bags and have stories to tell of their expeditions?
Categories
Small Bike Tour
Chris Johnson already coined the word “micro-tour”. “Small tour” might describe our Saturday ride. Eleven miles to a little restaurant in a neighboring town, a cup of coffee, some fish tacos and some time to sit in the sun and read. Doesn’t even really qualify as “cycling”. It’s just something we did and we happened to do it with bicycles.
Enjoying the good things about bike touring, like relaxing in a nice spot and not being in a big hurry. And not really having any other urgent commitments at the moment. We took our books and we took jackets and long pants, because even though the sun felt great the wind had a bite to it. And the Zimbale canvas saddlebags came in handy!
