As you may already know, the Bike Hermit and Sky King have pedaled into retirement from bike shop life and are currently making their way south along the Baja Divide. As of this writing, they’ve completed the first five segments of the route and are currently resting up in Vicente Guerrero in preparation for what lies ahead. Here’s a link to the description of this first stretch of the route on the Baja Divide website.
They have been posting photos to Instagram (@stacy_king_powers and @bikehermit) and updating their Crazy Guy on a Bike journal (http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/Bajadivide). It sounds like the going has been tougher than expected but that the pace of Mexican life seems to be agreeing with them! Follow along, put your support and encouragement in the comments and enjoy their adventure vicariously. Here are a few favorite photos from their journey so far:
We’ll continue to share occasional updates from Bike Touring News’ Owners Emeriti as they continue their adventure, so keep your eye on the blog. Keep up the good work, have fun and stay safe out there, you two! In the meantime, we have some updates from BTN Headquarters to share, so stay tuned…
On the 28th of July we drove to Bellevue, WA to attend a relative’s wedding. On the 4th we are going to Sky King’s family reunion on Snoqualmie Pass. In the intervening days we are bike touring. Originally I was going to post a journal on crazyguyonabike, but that site has been down today while I’m updating so I decided to post the tour journal here too.
Once we are in the bike touring mode and all our gear is readily accessible and we’re mentally and physically ready, it is easy to sandwich in a 3 or 4 day tour. It doesn’t take a huge amount of planning and we were going to be in Seattle anyway. It’s not as if a person has to quit their job or even take major time off in order to go touring.
On the 31st we rode to the Seattle ferry terminal and took the Bainbridge ferry. From there we started riding towards Port Townsend via Fay Bainbridge State Park where we spent the night. Getting to the ferry terminal from Bellevue was a piece of cake on the I90 Trail and the Mountains to Sound Trail. The 305 out of the town of Bainbridge Island has a beautiful, wide shoulder with a nice surface but the amount of automobile traffic is astounding. It was only about 4 miles to the turn off on Day Road but the relative silence was immediately apparent as soon as we got off 305. Then it was a couple more bucolic miles to the state park.
Fay Bainbridge State Park is a wedge of land opening to Puget Sound and holding back housing developments on both sides. Weathered, beam straight cedar logs are spread out on the black volcanic sand, but not in a jumble, rather aligned with the shoreline up to the high tide water’s edge. The view of the sound and Mt Rainier and the Seattle Skyline and the North/Canadian Cascades is nothing short of breathtaking.
While in Bainbridge Island we hit the Safeway and bought beer and vegetables so we were able to make past primavera for dinner. This park only charges $5.00 per bicycle because they want to encourage that type of behavior and the showers are 25 cents for a minute and a half. Good place to stay!
Preparing to leave Bellevue.One of the best things about bike touring is these short breaks with nothing to do but relax.Almost to the end of the first 18 mile day!
Every bicycle related, or outside related magazine or advertisement assures me I can improve on my personal best performance by closely following the training advice offered therein. Alright, I think, I want to do my best. Even if doing better than myself feels like a lot of pressure I decide I will have a go.
I’ve decided to train for the Java Man Triple Brew Pub Extreme Moderation Tour. My success in defeating my self will be judged loosely by these criteria:
– Moderation and balance.
– Being non-judgmental and humble.
– Living in the moment.
– Wattage, heart rate, miles and time don’t matter.
– Speed doesn’t matter either.
– People in automobiles waving at me in a friendly manner matters.
– Other people on bicycles and pedestrians acknowledging me in a friendly manner matters too.
Athletes generally attribute a large percentage of a successful performance to mental attitude. Actually, this could be one of my biggest challenges in this event. Smiling while riding(in moderation of course) moves me toward my goal, and saying hello to the faster rider who is overtaking me, whether they say hello or not, moves me toward my goal. Refraining from the urge to take that rider’s wheel to show that I can go faster too takes constant practice. Or is this just the recovering racer rationalizing the fact that he is now old and weak?
I give myself permission to go slow sometimes, but it feels good once in a while to breathe hard and feel the lungs working to bring air to the blood, and to feel the blood pumping and carrying that oxygen and some fuel to be consumed by my muscles in the magical process of making the pedals go around . And it’s neat to see my body get more efficient at doing those things, so that every ride seems a little easier. So I give myself permission to go fast sometimes too.
A baggedy shirt or a plain wool jersey keeps me cool and allows air to flow through the interstices of the brain, not constricting my thoughts and actions with the pretense of needing to be something I’m not. By the way, that person driving the car? They seem to be a little more agreeable to sharing the road when they see me dressed that way on a bike with fenders and lights and racks.
As Leo Woodland says “People talk to you if you’re on a bike and you give them time. You’re not threatening. You arrived by humble means and you have humble needs, like food and drink and a moment’s rest”
I am training myself to stop and, really, to look for reasons to stop.
I am training myself to ride a bicycle in a way that makes it look easy. No hammering, thank you.
Actually, now that I’ve created this event I realize that every time I go out on the bike I am a participant in it.
The current ride is all there is.
There was no ride before this and there will be no ride after it.
The bike hermit is only interested in useful bikes. Randonneuring, commuting and touring bikes with racks or at least eyelets and with fenders are the only bikes that make sense. And the only ones that look proper. Ellis Cycles’ owner Dave Wages has a resume that includes stints with Ben Serotta, Dave Kirk and Waterford. Pretty good resume. And it shows in the details.
Ellis Cycles cool touring bike
Custom fender stay bolts
Cable hanger. Stout
Custom rear tail light, wired inside fender.
Another view of Ellis Cycles touring bike
And I’ve decided what a crummy photographer I am. The pictures of the light wiring inside the front rack and the custom brake cable hangers and the engraved head tube logo were not done justice in the photos I did take. This bike ended up with the Best Of Show award and it was well deserved. Everything well thought out designed, built and integrated into a seamless whole. Making simple look easy.
“…now the sky is gettin’ light
everything will be alright
I think I finally got the knack
just floatin’ and lazin’ on my back
I never really liked that town
think I’ll ride the river down
just movin’ slow and floatin’ free
this river swingin’ under me
wavin’ back to folks on shore
I should have thought of this before
I’m goin’ on down to New Orleans
pick up on some swingin’ scenes
I know I’ll know a better day
goin’ down groovin’ all the way…”
Micky Dolenz, “Goin’ Down”
Yep, the bike hermit is goin’ on down to New Orleans. Since we are going to be in Austin for the North American Handmade Bicycle Show in February, I started to think about ways to take advantage of being in the south while Idaho emerges from the cold, wet winter months. That thinking has evolved into a bicycle tour from Austin to New Orleans. I will load Chief and journey out on section 5 of the Adventure Cycling Association‘s Southern Tier Route, from Navasota, TX to St. Francisville, LA., and from there down to the Big Easy. Since I am self-absorbed and delusional enough to think people I don’t even know might be interested, I have decided to document my daily planning and preparation tasks, the ride, the trip home and any epilogues.
A simple Google search will uncover a plethora of web pages with itemized lists of what other people take on a bicycle tour , and I think those lists are boring. So I won’t be doing that. Some people have created spreadsheets to plan their itineraries and to document the daily mileage, weather, lodging, food and probably bowel movements. I’m not going to do that either. I want to speak in more general terms about the process of conceiving, planning and executing this bike touring trip as I figure it out. About things that I find out and discover as I explore how to get from here to there by bicycle. The whole concept to me is about freedom. I’m free to ride my bike all day if I want. Indeed, I’m free to ride all night if I feel like it. I’m free to stop whenever and wherever I want. I can go as fast or as slow as I want. All this freedom within limits of course. I do need to complete the ride and come home on the designated day. But everything in between getting on the bike in Austin and getting off in New Orleans is going to unfold as it will. I am literally just along for the ride. And the beer.
I came across this article on Raymond Parker’s VeloWeb. The web address is http://veloweb.ca (he’s Canadian eh.) Very detailed and well photographed instructions there. While he is installing Honjo fenders, the guide will work as well for other metal fenders such as Gilles Berthoud and Tanaka.
Also, lo and behold, there is a Honjo Fenders group on flickr.com. Lots of good photos and ideas for mounting fenders there.
