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Community => Non-Thorn Related => Topic started by: Andre Jute on April 02, 2022, 10:38:59 am

Title: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Andre Jute on April 02, 2022, 10:38:59 am

Yesterday was the beginning of the cyclist's summer, but it was also April Fool's Day, so we'll start our glorious summer of 2022 today, 2nd of April.

(http://www.coolmainpress.com/miscimage/brooks_handlebar_grip_on_uno_kalloy_north_road_bar_on_andre_s_utopia.jpg)

Looking backwards for the last time.
North Road handlebar, Magura Rim Hydraulic brake handle, Rohloff Rotary Control, Brooks edge-on leather grip held together by short bicycle spokes fixed at the aluminum ends (no, really!), Zefal mirror.

This is the thread to add rides, photographs, comments on other cyclists' rides. A long tour with multiple posts is probably best collected in its own thread, as is multiple rides around a common concept (I have in mind one regular poster's superb manipulated art photographs), but other rides collected in one thread are easier to find when collected here.

In Ireland the mask mandate is gone, and with it the steamed-up spectacles and sunglasses that kept me from cycling almost permanently during the Covid-19 Pandemic.

I intend to make up for the lost days and rides and miles. What about you?

(http://www.coolmainpress.com/miscimage/From%20Helen%20Lane%2021%20Mar%2015.JPG)

As Winston Churchill never said, "We shall ride onto the sunlit uplands."

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: energyman on April 02, 2022, 04:56:57 pm

I now know what Graupel snow feels like after getting shot blasted yesterday lunch time as I cycled down the fen to my favourite Fish & Chip stop.
The noise as it pounded my helmet was extraordinary ! Then the sun came out and all was well with the world.
F & C were nice too. Better still was the following wind on the way home.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: John Saxby on April 03, 2022, 04:02:51 am

Andre, I'll raise yer greenery and streamery -- stand by for dispatches from 'Straya. (Teasers attached below.) I've also learned that Ian's 5B2F Bakehouse is just a couple of kms from our son's place in Southport. Review(s) of sausage roll(s) to follow too.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Matt2matt2002 on April 03, 2022, 09:53:02 am

I'm off to 'Merica next month.
Hope to ride my son's bike there
Stay toooned folks.

Best

Matt

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Andre Jute on April 03, 2022, 10:29:09 pm

Gentlemen now abed in England, rolled over and put the nightlight on, and shouted, “More! More!”

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: UKTony on April 07, 2022, 09:47:55 am

Quote from: Andre Jute on April 03, 2022, 10:29:09 pm

Gentlemen now abed in England, rolled over and put the nightlight on, and shouted, “More! More!”

Welcome to Wales!
Tuesday 30 mile total rururban ride up and back down a Welsh valley. The National Cycle Network paths followed - 49 and 492 - are traffic free for almost the entire route.
So, took the Nomad by car over the River Severn Bridge from England into Wales to park up at Cwmbran for a ride north via section of Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal towpath and dismantled Pontypool/Blaenavon railway path to the Welsh National Mining Museum at Forgeside, Blaenavon otherwise known as Pwll Mawr (Big Pit). The route rises from 40m AOD at Cwmbran to 400m AOD at the Museum site but over a distance of 15 miles a gentle climb apart from short acute rises adjacent to canal locks. The Rohloff is ideal for the quick gear changes needed to negotiate these short sharp rises and the impediments one encounters on multi use paths - pedestrians, dogs and gates.
Much of the section of the canal here between Cwmbran and Pontypool is still left unrestored and inaccessible to boaters as a result of infilling by later road etc development. The transition from the canal path to the dismtld railway path at Pontypool the cycle path passes through some urban landscape.
Hope the pics tell the story.
They’re traditional Welsh cakes and yes, I know, two 😳 but they are often sold in pairs 🙂 and that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!
The pithead winding gear at the museum functions with original lift cages to allow visitor parties to go on underground tours.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: UKTony on April 07, 2022, 09:52:03 am

and another 4 pics

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: John Saxby on April 07, 2022, 11:28:40 pm

Lovely, Tony!

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Andre Jute on April 08, 2022, 11:28:50 am

Tony, I don't know about going underground on machinery probably installed before the big war, but the presence of water is always soothing.

Matt, John, I like your teasers. Hollywood will snap you up!

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: PH on April 08, 2022, 03:08:24 pm

Looks a nice ride Tony, but no photos including the bike :o I think mine would be upset if it didn't appear in a few
Whenever I think of Wales I think of hills, I know that doesn't have to be the case, I just can't resist the scenery. I might look that route up next time I'm that way.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: UKTony on April 08, 2022, 04:51:38 pm

Whoops! Here’s one with the bike. I took quite a few photos - I’ve discovered that my wife’s 15 year old sub £100 camera has a useful low resolution setting below 512KB so was snapping away merrily so I had a good selection for easily transferred to iPad for this Post. For the last photo of the mine I chose the one which clearly showed the Ukrainian flag on top of the pithead gear.
On this occasion I simply did the there and back by the same route option. For me, 2 hours up and hour and a quarter back (mostly downhill as you’d expect) but there are a couple of options to make for a circular route for a slightly longer and even more interesting ride. It’s a fair weather ride unless you’re prepared for the Welsh mist descending on the mountain .
I anticipate that the latter might feature in my itinerary a bit later in the year and will try to remember to share one of those alternative return legs back from the Museum site.
If you do find your way to this neck of the woods let me know.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Matt2matt2002 on April 12, 2022, 05:19:35 pm

First long ride of the year yesterday to blow the winter cobwebs away, although the temperature rarely went above 6 degrees.

From home in Inverurie across the soft rolling hills of Aberdeenshire to the coastal fishing village, Collieston. Or rather, former fishing village as now almost totally holiday homes.

Tarmac all the way; drivers courteous, no rain or threat, temps around 6 degrees and with the wind chill factor – sandwiches – or ‘pieces’ as we call them here – were eaten with gloves on. Wind of 10 – 15 mph on my right cheek going and variable on return journey.

Raven had been cleaned and brakes adjusted so no issues to report. Sometimes I wonder if it’s a bit boring? Always starts first time and ticks over with no rattles or squeaks. But then I give myself a good slap and realise I have the perfect bike for my needs. The odd loaded tour and a great run around. (38 x 17, 23 Kg, 1.50 Schwalbe Marathon Supremes fitted October 2020 – 6,000 miles 9,800 Km - plenty of tread left, Chainglider & today a cheapie rear rack bag for lunch. Coffee in a flask)

Off to a bad start direction wise. I’ve done this route many times before but my head was full of property sale junk. They say selling a house is as stressful as a divorce. I guess I’d choose the sale over the divorce – but there can’t be much in it. Between estate agents. buyer and solicitors – my head was spinning. So it was I took the wrong road out of Inverurie, adding a few miles to the trip.
I reminded myself that all things must pass and took in the scenery.

Lambing is just starting and they always put a smile on my face. Soon the property woes were forgotten and all I had to do was sit back and enjoy the ride.

I stopped off a couple of times to check on several geocaches I own – and even picked up a couple of new ones. I enjoy setting them now – rather than collecting them. It’s always nice to hear when folks find one and pass comment.

No need to rush the ride, so after a 0930 kick-off, I arrived at the Kirk (church) overlooking Collieston harbour for noon. Slains Kirk contains some very old graves, one of which is Robert Kennedy’s. He died 19th October 1798, cut down with a cutlass wielded by an excise man searching for smugglers. He was just 38, born 16 years before USA independence.

After setting a cache it was down to the harbour for lunch while I watched the rough waves breaking over the wall and a couple of hardy families searching the sandy beach with the tide well out. Gloves on while I ate and after a hot coffee it was back on the bike for a slightly more direct route home.

Daffodils road side brightened up an overcast afternoon

Stats today: 49 miles; 11 mph av; 27 mph max & 4hr 24 min ride time.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Andre Jute on April 14, 2022, 11:24:11 am

Those are grand photos, Matt, especially the one over the thermos flask: the essential tool of cycling at 6 degrees before the wind chill is taken into account.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: PH on April 14, 2022, 06:58:13 pm

Lovely report and pics Matt, sounds like the cobwebs were properly blown away, hope the property woes diminish.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: tyreon on April 19, 2022, 08:45:51 am

You are all positive fellows on this forum,and you all seem upbeat. I wish I was as it appears you all are. This is no critcism but only a comment upon my own 'failing'(s). As the years roll by and as my body weakens my stress levels in planning to tour(abroad)increases. Maybe its not the riding(tho the distances have been cut),but the preparation for what could go wrong increases. I think its all the palaver in arriving there,and arriving 'there' safely with bike intact and terrain covered. In my younger days I could do the longer distances and 'sleep' anywheres. Not so theseadays,and I'm more concerned about finding accommodation and not finding myself ill.

I'm off to Aranjuez soon. Spain. I have to get to my local airport with bike,get to Reus then get the train onto my destination. Simples,many might think. But altho I have done many journeys as like this one before,'officialdom' and rules and regs can make any journey(well,for me)stressful. There's always been lots of no's,or impossibles it seems. Yes,I have overcome them. But the added years have added added fears,and tho once there and cycling thereabouts is heaven,it seems I dont think I can take the stress much more.

Spain isnt the back of the beyond. But myself and my wife never know where we are to stay and have to adopt our routes according to terrain,weather,costs and the like. It adds flexibility and adventure,but at the cost of ease.

Now,I sometimes wonder why I do it...until I am doing it...and it all goes well!

Anyways,I hope to be travelling the unfettered and little car backroads of Spain within a couple of weeks. Toledo,Avila,Segovia. At present my main fear is that the railway clerks will try to send my on the fast train to near Aranjuez. Yes,I will be able to board the train with my folder(despite other clerks saying I cannot. I then have to demonstrate how the bike folds)But then I fear they might help me with train transfer times will have me running hither and thither across platform times to meet other trains I cannot meet due to my restricted arthritic condition. Por favor ayudarme la lento tran. No queiro las tran rapido. Estoy arthritico and viejo. Or something like that.

Wottacarryon,eh! ;)

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: in4 on April 19, 2022, 01:01:06 pm

Wishing you a fabulous journey and ensuing ride. You’ll be fine and have a great time. 😊

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Andre Jute on April 19, 2022, 04:33:27 pm

+1.

…and when we read your report and see your photos, we’ll all be saying, “Ooh, I wish I invited myself along on his tour! Gee, he even makes a good fist of the Spanglish.”

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Matt2matt2002 on April 19, 2022, 06:49:40 pm

Best of luck for the tour.
And remember;
You don't stop doing things because you're getting old , you get old because you stop doing things .

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: John Saxby on April 21, 2022, 05:17:22 am

Nicely said, Matt.

And tyreon, we'll look forward to your stories and photos. Safe journeys!

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: John Saxby on April 21, 2022, 05:26:07 am

Sundry scribblings from the Gold Coast, Down Unda

In late March we arrived in the Gold Coast—in the southeast corner of Queensland, tucked up against the NSW border—for a long overdue four-week visit with our son and his family. (Our last visit had been abruptly foreshortened by the pandemic in March 2020.)

We’ve been making these annual visits for a decade now, and as per usual, I brought my ti-framed derailleur Eclipse, a light tourer which I’ve owned for 20 years. It’s well-suited to day rides along the coast and into the hills further inland, but this has been its valedictory circuit, as I’m selling it in May, after we return to Ottawa.

On this visit, our priority has been grandparenting—getting to know our granddaughters again after a long absence, and easing some of the daily burden on their busy parents. Still, I’ve made time for rides up and down the coast, reacquainting myself with the GC’s extensive network of bike paths and designated routes, as well as the less-well-known but still demanding hills that pop up all over the coastal plain. Oh, and the winds too.

Following are my notes & photos from about 300 kms of longer and shorter rides, over the past two weeks-plus.

The colours

It’s an obvious thing to say, but never misplaced: ‘Straya’s colours are a visual feast after a Canadian winter. The “autumn” sun is strong but manageable; the sky is a bright cobalt (not so much when it’s raining); the sea has its own dramatic spectrum of blues, from midnight blue to a robin’s egg pastel; and a riot of greens borders much of the coastal bikepath network, some 50 kms N to S. In all that, a rider sees dramatic splashes of yellow, and less startling but still beautiful reds and purples.

(See photos 1, 2, & 3 below, and later, 12, 13, & 14 for the seacoast.)

Life on two wheels on the Gold Coast

The Gold Coast is a long and narrow amalgam of former holiday and fishing villages, about 50 kms N-S and up to 10 kms E-W. It now shows off a seriously posh side, with beachfront condos galore and more under constructions, and marinas sporting oligarchic yachts at anchor, looking for all the world like gleaming three-dimensional layer cakes. (I can’t offer any visual evidence, ‘cos my otherwise trusty Panasonic ZS40 balked at photographing examples: “Don’t even think about it, mate,” said the ever-so-polite-but-still-mechanical recorded voice.)

-- continued on the next post, with apologies for the "tensions" --

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: John Saxby on April 21, 2022, 05:30:18 am

-- whew! (exhales) --

On the other hand, the frequent pathside sculptures offer a passing cyclist more compact and attractive creations. (See photos 4 # 5.)

And happily, the camera readily bore witness to older and less ostentatious boats set beside a nicely realized modern bridge – see photo #6

Then, place names like “Sanctuary Cove” and “Runaway Bay” suggest a seafaring and scruffier side to the Coast. Some time back, I noticed road signs saying “Refuge Island”. “What 19th-century history lies behind that?” I wondered. As it turned out, none at all: Refuge Islands are to be found all over the place, and useful things they are, too, a late-20th-century device to help pedestrians navigate urban traffic: see photo #7.

-- cont'd in next post. (Note to self: work out a better balance of text & photos next time.) --

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: John Saxby on April 21, 2022, 05:35:31 am

Life on two wheels on the Gold Coast, cont'd:

Other road signs offer some enjoyable departures from standard-issue Canajan practice, such as photo #8. My own experience suggests that this one should also warn innocent ‘roos and koalas of the dangers posed by a rampant SUV or ute.

(A current ‘Strayan Dad Joke asks why the latter creatures are not true bears: It’s ‘cos they lack the necessary koalafications.)

Photo # 9 below shows a road sign only very distantly related to its Canajan counterpart—you won’t see this in the Gatineau Park. On the day I took this photo, an overnight rain had left puddles everywhere, and ten days earlier, 400 mm of rain in 36 hours (no typos there, please note) had given the forest a thorough soaking and left the creeks a-spilling. In the years I’ve been riding on this particular road, this is the first time I’ve seen the needle in the “Low-to-moderate” zone. And any slice termed “Negligible” need not apply for inclusion.

Wot?? Hills on a coastal plain?

To the west of the GC lies the Great Dividing Range, and to the south, the NSW Border Ranges. In the Coast itself, there are a lot of short-but-steep hills, where myriad streams from the hills have cut deep into the sandy coastal plain. And, the ridges between some of those streams and small rivers can be a challenge to a cyclist emerging from winter. A few years ago, the cold and snowbound winter months in Ottawa (from, say, late November to the end of March) posed no particular problem for exercise – cross-country skiing, skating and hockey took the place of cycling and hiking for keeping my legs and cardio-vascular system in shape. In recent years, osteoarthritis in both hips has stopped me from skating, and ruled out all but very gentle cross-country skiing. This past winter, I started using a stationary trainer bike, but it left me a long way short of where I wanted to be.

Two of my favourite rides are along and between two creeks in the south-central region of the Coast, the Tallebudgera and the Currumbin (love the names!) The height of land between the two is no more than a couple of hundred metres at most, but the connector road is narrow and steep-ish, with paved shoulders tiny or nonexistent. So, for most of the climb I used a paved walkway that’s safer but steeper than the roadway – 12%-plus, by my estimation. For most of it, I was down to my low x low gears on the Eclipse, 22 at the front x 34 at the rear. I was knackered at the top, but rewarded by the rapid descent. The only “but” was an SUV driver who simply couldn’t stand the embarrassment of being behind a bike doing 35-40 km/h, so just had to overtake me on the downhill, round a blind corner on a double white line. I reckon he beat me to the T-junction with the Currumbin Valley Road by a good two seconds, so the appalling risk to himself and others was clearly worth it.

The Currumbin Valley Road is especially attractive, its dense shade and decent surface making for a delightful ride. (Photo #10) It rises gradually alongside Currumbin Creek, and about ten kilometres from the coast, a left-hand turn takes a rider onto and up Tomewin Mountain Road, a challenging climb to the NSW border. Tomewin road angles up the outer eastern slope of the caldera of an ancient volcano. Riders pass through eucalyptus forests and bamboo groves, and the view south and west from the top is magnificent. On this ride, though, I chose to forego the climb – my right hip was already aching and grumbling, halfway through an 80-km there-and-back.

I found a quiet spot for my lunch break in a park beside a lagoon in Currumbin Creek (photo #11) – quiet, that is, until a commotion of swans decided that it was just the spot for a raucous policy discussion on whatever it was—cygnet-rearing practices, seasonings on the wee river creatures they were inhaling, entry fees, etc., etc. Remarkably, they maintained their serene physical postures throughout the colossal racket they made.

-- concluded on the next post --

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: John Saxby on April 21, 2022, 05:40:19 am

-- final bits of the story from Down Unda --

And the winds

Ah yes, the winds. Among the four aitches which can bedevil a cyclist (heat, humidity, hills and headwinds), ‘Straya’s autumnal equinox made the first two manageable, and I dodged the most difficult of the third.

The fourth, the wind, is a fixture of cycling on the Coast. Of course, I “knew” this from earlier visits, and of course my memory had, er, devalued that recollection. A couple of brief shakedown rides quickly refreshed my ageing memory. Shortly after reassembling my bike, I cycled north along the coast on two routes around the estuary of the Nerang River. On both, the homeward leg reminded me that the prevailing winds are southeasterlies, and that they come in brisk, stiff, or fierce modes, sometimes all in the space of a few hours. (There is a local story that there was once a gentle southeasterly, somewhere around 1946…) And, then—ah-ha!, sez I, your outbound leg is southwards, you dimwit; and if you leave early-ish, you’ll get no more than a brisk headwind, and then a stiff-to-fierce tailwind home. You’ve done it before, and it’s no different now. Ummm, yes, sir, thank you sir.

The standard-issue winds are evident in these panoramas of the surf, beaches and heads between Surfers Paradise (just south of where our family lives) and Burleigh, just north of the Tallebudgera and Currumbin Creeks: photos #12, 13, & 14.

We’re thankful to our Aussie family for many things, especially for just being who they are. But also, for giving us a reason to visit the GC. Next time, I hope to bring my new Mercury Mk 3; and if my wonky hips are up to it, the lower gearing of the Rohloff will make the Tomewin Mountain Road a doddle ;)

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Andre Jute on April 21, 2022, 10:05:29 am

You’ve outdone yourself with this fabulous report, Master Saxby. It has everything I miss in your modern and-then-the-famous-Blue-Train-dumped-us-at-XYZ-but-I’m-not-telling-you-why-I-wanted-to-go-there class of travel description: unselfconscious, decent English that becomes literary by not trying to impress at the cost of comprehension; expert, crisp photos nicely cropped in the camera; everything given a proper proportional value.

I haven’t surfed on the Gold Coast since c1972 and it is unlikely that I will see it again — and certainly I’ll never surf there again! But I can see why my brother-in-law, who worshipped the sun, retired there. But I think you did exactly the right thing by contrasting the super beaches with the bloody skyscrapers behind.

I can’t help viewing the acacia (golden wattle, photo 3) with deep, deep suspicion. Those flowers look exactly like the thorny gorse that borders the lanes in Ireland, lying in wait for the careless or ignorant — once — cyclist. And it is a shame that you didn’t grab a couple of swan-parliamentarians for me, to replace the pair broken up on the river below my house by some foolish person’s wretched pet killing the female.

By the way, the motor-and-serious-sail yacht under the beautiful bridge in photo 6 is likely to cost as much as the smaller of the gin palaces your camera was too dignified to photograph, but the money went into seaworthiness and unsupported range rather than flash.

Welcome back, John — and the Gold Coast!

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: John Saxby on April 21, 2022, 10:22:06 am

Thanks, Andre, you're too kind, as always ;)

I was reflecting on Things Not Mentioned: the road surfaces are brilliant, utterly unlike the shambolic streets--tarmac patchwork--in the place I call home. OTOH, I don't think I've ever seen a place with more shards of glass strewn all over the shoulders. My Marathon Supremes gasped, but saw me through.

There were more than a few bizarre "Driver Incidents": doors being opened when I was abreast of the car, which happily I'd anticipated and swung wide; being whooshed on narrow bridges by monster pickups, etc., etc. Abnd this anthropological oddity: seems that a great many drivers in both the GC and Ottawa have a structural impediment, a frozen right ankle which prevents them from lifting their foot off the loud pedal. Seems to be largely a Guy Thing, but I can't figure if it's a requirement of getting a driver's licence, or something acquired through practice.

On the subject of Other Two-Wheelers, I saw a couple of nice Nortons, complete with chattery valve gear: one a mid/early '70s Commando, but nicely decked out in non-standard dark grey; and the other an early/mid '60s featherbed-framed vertical twin, black and grey, maybe the 650 or possibly a very spiffy Atlas.

On gorse: yes, I recall that from the Dorset heath as a kid. Dodgy stuff. I think this was wattle. There are lots of acacias, but none with any blossoms right now. Some nice clusters of bougainvillea. And--no fotos, sorry--the white ibis, a.k.a "bin chickens" here, and cousins to the hadedas, nazguls of the South African skies, tho' these ones aren't so noisy and generally terrifying.

Best, J.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: PH on April 21, 2022, 12:56:05 pm

Enjoyed reading that John, thanks.
But selling the bike you've had for twenty years :o

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: John Saxby on April 21, 2022, 09:23:20 pm

Thanks, PH.

Selling the Eclipse: and the irony is, after years & years of frustration with the gearing and rear derailleurs, I finally got it all sorted during the pandemic.

All in a good cause, however: I'm selling the Eclipse and my Raven to part-finance a lovely new gunmetal Mercury Mk 3. This is nearly assembled, & shd be ready to go in the first week of May. Hope to do my first rides in the Gatineau hills across the river shortly, notes & photos to follow.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: navrig on April 22, 2022, 01:48:17 pm

Not sure summer can be deemed to have arrived in Scotland on 2 April of any year however we have had a few sunny short rides.

This is my new steed collected in March as a retirement treat. The lump in the background is the Bass Rock off the East Lothian coast. It was a fresh but sunny day.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Matt2matt2002 on April 22, 2022, 02:03:55 pm

Navrig: what a lovely looking bike.
Perhaps a trick of the light or my poor eyesight but are the discs blue?

I'm just back from 3 days on Orkney and felt Spring had almost arrived
Happy cycling days ahead for us Scotland based Thorn owners

Best

Matt

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: navrig on April 22, 2022, 02:10:26 pm

Quote from: Matt2matt2002 on April 22, 2022, 02:03:55 pm

Navrig: what a lovely looking bike.
Perhaps a trick of the light or my poor eyesight but are the discs blue?

I'm just back from 3 days on Orkney and felt Spring had almost arrived
Happy cycling days ahead for us Scotland based Thorn owners

Best

Matt

Matt - it's a Shand Stoater in Prussian blue however Google photos has fiddled with the lighting giving the impression of blue discs.

I have been to Shetland a few times but other than sitting on the runway I haven't seen Orkney. Shetland on a sunny day is stunning. Thankfully I spent a day there in June on a blue sky day otherwise my 2x 6 week stays in Jan/Feb were pretty drab!!

Scotland is great for cycling. Mallaig to East Lothian in July for me. My very first tour. Wish me luck.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Andre Jute on April 22, 2022, 02:45:31 pm

Dramatic photo — and I too was just about to ask where you got the blue discs…

Is that sunwhitened guano on the Bass Rock and the other hill, or snow that hasn’t got the memo that Summer starts on 1 April, not coincidentally April Fool’s Day?

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: navrig on April 22, 2022, 04:15:00 pm

Quote from: Andre Jute on April 22, 2022, 02:45:31 pm

Dramatic photo — and I too was just about to ask where you got the blue discs…

Is that sunwhitened guano on the Bass Rock and the other hill, or snow that hasn’t got the memo that Summer starts on 1 April, not coincidentally April Fool’s Day?

The white is probably more grey and comes from, mostly, birds (gannets) rather than guano.

More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_Rock#Fauna_and_flora

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: PH on April 24, 2022, 01:50:08 pm

Quote from: John Saxby on April 21, 2022, 09:23:20 pm

I'm selling the Eclipse and my Raven to part-finance a lovely new gunmetal Mercury Mk 3. This is nearly assembled, & shd be ready to go in the first week of May. Hope to do my first rides in the Gatineau hills across the river shortly, notes & photos to follow.

Big changes! Hope the new bike is everything you want. Look forward to your impressions when the time comes.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Andre Jute on April 24, 2022, 02:50:27 pm

Thanks, Navrig. The island certainly has a dramatic history. I didn’t know guano isn’t a generic name for all bird dung clinging to a rock.

***
John, I hope you’ve arranged with the new owners that you’ll be keeping your broken-in saddles… — (signed) JOHN BROKEBACK BROOKS esq

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Andre Jute on May 28, 2022, 10:05:35 pm

Apologies for not having a more dramatic photograph but, since for the first time in near enough two and a half years I've been out on my bike several days in a row, I've been inspecting favorite lanes to discover whether they still deserve to be favorites or have degenerated during the Chinese Pandemic. To my pleasant surprise, the County Council has used the nearly traffic-free time to restore some of the lanes to at least a level state. This particular lane has only two houses on it, and hadn't been resurfaced in the twenty-odd years I've been using it to avoid riding on a lethal road (black spots every few hundred yards), except for irregular pothole filling which was often a cure worse than the disease. But now they've run the chip and seal machine over it, and it's level and when the loose chips are gone will be pleasant to cycle on.

(http://www.coolmainpress.com/miscimage/Andre%20Jute%20Lane%20with%20new%20surface%20after%20pandemic%20May%202022%20800pxh.jpg)

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Danneaux on May 28, 2022, 10:30:51 pm

My! You surely live -- and ride -- in a marvelously scenic area, Andre!

Best, Dan.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Andre Jute on August 16, 2022, 12:10:26 am

After two glorious weeks of August in the mid-20Cs here in beautiful West Cork, today we had the logical conclusion of a powerful, low-flying thunderstorm. The tall tree on the left of the photo is the eucalyptus outside my study window, the last greenery you can see downhill towards the town is less than a hundred yards away, the normal horizon of a ridge of hills on the far side of the Bandon River is invisible as is the substantial river in the valley. In visibility this poor, despite the fact that I ride mainly on very small lanes where the residents drive with consideration for each others' children (and incidentally me, though some of them think I live on their lanes), I stay off the road because it takes only one bolshie lawyer to drive his SUV faster on the larger connecting roads than the mist will allow, and goodbye cyclist. My bikes are too young to be Ghost Bikes. (http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=11391.msg82452#msg82452)

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Danneaux on August 16, 2022, 04:08:50 am

Quote

...today we had the logical conclusion of a powerful, low-flying thunderstorm.

You sure did, Andre! Wonderful photo.

I was riding my Nomad well into the evening last week after a long day ride when the air "turned" and I sensed something Big was coming, so I headed home 'fast as I could. I'd just gotten in the garage when the skies opened up with lightning and -- unusual for us -- golf ball-sized hail just before 22:00. I was very grateful to have just missed it on my bike, especially as it was dark and the last of the ride lacked tree cover.

The car is temporarily in the drive while my new solid bamboo flooring is in the garage until I get on the stick and install it. Concerned about hail that sounded like falling hammers on the garage roof, I dashed out in it to cover the car with old moving blankets, hoping to prevent hailstone damage. It worked, as the next morning saw no damage at all, though the moving blankets were torn in several places by the 'stones. My neighbor's Subaru was not so lucky; it has dimples on all the horizontal surfaces.

Here's hoping your thunderstorm had only light and sound, not the "gift" of large hailstones as well.

All the best, Dan.

*Note: First photo of the hailstone is not mine; it was posted without attribution to my neighborhood's Facebook page.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Andre Jute on August 16, 2022, 05:31:17 am

Ouch! Shiver-making photographs, Dan.

We get several hailstorms every year and occasionally get caught in them on our bikes. But the stones are small diamonds, not that enough of them hitting your face in the same place can't bruise, and even the small ones can cut, just like diamonds. We've never failed to find shelter, though. There are always trees near where we ride. The carpet of small stones, which can take a while to melt in the winter, when we're not inclined to lollop under trees waiting for them to melt and then run the risk that they form ice on the road, can be more of a menace as it is difficult for two-wheelers to find footing in them.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: JohnR on August 16, 2022, 12:13:30 pm

I went to Bangladesh at the start of 1984 for some work and wondered why the project car had dents and a plastic sheet instead of a back window. I initially assumed that it had been caught in a brick-throwing riot and then learnt that it had been in the wrong place at the wrong time when some large hailstones fell out of the sky. Google reveals that some of the Bangladesh hailstones can be deadly - not something I would want to encounter on a bike! Even pea-sized hailstones can make a lot of noise and be unpleasant although not damaging.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Andre Jute on August 16, 2022, 09:32:18 pm

Quote from: JohnR on August 16, 2022, 12:13:30 pm

...some of the Bangladesh hailstones can be deadly - not something I would want to encounter on a bike!

Where I grew up, in the Little Karoo desert in South Africa, there was a thunderstorm every afternoon in the summer. The stones were generally the least of your worries, thumbnail size. You soon learned not to seek out the lone tree on a plain for shelter, because it would act as a mast for lightning. The better idea was to find a foxhole and scurry down it because otherwise you'd be the tallest thing on the land. There were succulents too, of which the aloe called Turksvei would grow to taller than a man, but somehow they never attracted the lightning when you needed them to, and they weren't dense enough to hide under and anyway were covered in dangerously large thorns.

But even with a foam helmet, i wouldn't want to be out in hail with the stones of the size Dan is showing. That's concussionville, or worse.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: John Saxby on August 20, 2022, 09:39:47 pm

First blush of autumn in the Gatineau hills -

No fierce weather here in recent days, but today I went for a couple of hours' ride across the river and into the Gatineau hills, and a bright mid-August morning rewarded me with a couple of early signs of autumn.

Photo #1 below shows a splash on goldenrod on one side of the road, and #2, the first red blush of sumac.

There'll be more to come in the next 6-8 weeks, but I won't be able to ride up & into the foliage. In a few days' time, I'll have hip-replacement surgery on my right hip. My physio does say, however, that if all goes well, I should be able to make a celebratory ride before the snow flies 🤞

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: John Saxby on August 20, 2022, 09:58:37 pm

Headwinds, Horseflies and Loose Gravel:
Notes on cycle-camping with Freddie the Mercury

By way of introduction--

At the end of June, I made a long-awaited overnight cycle-camping trip with Freddie, my new Mercury. This was an opportunity to ride the new bike with a light camping load, and to test a new tent at the same time. I chose a familiar route in the neighbourhood: The outward leg headed south and slightly west of Ottawa to and along the Rideau Waterway (rivers, lakes, canals and locks) to the village of Merrickville, and thence to a campsite at Kilmarnock Lock, which I had visited in late August 2021. The return leg completed a loop, taking me northwards and then northeast away from the water, returning home via a rail trail to the Ottawa River bikepath network.

On this ride, I added some wrinkles: Outbound, I followed tarmac roads south to the city limits, headed west through farmland, and as I rode southwest towards Merrickville, turned onto gravel roads before returning to tarmac for the final riverside stretch to my campsite. Returning, I rode north on tarmac, and then northeast on gravel, followed by a short stretch of tarmac until I reached the rail trail which took me to the Ottawa River bikepath and thence to home. My total distance was about 165 kms, of which about a third was gravel and rail trail.

Here’s the route on Googlemaps: https://tinyurl.com/z4z87hdt (https://tinyurl.com/z4z87hdt) (The mapped route doesn’t include a wrong turn I made in the back country on the homeward leg, which gave me an extra 6 - 8 kms.)

And those headwinds’n’such: (Notes on gear and setup of the bike follow further below.)

My southern route out of Ottawa takes me along bikepaths and bikes lanes on arterial roads that roughly parallel the Rideau River. The route runs through and beside portions of Ottawa’s urban forest, now looking bashed-about. In late May, we were battered by a fierce windstorm, variously described as a horizontal tornado, a downburst, or a “derecho”. Odd name for a brutal windstorm – “derecho” is “right” or “law” in Spanish. But whatever its moniker, its path covered about 1,000 kms between Windsor and Québec, and in Ottawa, its gusts reached 190 km/h. This is enough to take down thick wooden power poles and metal traffic-lights, to rip up tall softwood trees with shallow root systems—conifers and poplars, for example—and to split big hardwoods like maples and ironwoods. As many as a third of the city’s population, more than 300,000 people, lost power; some friends were without electricity for a week or ten days. This is our third serious windstorm in five years. We should expect more of the same, according to sobering commentary from the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction. (And more anecdotally, from our home insurance company as well: checking the provision for wind damage in our own policy, I was told that most of their claims these days are for wind, fire and flood. Mere B-and-E’s scarcely register.) The imperative of adaptation seems unavoidable.

A month later, the evidence beside me was stark – huge open slashes in the tree cover, as much as a hundred metres wide and half a kilometre long, tree trunks randomly scattered about, and big piles of sawn logs awaiting collection. (To the City’s credit, the bike paths were cleared very quickly, so that people could go about their business. Some major arterial roads were closed for a couple of weeks.) The path of this storm was long and narrow, however: after I reached the southern outskirts of the city, some 20-plus kms south of the Ottawa River, I saw very little storm damage.

Leaving the city is an unattractive reminder of how Ottawa has sprawled in the last 40-plus years or so: broad bands of suburbs encircle the older core of the city, single-storey shopping malls and low-rise residences connected/divided by multi-lane arterial roads full of large SUVs and even larger pickup trucks. For a cyclist, c’est pas fun, as they say in Québec, even though some of the arterial roads have bike lanes on each side. And, the absurdity of building a sprawling city and a transport system based on motor traffic in our geography and climate soon becomes obvious to a cyclist (as it does every spring), even to one who thought he knew the terrain: the road surfaces are scarred with longitudinal and latitudinal frost heaves, cracks and potholes. They’re fewer and smaller on the newer roads, but it’s only a matter of time, and not much at that. A couple of years ago, the city declared a climate emergency; despite that, I saw no solar panels on all those low-rise roofs, and the rightly-maligned Ford F150 retains its ranking as Canada’s best-selling vehicle. Maybe the climate-emergency declaration was just “aspirational”?—but I reckon that’s too kind, that “nugatory” is closer to the mark.

I can manage the potholes and even the traffic – it’s the waves of existential despair that bug me…

But no matter, after just a few kms of decrepit shoulder on a once-charming secondary road beside the river, I turned west onto a rural road nearly empty of traffic, with 20-acre fields of sunlit cropland on either side of me. I felt better immediately, breathing the country air. And then, I needed more of it, and still more of it; and, then down onto the drops, yet more of that blessed country air. The bits of forest, damaged as they are, and even the built-up ‘burbs, unappealing as they are, had shielded me from delightful but very stiff westerlies – a long way from 190 km/h, to be sure, but challenging enough at 60 km/h and more. I don’t use a speedo, but I reckon I barely made it into double digits – a 5-km stretch with very gentle undulations took me about 30 minutes. I spent much of that time in 4th & 5th gear.

That soon changed as I angled south-west and onto even quieter rural roads. Here, forest cover shielded me from the wind, and I rolled along sweetly in 10th and even 11th. I had chosen a route that would take me onto gravel, and that soon appeared. Rural gravel roads are common enough in Eastern Ontario and West Québec, and where there are farms along them, the gravel is usually fairly hard-packed and smooth. We had had some rain two nights earlier, so these roads had no dust or corrugations, and very little loose gravel – the passage of cars and trucks had pushed the loose gravel into three tidy shallow rows, one on each side and one in the middle. I could have been on tarmac, and rolled along in 9th and 10th listening to birdsong. I returned to the tarmac a couple of kilometres north of the Rideau at Burritt’s Rapids, and crossed to the pretty south-bank road for the easy run-in to Merrickville. The 70 kms or so had taken me about 4 hours of riding.

I stopped for a midafternoon meal at the Main Street Restaurant, seeking one of its uncomplicated dishes on its expansive patio. I treated myself to a chicken parmigiana with salad and iced tea, and leaned Freddie against the nearby rail fence. Cyclists often attract interest, especially those d’un certain âge. I was wearing a canary-yellow vest over a close-to-lurid yellow/lime summer cycling jersey, and one of the servers said, “Wow! Good for you – drivers will see you in that! I wear the same stuff.” We chatted about the virtues of conspicuity, and of the imperative of surviving to ride some more.

My meal finished, I was preparing to move on, and a voice said, “Like your bike!” The voice belonged, I learned, to Franco, who lived in Ottawa and was visiting Merrickville with his wife and father-in-law. Then, along came Michaela, his wife, sent by her dad to find Franco – he had disappeared, and they were sure he was chatting with someone. In their forties (I was guessing), they said they were both just getting into cycle-touring, and were curious about Freddie and my cycling and camping gear. I explained Freddie’s lineage, and we compared notes about Arkel, Revelate and Apidura bags, with a digression into my membership in the Church of Rohloff.

There’s a bond among touring cyclists, and this cheerful 20-minute chat brought back a similar one a couple of weeks earlier. Returning from a 3-hr out-and-back along the river and into the farmland west of Ottawa, I caught up with a fellow on a fully-loaded touring bike. I slowed to say hello, and asked where he had come from, and where he was going. “Just returning from an overnight at Fitzroy,” he said, naming a provincial park 55 kms north of Ottawa on the river. “And, I’m heading home – I live in Kanata.” He asked if I could show him the route to the bikepath that would take him to the western part of the city, and I was happy to do so. Rick was his name, and for his 60th birthday he’d treated himself to a Surly Midnight Special with all the trimmings. And, he was over the moon: “I’ve just done my first tour,” he said. “My legs are gone, but otherwise I’m OK, and I loved it!” He is a specialist instrument technician with an Ottawa firm, and is about to scale back to 3 days a week for two years, before retiring. The Surly was to be his entrée to a new phase of his life. I applauded his good judgment and said that with more mileage, his legs would be fine. I told him a little about myself, including buying Freddie as a 75th birthday prezzie to myself. Said he, graciously, “Well, I figured you for maybe your late ‘60s. In 15 years’ time I’d love to be doing what you’re doing.”

The last 10 kms to Kilmarnock Lock were straightforward enough, with little traffic on the river road. But, although the headwinds had eased a bit, I was tired, and my hip muscles were aching. I was pleased to find a quiet spot amid the cedars in the camping area just downstream from the lock, in virtually the same spot where I’d camped in late August last year.

There were some clouds overhead, and a forecast of possible showers, so I pitched camp quickly; and, showers aside, I was keen to try out my spiffy new Nemo Dragonfly two-person tent in its natural habitat. I had bought the Nemo more than six months earlier in midwinter, from a local outdoor gear supplier selling end-of season stock. Photos #1 & #2 below show the Nemo in our back yard, without the flysheet, and under the cedars at Kilmarnock Lock. The tent is nominally a 2-person design, but those two people would have to be very slender and enjoy being very close to each other: the Nemo is 48” wide at the head, and 42” wide at the foot. For me, wide shoulders an’ all, it’s spacious; and, it has 42” of headroom. There’s space enough for me to do most of my end-of-ride yoga inside if I need to. (As it happened on this day, the brisk westerlies did what they were intended to – they kept the mozzies at bay until nightfall.)

The Nemo weighs 3 lbs 3 oz – just 3oz more than the one-person Tarptent Moment DW which I’ve used since 2015, in its heaviest configuration. The Tarptent has served me well, and is very spacious, but its highest point is at the beltline of the tent, not over my head; hence, the positioning and the extra few inches of height which the Nemo offers make ingress and egress much easier. The vestibules on the Tarptent are quite generous, but those on the Nemo are larger still. As a bonus, its stuff sack is the best I’ve yet encountered: large enough to accept the inner and fly without curses and grunts from its owner, and snug enough to be tidy on the rear rack, while just fitting under my seat bag. The only “but” by comparison with the Tarptent is that its inner tent and fly are not conjoined, so require sequential setup. Nevertheless, setup is quick and easy, and the Nemo is fully free-standing, and the Tarptent is not. So, it’s a keeper.

Having assured my shelter for the night, I took a swim in the canal, downstream from the lower gates of the lock. I had the peaceful setting all to myself. (See photo #3) The lockstation has a loo for the use of campers and boaters, an addition to the original lockmaster’s house in the photo, but no shower. As ever, a Canadian lake or river does the necessary at the end of a day’s ride. Followed as usual by a couple of cups of The Great Rejuvenator, strong black Yorkshire tea with condensed milk. Who knew that the Yorkshire dales were home to such divine stuff?

Sipping my tea and scribbling my notes as the late-afternoon sun banished the clouds, I heard a scraping and scuffling from the wooden dock just downstream. A big fellow, thirty-ish, came by carrying his kayaking paddle and a drybag. He was knackered, having just finished two hours’ paddling from Merrickville, straight into the headwind. I sympathized, saying it was a good thing he wasn’t paddling a canoe, all the while secretly relieved that I had recovered from the effects of 4 ½ hours’ ride against the wind. He was heading to Kingston, the southern terminus of the Rideau Canal, a hundred kms away. A bold soul indeed: for most kayakers, that would be three days’ work, but most paddlers make the journey from the south, so that the prevailing westerlies are at their back. He was a motorcyclist and a cyclist as well as a paddler, so we chatted about two-wheelers and boats. He rode a Suzuki rocket, the one-litre GSX four, and said he thinking of selling it – he found it uncomfortable over any distance. I mentioned that I’d ridden various Suzukis in the ‘60s and ‘70s, including two of the 500cc two-stroke twins, which were the best of the lot. I might have been speaking of antiques. He nodded, and said, “Yes, I’ve heard tell that those were very good bikes.”

After we wished each other safe journeys and tailwinds, I made an early night of it. The wind dropped, as it does, and only of few drops of rain came down. I went to sleep to a symphony of night birds and frogs, with the high whine of a swarm of mozzies outside the tent.

(Next instalment continues below.)

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Andre Jute on August 20, 2022, 11:38:26 pm

Quote

I can manage the potholes and even the traffic – it’s the waves of existential despair that bug me…

I prefer the potholes to the traffic, and in my lanes existentialism hardly exist among the calves and the baby birds and young fox families to be shepherded away from the dog kennels. Actually, I'm too cheerful a fellow to despair, and I got put off by occasionally seeing J-P Sartre when I was a student: he never smiled. He wasn't a cyclist.

Quote

Here’s the route on Googlemaps: https://tinyurl.com/z4z87hdt (The mapped route doesn’t include a wrong turn I made in the back country on the homeward leg, which gave me an extra 6 - 8 kms.)

Dragging the mouse across the map, it causes a window to pop up, which announces that you covered 158km in 8hrs 7mins. Holy Moses, in part against 60kph winds! It sounds like your new Mercury is a very speedy (touring) bike indeed.

Thanks for sharing, John, and I'm looking forward to the other half of your journey.

Good luck with the hip replacement.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: John Saxby on August 20, 2022, 11:49:35 pm

Headwinds, Horseflies and Loose Gravel:
Notes on cycle-camping with Freddie the Mercury

(2nd & final instalment)

I made a relaxed start to the next day, departing around 9:30 after a breakfast of hot cereal with dried fruit and tea. Rechecking my route on the Osmand app on my phone, I reckoned I had half an hour or so of secondary tarmac, followed by about an hour-plus of gravel through the public forest of Montague Township before returning to the farmland west of Ottawa. I had a snack in my handlebar bag—a wrap in foil made the day before, some fruit, and a hardboiled egg. I reckoned to reach Stittsville, a village on the western edge of metropolitan Ottawa by about 1:00, in good time for lunch at a café.

The early stages of my homeward leg followed the script: a half-hour-plus northwards on good secondary tarmac, a fresh breeze on my left quarter (good for the kayaker, I said to myself.) Then, at Nolan’s Corners (the name an echo of Irish settlement in the 19th century—did Nolan work on building the Canal? I wondered) I turned east on fast hard-packed gravel. After several kms, I came to Pinery Road, my left turn to the north and east – and the story deviated from the script. I eased into Pinery and immediately found myself riding on a layer of loose, freshly-graded gravel over a base of hard-pack: “freshly-graded”, as in, maybe done the previous day, as there were no vehicle tracks at all to pack down or disperse the gravel. “OK, Freddie,” sez I, “you’ll not have encountered this stuff before. We’ll take our time, no quick movements, and at least there’s no traffic.”

Indeed there was no traffic, beyond one guy coming the other way on a fatbike, well-suited to the surface. Riding on that surface was akin to, I dunno, riding on a layer of irregular marbles. At least there were no corrugations, and no hills – just a few short upgrades as we moved further away from the river, and happily, no downgrades. Knowing that there was hardpack beneath the marbles helped, because I knew I could get some traction if Freddie’s 40mm Supremes could nudge through to the base. Most of the time, they did. I had backed off the pressure in my tires a little after my first day, to 50 PSI at the front and about 55-56 at the rear—that certainly felt more comfortable, and probably improved the bike’s traction as well.

The map had shown just a handful of homesteads along the road, and as I continued, I realized that Pinery Rd was basically a forest access road. Accordingly, the Extenuating Circumstances quickly appeared, in the form of clusters of horseflies, maybe a dozen or more at a time. No worries, sez I to myself, where there are horseflies, dragonflies will follow, Nature will be in harmony, and you can focus on riding through the marbles. Not. In my years of canoeing in parc de la Vérendrye, I never fussed about horseflies, ‘cos there were hordes of dragonflies. Not so in Montague Township Forest: there be no dragonflies in yonder forest, and the horseflies there fly free to feast upon the backs of the hands of cyclists foolish enough to pass through.

All-of-a-sudden, then, the task of maintaining stability, traction and reasonable forward motion without any sudden movements atop the marbles became more complicated: how to do all that with just one hand on the handlebar, whilst the other swats at (and occasionally hits) ravenous horseflies atop the hand on the handlebar? And then, of course, one has to switch hands and repeat.

Well, we made it, and without mishap. But, it took a good 90 minutes, and c’était pas fun, non, pas du tout. And I can’t even recommend the scenery: maybe there really is such a thing as Too Many Spruce Trees. It’s not so much the conifers themselves, y’see, as the wretched horseflies they shelter. Perhaps yesterday’s headwinds (converted to today’s tailwinds) might’ve helped, but who knows? On this day, they had become gentle tailwinds. And horseflies are macho buggers – they despise weak winds.

Leaving the forestry road and heading for tertiary tarmac and good gravel, my junction was unsigned; looking skyward, I took what I thought was the easterly road that would soon lead to a T-junction that would take me north. Shoulda double-checked my map, duh: after a couple of kilometres, giddy with speed on hard gravel, I did check my map, and, er, retraced my route for my real turn east and then north. No harm done, tho’ I felt like a right chump, and I carried on north towards Stittsville. As I entered farming country again—marginal farming, to be sure—the horseflies duly scattered to the safety of their coniferous lairs. On a mix of hardpack gravel and tertiary tarmac, I paused roadside for a midday snack untroubled by any buzzing flies. Passing through the hamlet of Ashton Station, home to the old and locally famous General Store (now closed :() and the resurgent Ashton Brew Pub, a few more kms brought me to the rail trail that runs eastward into Stittsville, and eventually, into Ottawa’s west end.

The rail trail was quiet, with just a few riders and hikers west of Stittsville. The surface is reasonably firm and smooth, and the recent rain had laid the dust quite nicely. As the rail trail met Stittsville’s Main Street, I was tickled to find myself next door to a suitable riposte to the horseflies: the Ritual on Main café had a big sign advertising fresh ice cream. A decent cappuccino, a serious butter tart and a hefty double blueberry ice cream made for a good mid-afternoon snack, enough to see me home along the rail trail and the Ottawa River bike path. The trail is a much better way to return to the city than the southern route—and indeed to leave it, so long as a rider wants to go west. The arterial roads are still all around, of course, with their torrent of pickups and the like, but delicate souls like me don’t have to look at the wretched things :)

Gear and setup of the bike:

This was just an overnight mini-tour, and as I planned to eat a couple of meals in cafés en route, I carried only a light camping load:

•   Tent and groundsheet, sleeping bag and mattress;
•   Clothing (socks, underwear and T-shirt), raingear and rubber camp shoes;
•   Stove, cookware, and food for a cooked breakfast and lunch & snacks on the road;
•   Phone, sunblock, bug veil and dope, and toiletries, some electronics (storage battery & cables), wallet, keys, sunglasses and backup glasses;
•   Tools, spares, clickstand, pump and lock.

Total weight of these items was about 25 lbs. The tent went on top of my rear rack, and the rest I packed into my Arkel Dry-lite panniers on the rear, a Revelate Sweetroll (medium) suspended from the front T-bar, and an Axiom handlebar bag.

The rear rack merits a heads-up footnote:

When I ordered my Mercury frameset, forks and components, I planned to use my spare Tubus Vega rear rack. In my prep for this trip, I was surprised to see that the Mercury has just one threaded hole above each rear dropout. These would accept bolts for rear mudguard stays or a rear rack, but not both – at least, not easily or quickly.

Wot to do? A friend recommended I consider a Tubus Disco rack, which is designed to work with a disc-braked rear wheel, and which mounts via a QR hub skewer. The Disco is not widely available, but I found one online (at a DISCOunt, no less) and it arrived in time for me to mount it on my Mercury. Doing so was reasonably straightforward, but – it didn’t quite “just bolt on, sir”:

•   The brake side of the wheel (with the QR lever) required an array of spacers to clear the disc. Happily, my habit of collecting such things meant that I could create the necessary clearance. Having done so, and then checking that I could easily remove the QR skewer, I realized that I wouldn’t look forward to removing the wheel roadside on a rainy night; or indeed on a muddy back road in the daytime.

•   Then, mounting my Dry-lites--which I had set up for the Tubus Vega rack—onto the Disco, I discovered that the arched “bridge” between the V-shaped vertical struts on each side of the Disco (which would accept the elasticated hook of each pannier) was about 5 cms closer to the “shelf” of the rack than was its Vega counterpart. That meant that my Dry-lites’ fastening hooks weren’t even close to the tension necessary to hold the plot in place; this, even after maximum adjustment of the straps between the two panniers atop the “shelf” of the rack. Boooo!

And once again, wot to do? A bodge did the trick — elegant in conception, I have to say, if less so in execution: I fastened a small P-clamp around the apex of the V on each side of the rack, and the tensioned hook of each Dry-lite nicely fits into the curvature of the “P”. Et voilà! – functionality restored. [photo #4]

•   Of course, there’s followup in the form of a winter project: fit the Vega rack. A closer preliminary look suggests that the Vega and the fender stay clamp will fit together via a single bolt on each side. TBD, and – who knows? – next spring, maybe I’ll have a spare Disco rack for those hankering for one.

Performance of the Mercury in light-touring mode:

The bike was smooth and comfortable, as expected, and entirely at home on tarmac and hard-pack gravel. I’ve done only limited mileage this spring and summer, so I didn’t push myself on this ride. That said, although I was tired at the end of the first day, I felt much better at the end of nearly six hours’ riding on the second day.

My time on the loose gravel of the forestry road was useful (if not much fun), though, because it showed me the limits of my 650B x 1.6” (40mm) Marathon Supremes. I think that particular surface would test most bikes and riders, but tires in the 50 – 60 mm range on the Mercury would likely offer more stability, comfort and confidence. (The rider on the fatbike on Pinery Rd was running tires that looked close to 3.0”.)

All that said, my future touring will almost certainly be on tarmac or good gravel by choice, and in any case, Schwalbe in its inscrutable wisdom makes no wider 650B Supreme than the 1.6” I currently have. So, the issue of wider tires for loose gravel becomes a cow’s opinion (i.e., a mooed point.)

Racks and bags:

•   Next spring or early summer, I hope, I’ll test the Mercury on a short tour with my preferred setup: Vega rear rack with Arkel Dry-lites, and a lightweight Arkel front rack with lightweight panniers.
•   The jury is still out on the Revelate Sweetroll (medium) bag. It weighs only about 12 oz, and easily swallows my rain gear, first aid kit, and so on. It flops around a bit, though, moving fore and aft, thus putting a bit of pressure on the Rohloff’s shifter cables. (This wasn’t an issue on the Raven with its slightly different cable routing.
•   On this trip, I didn’t take the Revelate medium frame bag I normally use; instead, I took a large (7 ltr) Axiom handlebar bag, which worked well enough.
•   There are a few possible combinations for frame bags and handlebar bags of different sizes, weights, and dimensions, the choice to be made according to the tour, terrain & weather.

So there we are -- first camping impressions, if a bit delayed... :(

Comments and questions always welcome, but it may take me a while to reply.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: hendrich on August 21, 2022, 03:48:38 pm

Hi John,

I enjoyed reading your trip account and found it a great enticement for a new area to ride. Although, horseflies are an apex predator during even moderate climbs. On a tandem, they be crafty devils with much kayaker-like experience in finding eddy currents between the captain and stoker. Large chucks of flesh are then extracted. But I digress, the ride along the Rideau Canal looks interesting. Is this possibly a continuation of the Cataraqui trail? Many interesting lakes along that way. In the past, we have toured along the St. Lawrence on 2, but parts of 2 are not so enjoyable. Instead, perhaps from Kingston we could head north, connect with the Cataraqui trail to near Ottawa and then the Prescott Russel Trail eastward. Any experience with these trails?

We looped Gaspe this year starting from Trois Rivieres. We will approach Perce from the south next time, that was work! The ride from Matapedia through Amqui was stunningly beautiful (as was the entire ride). Learned much about Quebec church history (not so good) and the salmon rivers north of Matapedia. We stopped on a bridge overlooking the Matapedia river some distance north and met a person who pointed to salmon in the river eddies by some fishermen. During our chat with him, he said he owned 20 km of the river and that he was looking after his customers. I’m not sure if he meant just the fishing rights or the whole river. People pay large sums of money to coax a fish from the eddy. We left with an eerie feeling.

We are on our 2nd Nemo tent. The first succumbed to UV damage after 9 years. A 3 person tent is the right size for 2 people, and importantly, a bit more length for a taller person.

The best of luck with your hip surgery. I hope you are soon back on the Mercury humming Bohemian Rhapsody.
Mike

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: John Saxby on August 22, 2022, 02:07:03 am

Thanks, Mike. Glad you enjoyed my wee adventure.

On rail trails in the extended neighbourhood:

I confess I don't know them especially well, though I've crossed the Cataraqui Trail a few times. I've usually chosen to ride from Ottawa to the St Lawrence or Lake Ontario via sealed back roads, stopping at locks along the Rideau Canal here and there. Happy to share those routes with you if you like.

Tom Norton, who posts on the Forum now and then, passed through a few years ago, and he and Kathy took the Prescott-Russell trail eastwards towards Monttéal.

Highway #2 isn't much fun on a bike, though those parts of the the Waterfront Trail (from Niagara to Montréal) which I've ridden have been generally quite enjoyable. It's through quite densely populated countryside, tho' -- some people like that, others less so. I grew up in that area, so it's familiar, if not "grand".

A trail that will be grand is the Ottawa Valley Rail Trail. This follows the old CP line along the Ottawa River, beginning in Smiths Fall (about 75 kms SW of Ottawa), and going all the way to Mattawa, 296 kms. Here's a link: https://ontariobiketrails.com/item/ottawa-valley-rail-trail/ (https://ontariobiketrails.com/item/ottawa-valley-rail-trail/) The southern portion of the trail was due to open this summer.

(That phrase, "all the way to Mattawa" echoes a song by Stompin' Tom Connors, in praise of Big Joe Mufferaw, a French-Canadian draveur, who "paddled all the way to Mattawa in just one day." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk-x_tBPzzM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk-x_tBPzzM) Joseph Montferrand--"Mufferaw" is the anglicized corruption--we understand, used to argue the finer points of Catholic liturgy with his Irish co-religionists in the first half of the 19th century. Legend has it that he always won those debates -- by chucking the other side into the river.)

There's also the K & P trail, tracing the route of the Kingston-to-Pembroke railway, though I'm told that much of that is fairly rough.

On the Québec side, le P'tit Train du Nord is a well-established trail that runs from St-Jérôme, just NW of Montréal, 200 kms further N & W to Mont-Laurier. From there, one can follow secondary roads to Maniwaki,a little SW from Mt-Laurier, and from there, the Route des Draveurs, which takes you very close to Ottawa. I may do some of that next spring or summer, with Freddie.

North and west of Ottawa, including trail on both sides of the Ottawa River, is the recently-established Log-Driver's Waltz, an 800-km bikepacking trail. Here's the link to that: https://www.logdriverswaltz.ca/ (https://www.logdriverswaltz.ca/) I haven't done any of this route, though there's a fair number of cyclists in these parts who have, One can pick and choose sections, of course. Earlier this summer, on a shakedown ride west of Ottawa, I spoke with a group of six who were doing a 5-day tour which overlapped with the Log-Driver's Waltz trail.

("The Log-Driver's Waltz", BTW, is a delightful song by Wade Hemsworth, who also wrote "The Black Fly". Here's the illustrated version, featuring the young Kate and Anna McGarrigle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upsZZ2s3xv8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upsZZ2s3xv8))

The Gaspé is extraordinary, isn't it? Hope you had good weather on your ride. I rode the Gaspé clockwise in 2010, starting from Matapédia and finishing there. (The Gaspé was the first part of Canada that I saw from the boat when we came to Canada in May 1956, so I've always had a soft spot for it.) If you enter Percé from the west, though, bear in mind that the hill in the village is a 24% climb. My buddy, Jim, and I bailed on going down that -- coming from the east, we took the truck bypass west of the village. Reason I started at Matapédia, BTW, is that there's a McGarrigles' song with the refrain, "And we raced the Matapédia to the sea." Yes, there is a common thread there... ;)

Feel free to send me a PM if you care to pursue any of this, Mike.

Cheers, J.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: John Saxby on August 22, 2022, 03:05:05 am

Quote

Dragging the mouse across the map, it causes a window to pop up, which announces that you covered 158km in 8hrs 7mins. Holy Moses, in part against 60kph winds!

Andre, as far as I can tell, Google uses a 20 km/h rate for cycling routes, no matter the terrain or weather. That figure might work for me on the route I followed, (i) in calm weather; (ii) with no stop lights; (iii) with an unloaded bike; and (iv) if I'd followed only tarmac or hard-gravel surfaces.

And, just to reassure you, my reference to "waves of existential despair" was a bit tongue-in- cheek -- I don't do despair, either, though I am comprehensively bummed out by the appalling urban design that is 21st-century Ottawa, if "design" is the word I want. This is the urban century, after all, and this is the best we can do? Long time back, I used to work with a Cockney Jewish guy from East Ham whose favourite invocation was, "Jesus wept. Bitter, bitter tears." I find myself using that a lot on urban roads. OTOH, as a friend says, nothing is ever a complete loss, as it can always serve as a negative example.

Cheers, J.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: UKTony on August 22, 2022, 01:46:42 pm

Quote from: John Saxby on August 20, 2022, 11:49:35 pm

Headwinds, Horseflies and Loose Gravel:
Notes on cycle-camping with Freddie the Mercury

(2nd & final instalment)

The rear rack merits a heads-up footnote:

When I ordered my Mercury frameset, forks and components, I planned to use my spare Tubus Vega rear rack. In my prep for this trip, I was surprised to see that the Mercury has just one threaded hole above each rear dropout. These would accept bolts for rear mudguard stays or a rear rack, but not both……..

John - very much enjoyed your latest mini adventure, thank you.

As regards the Mercury/mudguard stays/Tubus Vega rack dilemma, just wondered if you know about these ( the pictures in the sale listing show how to fit them)

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/mudguards/thorn-ferrule-for-creating-w-mudguard-stays-for-thorntubus-racks-each/

I use a Vega rack on-and-off on my Nomad and use these ferrules coupled to P clips for when I use the rack and keep a separate set of mudguard stays cut to length to attach at the frame drop out mounts for when I don’t use the rack.

I’ve recently acquired a used Mercury (2013 in excellent condition with only about 1000 miles on the clock) which has an Avid BB7 mtn rear disc unit which makes fitting the Tubus Vega rack well nigh impossible but Thorns told me that the TRP Spyke disc brake unit has a much lower profile which shouldnt obstruct fitting the rack. Haven’t tried it yet though. If anyone has experience of fitting the Vega rack on a Mercury with the TRP Spyke disc unit fitted I’d be interested to hear.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: hendrich on August 22, 2022, 03:09:38 pm

I tried the above Thorn idea for rear mudguard stay position with a p-clamp, but found it to be a bit unwieldy. I did as in the pic instead.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: PH on August 22, 2022, 03:22:46 pm

Quote from: UKTony on August 22, 2022, 01:46:42 pm

As regards the Mercury/mudguard stays/Tubus Vega rack dilemma, just wondered if you know about these ( the pictures in the sale listing show how to fit them)
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/mudguards/thorn-ferrule-for-creating-w-mudguard-stays-for-thorntubus-racks-each/

From the photos posted on another thread, John's Mercury isn't using those sort of stays.
Like John, I'm also using a single strut stay, though luckily my Tubus rack has a pair of mounting holes, so I've just used one of these for the guards. An alternative would be to use a P clip low down on the rack. I've also griped about the lack of a second fitting to keep guard and rack fitting separate, I'm happy with the way I've fitted mine, though it now both or neither, when for such a versatile bike it would have been nice to have the choice... I don't get it, I can't see any advantage, but as it's the only gripe I have (Now there's a full size EBB) I can live with it.

Quote

I’ve recently acquired a used Mercury (2013 in excellent condition with only about 1000 miles on the clock) which has an Avid BB7 mtn rear disc unit which makes fitting the Tubus Vega rack well nigh impossible but Thorns told me that the TRP Spyke disc brake unit has a much lower profile which shouldnt obstruct fitting the rack. Haven’t tried it yet though. If anyone has experience of fitting the Vega rack on a Mercury with the TRP Spyke disc unit fitted I’d be interested to hear.

Congrats on the new bike. Not wanting to divert this thread too far from it's purpose... Yes the Spyke fits fine, hardly protrudes at all, that's because they've miniaturised the moving parts, which long term is a problem in itself. If you're not intending to use it anywhere remote, the best brake for it is a Shimano hydraulic, even the basic MT600 is way better than any mechanical, and probably cheaper.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: PH on August 22, 2022, 03:26:06 pm

Back on topic - really enjoying the ride reports.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Andre Jute on August 22, 2022, 04:44:25 pm

Quote from: John Saxby on August 22, 2022, 03:05:05 am

Quote
Dragging the mouse across the map, it causes a window to pop up, which announces that you covered 158km in 8hrs 7mins. Holy Moses, in part against 60kph winds!

Andre, as far as I can tell, Google uses a 20 km/h rate for cycling routes, no matter the terrain or weather.

Ah! An aspirational number on real roads.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: John Saxby on October 17, 2022, 10:32:59 pm

A few notes to follow up on notes from late August:

1) First, I'm not normally so tardy in replying to posts. But take this as a delayed-but-celebratory response: I had my right hip replaced three days after the posts on Aug 22, and all has gone very well. So much so, that a couple of weeks ago, my surgeon said I can return to normal activities like cycling, with no restrictions. So, last Friday, I took Freddie on a brief 40-minute canter along the bike paths through the Experimental Farm, a splendid acreage of greenery and (now) autumn colours a few minutes' ride from where we live. Notes and photos on that follow below.

2) And, on Tony's query about fitting a Tubus Vega rack to a Mercury Mk 3 with Spyke disc:

Slightly surprised and quite delighted to report that I did just that this past week, on the Thursday afternoon before my born-again ride with Freddie. It took a couple of hours-plus, but all the metaphorical ducks eventually lined up in good order.

Briefly:

> I used a 30mm M5 barrel-style hex-head bolt (4 mm drive) on the left side of the rear wheel, that length being required to fit a 10 mm bushing that pushed the strut of the Vega rack outwards to ensure the necessary clearance. The fender P-clip in turn has flat washers on its inner and outer side, to ensure that the stay clears the barrel head of the nearby lower/rear brake caliper fixing bolt. I also used a lock washer on this 30mm bolt.

(See photo #1 below, Left side Vega rack & fender fixing bolt & washers, view from above & front of bike)

> On the right side, I used a 20mm M5 barrel-style hex-head bolt, this time with a couple of flat washers both inside and outside the fender P-clip, with one lock washer.

(Photo #2 below shows that set-up on the right side, seen from the rear & obviously simpler than its left-side counterpart.)

(A footnote on both of these arrangements: I did consider threading these fixing bolts from the inside outwards, and then using a locknut to hold the plot in place. (A friend suggested this approach.) A couple considerations led me to shelve that for the time being. First, I wanted to see how the whole rack positioning and fixing would play out. The quickest way of doing that was to insert the fixing bolts from the outside: that way, I didn't have to remove the rear wheel. Secondly, I knew that the clearance between the inner face of the Mercury's drilled tab on the right side, and the outer edge of the Chainglider, would be quite snug for a barrel-head hex bolt.)

> Then, photo #3 below shows the upper fixing struts for the "shelf" of the Vega rack, from above & the rear of the bike.

Further below still, in the post on my mini-ride, there's a photo of Freddie in our back garden, with the Vega rack as it appears "in real time" ;)

Hope this is helpful, Tony. Let me know if you need more detail.

Cheers, John

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: John Saxby on October 17, 2022, 10:53:21 pm

And now, some notes on that celebratory ride last Friday:

This is really a mini-ride through gentle-if-lovely-urban countryside. Degree of Difficulty is about 2/10, with most of the "difficulty" arising from a 50 km/h headwind up a 5% upgrade. If I'm being generous, there was a certain DoA (Degree of Apprehension) in the form of thick carpet of still-wet leaves on the twisty steep downhill heading west. Spoiler alert: nothing untoward happened -- I eased off pedalling, and Freddie's rear disc slowed me enough to take the turns pretty much upright.

All that said, a hefty Sympathy Quotient, methinks, warrants adding this to the "Rides of 2022" thread ;)

So, my active reacquaintance with Freddie, some seven weeks after my hip surgery, was a cheerful and restorative 40-minute loop comprising almost entirely back roads and bike paths in our neighbourhood in west/central Ottawa: east and then south from our house to the Experimental Farm, westward through part of the farm, and northwards home.

The autumn colours are nothing short of splendid, as usual. Photo#1 below, taken about 4 PM, shows the big sugar maple that towers over our house, flanked to the right by the younger (but nearly as tall) locust, which we planted 30 years ago. Photo #2 is a maple in our neighbourhood, and Photo #3 shows Marcia's last dahlias of the year, their tubers soon to be transplanted to their winter home in our basement. Photo #4, lastly, is Freddie relaxing amid a carpet of reasonably dry leaves in our back yard.

Forecast for the rest of the week is mostly cool and wet. But, the weekend forecast sez sunshine, with temps in the mid-teens. With any kind of luck, I might manage a ride up into the hills across the river, to catch the tag-end of the foliage. Stay tuned...

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Andre Jute on October 17, 2022, 11:02:59 pm

Quote from: John Saxby on October 17, 2022, 10:32:59 pm

...I had my right hip replaced three days after the posts on Aug 22, and all has gone very well. So much so, that a couple of weeks ago, my surgeon said I can return to normal activities like cycling, with no restrictions. So, last Friday, I took Freddie on a brief 40-minute canter...

Congratulations on making it out of hospital alive, John, and hale and hearty, and on having chosen a surgeon who knows what is important to a cyclist. I'm not joking. I have several times congratulated myself on choosing, on the advise of my GP, a pedal and tennis chum, a cardiac surgeon who rides a bike to work and who was therefore amenable to suggestion about cycling exertion after surgery.

I also read your rack advice to Tony with interest. Tubus is my favourite rack builder, especially if someone else has fitted the rack to my bike. This is mainly because of their aluminium racks, sold as the Racktime brand, which folds when a Range Rover hits them and leaves the bike unmarked, but makes a screeching sound as it causes the Range Rover a minimum of five grand's worth of damage. No more useful sacrifice of German engineering occurs to me. But when the things have to be fitted by me, I actively hate the Tubus company, because they never give you enough extension on their struts, or extra bits and fixings actually to get the rack fitted correctly without sending away to Germany for more expensive bits and even more expensive carriage; I think their directors are in bed with DHL. The lowest common denominator for whom they package their parts must be on the small side of normal, and ride a bike on the small side for size. Mind you, that said, my Tubus Cosmo stainless steel rack (not advised for loaded tourers -- too inconveniently proportioned -- even though I think nothing of loading its share of my bike's 170kg load rating on it for short painting outings) is probably getting on for a decade and still looks new.

Good to have you back, man.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Andre Jute on October 17, 2022, 11:12:50 pm

Must say, John, that looks like a proper gentleman's bike, very capable. Lovely photos, as always.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: John Saxby on October 18, 2022, 01:24:10 am

Thanks as always for your kind words, Andre.

I've had good luck with the Vega rack. The one you see used to live on my Raven -- I've had it for several years. I fits the Mercury with its 650B wheels as well as it did the Raven's 26" wheels. The rear proportions of the two bikes are slightly different, so on the Raven I used el cheapo mild chromed steel struts, cut down to about 10 cms, to fix the shelf of the rear rack to the mounts on the seat stays. On the Mercury, the standard-issue round sliding/adjustable struts fitted very nicely, a bit to my surprise.

This setup for the rack will make it a little more fiddly to remove if & when I pack up Freddie for air shipment. That said, I'm not sure when "air shipment" will happen again. Current touring plans extend only as far as a week-plus next spring/summer in my extended neighbourhood across the river in West Québec. One step further removed, but still accessible by rail, is a 3-week trek in Atlantic Canada; my "plan" for that in 2020 was rudely interrupted by COVID.

Cheers, J.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: martinf on October 18, 2022, 07:04:26 am

Quote from: John Saxby on October 17, 2022, 10:32:59 pm

A footnote on both of these arrangements: I did consider threading these fixing bolts from the inside outwards, and then using a locknut to hold the plot in place.

If there is a clearance issue on the inside, a flat-head traditional type hex bolt might fit where an Allen head hex bolt is too long. And if really tight, in a threaded hole a flat-head bolt can be ground (or filed) down a bit without compromising strength. A locknut can then be fitted on the outside. Done this once or twice in the past.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: hendrich on October 18, 2022, 02:16:53 pm

Quote from: John Saxby on October 17, 2022, 10:53:21 pm

And now, some notes on that celebratory ride last Friday

Hi John, it is great to hear that your surgery went well. Pennsylvania in fall, not so many maples, so our leaves mostly just turn to brown.

I noticed that the chainglider in your posted picture is a tad too large for your chainring. I assume no problems. What sizes are the glider and chainring? Could I also ask you to measure the outer width of the chainglider at the chainring? Thanks. I still considering adding a chainglider to the rear chain of our tandem which has a double chainring at the stoker. 46t chainring with a 7mm side clearance to the timing chain. I would use a 48 chainglider with an 8 speed chain.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: PH on October 18, 2022, 04:15:54 pm

Good stuff all round John, new hip, great looking bike, nice ride, lovely colours in the photos, hope it continues in the same vein.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: John Saxby on October 18, 2022, 04:31:30 pm

Thanks, Mike.

My 'glider fits a 15 - 18T sprocket at the rear, and is sized for a 38T ring at the front.

The front section of the 'glider at the ring is 13.5 mm wide. Pls note, though, that this 'glider is just a few months old, and all three of its tabs at the front fit snugly together. On my older one, that fit became looser with time (maybe as a result of the plastic surgery described below?), and sometimes one part or another of the front section of the 'glider bulged outwards a bit. Easily enough corrected.

On Freddie, as on my previous Raven, I run a 17T sprocket with a 36T ring. The latter size accounts for the unseemly visible teeth at the rear of the ring.

(OTOH, making a virtue out of necessity whenever poss, that smaller ring allows for more ~~play~~ slop in the setup, both fore-and-aft and up-and-down. "Slop" is a precise engineering term, for which I'm sure there's a compelling German noun, but I don't know it. ;) )

My chainring is a Rivendell alloy item, mfd by Origin8, I believe. Its teeth are 2.8mm thick, just within the allowable/recommended thickness. The "body" of the ring is exactly 3 mm thick.

To ensure as little friction as poss betw the inner edges of the 'glider and the body of the ring, I cut off the small collar facing the ring on both faces of the 'glider where it embraces the front and rear sections of the ring.

On my Raven, when I surgically modified the 'glider to fit the smaller ring, I cut away the parts of the front section of the 'glider which cover the rear section of the ring. Thus, the teeth at the rear of the ring were wholly exposed & visible. (I would ask onlookers of a delicate disposition to avert their eyes.) So far as I could tell, over the eight years I owned the Raven, very little crud entered the 'glider via the surgically removed bits at the front.

For most of those 8 years, I used a Surly stainless ring, which is quite a bit thinner than the Rivendell item. Hence, I didn't trim the "collar" on the inner & outer front sections of the 'glider where they covered the teeth of the Surly ring.

Eventually, I switched out the Surly ring for the Rivendell, 'cos the latter produces no tight spot in the chain. After riding two-wheelers for, I dunno, 60-plus years, and being aware of tight spots in the chain for more than half a century, I was equal parts surprised and delighted to find a chainring that created no tight spot.

Hope this is helpful, Mike. I have no hesitation at all in recommending a 'glider, if your chainring is 3 mm thick or thinner. I don't know if Hebie makes 'gliders to fit your rings.

Good luck! John

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: John Saxby on October 18, 2022, 04:37:22 pm

Quote

And if really tight, in a threaded hole a flat-head bolt can be ground (or filed) down a bit without compromising strength. A locknut can then be fitted on the outside.

Thanks, Martin. Yes, I considered/checked a flat-head bolt for the right side, inserted from the inside outwards. That would fit, though the clearance is quite tight.

Fitting the bolts inside-outwards would probably make removal of the rack easier, esp on the right side, so I may do that in the future.

I used the outside-inwards setup for this first fitting, simply to avoid removing the wheel.

Cheers, John

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: hendrich on October 18, 2022, 06:05:50 pm

Quote from: John Saxby on October 18, 2022, 04:31:30 pm

My 'glider fits a 15 - 18T sprocket at the rear, and is sized for a 38T ring at the front.

Thanks John for the comments. I use Surly SS rings and don't seem to have a tight chain problem, but anyways, the rear chain to the rohloff (17t) has the requisite amount of "slop" per rohloff. I suspect the front 13.5mm wide part of the glider will clear the timing chain, but may it may need some "surgery" for channels. If I can now just source the pieces without high shipping costs.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: UKTony on October 18, 2022, 07:38:13 pm

Quote from: John Saxby on October 17, 2022, 10:32:59 pm

A few notes to follow up on notes from late August:

1) First, I'm not normally so tardy in replying to posts. But take this as a delayed-but-celebratory response: I had my right hip replaced three days after the posts on Aug 22, and all has gone very well. So much so, that a couple of weeks ago, my surgeon said I can return to normal activities like cycling, with no restrictions. So, last Friday, I took Freddie on a brief 40-minute canter along the bike paths through the Experimental Farm, a splendid acreage of greenery and (now) autumn colours a few minutes' ride from where we love. Notes and photos on that follow below.

2) And, on Tony's query about fitting a Tubus Vega

> Then, photo #3 below shows the upper fixing struts for the "shelf" of the Vega rack, from above & the rear of the bike.

Further below still, in the post on my mini-ride, there's a photo of Freddie in our back garden, with the Vega rack as it appears "in real time" ;)

Hope this is helpful, Tony. Let me know if you need more detail.

Cheers, John

John, thank you so much for the detailed guidance re Mercury/Vega rack fitting. This will be very useful. And, great to hear you’re back on the bike after the operation. Tony

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: PH on October 20, 2022, 08:57:26 pm

Quote from: John Saxby on October 18, 2022, 04:37:22 pm

Quote
And if really tight, in a threaded hole a flat-head bolt can be ground (or filed) down a bit without compromising strength. A locknut can then be fitted on the outside.

Thanks, Martin. Yes, I considered/checked a flat-head bolt for the right side, inserted from the inside outwards. That would fit, though the clearance is quite tight.

Fitting the bolts inside-outwards would probably make removal of the rack easier, esp on the right side, so I may do that in the future.

I used the outside-inwards setup for this first fitting, simply to avoid removing the wheel.

Cheers, John

I use button head screws in that application, Torx in preference to hex to minimise the chance of rounding, M5 have a head height of 2.8mm and the T25 key has a lot more purchase than a 3mm hex key. I use a dome nut on the outside, just because I like the look!

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: John Saxby on October 20, 2022, 09:26:24 pm

Thanks, Phil. Loadsa details to ponder over the long winter months! 👍

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: John Saxby on October 31, 2022, 08:49:53 pm

Across the river and into the hills again --

The weekend before last, on a bright, sunny and improbably warm late-October morning, I took Freddie the Mercury for a canter up into the Gatineau Hills across the Ottawa River. To mark my first long-ish ride since my hip-replacement op eight weeks earlier, I wanted to visit a favourite lookout, and reacquaint my shiny new hip joint and related leg muscles with some real-but-not-too demanding hills. And, I was hoping to catch the last splash of the hills’ autumn colours.

The autumn foliage in the Gatineau is usually past peak splendour by the third week of October, and this year, the reds, yellows and oranges of the deciduous trees—birches, beech, aspens and maples—had largely disappeared before my visit. The green of the conifers interrupted the spreading greys and browns, and the red oaks were still holding onto their deep copper-bronze leaves.

But, with the trees’ summer canopy of leaves now on the forest floor, the woods were awash with the bright mid-morning light (Photo #1 below). You go away for a couple of months, and all-of-a-sudden you remember how beautiful the open woods can be in late autumn. The red oaks—not so common in the city—have their own stark beauty against a clear blue sky. (Photo #2.)

The ride up to the Pink Lake lookout was easy enough: I dropped down a gear on the hills, and kept to an easy cadence of 80-85. Because motor traffic is strictly limited on the roads in the park, I was able to relax and enjoy the scenery. My ride was not without near-incident, though: tootling along the bikepath on the lower slopes, I watched a couple of young guys come hurtling around a blind downhill corner towards me, just a couple of hundred metres ahead. Taking the entire width of the path—what could possibly go wrong, after all?—they narrowly missed a walking family of five. As I drew abreast of the family—slowly, with Freddie’s bronze temple bell gently alerting them—I remarked that “Nos dimanches matins sont assez dangereux,” (“Our Sunday mornings can be dangerous, eh?”) and the dad replied with a laugh, “C’est vrai, m’sieu.”

The view from the lookout (Photo #3) shows muted colours above a calm blue lake. Re-crossing the Ottawa, I paused on an island to take in an everything-blue view of Freddie against the river upstream. (Photo #4).

Total distance for the ride was about 40 kms, including an unforeseen 8 kms searching for a route home which avoided pervasive roadworks on the riverside bikepath. (A reminder that we have just two seasons here: “winter” and “construction”.) Happily, no complaints at all from either hip, though I was more fatigued afterwards than expected – a sign, I think, of how much my hip problems over the past 6 - 8 months had compromised my fitness. But, “This too shall pass.” 🤞

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Moronic on October 31, 2022, 11:17:50 pm

Hi John, not sure how I missed your camping report on the Mercury but I did. Likely because it came up as an addition to this thread when it deserved a thread of its own. Fab report - I was out there with you, loving breezing along in all the right places and then glad that over the horsefly-infested deep gravel I was really just watching a movie.

I'm delighted to hear the operation went so well. Looks like you'll have many more occasions for having fun on your new bike. :D

Oh and fab photos too.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: John Saxby on November 01, 2022, 12:38:37 am

Thanks, Ian, for your kind words. Glad you enjoyed the stories -- like you, I'm very pleased with me new bike.

I neglected to add into my notes above, the fact that the woods will be full of light for the next seven months -- that is, into and through winter and thence well into spring in late May, by which time the leafy green canopy will be in place again.

That date holds promise for me as well (other things equal, of course!): I'm not yet at the stage of "planning" a slightly longer tour next summer, but I am distracting myself with the possibilities. My 2nd (left hip) op is scheduled for March 2, and that means that by late May/early June, I should be ready to look at something more adventurous. Maybe 7 - 10 days north & east from here into W Qué, and onto the P'tit Train du Nord rail trail at Mont Tremblant; then west & south from there to Maniwaki and the Route des Draveurs, which parallels the north-to-south Gatineau River, a tributary of the Ottawa.

Could you send me a PM with photo of your new motorcycle?

Cheers, John

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Andre Jute on November 06, 2022, 02:34:46 pm

I see the light you refer to, John. And I grasp that the trees in canopy allow Wendigo, the spirit of the forest, to come for you on your third day in the forest, slinking unseen from shadow to shadow. Or at least so an Eskimo shaman in Alaska told me after I crossed his palm with silver. Fortunate then that you're on a reliable, speedy bike... (The bicycle ad from decades past of the black man on his Raleigh outrunning a hungry lion comes to mind.)

Endless fascination in the interplay of the bare branches and the light; see especially the big ole tree trunk, mostly in shade, but patches of light reflected from somewhere several places on it.

All the same, I think my favourite is Pink Lake, the reflections of the forest in autumn sinking away in it. A fabulous photograph.

I wish you the same good fortune with your next operation as you've had with the first one.

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: John Saxby on November 07, 2022, 03:46:05 am

Thanks as always, Andre -- glad you enjoyed the photos. And thanks too for the ref to that Raleigh add from so long ago: I'd forgotten it, only to realize that I hadn't, when you jogged a shared memory.

Last Thursday aft, I headed up into the hills again -- only a short two-hour there-and-back to Pink Lake, 'cos I was busy with too many things. The woods were nearly bereft of foliage, as we were into early November, but the temp was around 22 - 23º. This is getting seriously weird -- people are wandering around in shorts and T-shirts with dopey grins on their faces. Most everyone seems pleased; BUT, many, myself among them, are unsettled inside.

Nevertheless, I took Freddie along a section of the bikepath parallel to the main parkway into the hills, and at the top of a steep'n'short hill, I caught sight of a couple of rocky outcrops flanked by bare trees, with a carpet of dead leaves below. In the summer, such outcrops are difficult to see -- the woods are darkened by the canopy, and the greenery obscures the rocks.

The first of the photos below looks southeast; in the second, the view is directly eastwards, with the sun behind me. I prefer the second photo -- the straightahead shadows lend a sharper quality to the scene. (Full disclosure: I didn't realize what I had seen until I looked at the photos at home, showing me what I'd seen. Duh...)

I paused for a few minutes at Pink Lake lookout -- as so often happens, a cheerful conversation happened. As I rode into the layby, I saw a couple of other cyclists there. One wore a dark blue longsleeved jersey with a cross of St Andrew on the front. In my best faux brogue I said as I passed by, "Scotland the brave, aye!" He laughed and said in a distinctly Canajan accent, "It was the only longsleeved shirt shirt I could find." But then he said he had family in Dumfries, and asked about my accent. "Mid-Atlantic," sez I, "born in Dorset with a Scots-Irish mum, but we came to Canada in the mid-'50s. I grew up a few hours' drive west of here, but spent many years in Southern Africa, so my vowels have no fixed address." "Ah," he said, "my wife's from Lancashire and we're off to Cape Town for a wedding at Christmas -- a cousin of hers is marrying a Capetowner she met in London." They're planning some tours around CT and along the Garden Route. I said how envious I was, and suggested he try to rent a bike and ride Chapman's Peak -- but to watch out for hungry and audacious baboons if he's carrying snacks.

Barely any degrees of separation, sometimes :)

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Andre Jute on November 07, 2022, 02:27:01 pm

Quote from: John Saxby on November 07, 2022, 03:46:05 am

The first of the photos below looks southeast; in the second, the view is directly eastwards, with the sun behind me. I prefer the second photo -- the straightahead shadows lend a sharper quality to the scene.

I understand why you prefer the second photo, probably in part as a record of where you've cycled. But I have no trouble explaining why I prefer the less defined, less ordered first photo.

As an artist I take the opposite view. If you want pinsharp precision, get a camera with a good lens; I also happen to think that pocket phones above a very low price take marvellous photos, and for years I took publication quality natural light portraits of musicians that were often commented on by my readers -- on a Canon Digital Ixus 300 (I know, when it was new it was cutting edge technology and therefore horridly expensive -- but it was worth every penny), and was disgusted when after twenty years with the Cannon a newer pocket camera from Olympus lacked some of the Canon's delightful premade programs.

On the other hand, with a paintbrush in my hand, I believe that a certain lack of precision, of serendipity about where the paint runs, of not wholly defined elements, draws in the viewer of a work of art, and points of deliberate or preferably coincidental ambiguity let the viewer add something speculative of his own, involving him in the interpretation of what he sees.

As an aside, some of the digital applications involved in the manipulation of a long run of equally successful photographs published on this forum, clearly seek to bring some of these artistic elements back into the photographs, so at least some skilled photographers share my view to some extent, otherwise the makers of these applications wouldn't assign expensive programmers to include the "artistic" features in programs mainly aimed at the reprographic trades, who have other priorities.

Horses for courses, of course, but one of my most successful paintings of recent years was based on a conjunction of memories of a photo you took of The City Across the River, which I didn't even look at again lest a sharp detail distract me, and something you said about friends at Prince Albert in the Karoo, and possibly a third element of a photo by you or someone else of trees beside a stream, with the Prince Albert Mountains in the background (which in landscape reverse are obviously in my memory from my childhood in Oudtshoorn on the other side of those peaks). Not that the finished article looked like any representation of any one of these elements, but they were definitely present in the inspiration.

All that said, nonetheless I'm glad to have both photographs, just in case I want an element, say a tree in the foreground, in sharp focus with plenty of detail, as an anchor or a reference point or the start of a perspective view of a landscape. And I'd be horrified if any of my cameras took a fuzzy picture I didn't ask for!

Slainte!

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: John Saxby on November 07, 2022, 03:26:11 pm

Thanks, Andre, for your time & thoughtfulness on these matters. (I could spend more time, but without your experience or thoughtfulness ;) ) I'm flattered that your artwork draws on some of my amateur photos, helped as they are by splendid landscapes, not least in Soufafrica.

I've been pleased with the quality of photos from by iPhone 8. I take it with me for its phone function; the photos are a nice add-on. A better tool for photos is my compact and versatile Panasonic Lumix ZS40, now nearly a decade old and once through the repair/refreshen cycle after it got sloshed by a rogue bottle of Gatorade :( It has an A-grade telephoto -- when I first bought it, I was visiting Europe once or twice a year, and my Nikon P50 struggled with the photos of urban architecture & narrow streets. I take it with me on tours, because its very modest bulk & weight is quite manageable, and I find I can usually manage the composition of photos better than with the iPhone. Then the 28-200 telephoto, plus the Zeiss lenses, make a big difference in any landscape photos.

Have attached a nice cross-reference to early this past summer: the photo below was taken, I realize, from more or less the same spot on the bikepath as #2 above, the difference being that the green-mit-sundapple shot below is looking due north, with the sun pretty much overhead. Not evident in this photo, but as i recall there were scarcely any rocky outcrops visible.

Cheers, John

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: Andre Jute on November 08, 2022, 12:18:10 am

Tempting to turn off the main road and see where that shaded path leads...

Title: Re: +++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++
Post by: SteveM on November 28, 2022, 11:57:30 am

Fantastic to read your experiences atop the magnificent Mercury John. I have just acquired one and I am getting the hang of the bike now. It has been a tad uncomfortable so far - that's just me getting the set-up wrong and being too macho about saddle height. I have dropped it a couple of CMs and I will push off again this afternoon to check it out.

I have the Thorn fitted tubus rear rack and I need to fit the mudguards, so your experience will save me hours (and save neighbours from the Anglo Saxon that would otherwise be sailing over the fence). I have Shwalbe Marathon Plus on at the moment 38c on 700c rims, so the mudguards are going to be fun to fit.

I have ordered a Tubus Tara lowrider for the front and will try that with small lightly loaded Thule panniers (they came with the bike). I have Ortleibs for the back and a drybag for my wonderful old Saunders Jetpacker II tent. I'm planning to keep things as light as possible and will forego the cooking equipment I think (as nice as a morning cuppa is).

So glad the titanium hip is back up and running smoothly! Keep cycling into those headwinds and get some DEET to beat the horseflies!

Thorn Cycles Forum

Community => Non-Thorn Related => Topic started by: Andre Jute on April 02, 2022, 10:38:59 am