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Non-Thorn Related / Re: Water bottles with caps
« Last post by navrig on March 22, 2024, 11:57:53 am »
Great tips guys.  Thanks.
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Non-Thorn Related / +++Rides of 2024+++Add yours here+++
« Last post by John Saxby on March 22, 2024, 01:54:02 am »
By way of introduction:  Years ago, I worked with an Acadian colleague, a very capable guy who was good at his job and told good stories to boot.  He would lighten a staid and stuffy meeting by saying, “Laissez-moi parler un peu avant de prendre la parôle” – “Let me talk a little before I speak.”  As a compliment, I’ll borrow his approach:  This contribution to “Rides of 2024” is less about my brief-but-enjoyable rides in early March than it is about our winter weather – imagine that! how Canajan, eh?

That “winter weather” is really “soi-disant/so-called winter weather”:  I’m writing just after the spring equinox, and there is no snow on the ground, nor has there been any for three weeks or more.  The mildest winter on record has also been very dry: Ottawa’s average annual winter snowfall is 220 cms, and In ‘22/’23, we had well over that, some 330 cms.  This winter, only about 100 cms, and much of that fell in December.  During February, we had days when the high temps were 16 or 17ºC – as much as 6 or 8 degrees higher than the record for the day.  Mixed in with that were wild swings of temperature: in one instance, from 16º in mid-afternoon, to -14 the following morning, a drop of 30º in just over 12 hours.  “Jaysus, Mary an’ Joseph,” sez I to myself and the cats. “I’ve never felt anything even close to that.”

Conversations with fellow customers in grocery stores have taken on a wide-eyed and slightly apocalyptic tone: “Ah, jeez, we’re really done it now.”  I’ve found myself repeating CLR James’ phrase: “We’re seeing ‘the future in the present’.”  In late Feb., I saw and heard a honking great Vee of Canada geese overhead, a good four weeks early.  Even the maple trees are confused.  People who run a sugar bush say that their sap was finished by St. Patrick’s Day, where “normally”, they would begin on March 17.  In the fields and in the woods, the soil is now dangerously dry.

But hey! ‘Tis an ill wind that blows no good…

In late Feb, with “winter” in full retreat, I got my city bike out of my basement workshop and onto the road for errands like shopping for groceries.  (There are people who ride through Ottawa’s (“normal”) winters, but I’m not one of them.  The combination of careless/inconsiderate motorists, roads narrowed by snowbanks, and reduced visibility is too much for my taste.)  By the first week of March, we were all rendered a bit dopey by double-digit temps, sunshine, and snowless road and bike paths.  So—why not??--I hoisted Freddie up the basement stairs, and he emerged blinking into the bright March sunshine.

Over the first week of March I did three rides, each about 45- 50 minutes long, each covering some 14 – 16 kms.  All were on bike paths and roads within the west-central part of Ottawa where I live, and on one ride I also crossed the Ottawa River into Québec.  I hadn’t been on my Mercury since late October ’23 – I used my city bike until late November – so it was a delight to again ride a responsive bike on which everything works so well.

The star of the week was, of course, the soft air and the brilliant early-March sunshine.  (Yes, that sentence isn’t full of fairy tales:  I have felt brilliant early-March sunshine before, but only in places like Central-Southern Africa and ‘Straya, not in the coldest capital city in the world.) (As was, at least.)  The photo below shows Freddie all a-twinkle, propped against a pathside bench.

The bike paths were largely free of cyclists, except for a few haring along with daft giddy looks.  One of my routes took me along the bike path through the Experimental Farm, with a hilly section climbing and descending through woods near a one-time urban ski hill.  There were dog-walkers a-plenty in that section, and they smiled and waved.

Of course some things didn’t change, no matter the transformation of the weather:  I rode across the westernmost road bridge into Gatineau (QC), so that I could then follow the bikepath east (downstream) along the north bank of the Ottawa and recross the river via the pedestrian/cycling Commanda Bridge, a repurposed rail bridge opened to great fanfare and intensive use last summer.  NOT.  I reached the right-hander onto the bridge, and saw to my irritation but no surprise at all, a big orange-and-black “Route Barrée” sign, with no explanation or signal on when (or even whether) that might be replaced by a “Pont Ouvert”.

Other things hadn’t changed much, either.  When I saw & heard the magical sound of the big Vee of Canada geese, I wondered, “Are they this early?? Or did they never leave?”  Whatever it was, there were dozens of geese on and near the bike path on the Québec side, munching on the dry grass, poking around for bugs, gossiping and squawking all the time, and — as they do — poo-pooing human notions of hegemony over the bike paths.

These were stress-free outings, entirely in keeping with rides done in the middle of weekdays well before “normal bike traffic” resumes.  There’ll be other, more demanding rides before long, I hope.  As a rule, snow persists until late April on the roads in the Gatineau Park.  This year, that’s unlikely to be the case:  cross-country skiers have been lamenting the radically diminished snow cover in the hills.  The bizarre-but-welcome warm and sunny weather of early March has been displaced by a few days of “Saskatchewan weather” this week, sunny and cold with a fierce northwesterly, but there’s no significant snow in the forecast.  With any luck, we’ll be across the river and into the trees again before long.
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Rohloff Internal Hub Gears / Re: Sent my Rohloff in!
« Last post by Thomas777 on March 21, 2024, 01:10:39 pm »
John,
We will be riding from NE Ohio to Seattle.
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Rohloff Internal Hub Gears / Re: Sent my Rohloff in!
« Last post by in4 on March 21, 2024, 07:24:19 am »
Quite possibly. More than many others too. My recent UK - Portugal tour was far longer and much less arduous than my shorter but infinitely more testing tour of Scotland during the same year. Hills and weather!!
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Rohloff Internal Hub Gears / Re: Sent my Rohloff in!
« Last post by WorldTourer on March 20, 2024, 06:35:58 pm »
Impressive, I find after about 1000 miles, mentally I am ready to go home.

1000 miles is about 1600 km. That’s less than a number of popular routes.
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Rohloff Internal Hub Gears / Re: Sent my Rohloff in!
« Last post by mickeg on March 20, 2024, 04:58:43 pm »
...
Meanwhile my bike is getting some maintenance as we get  ready to do a 3000 mile tour!

Impressive, I find after about 1000 miles, mentally I am ready to go home.
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Rohloff Internal Hub Gears / Re: Sent my Rohloff in!
« Last post by geocycle on March 20, 2024, 03:57:16 pm »
Mine is just back from  2 weeks in Somerset after some TLC to stop the growing oil leak problem.  As well as new seals it got a full revision of warn parts, oil change,  new internal cable, reinforcing rings and was built into a new Andra rim.  Almost a new hub and set to go another 50,000 miles. Great service from SJS.
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Rohloff Internal Hub Gears / Re: Sent my Rohloff in!
« Last post by John Saxby on March 20, 2024, 12:31:46 pm »
Quote
my bike is getting some maintenance as we get ready to do a 3000 mile tour!

Good on yer, Tom!  Where will that tour be?

Best to you and Kathy,

John
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Rohloff Internal Hub Gears / Re: Sent my Rohloff in!
« Last post by Thomas777 on March 20, 2024, 12:06:26 pm »
I was notified that my wife's Rohloff wheel  is at the shop. The fellow there  said he would  send the bottle of oil back for me to install.
Meanwhile my bike is getting some maintenance as we get  ready to do a 3000 mile tour!
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Non-Thorn Related / Re: Rationalising touring equipment
« Last post by Andyb1 on March 20, 2024, 08:55:31 am »
.

I remember reading a story about someone on a bike tour over two decades ago, in the middle of nowhere, maybe Mongolia?  It was a young couple that was touring, each had a pump.  And they rode into a small mountain village where a bicycle tourist was stranded because his pump was lost or broke, and there was no pump in the village.  He had been stranded for days.  One of the couple gave theirs to the stranded guy, thus the couple only had one pump after that.  That is a good reason to carry a spare.

The world is a different place now.   If the guy had no pump today he could probably use his Sat phone to order from Amazon and get a drone delivery!   Small motorcycles are the replacement for beasts of burden and really are everywhere.   If there is a track to cycle on there will be a vehicle.
Cycles do have a few exotic parts - like skewers and seat frames which might be difficult to replace if lost or broken.   But one of the advantages of cycle touring is that you can always become a pedestrian and walk out to arrange recovery.
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