anything happening lads.

[lewis noble]

Hello Jackie - I have had 1.6 Supremes on my Ripio for the last few months, very pleased with them.  Fast, lively, and good grip on all the surfaces I have been on - not tried them on muddy trails, but I guess they would not be at their best there.  No punctures.  The only downside is that they are not as comfortable as fatter tyres, as to be expected, and I will be putting something else back on for my tour in France in August.

The only mishap I have had on the Supremes is when crossing a Sheffield Supertram track in wet weather, on a curving 45 degree line to then tracks - back end skidded out!!  But I regained control and stayed upright as soon as the tyre hit tarmac / concrete again.  In reality, wet tramlines (especially after a dry spell) are hopeless for grip, and I doubt if anything would have been secure - no curving lines in future!! 

Lewis

[Slammin Sammy]

As you say Lewis, train/tram lines can be diabolical in the wet. A lady in my local riding group is nursing a broken shoulder from a very minor off whilst crossing wet rails at right angles.

Report from the Godzone: It's a bit unseasonably wet over here at the moment (east coast of NSW). Our winters tend to be dryer than summer, but this year, the really nice days have been few and far between. I've done one 80 km ride in the country in the last two weeks, and just some short, wet spins around town. We're planning a trip to Canberra in a few weeks - great cycling there, but it's COLD this time of year!

Plans for our Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) ride in October are proceeding apace. It'll be part of a five week sojourn in Yankeeland that I'm hoping includes a ride down to Key West from my brother's place in Boca Raton, weather (hurricanes) permitting. This is the trip that replaced my aborted plan to attend the Cycle Touring Festival in Clitheroe last month. Did anyone here attend?

Finally, I've just been asked to join another couple for the LeJoG in May/June 2016. I'm very keen to do this, so watch this space!

[John Saxby]

Sam, your mention of rain twigged a reference I saw in crazyguy about wet weather & the Allegheny Gap/C & O route:  It was described as a "mudfest" when the weather is rainy. Might be a good idea to factor in that possibility when you choose your tires and fenders. Where we are, well north of Ohio, Virginia & Maryland, we tend to get spring and autumn rains. Same may/may be true of that area as well: in late Sept 2011, I rode my airhead down through upstate NY, Northern & Central Pennsylvania, and then along the Shenandoah Nat'l Park/Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway, en route to the coast at the S Carolina/Georgia line.

The northern section, Pennsylvania especially, was very wet -- in fact, in the wake of Hurricane Irene in mid-August, Pennsylvania had had its wettest six weeks on record. The "cricks", as they say, were full to overflowing as if it were March, and the Susquehanna River was right at the top of its banks.  Further south, into the Carolinas, there was much less rain.

We're having a cool & wet early summer here in Eastern Ontario.  The trees love it, touring cyclists not so much. (On the other hand, the black flies seem in retreat for once.) On my weeklong ride last week, it rained 3 days of four, only 1.5 days of sun.  Weird.  I've started thinking, maybe I have to get some waterproof panniers...

Cheers, J.

[lewis noble]

Sorry to hear about your friend, Sam - broken shoulders can take a while to heal.

2 interesting things in your post -

Cycle Touring Festival

I went to this Festival - a very wet weekend, not many people got out on rides.  A good weekend, some interesting talks about bike preparation, equipment etc., nothing really that has not cropped up on this forum before but interesting nevertheless.  Lots of people planning major rides, some planning to the last detail, others adopting a 'get up and go' policy.  Many people clearly very experienced riders and bike fixers, others learning the basics at the good maintenance / repair seminars.

Other bikes??  A mixture - biggest single make was I think Surly LHTs - an Oxford Bike Works cycle, and I counted about 4 Thorns - RTs and RSTs. my Ripio was the only dérailleur Thorn.  Some trade stands, one by a bike shop in Cumbria selling Surlys, kit etc.  I was a bit concerned to hear some negative comments about Thorns - 'behind the times', and so on.  Others complaining about the EBB as being crude and 'too basic'.  I know they occasionally give trouble, bolts working loose etc., but the alternatives can look awful.  I saw one Rohloff bike with a sliding dropout, with a tensioning screw at the back.  This one also had a rear disc brake - and so a sliding mount for the caliper mounts.  It looked complex, difficult to make and vulnerable.  I no longer have a Rohloff bike, but the fixed dropout was a great bonus in my view.

I was left wondering if the strongly expressed views in some of Thorn's literature, however well argued, are sometimes perceived as negative?  People also mentioned Thorn's 'opposition' to disc brakes - but again I think this case is well argued for and against, and several models can now be disc braked - no-one knew that.  Personally, I'm happy with my rim brakes for my riding.

One guy rode my Ripio and seemed v impressed with it, he said he was anyway.  So I did my best to keep the Bridgewater end up.

LEJOG

You mention that you might be doing this next May - June; good luck with the planning and so on!  My wife is Trustee of a charity that will be doing a sponsored ride on that route at around that time; details still not worked out, Dilys not organising it, though she will probably be a support driver.  The recent London to Paris was such a nightmare to organise (mainly relating to hired vehicles used abroad, ferry bookings for 3 vehicles etc) they are not doing it next year.  The charity is Phase Worldwide, supporting remote Himalayan villages in Nepal - anyone interested in details when the planning gets going, pm me.

Lewis

[StuntPilot]

Lewis

I was a bit concerned to hear some negative comments about Thorns - 'behind the times', and so on.  Others complaining about the EBB as being crude and 'too basic'.

In my experience with the Thorn Raven Tour I would say that 'behind the times' can be translated as 'tried and tested', and 'crude and too basic' as 'simple and reliable'.  

Some people are put off by the directness of the Thorn brochures, but I am sure Thorn is just giving their opinion based on their vast experience of producing and riding expedition touring bikes. If you can keep that in mind there is a lot of good info in their brochures - take it or leave it is my approach.

I was thinking of going to the Cycle Touring Festival but in the end did not make it. Sounds an interesting weekend though. Hopefully it will be an annual event.

Richard

[jags]

i missed out on the festival but by all accounts is was fantastic.
tandem ride tonight for this kid ,i just watched this video  its very good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDYz1Uv4pmM#t=93

[lewis noble]

I agree, Richard, and I have learnt that Thorn are right in a great deal of what they say.

But for others, directness and clarity seems to be interpreted as negativeitude (?? negativity??). 

Shortly after this Festival, I was support driver / techie on a London to Paris group ride.  Which bikes gave trouble? Not the 2 Thorns.

There was talk about the Festival being repeated, but nothing definite.

Lewis

[DAntrim]

I would agree with Lewis the festival was very interesting, with a full schedule of talks / workshops. I really enjoyed the session's for various regions and the different perspective's this produced, but what most impressed me was the attitude of the people and the atmosphere that this created.

my Ripio was the only dérailleur Thorn

Nearly I was on my club tour, though 'parked up' under the shed on the campsite

Carlos

.....they are trying to make this an annual event, and the signup for 2016 is open

[lewis noble]

OOPS!   Sorry Carlos . . . . . If I had seen it I would have looked you out.  I was in the blue VW campervan near the campsite gate.  Drier than many people, but nearly got stuck in the wet grass!

Yes, I enjoyed the Festival and will go again if it is repeated.

Lewis

[jags]

VW blue campervan my dream   car that and a martin hd 28 guitar.

[Mike Ayling]

Hi Jackie, and happy birthday!

Been ages since I heard that phrase -- barely heard in these parts, 'cept when I use it myself.  (Amuses my family & the neighbours.)

I was always led to believe that the squeak referred to the addition of bacon to the mix. Obviously I have been misinformed.

Mike
Born and bred in Sarf Efrica now resident in Melbourne Oz.

[Danneaux]

Hi All!

8:43am...eating breakfast on the back patio and felt a "ripple" pass beneath my feet and the patio door screen shook. Earthquake.

It was a 4.2 magnitude quake, 7km deep centered in Springfield (Eugene's sister-city just across the river, so pretty much all one town). See: http://earthquaketrack.com/p/united-states/oregon/recent

It made the bikes sway on their stands.

Not such a common thing here as in California. I live on the edge of the Pacific "Rim of Fire" (Cascadia earthquake subduction zone where one major continental plate is trying to slide under the other) and we're way overdue for something truly horrendous in the way of a major earthquake. If it happens, life here will be decades in recovering, as there isn't much in infrastructure and if a major highway gets cut, there'd be no way in or out of an area except by air. The bikes and camp-touring gear would come n real handy.

Screenshot below, taken from: http://earthquaketrack.com/p/united-states/oregon/recent The one that just happened is the big orange circle. You can see there have been other, lesser ones recently.

All the Oregon Cascade Mountain Range is comprised of dormant volcanoes. I was touring Washington State's San Juan Islands by bicycle when Mt. St Helens blew. Heck of a mess.

All the best,

Dan.

[John Saxby]

I guess/hope that the "little ones" let off a bit of pressure, Dan?  Or is that just a microscopic shift, foreshadowing The Big One?

We live in apocalyptic times, eh?  Maybe we should all lay in a supply of Marathon Tour Plus tires...

[energyman]

Thorns - out of date, behind the times etc but still a good, nay, excellent ride !  

[Danneaux]

'Just spent the last 90 minutes rendering first-response aid till an ambulance arrived and then doing witness duties to police after a bike accident unfolded before me in a sickening tableau while on my daily walk.

The 5-lane arterial at the end of my street is being resurfaced and northbound traffic was down to one narrow lane with cars having to operate on the bike path, a flagger at the entry to my street. In watching the construction, I saw a well-equipped commuting cyclist riding northbound on the sidewalk, the path being unavailable. Just as he reached the corner, a Subaru driven by a neighbor turned right into his path and things went bad quickly.

He locked up his front brake and rotated around the wheel before catching the corner of the curb with his right eyebrow, splitting it open and causing a lot of neck torsion. The car did not actually strike him, but the rear tire of his bike rotated around and left a clean mark on her car's rear quarter panel. The car's right-rear tire missed rolling over his head by about 8cm.

He popped up and started shaking until I could get him to sit. He refused to lie down so his neck could be stabilized and refused my offer to call an ambulance. Fortunately, the construction safety supervisor called for one while I was tending to him. The driver did all required of a motorist, stopping immediately, offering aid, giving me her contact information and remaining -- as I did -- well after he was transported by ambulance to the hospital. The paramedics kindly took his bike with him in the same truck.

I told the officers neither party seemed clearly at fault. The cyclist was riding responsibly at about 10mph while the driver was going about 8-10mph as she turned, and used her indicator to signal. It seemed to be one of those tragic instances where two parties reached the same point at the same time and discovered each other at once. The cyclist said he held her harmless and it was in no way her fault. She said she glanced at the flagger in the middle of my street just as she turned. If anything, the prime contributor seemed to be the construction and all the distractions it presented for all parties as bike traffic was rerouted to the sidewalk and the remaining narrow lane carried perhaps 6 times its usual traffic with lots of noise, heavy equipment, flaggers, and metal road plates adding to the mess.

Now the part I found particularly interesting and will take to heart: The officer said the driver was not at fault and if anything, the cyclist would receive a citation. Why? With road construction taking the on-street bike path, the cyclist was proper to use the sidewalk, but at no more than walking speed. By my estimation I had reported he was traveling about 10mph, thus faster than walking speed and placing him at fault. The officer said the accident was as good a lesson as a citation and the cyclist had already paid the price, so he thought he'd let things stay as they were and not issue a ticket. Seems reasonable given how it played out.

I sure feel sorry for both parties. He is going to need some stitches and will be very sore tomorrow. She quietly sobbed till I think she ran out of tears. I hope they'll both be okay.

Best,

Dan.