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| Climber on the Fuhrer Finger - Photo by the Next Adventure crew |
The highlight of my day was when this lovely lady actually talked to me. I was telling her how gorgeous she was and how she was the prettiest big cat I've ever seen in a zoo and she stopped, looked right at me and made a kitten like noise. I talked back to her, and she responded again. We went back and forth and had a little conversation. Nathan tried to get it on video and she stopped. As soon as he stops trying to record, she of course starts talking to me again. It was pretty awesome!
Since my animal whisperer skills seemed to be in top form today, when we got to this guy, I tried again. He was in the log, poking his head out.
I let him know that I would love it if he'd go and climb since the sign said he was a great climber.
Then I pleaded with him to get closer, so I could get a really good picture of him. I told him if he'd come right in front of me on this log, that would be great. I kid you not, he did it. Then he looked at me with his oh so adorable face like, "is this good?".
In my next chapter of life, I'm going to work with animals. I had no idea they were easier to work with than humans! Seriously though, they made my day. I went into the zoo in a complete funk and went out walking on air thanks to them.
In case you did not catch the updateon the original post and the subsequent twitter announcement, I selected the recipient for the Lovely Touring Bike give-away a couple of weeks ago. This give away has proven to be an especially difficult one, and I wanted to make sure the bike and the new owner were a good match before making the announcement here. Happily, it seems that they are.
It was a year ago now that I spontaneously bought a beat up Shoguntouring bike, because the geometry looked promising and I liked the colour. As I didn't need another vintage roadbike, I decided to turn it into a Lovely Bicycle project. It occurred to me that if refurbished with new components, it could make the perfect "starter" bike for a woman who does not otherwise feel confident on a roadbike. What makes the bike good for this purpose, is that it has fairly relaxed angles, stable handling, a comfortable feel over bumps, and no toe overlap. The combination of these characteristics is not easy to find, particularly with smaller sized frames. Upon a reader's suggestion I decided to try and solicit sponsors for refurbishing the bike and then give it away. There were glitches along the way with component choices and sponsorship commitments, and the project took longer than anticipated. But once finished, the bicycle came out wonderfully:
In the end, there were two main industry sponsors for this project: Velo Orange donated a headset, crankset, fenders, leather handlebar tape, and touring saddle - components that were specifically requested by me. Harris Cyclery assembled the bicycle and contributed spare parts. A number of readers (Justine,G.E., Neighbourtease,Spindizzy, Cedar,Somervillain)made crucial contributions to the build, including components, accessories and monetary donations, and I too made personal contributions. The total worth of the bicycle as shown is around $1,000 and most of the components are described in detail here and here. Granted, it is a large sum to spend on a vintage frame. But no equivalent bicycle exists today at that price point.
Because of the unique nature of this project, it was extremely important to me to give this bike to a person who I felt really understood what they'd be getting, and best stood to benefit from this bike's combination of characteristics. A lot of thought went into the component choices, with the goal of maximising comfort and minimising the aspects that normally make people uncomfortable and nervous when riding roadbikes. This was not meant for a roadcyclist who was simply unhappy with their current bike, but specifically for someone who had trouble handling roadbikes in the first place. No effort was made to make this bike "fast" by roadcycling standards, which pretty much made it unsuitable for anyone interested in that aspect of cycling. The way I saw it, the "lovely touring bike" would give the new owner an opportunity to travel long distances at their own pace, on a bicycle that was lighter, faster and better at handling hills than an upright city bike, with multiple hand positions afforded by the dropbars but without the intimidating "racy" qualities of typical roadbikes.
The give-away entry requirement was to submit a ride report, which would be included in a Lovely Bicycle compilation some time in the future. My criteria for selecting the recipient were that (1) they were the right height for the bicycle's 52cm frame size, (2) they submitted their own entry, and (3) what they wanted in a roadbike was compatible with what this bicycle could give them. I was somewhat overwhelmed to receive over 70 entries from around the country: I'd thought that the limitations of the sizing alone would yield a fairly small circle of applicants. But as I read through the entries, I was even more surprised how few of them seemed relevant to this particular bicycle. This is an issue I experienced with previous give-aways as well, but this time it was more acute than ever. The majority of the entries gave no explanation for why they wanted this particular bike, other than that it would be nice to win one. Others entered on behalf of their wives or girlfriends. Others still interpreted this bicycle as a more comfortable alternative to their modern racing bike. In the end, I received a grand total of four entries that I felt were truly relevant, and interestingly, two of them were local.
In short, please meet "cycler," the bicycle's new owner and the author of Biking in Heels. You may recognise her as the owner of "Gilbert" - a customised Raleigh Lady's Sports, which is her daily transportation bicycle. After much, much deliberation, I concluded that since nothing in this give-away indicated that local readers and other bloggers were ineligible to participate, it would be biased not to give the bicycle to cycler at this point, given how right they were for each other. After she tried the bike, this was confirmed; they are a perfect match and I wish them many happy rides together.
I cut one Iris and took it inside to get a full view of it. From the petals tip-to-tip the flower is a little over 8" across. Several of the plants are "twins" with two blooms at the top of the stalk. There are 12 plants and most of them have 3 to 4 blooms coming on. Absolutely Gorgeous! flowers to feed the soul...
When it comes to bicycle lighting, our primary objective is to be extremely visible. On bicycles without a dynamo, this means LED lighting. One downside to LED lights, is that most of what's currently on the market looks very modern and "techy".We try to find LED lights that are both the brightest and the least in conflict with the classic looks of our bikes. A good example of that is the set-up on my vintage Raleigh DL-1 (above). I have received some emails asking how those lights are attached, and so I will describe it here.
Like all of our LED lights, the lights on this bicycle are by Cateye - a company whose products seem to be consistently good. The headlight is the Opticube HL-EL530, mounted on the right fork blade. Mounting it in this manner requires 2 supplementary gadgets: the FlexTight mounting bracket, which comes packaged with the headlight, and the Minoura Besso fork mount, which must be purchased additionally. 
The Opticube headlight is sold with a FlexTight mounting bracket included. This bracket is designed to be wrapped around a handlebar or around a long lug nut on the front wheel, like the one that comes standard on the Pashley and is pictured here. However, most bicycles - including my DL-1 - do not have sufficiently long lug nuts for this, and so you will need either a lug nut extender or a special mount that attaches to the fork blade like a branch, around which the FlexTight bracket can be wrapped. The mount we like to use for this is the Minoura Besso, priced in the $5-10 range.
Here is another view of this setup. You can see how the Minoura Besso mount is attached to the fork blade, and the Opticube headlight is then attached to it with the FlexTight bracket.
Yet another view from the back. I should note that some are against attaching a headlight to the fork blade, based on the idea that it can slip down and fall into the spokes. Personally, I think that this really depends on your attachment method. If you use a proper mount and attach it tightly, it seems extremely stable and not in the least prone to slippage. If you've had a bad experience with this method, please let me know; so far I have not heard of any.
This is what the headlight looks like in motion, "in the wild". From a short distance it actually resembles a vintage light, and it certainly comes across that way in pictures like these. Of course, up close you can tell that it is modern, but the design is nonetheless one of the most elegant ones available, as far as modern bike lights go.
For tail lights, we use two Cateye TL-LD610 lights, attaching one to each rear stay in the same way as on our Pashleys.
The diameter of the rear stays is usually not large enough to fit these lights, but they are sold with plastic liners to expand the stay diameter.
Using these two light strips on the rear stays is the nicest tail light setup we can think of. Not only does it make the bicycle highly visible in traffic, but it also gives the cars a good feel for its width - which can be very important in the dark.
And as far as aesthetics go, attaching the lights along the stays creates a very natural, unobtrusive look that does not conflict with any part of the bicycle's design.
My descriptions make it seem like the lights - especially the headlight - are a pain to attach, and I have to admit they kind of are. But you only need to do it once, and in the end it is worth it: Top of the line illumination, maximum safety, and classic looks will be your rewards.
