Continue reading]]> If respect for human life is not a good reason to respect cyclists, maybe caring for the planet is.

I live in southern California, where a large percentage of the population consider themselves “green” or “environmentalists” or “tree-huggers.” The streets here are brimming with Teslas and Priuses, and buildings are festooned with solar panels. We vote in favor of gas tax increases and encourage people to “get out of their cars” and use alternative transportation like carpools or the minimalist mass transit system.

I, too, consider myself active in fighting climate change. Among other things, I ride a bike and eBike for transportation rather than driving my car when possible. I have bags and a trailer for my bike and I use them to commute and run errands. I put thousands of miles a year on my bikes that would have otherwise been put on my car. Bikes and eBikes are far more green than hybrid or even fully electric cars. And the reality is that electric cars are still priced beyond the reach of most people.

With the sudden popularity of eBikes I expected to see more people using bikes as transportation. Yet I rarely see anyone else using bikes this way. Whenever I go to the grocery store, I stop and answer questions from people about what I am doing, implying that they have never seen anyone run errands on a bike. My conclusion is that people ride bikes for recreation almost exclusively.

It should not be this way. Where I live, most roads have dedicated bike lanes with clear lane markers and labels. But most eBike riders ride on sidewalks, which is usually not legal and creates problems with pedestrians. Or they ride only on dedicated bike trails. Those are nice, but they rarely give access to the places needed for commuting or errands. I talk to people online and in-person, and the reason for all of this is clear: they are afraid of riding on the street with cars.

I ride on the street anyway, so this fear I see in others is not surprising. There are a lot of street-specific skills and techniques that I have gotten comfortable with during my 35 years of bike commuting that keep me safe. But the reality is that even on very short rides, I encounter drivers who intentionally try to run me off the road. They pass as close as possible to me on the right (California has 3-foot passing law), often driving in the bike lane after passing me. They cut me off to take a right turn in front of me so close to me that I have to hit the brakes very hard to avoid hitting them. They pull out in front of me, honk at me, yell at me, throw things at me, swerve at me, and tell me to “get off the road” even though I am riding legally in a marked bike lane. These have been constants during all of my years as a cyclist. Learning to deal with them emotionally is an important skill.

The irony of this occurred to me recently when yet another Prius tried to bully me off the road. We have miles of bike lanes that could be used to reduce our carbon footprint, but they are not, and for one simple reason: “green” drivers go out of their way to scare cyclists off the road. They do it a lot, and it works

My message to the self-proclaimed green people of California is this: support cyclists you see on the road who are working just as hard as you are to save the planet. Give them more than the 3 feet required by law. Make eye contact. Smile. Wave. See them. Accommodate them. Protect them. Care about them.

As a footnote, I have a suggestion for law enforcement as well. Many motorists use their vehicles in such a way that it qualifies as brandishing a deadly weapon. By coordinating an officer on a bike with another officer in a vehicle, these motorists could be cited. It would not take a lot of this before the word got out that random cyclists were police officers, which would be an effective deterrent. I have read that this is being done in some places and I think we need more of it.

Continue reading]]> Adventure / touring / gravel bikes are great, aren’t they? They allow you to get out on the road and almost hang with the best road bikes out there. They also let you depart from said road and nearly keep up with the best cross country mountain bikes around. This is a great fantasy except for one little gremlin that messes it up. And believe it or not, it is not tires, suspension or geometry. It is gearing. It would be great if there was a component group that offered gearing nearly as tall as a 53/11 road bike group and at the same time offering a granny nearly as low as a mountain bike group. That is a big ask, to be sure. But if you are willing to tinker a little or get out there on the edge, it can be done.

Before going any farther, I admit to being a Shimano biased amateur bike mechanic. I will touch on SRAM a little. Campy does not make an MTB group so they don’t really play in this arena. So I may miss some options, but I am pretty sure this covers most of the bases. But if not, please feel free to let me know.

In the distant past there were various ways to make a wide range drop bar group. A triple road group, i.e. with a 3 chainring crankset, was one way. Mixing and matching road and mountain bike components could also be part of the solution. These options worked great up through 9 speed Shimano. Starting with 10 speed, Shimano began to break this compatibility between its road and mountain groups. Road bike 10 speed shifters did not work with 10 speed mountain bike derailleurs anymore. They could work with a 9 speed MTB rear derailleur, but that meant using older components in the mix. When Shimano went 11 speed, compatibility was nearly gone. No road shifters worked with any MTB derailleurs, and high end triple road groups were gone too. Admittedly the loss of road triple was not a big blow: it was possible to get the same range with new 2×11 speed groups. This was all happening at a time when gravel/adventure bikes were rising in popularity, creating a demand for a wide range group that was no longer supported. It seemed that component makers were caught off guard .

In order to understand compatibility between shifters, derailleurs and gears (cogs/chainrings), it is helpful to break down compatibility into three categories: cable pull, gear capacity and max gearing.

Cable Pull This is the amount of cable movement needed move a derailleur enough to shift one gear. The amount of cable pull that a derailleur needs and the amount that the shifter delivers must be the same. If not, derailleurs will not position the chain centered on the gears.

Gear Capacity This is the sum of the range of gears of the cassette and the crankset, expressed in the number of teeth. For example, a compact 50/34T crankset has a range of 16T. An 11/28T cassette has a range of 17T. Used together on a drivetrain they have a capacity of 33T. A wide range drivetrain will have a greater capacity. The chain must be long enough to wrap around the big/big gear combo. When you shift that chain into small/small, there is chain slack to take up. The wider the gear range, the more slack must be taken up. It is the job of the rear derailleur to handle that. The cage (the plates that connect the derailleur pulleys), must be longer to take up more chain slack. Long cages slow down shifting, add weight, and stick out to interfere with the world, so you don’t want a longer cage than needed. Shimano makes 3 cage lengths: SS or short, GS or medium, and SGS or long. In general, SS is for tight ratio road race bikes. GS is for normal 2x gearing, and SGS is for 2x wide range or 3x gear ranges. In the current lineup Shimano offers SS and GS for road and GS and SGS for mountain. They have never offered an SGS rear derailleur for a current 11 speed road group, and that limits the gear range of drop bar groups.

Max Gear Size and Range Rear derailleurs have limits on the max size cog they can handle. SRAM’s commonplace 42T big cog will not work with older derailleurs, for example. The mech simply cannot pivot out far enough to reach the bigger cogs. Sometimes you can make move them out farther with adapters or by using long “b tension” bolts. But that can mean the derailleur will not be able to get close to the small cogs and compromise shifting in that range. Front derailleurs are a little different. The curvature of the shifting plates is designed for different sizes of chainrings. Shimano’s road derailleurs accommodate this. For example with the newest Ultegra R8000 band mount front derailleur is offered in L (large) and M/S (Medium/Small) options.

Other Compatibility I am going to focus on shifter/derailleur/gear compatibility, but that is not the whole picture. As if it were not enough to get the components all working together on paper, they must all work together when bolted onto a frame and under power. Putting a modern road bike crank a mountain bike may not go well. Integrated spindles may not be wide enough. That can be solved sometimes be using older BBs / cranksets where the spindle was part of the BB, like good ol’ square taper or Octalink. Putting a road bike crankset on a mountain bike may work at the bottom bracket, but the frame may not have enough clearance for the rings or a good place to mount the front derailleur. Road front derailleurs are bottom pull only, so keep that in mind. Chainline is another matter. The width of the spacing of the bike at the rear may move the cassette inboard or outboard far enough to make cross chaining even worse than normal and even affect 2 or 3 gears at the extremes. If you start to consider plus side tires or fatbikes, you may have tire clearance between the chain and frame to consider.

So for the options below, let’s presume you have the other compatibility issues sorted, i.e. just look at shifter/derailleur/gear compatibility. I have built bikes using options 1-4 below, so I know they work.

#1: Make a Franken-derailleur. I have found two ways to do this. Number one: hack a Shimano 105 5800 rear derailleur and a Shimano LX T670-SGS rear derailleur. This is documented well here. Remove the long cage from the LX and install it on the 105 and voila, an SGS 11 speed road derailleur! That solves the cable pull and capacity issue. To solve the max gear issue you may have to use the upside down b-tension screw trick, or use a derailleur hanger extension like the Wolf Tooth Road Link. Number two: Same hack but mix a Shimano GRX rear derailleur with an M8000 XT SGS long cage. I have not tried this one myself, but it is demonstrated in this video.

Pros: Relatively simple, no adapters needed.

Cons: You may have to tear apart a derailleur in ways you never have before. The older derailleurs have no shadow low profile or adjustable clutch, so for off road use you might get a lot of old school banging around of the derailleur. Small cog shifting feels numb and slow. And the derailleurs are a little on the heavy side, if that matters to you. The newer GRX/M8000 looks more promising.

#2 SRAM To The Rescue! SRAM offers a clean solution: Their 11 speed drop bar shifters are compatible with their 10 speed mountain bike rear derailleurs and 11 speed mountain bike front derailleurs. I had SRAM Rival shifters, an X-9 10 speed clutch rear derailleur (a rare beast), and a GX 11 speed front derailleur and it worked a charm. Other combos will work. If you are not trying to make existing Shimano components work and you can go all SRAM, this is a good option.

Pros: Lots of options for components, easy compatibility, no hacking or adapters needed.

Cons: Limited to 10 speed rear derailleurs, not the latest and greatest.

#3 Cable Pull Adapters Mix Shimano road shifters and an MTB derailleur with a cable pull adapter. I know of 2: the JTEK Shiftmate 8 / 8A, and the Wolf Tooth Tanpan.

Pros: You can use any 11 speed MTB derailleur you want which means current models.

Cons: Adapters do add complexity to the cable routing. Surprisingly, if there are no other problems in the cable run, they do not affect shifting. But any problems, like kinks in cables, gunk or corrosion in the cables and housing, etc. will all be magnified by an adapter. I like the Tanpan better. The set screw and internal routing keeps the cable from unwinding in the adapter. The adapters are not cheap, but most of these drivetrains means some added cost.

#4: Go Electronic. Shimano allows mixing road shifters and mtb derailleurs with their Di2 groups. SRAM may allow the same, but, well, I am a Shimano guy, remember? 2nd Gen Di2 did not initially allow the mixing and matching of components, but a later firmware update added that ability. You are limited to making both derailleurs mountain bike components, i.e. you cannot use and Ultegra front derailleur and an XTR rear derailleur. I am not sure about first gen Di2 either, if you want to consider that you have some homework to do, sorry.

Pros: Di2 shifting. If you have not experienced it and you don’t have the money for it, do NOT ride Di2. Electronic shifting is not a gimmick or small evolution over mechanical shifting. It is a true game changer.

Cons: The same con as always for electronic shifting: the price. Now that we have 2nd and 3rd generation electronic shifting systems, some deals can be had on older parts or bikes if you are patient. That is how I did it.

#5 Lose the Brifter Presumed in all of these options is the use of “brifters” (combined brake shifter) and indexed shifting. If you consider bar end shifters that offer a friction mode, you open a whole new world of options. You need to keep them in friction mode all the time. That means losing the clicks in your shifting and learning to shift by feel: a skill that has been lost in the history of cycling for most. But considering the way you might want to use a bike like this, it does have its appeal. Almost any shifting problems you encounter with a friction shift bike can be overcome by your own skill, on the fly, anywhere in the world, without special tools or parts. Sounds like an adventure bike spec to me.

Pros: Eliminates the cable pull issue completely and with a simpler drivetrain.

Cons: Friction shifting is not for everyone.

#6 (ish) Hope for other options. If Shimano offered a long cage GRX or Ultegra derailleur that would be the de facto way to go. We can hope. Shimano has also introduced 12 speed mountain bike groups, but not 12 speed for road. Yet. Perhaps when they do, the cable pull of the road shifters will be the same as the MTB derailleurs and we can have the mechanical mix and match nirvana of 9 speed. Farther out on the horizon, maybe a 1x group one day will deliver this kind of range. But we are talking about maybe a 9/60 cassette with 13 or 14 speeds (in order to get decent gear spacing). A new player on the component scene, Rotor, has introduced a 13 speed group. And Shimano has patents on 14 speed components.

So one thing is a constant going forward: change. Fortunately, amidst all of the turmoil of the ever changing bike drivetrain technology, there is usually a way for us outliers to make a group that gives us all of the features we want.

Continue reading]]> As I have been blogging about my California coastal bike tour after the fact, my blogs apparently caught the attention of Jim Fullerton of  Adventure Bike Touring.

It is worth checking it out.

A sample of the scenery on my coastal tour.

Among the wide variety of content on the website is a section of Podcasts. They are interviews Jim does under the heading of “Why I Bike”. Jim is a great interviewer with a wonderful relaxed style. He reached out to me and asked me if he could interview me about my tour for one of his podcasts. I was very flattered and accepted his offer. Jim’s interview with me is located here, and I have embedded it here as well. Jim also deserves credit for some good editing. I took the interview on a day when I was distracted at work and I thought I did a pretty terrible job of responding to his questions and staying on topic. But by the time Jim did a little cutting and pasting, the interview came out much better. Thanks to Jim for that!

Continue reading]]> I recently modified a mountain bike that came with a 2×11 drivetrain. It was nice, but I wanted a wider gear range. The result was a 10/42T 11 speed cassette paired with a 40/24T 2x crankset. I can hear the cries already: “A 24×42 granny gear? That’s madness!” “You will never get shifting to work with that!” “You will create a discontinuity in the space-time continuum!” “What do you need gearing like that for?” Well it is not as crazy as it may sound.

The crankset was originally 36/24T. Now is it is 40/24T.

All I want to deal with in this blog is gear ratios. I am going to look at two things: the ratio of the front to rear gear teeth. i.e. for every rotation of the crank, how many times does the rear wheel rotate? By looking at those numbers we can compare 1x, 2x and 3x drivetrains on level ground. I also want to take one other thing into account, and that is the difference in diameter of the wheels. 29er wheels increase gearing vs 26″ wheels. How much? This is where gear inches come into play. Gear inches are how far the bike moves forward with a single revolution of the crank. Sound familiar? So we can use these two numbers together. More on this later.

Let’s start with a baseline: the classic drivetrain that was the standard of mountain biking for years until 2x, 1x and 29er’s entered the scene. And that is the following: a 3×9 drivetrain with a 11/34T cassette and a 22/32/44T crankset on a 26″ wheels. Here is the total gear range:

Range: 44/22 * 34/11 = 6.18 or 618%

i.e, the high gear is 6.18x higher than the low gear. Keep this in mind when look at 1x and 2x drivetrains. The latest 1x 12 speed groups have a range of 500% (50/10) or 511% (46/9). To put it another way, to get about 618% range in a 1x drivetrain, you would need a 10/62T or 9/56 cassette. Rohloff internally geared hubs have a range of 526%. Shimano Alfine 11 have a range of 409%.

The rear was originally 11/32T. Now it is 10/42T.

As for the 2×11 combo that I put together:

Range: 40/24 * 42/10 = 700%

To replicate that in 1x you would need a 10/70T or a 9/63T cassette, which don’t exist yet. If you want a range like this you need to go 2x, at least for now.

Here are some other parameters I keep in mind. The max spread I go for on the crankset is 16T. That is, the big ring is 16T bigger then the small ring. That is a wide but common range with road bikes and a compact 50/34T crankset. Road and mountain bike front derailleurs seem to handle that kind of range. The standard 10/42T 11 speed cassette has a drop of 32T. So together the crank and cassette have a total drop of 48T, which is about the max a mountain bike long cage rear derailleur can take up. Note that the 9/46T cassette has a drop of  37T, so pairing that with a double crankset would mean reducing the drop of the crankset, since 37+16=53T is just to much for even the longest of rear derailleur cages to deal with.

Let’s have another look at wheels. Gear inches are a function of the circumference of the tire, which in turn depends on the diameter. Circumference is pi times diameter, if you remember your geometry. But since we are going to divide the numbers, we can use just the diameter. The new ISO diameters are the best numbers to use. For 29ers, the diameter is 622mm, for 26″ it is 559mm. So 29ers increase gear inches compared to 26″:

622/559 = 1.11

29er rims are 622mm at the bead. Not to be confused with the ERD of 605mm.

In other words, if the gearing is the same on a 29er and a 26″ bike, the wheel diameter would give the 29er 11% higher gearing. If we want to compare the 3×9 above to the 2×11, we should increase the gearing on the 2×11 by 11% giving us:

High gear: 40/10 = 4.0 x 1.11 = 4.44
Low Gear: 24/42 = .571 x 1.11 = .634

The range is unaffected. So while it may not seem like it, a 24/42 granny on a 29er is actually only slightly lower than 22/34 gear than on a 26″ bike (.634 vs .647). This 2×11 29er drivetrain provides a wider range of gears than our 3×9 26″ benchmark, and mostly on the higher ratios.

Of course the advantages for 1x are numerous. A drivetrain like this wide range 2X11 is not needed for most bikes. In this case it is for an adventure bike that is meant for off road use with a touring load. At the same time the bike is well suited for the road where it is a shame to be without the taller gears. You could use similar gearing on a road touring bike but with larger chainrings (say compact 34/50) and get gearing comparable to traditional 3×9 road touring triple group but with the simplicity of 2x shifting.

This is not the end of the comparison by any means. Some 3×9 groups have wider ranges with a 46T big ring or a 36T big cog. I think we will see wider gear ranges and more gears going forward for 1x drivetrains. i.e. the trend of 10/42T 11 speed to 10/50T 12 speed will continue. Shimano has patents on a 14 speed drivetrain. And what about 27.5 / 650b wheels? Now you know how to compare these drivetrain options.

Continue reading]]> I decided to make a short visit to Interbike this year. They have customer appreciation day now, and I am appreciated I guess. This is not meant to be some exhaustive industry report of Interbike, you can get that from various magazines and such. This was just me having fun. I made the decision to go at the last minute and I am cheap, so I stayed at Primm Valley because it is the best way to get low room rates on short notice. It is on the way from Southern California and only about 30 minutes from the strip.

Buffalo Bill’s needs a little sprucing up

Primm ain’t what is used to be, let’s just say it needs a little maintenance. It does not seem as popular as it once was. As Vegas becomes more and more outrageous I am guessing that fewer visitors want to stay this far from the action. I did not ride the coaster or monorail but…

Kind of weird to find something like this in Primm Valley now

I spent some time looking at the Bonnie and Clyde display, which is at Whiskey Pete’s. I DID mention that this was not a professional Interbike report, didn’t I?

The big entrance

But I made it to the show.

My current n+1. Which may end up being an n-1 after I own it. But I doubt it.

The Salsa Cutthroat is my current object of desire. I don’t get every bike that I lust after unfortunately. If I get one, it will be blogged on here, worry not.

Inter E Bike

Overall impressions of Interbike? The eBike section of Interbike was huge and the show floor was segregated so the eBike stuff was all together. Sorry, no eBike pics. Someone seems to think eBikes are going to be big. I have dabbled with them and we will see. The technology will continue to improve because they will benefit from advances made by electric cars. I have not seen many eBikes in use on the streets or trail. They can be pretty stealthy but I can usually spot them. The premise of eBikes as basic transportation is a good one. They could help people in the USA cope with zoning policies, urban sprawl or rural areas that separate homes from jobs from retail by such great distances.

I will take one of each

I never thought of taking a spear and flippers with me on my bikepacking trip. Blackburn is just one step ahead of me. Or not.

I have no idea what they were selling at this booth. I ask permission before taking model pics, BTW, a policy that is always well received.

Mountain Bike Hall of Fame Inductees Chris Chance, Gary Sjoquist, Joe Breeze and Charlie Kelley

You never know who you will meet at Interbike. I ran into these guys while I was visiting the Mountain Bike Hall Of Fame booth. I was just having casual conversation with them then I started reading their badges and got a nice surpirse. They were all friendly and approachable. It was great fun. Chris Chance showed up with a beautiful 90’s vintage bike equipped with authentic and marvelously restored components. Charlie has published a book, “Fat Tire Flyer”.

I enjoy checking out Interbike. It is fun meeting the people and seeing the stuff, and it makes me want to ride that much more when I get back.

Continue reading]]> On my last overnight tour around Southern California I took the Santa Ana River Trail dirt option. The dirt trail runs along the opposite side of the river as the paved tail for most of the route.

Some parts of it are more scenic than others. This would be one of the others.

I will post a write up of the full trip next, but I first wanted to focus on the homeless population along the trail. I have ridden the trail since the 1980s. Homeless people have always been present along the trail but in small numbers and hidden away. You had to be looking to see their shelters and I never saw a single homeless person out while riding the trail. I would consider them briefly as I rode by and I hoped and prayed that they would get help, though I knew it was more complicated than that.

This day as I was riding along I encountered a much larger group than I had seen before. I presumed it was because I was on the dirt side of the trail and I had a better angle on some of their hiding places.

The people living in the river bed alarmed me. They were pretty vulnerable down there. When it rains this winter they will have to move. They could lose what little they have and could be in danger. Their presence there was illegal and it would be well known to local authorities, charities and emergency agencies. I did think it odd that people were out and around rather than staying out of sight. What I didn’t realize is that I had encountered the tip of the iceberg.

The number of homeless communities I saw grew as I rode, even on the paved side of the trail, their numbers adding up to the thousands along a stretch of a few miles.

The bike trail was crowded to the edges in many places with people, tents, their belongings and volunteer workers.

I was flooded with mixed emotions. What had happened to cause such a dramatic increase in the number of homeless people? This was not the usual reclusive homeless population. They were out and about, taking out their garbage and I presume using the many parks and facilities along the trail for their daily needs. Some were being very active, even playing team games in the sand. Given what I was used to along the trail, it was a surreal experience.

Their presence there made riding the bike trail at a fast pace dangerous. Not because I was afraid of being attacked. Although there was a lot of angry chatter and shouting emanating from many of the tents. Locals were using the trail without looking for cyclists, standing across the trail, and storing their belongings on the trail itself. It had the look of establishing territory and discouraging other trail users from being there. And it was working. It was the Saturday morning of Labor Day weekend. Usually the trail would be crowded with groups of cyclists. But today there were eerily few riders on the trail. And many of them were homeless people wandering down the trail slowly, on the wrong side, etc.

I hope that this is not a long term trend for the river trail. Many communities have worked hard to improve the trail for cyclists and equestrians, adding rest rooms, lighting, landscaping, benches,etc. The trail serves as a transportation corridor. The new transit center in Anaheim, ARTIC, is located adjacent to the bike trial, in an obvious effort to support cyclists for commuting and travel. I later read about the situation to learn what was happening. A quick web search helped me understand the causes. My heart goes out to these people, I hope they can get out of this situation quickly.

Part of my mixed emotions about this are as a cyclist, however. Why is a cycling trail one of the places that the homeless end up going at a time like this? There are other areas: shopping areas, school campuses, wilderness areas, golf courses (like the one along the trail), government facilities (which are being used, too), etc. Their presence is illegal in all of these places, so that is not a reason for using the bike trail. I feel that cyclists are once again being treated as second class citizens and their concerns are less than other groups.

Yes, I know it sounds selfish and I do have a hard time balancing my mixed feelings about the situation. If this is a relatively short term phenomenon, and the homeless population dwindles or is relocated quickly, then it will be one of those one time things. But from the looks of it, with volunteers bringing in supplies and residents coming out in the open to form communities and take over the area, it looks just as likely that the Santa Ana River Trail as a cycling destination will be diminished for a long time, perhaps permanently.

Continue reading]]> I recently posted this image on the Facebook Bicycle Touring group, though by now you may end up seeing it elsewhere (Click on the image for full res):

And I thought I slept well

It was well received. But since it was, I want to come clean: it is a Photoshopped image. That is the easiest way to explain it. I actually used a piece of software called Gimp, but no one knows what you are talking about if you say you Gimped an image. I think most people suspect it was edited, but coming out with it is fun anyway. If you are like me, you might get curious about how these images are made, so I wanted to share a few notes about this image here.

This was a relatively simple composite. I found two images that I did not have to play with color, resolution, focus, or any of the hard stuff. I just did some scaling, blending and cloning to make it work. I could pick it apart, but once you know it was Gimped (I may start a new expression) and look closer, you will probably see all kind of things wrong with it. But first impressions are good, that is what counts

Image number one, taken from here, source image here, just in case the page changes.

It all started as a simple campsite

Image number 2, taken from here, source image here

Just add a little Kansas and voila!

This one went so well may do the occasional “fantasy cycling image” and post here in the future.

Continue reading]]> In writing a blog about both bicycles and motorcycles I am going to have to deal with a severe limitation placed upon me by the English language. The word “bike”.  I don’t know how we got to where we are with both groups using the term. I have not done an etymology on the word, but it seems to me that bicyclists must have used it first, since bicycles were around before motorcycles. But before I go any further I need to stop and lay some ground rules.

Bicyclists, particularly serious bicyclists, do not refer to themselves as bicyclists, and damn sure don’t refer to their vehicles as “bicycles”.  Motorcyclists rarely use the terms “motorcyclist” and “motorcycle”. Let’s face it, they are just way too multi-syllabic. Both groups use the word bike and act like the other kind of bike does not exist. Which is particularly strange in the case of motorcyclists, who don’t like any comparison made between their motorized vehicles and pedal bikes. See how hard that is to do in one sentence and be clear about it?

SO, the upshot of all of this is that when I blog about motorcycles and bicycles in the same blog I am going to avoid using the term “bike”. I will be forced to use the other, longer words I mention above. Which will make the blog sound a little geeky now and then. Or a lot geeky sometimes. But I don’t see a way around it. If you have any suggestions or ideas on this quagmire, then please share them below. Until then it will be bicycle and motorcycle and no bike. Grrrrr….

Continue reading]]> Here goes a blog that is pretty much guaranteed to cater to no one. How many cyclists ride motorcycles? Probably a few, but let’s not stop there. How many roadies ride a fat bike? How about 29 plus riders that like bikepacking?

Forget boundaries, embrace eclecticism and hold on for the rides.

There are riders that care about the experience, the moment, the setting, the world and its people as they fly past, each beckoning us to stop, to savor, to engage.

Movement through the world can be poetry, a dance, a flow that we choreograph as best as we can by our preparation, altered by the unpredictability of our environment, and seasoned by our fortunes, be they good or bad.

Adventure can be found anywhere. It can be in every step of every day. It can be just down the street and in your own back yard.

It is not a place and neither is it defined by the outside world.

It is an attitude and a spirit and it is inside each of us, which puts us in the drivers seat, or more appropriately for this blog, at the handlebar.