Happy 2015!

This was the view on the last morning of 2014. I biked along Lake Monona to the bakery to get some baguettes for tonight's cheese fondue. It was bitterly cold and windy, creating banks of steam blowing swiftly over the water. Not a bad way to say goodbye to 2014 and welcome the new year. Happy New Year to all my readers!

Overhauling the Blog Roll

Blog rolls or link lists on blogs often don't age well, and this blog is no exception. So here are my current regular reads:

• MadisonBikeThings: A Tumblr for all things bike in Madison, my home town. Full disclosure: MadisonBikeThings is a 100% subsidiary of the Ride or Pie?! Global Publishing Co.
• iBOB Google Group: The Bicycle Owners Bunch is a great resource for all things practical cycling
• BikeSnob NYC: The Bike Snob never ceases to amuse me, even after however many years I've been reading his blog
• The Wisconsin Bike Fed's blog has a great mix of posts on all things Wisconsin cycling, and their main author, Dave Schlabowske, is an excellent photographer and writer.
• A View from the Cycle Path: David Hembrow is an excellent source for teaching the anglophone world how create a great cycling environment. The complementary blog to this is 
• Bicycle Dutch: More video content than  Hembrow and a less negative undertone.
• Revolution Cycles: Great local bike shop in Madison
• Off the Beaten Path: Jan Heine, editor of Bicycle Quarterly, the only bike magazine worth reading, has a great blog, featuring epic (yes, that's the appropriate term here) ride reports and interesting tech stuff
• Bike Tinker: Philip is a fellow iBOB, and his blog is a great resource for all kinds of bike-related projects, often appropriate for DIY imitation
• Urban Adonia: An anthropologist-activist-academic writing about advocacy, equity, and race in bike culture and infrastructure
• Cycling Spokane: Kinda like my own blog, but from the West
• Andy's Cycling Blog: RL friend and randonneur
• Soma Fab blog: SOMA makes lots of cool bike stuff, as does
• Velo Orange
• BikePortland: I don't live in Portland, but one doesn't have to to appreciate the best local bike journalism there is.

Recommendations for blogs to read are always welcome!

Awesome deal on Pacenti SL23 650B rims!

Perfect timing: Kirk Pacenti is having a sale on his great SL23 rims. I had been on the lookout for rims to build up a 650B wheelset for quite some time, and so I jumped on this one without hesitation! I'm linking to the silver version with 32 holes that I bought myself, but they're also available in black and with 28 holes.
Edit 4:15pm: Looks like the shipping has been increased. But still a great deal!



Usual disclaimer: If you buy them through this link, I'll get a small referral from Amazon. And now go buy these great rims!

Tried and liked, 2014 edition

The Internet-BOB (short for Bridgestone Owners Bunch) listserv has the annual end-of-year tradition of people posting what bike-related things they liked—and didn't like. This is always a fun read and a good opportunity to reflect back on one's own purchases and innovations. Finding previous editions on Google Groups can be a bit of a pain, and so I'm cross-posting my list here on the blog.

These were my items from last year (in abbreviated form):

Liked 2013

• GB Randonneur bars
• Converting my all-purpose bike to disc brakes in the front, V-brakes in the rear
• long distance solo rides
• converting from STI's to DT shifters on the go-fast bike

Disliked 2013

• Flat pedals on the Cross-Check
• MEC rain jacket

Undecided 2013:

• metal fenders
• shellacked cotton bar tape

Lovely shellacked orange cotton tape

I'd say those things pretty much still hold true, except that cotton bar tape has moved from “undecided” to “liked,” with the qualification that I wouldn't want to have it on an everyday bike that I don't ride with gloves. GB Randonneur bars plus cotton tape plus padded cyling gloves, however, is a great combination!

So what about 2014? It was a weird cycling year for me. Because of immigration issues I lived without access to my regular stable of bikes for much of the year. But nonetheless there are a couple of things for the list.

Liked 2014

• S24O: Ridiculous as it may be, I so far had failed to successfully go on a sub-24 hour overnight ride, despite several attempts. This September it finally happened, and it was terrific!
• Riding fixed: In another case of coming late to the trend, it was only this year that I rode a fixed gear bike. While I was stranded in Montreal before my visa interview, I borrowed a friend's fixie and actually took it on a 100 kilometer group ride on the first attempt. While there were no Zen revelations of being one with the road, I did like enough to just yesterday having bought a fixed wheelset for winter riding. Not totally convinced that that's a great use case, but I'll give it a try.

  

  Miyata Fixie

• Riding in the Stuttgart region: Again because of the visa saga, I spent several weeks at my parents' near Stuttgart in southwest Germany this summer. The riding there is just great. You can choose between hills or river valleys; between quiet back roads, gravel forest trails, real single track, or paved bike paths. And a great bakery, a beer garden, or a restaurant is never further than half an hour away. 
• A dedicated winter bike: After riding the SO's city bike with 2.25" Schwalbe Ice Spiker tires through the fresh snow, I knew that I had to get my own winter bike! I bought a cheap early-2000s MTB on Craigslist, equipped it with Ice Spikers, north road bars, and moose mitts (more on that below). This was money very well spent, as it significantly helped to make a very cold winter much less depressing. Unfortunately, because of my move to Madison I sold the bike and so far have been unable to find an appropriate replacement.

  

  Winter bike in its element

• Pogies/Bar Mitts: Again, the SO tried these first and liked them a lot. She has the version from Handlebar Booties, and I got the Moose Mitts. Only downside: There are pogies for drop bars but not for ones with bar-end shifters, i.e. what I have on my everyday bike. I guess converting it to fixed would solve this.
• Ski goggles for winter riding: This is one of the things where for years I thought that I didn't need them. But then once I tried them for the first time, I immediately cursed myself for not having done this earlier. The pair was a rather scratched up pair of goggles that I bought for 3 dollars from the thrift store. They work great during day, but because they're tinted, I'll have to get another pair for riding in the dark.
• Defeet DuraGlove Wool: Another great product from Defeet! Think, warm, comfortable, durable. Mine lack the ET feature of the current generation that allows using touch screens.

Disliked 2014

Nothing to report here.

Undecided 2014

• I'm still on the fence about metal fenders. I had the metal front fender tear at the front stay. This was probably the result of me not installing the fender without any tension after having shipped it by plane. And of course one should keep in mind that these fenders were pieced together from stuff I collected at the bike co-op. I'm still somewhat concerned about the risk of sticks jamming the fenders and will buy the PDW Safety Tabs as soon as possible. I still love the extended coverage, stiffness, and looks of the fenders.

Southern Splendor on a not horribly cold day

Winter has come early and with force this year in Madison. Consequently, when the forecast predicted a day of temperatures slightly above freezing, I took up the rare opportunity for a longer ride. The route mostly followed the Southern Splendor ride by the Bombay Bicycle Club and proved to be an excellent choice. Lots of quiet back roads and a pretty, mostly snow-covered scenery.

For riding on the sections of bike trail I was glad to have my studded tires, as there will plenty of icy patches—on the Badger State Trail I rode past a guy who just had had a (harmless) fall. The roads mostly clear of ice and snow and merely wet and salty. I was wearing multiple layers of wool on my upper body, which turned out just right for the given temperature. I'm looking forward to doing this route again next spring or summer. Strava link.

Ice fishing in November? Where did I move to!?

The sun was low but still provided some warmth

“Ice ordinance” A little too early to ride out onto the lake

Lake Kegonsa

Crossing the Yahara in Stoughton

Badfish Creek