JJScaliger

Cool picture! I've never been there. I found this old picture of the same mill from 1937.

otg 

Nice find! I've probably driven by the grist mill a few times but never really paid any attention to it until I rode the bike by. There is a small park near it with some of the old machinery rusting away by a stream. I should have taken a picture or two there. I don't know the name of the road where it is, but it is not far from the intersection of route 216 and 209. OK I just googled it up, it is Clarks Falls Road.

jimmuller 

Wow. Some great ride reports, great pics, guys. otg, that Holdsworth looks great. Glad to see you finished it. How's it ride? Same for your new wheel on the Dawes, JJS. And we've ridden an elevated walkway or two somewhere on the coast or Cape Cod, but now I can't remember where.

We couldn't ride on lovely yesterday, had a gig in the evening. But I did get out for 36.8 miles on the Masi today, home out to the edge of Carlisle and back. I didn't take a camera so you'll just have to take my word for it. I've already posted a zillion photos of those roads anyway.

otg 

Hi Jim, the Holdsworth rides very nice, thanks for asking. Took it out for about 40 miles, very comfortable. I need to get it dialed in just a bit, but it's going to be a nice addition. I did have some trouble shifting it near the end of the ride. When I put it on the stand to fix it I found that the downtube cable stop had slid down a bit and put a fairly deep scratch in the paint. I went to a hobby store nearby and got some Testor's model paint and will be doing a touchup on it soon.

gomango

I had family visiting from Germany today.

Their youngest daughter is very interested in attending a university in this area for two years to work on her English skills.

We have seven private and land grant universities within ten minutes of ride time from our house.

Here we are stopping for coffee at Macalester College, a high quality liberal arts school two minutes from home.

Vonruden

Family ride

gomango

Looks like fun.

Your kids are still at that fun age.

Great pic!

Vonruden

Thanks Grady. It was the only way to get my biking fix at Disney.

Zieleman

That bike is stunning Grady! Chorus and Evo SC's? And what kind of frame is it?

southpawboston

You live in a wonderful place, gomango!

southpawboston

Fantastic! Looks like that car was running on only one out of four cylinders.

Vonruden

LOL, the rear cyclinder was back firing.

gomango

Thanks so much!

The frameset is an early 1990s Walter Croll. Walter was a local builder that attempted to go from a one man shop to a wider distribruted builder. He hired on Erik Noren of Peacock Groove fame to build for him and Erik built this from Reynolds 653.

The frameset sat in the basement of a favored local race shop until I got my hands on it a few years ago.

Forum member Sloar applied the finish that is on the bicycle and I really appreciate his efforts.

My cruddy cell phone shots don"t do the frameset and his work justice.

I originally tried the bike as a gravel road bike and it feels great on long, hard packed Minnesota gravel roads. However, it is not as fond of occasional single track, rough roads etc.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/3627000...7633249799736/

I have other bicycles that are much better suited to that.

So at this point I threw on the fenders, lights and bags and it is making a really nice short range sport tourer.

Very comfortable and forgiving. I can ride it locally with my warmer winter hiking boots on these pedals.

...and yes, it is a mostly Campy build. Kind of a kitchen sink build, but everything runs beautifully together, as you might expect from seasoned Campy parts.

The Evo SC are a very nice clincher. Kinda wish they were wider, but I really couldn't care less for the the price I paid for them.

They are a premium clincher with nice characteristics.

gomango

oops, double!

gomango

Thanks.

We really love it here, even when we wake up to 18 degree weather.

Lascauxcaveman 

The pix are from a week ago, but this is one of my regular lunchtime rides, 16 miles or thereabouts. Went out there again today and it the weather was just like it was when I shot these pix, only 10 degrees cooler; mid 30's, rather than mid 40's. That's pretty cold for these parts! I had to wear a long sleeve shirt and pedal hard to stay warm.

Just west of town (Port Angeles, WA) is the local Indian Reservation of the Lower Elwha Tribe. The westbound Olympic Discovery Trail passes close by, and that's how you get there. Along the trail, I saw these mushrooms, a familiar fungus which I always assumed were instantly lethal, but according to teh internets, are actually pretty good eating. Ladies and gentlemen, Coprinus comatus, the Shaggy Mane.


Once you get down to the rez, it's just like any other rez you've ridden through, lots of singlewides, doublewides and modest farmhouses. A pretty nice school and preschool, a small casino...


Some cattle being raised here and there, a few dead cars in the front yards, etc. The difference with our local tribe is they are located right on the edge of the ocean, as shown by this dead end road that literally dead ends at, well, the ocean.


Here's a better shot of the beach. The dirt road goes as far as it can, then drops down two feet to the high tide line.


That dark, sort of loamy looking sand is a new thing here; this beach is about 1/3 mile east of the mouth of the Elwha River, which has had it's elderly hydroelectric dams removed recently in an attempt (successful, so far) to restore the epic salmon runs of yesteryear. The pent-up silt held back by 100 years of dammed river have released and washed out to sea, and from there, on to the beaches. When I started doing this ride a little over two years ago, this was strictly a rocky, pebbly beach. It's been pretty cool to see actual geologic changes happen so quickly.

Here's a shot of my Trek 600 Series on the banks of the Elwha River estuary. On the other side of the river is a group of schoolkids. As you might imagine, the river restoration project has become a favorite destination for local science class field trips.


A few hundred yards from the river is a little local tribal culture. I haven't been down the path yet, but will do so on my next trip. Seems I'm always in a hurry to get back to work by the time I get there.


From here, the most direct way back to the Discovery Trail is via the dike road. I'm pretty sure this dike is a recent addition; no doubt part of the river restoration project that they added as flood control, since they were taking out the dams. It's well-planned, as it leaves a copious floodplain of about a quarter mile between the river and the res, butressed by a 25-foot berm. They only had to remove a few dwellings from the area and it gives them huge buffer zone.

jimmuller 

Caveman, don't even think about thinkin' about eating mushrooms you aren't absotively posilutely sure of.

I got out this morning, a short jaunt before the neighbors come over for a pre-Thanksgiving dinner. 35.1 miles home to the North Bridge in Concord. Managed 33.6mph top speed down one of the hills (which I had to climb on the way outbound, of course).

A rare site, the Minuteman Bikeway empty:


Concord Center was pretty empty too:

Lascauxcaveman 

Don't worry, I'm not too adventurous in that regard. A friend of my sister is an expert on mycology and I hope to tag along on one of his field trips someday, because we have a crazy amount of variety in the fungi department of my soggy little corner of the world.

..which is the subject of another ride I took a couple days ago. Will get pics up when I can.

northbend 

Rode out from the house this morning for 3 hours by myself.


Climbed one big hill and had to turn around once I got into snow.

The views were quite distracting on my descent.

Beautiful weather today here in the PNW..

jjames1452 

One mile of a 25 mile ride.
1/2 mile out and 1/2 mile back. Cold and windy. I need to get winter gear.

The dog was happy. Took her for a long walk.
We'll try again tomorrow.

Chrome Molly

Nice looking bike Northbend.

I managed 10 miles in 17 degree weather on my Kona today. One other hearty soul on the trail, and evidence of a few fatbikes. Once I couldn't feel my fingers, that was pretty much it. Time to break out the gaiters for the handlebars.

gomango

Cold here today.

No pics, as I was too busy surviving.

Nine degrees when I left home, 14 degrees when I returned.

I rode over to a bike shop in Mpls. and bought a light colored winter shell.

They had a great price on a Louis Garneau base layer and the Assos shell.

I put the items on with my wool top, rode a twelve mile northern Twin Cities route and headed for home.

All in town miles today that totaled just under thirty.

Let's just say the facial windburn hurts like ....!

Even with the balaclava.

Oh yeah, your Singer is tops Northbend.

Vonruden

As a Nord born in Grand Forks, ND, I don't miss the winters out there. Minnesota is one of the most beautiful states, but damn those winters are harsh.

Vonruden

Stunning pics, very jealous.

gomango

The only way to beat these winters is go head to head with them.

I had the x country skis out this morning for a wax base coat.

There is already snow up at the cabin and we saw a guy walking out on the ice with a lake trout rig a week ago.

Now that's crazy.