Nice bikes, gentlemen.

Question: How are your kids coping with shifting gears on the Piccolo? I have one, and my son is starting to mess around with it, but not quite grasping onto the purpose.

^^ My daughter will shift every so often. Her shifting is completely unrelated to current terrain.......

that's great Brian.Where the heck is that pic?

Thanks! Under the bridge in Conshohocken.

Ha, we used to do that too, with rope tied to the bikes so we could reel them back out of 10 foot deep water after launching off the dock.

That photo is from last November.

I have the same problem with the flat bars on the BF tandem. I may try some trekking bars.

At first, my daughter did nothing, she didn't have the strength to twist the shifter, so we just kept it in 6th gear and she pedaled. (She called the shifter the 'clock'-- "Look! It's six o'clock daddy!"). Now she can change them but also has no clue what it all means. We just tell her to shift into whatever gear is needed whenever we approach a hill.

seaport village san diego

Milky Way, seen from the driftless area of SW Wisconsin last week.

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/l.../milkyway1.jpg

http://i430.photobucket.com/albums/q...008_110225.jpg

Gig Harbor, WA

This is me, taken by a friend on my birthday Sunday, during the pub crawl ride

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net...81981753_n.jpg

You took a long bike ride off a bridge????

Me too, actually. This was shortly after the pic in the previous post

http://www.blipfoto.com/uploads/5850....64351435.jpeg

http://i739.photobucket.com/albums/x...jsen/salva.jpg

This is Salva Rodriguez from Spain, who's camping in our yard tonight. Salva has been cycling all over the world for the last six years, and finally made it to Moab. He said he's been dreaming about the red rock landscapes of Utah for the past 30000 miles, so he had lots of questions of places to see and where to camp. Salva's traveling budget is very small and covers pretty much nothing beyond food, thus wondering how to see the National Parks on a shoestring. In other words, a fellow dirt bagger..

We met at the bike shop where I fixed his rear hub, which had run dry of grease a long time ago. The bike as a whole was barely holding together, and just a notch above the ride of our favorite local homeless guy, Crazy Larry.

Salva has crossed the Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau via really high and remote mountain passes, traversed Siberia in winter where the bike literally had to be thawed out indoors every 2 days to keep functioning, done Africa north to south and dodged intense traffic hurdles on the Indian subcontinent, yet never been as close to defeat as when battling clouds of mosquitoes in Alaska this past June.

That's awesome, Jan! Thanks for sharing.

Very good picture, but that story is amazing. That was really nice of you to take him in. He's not traveling alone, is he? And how old is he?

Can we build a replacement bike for him? We've got a lot of talent and bike parts here. Does he need any further help?

Wow. High adventure. Would love to her more of his travels.
.

Yes, he's traveling alone - and about 40.

Tomorrow after our morning rush I'll fix his brakes and a few other things, but, like many great travelers, he's restless and antsy to see what's around the next corner so waiting for extensive refits is probably out of the question. Besides, he has 7 more weeks on his US visa and lots of ground to cover before Mexico.

Thanks for the thought, though.

In Afghanistan he grew a beard and dressed like the Taliban. He pointed out that his wreck of a bike further help him to blend in and not being hauled off as a Western hostage! But when he got to Pakistan he was advised to shave his face as the faux Taliban look could be dangerous in those parts..

He doesn't have an online journal but instead carries and constantly updates an old fashioned scrapbook with pictures and text - the thing weighed close to 3 pounds.

Oh my goodness, I really misinterpreted the picture! I thought the boy was the traveller and the man was you. Thanks for the clarification and the supplements to the story. I love these bike travel stories!

Amazing luck to meet up with the man. Sounds like an adventure of a lifetime. Very envious.
Too bad time isn't available to help donate parts to at least get him mechanically sound to continue his trek and meet his goals.

He has an email address? He'd be welcome to pass some time here, if he comes through the Yucatán. In the mean time, these came from the back yard. Apple bananas--taste like a banana/strawberry combination. Sort of.
http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/...bananas001.jpg
The down side of a bunch of apple bananas, of which this is a very small example, is that they all ripen within a day or two of each other. THE best tasting banana in this part of the world.

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...d/42b8d98c.jpg

My boss got me hooked on this stupid crap...

i just did a major palm to forehead move on that.

Are you serious?

Hahaha, wtf man.

Anyway, great story Jan! I wish you'd grabbed a pic of his bike!

QUOTE]Oh my goodness, I really misinterpreted the picture! I thought the boy was the traveller and the man was you. [/QUOTE]

So, Jan, your like 12? Your writing style give the impression of someone much older.


;)

Since I got my big air compressor done on Monday I spent Tuesday & Wednesday finishing my home built Glass bead/Sandblasting cabinet and so far I am more then pleased with how well it works. The first thing I did was throw a old very rusty pipe wrench in it to test it and it worked almost flawlessly so then came the bike stuff, I put a old Royce Union bike frame in it that needed to be stripped of at least 6 coats of paint and rust and a few very corroded aluminum parts that were in a junk bucket for scrap ( that's how bad they were). I took a few after pics but didn't have any before shots but believe me when I say they were far from ever being used again. The only mishap I had was I hit a wheel that was hanging above the unit & it fell and cracked the glass on one side which is easy to replace.

this is how I bought it unfinished off of CL
http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...pgocart049.jpg
And now,
http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...estpics010.jpg
http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...estpics009.jpg
http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...estpics012.jpg
http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...estpics013.jpg
http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...estpics015.jpg
http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...estpics016.jpg
http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...estpics011.jpg

Last weekend we went up north in Michigan to do a little wine tasting. Here is a shot from outside of Two Lad's Winery on Mission Point.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-a...2/P1020525.JPG

Glennfordx4: Very cool! The bike bits now have a burnished look to them. I kinda like it.


After some delays and setbacks (mechanical and personal), I finally completed a build that was pending for a while. Not C&V, but built in the C&V spirit (nearly level saddle/bar height, bar-ends, horizontal top tube, 8-speed)
I changed a few items from its initial assembly over the winter/spring.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6216/...787d9e30_b.jpg

HI sorry for the delay in response. The photographer sent the film (mostly old format, some pinhole) to a printer for processing. The banners are silk, there were also images printed on aluminum, as well as traditional photo paper.