The Queen's horses do ride through Hyde Park on occasion. We can save some Royal poo for your magnificent Moulton

Well, Royal poo is OK! We don't have Royalty here in the Colonies, so it'll be a treat.

Pootling along the mighty Mekong River, Thailand and Lao border on the CM.[/QUOTE]


How was the Mekong? Was it hot? I meant to drop you a line the last time we were in the north in the event you were there. Try Mae Hong Son for some really nice trips. (I don't have picture size reduction software, so I'll refrain from posting.)

As our esteemed guest of the Hyde Park Folding Society some Royal horse poo must be placed on the saddle before you ride past the Palace on Aug 24th!

How was the Mekong? Was it hot? I meant to drop you a line the last time we were in the north in the event you were there. Try Mae Hong Son for some really nice trips. (I don't have picture size reduction software, so I'll refrain from posting.)[/quote]


Hi PM124,

Surprisingly, it wasnt too hot as Feb is the tail end of the cool season. Ya, I was at MHS too and I love the view up from the famous Temple up in the highlands, overlooking the city and the airport. It went down to 13/14c in Pai at night when we were there. Mae Salong too was pretty cool up in the highlands. The Mekong then was about 28-30c. That actually is nice for me

Mae Hong Son and Mae Salong sound like shady ladies in Bangkock.

frreee -if yo has Windoods...

Its unfortunate that Thailand has such a seedy reputation... Bangkok esp. But in other parts esp in the c'try, there are many honest, hardworking, decent and very friendly folks that make Thailand a joy to visit.



Mae = "Mountain" in Thailand

Hope you can go visit IndoChina one day Jur. Its an amazing cycling destination - Thl, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia!

*Recommended time - Nov to Jan cool season. Other times it can be rather hot.

You almost certainly do have picture size reduction software. If you have Office, Office Picture Manager will let you do it easily. If not, Microsoft Paint (free with every Windows edition since time began) will do it. Open the picture, select Image, Attributes, and you can change the size right there. Easy peasy!

Some more pootling around Limburg in Belgium:

A couple of shots of a canal lock. The bike path along the canal spans from Genk to Antwerp, I'm told.





A suspension bridge over that self-same bike path:




A WWII bunker, slowly being reclaimed by the forest:




A trip to the local apothecary:

You seem to be haviong a ball over ther el Captain!

wooo. I like Belgium

How tidy, clean and geometrical over there in Belgium!
Nice pics.

Mine did some of the same until Scotland offered them a better deal and they switched sides.

nice pootling, i love the matrix and captains dahon

This may be the last round of pics from Belgium. I'll be leaving in a couple of days.

A couple of pictures typical of the streets of Hasselt. I took these on a Saturday and they don't do justice to how much foot traffic there was. I found it difficult to even walk my bike in many places because of the huge mass of humanity out for an afternoon's shopping.

If there's a downside to biking here, it's that if you stop in some place to re-hydrate, you will be served a beverage in a puny 10 oz. bottle. I enquired (with a wink and a smile) as to whether or not it would be bad form to sit down at an outdoor table at a little cafe by yourself and order four drinks at once. I was told that "that isn't done." Then I asked if I could order a drink, and then ask for another one when the first drink is brought to the table. Nope. Not done. I'm very self conscious of not presenting the visage of the ugly American, so I left still thirsty. Next time: Camelbak!




I met a fellow folder at last! This is the first Birdy I've seen in the flesh. What a great looking bike. The gentleman told me that he and his wife each have one, and that their folders are their main mode of transportation. Note how he has turned his seat sideways to stabilize the load on the rack. He was riding on the sideways-facing seat and holding the box forward against the seat with one hand. He confided that he also wants a Brompton, because it would be easier to take on the bus. You know what they say about the grass being greener. . .

The grass is greener on the Brompton side Captain!

Mulleady runs for cover as the anti-Brompton brigade get ready to give chase

gving chase.... thought I would give the HH7 a spin today as a change from the merc.... couldn't work out, something weird here.... oh yes, its moving forward quite quickly with very little effort, compared to the merc....

Of course a merc aint a brompton, and HH7 is maybe not a comparator. Maybe I am spoilt forever by it....

Them Brompton's always look like them's bin run over by a bus.

<runs away>

Not that I'd mind one, like.


Lovely to see more pix from around the world. Yowza!

Nice shots indeed Capt. Those tyres look like Big Apples- how do you find them? Not sure if they're doable with mudguards though....

" you will be served a beverage in a puny 10 oz. bottle. I enquired (with a wink and a smile) as to whether or not it would be bad form to sit down at an outdoor table at a little cafe by yourself"

Ask for a large bottle of wasser???

It's even easier than that. The Flemish word for water is . . . water. Something tells me it would be just as unrefined to ask for a huge bottle of water for one person as it would be to order 4 little ones.


They're a big change from the Stelvios that I've been using. I can definitely feel the weight. The Stelvios would be bad news on cobblestones, though. I'm very pleased with the performance of the Big Apples. They barely fit under the brakes, and there would be no way to fit fenders between the tires and the brakes without some severe modification to the fenders. In fact, when the Pantour hub is under full deflection, the tire touches the brakes for a moment. If one were determined, and handy with a Dremel tool, it could be done though.

Pootled on my one year old Swift today, a pleasant jaunt from my house to the next town and back, via the river road, which runs alongside the Contoocook river. It was a pleasant 80 degrees or so, but quite humid.
Here's a pic taken of the Swift in my back yard. In the background you can see the water we live on, it's a small tributary leading to Emerald Lake just outside of Hillsboro, Nh. On the front of the bike I have my modified Igloo cooler. Found at a Yard Sale for 25 cents, it goes on and off the Nashbar front rack in seconds. It'll keep 6 of my favorite beverage cans cold....or, in this case, my camera, toolkit, and water bottle. Nifty velcro closure/flap on top too, for fast access to contents.



This is the first bridge I get to going from my house. It spans the Contoocook, and bac up the road about 5 miles is Peter John White's bikeshop. From here you can almost smell the Phil Wood grease ;-)




A couple of miles down the road now, as you can see the road is right on the river. Lots of people put in about here to raft, kayak or float in tubes down to Henniker.



A view in the opposite direction from the same spot. The river is at about "normal" height. If it ever floods, as it did 18 months ago, you can't get down this road.




Two trestle bridges where just one could comfortably handle the traffic!!! One is two-lane, the other single-lane.




In the outskirts of Henniker now ("the only Henniker on Earth"). This shot is from inside a covered bridge that goes from nowhere to nowhere, literally, on the grounds of New England College. In the far background is a stone arched bridge that carries traffic through the town center.



Parked outside Daniels Pub. I recommend the loaded Nachos. Eat them almost over the river. Gorgeous!!



The local bikeshop sign, cute.



And what we should all be doing.....





Finally back home. Swift is hanging with his/her siblings. This is a shot of the best bike room I have ever personally had. Most of the bikes are mine (the BF and one other are my wife's), and several were "saved" from sad lives of neglect or scrapping.



To fulfill my pootle requirements, I want to point out that I both ate and drank on the trip at a local cafe, and that my average speed was less than 10mph ;-)

wowswer wowser wowser. I was green with envy even before I saw that bike room.

Thanks, thought that would be the case. I need mudguards- I don't like me or the bike being covered in crud. I find the ride very acceptable with Marathons anyway, so I'll probably stick with that size, though I'll probably go for Racers next time for a bit more speed. I try and avoid cobblestones