On the sentimentality of past bikes

The Surly Long Haul Trucker in its final "stripped-down tourer" iteration on Lopez Island, Washington, 15 September 2013 It happens from time to time: I go on a binge of reading my old blog posts. In the past this has happened because work has been slow, but recent thoughts about old commenters and blogs I...

Bikes and Biking Year in Review: 2022

North Beach, Orcas Island. 5 August 2022 Looks dreamy, but this serene image was hard-earned from a challenging day biking the island. Olympus XA2/Fujicolor 100 Hello, friends. As another year comes to a close, it's customary for me to look back at the past year and reflect on what's happened, then ponder what may come...

Beausage and Special Bikes

Andy's Rivendell A. Homer Hilsen, 15 October 2022. Olympus 35RD/Ilford HP5+ In Grant Petersen's latest "Blahg" post, 1 he touches upon people who get fancy bikes like Rivendells yet rarely use them because they're worried about damage, theft, and the like. (It's a really long blog post, as is Grant's wont, where he talks about...

Coffeeneuring 2022, Ride 2: Rosebridge Coffee, Thurs 3 Nov

As the Coffeeneuring Challenge moves towards its conclusion on November 20th, I've resigned myself to the fact that I might not get in seven rides before it's done. I started pretty late, my first ride happening two weeks after it started. And then a good week-plus of COVID and recovery meant that even more time...

Coffeeneuring 2022, Ride 1: Wallflower Coffee, Sat 22 Oct

Another year, another coffeeneuring challenge! This year I don't have an overarching theme, but there are a few sub-challenges I want to incorporate into the main challenge: Ride all my bikes (currently four) at least once Do at least one #pdxcoffeeoutside and if that fails, at least one coffee outside of my own Hit up...

The Return of the Superbe

My Raleigh Superbe at Kronberg Park on Kellogg Creek, Milwaukie OR. 21 Jan 2022. Camera: Olympus 35 RD/Film: Fujicolor 100 It's the central irony of my bike-liking life: As soon as I take the time to praise a particular bike, it goes away in some sense. It was just a few months after praising my...

Night biking deserves a quiet song: A photo report of my first two Midnite Bicycle League 2022 rides

Belmont Library, 18 Jan 2022. Camera: Minolta SR-T 101 Lens: MC Rokkor PG 50mm f/1.4Film: Cinestill 800T We're more than half-way through this year's Midnite Bicycle League Challenge. Ninety people have signed up so far. I haven't received my first completed journal, though I know at least one is on the way. And I've seen...

The Raleigh Superbe at about six years: A reflection

14 Jan 2022. Olympus Pen EES-2/Fuji Superia Premium 400 I've been riding my Raleigh Superbe quite a bit lately. When I got the Brompton back in October, I pretty much rode that exclusively for two months. Then I rotated to the Bantam, as I wanted to get some more "ride" rides in. Now it's the...