Blue Lake Ride

Cold, gusty winds along the Pacific sent me inland yesterday. If you live on the California coast you learn how to get warm quickly: go uphill a few miles or go east. A few miles east of Arcata on West End Road I rode into a new season: spring.







I shared the road with a few other cyclists and an occasional pickup.






Looking east from the Mad River bridge in the town of Blue Lake I saw clouds gathering over the foothills of the Trinity Alps. According to the locals 100 years ago there were so many salmon in these waters that "you could walk across the Mad River on their backs." Twenty years ago the river was close to fished out. Recently, however, the steelhead population has recovered and when the river is clear fishermen show up here to try their luck.



On the trip back to Bayside I rode through occasional rain squalls, but the Rans fairing kept me dry. Last night, for the first time in years, it snowed at sea level.

Raymond Carver's house in Arcata is for sale

The realtor was having an open house last weekend and I stopped by on a bike ride. She had no idea that the house was once home to Arcata's most famous author. If you're a Raymond Carver fan, here's your chance to buy his family home in Arcata. If you haven't discovered Carver yet, pour yourself something calming and curl up with Cathedral tonight. Start with "A Small Good Thing." If that short story doesn't take your breath away you may be clinically dead. And do keep in mind: it may have been written in this house.


You'll find photos of the house in Maryann Carver's memoir "What It Used to Be Like: A Portrait of My Marriage to Raymond Carver." She loved this house and called it "the happiest home we ever had."

Road Warrior

Dos Ciclos Short Film from SakeGroup on Vimeo.

A helmet tip to recumbent Rob for this video

New Year's Resolutions

Created by: Healthcare Management Degree

Some years ago I asked my Dr. about the health risks of cycling. He felt it was a safe sport and advised me to "start slow and taper off." It's a philosophy that's served me well, even on long, interstate rides. I also asked him about the ubiquitous fatties, the beach ball people, who fill the aisles in Costco pushing carts piled high with Doritos, Coke, Ice Cream and giant plastic Vodka bottles. What does looking like a beach ball cost a person? Healthy adults can now expect to live into to their mid 80's, maybe longer. The beach ball people have an average life expectancy of 60 years. So when Jen Rhee says "we pay the price," now we know exactly what the bill comes to: 25 YEARS!

A tip of the helmet to Jen Rhee for this very cool graphic. I've got a good feeling about 2012!

Birthday, New Recumbent!

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Eight percent of Portland's workforce now commutes by bike. That does great things for a city. Drivers get used to sharing "their" road with cyclists, bike paths proliferate and cool new bike facilities are planned. Bikes you can't even find in most places turn up in dedicated shops like Coventry Cycleworks Portland's recumbent-only dealer run by committed and knowledgeable 'bent experts. I stopped by for a day of test rides and took home a new Rans Stratus XP, a fast, dialed in and superbly ergonomic bike, shown here near the Willamette River.

Ken Thiessen turned up on the morning of my 70th birthday, December 11.
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It was the perfect time to explore new territory-- what better way to break in the new bike than a 15 mile ride along the river? We crossed the Willamette on a dedicated bike lane and headed south on along the East bank bike trail. Cars were relegated to a separate road. Minutes into the ride I got a lesson in what its like to ride a LWB recumbent: the laws of physics were suspended as both the train and its smoke rushed toward Ken.

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Ken brought his own camera along for the ride (see above) and rode his stalwart Civia. Fitted with disc brakes, it's a bike for all seasons. The Stratus is all set up for a possible disc brake upgrade.




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Interstate Route 5 cut Portland off from part of its waterfront. In a few months this bike elevator will take bike commuters to an elevated bike path over the freeway. This is not science fiction, it's Portland 2011. And do stay tuned because they've many more great bike projects in the works.


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I came back to our hotel feeling positively elated. As the sun began to set my wife Iris and I headed out on foot to hear Devin Phillips at Jimmy Mak's, a great jazz club in Portland's Old Town.

If it's fun, do it more

This RIH changed my life. I bought it in Holland back in 1981 after a Dutch friend introduced me to cycling. I rode the RIH into Germany and then around Finland. Cycling met the rigorous standards of my personal philosophy:

IF IT'S FUN, DO IT MORE

30 years later I'm still cycling all the time.


My RIH began life as a 3 speed but I managed to add two more speeds during my San Francisco days. Today it's my pickup truck used to haul packages around Arcata. And it's just as much fun now as it was 30 years ago! You'll find more photos of my RIH and its cushy British Bobby's seat here.

Avenue of the Giants by bike

"This valley,"said Ralph Waldo Emerson of Yosemite, "is the only place that comes up to the brag about it, and exceeds it."

Proving? That Emerson hadn't seen Redwoods National Park in Humboldt County.





Visitors go silent here. Atheists start talking about God. Locals too are speechless no matter how many times we return. Indeed, if we had tourists from other planets this stunning park could be used to advertise a trip to Earth.




The park covers much of Humboldt County. To drive or bike through the southern part head for Avenue of the Giants which stretches from a point about 7 miles north of Redcrest to the town of Philipsville about 30 miles to the south. I rode most of it in a loosely organized group excursion with my riding group, "The Latte Warriors."

Another Roadside Attraction

Bike tourists get a lot of praise. You're out there in nature grinding up the hills while everyone else is driving two blocks to pick up a case of beer. You could get a fat head over all the adulation...if the universe didn't toss a bit of sand in your gears from time to time. This bike tourist stopped to talk with a man who was pulling a small covered wagon down the road. His (actual) last name was Charleyboy; I don't remember his first name. He wasn't exactly a tourist, more a traveller. When I asked where his journey had begun he said "when?" Mr. Charleyboy had walked through 22 states. So far.









The Eel River traces the whole length of the Avenue of the Giants. Those are Western Maples in the foreground, Redwoods everywhere else.












I met my friends in Miranda, near the south end of the Avenue of the Giants.







In the northern part of the county (not shown here) Redwood National Park becomes perhaps the best example of a virgin old growth Redwood forest on earth. With 2,000 year old trees stretching as far as you can see in all directions this truly is the forest primeval. It's difficult to photograph but impossible to forget.

The Apple Store, Palo Alto

Mountain Biking, the downside

Review: Renovo Revisited

by Ken Thiessen

Back in 2009, I reviewed the intriguing Renovo “wood” bicycles. Back then, the frames were built with a wooden main triangle and carbon rear triangle and fork. But during my shop tour, Renovo owner and designer, Ken Wheeler pulled up a dream concept on his computer screen: a wooden pursuit bike frame made entirely out of wood. Suddenly we were into the realm of pure bike porn; I couldn’t wait to see this conceptual design come to life. But when I asked Ken about the all-wood frame he said it was in development and required more thought.

Fast forward two years...


Today, the all-wood concept frame has become the core design of the Renovo line. The Audi corporation, known world wide for their cutting edge car designs, took notice and commissioned Renovo to build an Audi-sponsored bike. Audi’s, innovative engineering and design is the foundation of the marque’s reputation. Like many European automobile lines, Audi sells branded products which exemplify the ideals promoted by the car. Audi product managers sought out Ken Wheeler to produce a line of bicycles to be marketed with the Audi four-ring logo as another example of the “truth in engineering concept.”


The Audi product managers had apparently considered several of the the large bicycle manufacturers and settled on Renovo to build the Audi Duo bicycle. http://www.audi-collection.com/Accessories In one step a regional Northwest bike manufacturer became a world class style setter.



Renovo retains its small manufacturing facility and shop in Portland, Oregon. Ken Wheeler was both surprised and deeply appreciative of the partnership with a style setter like Audi. Suddenly, thanks to the Audi connection, Wheeler’s bikes were being advertised in the Economist and Forbes magazines. A brief web search takes you further: the Audi Duo bicycles have been appeared in many newspapers, car magazines, bike magazines, and city monthly magazines. Renovo became the boutique bike shop with a million-dollar ad campaign!


It was time for another ride.

The Test Ride

The R-4 road bike I rode was a thing of beauty.


In the sun, the wood grain played the light with great clarity. It was like looking into a tiger’s eye.


The piano-finish gives the bike the unmistakable hallmark of fine woodworking making imperfections impossible to hide. I couldn’t find a single flaw.


The smooth finish was sealed with epoxy and linear polyurethane which not only brings out the wood grain but forms a tough seal for real-world riding. My bike was a 58 cm-equivalent compact frame with the big-boy’s blend of stiff hardwoods mentioned above. The R-4 was equipped with a Sram Red drive train, double tap shifters, an



The FSA Wing Pro carbon compact bars with flat tops and shallow drops made for a very comfortable riding position.



You can’t fail to notice the R-4's exceptionally smooth ride as the wood effectively absorbs road vibrations - more effectively than my own all-carbon road bike!


Then came the essential engineering question: if the frame is comfortable, will it also be stiff and efficient?





The Renovo accelerated quickly with a remarkably small amount of energy input to the pedals. Out-of-the-saddle climbs put my energy straight to the traction patch of the rear tire and again the Renovo felt faster and more nimble than on my own ultra light road bike. There was no perceptible flex in this bike while riding. Wheeler has given much thought to the geometry of the Renovo frames. The R-4 blends a savvy and intelligent combination of riding characteristics making this ultra high performance bike equally attractive for all-day century rides.


At the end of the day just one critical attribute remained untested: Portland has many bridges over the mighty Columbia River and other waterways, I would wager that my Renovo R-4 would float. Try that with your Madone!




The mouth of the Columbia River at Astoria Oregon. Note the long bridge from Washington to Oregon. Yes, it has north and south bike lanes but with a certain
amount of junk scattered around. It's hard to say whether this would turn out to be be a beautiful ride or a nail biter but if you're riding south along the Pacific, you'll be crossing this bridge.