First solo ride on a two wheeler

First proud moments on her very first new bike.

Our little girl is growing up. This afternoon our nearly 20 month-old was hanging out with me in the bike barn. She took an interest in big sister's old Nutcase helmet, so I sized it up to her and put it on. Before I knew it, together we were assembling a brand new Strider bike that I had bought a while back to have on hand for her when she seemed ready to try a balance bike. That day was today.

I intentionally didn't want to push her into trying the bike. As it turns out, that wasn't my choice to make. When she realized the little red bike was her size and that it was meant for her, there was no holding her back. All I had to do was to help her get a leg over the seat, and she immediately started toddling the Strider down to the street.

I anticipated her interest would last only a minute or two. However, her initial excitement grew into enjoyment, even after a couple of slow-motion falls and a helmet change to her more familiar, lighter standard model. I ended up following her up and down the street for about half an hour.

Smiles and happy chatter.

The Strider is a very light weight, well-designed little bike.

It's amazing how instinctively a balance bike seems to mesh with even very young kids. She's not quite 20 months old, but instantly grasped how the bike worked, with her skills and confidence improving every minute spent on the bike. I know she is a while away from feet-up balancing and cruising. Yet, I'm certain she'll be a balance bike master by next summer, and will likely be on a pedal bike by this time next year. The only limitation will be whether I can find a pedal bike small enough for her to straddle.

Earlier in the day, we rode to the start of a local 5k. The Big Dummy and Julie's Breezer were the natural choices for transport, but we needed to bring our BOB stroller along with us, so I attached the BOB to the rear of the Dummy and pulled it as a trailer. The arrangement worked well, and drew a fair amount of attention as a pedal-powered road train.

Incidentally, today marks my 307th consecutive day of riding a bike. Most days, my rides have not been anything out of the ordinary. The vast majority of my biking days have included riding for utilitarian transportation purposes, a few have featured purely recreational rides, and nearly all have had some element of dog exercising via bike. I had stayed healthy nearly the entire duration of my streak thus far, which I credited with consistent riding. However, a bit more than a week ago I caught a cold that has yet to completely subside, so I suppose the bike/health correlation hypothesis is imperfect. Still, I don't plan to miss being on a bike every day, at least until I hit number 365.

Visit from Gypsy Nick and a Global Lael

Ready to embark on the Kokopelli Trail.

I've once again been lax on upkeep of this blog. However, a recent visit from world-cruising friends has spurred me to action. Nicholas and Lael returned from exotic locales to the U.S. at the beginning of the month, and paid us a visit. They have both toured extensively in many places; in my opinion something well worthy of envy, especially from my captive suburban vantage point. Therefore, whenever they hit our town, it's great to catch up with them and benefit from the glow of their journeys.

By the way, those of you interested in tales of distance and daring aboard two-wheels, would do well to pick up the latest copy of Bicycle Times, Number 25, in which Nicholas has a featured story about his travels from Alaska to New Mexico on his purple Pugsley last year.

Yes, that's Nick's story featured on the cover of Bicycle Times.

If you happen to encounter this traveling duo, a tasty dividend may be the reward of hosting them for a night or two. Fresh from a trip to Ukraine, Nick and Lael whipped up a traditional Ukrainian meal, complete with handmade varenyky. Delicious and fun. Big Sis really enjoyed helping them seal potato-based filling into dough pockets. At the end, they made a bolshoi verenyk (correct singular form?) out of the last chunk of dough.

A special treat of Ukrainian chocolate.

My humble bike barn served as R&R facility for their bikes, as the two travelers refitted their steeds for the journey ahead. An unused Salsa Anything cage of mine was pressed into service to replace Nick's cracked equivalent. They left me with a few worn parts that they replaced with new. Their old parts will assuredly find service on one project or another around here.

Nick's Raleigh XXIX+G partway through refurbishment. My 1967 Velosolex 3800 languishes in the background.

A little more than a year ago, I donated a set of NOS Suntour XC Comp shifters to Lael's nascent mountain bike. As of now, they've logged multiple thousands of miles on her Raleigh XXIX and appear to be ready for more.

Once Lael and Nicholas had at least partially caught up on some sleep and had gotten their bikes mostly in order, they were ready for the next leg of their adventures. Watching them pack up, it is readily apparent that they are seasoned and efficient in what they choose to bring and how they carry their gear.

Hard to believe that Nick's bike is loaded with all he needs for daily life, in addition to several bottles of Ukrainian vodka and other gifts for down the road.

Lael's bike has the look of a well-honed machine suited for whatever lies ahead.

As they rode away, Scout looked up as if to ask why we weren't going with them.

As an addendum, Nicholas helped me to hook up with a new-to-me micro four-thirds format Panasonic DMC-G3 camera body coupled with his own well-traveled Olympus 14-42 lens. As is evident on his blog, he has become quite an accomplished photographer in the past couple of years, and with this equipment, I hope to make improvements to my own skills.

Thanks for the leg up, Nick! Happy travels to you and Lael, and we look forward to your next visit.

Panasonic DMC-G3 as shot by my low-resolution phone camera.

First snow

No, this is actually not snow. We went camping at Great Sand Dunes National Park last weekend, just ahead of the government shutdown.

We awoke to a smattering of snow this morning, the first of the season. Snow is not unanticipated this time of year, but it always requires a bit of adjustment. On my way to the office, I checked out a Denver B-cycle bike for a somewhat chilly but pleasant ride. The snow had all but stopped by the time I got to my office. The great thing is that Denver B-cycle will remain open all winter this year, so I'll have many more snowy commutes capped off with a B-cycle ride.

No, this is not a fatbike, but a B-cycle has quite acceptable snow riding capability.

Hammock time

The girls hanging out, reading their books. Happy b-day, Pac!

Pugsley, Mk II

2013 Surly Pugsley frame, size XL, or 22".

Last summer, after approximately six years of pondering the purchase of a Surly Pugsley, I finally made the leap. I was not disappointed. Riding fat tires is a lot of fun on any surface. The Pugsley has played a big role in my long streak of consecutive days of riding a bike, currently at 270 days. Whether in the depth of winter or on a dusty summer day, heading out for a ride on the Pug is great any time of year.

I can unequivocally attest that fat tires equate big fun. The only running concern I've had about the Pugsley is the frame size. I'm about 6'2", and have a 89.5 cm PBH measurement. I'm fairly tall, sure, but I'm not a giant. I have a 22" Surly Big Dummy, which seems to fit pretty well for my mostly around town trips. I also have a 58 cm Surly Cross-Check, which at times I have wished was instead a 60 cm. When I was in the market for a Pugsley, I couldn't quite decide between a 20" and a 22", out of concern about standover clearance between the top tube and my nether regions while on the soft surfaces likely to be encountered on a fatbike.

Apart from standover clearance, I own bikes that have effective top tube lengths similar to both the 20" and 22" Pugsley, and tend to prefer those with a longer top tube. However, nothing beats an actual ride on a bike to be sure. The problem was, I had difficulty finding Pugsleys of any size to test ride. I was able to try a Large sized Salsa Mukluk, which seemed a decent fit, but in the numbers, is somewhere between the 20" and 22" Pugsley. I'm a steel-frame sort of guy, so I didn't seriously consider the Mukluk, though I'm sure it's a great bike.

I scoured internet forums and reviews, reaching the conclusion that random impressions of fit among a wide range of people, even of similar height to mine, is not particularly helpful. When the time came, the issue of standover clearance must have been at the fore, as I made the plunge toward a 20" frame. The bike rode great and the giddiness of playing with fat tires made me initially unconcerned about the flagpole length of seatpost sticking out of the frame.

My 2012 Surly NecroPug, 20".

I certainly had plenty of standover clearance with the 20" frame, yet I noticed that I had my saddle slid all the way back on the rails for my torso to feel about right, and even then I noticed that I often rode with the bottom of my palms on the handlebar with my fingers wrapped around an imaginary bar about an inch or so in front of the actual one. For all the times that I felt a little cramped along the top tube, I realized that I never once felt greatly appreciative of the copious standover clearance.

Eventually, I thought about the situation. I acknowledged that riding a fatbike is now part of my DNA, and that I'm in it for the long haul. But what about the options? A lot has happened in fatbikes in just the last year, with new models popping up regularly. Yet, though my experience, I greatly enjoyed the versatility of the Pugsley; it can accept the full range of fat tires, from the stock 3.8" fatties, to 3.0" 29ers on Rabbit Hole rims, to 4.8" super fatties with a slightly modified drivetrain. I'm also not particularly interested in carbon or aluminum for reasons of expense and/or dependability, nor am I interested in sacrificing versatility by committing to a bike limited by tire size options. So, weighing the possibilities, an upsized Pugsley frame was the answer I chose.

Meet the new boss, not quite the same as the old boss.

I couldn't get a 22" NecroPug frame with the blacked-out stickers as they were sold out and discontinued, but I could get the new plain vanilla black (or what Surly calls Apathetic Black) Pugsley frame. No problem. All my parts transferred over perfectly, with the exception of the front derailleur, as the design changed from an e-type to a direct mount. The new frame came with the direct mount adapter, so all I needed was a direct mount SLX front derailleur and some new cables and housing.

Park HHP-2. It's nice to have the right tool for the job.

I don't have the vast amount of standover height with the new frame as compared to the old frame, but it is plenty, and in the few rides that I've done since the switch, I'm much more comfortable. This frame just feels more correct for me. I can't definitively say that for anyone out there who, like me, is potentially on the cusp between the 20" and 22" Pug, that the 22" is better. I can say that for me bigger is better, and that I doubt if I'll ever be concerned about standover clearance.

Parts swapped over, the new 22" Pugsley is complete.

Today, just for kicks, I stole the newish geared rear wheel off of Julie's Raleigh XXIX, along with the old single-speed rear wheel from her XXIX and slapped them on the new 22" Pug. The result: even more reason to love the Pug. Instant 29er.

29er wheels on my new 22" Pugsley.

WTB ExiWolf 2.3" tire with plenty of clearance in the Moonlander fork.

The non-offset wheel looks a little odd in the rear, but the rear of a Pugsly looks a little odd no matter what. Plenty of tire clearance even though the centerline is 17.5 mm closer to the drive side. 

The non-offset rear wheel tracks a little to the right of the centerline, but it doesn't seem like much of a problem. No matter what an evolutionary biologist may tell you, bilateral symmetry is overrated.

Like this, the Pugsley could easily be mistaken for a Karate Monkey at a casual glance. 

Looks more or less normal, even from the back.

I've now been pondering a 29er for some time. Following my little experiment with 29" wheels on the Pug, I now know that I have a geared 29er at my disposal already. However, I still have a bit of an itch for a dedicated single speed 29er, which is another pathway to two-wheeled fun. For whatever reason, finding a used Redline Monocog 29er (in the 21-inch size) has piqued my interest. I'm still trying to lighten my load a bit, so I probably won't act on a Monocog anytime soon, but I do know, with my proclivities, something is bound to happen at some point.

In the mean time, I am likely to have a used but in good condition 20" Pugsley frame for sale, likely offered as a good deal to my loyal readers. Look for more details here soon. Until then, happy trails!