August 25 2018 - Special Delivery! Xtracycle Sidecar arrives for the Big Dummy

Postman delivered a package yesterday that starts a new chapter for the Dummy and for hauling the dog about, as well as cargo.
I had put a wanted ad up on a couple of cargo bike social media platforms looking for a sidecar frame, base, fittings  etc, virtually any parts I could get to either buy or get ideas from. While these are still available to buy new in the US they are not carried by any of the usual Xtracycle dealers/importers that I could find anywhere in Europe. Not saying they aren't out there but I certainly couldn't find any that would bring in a sidecar frame. After a few replies about building my own I had a message from William Gradwohl in the US saying that he had a frame and fittings, new still wrapped that had been sitting in his garage for a long time if I would like it. Now William is regarded as a friend as while we know of each other from various cargo bike groups, he had also generously given me my Xtracycle Freeradical bags for the Big Dummy when I switched from P racks back to normal V racks and got rid of my panniers from it. The shipping was expensive but well below what I actually thought it might be and the price for the sidecar was extremely generous so that allowed it all to happen very easy and seamlessly. The excitement on Calebs face made it worth it already :)  
 
Caleb and I couldn't wait and had to get it together and mount it. Am away today but hopefully by Monday will have a wooden base in and then build it up from there.
A huge thankyou again to William Gradwohl in the US who was so helpful in organising this and for going to all the trouble to ship it to Scotland, very much appreciated. Been such a help with the development of the Dummy. I will endeavour to pay it forward where I can. 
Such a great cargo bike community out there.
This should be fun.
Jamie

Sunday August 19 2018 - Big dummy to the beach ride

Weather was far better this afternoon than yesterdays wind and cloud. 
So it was back out for a leisurely cruise round on the Big Dummy, met the family at friends in Dunnet for a cuppa and then I headed for the beach before looping back home for about half seven.
Not too many miles but certainly a nice leisurely ride just enjoying a relaxing day. 
Really been getting into the Big Dummy again lately and it is getting something a bit 'xtra' in the next couple of weeks to make it more fun, so all's good on the cargo front. 
Have found myself wondering now and again what to do with it now that Caleb is getting bigger/older and spending less and less time on the back and more and more time riding his own bike. It is used for human cargo more than groceries etc so trying to figure out it's purpose or redefining what that now might be. Not a big deal I suppose but some of the thoughts going through my head lately as I ride along. I love riding it and I suppose for a while it will haul the cargo/camping gear for both of us even when Caleb is riding his bike. It does justify it's place in the stable by the amount of fun it brings to our riding together and on my own. It tends to be relaxing to ride as most other rides have this feeling of having to get somewhere and so you tend to go quickly where as this is long and heavy and likes a more relaxed approach, a bit like your not getting anywhere too quickly so you may as well sit back and relax. Don't get me wrong, it can hustle when needed but it responds best to a relaxed unhurried approach, If you start out like your on your racer from the start your legs will soon fade and you will pay the price. The smoothness of the slick Alfine 8 hub gear also makes it feel a bit slower than it actually is, I don't know whether it's the smoothness or the simplicity but it is definitely a nice hub to ride. 
I also still have to build my new front wheel with the PD8 Dynamo hub before the autumn. I have a pair of Rigida Sputnik rims to go with it so just need to order some spokes and we will be all set. 
I am back to work tomorrow after a couple of weeks off I know, it's sad but I will struggle on. I have had such a great holiday from being in Germany with the family to just enjoying my riding for the sake of riding.
Hope the weather and riding was good for everyone else. 
Happy Trails

Jamie

August 19 2018 - Big Dummy ride out

Had to get out for a ride today despite the forecast and the ever strengthening wind.
After being away and the finally getting settled back in with a few needed to do chores this morning I thought it was time to get the Big Dummy out and give myself a proper workout. I needed to ride it to check a couple of things as I have an 'accessory' coming for the Big Dummy, well that was my excuse anyway. More on that once it arrives. 
Heather and Caleb headed to town and said they would be at one of our friends after that so I said I will go riding, as I had a inland route in mind and hopefully meet up at the friends afterwards. I headed away from the coast and tried as hard as I could to avoid the strong 30mile an hour wind coming from the west, only problem was I needed to head due west for about 10 mile or so. I had loaded Calebs helmet into one of the bags along with a waterproof jacket and a long sleeve just in case the weather really turned, so that he could head home with me once I picked him up but it was a slow ride for a good section of it as the wind was relentless. I did stop and get a photo with some giant chickens that live locally (Rheas). I was thinking big bike, big chicken
Arrived to an enjoyable and much appreciated drink and coffee and after sitting around longer than planned thought I better head home, especially as Caleb wanted to go round the coast and explore a couple of pathways/trails behind the sand dunes at Dunnet Beach. Weather was looking a bit iffy but was changing all the time due to the wind but we had a good ride home and fun around the beach too. A bit easier heading back but while a tailwind in parts certainly helped I also had an extra 25 kg on the back now  
All good as we had a blast and he was chatting, laughing and singing most of the way home. 

Another of the pics from last weeks holiday was from Sunday where I spent the day mtbing in the Hartz Mountains.
My good friend Franzi who we were staying with mentioned before I left home that her boss's son was a bike mechanic and he had organized for me to go riding with himself when I was over and just needed my shorts, jersey and gloves, he would sort the rest. I went to a BBQ at his dads the night before and when I met Felix I wondered what I was in for, Specialized Epics and Enduros along with Canyon downhill machines everywhere, hanging from the walls of the basement. I thought I might be in over my head.
I worked out in the morning that the Canyon with a really impressive but understated spec was a young guy I had met the night before, Mark who is at Uni majoring in composites, mainly carbon fibre with thermal dynamics. It was a nice Canyon but the wheels were something else, being DT Swiss hubs and rims though he was running tubes not tubeless. He said that he runs light weight tubes and supple tyres and this way he knows in the mountains he can patch a tube and not get stuck .
It took us about an hour and a half, maybe more to get to the mountains and get to the top at a little village that even at this mid morning hour was heaving, carparks in the village were full, one had around 60 or so motorbikes coming and going and was solely for motorcycles. Really busy sort of place like a sort of tiny Aviemore or Rothiemurcus on a bank holiday. The main town was at the bottom of the mountain section we were on.  We parked in a carpark about half a kilometre away near one of the trail heads and got bikes off and sorted. I was given the loan of a friends Bergamont Contrail 29'er with full Fox suspension both ends as well as a dropper seatpost. Very nice indeed, though again made me wonder what I was about to ride, trail wise. It was already heading towards about 30 degree but cooler in the trees so the climb up the first summit was nice in the cool mountain air especially with 2 x 10 gearing to help, I was flying up the hill and I must admit it was nice. We got to one section and Mark said we have a short technical climb then a bit of a rocky technical descent for about a kilometre and I thought here we go, I'm either going to get hurt here or be blown out the back. To be fair it was fine, I climbed up the climb waiting for the technical stuff only to find it was done and then the downhill part was really big rocks and slab stuff so I was especially fine. I am fine with the techy stuff and years of trail riding and racing enduro on the motorbike means I can pick a line from way out but I can't do it a million miles an hour on a downhill bike, so we were all together and riding along like we had been doing it together for ever, a bit of a relief. This section I would have cleared easily on my 1X1 but I imagine slower as the suspension came into play here. Though not as much as you may expect as I worked out  at the bottom that this crazy Aussie had ridden it with his shock and fork locked out. How the fu** was I to know, I'm a rigid singlespeeder! If I thought this bike was good before it was absolutely sublime for the rest of the ride now I had freed it!  :) 
The riding was very similar to ours here in the highlands with hiking trails  and then due to some recent storms there were quite a few trees down on some of the lesser used singletrack trails so we had a bit of hike a bike stuff, so besides the heat and dust the terain was similar to here. We climbed a huge rock in the middle of the forest and had the most amazing veiws off the mountains. I also came round on bend on a well formed trail with a few hikers about so was taking it easy to pass three guys on randonneur bikes with panniers and handlebar bags etc. I slowed and said hello as I checked out their bikes and Mark said to me the part of the trail we were on is a trail that goes right over the Hartz mountains and covers about 160 kilometres from one end to the other and is well mapped and marker posts every 5 kilometres. All I could think was Brian and Jamie could take the randonneur rides off shore next year :)
We then did a few more climbs and descents before heading back to the village of Toffhouse for some lunch and a couple of cold drinks. I had a currywurst and frites (huge sausage with a sort of tomato sauce sprinkled with curry powder and chips and thought I better not have a beer so drank pepsi as I didn't know whether we were finished or about to ride back up the steep mountain again. Unfortunately we were just about done, it was well later than I thought and we rode the couple of kilometres back and loaded up.
A great day with some good guys who were really cool to take me along. My German is almost non exsistant and Felix and Wolfgangs was OK whereas Mark had excellent english but once riding non of this stuff mattered as it's pretty universal communication when your riding.
Just thought I would share as it was something different but great fun.
Jamie

Fri 10 August 2018 - Rade Germany and an old section of Wall

 I have a couple of pictures from a ride I did in Germany last week just local from where we were staying with friends in the small village of Rade in Gifhorn, lower Saxony. The village is tiny and a real farming village that has a forest/woods running along the outer side of the village. I was told this was the old east/west border and if you follow a small dirt track in the woods you will come to an anti tank deployment and if you go just past you will see a piece of the wall and a sentry post still in place alongside. You can also see the usual concrete tyre paths that were laid from one end of the wall to the other in places where there was no road. I was riding my friend Nils Commencal mountain bike which while a bit big was still appreciated immensely as it was good to be out riding.
I went along this path and was surprised how close it actually was, there was trench, anti tank deployements and then a bigger trench with a section of wall and sentry sitting on the far side of the wood. This opened out onto the farmers field on the other side. He had left the section of wall, put down some gravel and there was a nice undercover picnic bench alongside. There were also interp boards on both sides showing how it was in the day with photos of it being dismantled and the plans showing how on the farmers side it was all lights, barbed wire, bunkers etc for a good distance back from the border.
Whilst I am used to being in Berlin etc and seeing the wall and it's divisions etc it was a bit different seeing it in this very rural setting just literally a block or so from where you sleep. A bit more real maybe? I don't know, just a bit of a sombre feeling. This was made all the more so by the farmer giving a wave while feeding his cows who slowed on his way back past to gesture if I was needing anything. Just made me think that only 30 odd years back this would have been a very different place.
Another thing that was noticeable was that the bunker was concrete block and the only door was from the east and the sighting slots were steel reinforced so the was no was you could use one to go west.  Young conscripts were used to man these and the remit was to shoot anyone coming near the border on the western side, east too I imagine if they got that far. I was told if they refused or didn't do it properly they would be imprisoned and have no opportunity at either education or work and most likely repercussions for their family. This only stopped in 1988 I think, when it was opened up.


Jamie

4/08/2018 - Postmans Been! Some new parts for the eventual Jack Taylor build.

The postman left a parcel today that had a few pieces for the Jack Taylor when it eventually gets refurbished and built properly.
I already had a new Stronglight A9 headset sitting in the spares box for it along with a set of Shimano 600 Arabesque gear shifters and so today a set of handlebars and a stem arrived thanks to the Planet X sale. I wasn't looking at buying any parts just now but the prices of these were better than I could buy them secondhand  so I spent a little.
I ended up going with the Nitto NY3 stem and  the B135 Randonneur bars. I went with the B135s as I already have a set of B136 Randonneurs which are a slightly deeper drop but wider on the tops, and while happy with these I just thought I would have it set slightly different for this. These are probably closer to the old British touring bars you used to get.  Something different and a really good price.
The 600 Arabesque may go with the build though unsure of what that may be yet, still juggling a few ideas. It was always going to be a slow old build this one, no rush as it's not going anywhere.

Jamie

Links in the Chain Federation Bike Ride 2001 Commerative Badge and Letter

I was digging through some papers in a box from back home and come across an envelope I hadn't seen for some time.
In it was a commemorative badge and a letter from Alby Shultz, my local member of Parliament, from the 'Links in the chain' bike ride to celebrate the Centenary of  Federation back in 2001.

From the Pedal Power advertisement:
Links in the Chain Federation Bike Ride, an event coordinated by Pedal Power ACT in which "Bicycle riders will converge on Canberra from all states of Australia, as they did in 1951, in a symbolic gesture of national unity on May 8, 2001."

Rides were organised in a relay fashion right around Australia with the last section, the one I took part in, riding into Canberra, the nations capitol and touring places of historic interest before ending at Parliament House. I just remember it being a slow old ride as there was so many people taking part. Pretty impressive as it was a week day and I had to take a day off work and drive the couple of hours to the outskirts of Canberra. Well worth it though.
I remember it was a few months later I received this in the mail with a letter from Alby Shultz with the stamped badge which I think is modelled on an old design you could wrap round your bikes head tube, though I could be wrong there. These were stamped and made by the Australian mint and made for all who registered for the ride.
I like how he has crossed out my typed surname and written given name in pen to give it a bit more personal touch, never noticed at the time.
Probably means more to me now that I am a bit older and haven't been home in a good while.

Just one of those things that I had forgotten about and was nice to find so thought I would share.

Jamie