The Brompton Diaries – Page 10 – . . . two small wheels, one compact fold, and the road ahead

Multi-Tasking of the Best Sort

Post author By The Brompton Diarist
Post date June 9, 2014
4 Comments on Multi-Tasking of the Best Sort

On a recent ride, this sign greeted us: A local trail will be closed for most of the summer. According to the crew setting up these signs, it’s a public safety issue while nearby gas lines are being repaired.

Basil is unimpressed. That’s really infelicitous timing, and this is a favorite trail for a fast ride.

On the other hand, Basil couldn’t help but admire this fellow. Nice colors, don’t you think?

We were out riding with Dr. Diarist and his mountain bike, before his recent accident.

That pretty little garter snake wasn’t the only bit of fauna we encountered. This Blue Heron was wending his way down the middle of the stream.

The swamp cabbage is now triumphant, and has carpeted the banks next to the trail.

Dr. Diarist continued on to do some off-road cycling while Basil and I went grocery shopping. He was carrying his basket, because a Brompton bicycle transforms into a perfect shopping cart:

We examined a fig display, and chose chocolate dipped figs over that large and traditional fig cake. That was a mistake; later, I discovered that the figs were plump and delicious, but the chocolate with which they were enrobed was quite dreadful — waxy and flavorless.

Then we rode home, and arrived refreshed and relaxed: Recreation, exercise, and errands all-in-in one! Wonderful Brompton bicycles; you do everything well!

Miscellaneous

He Should Have Been Riding a Brompton

Post author By The Brompton Diarist
Post date June 8, 2014
8 Comments on He Should Have Been Riding a Brompton

Dr. Diarist rarely spills on his mountain bike, but this one was a doozy. His brand new pedals, beautifully spiked with sharp pins all around, ripped his shin open on a Memorial Day weekend ride.

Trip One to the ER, on Saturday, was to get it stitched. Trip Two, on Monday, was to get the infection treated. Trip Three was to REI this week to replace the pedals with something less lethal. Those socks? Why, yes, Dr. Diarist is wearing Argyll socks (just not on the right bicycle!)

Tours, Trails & Group Rides

Bill Cotton Memorial Ride

Post author By The Brompton Diarist
Post date June 6, 2014
12 Comments on Bill Cotton Memorial Ride

For nearly as long as I’ve been riding with Mike and Saul, they have been telling me about Bill Cotton, and commenting on how much they think I would have liked knowing him.

Earlier this month, a group of us gathered for a BCP ride in Bill’s memory. Bill was an avid bicyclist, a machinist by trade, a clever engineer and tinkerer, and is remembered with the kind of affection few people can hope to inspire.

We met at the Pottstown trailhead and rode to West Reading, to the Queen City Diner, where Bill famously liked to stop.

Along the way, we encountered a small memorial (“Winston Here Lies Jim’s Dog”) beside the trail.

Saul paid his respects (rather dramatically!), but it was heart-warming to be reminded, particularly on this ride, that those who are loved are not forgotten.

The 35 mile/56.3 km route took us over a wide variety of surfaces, including:

asphalt (that’s a Catrike recumbent in the rear there; it can really go — and did!);

packed gravel;

what we used to call “two-tracks”;

and into the woods (I don’t know why we never called these “one-tracks”).

Along the way we went past rivers

over railroad tracks

across bridges

and past battered old boxcars, apparently still in service.

We could hear moving trains all along the ride, and sometimes see them, just barely, through the trees.

Dr. Diarist took most of these pictures — he was speedy enough to catch up once he’d dawdled — and also captured this adorable (or is it fierce?) fire hydrant:

This housing development has a very odd roofline of a type we’d never seen before.

We saw evidence of some old technologies, now defunct

and new technologies, only recently installed.

Along with grittier sights

we encountered some classically pretty ones: country homes with cultivated flora;

exuberant uncultivated greenery;

and a converted barn with unusual, small scale, stone work (unusual for this area, at least).

At the diner, we had a convivial meal.

Ride leader Steve enthusiastically consumed a symbolic dessert in Bill’s honor. (I gather Bill was not opposed to the occasional sweet!)

After a leisurely meal, well-fortified, we prepared to get back on the road.

On our return trip, Saul made sure that everyone admired Basil’s new chain guard.

And then we were off, zipping our way back. The variety of scenes that can be encountered on a 35 mile/56.3 km ride, mostly on trails, in this area, is amazing and thrilling: Could there be a more appropriate way to remember Bill Cotton, his love of bicycling, and his creative mind? On this perfect day, it was impossible to imagine anything better.

Argyll Basil, En-Scène Brompton Duo

Graffiti Brothers

Cool dudes, hanging out.

Oh, yeah!

Gear

Toe Clips for a Brompton Bicycle

Post author By The Brompton Diarist
Post date June 2, 2014
18 Comments on Toe Clips for a Brompton Bicycle

Last fall I ordered toe clips for Basil. I knew that clipping in wasn’t a good idea for me; I’m just too clumsy to ever trust that I could unclip in sufficient time to avoid a fall (or worse).

On group rides, I worry a lot about holding up the others (though I ride with unusually supportive people — all the more reason, though, to keep up my end, yes?). I’d heard that clip-in pedals could mean a 15 percent boost in power, so I figured that toe clips must offer at least a little of that advantage.

A Brompton bicycle — specifically, the folding pedal — won’t accept standard toe clips, so Terry, at Alphabet Cottage in the UK, sells a kit with Zefal clips and special plates that accommodate the Brompton pedals. Ordering was simple, the kit arrived promptly, and Terry is very good about communication.

The kit comes in a couple of versions, based on Brompton model year. Installation was easy, once I figured it out, but the instructions provided with mine appeared to be for a slightly different kit — and the illustrations were extremely faint, and ultimately not helpful.

After installation, I meant to go back and add thread-locker. I was sorry that I’d forgotten to do so when one clip loosened during a ride. I’d recommend sloshing that thread-locker on at the start; if you lose your original screws, you’ll end up with mis-matched ones, as below:

I debated which size toe clips to get, since my cycling shoes are Keens, and have an extremely boxy toe. The S/M toe clips, described as fitting “up to shoe size 8 (UK); 8.5 (US); 42 (EU)”, just fit my size 4/6.5/37 Keens; anyone wearing larger Keen cycling shoes might want to go up to the next size. Standard cycling shoes, with a narrower toe, wouldn’t present this dilemma.

My Keen shoes don’t “lock” into the cage, as standard cycling shoes might. Nonetheless, they stay put, and don’t slip out while riding. Yet I can easily remove my foot without risk of entanglement, and I don’t have to think about how to turn my foot to do it. For a rather uncoordinated cyclist like me, this is a real advantage, and a critical safety factor.

The clips do affect the fold somewhat; I take pains to make sure that the toe clip is against Basil’s tire, not against his spokes, but this immediately became intuitive, and doesn’t slow the process at all. When walking an unfolded Zefal equipped Brompton, you’ll need to keep the bicycle upright, as there is little clearance between the dropped toe clip and the ground; again, this is an easy accommodation.

Weight doesn’t seem to be much of an issue; the toe clips are quite light, and the adaptor plates aren’t heavy. (You will lose the reflector on the folding pedal, which gets swapped out for the adapter plate, though the effect on weight is likely to be minimal.)

Open toe clips can be used with street shoes as well as with cycling shoes or trainers; that was a big plus for me. I almost always ride with cycling-specific footwear, but wanted the option to use whatever, whenever.

Do the toe clips give me the edge I hoped for? Well, I don’t really know; however, I’ve learned to love them. I do believe they increase the power of my upstroke, and I find I like the sense that each foot is firmly set in the correct place on the pedal. At a minimum, they’ve made me a more confident biker.

Travel

Along the Canal

My Brompton bicycle Basil and I found ourselves in upstate New York recently, and returned to a favorite haunt there: the Erie Canal towpath.

This time, however, we found obstructions: traffic cones, a torn-up trail, and heavy equipment where Basil’s tires prefer to be.

We shot a longing glance down the canal, and then headed out on surface streets until we’d bypassed the construction.

This was the first time we’d ridden on streets in this area, or over any of the rather wonderful steel bridges.

There’s a walkway along the canal in the village of Pittsford, which we viewed, also for the first time, from a nearby bridge.

I stopped in at a bike shop next to the canal to replace a patch kit that had been depleted on a recent group ride.

In former days, tradesmen used to hang signs that signified the profession practised within their shops: In this case, a bicycle chain is embedded in the entry-way.

Some strip malls are a little different in this part of the world. I think most of these buildings have been re-purposed since they were built during the days when the canal itself was far more active than it is now.

This little “mall”, too, looks as if the buildings once served radically different needs — relevant, probably, to the kind of commerce that was once canal-driven.

We did eventually get a little bit of cycling in on the towpath, once we got past the construction.

The trail surface is a bit rough-and-ready; it’s mostly crushed stone. Basil, and his Marathon tires, don’t mind a bit, though: We’ve ridden many miles on it in the past. Those Bromptons look small, but they’re strong and adept!

Argyll Travel

Argyll on the Greenway

I did a little fabric shopping when I went to New York City with Argyll. The next morning, he and I set out to take the bundle to UPS so that it could be shipped home.

This was another first for Argyll, and a Brompton first for me, too; I’d never used Basil’s rear rack. The built-in bungees worked just fine, and Argyll was easy to ride, even with a pretty heavy bundle on the back.

Talk about spring! This what the sky looked like outside the Manhattanites’s apartment.

Then we turned the corner.

Well! I couldn’t figured out what I was seeing at first. Why were all those vehicles covered in fluffy stuff? It reminded me of a conversation I’d once had with a woman on a train: She’d funded an “art installation” composed of a Hummer covered in crocheted cotton. That memory didn’t help; this was serious cognitive dissonance. The previous day had been all blossoms and greenery; today there was a fine dusting of snow all over the place.

We got to UPS just fine, where, in a first, I was thrown out of the store, but my Brompton bicycle was allowed to stay. There’s a rule, it seems, against packing a box inside the building. The UPS guy and I usually get along well; maybe he was having a bad day.

Argyll was just as happy to stay inside while I packed my box on the sidewalk.

Sadly, there’s nothing I want to buy here, but I love seeing this store front next to the UPS store. “Moscow on the Hudson”: Now that’s evocative!

Argyll and I went next door and got coffee before heading out for a ride. A Brompton bicycle tucks nicely out of the way, even in a cramped big-city coffee shop.

Outside, the sun was shining, but hadn’t quite vanquished the snow.

There’s always something new to see, even on familiar New York streets. Someone had added these airy boots to the landscape since the last time I’d been to UPS.

There was only a tiny patch of snow left under this tree. That wasn’t the case on the Westside Greenway, where Argyll and I headed next.

There was less snow on the train tracks below, but there it was, nevertheless.Riding the Greenway was another first for Argyll (and without his own cyclist, Dr. Diarist!); this was also his first trip under the George Washington Bridge.

The previous night’s snow hadn’t discouraged all of the blooms, though it’s possible that the real damage didn’t show up until later.

The temperature was much colder than I’d anticipated, and my hands were feeling it. I had fold-over cuffs on my cycling top, but the are a bit clumsy to use, particularly for braking, so I stopped in at Fairway hoping to find something to keep my fingers a bit happier.

Argyll in a Fairway cart: Made for each other!

Inside, we encountered one of Argyll’s distant kin. Bicycles are au courant, everywhere, these days.

In the cosmetics department, I found cotton gloves, which bought me some warmth — just enough — and some dexterity, when installed under my cycling mitts. Frozen fingers in mid-April: most unexpected!

Argyll still didn’t have his saddle bag, but I’d already attached the straps that would hold it in place, once I finished making it. They proved to be just the thing to use to tie the grocery bag under his saddle.

We left the Greenway at this point, and I got lost looking for Broadway. I ended up on Martin Luther King, but, hey, why not? It’s difficult to get so lost in New York that one can’t find a way out, and there’s always something interesting to see.

The aerial view of the street is pretty cool.

Later I realized that this station is at the intersection of MLK and Broadway. Sigh.

Once here, I couldn’t resist the lure of catching the subway above ground. Also, Fairway-on-the-Greenway didn’t have rainbow cookies, so Argyll and I headed for the East Side, via the MTA.

Argyll ended up visiting two Fairway Markets, on two different sides of Manhattan, in one day. Another first!

Rainbow cookies: I doubt they’re natural, and I know they’re unhealthy, but they are very like marzipan petit fours someone used to give me when I was a child.

Unlike the blue bag of the previous day, this orange bag didn’t stain my hands.

We rode over to a park next to the Museum of Natural History, where I snacked on tasty, tasty cookies. A day’s work, well done.

Travel

A Rainy Day at Union Square

Post author By The Brompton Diarist
Post date May 24, 2014
6 Comments on A Rainy Day at Union Square

On one afternoon on a quick trip to New York City, I popped downtown sans Brompton. It was wet and cold, and I hadn’t brought good rain gear with me, so I hoofed it (and rode the subway).

I headed down to Union Square. All that water made for nice color saturation in the park.

It does the same thing for the streets and buildings, too, but the effect isn’t quite as vibrant.

New York babies get used to the elements early. A carapace like this one helps.

These rather glorious blossoms were in for a rude shock: the next day, it snowed.

Generally speaking, when I head to Union Square, I’m going to Paragon Sports just to see what’s up, but I always like stopping in at this Barnes and Noble. Though it’s large for an NYC bookstore, I think what I like best is the building exterior, and all those Citibikes out front.

If chain stores must exist in cities, it’s a good thing when they fit so relatively discreetly into the existing infrastructure.

I enjoyed a long conversation in the sports section with a cycling advocate, and ended up buying a couple of books designed to improve my cycling fitness. We’ll see how that goes; neither one had any advice on how to extend a day past 24 hours, which is possibly what I actually require.

Argyll

Argyll Checks In

Back before the 5 Boro Bike Tour, Argyll and I went to New York. Subsequently, various events and circumstances overwhelmed the schedule, and I lost track of his adventures.

I did manage to chronicle the trip back to New York, but not our gadding about while there. In order to avoid giving Argyll short shrift, I’m backtracking a bit here, and recording our flitting about on that trip.

Once we were settled in at the Manhattanites’s in Washington Heights, we hopped the cross town bus, due to my reluctance to ride certain segments of upper Manhattan streets in rain, and headed to NYCeWheels.

We arrived before the store opened. Argyll waited beneath a giant folder in the NYCeWheels window.

That white beast appears to be a Pacific Cycles IF Mode, a full-size folding bike. I think it’s easily twice the size of a Brompton. Maybe three times.

Once we were in, Steve put Argyll up on the stand behind the counter. All that inventory is distracting, but it’s pretty cool to see a beautiful little Brompton suspended in mid-air. I wonder if Dr. Diarist would go for this look in our living room?

I paused to admire the fold of yellow Bromptons NYCeWheels uses for their free tours, and for loans to Brommie Yummie. Riding Brompton 1 of this fleet is what convinced me that a Brompton was the right bicycle for me.

That yellow imprinted, of course, and that’s the color of Basil’s frame. (Visibility, folks, that’s where it is for me!), but just about any Brompton color evokes a little frisson of glee. Look at that Arctic Blue! And that Apple Green!

I took a walk and got some coffee while Steve looked over Argyll. It was a beautiful day; the Upper East Side felt fresh and new in the rain.

I found goodies to take back to the Manhattanites, but they got saved for later. The Manhattanites got consecutively ill during our visit, which put a damper on enticing meals. Inside the container? Fairway’s incredible roasted artichoke hearts.

Less incredible were my blue fingers. How did that happen? Weeellll, it turned out that Fairway’s plastic bag bled.

Messy, and most surprising, since what goes inside a Fairway bag is almost universally excellent.

We cycled just a few familiar blocks, in spite of damp streets, and then returned on the subway. I was reading a Travis McGee mystery — a pulp paperback from the early 1960s; they’re a perfect size to stuff in a pocket.

My Brompton

Basil Runs for Office!

Saul made an unexpected discovery when we were all out on a recent group ride:

We had no idea; Saul’s supporting him, as you can see.

Saul’s own steed seems to be part of the informed electorate, too, and is obviously regarding the situation with the solemnity that enfranchisement requires. Or is is that the look of a potential competitor?