RAMBLE!!!

Saturday, December 18th is the Second Annual Fall Finale Forty-Mile Country Path Ramble. I just call it the Ramble. Last year's ride was a blast! This is a great chance to get out of the city and ride the scenic dirt roads of Denton and Wise Counties. This is not a pay ride, it's free, and everybody is invited. The ride departs from Chris' home just northwest of Sanger, he's got a large vacant lot in front of his house with plenty of space for parking. No, you don't have to know Chris to attend, like I said it's open to everyone, and I can assure you that you will feel welcome whether you know any of the other riders or not.

Chris has mentioned most of this already in his blog but I'll repeat a few things. This is a slow paced ride with lots of stops for photos and conversation. Since this isn't a true organized event there isn't any sag support. Be sure to bring along a spare tube. Be prepared for some climbing. You should consider bringing a thermos with coffee. I forgot to bring coffee last year and I really regretted it. You might also consider packing sandwiches or something similar to eat. We'll be stopping by the Rosston General Store but they don't offer much in the way of prepared food. Chris will be posting directions to his house sometime in the near future. If I think of anything else I'll post it later.

This is a photo from last year. This is one of the smoother roads that we were riding.

Fenders and Used Clothing

Yesterday evening I figured that I would install a pair of SKS fenders on my bike. They've been sitting in my garage for a while. It didn't take long to realize that the rear supports on my rack are spaced very close together and aren't compatible with the front support stays on the fenders. After alot of frustrating and fruitless effort, I decided that I would just replace the rack. I was going to do it anyway. I'm sure I could modify the fender in some way, but to be honest, I just wasn't up to it.

It seemed like such a simple job.

I stopped by a clothing resale shop the other day with the hope of finding vintage wool sweaters for winter riding, or even a couple of items for an upcoming tweed ride. Unfortunately they hadn't put out their winter clothing yet. I didn't find any tweed either. I did find this Columbia fishing vest. With all the pockets and storage, I thought this might be a useful item of clothing to wear on my next bike camping trip. I can keep all of my frequently used small items in the pockets and free up some space in my panniers. It was under $10 so I snatched it up.

There is a large single pocket on the back of the vest that should be very useful.

I also picked up this practically new Filson hunting shirt for under $10. I learned about this company through Archival Clothing.

Might as well have the best.

Speaking of bike camping, Chandra (GreenCommotion) and Chris (Pondero) have hit the road for a multi-day tour. Check out their photo at Trinity Bicycles blog. The weather has taken a turn for the worse, I hope they stay dry.

Video from the Country Path Ramble

Here's a video from our ride this past Saturday. Christmas music was all I had available for the soundtrack, it was either that or constant wind noise. Hope you enjoy it.

If you haven't already seen it, you should check out Chris' latest post on micro touring.

Random Stuff 05-23-09

Wow, that was really quick. My LHT sold a little over three hours after I posted it on Craigslist Friday evening. The new owner is a nice guy who's originally from Great Britain now living in Fort Worth. He told me that a group of his friends from the U.K. are planning a ride from Seattle to Boston this summer. He's going to ride with them through a portion of the route. I'm glad that my old bike will be used for the purpose it was intended, loaded touring. I asked him to send me some photos from the trip, hopefully he'll remember.

Goodbye old friend.

Random Stuff below:

VelociPete: Go to Pete's blog for photos from the Lake Pepin 3-Speed Tour. His wife (or girlfriend?) has lots of photos on her blog as well. The official web page for the tour looks interesting, but I haven't had a chance to spend any time there yet.

The Highway Cycling Group: This is another really cool blog from the U.K. that I recently discovered. This blog is devoted to leisure cycling.

David, the blog's author.

David's uncle used to do some amateur racing a long time ago. This is his uncle's old race bike.

Uggh...My eyes, my eyes!!!

This pristine Dave Scott Centurion road bike is currently for sale in the Dallas area Craigslist. I know I made fun of these bikes a while back, but this thing is so ugly that I strangely find myself wanting one, probably for the shock value alone. The matching saddle is what did it for me. I would wrap the bars in yellow tape and hunt down some matching vintage lycra. Once again, if you are the person selling this bike, please don't be offended as I will probably be the one buying it from you if it's still available in a few weeks.

Pondero: Christopher shows off his photographic skills and ability to talk large farm animals into posing for cycling related photos. I've mentioned his blog before, I just really like this photo.

Bike by the Sea: I've never been to California. Other than L.A. and San Francisco, I don't know much about the other cities out there. I had heard that San Diego was nice but I had never heard anything about Santa Barbara. It looks like a great place to ride.  Christa has lots of beautiful photos of these places on her blog Bike by the Sea. I found Christa's blog after she commented on one of my posts, but I saw that she was recently featured on Change Your Life, Ride a Bike (Hey, Philip's there also).

Random Stuff 03-11-09

Nothing's better than receiving a nice email from somebody that really enjoys wearing a shirt I've printed. I've had lots of repeat customers on Etsy but I've never bothered to ask for photos of the customers wearing our shirts. I received the pic below from Christopher. He happened to buy one at the Etsy Dallas Jingle Bash last November. The other picture is Dan wearing one of our motorcycle shirts. Dan is a motorcycle coach out in Delaware. I've never owned a motorcycle or know much about them but I really like the old racing photos and thought they might make interesting shirts. Dan is in the process of teaching himself how to screen print. We've exchanged lots of emails over the last few months about inks, emulsion, exposure times. Good stuff.

This is the reason I print. Happy cyclists.

This is by far the most popular shirt in our shop.

This is Dan sporting one of our motorcycle shirts.

I found this photo of nice V.O. mixte on agfachrome25's photostream. I followed a link in the profile to Archival Clothing. I've really enjoyed reading this blog over the last couple of days. It's a good mix of fine men's clothing and bikes. I can appreciate well made articles of clothing but I really wouldn't look right wearing the majority of this stuff. There is no getting around the fact that I'm a Wal-Mart kind of guy.

Notice the shoes.

Bata Bikers.

I did a Google search Bata Bikers and found this on WikiAnswers. It's written (supposedly) by the person that developed this shoe for Bata. 

I  heard about Handsome Cyles on a post at Greater Than Cars. This is their Handsome Devil which was inspired by the Bridgestone XO-1 . I like the way this bike is set up with the single chainring. I believe they'll be selling the frame for less than $400. 

This would make an excellent city bike.

Gloomy Day

It was an ugly day today, cold and gloomy. I really wanted to ride but instead I relaxed inside with a hot cup of coffee. I just read Christopher's blog, Pondero, and felt a little better that I wasn't the only one lacking motivation today.

Over the last several days I've enjoyed reading "3 Speed Touring in Japan". This blog has some really nice pictures of the Japanese countryside and the authors bikes. I've always thought Japan would be an excellent place to do some touring.

I found these panniers on Ebay. I don't have any idea if this is a good deal or not but I thought they might look nice on somebody's old 3 speed. There is a matching handlebar bag in another auction. There is one day and about 12 hours left if anybody is interested. Here's a link to the auction.

Jingle Bash-An Enjoyable Evening

Jingle Bash is over, so that means that my life can return to normal. No more late night printing sessions trying to get ready for the show. The Etsy Dallas leadership did an amazing job organizing this event and drawing crowds of shoppers.

This is our section of the building before the start of the show.


My lovely wife manning our booth. It's almost impossible to get a photo of her when she isn't blinking.


I screen printed these business cards at the last minute the night before the show. We got lots of compliments on them.



We finally had the chance to meet some other Etsy Dallas members. They are a great bunch of people but one of the couples really stood out, Emily and Omar of Backbone, they are super nice people and are a joy to talk to. They are photographers although Omar has a day job working at the Spiral Diner in Dallas. They live in Oak Cliff and Omar uses his bike as his primary means of transportation. Emily says that their place is small but packed full of bikes. We traded some of Emily's photos for a couple of our t shirts.

Emily and Omar


I was also surprised when Mister Pondero himself, Christopher Johnson and his wife showed up at our booth. I wish that we had more time to talk bikes and stuff but business started picking up at about that time. I'm glad you made it out to the show Christopher.

One thing we were asked over and over again was if we printed children's shirts. I haven't yet but I am going to start real soon. We sold lots of shirts but I believe we could have doubled our sales if we printed kids shirts also.

This was our first show and it was a great experience, we had much more business than I had expected plus we made money for our children's Christmas. We'll definitely be doing more shows. Now I need to get back on my bike.

I wanted to show off some of Emily's work. These photos are from her Etsy shop. You can see more of her work here. Support your fellow cyclists and buy a photo if you can.