Greetings from Texas :: Albeit Somewhat Belatedly

On December 7th I left Arizona, drove through the southwest corner of New Mexico and entered the great state of Texas! Yes, I've been here a week already... I stopped off for a few days at one of my favorite spots in Texas – Davis Mountains State Park – way down in the southwest corner of the state a few miles from Fort Davis.



Mother Nature was still throwing a hissy fit as far as the weather was concerned with colder than normal temperatures. However, there was one very nice day while I was at Davis Mountains – the thermometer actually reached 62 degrees! And there was sunshine and blue skies. It was quite nice, to say the least. Then the clouds and cold temps rolled back in that night... I left Davis Mountains on the morning of December 10th with the area enshrouded in fog and temperatures in the low 30s. The fog and low temps followed me eastward all day long...





Photos taken on December 8, .. from the top of Skyline Drive, Davis Mountains State Park. Overlooking the valley below. The campground is nestled between the hills on the left side of the photo.





This past spring and into early summer, parts of western Texas were ablaze with wildfires. Davis Mountains suffered some damage - most of the shrub trees in the upper areas of the park were blackened by fire and there was more extensive damage in the isolated areas.





The sunset wasn't the prettiest I've seen. But it wasn't bad either ;-)

Miss Mercian: Then and Now

One of the things I was very much looking forward to on my trip to New York last week, was visiting Justine of Midlife Cycling. Justine is a fascinating, generous and knowledgable person and we have lots to talk about outside the world of bicycles. But more pertinently to this blog, Justine is known for her small, exquisite collection of Mercians. And so I happily found myself in Astoria, Queens, in an apartment that was eerily similar to my own in its proportion of total living space to the space devoted to bikes. Nothing wrong with that at all.






When I firstwrote about Justine and her Mercianstwo years ago, she had three of them - all custom made and painted the same stunning shade of "flip-flop purple green" (more on this later). One of these is a geared roadbike, the second is a fixed gear, and the third a Miss Mercian step-through. Subsequently, Justine unexpectedly acquired a fourth Mercian secondhand - an earlier Miss Mercian model, from an era when the design was still a classic mixte with twin lateral stays. Knowing this, I was looking forward to seeing the two generations of Miss Mercians side by side, and excited when Justine offered me to test ride both bicycles and compare my impressions. While her diamond frame bikes are too big for me, the lower step-over of the Miss Mercian frames enables me to try them.






Through the quiet streets of Astoria, we rode to the Socrates Sculpture Park to photograph the bicycles along the East River. The park is small, but very pleasant, with a cobblestone path along the water and views of Roosevelt Island and passing boats in background. It was a cold and windy morning, but at least the sun was out, bathing the bicycles in a golden light.





This is Justine's current production Miss Mercian, named Helene. My understanding is that Mercian switched to this frame style for their Miss Mercian model, because they only use Reynolds tubing and Reynolds stopped making the tubes suitable for classic mixtes a few years ago. I will be honest that I am not a fan of "angled step-through" frames. But the lugwork, the colour scheme, and Justine's very personal build make this bicycle rather charming.






One of my photographic goals for this bicycle was to capture the flip flop purple green finish in action. The beauty of this colour is hard to describe, but basically it's as it sounds: Under some lighting conditions it looks purple, under others it looks green. Seeing the colours change takes my breath away. Above I captured it in a very purple state, though usually it looks like a much more subdued silverfish lilac.





And here you can see what happens when the colour flips to green.






Neat, huh?






Flip-flopping in the sunlight! I love this colour and might have used it for my own bike were it not so distinctly Justinish in my mind. It is certainly one of the most unique paint finishes available.





But all right, there is more to this bike than its paint colour. Like Justine's other custom Mercians, the frame is lugged and made of Reynolds 631 tubing.





Helene is set up with Porteur handlebars, inverse brake levers, bar-end shifters adapted as "thumbies," side pull brakes, pedals with classic toe cages, hammered fenders, rear rack, a Brooks saddle and a

Carradice saddlebag.





Justine rides this bicycle in her regular clothing - skirt, heels, the whole deal - and it is her fast, responsive commuter. The geometry, which Justine specified, is pretty tight and aggressive, and she likes it this way. For her this is an upright, but maneuverable and go-fast bike.






Justine lowered the saddle for me and switched out the pedals to platforms, so that I could comfortably ride the bike around the unfamiliar-to-me area. When I rode this bicycle, the geometry - not the frame style, but the angles and proportions - struck me as an exaggerated version of my Royal H. mixte. My positioning on the bike was very similar as well. Unfortunately the angled step-through frame and I did not get along when it came to mounting and dismounting the bike: I found the top tube too high for me to comfortably climb over and kept banging my knee. I was also a little uncomfortable with the amount of toe overlap, and between this and the high top tube I felt oddly trapped by the frame, as if everything was too tightly spaced. Of course this says more about the difference between my and Justine's geometry preferences than anything else, but I was a little nervous on this bike as I followed her up the winding bridge ramp to Roosevelt Island. I did not want to crash the bike or to knock it over while attempting to dismount. Thankfully, nothing of the sort happened and we had a nice ride with scenic water views. As we rode, I noticed that the frame flexed for me a bit more than I would have liked, which is odd because Justine describes it as stiff. The subjectivity of this sort of thing is amazing.






Stranger still, is that Justine describes her older Miss Mercian as more flexible than the current model, whereas I found it to be stiffer. How can this be? Are we simply associating different sensations with the terms stiff and flexible? It's a mystery.




The day did not warm up despite the sunshine, and even though I had donned every single pair of stockings I'd brought with me to New York (three pairs!) I was uncomfortably cold. Between this and having to be across town by early afternoon, our ride was not very long. Still, I feel that I got a fair sense of the difference between the two bicycles - although since both of these are custom bikes made for specific people, I am not sure how generalisable my impressions are to Miss Mercians at large.






Overall, I felt more comfortable on the older (1994) Miss Mercian - with its longer wheelbase, lower stand-over and greater toe clearance. I also preferred this bicycle's ride quality and handling, which to me felt a bit cushier and more stable. None of this necessarily has to do with the styles of the two frames; it is more about geometry really. Still, I lamented that Mercian no longer makes the classic twin stay mixte - it was oh so elegant.






Justine's 1994 Miss Mercian is named Vera, and the original owner ordered the frame in English Racing Green with gold lug outlines.






The Reynolds 531 frame was built for cantilever brakes, and eyelets for fenders and front and rear racks.





The cable routing is kind of interesting, integrating nicely with the twin lateral stays,





then "climbing" up the seat tube. I have never seen this kind of routing on a mixte before, but I think it works well.





One of the cool things Justine has got on this bicycle, is this green and gold crankset with built-in chain guard. I have never seen one like it before, and it certainly makes the bicycle stand out as her unique creation.





I tried the MKS Lambda pedals for the first time and liked them a lot, even though I did not think I would. They are grippy, and not as sharp as MKS touring pedals.






Justine set up the older Miss Mercian similarly to the newer one, but with a front rack in addition to the rear, a single instead of a double chainring, North Road handlebars instead of the Porteurs, and flat pedals. This bicycle is a little more upright and relaxed, and set up to carry more weight than its sportier room-mate.





Justine has been riding bicycles for decades as a messenger, racer, cyclotourist, commuter - you name it. And she has owned an untold number of bikes over this time (I believe the estimate she gave me was 60?... but no, that can't be right!) This makes it all the more fascinating, that all of her current bikes are from the same manufacturer. Is it the Reynolds 631 tubing Mercian uses that she finds so agreeable? The way they put together frames? Do their notions of optimal geometry agree with her own? Whatever the answer, Justine seems to know what she wants and she is happy with her choices.





Of course I am trying to convince her now that she also needs to add this bike to her Mercian collection, then let me test ride it extensively. Fingers crossed!



For the entire picture set, please see here. And I thank Justine profusely for allowing me to try her beautiful bikes!

Double Coyotes

If you look close at the coyote on the left; under the coyote is a dark spot which is a prairie dog looking out of it's hole.

Speed, Lugs and Jewel Tones: a JRJ Grass Racer

Still active today, Bob Jackson Cycles are a British builder of classic steel bicycles that is well known around the world. Less commonly known is the name JRJ Cycles that preceded it. Bob (John Robert) Jackson began building bicycle frames in Leeds, England, in 1935, offering track and road racing (time trial) models. Part of Chris Sharp's collection, this particular bike is a 1950s grass track racer that once belonged to Leslie White of the Maryland Wheelers near Belfast. The owner raced it into the late 1960s, achieving numerous victories in Northern Ireland. He then hung it up, and the bike remained untouched for over 4 decades. Today it is preserved in as-raced condition.






The JRJ name, headbadge and transfers were used exclusively until the 1960s, and still appeared into the 1980s after the switch to "Bob Jackson."






The transfers included renderings of olympic rings, the full name on the downtube reading "JRJ Olympic Cycles." As with other English "lightweight" manufacturers of that time, there was a strong emphasis on performance and competition, which explains the olympic imagery. "Always first at the finish!" was the JRJ Cycles' slogan on advertisements from the 1950s.






Traditionally, English racing frames from this era tended to be painted in saturated, jewel-like tones, known as a "flamboyant" finish. Not quite the same as pearlescent paint, the flamboyant colours are foil-like, resembling the look of candy wrappers. Bob Jackson had his favourite signature shades, including the red and blue on this bike. The blue leans toward seafoam, and the red is a raspberry-like crimson.






White lining around the lugs and fork crown highlights the elaborate shorelines.





The bottom bracket lugs are especially interesting - there appears to be a reinforced lug of sorts connecting the chainstays to the bottom bracket.






The frame is Reynolds 531 tubing.





Though it has not been ridden in decades, the large shimmery machine is so marked by care and wear, that it feels alive with the owner's presence and energy. Seeing it leaned against the hedge on a rainy morning, I can't help but imagine the tall, powerful youth Leslie White must have been - his back stretched flat across the 58cm frame, his hands gripping the deep track drops, his legs pushing the monstrous gear in an all-out effort around a grass track.





Grass track racing is an interesting tradition in the British Isles. In an earlier post, I mentioned how a ban on road racing from the 1890s through the 1950s led to the invention of time trials. The ban also explains the emphasis on track cycling in the UK and Ireland: Races on enclosed courses were the only kind officially permitted during this time. The grass tracks were similar to velodromes in that they were oval. However, the surface was not banked. Often the track was a multi-use field, temporarily set up for the race.Grass track racing is still done in the UK today, its popularity revived in recent years. At a grass-roots/ community level, a race like this can be organised fairly easily, wherever a flat playing field is available.






The style of races held was similar to those on the velodrome, and the bikes were fixed gear machines with track style fork-ends.






Typically the fork crown was drilled for a front brake: The rider would remove it upon arrival to the race. The tires were of course tubulars - "sew ups." Too deteriorated to hold air, the ones on this bike are original.






Also original are all the other components. Most notable among these are the English-made Chater Lea crankset and hubs, quite rare now.






The Chater Lea pedals are fitted with Brooks toe clips and leather straps.





I can make out a faint Brooks stamp on the side of the saddle, but not which model it is. The saddle is long and very narrow - measuring just over 120mm across at the widest part.







The stem and handlebars are stamped with what looks like Cinelli; I did not want to disturb the patina by cleaning up the inscription.





When talking to Chris Sharp about the JRJ, I asked whether he plans to make it ridable. He has many vintage bikes, some of them quite old and storied, and he does not shy away from using them. But Leslie White's grass racer, he wants to preserve the way it is. Having met the bike's original owner, part of it is wanting to honor him. But part of it also is the history. In person, standing near this bike and touching it... There is just something so incredibly alive and exciting about how freshly used everything looks.I can readily imagine it all: a grassy field, a gray sky, a crowd of locals gathered to watch, and the riders - a blur of jewel tones against the overcast country landscape.

Blank Canvas

For many of my cycling friends, winter is the time for making big plans. Like the vast snowscape outside, the seasons ahead spread out, blank canvas-like, glittering with possibilities. We are increasingly spoiled for choice here: Beautiful unpaved rides, formal and informal brevets, invitational weekend getaways - it's enough to make one's head spin. And it all requires budgeting, scheduling, prioritising, oftentimes with advanced planning and registration. And so in the coldest days of February, over cups of scalding coffee, cyclists speak in agonised whispers of events to come in the summer months.




I used to listen with curiosity and detached amusement. As someone who generally resists planning, I could not imagine scheduling a summer's worth of weekends around cycling events. But this time around I am getting swept up in it all.




Staring at the pile of snow outside my window, I find myself considering ahill climb race. I don't expect to do well at all, but I think I might enjoy it. Feeling that is a surprise to me; wanting to do it is a surprise. But when I imagine the climbing and the festive atmosphere, I want to be there - pedaling and feeling the strain, delirious as I strive for a summit I might not have the stamina to reach. Weird, isn't it, the things we can enjoy.




Plodding along the riverside trail, I contemplate this year's brevet series. I love the idea of randonneuring. But truthfully, I don't think I am serious about it - or ready for it, depending on how you look at it. On long rides that pass through beautiful places, what I really want to do is explore, carry a big camera, stop any time I like and constantly take photos - which is at odds with being on the clock. It might make more sense to finally put aside some time for a light multi-day tour.




Cleaning the salt and crud off my bike after a slushy outing, I remember long dreamy rides on unpaved roads. It seems almost fictional now: Going from the "baby" D2R2 route to the hair-raising loose descents of the Kearsarge Klassic in a matter of weeks, riding borrowed bikes with unfamiliar components,rental cars at 5:00 in the morning... Absurd. But oh how I long to do it again (minus the borrowed bikes, I hope), andhow I long to find more rides in the same vein. I am even willing to plan in advance and make commitments.




This winter is turning out to be brutal. But the months ahead are a blank canvas, and putting down the initial sketch is keeping me sane.

Sometimes Good Things Don't Come To Those Who Wait

(My neighborhood post office early this morning.)

Tomorrow may be Emancipation Day, but today-I proclaim April 15- Procrastination Day.

Anastasia Island :: Hanging Out

Monday March 14, .. – - Today was a “leisure day” for me. After breakfast and straightening up the van a little I spent a few hours on the beach at Anastasia Island State Park in St. Augustine. Soaking up the beautiful sunshine...











Yeah, it was nice!