Ladies' Bicycles from ANT: 2 Test Rides

At theirOpen Houselast weekend,I had a chance to briefly examine and test-ride two ANT bicycles. This is my first time seeing these bicycles up close and personal, and I hope the reports will be useful to those considering an ANT.

TEST RIDE No.1: The Boston Lady Roadster

The Boston Lady Roadster is a classic loop frame bicycle, available custom built from ANT. This fact in itself is remarkable. If you are wondering why, I invite you to find other framebuilders willing and able to build a loop frame, or even capable of discussing such a thing without laughing. Until recently, most framebuilders' idea of a "women's bicycle" was a diamond frame roadbike painted pink, or with pink handlebar wraps. Now mixtes have began to pop up as well, but for city riding they are not quite as comfortable as the classic curved step-through. The fact that ANT has chosen the loop frame as one of their flagship models carries significant implications for the recognition of women in urban cycling. It also says something about the framebuilder's skill. It is difficult to make that curved top tube, to get the form just right both structurally and aesthetically. So I feel that this frame is one of the most specialised and special things ANT has to offer.

The Lady Roadster is available in many colours, with the option of matching rims and a choice of black or cream tires. The bicycle I tried was in a colour I would describe as "Vermilion" or "Cadmium Red Light" in painters' pigment terms. I must say, ANT knows how to put together colours. The combination of the vermilion frame, matching rims, cream tires and steel fenders is timelessly classic and elegant. At the Open House, someone asked me what I think of putting matching fenders on this bike, and my thought on that was "no". With a bright colour like this, I think it is easy to overdo it and make the bicycle look like a toy. To my eye, the clean steel fenders are a good counterweight to the extravagant frame and rim colour; it's all done just right. If it were my bicycle, I would ask for brown leather accessories and a steel quill stem for a more classic look, but that this is a matter of personal choice.

One of my favourite features of the Boston Roadster is the mount for the dynamo-powered headlight. Welded to the fork, it looks like a little tree branch. Having a low-mounted light like this is better for illuminating the road than having the light on top of the fork or on the handlebars, so this feature serves a practical purpose as well.
This shot may not speak to you immediately, but I wanted to point out the kickstand plate. Not all bicycles are made with one. Also note how neatly all the joints are welded: clean and pretty.
The "full suit" chainring and steel chainguard.

A prototype full chaincase is in the works - to be coated to match the frame colour. I am excited about this development. I have also been discussing dress guards with Mr. Flanigan, and I think you might be seeing something on that end as well pretty soon.

Other than adding a chaincase and dress guards, the only thing I would change about this bicycle if I had a magic designer's wand, would be the style of the fork. I like the straight forkblades here and think that their clean, utilitarian aesthetic is fitting with the overall design. But I wish that the "unicrown" fork (rounded top) could have a flat or "segmented" top instead. This is really a personal preference.

As you can tell by my ridiculous facial expression and firm grip, I liked this bicycle quite a lot and was excited to try it. The owner and I are similar in height, so the frame was just right for me.
The ride felt smooth, stable and effortless, and I love the 8-speed coaster brake hub. The ANT handled similarly to my Pashley once it got going, but was somewhat faster to accelerate and more maneuverable. At least in part this is probably due to the 10lb difference in weight (the ANT being the lighter of the two). Of course this was a very short ride, so I really cannot make far-reching conclusions based on this experience alone. What does it feel like loaded? on hills? in the rain? on a 30-mile ride? That I can't say. But riding it for that short time period made me want to find out. The ANT Boston Roadster is a classic, but with a twist that I would describe as "utilitarian chic".
...


TEST RIDE No.2: The Mixte



I am not certain whether ANT plans to offer the Mixte as a standard model, but they certainly can build it as a custom order. This turquoise mixte belongs to Betsy, Mike Flanigan's parter, and it is fairly unusual. As you can see, it is built with the classic twin lateral stays - but it lacks the rear stays that typically connect the seat tube to the rear drop-outs.

The frame was a size too small for me, but with the saddle raised it was fine. The bicycle does not feel like a mixte to ride - at least if you are accustomed to vintage mixtes, which were designed with road bike and sometimes touring frame geometry. It is much more stable, sturdy, and easier to operate than the typical mixte I am used to, with a relaxed sitting position, wide tires and an 8-speed hub. The bikewas geared low and as a result was able to fly up the hill in a fashion I had not experienced before with hub gears. It was not a road bike, that's for certain. But I wouldn't describe it as a city bike or a "cruiser" either. Town and country? Yes, that seems about right. And with the wide tires, it is probably suitable for a variety of on and off road terrain.
A close-up of the twin lateral stays and a gratuitous shot of my face in the rear view mirror. As on the Boston Roadster, you can see the nice clean welds.

View from the saddle.
Custom rear rack with a wooden base; hammered Honjo fenders. Shimano 8-speed hub.

Dynamo-powered headlight.
Retro bicycle horn on the handlebars. It cannot be denied that ANT has an eye for beautiful eccentricity - a definite plus in my view.



As a self-professed lug fanatic, it is funny that I like ANT'sTIG-weldedbikes so much.The clean welds are an integral part of ANT's "utilitarian chic" aesthetic, and as such they seem perfect just the way they are. It simply looks right. Does this change my obsession with lugs? Well, no. But let's just say that ANT is the exception to the rule.



I hope these descriptions were helpful to those curious about ladies' frame bicycles from ANT.I know that Mike Flanigan is working on some updates to the Boston Roadster models, and I am looking forward to the results.

Early Valentine's Day for us

Laura and I wanted to keep with our tradition of Valentine's day ice climbing, but the temps were already up to 45° today and tomorrow is calling for warmer and rain as is the rest of the week. We decided to make Valentines day come early this year. We headed out to see if we could get one last day of some big ice lines. Our intentions were to climb The Beast and possibly a new mixed gear line on the right side of the cliff that we noticed last week. It follows a fracture line up a blank steep wall for 40' to a flow that continues up another 90' or so to the large Called on Account of Security ledge. Well we went straight to The Beast to see if the bottom 30' came in enough to get on it. It actually got worse since last week, but I was willing to investigate. I started walking towardsbottom of the climb to see what I could make happen with the unconnected pencil pillars, when all of a sudden I hear some rockfall. 5 or 6 large basketball sized boulders were plummeting towards earth in Laura's direction. I barely had time to yell "RUN" and Laura had already noticed the panic in my eyes. She took off like a bullet away from the cliff. All I heard was the loud THUD sounds made by the rocks hitting the ground behind us. I was having flashbacks to a day we had at The Gun club several years ago when the large upper tier collapsed and showered us with an enormous amount of ice, large ice. I was extremely lucky to walk away with only some serious deep tissue damage and Laura with a huge bruise on her ass. We could have easily been killed by any number of chunks that came down that day. I still question how we made it through the shower without being pummeled. We stood there for a few minutes, debating if this was worth trying. More debris was falling every minute or so. I debated alternate starts, but all across the cliff it was raining rockfall. Not the little scree stuff that falls at the end of season. We're talking blocks. The air temperature was rising quick and making things worse. Since this was our Valentine's Day climb, we decided to stay a couple a little longer and abandon this wall and try one of the others. We hiked back up to Central and looked down to the right watching things fall all over. Our new mixed line was a seam strewn with smaller chunks and blocks that are usually held together by the ice. It was out of the question as water was now running down the seam assuring us that all the rock in the crack were rendered useless for protection. We were determined to get our V-day climb in so we just picked the biggest, driest, safest line we could find. It was so worth it. I climbed the line enjoying the funky 3D climbing and fresh ice this weeks cold weather formed. I finished the pitch and built an anchor to bring Laura up. She was grinning from ear to ear up until the crux. For that section she had a little more intent look and even called out a rare "watch me". She pulled through without hanging and finished in great style. We enjoyed the view from the top for a moment and quickly returned to to the ground to head out before we pushed our luck too far and ruined our V-day climb by one of us getting crushed. It was still early, so we opted to head to Ohiopyle.

Laura enjoying our Valentine's day climb here in SW PA

The belay offered a nice angle for photos

So much fun climbing ice together, Laura lovin' it!

Smiling through most of it!

My happy girlfriend, the worlds greatest climbing partner.

Happy Valentine's Day

Ohiopyle was interesting to say the least. We walked to the top of the Upper Meadow area. To our amazement we didn't see any ropes set up. I started to walk towards the top of the climbs to peer down. All of a sudden a tool with a rope attached to it came flying up over the top towards an exposed root. A guy was tossing the tool towards the root with the intentions of hooking it to assist him through the last several melting out moves. Crazy bathook antics for sure!

You can see the tool laying on the root ahead of my left foot.

We watched for a few minutes before deciding to leave before the sky started falling! All in all it was a great day and we fulfilled our Valentine's day climbing!(a day early)

Greetings From ... Florida!

After leaving Huntington Beach on November 21st, I kind of went into a funk. The muse departed - I didn't feel like writing and it would be nine days before I'd shoot another picture! The weather just wasn't conducive to picture taking – cloudy, gray days intermingled with rain, and more clouds. Besides, I was on the move, traveling south to a warmer climate. My mother used to say “Be careful what you wish for little girl, you might just get it!” Oh, so true.

But first, Georgia. Yep, went through it. I was hoping to stay at a State Park south of Brunswick but they were booked up through the Thanksgiving weekend. I called another park near Okefenokee but they were filled too. Gave up on that and went into Florida. No luck there with the state parks either. I called half a dozen of them that were on my route south (roughly just west of the Interstate 75 corridor) and their campgrounds were all full through Thanksgiving weekend as well. So, I just kept going south towards my ultimate destination, Everglades National Park, where I arrived on Monday, November 30th. It was probably a good thing that I didn't get there earlier. They had a pretty severe thunderstorm, with high winds, sweep through the area Thanksgiving night. A couple of RV'rs lost their awnings to the winds.

Well, I got my wish – warmer weather! It has been in the upper 80s during the day and not much cooler during the night. And humid, oh my. So hot and humid it's sweltering. A couple of nights it has rained off and on. Thursday it rained most of the night. At the visitor center they told me it was good to be here this time of year – at the start of the dry season. Hah! Well, even with the heat and humidity, it has been an interesting visit. It is a fascinating habitat with a tremendous variety of flora and fauna. I've seen lots of trees and plants and birds and a few alligators.

On Wednesday, I took a boat trip out into Florida Bay and, aside from the birds, the only wildlife we saw was one dolphin, which jumped out of the water three times near the aft engines. That was it. Still, it was an enjoyable ride. The cool breeze onboard the boat was nice. And the tour guide had a sense of humor. As we were coming upon a turn out of the channel into the bay, there was a tall buoy that had half a dozen terns sitting atop it. He said that it was our tern signal. [big groan]

A free, Ranger Guided Canoe Trip was offered on Saturday morning through the Flamingo Visitors Center so on Thursday I moved from the Long Pine Key Campground to the one at Flamingo. After spending a sweltering night in the van (and I do mean sweltering, I was sweating so much that it steamed over the windows) I began to wonder if I'd made a mistake.

But after the three-hour trip was over, I concluded that it was well worth the wait. Although, in all honesty, the six days spent here was about three days too long!

There were no pictures taken during the canoe trip since I really didn't want to take the chance of losing my camera in a spill. The Ranger said it doesn't happen often, but it does happen and they aren't responsible in case of a loss.

Anhingas – one drying it's wings so it can fly and another sitting on it's nest. December 1, ...

I love it how the alligators seem to be smiling at you! December 1, ...

Sunset over the pond at Long Pine Key Campground. December 1, ...

Some kind of stork at Coot's Bay Pond, midway between Long Pine Key and Flamingo. December 2, ...

Sunset over the Flamingo Campground. December 5, ... Long Pine Key was just a few miles from the park entrance while Flamingo was a little over 40 miles.

Posted from the Homestead [Florida] Branch Library thanks to their free WiFi, which is greatly appreciated.

On this holiday, please take just a moment...

to remember... those who gave their lives, those who served, and those still serving today...

The White House Commission on Remembrance (website at http://www.remember.gov/ ) is an independent government agency whose missions include:

• Promoting the spirit of unity and remembrance through observance of The National Moment of Remembrance at 3 PM local time on Memorial Day
• Ensuring the nation remembers the sacrifices of America's fallen from the Revolutionary War to the present
• Recognizing those who served and those who continue to serve our great nation and reminding all Americans of their common heritage

Source of image: a t-shirt for sale and hopefully I won't be sued for copyright infringement for using it… but I couldn't resist, it's such a neat graphic.

And now, a shameless plug for a past post on The Veterans in My Family. That post includes links to other posts on some of the veterans that I've written about.

A Moveable View

Staying by the sea, I notice how unaccustomed I've become to a stationary view of any kind. Back in the city, the windows of my apartment offer vistas of a brick wall, a narrow alley, a tangle of branches and telephone wires. And I usually keep the blinds closed when I work anyhow; there is too much commotion outside.



But now I sit on this porch, just yards from the water's edge. A vast harbor is stretched out in front of me. The surface ripples of the cerulean water are like a silk scarf fluttering in the wind. Lobster buoys bob up and down. Now and then a fishing boat goes by. A family of swans travels back and forth along the shore in perfect peloton formation.



It is peaceful and almost improbably beautiful. And as I try to work, I find that it drives me nuts - the unchangeability of it. I am not used to looking at scenery so... passively. My eyes focus on the right outeredge of the harbor, where the rocky shore curves and disappears from view. As I study it, the curve begins to look hard-etched and forbidding, willfully preventing me from seeing beyond the bend.



In fact, I know - roughly at least - what lies around the bend; I have been there many times. A hilly back road winds along the shore's edge sleepily. There is a small patch of dense woods along the cliffs, then a gravel garden path, a wild rocky beach, an abandoned coast guard's tower... Soon I am visualising each of these landmarks in great detail, picturing them as they look when I cycle past them. I laugh at myself, realising that I am enjoying this mental game more than looking at the view in front of me.



I close my laptop, get on my bike and take off just as the sun begins to set, heading for the hilly back road that will take me around the bend. No one else is here. The road narrows and steepens dramatically and I get into my lowest gear. With each pedal stroke I see more and more of the landscape that was hidden from view as I sat on the porch just minutes earlier, and this fills me with an absurd sense of fulfillment. I reach the top easily, unhurriedly, and there sits the patch of woods with its narrow mossy path to the edge of the cliff. I keep going, coasting down the steep hill now at what feels like flying speed, passing all the landmarks I'd recalled. The mysterious garden path, the wild beach. And I remember now also the old sprawling house with a beautiful garden and the "bunnies for sale" sign taped to the green fence. After the coastguard's house I stop and turn around, my urge to experience a movable view satisfied. It seems silly now to have taken this short ride for no reason at all, but I am pleased.



I roll up to the porch as the last of daylight disappears. The vast harbor is still there, its fluttering silk surface now a deep indigo. A green light flickers in the distance. A stray boat is being rowed ashore. The swan peloton is making its last round. I get my coffee cup and turn on the porch light, ready to settle down in the stillness. But I know the moveable view will call out to me again tomorrow, even though I know what's around the bend.

0% Alcohol Beer and Garlic

Last Friday I was in Eindhoven (south of the Netherlands about 120KM fromAmsterdam) having a little kick-off with my partner. I managed to get my messageacross during my presentation and the food was a success. We had Spanish tapas and booze.

Since I am in the Noord Brabant region which is where Eindhoven is and where Bavaria beer comes from, I had to say no to wine and drank the local beer. Firstly, I had the normal Bavaria beer, then for my second bottle I tried the 0%alcohol Bavaria wit beer. I was curious of course.
One thing I know: It may be the beer for Hugh Hefner and his old comrades (the TV advert of this beer) but IT’S NOT FOR ME. It tastes funny.
After the kick-off party, I didn’t realized that I was carrying with me a very strong garlic accent. Blame the gambas al ajillo, cooked in oil and garlic! The gambas were literally swimming in ground garlic but it was sooooo yummy, I came back for a 2nd serving.
Thus the consequence: When I got home in the evening Dutchman was complaining that I completely stunk.
Oooops, sorry. LOL

Making Jelly

I have been trying my hand at making jelly since we had such a large crop of apples and peaches this summer. Making jelly is a long, time consuming process.

First you pick the fruit. Then you wash the fruit, cut it open and in the case of apples you can get the juice in several ways. One way it to simply cut the apples in at least quarter pieces, the smaller the better and cook them. Or if you want you can core the apples and cut into small pieces and cook them. You can peel them but you are loosing a lot of juice doing that as it does when you core them. Once the apples have cooked for an hour or so they will be very soft and mushy. Let the fruit cool until it can be handled. The most efficient way I found was to put several pieces of cheesecloth layered together in the ricer, or sieve and use a large metal spoon to smash the fruit causing the juice to leak through the cloth and sieve and into a large container under the sieve. When the fruit was all smashed I would pull the cloth out of the sieve, remove the sieve from the container and holding the top of the cloth closed with one hand I would squash the apple pulp in the cloth to get the rest of the juice out. Refrigerate until ready to make the jelly.

For the peaches I would wash them, cut them open removing the pit and cook the fruit following the same procedureas for the apples.This works for almost all fruit.

Now to the jelly. Heat the juice until warm. At the same time heat a large (and I mean large) pan of water with a lid for sterilizing thejelly jars. You can buy largecanning pots with a lid andmetal basket in it that work well. Mine is about five gallon pot. The jars I use for jellyare half pint jars. I use pint jars for canning applesauce, and apple slices, and peach slices. Wash the jars, their screw onrings and the sealinglids that have a rubber seal around the edge that come with them.When you first buy jars they will have all three parts but jars andscrew on rings can be used over and over. Never use an already used sealing ring. It won't work properly.You just have to buy new sealing lids each time you seal a jar.

When the waterin the large pot is boilinggentlydropjust the jars in the water to sterilize them. While that is happening add a packet ifSureJell to the juice and bringto a full rolling boil that can't be stirred down. Add the sugar. (SureJell has information on how to do this in all packets of Sure Jell and each kind of fruitneeds a different amout of juice per sugar amount.) Again bring to a boil and stir one minute at full rolling boil that can't be stirred down.You can skim the small amount of foam off the top if you want.

You should now have very hot jelly.

I did the first batch of apple jelly and it came out perfectly.

Oh, but the second batch didn't. It wasn't boiling and it wasn't boiling and I turned my back on it for about 15 seconds and it came to a boil and went all over the stove top, down the side of the stove both outside the door and inside the oven door. And all over the floor and under the stove.

What a mess!

I was able to rescue 7 jars of jellyof the 9 I had figured for. And it jelled and was fine. By the time hubby came in I had cleaned up most of the jelly on the stove top and down the door. But he had to help me pull out the stove and clean the floor under it.

OK I thought. Something always has to go wrong with cooking. this should be all of it.

I froze 8 quarts of peaches in the freezer and canned 6 pints of applesauce as well as having about 3 pints I kept for eating right away.

Next was some peach jelly. Horrors! It didn't jell!

I tried the information for redoing the jelly on the SureJell packet when it doesn't jell and it still didn't jell. I called them. They told me they didn't have any information except what was on the packet. (So why are there people you can call for help?)

I opened all the sealed jars, dumped them in the pot for cooking the jelly, started over but didn't add any sugar. but did add another packet of SureJell. It worked. Peach jelly jelled.

Now I have done a batch of jelly of half peach and half apple juice mixed together. I is good jelly.











Hubby has been pealing apples for more applesauce so I guess I know what I'll be doing tomorrow.

Lafayette Gourmet and a late Lunch

The Lafayette Gourmet is a foodie paradise! I just love the plethora of scrumptious FOOD from all over the world available here. Food for sale even in small portions and 100 kilograms. Heaven. I remember the last time I was in here years back. I bought my lunch here and picnicked at the park. Hands down, this is a must stop.

Although the French aren’t the best in the cured sausage department (the Italians are in my opinion), I bought here a couple of dried French saucissons.

Here is a TIP for would-be cured sausage/meat buyers: Pick the hardest, they taste better and steer clear away from ones with spices, nuts, cheese and what nots. Keep it naturel. Trust me, I am a self-declared dried sausage connoisseur. This is the only type of meat that I hoard!

Anywho, we continued our shopping spree outside Galeries Lafayette and Printemps. We hit the streets of Paris until our toes were begging and crying. Girls in high heel boots tramping down the streets of Paris for hours. Ridiculous, haha.

Here I am resting my weary feet before we hit the streets for more shopping. I did not shop a lot though. I only want to buy stuff that I really want.

The beautiful Opera Garnier (back part) on Boulevard Haussmann.

We decided to park our exhausted feet and take our very late lunch at a cafe nearby. The cafe restaurant was full with people but we were served quickly. I like fast service.

We both had a green salad. Mine was with jamon, eggs and a local French cheese (not sure what it was, maybe Comte) and of course a glass of red. Blondine had a different type of cheese on her salad. It was a nice very late light lunch.

The salad was not bad, 3.8 stars out of 5.

I was glad to end the shopping day with a few nice finds for winter. I think I may have to come back to Paris again soon. Or maybe Milan. We shall see...

Ringling Museum of Art

Today we headed over to Sarasota. We stopped off at one of my favorite Florida museums, the Ringling Museum. We only had time to see the Art Museum, which we are always impressed by. If you have never visited this museum, I highly recommend it.

After our visit there, we ate at an overpriced restaurant that we are still talking about. On the way home we played 20 questions. I love that the guys are still able to be entertained by such simple fun things. I hope they never outgrow that. Living the life in Florida!

Snowy Road

Detroit Tigers Baseball Game

One of the first things we did as a newly married couple years ago was to go and watch the Detroit Tigers play. And we have never been back to see them since then. Until today. We remembered that they do their spring training in Lakeland and bought tickets and headed out to cheer them on.



The stadium was really nice. The crowd was really nice. The weather was really nice. The game was pretty good. There was a lot of this:









We were in awe watching things like this:





I mean, seriously, how is that even humanly possible? Mind boggling is what that is. Still...the score was not all that exciting until this bit of magic happened:



And the score got very exciting:



After that, it was pretty much more of this:




And when all was said and done, we were very excited about the score! So neat!



Living the life in sunny Florida!