Saturday, February 20, 2010

Who Makes Your Bottle Cage?

Bob Poor, King Cage, Interbike

So... do you know who makes your bottle cages? It might seem like a silly question. I mean, of all things, one is not about to seek out some super special artisanal cages, right? Well, recently I learned that mine were just that: made by Ron Andrews and crew, by hand, in Colorado. I feel a little embarrassed that I did not know this aboutKing Cage bottle cages, but the truth is I didn't. I bought mine because they were available at local bike shops, reasonably priced and reputed to be good. I like them, but I assumed that like most things they were mass produced in Taiwan. Until there I was, walking around Interbike. And there he was, a guy wearing a crown and twirling around all manner of cage-like contraptions. Several minutes into our conversation, it finally dawned on me that this person actually makes my bottle cages. I also learned of his connection to the Fat City Cycles clanand our local New England framebuilders. He asked me how this guy and that guy were doing. I get ridiculously excited by encounters like this.




King Cage at Interbike

Of course it's generally impossible to be at the King Cage booth and not get excited. It is like a miniature circus. A wind-up monkey dances across the table, inserting a tiny water bottle into a miniature cage instead of banging cymbals.




King Cage at Interbike

Items such as stop motion animation booklets and huge titanium back scratchers are demonstrated with enthusiasm.




King Cage at Interbike

An under-the-saddle titanium cage, with titanium flask sporting an #OCCUPYBIKESEATdecal. There was much more, and the booth was a bit like a parallel universe. Soon I craved every crazy accessory made by King Cage. But I limited myself to snagging a set of titanium cages at special Interbike prices, before they were all gone. My roadbike was very pleased to receive these!




King Cage at Interbike

Ron Andrews started out making cages in titanium, and still offers these in addition to the more popular and affordable stainless cages. He also offers titanium tire levers, stainless toe cages, and top cap mounts (pictured above) that make it possible to attach a bottle cage to a bicycle's stem. All of these items can be bought from the King Cage website directly, as well as at many bike shops.




King Cage at Interbike

Other than a Nitto cage I once received as a gift, all of my other bottle cages have been by King Cage. They are advertised as lightweight, non-marking and super strong, and after 3 years of use I have not experienced anything to contradict that. I use them with both plastic and (twine-wrapped) stainless steel bottles, and it's always a good fit. I can't fully explain why it made me so giddily happy to learn that these simple cages - widely available and relatively inexpensive - are made by hand by a friend of friends. Maybe it's precisely because they are such small accessories, and many of us don't give them much thought. It is heartening to know that somebody does, that somebody has made them their life's work with such dedication and panache.

Tangled Roots :: Time for a Change



Saturday, September 29th - - The sign at Beverly Beach State Park in Oregon states that this is an Ancient Stump that goes...

“Back to the dawn of the bronze age! This root mass was one of many buried beneath the beaches along the Oregon Coast between Newport and Neskowin. It once supported a spruce tree, which was buried when the land suddenly dropped into the sea. It remained preserved beneath the sand for 4,100 years before surfacing and breaking free in 1998. Violent winter storms washed it into the mouth of Spencer Creek in 1999.”
The root mass was quite large, perhaps 25-30 feet in diameter and appeared to be of one piece. An amazing thing, regardless of its age, with roots going off in all directions and twisting and curving around each other.



Monday, October 3rd - - The few days I had here on the coast of Oregon were incredibly nice. The weather forecast was as nice as was predicted, and as predicted the clouds and rain returned. It's time for a change...



After a great deal of thought, and realizing (among other things) that I'm just plain tired after being "on the road" for most of the last two years, I've decided to take a break from the travels for a while. I'm not saying the journey is at an end, in some regards it may just be beginning! Yes, that's rather cryptic. Sort of follows the mood I'm in at the moment.



I've been heading east for the last two days, but not back to Indiana, at least not just yet. I'll be making a stop in Salt Lake City to do some research (for an undetermined, indefinite period of time). The ancestors have been calling me and I think the time has come that more of them will reveal themselves to me! That's what I'm hoping for... The answers are out there, somewhere, the very least I can do is go and look for them. Perhaps I can make my way through the maze of tangled roots in my family tree and expose them for their descendants to see...



Wednesday, February 17, 2010

After the Heat Wave


With July's heat wave becoming a memory, we look forward to cooler temps on the upper mountain. Freezing levels have dropped back down to ~12,000 feet. Check out the Route Conditions on your intended climb for updated reports.

Basket Shop



This is from the courtyard in front of the church looking toward the Basket Shop that is so well known and poplular in Old Town.

Cycling Fever?


I had this question when I first began doing strenuous rides and recently someone asked me the same thing: Is it normal to run a fever after cycling?



The short answer is: Yes. It happens to some people. Not to all, but to some. I am one of them, and I now know a few others who experience this with regularity - always have. The evening after a strenuous ride, I will often run a fever and might even develop a sore throat. While it's happening it can feel very much like the flu. But the next morning all symptoms will be gone, so it is not a case of actually getting sick.



My understanding is that this is a normal reaction that some people simply have to certain types of exertion. It may have to do with how our bodies engage in muscle repair. Or it may have to do with circulation issues. No one seems certain, but it does happen.



Regardless of how or why it happens, I have noticed there are things I can do to alleviate it. For instance: takinga hot shower or bath after a ride, takingan NSAID oracetaminophen concoction, eatingwarm "comfort food" such as soup or scrambled eggs, drinking lots of fluids, and tryingto get as much physical rest as possible.Basically treating it like the flu works for me. It dulls the symptoms while they are happening, so that I can still be productive with the rest of my evening. And the next day I feel good as new - only the muscle soreness remains.



If you experience fever or flu-like symptoms after strenuous cycling, how do you deal with it?

Those Pennsylvania Ancestors...

Back in March, when "The Journey" came to an official end, I mentioned there were several research trips that I wanted to take, one of which was to Pennsylvania.When I went to Pittsburgh to attend GRIP in July, I thought about staying the following week for research. But I hadn't really taken the time to properly prepare and returned to Indiana instead.



Coming up, the second week of September, I'm planning on meeting a friend at Acadia National Park in Maine for a week. I thought perhaps I could do a little research on the way, but that's probably not going to happen since, due to other commitments, I can't leave here until the 5th. So maybe, I can spend some time in Pennsylvania afterward.



Anyway, I started looking at those Pennsylvania ancestors, most of whom are "Pennsylvania Dutch" with the odd migrant from Connecticut (Sprague) and several Scotch-Irish (Dunfee & Hazlett) that came in through Maryland.



I made a list of the known ancestors and several "persons of interest" noting where they had lived and when. Then decided to map it out to visually "see" the various locations. I had done something similar back in .., but with a map that included all of the eastern states. Comparing this map to the earlier one shows that more ancestors have been found in Pennsylvania, more than I thought.






Harrisburg, the state capital of Pennsylvania, is in Dauphin County.

Double-click on the image to view a larger version.


It's a bit overwhelming when I think about researching in all of these locations! Back in 1986, on-site research was done in Fayette, Westmoreland, Adams, and York counties. And, of course, quite a few records were found on several visits to Salt Lake City last year. Perhaps I should just spend what time I have at the State Archives in Harrisburg?



Research plans for some of the ancestors are in progress - listing what is known about them, the documents that I already have, and what I'd like to find. Of course, the amount of information known varies considerably, dependent mostly upon how much research time has been devoted to them in the past.



Below is the list of locations and ancestors (or persons of interest) in Pennsylvania. Some people are listed in multiple counties. Alexander, Schuder, Sprague and Stoever are in my Dad's lineage. All others are in Mom's lines. Some of them I don't know where they were prior to where I found them. And, of course, there are the ancestors that were "born in Pennsylvania" with locations unknown, such as James Neal, Peter Wise and Conrad Stem...The number in front of the county name refers to the numbers on the map, going from the east side of the state to the west side.



1 - Northampton (part of Bucks until 1752)


  • Bayer/Boyer, Adam - Williams Twp (1733-1754)

  • Brinker, Andreas & Regula Herter - Lower Saucon (1735-1764)

  • Brinker, Ulrich (married Apolonia Bayer/Boyer, d/o of Adam) - Lower Saucon (1735-1785)

  • Brinker, Andrew (With wife Barbara Lederman, moved to Westmoreland shortly after marriage in 1785.) Lower Saucon (1760-1785)


2 - Lehigh (Philadelphia until 1758, Northampton until 1812)


  • Williams (Willems), Johannes & Margaretha - Whitehall - (1736-????)

  • Williams (Willems), Thomas [Daughter Margaret married George Yerion about 1770. Both families to Westmoreland by 1785.] - Whitehall - (1736-1785)


3 - Lehigh (Philadelphia until 1758, Northampton until 1812)


  • Yerion (Jerian), Mathias - Lynn - (1732-1761)


4 - Montgomery (Philadelphia until 1784)


  • Hoffman, Burckhard [Person of Interest] - Upper Hanover - (1727-1770)

  • Hoffman, Michael - Upper Hanover - (mid 1700s)


5 - Berks (Philadelphia until 1752)


  • Hoffman, Michael - Douglas - (mid 1700s)


6 - Berks (Philadelphia until 1752)


  • Hoffman, Michael - Alsace - (died 1777)

  • Schädler, Dietrich [Person of Interest. Baptism sponsor of Dietrich Hoffman in July 1751.]

  • Schedler, Engel [Person of Interest. Did she marry "my" Michael Hoffman? Is she the mother of Dietrich Hoffman?] - (1740s-1780s)

  • Alter, Georg Henrich [Person of Interest. Possible father of Susanna Alder/Alter who married Dietrich Hoffman] - (1750s-1780s)


7 - Berks (Philadelphia until 1752)


  • Daniel/Daniels, Adam - Bethel - (1738-1777)

  • Forster, Wilhelm Georg (aka William Foster) md Magdalena Daniel in 1774 - Bethel - (1764-1780s)

  • Leatherman (Lederman), Jacob - Tulpehocken - (1740s-1762)

  • Leatherman (Lederman), Peter - Tulpehocken - (1740s-1801)

  • Leatherman, Barbara, d/o Peter md Andrew Brinker - Tulpehocken - (1785)


8 - Lebanon (Lancaster until 1785, Dauphin until 1813)


  • Stoever, John Caspar III - Bethel - (1785-1805 to Ohio)


9 - Lebanon (Lancaster until 1785, Dauphin until 1813)


  • Stoever, John Caspar II - Lebanon - (1742-1779)


10 - Northumberland (Southern portion of county was part of Lancaster until 1772.)


  • Schuder, Nicolaus - Mahonoy & Washington - (1772-????)

  • Schuder, Christian & Christina Stoever - Mahonoy & Washington - (1772-1803 to Ohio)

  • Forster, Wilhelm Georg (aka William Foster) - Mahonoy - (1780s-1798 to Shenandoah, Virginia then Ohio about 1807)


11 - Lancaster (Chester until 1729)


  • Steinweg/Stoneroad, George -Lancaster - (1754-???? married Veronica Danner 1763)

  • Danner/Tanner, Veronica - Lancaster - (married George Steinweg 1763)


12 - Lancaster (Chester until 1729. In 1853, part of Martic where the Brubakers had lived became Providence Township)


  • Brubaker, Hans Jacob 1st - Martic - (1730-1755)

  • Brubaker, Hans Jacob 2nd - Martic - (1730-1802)

  • Brubaker, Hans Jacob 3rd - Martic - (about 1760-1817. Married Elizabeth Steinweg about 1788, to Ohio about 1817.)


13 - York (Lancaster until 1749)


  • Berlin, Jacob & Ann Margaretha Euler - Codorus - (1740s)


14 - Adams (York until 1800)


  • Berlin, Jacob & Ann Margaretha Euler - Berwick - (1750-1790)

  • Berlin, Frederick Sr. - Berwick & Hamilton - (1750-1836) - Susan [Wagner ?]

  • Berlin, Frederick Jr. - Berwick & Hamilton - (1771-1843) - married Juliana [Dietzler ?]

  • [Dietzler ?], Juliana -

  • [Wagner ?], Susan -


15 - Adams (York until 1800)


  • Rupert, John, Barbara [baptism of Eva 1787] - Latimore - (????-1787)


16 - Adams (York until 1800)


  • Dunfee, George & Mary - Cumberland - (1790-1800)

  • Dunfee, George & Mary - Liberty - (1800-1830)

  • Dunfee, James & Sophia (Hazlett) - Liberty - (1800-1830)

  • Hazlett, Jonathan & Elizabeth - Liberty - (1810-1830)


17 - Franklin (Cumberland until 1784)


  • Cow, Henery (aka Henry Coy) - Montgomery - (1790-1804)

  • Hoffman, Detrick (2 sons married daughters of Henry Coy) - Montgomery - (1790s-1804)


18 - Bedford (Cumberland until 1771)


  • Helm, Conrad - Bedford - (1804)


19 - Bedford (Cumberland until 1771)


  • Helm, Conrad - Londonderry - (1807-1811)


20 - Somerset (Cumberland until 1771, Bedford until 1795)


  • Stoever, John Caspar III - Milford - (1802-1805 to Ohio)


21 - Westmoreland (Cumberland until 1771, Bedford until 1773)


  • Yerion, George - Mount Pleasant - (1773-1804) - wife Margaretha Williams

  • Brinker, Andrew & Barbara Lederman - Mount Pleasant - (1785-1805)


22 - Fayette (Westmoreland until 1783)


  • Sisley, Lewis & Margaret Ellis - Washington - (1790-1826)

  • Stem, Conrad - Washington - (1820-1840s) - married Indiana Sisley before 1833, to Ohio before 1850. He was born "in Pennsylvania" in 1804.


23 - Washington (Westmoreland until 1781)


  • Ellis, James - Fallowfield - (1780-1803)

  • Ellis, Nathan Fallowfield - (1780-late 1790s to Ohio)


24 - Erie (Allegheny until 1800)


  • Sprague, Thomas Sr. - Springfield - (1800-1805) - Came from Connecticut, went to Montgomery County, Ohio.

  • Alexander, William - Springfield - (1800-1805 to Ohio) - Married Lucy Sprague.


Bucks, Philadelphia, and Dauphin counties are colored-in because they were the "parent" counties for the areas in which ancestors settled. Depending upon the time frame involved, research may be required in those counties.



I hesitated in posting this since it may turn out that I don't get to Pennsylvania for research this year, but thought I'd post it anyway since I spent so much time on it and also in the hopes of hearing from anyone researching these lines or with ties to these people - leave a comment below or send me an email at kinexxions "at" gmail "dot" com.



Eustacia Meets Frida

Today Eustacia Vye (my Pashley Pricess) met up with her new friend Frida, the fetching Batavus Fryslan that belongs to Margonaute of ZOMGBicycles.

Margo and I tagged along and sat at an outdoor cafe while the bikes frolicked nearby.

The Batavus Fryslan is a very pretty and comfortable bike. It is a higher-end model than the Old Dutch I tested last summer. It was getting dark and impossible to take decent shots, but Margo has more pictures of this bicycle on her weblog. Especially nice are the shots from last weekend's Tweed Ride - Frida looked so elegant with her owner's stunning outfit!

Despite their differences in wheel size (28" on the Batavus Fryslan vs. 26" on the Pashley Princess), we were surprised to note how similar Frida and Eustacia looked, including their overall proportions. My handlebars are set quite a bit lower, but that was an intentional modification on my part. Margo prefers hers higher. The bicycles also have matching cream tires, matching Brooks B66S saddles, and matching Wald rear folding baskets. So cute to see them together like this!

One really cool thing about Frida is the DIY handlebar bag. It is a small leather purse, with the strap wrapped around the flat part of the bars.

Here you can see the handlebar attachment. A simple and elegant idea that shows you don't necessarily need to spend tons of money on bike-specific accessories.

At the end of the evening, Margo test-rode my bike while I carefully tried hers on for size (Frida is new and I was too worried about her well-being to ride her on the street).

Margo on my Pashley. She is slightly taller than I am, so ideally the saddle would be raised.

My own impression is that the fit of the two bikes is similar, but the Batavus has somewhat more relaxed angles. Weight-wise, the Batavus is a bit heavier. They are both nice bikes, with the main differences being the fork crowns, the wheel size, the lighting systems, and the shape of the handlebars. If you are choosing between a Pashley and a Batavus, I'd really suggest test-riding each.

Here is to lovely bicycles and to lovely bicycle friendships!