In Memoriam

It's difficult to say goodbye to a close friend, especially one who has been with you through the world's ups and downs and supported you through some of life's most difficult trails.

After 16 years, I bid farewell to a dear and intimate friend, my Selle Italia Flite saddle.

Thanks for the memories old pal. RIP.


I'm always disappointed when an obituary doesn't give the cause of death, so for those of you with strong stomaches, here are the details.

A few weeks ago, while riding my bike I heard the jingle of metal bouncing on rocks and felt in my bones, my sit bones to be precise, that something terrible had happened. When I went back for a look, there, lying in the dirt and rocks of the trail, I saw a small length of titanium.

There was no sign of trauma or a struggle and I think I would have noticed any foul play, so, although there was not a formal autopsy performed, I think I can say with some confidence that the cause was a combination of fatigue and complications of old age.

Bikes: Looking Forward and Looking Back

This is just a quick post to share two bike related gifts from the Interweb.

First, this story about a Chinese man who is reinventing the bicycle wheel. I'm not sure if it will take off, but I'd love to try one.

Picture courtesy of www.china.org.cn where you'll find a few more views.

Second, this website for Pashley Cycles of Stratford-upon-Avon, England where they hand build a variety of classic bikes.

Here's the Roadster 26 which seems a practical choice and would, I'm sure, make just about any ride more fun:
But, if I were buying, it would be hard to resist the Roadster Sovereign, "A whale amongst minnows."

A Homemade Handlebar Cam

Saturday morning I got up early, went down to the garage and pulled out my box of bike bits and pieces. I've been looking into ways of mounting a camera on the bike to get some action shots. I've tried holding the camera while riding and it works, but tends to cramp my style a bit. While there are some nice suggestions for homemade helmet or handlebar cams on the internet, I really wanted something that would be easy to put on and take off, and something that would not disfigure the bike too much.

As I was looking through the box, I came across the handlebar clamp for an old bike headlight. I rummaged around some more and found the old light and as luck would have it, the clip that attached the light to the handlebar clamp was removable.

To make a long story short, I had hit the jackpot. I bought a bolt, did a little drilling, shaping and fiddling and came up with the Thirsty Bob Handlebar Camer-O-Matic!

Here's the handlebar clamp just waiting to be put to use:

Here are the parts for the removable camera mount--the modified headlight clip, the grippy rubber pad that also serves to level the camera and the 1/2 inch 1/4 x 20 machine bolt that threads into the tripod mount on the camera:

Here's the assembled camera mount:

The camera mounted:

And the camera clipped onto the bike (the Camer-O-Matic supports any camera with a tripod mount, but prudence argues for an inexpensive model):

The project went smoothly, so smoothly in fact that it had me worried. I'll admit to some butterflies as I took it out for a test yesterday at lunch--nothing too crazy for the maiden voyage, just something with a few turns and a bump or two to see what would happen.

Here's the unedited footage from the first test run (in future I'll be sure to replace the audio of wind, creaks and bumps with some nice new-age music).

Your feedback is of course welcome.

A Day in the Mountains

I was in high school the first time I hiked Mount Timpanogos. Some friends heard of a route up the front of the mountain and invited me to come help them find it. In the following years, an early season hike up the front of Timp became something of a tradition.

This week I revived (or at least revisited) the tradition. Down in the valley, a lot has changed in 20 years, but Timpanogos is a bit more constant.

Tuesday, we started out from the Dry Canyon trailhead (a luxury that wasn't available in the 80s), hiked to the saddle between Baldy and Timp and, from there, headed south, hopped onto the snow and hiked to the ridge.

Snow and weather conditions were just about perfect. The company was good. The mountain was beautiful. It was great to be back.

I'll save you a few thousand words with these pictures:

Mount Nebo smiles down on Utah Valley from the morning haze.



The sun seemed determined to support our effort. In the early going she lit things up, but stayed behind the mountain, so it wasn't too hot. She came over the top in time to keep us warm as we got to the higher, cooler altitudes. Then on the way down, just as we were getting to the warmer air and off the snow, she ducked behind some friendly clouds, keeping the temperatures down while we hiked out.



Toward the top, we started sinking into the softer snow, so we decided to hop onto the ridge between the two northern drainages as we worked our way up.



Russell leads out on the final pitch.



From the saddle, looking north-west toward the summit. The wind, perhaps encouraged by a storm that was coming in, was really whipping toward the top. Would have been a nice day for prayer flags.



On the way down, the soft snow ruled out boot skiing, so we went with plan b.



The lower parts of the mountain are starting to green up nicely and on the hike out we encountered a variety of flora and fauna, including...



these tiny white flowers that are among the first things to blossom after the snowmelt, and...



these cheerful yellow fellows.



On the fauna side, we saw two big horn sheep on the cliffs at the entrance to Dry Canyon (the first I've seen in these parts), and...



a couple of blow snakes, including this little one who moved remarkably well considering the size of the lunch it was still digesting.

On the 051

A few weeks ago, during a lunch break from work, I went for a hike in the foothills above Orem on a trail numbered 051. Snow still covered parts of the trail, but the early signs of spring were all around. It struck me, as it sometimes does, how great it is to live on the Wasatch Front and how often I take it for granted.

As I walked, the idea had time to bounce around in my head until it worked itself into a hair-brained scheme for starting a blog about living on, playing in and just enjoying the Wasatch. The plan, if you can call it that, included brilliant ideas for community participation, activities, a simple and effective revenue model and so much more. I even came up with a word (well, sort of a word--"Wasatching") for it, that I thought I could use as a title for the blog.

Eventually I returned to reality. I realize that I already have a blog and I don't have time for this one, so I've scaled back my vision: Try to post to this blog occasionally...and perhaps label a few posts Wasatching.

I don't have any pictures from that day, but I do have a few from the 051. These are from another part of the trail, a day or two before the hair-brained hike:








And these are from a recent trip to the very section of the 051 where the hair-brained idea first came to me:

Credit Where Credit is Due

This stunt is ridiculous enough that it deserves to be shared:

Computers

This is an $800 computer made by Chrysler.


It doesn't come with a monitor, can't run a modern operating system, can't be configured, upgraded or even rebooted by its owner, but it can control the windshield wipers, headlights, turn signals and speedometer of a minivan--except when something goes wrong and the windshield wipers run all the time, for no good reason, and you have to take it to an authorized dealer for replacement.

You could get this computer (chosen at random) at Buy.com for $723.99.

This one can be customized by a 4 year old. With it pretty much anybody can edit photos and home movies, play video games, handle a spreadsheet, compose and format a letter to your congressional representative, compute the square root of 1,518.452 or the apogee of Friendship 7, and really too many other things to mention here.

Is it any wonder the auto industry is having trouble?