What's that about letting sleeping dogs lie?
They are under...a broomstick, a couple of trees and a clear blue sky. Seriously, they are under the care of a couple of park rangers at the old Fort TIlden site, which is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area.
Lakythia and I rode there, among other places, along the ocean. I can tell already that she's a real friend: At Rockaway Beach, she saw me in a bathing suit and didn't flinch. As this is a family publication (ha, ha), I won't post a photo of that, or of me when I was soaking wet. However, I will post a photo of her. She's absolutely radiant, just having returned from two weeks of voyaging along the Italian coast.
At Rockaway Beach, we feasted on the round loaf of whole wheat bread I bought in Parisi's Bakery, a mozzerella and tomato salad I brought and a tortellini salad she brought. Now, just because my last name is Valinotti, I don't want you to read any bias into what I'm going to say next: You really can measure the level of civilization of any nation by the amount of olive oil and garlic it uses in its national cuisine. ;-)
All right, there are other things that determine how civilized a society is, such as the transport bikes (or lack thereof). This one, as best I can tell, is either German or Dutch. The few inscriptions on it were in what looked like German. I tried to photograph them, but none of the inscriptions are legible in the photos.
However, I thought the headlight was attached in an interesting place, in an interesting way:
I don't think this bike had a hub generator. Rather, it seems to have had a bottle-type generator mounted to the front fork. There was a brazed-on tab for one, and it looked as if the generator had been mounted at some point. Was it stolen? Or was it removed for a repair?
I was curious to know more about the bike. But sometimes I guess it is better to let sleeping dogs lie.
In four more days, I'm leaving for Prague. As you might imagine, I've been reading what I can about cycling the city. And the comments on everything--from facilities to guided tours to cycling itself--are very mixed. I guess that's not surprising, given what a metropolis Prague is.
One interesting insight offered by the Lonely Planet guide is that while cycling is becoming more popular, and the city is building bike lanes and doing other things to make cycling more popular and safer, and viable for commuting, things are nowhere near as good as they are in Vienna and some of the German, Dutch and Scandinavian cities. Part of the reason for that, the LP editors say, is that while the central city is flat, it is surrounded by hills, which makes commuting from the outskirts less enticing for most people. Also, they say, the lanes don't yet form a unified system that the lanes in other European cities are.
Of course, comments like those aren't going to stop me. Whatever they have in Prague, it must be better than just about any American city--and many European cities--had twenty or thirty years ago. One thing that sounds familiar is the warning LP and a few other sources give: Czech drivers are anti-cyclist. As if they aren't in other places!
What I have decided is that I'm going to rent a bike. If I were going to be away for longer, or if I were going on a tour or a cycle-camping trip, I'd want to bring one of my own bikes. But, as a general rule, I like to travel as light as possible and, in these days of "security" measures and airline policies that seem increasingly capricious, I want to make everything as simple as possible. For example, whenever I go to see my parents in Florida, I take only a carry-on bag with me, even if I'm going for ten days, as I did during the most recent Christmas season.
I still haven't decided, though, whether to take a guided bicycle tour. I might take one for my first ride there, as I've never been in Prague before and know only a few basic phrases in Czech and German. (I once knew some more German, but it has all but disappeared from disuse. On the other hand, I have had numerous occasions to use my French and Spanish.) However, the reviews I've read of read of various guided tours are even more mixed than what I've read about cycling generally in Prague.
I'm sure, though, that cycling there will be interesting. How could it not be if people park bikes in places like this?:
Miss Mercian II is almost there. Today, Hal at Bicycle Habitat installed a new headset for me. I'd hoped to get it in silver or gold. However, because the original headset has a short "stack height," the number of headsets I can use is limited--unless I replace the fork with one on which the steering column wasn't cut. And why would I want to replace the fork? So the headset I got is black, albeit of high quality.
I'm also making a couple of other changes, which you'll see when I unveil her--after my first ride.
And the mixte-o-mania continues. I found this photo of an old Raleigh Super Course mixte:
Back in my early adolescence, when I was barreling around town on my Schwinn Continental, I wanted--for a time, anyway--this bike. Of course, back then I wanted the diamond frame, which was no less pretty than this one.
Its color remains, to this day, my favorite shade of red I've ever seen on a bicycle. I don't remember what Raleigh called it, but I would say it's a deep candy-apple shade. And it looked great with those white panels and outlines.
I didn't get the bike. It was just as well, really: Later, I ended up buying a Peugeot PX-10, which was a much nicer bike. When I started to work in a bicycle shop, during the mid-1970's, I saw that the quality of all but the three or four top models of Raleigh was declining. In fact, I saw more than a few new (at that time) Records, Grand Prix and Super Courses--not to mention Sprites and three-speeds--with misaligned frames, bottom bracket threads that weren't cut properly and bearings that seemed to have sand instead of grease in them.
Even so, those red Super Courses sure were pretty! Not as pretty as my bikes though, just as no other cats are as cute as Charlie and Max! ;-)
In the part of Florida where my parents live, one can see a storm coming from miles away. In fact, I've pedaled into them. The good news is that most of them don't last long, so it's usually possible to wait them out.
On the other hand, there aren't many parts of New York where you can see a storm coming so clearly. Where my parents live, it's flat and there are almost no buildings of more than three stories. The campus where I work is sort of like that: Though there are more buildings, more densely spaced, than in my parents' area, none are high. And it's kept that way because the JFK International Airport runways are only three to four miles away.
So it's possible to see a storm coming, as I did when I was leaving:
I decided to chance it. But I pedaled only two blocks before a rain fell that, along with the darkness, made it impossible to see more than another block away
I'm still debating what to do with Marianela. I don't think selling her will bring enough money to make it worthwhile. I suppose I still could donate her, which might be a halfway noble thing to do.
But even that doesn't seem feasible, in a way. When I donated the Bridgestone Mountain Bike, at least it was a bike that its intended recipient--an immigrant who's working in construction, landscaping, restaurants or wherever else they need cheap labor--would be happy to get. It's in a fairly common size, albeit a little bigger than the mountain bikes I used to ride. And, not having suspension but having good, basic components, it makes a a good transport bike and is not overly complicated or esoteric.
However, mixte frames of any quality are hard to come by in Marianela's size. My two Mercian mixtes are both custom frames--one (Helene) built for me and the other (Miss Mercian II) built for Pete, from whom I bought it. Just as most clothing manufacturers still seem to think that women don't need inseams of more than 30 inches, bike makers seem to think either that there aren't any women over 5'6" or that those of us who are taller are just men with a couple of different parts.
So, the fact that it's a tall mixte is almost, by itself, reason to keep Marianela, even if Miss Mercian II becomes my commuter. I could keep Marianela locked up outside, so the limited space in my apartment wouldn't be an issue. And, as I mentioned earlier, I think that there will still be times when she'll come in handy.
If I keep her, though, I might get a pair of plastic fenders to replace the ones I took from her. They wouldn't be as pretty as the fenders (Velo Orange Zeppelins) I had on the bike, but they might be more practical for a bike that's going to be parked on the streets and not well cared-for.
I would definitely need to replace the seat, though. Right now, she has the one that came with Miss Mercian II. That seat is one I wouldn't ride in any case, and it's entirely unsuited for upright bars. I suppose I could buy a Brooks B-67 or something similar for MMII and return the Gyes to Marianela. But the Gyes is pretty well broken-in and I don't want to take the time to break in another saddle. Besides, something cheap, and possibly made of synthetic materials, just might make more sense on a bike I'm going to leave on the streets.
