June Bug

We're doing a tour this spring with Western Spirit Cycling Adventures. I want to see south central Utah up close without the headache of putting together an itinerary and planning out gas, food, water for a long trip in a remote area. Nothing challenging, lots of gravel grinding, rough two-track roads and some pavement. Just checking the website, I noticed this spring there is an e-bike option for the trip we booked. This is the kind of trip where an e bike will allow riders of different fitness levels to participate; however, those who bring e-bikes will be charged $45/day extra. Wondering if they'll have to schlep along a generator to charge the e-bikes for the three nights we'll be camping away from electricity. Most of these outfits have big racks and transport bikes on the roof of a van; that's not possible with e bikes -- too heavy.

This bike has tons of braze ons -- good bike for gravel touring/bike packing/bike path packing.

I'm seeing a lot of e-bikes on my north-south commute to Hyde Park Gym, including and especially, cargo style bikes, using the bike lanes on Guadalupe between 45th and almost to Hwy 183. My impression, based on the carrying capacity of these bikes, is that for many (most?) of these riders, it is their sole transportation. Future? As regenerative braking and new battery technology comes to ebikes, their popularity in cities and elsewhere will expand as their range increases.

€1,299 = Euros, which converts to about USD $1,400 +.

Agree on all points! Also, any older people presenting with chest pain are seen STAT. That said, when I still worked at UT, we'd walk over to the Posse East for lunch on Friday. I stocked up at the salsa bar and by the end of the meal I didn't feel so good, and started shaking uncontrollably and felt awful. None of us had a car (we'd walked) so someone called an ambulance from St. Davids, a few blocks away. The ambulance guys were able to quickly do some kind of test and determine within a few minutes that I was not having a heart attack, while still parked curbside outside the Posse. blood test? I don't recall. Turned out to be some type of incredibly fast acting food poisoning and a 3-block ambulance ride is ridiculously expensive. I did just recall a not-so-positive experience with urgent care at the CareNow urgent care center across from the Heart Hospital of Austin, by Central Market on North Lamar. Mr. June Bug had a laceration that needed stitches due to a tumble at Pace Bend. By the time we were in Austin and decided to do something it was maybe 8 pm-ish. We got to CareNow, everything was going well until the physician's assistant (no doc on staff) discovered that John had a slightly bruised area on his upper right side from his tumble. She stopped everything and said we had to go across the street to the Heart Hospital because "chest!" even though John had no pain or any type of worrisome symptoms, he just had a cut on his lower leg. We did that and the ER doc and nurse at the Heart Hospital ER were furious with them (not us). Apparently, CareNow had been doing this often -- sending over patients to be treated at Heart Hospital who weren't emergencies or heart related at all. This led me to believe that CareNow was staffing un- or underqualified physicians assistants or nurse practitioners in the evening hours to save money. They charged people coming in the door but sent them to an ER for treatment, even though the situation was totally appropriate for what they advertised. It was pretty damned sleazy. The excellent urgent care folks I've gone to are at Tech Ridge, just south of the big HEB at Parmer and I 35. I just checked and they are now...wait for it...a CareNow facility. I think this is the third owner since I first went there a bit over a year ago.

Just a reminder that urgent care CLINICS (not ERs) are an excellent option when something mysterious is going on but you don't want to go to an ER. You can't swing a (metaphorical) cat without hitting one in Austin these days. Reasonable price, good docs (my experience so far). Very little, if any, wait time, although I think they shut down around 10 or 11 at night. Good way to screen with relatively minimal financial risk.

Well, throet that's bad news and good news. Scary Bad that you had a blood clot, great news that you are alive and kicking and able to tell us about it! Healing thoughts headed your way and hope you're home from the hospital. Can you share what your symptoms were?

No. He's on mojo. Just visit him there. His brand of whatever is everywhere these days and it's tedious rather than amusing. I block it on twitter and fb; it's refreshing that he's not here.

Boom! Already sold and off the market. Estimated price (Trulia, Zillow) was $322,000 for 1500 sq ft, 3 BR, 2 baths.

A quibble on the Matt Collins photo of Kirt-Vorheis-high-desert-foot-plant: There are pictographs on the face of the rock he's riding on. Hope no rock art was harmed in the making of the photo. Apparently, this is outside Joshua Tree Nat'l Monument. That one is truly the most mind-blowing, for sure.

Broken Spoke Bike Shop rents bikes and here's their excellent guide to all the Santa Fe area trails: Santa Fe Singletrack

Going for it this summer?

= good idea to have a personal locator beacon -- InReach, SPOT, etc. as your backup.

I've gone to flat pedals on all three of my bikes (road, commuter, MB). I really like the Giant Pinner Lite pedals. Mr June Bug installed a new set on my commuter bike three weeks ago. Last Sunday I was loading my bike in the van when I noticed that a threaded rod was sticking out about a half inch from the end of the pedal. I got home, he used an allen wrench to thread the rod back into the pedal, with a few drops of blue Locktite to keep everything in place. Weird. If you click on this link Giant Pinner Lite pedals you can see where the threaded rod (spindle?) would come out, on the outside of the pedal. The pedal was still firmly attached to the crank, but perhaps if it had come out just a bit further, the entire pedal would have fallen off.

I couldn't find a separate dedicated Spider Mountain thread, so I'll start here with this item. The January print issue of Texas Highways showcases an article titled 13 Things To Do In 2020 and biking at Spider Mountain made the list. That page is "Choose Your Adventure at Lake Buchanan" and the print version features two large photos of Spider Mountain, one showing people on the lift and the other a mountain biker w/ bike looking out over Lake Buchanan and the first part of the text highlights Spider Mountain. To see the online version (which doesn't show pics of mountain bikers) just click on the link above and scroll down. Text is the same. This is kind of a big deal and should get Spider Mountain lots of attention.

This fall Hays County approved a 13 million dollar bond to buy part (500 acres) of El Rancho Cima, the old Boy Scout Ranch. The rest of the 2,300+ acres will be developed. Hundreds of Hill Country Acres to become parkland in $13M deal

A new route has been added to Bikepacking.com called the Sam Houston Restaurant Tour. It's an easy relatively short weekend route on bladed dirt roads, with an option for a restaurant meal at each end of the "figure 8" loops. It's east of Huntsville, west of Lake Livingston and south of Hwy 190. Looks like a good shakedown ride for checking out bike packing. Sam Houston Restaurant Tour

Mr. June Bug had partial knee replacement (the inside half) on Aug 1 and was really sorted out and on the bike after about two months or so. The physicians assistant gave numerous warnings about hitting it too hard too early and the realistic possibility of sustaining an injury in a fall and having to redo the surgery, based on her personal experience with hard-headed roadies and mountain bikers, but all was well this time around. Dr. Jake Manuel, St David's Center for Hip and Knee Replacement My sense is that they have a very good protocol in place to prevent infection; Mr. June Bug had no problems with infection this time around.

Eyelets (mounting holes) for rear pannier rack? Or am I not understanding the question?

I'm considering trying one of these for future tours: spiderflex.com/index.php Most saddles are comfortable for an hour or two, but all day in the saddle hurts at the sit bones.

Sounds right. It belonged to my stepdaughter. Hope it finds a good home!

The rise of gravel bikes based on road bikes (narrow tires, no suspension) seems to be tracking the development of early mountain bikes. In the early days of mountain biking, people started thinking, this is REALLY ROUGH, how can I smooth out the ride? This led to front suspension and things like Thudbuster seat posts. And on the way, things like suspension stems were tried. These approaches were both abandoned for the most part. I just came across this gravel bike seat post, called the ShockStop suspension seat post, which may have possibilities. It's linkage based rather than spring or elastomer based. https://redshiftsports.com/shockstop-suspension-seatpost ($199). I read one very positive review. These folks also sell a suspension stem. I also came across a recent gravel bike frame design with a mini rear shock where the seat stays meet the seatube. I recall that LiteSpeed or Lynsky or some other titanium frame Moots! had this design maybe 15 years ago (and still does); it provides about an inch of pivotless rear suspension So, gravel riders coming from a roadie background gravitate to a more roadie type bike and realize, at least on rougher roads, that it's pretty damn miserable, so... Also, disc brakes becoming very common on gravel bikes.

The nice thing about Christmas shopping at REI is when you run into something and go, "Whoa, XMas present for MOI!" REI has the Co-Op Trail 5 Waistpack on sale for $22 (original price $44.95). They are available on line, but I found mine in the downtown REI. I like that it has light padding on the back, but isn't structured. I tried an Ospey pack but had to return it; it was structured enough the it wouldn't conform to my lower back. Inside the main compartment are two flat pockets, and a net zippered pocket on the inside of the lid. There is a long zippered pocket on the back (good for folded up maps or other flat stuff) and a small front zip pocket that would be just right for a cell phone, even a largish one. There are also two straps on the bottom that could early hold a light jacket. You can attach stuff on the front with straps or little carabiners. There are stretchy pockets on each side which might hold a very small diameter water bottle or snacks. It's just right-ish, and also has room to add more little pouches onto the waistbelt, if one could find such things.

We've used this free resource for planning gravel road rides; a company called Texas Trails Maps makes county maps showing all public roads; most Chambers of Commerce/Visitor Centers stock them for free, at least in the Hill Country. The company is based out of Llano and if you contact the Chamber of Commerce in Llano or Mason, they will be happy to mail you a map for their respective county. In fact, the Llano CoC mailed me maps of Mason and Llano Counties, IIRC. http://www.llanochamber.org/ Phone: 325-247-5354 We did two rides out of Castell three or four years ago and used the maps to plan our route. Each road or highway is named; you can sus out the gravel/dirt roads based on the narrower, lighter line marking the road. We found them to be accurate. Also, it's easy enough to check out google maps to confirm road surface. These are big fold-out maps, so a bit cumbersome to carry; we made copies of the route on regular 8.5 x 11 sheets and and carried those with us as we rode. You can also cut off all the superfluous ads and whatnot on the margins and have a more manageable size. Either way -- quite handy. When we were in Mason this fall to ride on the James River Road, we stopped in at the Chamber of Commerce/Visitor Center on the square and stocked up on maps for San Saba, Kerr, Northern Burnet, Blanco, Hayes, Lampasas, Menard, Mason and Llano counties. As noted above, these are fold out maps; the full county map is on one side, and a map of the county seat on the other, plus a few other towns if there's room. Ya, ya, paper maps are quaint in this era of GPS, google maps, whatever, but there's nothing like it for an overview for figuring out where the **** you actually are. More germane to this thread, you can use them as you preview/review your route for the Grind.

Well yes, it's plugged into my husband's computer. So here's the drill. I email whatever I want to print to myself in gmail. Go to his computer and access my gmail account there, open up Word on his computer and then waitwaitwait until Word finally opens, copy and paste my text into a Word document and then print. It makes me feel cheap and tawdry; I write a lot of lists by hand these days. He's fine with the arrangement. Two worst words in the English language, in combination: work around.