This is Major Tom to Ground Control...

"You're not going to be stopping to blog and tweet from the trail, are you?" My son, who I can always count on to provide a skeptical counterpoint to my sometimes excessive enthusiasm, is casting a wary eye at the array of tiny gadgets I have strewn across the kitchen table. "Well," I reply as I plot which device will fit in which pocket of which pack, "I'm not counting on any of this stuff. But I have to stop some anyway, to get food or to sleep. If I can connect, I may blast a picture or an update back..."

When I raced the 2005 Great Divide Race we all called in via pay phones and the main way fans followed the race was via the voice mails we left and Joe Polk's excellent coverage on MTBCast. Now, in the world of 2010, the original GDR still is a border to border race, and still maintains a no cell phone rule. But the race I'm racing, the Tour Divide, covers the longer 2,745 miles from Banff, AB to Antelope Wells, NM, and has no such technical communication prohibitions. A variety of options exist for folks wishing to electronically track a racer's progress.

As before, one great way to follow the race will be via MTBCast. Joe Polk summarizes the day's action, combines it with the racers call-ins and publishes a daily post at:

http://mtbcast.com/wordpress/

Even though the race covers terrain that is well beyond the reach of even the most sweeping of cell phone coverage maps, most (maybe all?) of the Tour Divide racers will be carrying SPOT trackers. These devices let the page at:

http://tourdivide.org/leaderboard

update in real time, showing each racer's location on the course. In the event of a dire back-country emergency the SPOT trackers also have a 911 button that can be used to call for help. Every racer is, of course, hoping that they never need to press that 911 button, but it does provide an extra measure of assurance for those who race and those who track us from back home.

Each SPOT can be tracked individually and anyone who is interested can

Click this line to go to my SPOT tracking page.

I'll turn on my SPOT each morning as I head out and shut it down each night when I stop. Every ten minutes the SPOT tries to send out a tracking signal. In the tree-covered Pacific Northwest I've found the signal coverage is spotty (hah!) but long-time SPOT user Matthew Lee assures me the devices work much better along the route of the Tour Divide.

In addition to the SPOT, I have a few other gadgets that may or may not connect, since they rely on cellular phone networks. My Peek Pronto will let me send email, post updates to Twitter and this blog. Even if I don't have cell coverage at a given time, I can write updates to the Peek and the next time I pass through an active cell node, it will connect and send the mail. Additionally, the Peek provides some back up tracking in case the SPOT malfunctions. Clicking this line reveals the location of the last cell tower that my Peek Pronto connected to.

In addition to the Peek, I'm carrying a Verizon cell-phone. If you believe their commercials, Verizon has the best coverage in the US of any wireless carrier but even so their coverage map has a lot of holes in the area that the Tour Divide covers. But when I can connect I'll be able to call Christine and also maybe upload some pictures to Twitter or the blog. BTW, my Twitter ID is @kentsbike and my latest Twitter updates show up in a sidebar on this blog.

In addition to the low-res camera on my cell-phone, I'm carrying a small Nikon camera and some SD cards. I plan on mailing (real world mail, with stamps and envelopes) a few cards of pictures back to my friend Mark, who will upload some of the best shots to this blog.

Speaking of Mark, I've given both Mark and Christine admin rights to this blog while I'm on the trail. So even though I may be out of communication, Christine and Mark will keep this blog going in my absence.

I've got batteries and solar chargers for these gadgets. Mostly, I'll be riding, eating and sleeping. Now and then, when I can, I'll try blasting some signals back. If all these systems break down, that'll be OK. I'll tell you the story when I get back. But if some of this stuff works, I'll tell you part of the story while it's happening.

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson
Issaquah WA USA

North Bend Cares: TOUR DIVIDE - KIDNEY FOR LACEY

First off, huge thanks to Team Turtle for all the support. My bike and equipment is all dialed in (I'm planning a big equipment post before I leave), I'm where I want to be in terms of fitness, and I've got enough money in place to do all I need to do on the Tour Divide. I've got a few more days of work at the shop, a couple of more days spending as much time as I can with Christine and then I'll roll out.

One nice thing about having a bit of a financial cushion for this trip is that I have a bit of extra money to give to a good cause. Fellow Divide racer Mike Prochaska is supporting such a cause, putting his dollars and his miles on the line to help Lacey get a kidney transplant. I tossed a few bucks his way, but more than money, I can send some attention to the cause.

So thanks again for all the support you folks have given me and I hope you'll take the time to click the link below and see what Mike is doing to help Lacey.

North Bend Cares: TOUR DIVIDE - KIDNEY FOR LACEY

Thanks,

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson
Issaquah WA USA

Mountain Turtle Roll Out - June 3rd, 2010

In one week, I roll out of Issaquah, WA. I'm riding up to Banff, AB where I'll meet up with some other "normal ones." From Banff, we'll race the Tour Divide -- south to Antelope Wells, NM, along the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route.

A huge number of folks, folks I collectively call "Team Turtle", make this adventure possible. To celebrate the team and the start of this grand adventure on Thursday June 3rd, 2010 we'll gather at the Bicycle Center in Issaquah at 10:00 AM. I know it's a weekday, but it's the day I have to depart and anyone in the area who'd like to come to the Mountain Turtle Roll Out is very, very welcome to come and join in the fun. You'll get to see the Bicycle Center's new, expanded space and check out just how damn much gear I'm lugging with me on this trip.

Don't feel you need to ride, but at 10:30 AM any adventurous cyclists who would like to are invited to roll out of town with me. This will be a mixed-surface ride, with some pavement and some unpaved trails but no real technical mountain biking. The pace will be turtle-ish and people can join in for any or all of the following route.

From the Bicycle Center (the new store is at 121 Front Street North, across the parking lot from the old store), we'll head south on Front Street to Sunset. We'll ride on Sunset (going right past my place) and then ride the gravel trail up to Highpoint. (Highpoint is a good turn-around point for folks short on time or those not fond of climbing.)

We'll ride the Highpoint Road to Preston and then the Preston Trail to the Preston-Fall City Road. At Fall City, we'll take 202 to the Fish Hatchery Road. Fish Hatchery Road is a pretty little road along the river and it gets us most of the way up to Snoqualmie Falls before it reconnects with 202.

Snoqualmie Falls is a picturesque potential turnaround point (Twin Peaks was filmed here) and you'll also get see all the old train engines in Snoqualmie. Those intrepid souls who are still riding will follow small town roads through Snoqualmie and then join the Snoqualmie Valley trail at the golf course.

We'll follow the trail up to Rattlesnake Lake, a great picnic spot. From here we follow the John Wayne-Iron Horse Trail east for a bit. We'll cut down towards I-90 , ride the frontage road to Olallie State Park and ride the freeway shoulder for one exit (it's totally legal, the shoulder is wide and it's not as scary as it sounds). We'll exit the freeway and then ride the picturesque gravel Tinkham Road up towards Snoqualmie Pass. Folks who don't like climbing will have turned back long ago!

At the end of Tinkham Road we join up with the beautiful and ultimately switchbacking paved Denny Creek Road. Denny Creek road goes all the way to Snoqualmie Summit, popping out at Alpental. If you've made it this far, you're about 3,000 feet higher than you were at 10:30! At the summit, you may want to stop and have pancakes (there is a good pancake house there!)

Snoqualmie Summit is the end of the Roll Out Ride and the start of my final prep for the Tour Divide Race. I'll be rolling east and north from there, down small roads and tiny trails, remembering lessons learned and friends and loved ones left behind. I'll be racing to return with tales from the distant places, messages that I've heard whispered on the wind.

Thanks again to all the team. I hope to see a bunch of you in Issaquah on June 3rd.

Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson
Issaquah WA USA

Ergon Backpacks Do One Amazing Thing

About a year ago, I detailed my basic gear philosophy in a post titled Closer to Fine. In that post I mentioned that a backpack is a key part of my cycling gear.

Ever since I'd first tried one on at a trade show a few years ago, I wanted to give a Ergon backpack a good workout. When Ergon selected me to be one of their 2010 supported individuals, I figured I'd use my discount to get an Ergon backpack to test out. Despite the sponsorship, I only use a piece of gear if I've tested it out and it suits my needs. I'd read some mixed reviews of Ergon packs, including one that described the pack as feeling like having "a drunken hobbit" strapped to your back. So I was wary.

To further complicate matters, it turned out the the size pack I wanted, the Ergon BD2, was not available. Some of the reviewers complaints about storage layout of the pack will be addressed in a revised model, a model that I couldn't get in time for the Tour Divide. I was bemoaning this state of affairs to my friend Chris Cameron. Chris and I go back a few years and, like me, he's had a variety of jobs in the bike world. Chris had already given me a large Ortlieb Plus Saddle Bag for my trip and now he said "I'll dig through my stuff, I think I have an Ergon pack somewhere."

Sure enough, he did. An Ergon BD2 that was too small for him and just right for me. Well, just right after a few modifications.

I understand some of the reviewers complaints about the storage layout of the pack. The pack has a weird looking frame, one main compartment with an internal bungie to hold a water bladder, a few skinny pockets and a strange helmet holder strap-thing. I tend to modify all my stuff to suit my needs, so I set to work.

Instead of a bare bladder, I use a 100-Ounce CamelBak UnBottle inside the pack. The unbottle is a bit heavier than a minimalist bladder, but it's bomb-proof and stiff enough that I can pull it in and out of the Ergon with a minimum of futzing. I have no need to carry my helmet on my pack, but I used the helmet holder as a place to strap my solar charger, rear blinkie and good luck charm. The SteriPen fits perfectly in one skinny mesh pocket and random skinny things (like a tube of sunblock) fit in the other. I added a TIMBUK2 Porkchop Bag to the right side of the hipbelt to serve as an on-the-fly snack bag and I strapped my camera bag to the left side of the belt. Clothes and other miscellaneous stuff get packed into the main compartment next to the Unbottle.

I think the drunken hobbit guy probably didn't have his pack set up right. Ergon packs are designed to transfer almost all of the pack weight to you hips and have a set of shoulder straps that attach to a pivoting half-sphere called a flink joint. With the waist strap set right and the flink located right between your shoulder blades, the pack is amazing. It actually feels like a magic trick.

My loaded BD2 feels heavy when I pick it up. Actually, it is heavy. 100 ounces of water is over 6 lbs and all that other stuff adds up. But when I strap the pack on and cinch up the waist strap, the weight pretty much seems to disappear. There is almost no weight on my shoulders and with the flink, I can roll my shoulders, stretch my back and flex like I'm not wearing a pack at all while I'm riding. Since the only contact points are at my hips and shoulders, air flows free over my back. Wearing the Ergon really feels like almost like not wearing a pack at all.

I've had the pack for a few weeks now and pounded down lots of trails with it. It's rock solid, not like a drunken hobbit at all. With the various modifications, it suits my needs and now it goes with me on every ride. I can pick nits about the pocket layout but that's something that I think will be better on the revised pack. And the weight transfer thing is so amazing I wound up using these words to describe the pack to my wife: "It's like having a cat that writes novels. You can complain that he's a poor speller and his plots are derivative, but the bottom line is that a novel-writing cat is amazing. The Ergon pack is just about that amazing."

My final complaint is that the black pack doesn't really photograph well. That's why I went with the shot of Luke and Yoda at the top of this post. The next time I'm riding with a pal I'll have him to take some shots of the pack in action.

UPDATE: by popular demand, I went hunting for some images. Bikefix.com has a great review of the BD2 with some good pictures at:

http://www.bikefix.net/2008/10/bikefix-review-update-ergon-bd2-pack.html

My pack is just like the one in the review, except for my various home-brew mods and my pack is black instead of the team green like the one in this picture from the Bikefix.com site.


As wise man Joel Metz has noted "in the cosmic game of Rock, Paper, Scissors...desire is greater than need." While my modified BD2 will be my Tour Divide companion, the new BC2, which Ergon describes as being "Available Spring 2010 (not in all markets)" should be out "real soon now." Here's a little preview picture.


Keep 'em rolling,

Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson
Issaquah WA USA

Work to Bike

(Image grabbed from Treehugger.com)

Today is Bike to Work Day and I just got back from a bike ride. It's been a few decades since I owned an automobile and for most of those years, every day was bike to work day for me. For a couple of those years, bike commuting was actually my job. These days, I have to confess, I don't bike to work. The Bicycle Center is four blocks from my home. I walk there. It would take me longer to unlock and lock my bike than it does to walk. And all that time I save by having such a short commute? I spend it doing fun things, like biking.

In honor of Bike to Work Day, here are a couple of links to some questions I asked a few years ago. I found the answers interesting then and I still do.

Why Do You Commute By Bicycle?

Why Don't You Commute By Bicycle?

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson
Issaquah WA USA

Redundant Systems

While I tend towards minimalism in my equipment, there are various instances where it seems smart have some redundancy. In the photo above the light on the left is actually 2 Watt Blaze head attached to a 1/2 Watt Blaze body. My old, larger handlebar bag bounced against the light on a bumpy trail, sending it flying. The body of the light cracked, but I was able to duct tape things back together well enough to get home. I now run with two lights, mounted better. I carry spare batteries anyway, why not carry them in a spare light?

Note the time on the two computers, nicely illustrating the old proverb that "a man with one watch knows what time it is, while the man with two watches is never sure." The Tour Divide maps wisely state "A mileage odometer is absolutely necessary to enable you to follow the narratives. DO NOT attempt to ride this route without an accurately calibrated odometer." While many Tour Dividers choose to rely on GPS, I rely on redundant computers. Both use CR2032 batteries and both are pretty simple, wired models. The Cateye's sensor reads off the front wheel, while the Bontrager reads off the rear. I have them mounted on the top-tube, where they are reasonably well-protected and out of the way yet visible.

For some things, like frames,bottom brackets, and your own body, you bet it all on one thing that should be tough enough to go the distance. For some other things, a back-up unit is worth the extra weight.

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson
Issaquah WA USA

Turtle on a Tiger Trail

A seven mile loop, beginning and ending at my door. A bit of pavement and then I cross the freeway ramp. A little bit up, a little bit east. The trees mask most of the auto noise, now I'm hearing the gurgle of the creek, the crunch of tires on gravel. A few miles on and it's back to a bit of pavement. A quick roll under the freeway, up to High Point. Past the gate, by the lake, I see a coyote cross the trail and vanish into the woods.

The trail follows the power line cut, then curves down the mountain. I stop where the creek pauses in a pool, a green and peaceful place. The day will fill with a thousand busy things soon enough and this trip itself, with my bike loaded for a larger journey, is part of my own practice. Practice isn't always fast or far but the trails only remain trails when we find the time to travel them.

This small loop fits into the tight days, the forty minutes before breakfast or in the evening of a day that almost got away.

The freeway roars a story I ignore: that I must go fast and far and that I have too much to do. The trail remembers and reminds: go when you must, pause when you can. What you do is enough.

I grab my bike, point it down the trail and head for home.

Team Turtle

In one month (June 11th) I'll be at the start line in Banff for the 2010 Tour Divide. I'm riding from Issaquah to Banff as part of my final dial-in/prologue and if any Puget Sound folks can skip work on Thursday June 3rd, you are welcome to join me as I roll out of town at 10:00 AM. We'll have a leisurely, turtle-paced ride up to Snoqualmie Pass, mostly on trails and tiny roads. From there, I figure most sane folks will head back home. I'll be heading north and east. Ultimately, I'll head south for 2,745 miles. And then I'll head home.

My trip to Banff and subsequent race down the spine of the Rockies is not a solo effort. As I've noted many times before, I get by with a lot of help from my friends. Companies like Redline, Ergon and Adrenaline Promotions are helping me out and I'm very grateful to them for their support. And I'm also grateful to the people at Dirt Rag who think enough of my words to pay to put some of them into print. I'm not sure yet how this particular race story is going to end, but I want to thank all of you who make this story possible.

I make my modest living repairing bicycles, selling bicycles and helping folks discover the wonders you find when you explore the world on two wheels. I'm rich in many ways: I have the finest wife in the world, work I love with great co-workers and I live in a beautiful town in a lovely part of the world. And I'm very rich in friends.

My work pays by the hour or the word and when I take a month to ride, the dollars are not coming in. I live frugally on the trail but the dollars go into food and brake pads and things like keeping the rent paid and the lights on back at home. I'm only able to do something as vast as the Tour Divide because of the vast generosity of my friends.

A couple of weeks ago, I got a query from my friend Michael. "Do you think about the Tour Divide in miles or kilometers?" he wondered. "Miles," I replied, "it's too far if I think about it in kilometers." A few days later I got a check from Michael for $137.25. "For your Divide Ride," he said "The amount is significant, think about it." It took me some thinking, but I got it. If I had a nickel for every mile... Thanks to Michael, I do.

Thanks to Rob, I have a set of Tour Divide maps. Thanks to Sean, I have a set of Nanoraptors. Thanks to Beth and Peter and Donna and Larry and James and Bill and Dave...and you get the idea. All of you who've clicked a donate button or bought something from my Cafe Press Store or ordered something through an Amazon link help me turn the pedals on this journey.

I have a team behind me, a collective group of well-wishers I've dubbed Team Turtle. I'm hoping my ride will justify the faith you've placed in me and that my small tales from a vast place can convey some of the windswept wonder that I know is out there where the air is thin and the trail is rough.

The race is one month away. I've worn through brake pads and chains and tires and a bottom bracket in thousands of practice miles. Thanks to my friends, I've scraped together enough cash to replace those things, enough to roll the next few miles down the trail. I've got enough for the next snack at the next mini-mart. I've got enough to keep rolling.

Every time I wonder if I have enough to make it, I think of my headlight. It's a small headlight, bright, but not bright enough to cast a single beam from Canada to Mexico. It doesn't need to. A tiny beam illuminates enough of the trail for me to move ahead. That is enough.

Smarter folks than me go into this race with more gears, more money and probably better plans. They probably know how they're getting home from the Mexican border...

If you've helped me out already, thanks. You're part of the tribe, the team I call turtle. I can't do much to pay you back, but you will be getting stories. I can't promise the technology will work in real time but the plan is for updates to show up here on the blog. I'm hoping my solar charged Peek will connect from the wilds but there are also pay phones and post cards. With the help of my lovely wife, we'll get updates out to you. And a very big story when this very big race is run.

And if you want to help in some financial way, it's sure not too late to be a part of Team Turtle. Amazon or Cafe Press won't be cutting me any checks between now and race time, so the best way to send me cash is to hit the donate button at the bottom of this post. Or you can mail me a check at:

Kent Peterson
165 East Sunset Way #2B
Issaquah WA 98027

For the price of a cup of coffee you can...buy me a cup of coffee. I'll drink gallons of it in the course of the race. $27.45 is a penny a mile and it's also a couple of days worth of food at race pace.

Remember, this is not some great cause. If you want to support a great cause and get a tax deduction and so forth there are tons of really worthy causes out there. MercyCorps, Livestrong, Kiva.org, heck there's tons of folks more worthy than me. Check out some of the other Tour Divide racers as well, pretty much all of us racing are stretching to the limits to make this happen.

Thanks for your support. It's folks like you who allow me to

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson
Issaquah WA USA

Support Kent's 2010 Tour Divide

Adventure's Out Your Backdoor

About a week ago I got a call at the shop from a woman from Portland who was planning a bike trip up in our area. I gave her a few answers over the phone and told her to send me an email so I could follow up with some more detailed routing advice. Later, via email, my friend Mark and I helped her plot her trip.

This morning I did my usual stuff. I wrote a review for my blog, I had some coffee, I rode a quick loop on Tiger Mountain. It's Mother's Day, so after my ride I walked over to the Front Street Marker (1/2 block from my house) to pick up some flowers and chocolate for the mother of my children. While I was picking out some other groceries, a woman comes up to me and says "Aren't you Kent? I recognize you from the internet." It's Rhonda, the woman I'd helped via email. And to further prove that the world is a tiny place, her traveling companion is Sara, a woman I'd met a few years before when she interviewed me for the KBOO bike program when I passed through Portland!

The ladies are cool, their bikes are cool and they are cool with the idea of my running home to grab my camera so I can snap a few pictures of them for the blog. "You'll be blog-famous," I tell them. "It's not like being real famous but folks like you, going out and doing things, are what inspire folks to go out and do things."



I know I live in a great place. There are mountains, rivers, creeks, hot springs, trails and adventure right out my back door. And you find adventurers everywhere. Sometimes you run into them at the corner market!

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent

Ergon GC3 Grips: A Review

When my friend Brad first saw my Monocog Flight, with it's high bars and bar-ends he asked if I was competing in the "Comfort Cruiser" category. Damn right I am. If I'm going to be on a bike for 16 hours a day, day after day after day, I'd better be comfortable.

I recently was lucky enough to attend a two-day intensive Trek bike-fit training course given by Michael Sylvester & Dr. Mark Timmerman. While 40 years of riding have taught me a lot about fitting a bike to my body, Michael and Mark taught me more in two days about physiology, yoga, flexibility and fit than I could have ever learned on my own. One of the many wise things Michael said was "it's not a trade-off between comfort and performance. If you're comfortable, you perform better."

One company that takes takes comfortable performance seriously is Ergon. I'm thrilled to be one of Ergon USA's supported individual riders this year. I've used Ergon grips on various bikes for years and while Ergon sponsorship doesn't mean I get their stuff for free, it does mean I can get a really, really good deal on certain Ergon items.

Ergon started out making ergonomic bicycle grips a few years ago and if imitation is a form of flattery, I bet they're feeling quite flattered these days. Bontrager, PDW, WTB and I'm sure some other folks are all making grips with flattened ergonomic cross-sections now, but Ergon continues to dial in their designs. I can honestly say that the Ergon GC3 Grips I'm using now are the best grips I've ever laid my hands on.

Sure, the grip itself is great, but the big bar-end is what makes it perfect for me. I spend most of my time with my hands on the bar-ends when I'm cruising or climbing and the curve is right, the texture is right, the whole thing is right. The design lets you dial in the angle of the grip and the bar-end until it's perfect and then it bolts rock-solid into that spot. When climbing, the firm grip on the bar lets me punch the maximum power to the pedal.

In addition to all the obvious comfy hand positions the GC3s offer, I've found one more "secret" position that I use when I'm riding into the wind. I rest my forearms on the flat part of the grips and loosely hold the tips of the bar-ends. Virtual aero-bars!

I'm not the only one who raves about GC3s. As of this writing, every review on Amazon gives the GC3s five stars.

Sure, the grips aren't cheap. Even getting a deal I had to save up to get them. But now, after putting a few hundred miles on these grips, I'd buy them again, at full price, in a heartbeat.

Portland Design Works RADBOT 1000: A Review

With a name like the RADBOT 1000 you might think this device has been sent from the future to wipe out mankind's best hope in our upcoming battle with the machines. In fact, the RADBOT 1000 is actually designed to protect humans, specifically bicycle-riding humans, from rear-end collisions. Yes, it's a tail light. It's the brightest damn tail light I've seen to date. Yes, it's brighter than the previous holder of the brightest damn tail light title, the Planet Bike Super Flash.


The RADBOT 1000 has both an EU conforming reflector and a 1.0 Watt LED. Like most modern tail lights, the RADBOT 1000 has a couple of blinking modes plus a solid option. The modes are described as "zZz" and "zZzPOP!" and "rock steady" and those are pretty good approximations of the light. The "zZzPOP!" is by far the most attention grabbing and the most obnoxious for those of us who do group rides after dark. Randonneurs will opt to keep the light running in "rock steady" mode and will want to make sure the light is pointed straight back and not into the eyes of your riding companions. In the photo above the light looks yellow, but that's just because it's very close to overwhelming my camera. In real life, it's very bright red. Dazzling. If you look straight at it, you'll be seeing spots.

The RADBOT 1000 comes with a seat post clamp, several sizes of rubber shims, a seat stay clamp and a rack clamp. It also comes complete with two alkaline AAA batteries. The packaging assures me the batteries will power the light for 50 hours, but I haven't owned it long enough to test that out.


Some lights have the annoying habit of turning on or off when they get jostled on bumpy roads or trails (or in a pack) but the folks who designed the RADBOT 1000 have solved that problem in a clever way. You have to hold the switch for two seconds to turn the light on or off or change its mode. Random jarrings are quicker than that, so they shouldn't affect the light.

So far, I've had no water issues with the light. One problem with the otherwise excellent Planet Bike Super Flash was the bottom-mounted switch and a few randonneurs had problems with water shorting out the switch. The RADBOT 1000 has the interior electronics and switch mounted fairly high in the light so even if water does seep in, the chances of a short are lessened.

If you've read this far, you can probably tell I like this light. Now here's where I put in my disclaimer. We sell these lights at the shop where I work, the Bicycle Center of Issaquah. We sell 'em 'cause we like 'em. I liked one of 'em well enough to buy it (yes, I get a shop-worker discount). If you buy one at my shop or via an Amazon link here, some of the money goes to me.

It's a good light, it's bright as heck and I think it's a good deal.

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent

The Green River Peacock

"Hey, look at that!" It's still the early part of the ride. Mark Canizaro and I left my place a bit after 8:00 AM, paused to refuel at the Black Diamond Bakery and have now just rolled over the tiny bridge spanning the Green River Gorge. Eventually the day will be Mark's longest ride this year. We'll have lunch in Buckley and climb into the wind up the Carbon River Valley before taking a long loop back home. We never know what we'll find on these rides, but there is always at least one unexpected thing.

Today's thing is a peacock. An Indian Blue Peacock to be precise. This is why we bring cameras on our rides. While Wikipedia tells me that peacocks display their tail plumage to attract mates, I don't think this peacock was getting fresh with me. It was clear to us that he was trying to make himself look big and scary so we'd go away.

We took our pictures, thanked the bird and went away.





Keep 'em rolling,

Kent