Railroad Bridge Over Canal

This is one of many interesting views from the Lehigh Canal path. If you like that sort of thing.

Hidden waterfall

We managed to get out as a family today on a bike ride! Not an easy task. With the hills and traffic, it's not safe for the 10 year old, who is the only one to ride by himself; the 7 year old is on a trailer bike with me, and the baby is in a child seat with mom.
So me and the 7 year old rode down to the trailhead, and Mom brought the rest in the car.
Anyway, this is a waterfall/drainage from the Lehigh Canal into the Lehigh River. There is an ill-maintained paved trail running along it and you can see all kinds of ruins left over from Easton's canal and manufacturing days. Some of the canal has been restored, and there is a canal boat ride and locktenders house.

I believe it is DONE

You can see my new Salsa stem, 90 degree 11cm deal, I played with the spacers, raised it a little higher than I thought I would, but initial impressions is it's GREAT! The bike 'feels' fast (of course, it'll feel faster then when I'm towing) and it feels right.
I took this picture today in front of my friend's city brownstone downtown, and the lens on my blackberry was clean so it came out alright.

this is our rig!

The little girl and I went for a good long ride tonight, on 'the rig'. It's really funny, these things- trailer bikes- have been around for YEARS, but most everyone has never seen one before (maybe since Wal*Mart doesn't have them?) so wherever we go, we literally stop traffic. We count how many "that's cool!" we get (tonight was more than 6).

I've had this trailerbike since my first child was about five, and now my second in 7 so it's her turn. In a few years, child #3 will have his turn, so I've really gotten my use out of it.

I'm trying to convince child #1 to follow us on his bike, but so far in his life he's only ridden on paths in the park, and it's no longer possible to pack everything up in the car to take them to the park. So he's going to have to overcome his fear of riding on the road and come with us.

Since he didn't go riding with us, he had to go for a walk with his Mom and baby brother (I think we had more fun).

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

the Surly Pacer is getting there!

I have ordered the longer Salsa stem I wanted, a 90 degree 11cm steel unit. Should put my arms out where they need to be.
I took it out for a ride last night, and it is great! No hand or palm pain, the bike handles very well, and brakes are great with those levers! Now, I know I said earlier that there was some twitchy steering issues, but I think a lot of that is/was due to the trailer bike. I'm really liking this setup and am excited again about riding.

Free Spirit Ten Speed restoration project

Free Spirit Ten Speed restoration project
Originally uploaded by mpvue

I got this bike from someone in the community we had worked with getting some things done. He had it in college and hadn't ridden it in some time; I figure it's from the early '70s, America's First Bike Boom.
Free Spirit was the line of bikes marketed by Sears; they didn't make them; rather, like most everything else at Sears, was a rebadged item from someone else. In this case, this generation of bicycle was made in Austria by Puch. Not a high end frame, but a well built, industrial style (read: not clean welds) frame with alloy Shimano brakes, Suntour gears, and a forged Sugino crank. Good stuff.
This is going to be my vehicle to tow the trailer bike. Got some new tires on it now, and a new chain. Just need cables and we are good to go!

so who is the secret follower???

Noticed that my blogger dashboard says 2 followers, but only one is showing. Blogger quirk? or is there a lurker here?