Spring at Gooseberry + Temperance Twilight

Had a great evening and night doing some photography at Gooseberry Falls and Temperance River. Sunset and twilight at Temperance was AWESOME. Such a beautiful evening :-)

The Risky Business of Attracting Women

On my way to Interbike registration yesterday, I walked by the Bikes Belong booth as they were setting up their new poster. I snapped a picture, uploaded it to Twitter, and received a flurry of hilarious reactions - ranging from "Where does she keep her keys?" to "Find Cipo and reshoot the scene!"




Of course this is a reference to Elly Blue's "Is this thing sexist?" bike test. Modeled after the Bechdel Test for women in movies, the bike test asks:

1.Are women present or represented at all?

2. Are the women presented as active subjects rather than passive objects?, and

3. If the gender were reversed, would the meaning stay more or less unchanged? (Or would the image become hilarious?)

Showing a woman pedaling a bicycle, the poster passes points 1 and 2. Assessing point 3 is trickier. Of course a poster of an identically dressed male would look ridiculous, but that's taking it too literally. What about a young male dressed in tight-tight cutoff shorts, a plaid shirt flapping open in the breeze, and a pained, sexy expression on his strategically unshaven face? I'd consider that the equivalent, in which case the meaning would indeed remain unchanged. So I say the Bikes Belong poster passes.




Still, images of women cycling in dresses and heels seem prone to rubbing us the wrong way. It is hard to describe what brings about the sense of unease, especially for those of us who actually wear dresses and heels on a bike. Often it boils down to subtle things: A coy facial expression, an unnatural posture, a too-conveniently billowing skirt... Point is, from a marketing perspective, images designed to attract women to cycling seem inherently risky. Too sporty or gender-neutral, and they can be read as "there is no place for femininity on the bike." Too feminine and they can be read as gendered, objectifying, or downright pornographic. The line between attracting women and offending them is blurry.







And while the sphere of roadcycling seems far removed from transportational advocacy, the same basic theme arises - see, for instance, Bike Shop Girl's "The Bike Industry Needs More Women Like Liz Hatch". When speaking to Felt Bicycles later in the day, the question of colour and graphics came up as well. When I commented on the dark violet hue of Felt's new women's road model, the representative explained how difficult it is to develop a colour scheme for women's lines of bikes. On the one hand, there is now a great deal of criticism hurled at anything pink, pastel or flowery. On the other hand, gender-neutral colour schemes don't sell as well. Women want something feminine, but not too feminine. They do not want a caricature of "girl bike," but they do want it distinguished from the men's models. I have heard exactly the same thing from the manufacturers of athletic cycling clothing. There is now almost a stigma to producing a women's jersey with any trace of the colour pink or flowers on it. Yet there is demand for feminine styles. Designers have to get a lot more creative these days in coming up with those styles; hitting just the right note is tricky.







Still, I believe the bicycle industry will keep trying. With women referred to as the "indicator species" for the success of transportational cycling and with the push for more women in cycling as a sport, the pressure is coming from all directions. As both manufacturers and activists struggle to figure out how exactly to market to women, we are likely to see some interesting results in the years to come.

Flycatcher

I got this shot of a flycatcher sitting on the same plant stand to catch the cool air as the mockingbirds I told about in the previous post.

Kittens and Plants

Since little black kitten decided that this plant was lots of fun to play with and even might be tasty we moved the plant to a high up shelf where we hope she won't find it for a while. But then both kittens decided that the pot the plant had been in, that was to heavy for the shelf, was fun to play in. I have had lots of kittens that wanted to eat lots of houseplants and most are not eatable. In fact most houseplants are poisonious and should be moved to where kittens, puppies or babies can't get to them.

Meeting the Grands...

Donna Pointkouski has an interesting post, Meeting Great-Grandma, in which she discusses longevity and over-lapping generations. Her post prompted me to take a look at my database. Even though I knew some of my “grands” had lived long lives, I was surprised at how many were alive during my lifetime.

My Dad knew 3 of his 4 grandparents but all of his great-grandparents were long gone before he was born.

Mom was in her late teens when her grandfather, Charles Brubaker, passed away though she says she never met him (he moved to Mississippi before she was born). She was in her mid to late 20s when the other three grandparents died and she knew each one of them. She met two of her great-grandmothers and one great-grandfather but would have only been 4-8 years old when they died. However, she says she remembers them.

Although one of my great-grandfathers and all four of my great-grandmothers were living when I was born, I don't personally have any memory of any of them. I would have been between the age of two and ten when they died. They all lived within 15 miles of where we lived.

Dad's mother's mother (i.e., my Great-Grandmother) Nancy Jane (Lavering) Shuder died January 2, 1954. I was not quite six years old when she passed away at the age of 99.

His father's mother, Amanda (Alexander) Wiseman was also still living when I was born. I was two years old when she died June 2, 1950 at the age of 89.

Mom's mother's mother, Maude (Wise) Brubaker died February 14, 1953, aged 75; I was almost 5 years old. Maude is in the middle, her granddaughter Phyllis (Phend) Mitchell is on the left and her daughter, Hazlette (Brubaker) Phend is on the right.

Mom's father's mother, Susie (Yarian) Phend died April 29, 1956 at age 84; I was 8 years old.

Of my great-grandfathers, only Mom's father's father, Henry A. Phend was still living when I was born. He passed away July 10, 1958 at the age of 92; I was 10 years old.

Henry and Susie (Yarian) Phend with their great-grandchildren at their 60th Wedding Anniversary Celebration in September 1952. I'm sitting on the ground on the left side of the picture.

My Favorite Kind of Day

Since we spent all summer in Florida, and Florida in the summer is a dreadful experience temperature and humidity-wise, we are really enjoying the cooler days. We went out to Sixteen Hands and spent the day there alone because everyone else went to an event. It was just a lazy kind of a day.











The horses are starting to really know Nathan now. They greet him and then go and do their thing. Well, except Patriot who believes "we" are his thing.



Gypsy girl shows us how she multi-tasks by drinking and bathing at the same time.



And Chevy bravely walks over to me, rather than running away from me.



It was a good day! Hoping for more of them over the next few months!



Living the life in FL!

Making an Ordinary Vintage Roadbike Extraordinary (a Review of Sorts)

The Co-Habitant's roadbike, Myles, is a 1976 Motobecane Super Mirage, which he acquired in Spring and has been gradually updating with modern components and personal touches. It is his only roadbike, and he has cycled somewhere between 2,000 and 2,500 miles on it through its various iterations. I wanted to write a review of it (from my perspective), because I think it poignantly illustrates some aspects of owning and customising a vintage roadbike.



It is always interesting to observe people's reaction to Myles, for he is a real head turner - even more so than my Rivendell. The silver frame, the hammered fenders, the wealth of brown tones in the leather and twine, the frame pump looking almost like a double top tube, and the classic Carradice bag, somehow combine to create a whole that is more magnificent and eye-catching than the sum of its parts.



On closer inspection, those who know bicycles typically exhibit one of two reactions. Some are delighted to see a good, ordinary vintage bicycle salvaged and turned into a thing of beauty. Others are bewildered that we bothered to so elaborately refurbish something so commonplace, rather than searching for a frame with a more impressive pedigree. While the Motobecane Super Mirage was a good, solid bicycle in its time, it was decidedly middle-tier and for that reason unremarkable. The frame is hi-ten steel, the lugs are fairly basic, and the original components (Suntour, Weinmann) are pretty good, but not excellent.



We do not disagree with the point of view that a better frame would have been more deserving of all the DIY lavished on Myles. But sometimes a bicycle just evolves organically, and such was the case here.



When the Co-Habitant found the bike, used and somewhat abused, the plan was simply to ride it after a few minor changes.He first replaced the tires, after the original ones blew up on his very first ride. He has ridden theseContinental Gatorskins (27" x 32mm) the entire time without incident.



He then replaced the original vinyl saddle with a Brooks Flyer. Early on, he was caught in the rain and the Flyer got wet - which hastened its breaking-in process nicely.



The brakes on the bicycle worked fine after some adjustment, but he did replace the pads with the salmon Kool-Stops.



As he began riding the bicycle more and more, he added fenders and a saddle bag. Although I am normally not a fan of hammered Honjos, I think they do look good on silver bikes - providing textural variation where the colour is similar. Hammered fenders are also a good investment in terms of hiding dents or scratches.



The Carradice Barley bag has been sufficient for carrying anything he needed on this bike, up to our current trip. For the future, he will consider getting a larger bag that can fit laptops, and a rack to support it. Having a saddlebag is also handy for installing a battery-operated tail light, such as his CatEye.



His headlight is mounted on the fork, using a Minoura light mount. While he prefers generator lighting, as far as battery-operated lights go, he likes this system very much.



Some months later, he decided to replace the handlebar set-up, as the original one caused discomfort and difficulty operating the brake levers. He replaced them with 42cm Nitto Noodle bars, which he loves,and the stem with aNitto Technomic.



The original non-aero brake levers were replaced with modern Shimano aero brake levers. Personally, I am not a fan of these brake levers, as the hoods have a rather harsh surface and there is a plastic insert that is very easy to damage. The Co-Habitant has dropped and crashed this bike several times, and you can see that the levers look battered.



Almost a year later, a few more changes were made. After complaining that his feet always slipped on the touring pedals at high speeds and that toe clips were a bother, he installed these SPD clipless pedals - much to my shock at the time. He loves them and now says that he would not go back to non-clipless on a roadbike, vintage or not.



Around the same time, he also installed a CatEye computer to keep track of his speed and mileage,



a Topeak frame pump,



and two bottle cages, bolted onto the frame - into which he places his twined and shellacked Klean Kanteen bottles.



And the final update - completed just a couple of weeks ago in our yard - was the replacement of the original stem shifters with these Shimano bar-ends. Since the bike is a 10-speed, it isn't possible to get indexed shifting, but these work just as well in friction mode. After having used a shifting method that sounded like a tractor for over a year, the Co-Habitant is absolutely delighted with these - they are fast and quiet, and he is convinced that they are superior even to my Silver shifters (although I disagree).



And so that is the story of Myles's slow but steady transformation from a plain '70s French 10-speed to a glorious and shamelessly eccentric dandy. Was it worth it? It certainly helped the Co-Habitant learn about classic roadbikes - both riding them and working on them.It is difficult to get a straight answer from him about how comfortable the bike is, especially as he is more tolerant of discomfort and pain than I am and to some degree even thinks these are "normal" to experience on a roadbike. But from what I can surmise, the bike is more or less comfortable in its current state, except that it places a bit too much weight on the hands and is over-responsive to the point of being "squirrely". Also, the frame size would ideally be larger, and he could do with better gearing.



All of these comments, however, are made only in response to my direct questioning; he never complains about the bike on his own accord. On the contrary, he is extremely fond of Myles,smiling and shaking his head quietly at any suggestion that such components ought to be placed on a new frame instead.