Bike and Cat Gallery!

We have two cats, and they both love to sniff and investigate our bicycles. After a reader sent me a photo of his own cat examining his vintage Raleigh, I decided to start a gallery. If you would like to share a photo of your cat with your bike, please send it to the address at the bottom of this post. I will keep expanding the gallery.



One of my own two kitties, photographed during a moody moment through the spokes of my Pashley Princess.



My other kitty, looking longingly at the Co-Habitant's Pashley Roadster.



This gray kitty belongs to reader J.E.P., photographed with his newly acquired 1979 Raleigh Sprite.



Trisha's new kitten Wally, on her Peugeot mixte. From Let's Go Ride a Bike.



Dottie's beautiful kitty sniffing her Rivendell Betty Foy. From Let's Go Ride a Bike.



The white kitty in this spectacular shot belongs to KT of Velo Vogue. This is one of my all-time favourite bicycle photos, and notice the Motobecane mixte!



Shelly's kitty Lazlo, from Riding Pretty!



C_C_Rider's Guest Kitty, from Ride your Bike. No doubt the guest was attracted by the Surly in the background.





Submitted by coldfeet via bikeforums: "I know he hates riding in cars, must try him out in the cat box strapped to the rack." (Um... yes, let me know how that goes!)



The intriguing Smudgie belongs to Maschka at bikeforums. He is performing the same acrobatic maneuver with two different bicycles. Maybe it is his bicycle dance?



Machka's Sabre (RIP), photographed with her Maruishi touring bike.



This photo of little Willow was submitted by terraskye from Edmonton, via bikeforums. "My cat loves my bike... Anytime I bring it out of the storage room she has to come over and take a look.. This time she was just watching the ice melt in the water bottle."



JanMM's Spooky inspecting his Rans V-rex. Submitted via bikeforums.



This basket-cat belongs to Beth Terry from Fake Plastic Fish.



This feline camper is from the website of David Naylor.



And this sweet kitty is asleep in one of David Hembrow's bicycle baskets.



Submit your bike and cat photos to:

Spring on Hollow Rock Creek

I haven't been spending much time with the camera lately. I guess the main reason is because I spent so much time pursuing images during my month-long southwest trip that I sort of got tired of it for a little while. Plus, the weather lately has been kind of cold and wet, which is more conducive to sitting inside. Today I had to get out for a hike, so I decided to do some exploring on a section of Hollow Rock Creek that I had never been on before. I found some nice rapids and small waterfalls, and had fun creating exposures of the rushing water.



Some sections of the creek only had a few inches of water flowing over the rocks and some of those rocks had some interesting patterns and colored lines in them. Combined with a long exposure to smooth the water, the images that I ended up with were kind of interesting, too.



Spring is a great time to explore your local creeks and rivers. They possess a character in the spring that is unseen the rest of the year. Get out and explore while the water is high!

Black Diamond Prime Ski boot

Here is BD's catalog speil:



The Prime is Black Diamond's premier lightweight alpine touring boot-designed to tackle the world's most challenging ski mountaineering routes or simply to save your legs for one last powder lap. This is our lightest alpine touring boot, featuring a unique 3.5-buckle design that skis with the stiffness and control of a 4-buckle boot. Its state-of-the-art construction keeps weight to an absolute minimum, while our revolutionary Pivoting Cuff Technology delivers the ultimate combination of freedom of motion in walk mode and instant power transfer in ski mode.





Black Diamond Prime Ski Boot Features:

• Lightweight (1.64 kg) 3-buckle alpine touring boot with 4-buckle performance

• Triax Pivot Frame with Flex 110 and unmatched 40° of resistance-free touring motion

• Efficient Fit AT Light Liner with lightweight Boa closure system

• Rockered, rubber outsole with integrated tech inserts provides dramatic grip and durability

• Weight Per Pair: 7lbs. 4oz.

• Flex Index: 110

• Number of Buckles: 3







Here is mine:



In the past I've spent a lot of time in ski boots. Over a decade working full time at ski areas in different jobs including pro patrol, avalanche control and a tiny bit of teaching. I've back country ski guided on 3 pin, tele gear and AT gearand heli skied. All of it in the NW or western Canada. Right up till this week.



I've had some great boots and some not so great boots. But a warm boot and one that fit my foot hasn't been all that hard to come by. I had orthotics made for me in the early '80s and continue to use a good footbed, custom made for my feet and stance.



So I was pretty stoked to get a new alpine touringboot knowing what was in store for me this winter in France. Having generallyskied in a competition style boot I was looking for ski/boot performance over a super light weight boot. Although I might rethink that decision on my next pair. No matter, comfort is the real key for me in any boot, climbing or skiing.



The Black Diamond Prime is a three buckle boot that uses a Y strap on the first buckle to avoid the 4th buckle and save a tiny bit of weight. But as a "new generation" AT boot, it is not light weight by any measure.



But theydo indeed ski very well.Pretty much like a performace ski boot from what I can tell. Nothing lacking on this boot for performance...I could use it on a pair of old school 207cm GS skis cruising at mach 1 and be happy with the support.



In the morning walking the 15 minutes to the Midi tram from my apartment here in Chamonix I curse the walk mode. My toes are banging, the rigid sole is....well rigid There is never enough flex in a ski boot to make them walk "well." They may walk but it isn't going to be a pleasure. The skiday hereisgenerally half dozenruns and 20 THOUSAND vertical feet if I can stand up that long. By then I am happy to unlatch and unbuckle for the walkfrom the train to the coffee house. And I love how easy the Primes walk then and the finaltwo blocks back to the apartment.



Life isn't hard on AT boots or your feet here unless you make it that way.



So they ski great, and they walk...like a few of the betterAT boots I figure. Which is well enough to keep you from crying at the end of the day here in Chamonix or on the long day trips at Rodgers pass...where the train is generally avoided.



Butttttttttt?! There is always a but. I didthree trips to my local boot fitter at home with these boots before I left. Which is excessive even for me.The inner boot was tight. Too tight. You get the idea....it was getting ugly. All to no avail. Each time we remeasured the shell. Remember I wanted a "performace fit". Each time we all agreed the shell was perfect. Calls to BD Custoemr service and discussions with guys there who actually wear the same size climbing boot as me, all...once more.....agreed on shell size.



Two of the trips to the boot fitter at home would have been ski days. But the boots were killing me. The third trip I just flatly ran out of time to ski in them againbefore flying to France.But they were a bit better with each visit. "Better" being a relative term.



First run herewas a 15K and 5000 of vertical down from 11K feet. Think skiing from the summit of Mt. Hood to the parking lot at Meadows...or whereever 10 miles and a 5000 ft drop in elevation would put you.







At 10K feet I had to have helppulling my boot off and message away a cramp. Unbelievably hard to get the boot off let alone back on at home. Imagine that in 40mph winds and -15C. I have never been happy with the Boa system on any boot I have used. And the liners on the Primes just reinforce that opinion.The Boa sucks. One of the most unplesant 4 hrs I have ever spent in any boot finishing up the Mer De Glace. and walking home from the train. And that includes walking off the summit of Rainier as my toes unthawed. This was worse that walking down from Muir in socks.



My next move was find a BD ski boot dealer in Chamonix. And most importantly someone who was REALLY good at fitting boots.Easy enough to do here. Ths place is over flowing with good gear shops and expert staff. (amazing really just how many and how good!)



No problem they tell me..10 Euro per boot. They take 20 minutes looking at, measuring and marking my boot shells and liners. I am a little worried. The guys at home are good and I am beginning to think this boot will never be comfortable on my feet. I'm in Chamonix for chrimney sake...I have to have ski boots I can wear just to get to the climbs. And the skiing? No place has skiing like Chamonix.



As I am leaving I notice that have several different models of Palau custom liners on one little corner wall. Palaus are kinda like Intuition Liners back in the States just better made over all. I own a pair Intuition myself. But I also have some Palau liners made for the La Sportiva Baruntse I use in my Spantiks. The Palau liner is amuch better liner that the Intuition imo. I turn around and we start the bootfitting converstion all over again.



Over lapping tongue on the Palau is much easier to get in and out of than the Boa on the BD liner. Liners are warmer as well besides the obvious added comfort (dbl tongue for example) even if the BD liner did actually fit.



The retail sales mentality is different in France. You aren't goingto be pushed into buying anything. Lucky in fact if you can get the sales staff to help you, let alone answer a question. Sometimes it is annoying. But I kind of like it generally. You can look at anything and no one will bug you asking, "can I help you?" Which can so often sound like "buy something or get the hell out of here!" in the USA. When I start asking questions on the Palauliners I am politely told they didn't want to sell me something I didn't need. But going on, in their opinion, as a BD dealer,all the BD boots came with liners too small for the shell. Which certainly would seem to be my problem when looking at and trying to fit my factory liners. And the boot fitter goes on, "almost every BD boot they have sold had the liner replaced with a Palau".



BD boots are notcheap here! But it does say something for the performance of the BD shell.



Theopinions expressed by theStaff after I was fittted and the liners were paid for were even more to the point. Sanglard, Chamonix's premier ski boot fitter.













20 minutes and 150 Euro later the Palua "Soft" liners were expertly fitted and molded with my orthodics. Same orthotics that I couldn't even get in the BD liners. The next day I skied 15K vert in 2 hours and spent a total of 5 hrs in my boots walking, eating a great lunch and skiing. I dropped off a nice bottle of wine that night formysales person/ boot fitter.



Happy now in his new liners on the start of the 15k run down from the Midi.







I now like my BD Primes. But it might wellbe a one night stand, 'cuz I aint in love.



Palau liners...designed, patented , serial numberedand made in France.

BD Boa liners.... designed in SLC, made in Thailand

http://www.ets.palau.fr/



For more on AT ski gear, gear reviews and opinions, this is the US destination on the internet:



http://www.wildsnow.com/





Palau liners in my Primes.

Mt. Maude Aurora

Grand Portage is sitting beneath a thick blanket of clouds right now, but I am optimistic that the clouds will part later this evening and we will get a glimpse of the Auroras that they say MAY be happening tonight. I definitely need an Aurora fix... the last really good ones I was able to photograph were in mid-July. I've seen a few since then, but they weren't anything to write home about. They also occurred during a full moon so they were difficult to see and even more difficult to photograph. Keeping my fingers crossed for a good opportunity tonight! In the meantime, today I was going through some more Aurora shots from last year and found several that I hadn't worked up yet. Here's one from the night of September 10, .

The Snow is Melting...Already!

One thing that fascinated me when we lived in Virginia was how quickly snow melts here.



I lived much of my life in Michigan and snows melts at the end of spring. If it is a warm year.



Otherwise, snow falls on the ground. More snow falls on the ground on top of that snow and the cycle continues all winter long. At some point the ground is covered with dirty snow. Not real appealing at all to look at and it gets slick to walk on.



Here it stays nice and clean until it melts and then it is just a memory. I can handle snow like that! It will probably be all melted by tomorrow at this rate!



Living the life in fickle VA!

Rain, Rain...Go Away

We have had a few days of solid rain with lots of wind, and here is the end result:



I know I said we were right on the water before, but I was speaking figuratively. It is about to become a literal statement:





Hopefully the rain has stopped...or we'll be switching sites!



Living the life in wet and cloudy Virginia!

Custom Leather Pannier by Cristobal &Co

Since having written my "short chainstay lament"some time ago, I've connected with a number of small manufacturers and artisans who have developed panniers specifically to solve this problem. And yes, I will be reviewing them all to the best of my ability! This month I bring you Cristobal &Co. I am familiar with the owner of Cristobalvia bikeforums and obtained this pannier in an equal value trade.





Cristobalpanniers are custom-made by hand by traditional artisans in Mexico. They are made ofleather and covered with a thin layer of weatherproof and UV-resistant synthetic fabric. Although standard models are available, the nicest thing about Cristobalis the possibility for customisation. I asked for a pannier that would fit my MacBook without inducing heel strike when used on my mixte. I sent measurements of my bike's chainstays and rear rack, we discussed dimensions, and I also indicated how high I wanted the pannier to sit. Shortly thereafter I received the cute, boxy Cristobalwith honey leather and removable side-pocket. It fits my MacBookwith much room to spare without a hint of heel strike.







Having used a variety of leather satchels in the past, I would describe theCristobalpannier as exceptionally well made. The leather is of high quality and the stitching is precise. There are no loose threads, no botched edges.






The underside of the leather is soft to the touch. There is an option to get a flap that will cover the rivets holding up the hooks on the back of the pannier, and I asked for this feature - making the interior completely safe for my laptop and camera equipment.






The removable pocket can be fitted to either side of the pannier via a built-in attachment system.






It is large enough to fit a mobile phone and a small digital camera at the same time, which is useful.






The extra long leather strapswith metal buckles aredesigned to hold a jacketwhen closed.






However, I usually just leave mine open, because it takes too long to mess with them (a quick release design could work nicely here).






The attachment system consists of straps with buckles and two hooks. The open hooks go over the rack's tubing to keep it stable, and the straps are used to secure it. The hooks are standardly sized - similar to those used by Arkel- and will not fit racks with thick tubing, such as heavy duty Dutch bike racks.






A lower pair of straps attaches to the rack's stays for greater stability. You can see in the pictures that the straps are easily moveable via the slots in the leather, which makes it possible to adjust the pannier to fit different bikes. You could also remove the lower straps altogether if you do not feel them to be necessary.








I found the Cristobal pannier convenient to use in that it makes for a great carry-all. With its rigid boxy shape, it is like a bottomless trunk that I can keep stuffing and stuffing with my personal belongings and groceries. On the other hand, the pannier takes some time to affix and detach, and its hooks are only compatible with some of my bicycle racks. Without a more versatile quick release system, I consider this to be more of a touring pannier than a commuter's pannier. Cristobal is willing to use alternative attachment systems upon customer's request, and I suggest getting something like the R&K Klickfixif you need an easy on-off feature that is compatible with a wide variety of racks (I didn't opt for that, because I was curious what the standard attachment system was like).






It is also worth noting that while leather is more durable than cloth, it is also heavier. If you value durability, waterproofness and craftsmanship over weight, then this shouldn't bother you. But if you are seeking the lightest set-up possible, leather is generally not the way to go.






Cristobalpanniers are starting to appear in bicycle shops across the US, and can be ordered directly from the manufacturer with various degrees of personalisation. Prices vary depending on dimensions and the amount of custom work, so please inquire with them directly. I am impressed with the craftsmanship and design of the pannier, and will consider retrofitting mine with a quick release system.