Mostly Bikes ⨯ Me

la Font du Pommier

1/18/2026

The road down to la Font du Pommier barely qualifies as such. There isn’t any evidence bicycles frequent this chunky, slippery and steep slope. At the bottom of the hill: chatter in the trees, a bell rings, a flash of white, brown and orange sprints by to my right. A hound on a mission pays me no mind. Moments later a pair of jolly hunters appear around the bend, dressed in orange, like their dog. We smile, greet one another and continue on our respective ways. Everyone is having a good time today, though they look considerably warmer, and less muddy.

New Bike Day

1/16/2026

We really don’t want a car, but there’s the practical matter of transporting heavy things: groceries, furniture, lumber, OTHER BIKES. In an effort to ward off the jet lag sleepies, we rode the Bromptons into Carpentras and grabbed a train to Nîmes to fetch our new cargo bike: A Larry vs Harry eBullitt from Morgan Cycles. The Bromptons are perfect for this sort of multi-modal journey, riding to a train station, then into the center of a destination. The cargo bike, however, could not take the same path back to Caromb as cargo bikes are disallowed on local trains. A couple lashing straps later and my Brompton was securely attached to the Bullitt’s front bed for its 60mi trip home. After 20mi or so, we swapped out the Bromptons and Jenn hauled her bike around for a while before handing it back to me. A cargo bike carrying a Brompton weighs about 100lbs, and we found, on low power, it climbs hills at a similar speed to an unloaded Brompton. Most importantly, it kept us out of the house, awake and active, all day. Note: The GPS trace only reflects the time riding the Brompton

New bag 200k shake down.

1/3/2026

The bike in Caromb lacked portage for longer rando, so I sewed up a new bag for it and brought it on this ride as a test run. I had a lot of black fabric, and a lot of random bits, so here they are. Many design elements borrowed from Dave Cain's beautiful work at Waxwing Bags. The ride itself was swell, though an old repetitive stress injury in my wrist flared up something terrible. I'll be rocking a brace for a few days.

Preview image for New bag 200k shake down.

Jamestown & Carter Lake 200k

12/26/2025

I needed this one after bailing on Monday and those impossible cross winds. It seemed like everyone was feeling a bit "eh" after Christmas, but happy to be out there anyway. Sandy's had those BBQ pork + mac & cheese burritos, but I somehow missed them and ended up with ramen. Next time. Next time.