Recently I attended a seminar held by Philips Lighting: the same parent company which makes all those toasters and televisions. Heralding new developments in LED lighting were a number of presentations, in which we learned all about semiconductor theory and practice, phosphor deposition tolerances, dispersion patterns, heat transfer and luminous efficacy. Naturally, Luxeon was the operative term, and to a smaller extent, Nichia, but I did get an opportunity to ask about Cree too. What with the old guard of cyclists swearing by their Vistalite and Lumicycle halogen systems, the new breed waves its lithium-ion powered death rays; some sporting the supermarket's latest LED torches and minor handlebar bodgery, some adopting the brand name approach: Cateye, Blackburn, NiteRider, Dinotte ... and a whole bunch of others whose names I can't remember. Speaking of developments, how does a four inch diameter, 12V white LED grab you? My eyes! My beautiful eyes! I have yet to adopt this newfangled technology, except for my battered Cateye EL200 (the old, silver-coloured one), and pulling out the spare parts for Vistalite lights that I bought a while ago, I finally made something with them.
Rumour has it that in the creation of its seminal Nightstick range of lights, Vistalite used the bodies from Blackburn Mammoth Mountain pumps. And it's a good rumour, because I have one of those pumps. I suspect that the aluminium tubes were simply from the same supplier, and while Jim Blackburn was busy machining threads onto the ends of his, Mr Choi-Hancock was stuffing rechargeable cells into them. My original Nightstick set was pretty good: a 2.2Ah Ni-MH battery powering 5W and 10W halogen pods. Of course, I was way ahead of that idea in 1994, having drilled a hole in my Cateye HL1500, soldering a long wire onto the bulb contacts and using a battery pack from a radio controlled car. I overvolted the bulb as well, for more photons, if also more visits to Maplin for spares. In a curiously ironic twist, both Vista and Blackburn were later bought out by Bell Sports. So with a couple of spare battery tubes, I followed the onward march of Ni-MH technology until this summer when I bought five 4.6Ah cells from Vapextech. Four and a half ampere-hours! Vapex has been a good name in battery circles for more than 15 years now so I wasn't complaining. After a new soldering iron tip and a couple of evenings' work, I had a second power pack for my lights and the ability to run all 15W of light on my bike. Hurrah! I'm still using the excellent (if now superceded, by the Cavalier I think) Pro Peak Prodigy digital charger.
Of course, lighting wasn't much of a problem in August, with hours and hours of lovely warm sunshine for cycling. Scotland wasn't having any of that, apparently; I was in the USA, riding the entirety of the Erie Canal Trail. I first had a few days with my friend in North Carolina to reset my body clock and acclimatise to 95F temperatures, and then jetted up to Albany to meet my best friend. Not only was I doing all 400 miles of the trail, but I was also doing it the wrong way: into the wind. I hurt my left knee on the first day, recovered by the fourth; got bitten through my Buff by flies on steroids; chanced across Don Saito as he was triking his way around America; bumped into Dale and Nina Oswald on their Vision R82 tandem while I mended a flat tyre in Jordan; I destroyed two tyres, two inner tubes and ultimately the bottoms of my panniers; and singlehandedly I caused a statewide shortage of Oreo cookies. By Niagara Falls there was time to spare, and I found bike shops run by men with names like Wayne and Bill and Chuck, with their embroidered name patches and petrol station appearance. Then, with a display of multimodal transport infrastructure that would have made even ScotRail's Steve Montgomery weep, 50 cyclists from across Buffalo, Tonawanda and beyond (and me) -- and 50 bikes and trikes -- boarded The Bike Train at Niagara Falls for Toronto. Louisa, Justin and Peter were super enthusiastic and the operation ran like clockwork. Hanging out at the Hi-Toronto hostel was a whole bunch of people from BentRider Online: Tom Barone (who'd organised the Canadian trip) on his titanium Bacchetta; the remarkably prolific Jim Artis on his RANS Citi crank-forward bike; Joe on his Fold Rush; Dana and Carmella on their ICE trikes; Nancy and her dad Richard ... and so many more people whose names escape me right now. I visited Ray and Martin at bluevelo for a spin around the waterfront in a Quest velomobile, and later tried out the rush hour traffic on Pape Avenue; and then all of us took off from Queen's Quay to Burlington, and I ended up thoroughly soaked from a mid-afternoon thunderstorm, which was enlivened by a chance meeting with a man riding a Tour Easy who knew the quickest way to the Holiday Inn. The day after took us from Burlington to Niagara-on-the-Lake, and there was much fun to be had with the 'roadies' from Buffalo and their insufferable paceline jargon. A late afternoon sprint back to the Canada border in an even worse thunderstorm, and a two hour wait in a bus station, was followed by a relaxed drive back to Albany. With 515 miles covered by Beckypower alone, if I could have carried on riding, I would. Absolutely I would.
The wheels I mentioned last time around were for Victoria, my latest acquisition. My lovely RANS Velocity Squared Formula 26 came with the most bombproof wheels I'd ever seen, and I fancied something a little lighter. I added a Terracycle Easy Reacher underseat rack and an Inertia Designs seat bag, both of which performed brilliantly. And with some tweaking of the seat angle and handlebars, and once rid of the pedal extenders fitted by the previous owner, I was completely comfortable for miles and miles and miles. I wrote very positively of my P-38's seat before, here and in print, and I still do; but despite its weight, the RANS seat is a thing of beauty. With a mesh back that doesn't sag when it rains, and a thick foam pad atop a polypropylene base with cutouts for the thighs, and endless tarmac and canal towpaths, I was in heaven. Victoria is also about eleventy feet long, which was entertaining in stairwells and a right bloody pain in lifts. In the streets of Edinburgh, one feels a little out of place: it's kind of like riding a Goldwing to the supermarket. Once I add my Terracycle tailsok and Mueller fairing, Edinburgh won't know what's hit it.
Annie the Blue Bike is now sporting some new riser handlebars, in an attempt to alleviate the shoulder pain I get if I ride too hunched over. There is still hardly a better bike for commute-or-die riding and lugging stuff, but I need to adjust my position. I think I need to buy a taller stem as my initial experiment with a quill-Aheadset adapter and my old Race Face stem isn't quite enough. After trying an ICE trike fitted with Schwalbe Big Apple tyres, I'm quite taken with their ability to smooth out the roads and yet be so easy running. I've used Panaracer Paselas for years, but since my holiday I've lost faith in them somewhat, and although they're light and fast, they've never been the best for wet weather riding or bad tarmac.
And finally, though it sounds awful to preface it with such an abrupt yet wearisome phrase, Speedy has gone to a new owner. The girl who thought it ridiculous and madness to own two recumbent bikes had found herself with four. I think three is a nice round number. One for the rough roads, one for commuting and hills, and one for distance. Do I really need the rough roads one? The jury is currently out.
