I've changed the settings on this blog so that anyone can comment (eg, those without a google account) - I hadn't realized it was set up so that comments were locked.
Anyway, feel free to comment away - but please attach a name so I know who I'm reading!
Still in Toulouse for a THIRD night (thanks to the awesomeness of France and its 'why on earth would we open our shops on Monday' mentality) - I did find a mechanic who seemed both friendly AND trustworthy (surely a first over here. I miss OCB really, really bad. I also miss having LCBs where you personally know the Wrench) to sort my brakes out tomorrow though.
While I'm itching to get moving, I think both my legs and my numb hand, after 10 straight days of hard KM are thanking me for the break...
Monday, July 2, 2007
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Nothing Toulose
I showed up in Tolouse last night dusty and grimy from an aproximately 100km ride in on a 'piste cyclable' along the canal that turned out to only be moderately cyclable. The girl from Couchsurfing.com who I was going to stay with's cel phone had run out of juice, and I was stuck, wanting a bed and shower pretty bad. Thankfully my account on warmshowers.net (like couchsurfing, but specifically for touring cyclists) had started to work again, and so I took a chance and phoned someone (rather rudly) at 9:30 asking for a place to stay - I had nothing to lose.
Thankfully Remi turned out to be a really cool guy. He was just about to go out with some friends but came and met me and gave me a few minutes to shower before taking me out with them to see a bit of the town. He's off to Ireland for a 3 week bike trip this thursday and i wish him good luck.
So what have I been up to for the last week or so? Riding through easily the most beautiful part of France I've yet seen. Cantal and Le Lot, two departments that are within the massive central were my running ground, and they reminded me (to the point of homesickness at times) of British Columbia. Rushing rivers, raw rock faces, lonely traintracks along the side of empty, winding, tree lined highways; it was like the BC of my youth and imagination. There are a lot of hours for thinking when you alone on the bike and riding through this area reminded me very strongly that I need to explore my home province in detail some more when I get back. I began to feel very nostalgic for the place that I remember and that I fear won't exist in the sqme way for much longer. 80s era brown painted log ranger cabins and BC parks: home. Ah nostalgia. Of course, there were some things in this region I've never seen befgore - like the volcanic peaks of the regional Parc Des Volcans. I made it my goal to conquer one of these beasts, and so I spent a morning huffing it up one of the most beautiful roads I've ever seen surrounded by green rolling ridges and valleys to a 1588 M pass, 200meters shy of the Puy de Mary, which was only accessible by foot. I don't really knoz how to describe what I saw save to say that it was like the photos I've seen of Hawaii, but stretching for miles in every direction and with cattle and cute little European villages scattered about. Perhaps a little like I imagine Argentina to be. I sat there listening to american tourist girls complain about how they didn't like thier sandwiches before piling back into their tourbus. Had a shot of whiskey while feeling superior for earning my view, then dropping back down to a reasonable altiude to make a 95 km day. If I ever come back to france it will be to this region to spend some serious time looking around; to anyone coming this way by bike, look at my Gmap for day 2/3, and ENSURE that you hit those routes. Its non negotiable.
I'm going to stay an extra day in Tolouse here to look around a bit and because all the bike shops are closed (yay sunday) - I need a shorter stem (persistant hand numbness is worrying me) and while my brakes have improved enough to be safe in normal conditions, I think I'm willing to pay a bit more to try and get them tip-top before taking on the pyrenees. Tomorrow I'll ride south to try and pass through the Col de Portillion, and then down through catalonia to Barcelona. Probably no email until then, so you'll have to wait for more updates.
Oh yeay, PS - NEW PHOTOS UP!
(like this one of the Brakes 2007 world tour)
Thankfully Remi turned out to be a really cool guy. He was just about to go out with some friends but came and met me and gave me a few minutes to shower before taking me out with them to see a bit of the town. He's off to Ireland for a 3 week bike trip this thursday and i wish him good luck.
So what have I been up to for the last week or so? Riding through easily the most beautiful part of France I've yet seen. Cantal and Le Lot, two departments that are within the massive central were my running ground, and they reminded me (to the point of homesickness at times) of British Columbia. Rushing rivers, raw rock faces, lonely traintracks along the side of empty, winding, tree lined highways; it was like the BC of my youth and imagination. There are a lot of hours for thinking when you alone on the bike and riding through this area reminded me very strongly that I need to explore my home province in detail some more when I get back. I began to feel very nostalgic for the place that I remember and that I fear won't exist in the sqme way for much longer. 80s era brown painted log ranger cabins and BC parks: home. Ah nostalgia. Of course, there were some things in this region I've never seen befgore - like the volcanic peaks of the regional Parc Des Volcans. I made it my goal to conquer one of these beasts, and so I spent a morning huffing it up one of the most beautiful roads I've ever seen surrounded by green rolling ridges and valleys to a 1588 M pass, 200meters shy of the Puy de Mary, which was only accessible by foot. I don't really knoz how to describe what I saw save to say that it was like the photos I've seen of Hawaii, but stretching for miles in every direction and with cattle and cute little European villages scattered about. Perhaps a little like I imagine Argentina to be. I sat there listening to american tourist girls complain about how they didn't like thier sandwiches before piling back into their tourbus. Had a shot of whiskey while feeling superior for earning my view, then dropping back down to a reasonable altiude to make a 95 km day. If I ever come back to france it will be to this region to spend some serious time looking around; to anyone coming this way by bike, look at my Gmap for day 2/3, and ENSURE that you hit those routes. Its non negotiable.
I'm going to stay an extra day in Tolouse here to look around a bit and because all the bike shops are closed (yay sunday) - I need a shorter stem (persistant hand numbness is worrying me) and while my brakes have improved enough to be safe in normal conditions, I think I'm willing to pay a bit more to try and get them tip-top before taking on the pyrenees. Tomorrow I'll ride south to try and pass through the Col de Portillion, and then down through catalonia to Barcelona. Probably no email until then, so you'll have to wait for more updates.
Oh yeay, PS - NEW PHOTOS UP!
(like this one of the Brakes 2007 world tour)
Saturday, June 30, 2007
If you haven't been getting email from me...
DON'T WORRY. Its because I haven't been sending any. I hate mass emails and this blog pretty much fills that purpose anyway. If you want personal emails from me, send me one and I'll do my best to reply (internet is a bit expensive and hard to find outside of the cities here).
Just arrived in Tolouse, and too pooped to blog. It was probably 40 degrees today. Here's my route from Clermont-Ferrand:
Day 1 (day of last blog entry)
Day 2
Day 3 (note me conquerring a 1588 M volcano here)
Day 4
Day 5 (today)
I'll try and write some more tomorrow before I split town, but for now finding food and shower is priority!!!
DON'T WORRY. Its because I haven't been sending any. I hate mass emails and this blog pretty much fills that purpose anyway. If you want personal emails from me, send me one and I'll do my best to reply (internet is a bit expensive and hard to find outside of the cities here).
Just arrived in Tolouse, and too pooped to blog. It was probably 40 degrees today. Here's my route from Clermont-Ferrand:
Day 1 (day of last blog entry)
Day 2
Day 3 (note me conquerring a 1588 M volcano here)
Day 4
Day 5 (today)
I'll try and write some more tomorrow before I split town, but for now finding food and shower is priority!!!
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Mountaineater
I'm in Claremont right now, and upon logging in I've just realized the last post I wrote (the one below) didn't publish for some reason. Put it up now.
Since Bourges things have gotten better - I'm back in the riding rythm and basically covered the entire distance from just outside montlucon to just shy of claremont in one day - thats a solid 80k, loaded, all in the mountains. I felt pretty badass putting in a day like that and stopping early-ish with enough time to find a good spot, cook, and set up camp all while it was still light. I Got up this morning with the intention of riding to the top of the puy de dome, a 1400M volcano, but when I got there they told me bikes were only alowed on fro, 7-9 am, while it was closed to cars. Lame. Istead I dropped into CLaremont which was about 15 km all at a 10 percent grade. Thrilling and a bit scary, as I'm still having a bit of brake trouble - CLaremont is a large enough city so after this I'm off to seek out a decent mechanic. My route next takes me southwest through more volcano territory. Should be good training for the legs and spectacular scenery.
The people int he mountains up here seem to think I am completely insane - I think it is beyond a lot of their comprehension that someone could arrive here on a bicycle - one loaded with gear to boot. This is a bit funny to me, since the title 'massif central' seems to speak more to the french tendency towards self agrandizement than a description of the mountain range. 'Rolling foothils central' would perhaps be more apropriate. Don't get me wrong, it IS hard work pushing throuh here, but comming from BC I would hesitate to call it 'massive.' For a little perspective: the Puy de Dome - one of the tallest mountains in the area is 1400 M. The Lions, part of the coast mountain range that overlook vancouer are 1600 M. Blackcomb Mountain is somewhere in the range of 2200 M. Again, don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming I could (or would even want to) ride up blackcomb - I'm just saying 'masive' is perhaps a relative term.
Anyway, HERE is my last two days, if you are curious. More details down the road, maybe when I get to Tolouse (havent decided on a route yet).
(ps, I'm at a total of 1058km, not counting the day rex got stolen which I havent Gmapped - I suspect it is an aditional 50-60km)
(edited for accuracy - my original statement regarding blackcombs hight was overly large, owing to a confusion between feet and meters. There are no 7000 meter mountains in Canada...)
Since Bourges things have gotten better - I'm back in the riding rythm and basically covered the entire distance from just outside montlucon to just shy of claremont in one day - thats a solid 80k, loaded, all in the mountains. I felt pretty badass putting in a day like that and stopping early-ish with enough time to find a good spot, cook, and set up camp all while it was still light. I Got up this morning with the intention of riding to the top of the puy de dome, a 1400M volcano, but when I got there they told me bikes were only alowed on fro, 7-9 am, while it was closed to cars. Lame. Istead I dropped into CLaremont which was about 15 km all at a 10 percent grade. Thrilling and a bit scary, as I'm still having a bit of brake trouble - CLaremont is a large enough city so after this I'm off to seek out a decent mechanic. My route next takes me southwest through more volcano territory. Should be good training for the legs and spectacular scenery.
The people int he mountains up here seem to think I am completely insane - I think it is beyond a lot of their comprehension that someone could arrive here on a bicycle - one loaded with gear to boot. This is a bit funny to me, since the title 'massif central' seems to speak more to the french tendency towards self agrandizement than a description of the mountain range. 'Rolling foothils central' would perhaps be more apropriate. Don't get me wrong, it IS hard work pushing throuh here, but comming from BC I would hesitate to call it 'massive.' For a little perspective: the Puy de Dome - one of the tallest mountains in the area is 1400 M. The Lions, part of the coast mountain range that overlook vancouer are 1600 M. Blackcomb Mountain is somewhere in the range of 2200 M. Again, don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming I could (or would even want to) ride up blackcomb - I'm just saying 'masive' is perhaps a relative term.
Anyway, HERE is my last two days, if you are curious. More details down the road, maybe when I get to Tolouse (havent decided on a route yet).
(ps, I'm at a total of 1058km, not counting the day rex got stolen which I havent Gmapped - I suspect it is an aditional 50-60km)
(edited for accuracy - my original statement regarding blackcombs hight was overly large, owing to a confusion between feet and meters. There are no 7000 meter mountains in Canada...)
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Luck and the Loire
It was raining when I got up this morning, as it was for the last couple of days. I've had some luck since I decided to ride the loire valley, a lot of it bad. I even started composing a blues song to myself (one of the ways to pass time on the road is to sing in your head, and occasionally out loud) with the chorus 'if it wasn't for bad bike luck, lord I'd have no luck at all.'
Bad Luck:
As has been the case virtually everywhere, getting out of a large city proved to be a pain in the ass. Paris was the worst yet though - the god dammned thing is enormous, qnd it was essentially one full day of riding before I got out of Burbanity. Then it started raining. The ultralight '2 person' (hah!) thent I bought turned out to have no fly, nor any ventilation. You're wet whether its raining or not. It rained, a lot. Then there were the headwinds in the loire valley itself. Nasty, nasty business for two straight days. If this weren't bad enough, my bottom bracket (for you non-geeks out there, thats the little axle that connects your pedal cranks together) started to work itself loose (WTF!). I decided that hell for bad bikers is a place with a slight but eternal incline, headwinds of 25k an hour, and wobbly cranks. The mechanics in the valley were unwilling to lend me tools, nor were their rates reasonable - an unfortunate side effect of choosing to ride in one of the more popular destionations of earth to tour (here, the 'tourers' are more like 'tourists' in the traditional sense). Then I got a flat, caused by a ruptured valve stem - unpatchable, and I discovered that my spare tube was one of the things that dissapeared when tout mes affairs had been jacked. Low blood sugar day. Low point in general. long walk uphill. Today was a gauntlet ride to bourges with a stop every 5 km _hand tightent_ my BB, with a nagging fear that the bike itself was permanent scrap.
Good Luck:
Of course, I'm making it sound like this is some kind of nightmare, which its not. Its just been a couple of frustrating days. Good luck found me too.
When I hit orleans my first stop was Decathlon - the sports outlet where I'd bought my tent. They let me exchange my (soggy) tent no questions asked for a cheaper, eaually light and similarly (and this time honest about its one-man-nes) sized tent. It is not neon green, and hence useless for stealth camping, it has a decent fly, and the tent itself is essentially a giant bugnet with a frame - I'm quite fond of it. I dropped into the tourist info center to pick up some literature on the loire valley by bike. Maps in hand I spend the day yes, fighting the wind, but in magnificent scenery. Castle upon castle (slowly) slid by. I arrived in Blois just around 7 oclock at night only to discover that the whole town was rampin gup for the all night party that is 'La Fete de la Music,' a national holiday that takes place on the solstice and has free music on stages all over town in every city in france. Its an idea we should consider adopting. I saw some really good music, got my dance on, and eventually rolled into the forrest at 2 am, in the dark, to set up my new tent for the first time. It went pretty well. My flat tire turned out not to be a complete disaster in the end, as eventually a pack of british cyclists on a 14 day tour spotted me and stopped to give aid (typical in these parts - it takes a foreigner to offer you help in France). I made it to the castle at chernonceau that afternoon, and rather than pay 10 euros to see the dammned thing, found a sneaky workaround by riding 2km up the road, crossing the river, and rolling back along a back road to end up close enought to touch the thing (there are dogs and tall trees on the other side of the river placed there to prevent you from even daring to laying eyes on the castle for free)
Unfortunately until I get a new camera cable or card reader, thats all you get.
Today I rocked into Bourges, intending to take the train back into paris to bitch out the mechanic who had either sold me a bum bottom bracket or done a sloppy job of installing it. Before paying for the ticket though, I had the sense to hit up an internet cafe and do a bit of research - sometething about french BBs being wacky in some way was nagging at the back of my mind. Sure enough, bikeforums.net provided the answer (french BBs are now obsolete as they have the bad habit of working themselves loose - the solution: re-seat the sucker WELL and put in some locktite to keep it there). So I'll roll on tonight, having dropped 20 more euros on the bike, but a small price compared to what I had expected the episode to cost me, and no detours back to Paris - thank god.
I've actually got a whole post I'd like to write about my thoughts on paris, but I think its going to have to wait for next time, as the road calls and its starting to get late. I've begun to slip back into a comfprtable rythm, and I'm getting faster and faster. If I hadn't stopped in Bourges all afternoon I might have done 140K today - seriously.
Anyway, ERE is my ride since leaving paris. Next stop is Montluçcon where I'm told there is a church with a magnificent organ that is a replica of one Bach played on? composed for? something. Then further and further south, possibly though the Massif Central - a chain of apparently beautiful mountains, if I'm feeling massacistic. I dont know if I'll make Barcelona for the begginning of july (though I'd like to, as I've some cool people to meet) but the road will take me where it will.
Don't know when I'll have internet next - its hard to come by in these parts - but until then, thinking of all you wonderful jerks!
Bad Luck:
As has been the case virtually everywhere, getting out of a large city proved to be a pain in the ass. Paris was the worst yet though - the god dammned thing is enormous, qnd it was essentially one full day of riding before I got out of Burbanity. Then it started raining. The ultralight '2 person' (hah!) thent I bought turned out to have no fly, nor any ventilation. You're wet whether its raining or not. It rained, a lot. Then there were the headwinds in the loire valley itself. Nasty, nasty business for two straight days. If this weren't bad enough, my bottom bracket (for you non-geeks out there, thats the little axle that connects your pedal cranks together) started to work itself loose (WTF!). I decided that hell for bad bikers is a place with a slight but eternal incline, headwinds of 25k an hour, and wobbly cranks. The mechanics in the valley were unwilling to lend me tools, nor were their rates reasonable - an unfortunate side effect of choosing to ride in one of the more popular destionations of earth to tour (here, the 'tourers' are more like 'tourists' in the traditional sense). Then I got a flat, caused by a ruptured valve stem - unpatchable, and I discovered that my spare tube was one of the things that dissapeared when tout mes affairs had been jacked. Low blood sugar day. Low point in general. long walk uphill. Today was a gauntlet ride to bourges with a stop every 5 km _hand tightent_ my BB, with a nagging fear that the bike itself was permanent scrap.
Good Luck:
Of course, I'm making it sound like this is some kind of nightmare, which its not. Its just been a couple of frustrating days. Good luck found me too.
When I hit orleans my first stop was Decathlon - the sports outlet where I'd bought my tent. They let me exchange my (soggy) tent no questions asked for a cheaper, eaually light and similarly (and this time honest about its one-man-nes) sized tent. It is not neon green, and hence useless for stealth camping, it has a decent fly, and the tent itself is essentially a giant bugnet with a frame - I'm quite fond of it. I dropped into the tourist info center to pick up some literature on the loire valley by bike. Maps in hand I spend the day yes, fighting the wind, but in magnificent scenery. Castle upon castle (slowly) slid by. I arrived in Blois just around 7 oclock at night only to discover that the whole town was rampin gup for the all night party that is 'La Fete de la Music,' a national holiday that takes place on the solstice and has free music on stages all over town in every city in france. Its an idea we should consider adopting. I saw some really good music, got my dance on, and eventually rolled into the forrest at 2 am, in the dark, to set up my new tent for the first time. It went pretty well. My flat tire turned out not to be a complete disaster in the end, as eventually a pack of british cyclists on a 14 day tour spotted me and stopped to give aid (typical in these parts - it takes a foreigner to offer you help in France). I made it to the castle at chernonceau that afternoon, and rather than pay 10 euros to see the dammned thing, found a sneaky workaround by riding 2km up the road, crossing the river, and rolling back along a back road to end up close enought to touch the thing (there are dogs and tall trees on the other side of the river placed there to prevent you from even daring to laying eyes on the castle for free)
Unfortunately until I get a new camera cable or card reader, thats all you get.
Today I rocked into Bourges, intending to take the train back into paris to bitch out the mechanic who had either sold me a bum bottom bracket or done a sloppy job of installing it. Before paying for the ticket though, I had the sense to hit up an internet cafe and do a bit of research - sometething about french BBs being wacky in some way was nagging at the back of my mind. Sure enough, bikeforums.net provided the answer (french BBs are now obsolete as they have the bad habit of working themselves loose - the solution: re-seat the sucker WELL and put in some locktite to keep it there). So I'll roll on tonight, having dropped 20 more euros on the bike, but a small price compared to what I had expected the episode to cost me, and no detours back to Paris - thank god.
I've actually got a whole post I'd like to write about my thoughts on paris, but I think its going to have to wait for next time, as the road calls and its starting to get late. I've begun to slip back into a comfprtable rythm, and I'm getting faster and faster. If I hadn't stopped in Bourges all afternoon I might have done 140K today - seriously.
Anyway, ERE is my ride since leaving paris. Next stop is Montluçcon where I'm told there is a church with a magnificent organ that is a replica of one Bach played on? composed for? something. Then further and further south, possibly though the Massif Central - a chain of apparently beautiful mountains, if I'm feeling massacistic. I dont know if I'll make Barcelona for the begginning of july (though I'd like to, as I've some cool people to meet) but the road will take me where it will.
Don't know when I'll have internet next - its hard to come by in these parts - but until then, thinking of all you wonderful jerks!
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Viva la velorution
She Rolls...
It was not a particularly fun task, and I do not exaggerate one iota when I say that a lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into this new bike. Literally on all counts. There were incompatibilities galore, and I've gone down to 7 speeds on the rear cassette, with my 11T sprocket offline. Sawing and power grinding were involved in getting this bike to roll.
It looks like what I've gotten my hands on is some kind of precursor to cyclocross bikes. The mechanic told me its from 1960, and the cantilever brakes combined with a tight frame (little pedal clearance in the front), light tubing, and lack of excess braze ons for rack mounting tells me its a race bike not a true tourer. Regardless, she's beautiful, and she's what I could find in the time I had on the budget I have, so she's coming to turkey with me.
At the Arch de Triomph, feeling, well, triumphant.
Huge thanks are in order to Mike, who's been putting me up, and to Murat (pictured below) who lives at the bike squat and has provided me with all the tools I needed, as well as A+ tasty food and turkish coffee pretty much everytime I've gone over to work. I've also had the chance to put some help into his evolving tall tandem; I hope to get to ride it before I skip town.
_______________________________________________________________________
Expatriate games:
Take a minute, if you've got one, to keep an eye on what other eastvan kids are doing over here in ye olde worlde:
Tim Wyatt, the Ten Speed Cowboy:
http://tenspeedcowboy.net
Mike Kushnir, host extraordinaire (also maker of many good breakfasts)
http://twilightcity.wordpress.com
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Je te presente Leuze
I didn't think it was going to happen-
I'd been to every bike shop in town that sells used bikes (les velos d'occasion), and it was coming down to a choice between one overpriced bike that I didn't like very much and another overpriced bike I didn't like very much. There were some encounters with a few remarkably unsympathetic mechanics and shop clerks along the way. My stock in the French was dropping rapidly.
Then by chance I returned to Bic'loun, the shop I'd first dropped into and test road the dreamy and affordably priced road bike that, unfortunately wasn't really what I was looking for. If I lived in paris this would be the shop I hit up most frequently - their prices are fair, the staff is nice, and they have a simply amazing collection of vintage and rare bikes hanging about the shop (pictures to come if I go back with my camera). The basement is packed with sexy vintage road bikes that are priced from 100-400 Euros; it amazes me that so many people ride junkers around town when a place like this exists.
I'd gone back to tell them not to hold the road bike for me, and to see if- somehow- some new stuff had turned up in the basement. It hadn't, but as I was talking to the clerk it got suddenly busy and another mechanic came out to help. Turned out he was the owner. I asked him if he knew anywhere in town I could buy JUST a used frame (everyone seems to sell complete bikes only). 'We've got them' he tells me. 'Ah, oui, j'en ai vu, mais je cherche quelque chose en particulaire - un cadre de randonner' (a touring frame). 'What size of wheels?' He asks, 'what frame size?' 700C and 54 cm I explain. 'Hold on, I might have something downstairs.'
He returns in a few minutes with Leuze, a dreamy metalic blue offered at the equally dreamy price of 100 euros (compared to the 300 being asked for the only other true tourer I've yet seen, or the 450 a new frame would have cost me.
She's got beautiful lug details, is light steel, and is of an unknown make (potentially hand crafted? My French is serving me quite well but fell down when he was explaining this).
She's named after a little town in belgium that is unremarkable save for the fact that it has a pretty name and that I had a hard time finding somewhere to sleep near.
I start building her tomorrow, and plan to put some time in helping Mike's friend Murat (one of the bike squat kids) work on his tall-tandem (yes, you read that right, a tall tandem bike).
Thanks to everyone for their kind words and support, I should have my wheels back any day.
In the mean time Ive been ripping around town on a rickety but quite striking borrowed green Motoconfort road bike, and its given me back my mobility. I truly felt chopped at the legs without something to ride - it was a strange experience. The upside was that I got to experience french trains and the Paris Metro, neither of which I would have probably tried if Rex had been in order. The metro really is pretty cool, and the entrances look like they were designed by Geiger or Gaudi (or their bastard lovechild). I mentioned that trafic here is crazy, but the longer I ride in it the more I begin to see it as an ordered chaos. While The air pollution is pretty bad, there seems to be little road rage, or even use of the horn - I've yet to see an accident. In my search for Leuze I've pedalled to pretty much every corner of the city (guess what, it's REALLY BIG) and have come to feel the streets quite well; Vancouver will never really seem the same I don't think. You really have to get your 'dont fuck with me' body language, road positioning, and game face on at times, and its a rush to work your way into a massive roundabout with 6 exiting streets and 200 cars. I think I might just miss it.
(PS, my apologies to Leanne - you were absolutely right!)
(PPS, I've uploaded some new photos and added a link to my flickr site on the right underneath the little map)
I'd been to every bike shop in town that sells used bikes (les velos d'occasion), and it was coming down to a choice between one overpriced bike that I didn't like very much and another overpriced bike I didn't like very much. There were some encounters with a few remarkably unsympathetic mechanics and shop clerks along the way. My stock in the French was dropping rapidly.
Then by chance I returned to Bic'loun, the shop I'd first dropped into and test road the dreamy and affordably priced road bike that, unfortunately wasn't really what I was looking for. If I lived in paris this would be the shop I hit up most frequently - their prices are fair, the staff is nice, and they have a simply amazing collection of vintage and rare bikes hanging about the shop (pictures to come if I go back with my camera). The basement is packed with sexy vintage road bikes that are priced from 100-400 Euros; it amazes me that so many people ride junkers around town when a place like this exists.
I'd gone back to tell them not to hold the road bike for me, and to see if- somehow- some new stuff had turned up in the basement. It hadn't, but as I was talking to the clerk it got suddenly busy and another mechanic came out to help. Turned out he was the owner. I asked him if he knew anywhere in town I could buy JUST a used frame (everyone seems to sell complete bikes only). 'We've got them' he tells me. 'Ah, oui, j'en ai vu, mais je cherche quelque chose en particulaire - un cadre de randonner' (a touring frame). 'What size of wheels?' He asks, 'what frame size?' 700C and 54 cm I explain. 'Hold on, I might have something downstairs.'
He returns in a few minutes with Leuze, a dreamy metalic blue offered at the equally dreamy price of 100 euros (compared to the 300 being asked for the only other true tourer I've yet seen, or the 450 a new frame would have cost me.
She's got beautiful lug details, is light steel, and is of an unknown make (potentially hand crafted? My French is serving me quite well but fell down when he was explaining this).
She's named after a little town in belgium that is unremarkable save for the fact that it has a pretty name and that I had a hard time finding somewhere to sleep near.
I start building her tomorrow, and plan to put some time in helping Mike's friend Murat (one of the bike squat kids) work on his tall-tandem (yes, you read that right, a tall tandem bike).
Thanks to everyone for their kind words and support, I should have my wheels back any day.
In the mean time Ive been ripping around town on a rickety but quite striking borrowed green Motoconfort road bike, and its given me back my mobility. I truly felt chopped at the legs without something to ride - it was a strange experience. The upside was that I got to experience french trains and the Paris Metro, neither of which I would have probably tried if Rex had been in order. The metro really is pretty cool, and the entrances look like they were designed by Geiger or Gaudi (or their bastard lovechild). I mentioned that trafic here is crazy, but the longer I ride in it the more I begin to see it as an ordered chaos. While The air pollution is pretty bad, there seems to be little road rage, or even use of the horn - I've yet to see an accident. In my search for Leuze I've pedalled to pretty much every corner of the city (guess what, it's REALLY BIG) and have come to feel the streets quite well; Vancouver will never really seem the same I don't think. You really have to get your 'dont fuck with me' body language, road positioning, and game face on at times, and its a rush to work your way into a massive roundabout with 6 exiting streets and 200 cars. I think I might just miss it.
(PS, my apologies to Leanne - you were absolutely right!)
(PPS, I've uploaded some new photos and added a link to my flickr site on the right underneath the little map)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
