Tag Archives: Bicycle

Book Review
Coast to Coast on a Tandem
Tracy & Peter Flucke

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The Fluckes were presenters at last year’s Route 66 Miles of Possibility Conference in Joliet, IL. The primary connection was their 2016 trek along Historic Route 66, which was their third unsupported cross-country trip on a tandem bicycle. This book covers the first of those trips, a 4,300-mile ride from Bellingham, WA, to Bar Harbor, ME, in 2014.

They smoothly alternated lines during the Route 66 presentation like co-anchors on the evening news. Their teamwork in a situation where it was nice but not mandatory hinted at how that team performed on one pair of skinny pedal-powered tires, where it was crucial. That’s also true of their teamwork on the pages of this book. In fact, the form of Coast to Coast on a Tandem seems closely aligned with the realities of tandem bike travel.

There are no passengers on a tandem bicycle. The person in front(captain), in this case Peter, is responsible for steering, which requires constant awareness of what is immediately in front of the bicycle. Bits of debris or small potholes that are no more than inconveniences when traveling on four wheels can be disastrous on two. The front rider is also responsible for gear selection and braking. In the back (stoker), Tracy is responsible for navigation, which means keeping Peter informed of upcoming turns, stops, and such. She also keeps an eye on traffic to the rear and keeps Peter informed of that as well. Both are responsible for powering and balancing their vehicle.

Their views from the saddle are not the same. Peter has a clear view of the landscape ahead, but is mostly focused on the road surface just a few feet away. Tracey has more time to contemplate the scenery, but her view is limited to the left and right. Anything more than short glances to the rear is uncomfortable and potentially unsafe, and the view ahead consists of little more than the back of Peter’s head.

The idea of two different views is carried into the book’s text. Instead of collaborating on a single combined narrative, Tracey and Peter each write their own version of events, and the two versions are interleaved. Sometimes, the pair of synchronized tales differ by no more than the distance between tandem bicycle seats, and sometimes they offer very different takes on a single set of events.

We all know that travel is enhanced at least as much by people as by location. The Fluckes meet and describe people in campgrounds, hostels, restaurants, grocery stores, motels, and through a cyclist-oriented home-sharing organization called Warm Showers. They also meet a few bicycle mechanics as they deal with the wear — especially on tires — and tear of long-distance pedaling. Almost all are friendly and either helpful, curious, or both.

Some of the people they meet are fellow cyclists. The Fluckes are barely twenty miles out of Bellingham when they encounter a cyclist on his way to Boston. Peter and Tracy are following the Adventure Cycling Association’s Northern Tier Route. Peter writes that an estimated 2,000 people travel this route each year. Some do it all, and some do short stretches of a few days or so. Some do it unsupported, like the Fluckes, while some do it as members of packaged tours with a support vehicle tagging along and carrying their gear. Are any of those people on a tandem?. Peter guesses “maybe 1 percent”. The Fluckes encounter none.

The book begins with descriptions of acquiring gear for the trip, physical training, shipping the bike, etc. Preparing their home world for a near three-month absence takes some effort, too. Once the trip is underway, each chapter begins with a map of the area covered in that chapter, and each day’s journal begins with the date, incremental and cumulative miles traveled, and a brief description of conditions. An example from a day in Montana is:

Day 21
June 21 — Havre to Malta, Montana
93 miles (total miles – 1,147
65-75 degrees, sunny with a nice tailwind to push us along

Not every day is sunny, and not every wind pushes them forward.

Coast to Coast on a Tandem is not a photo-heavy book, but there are several. All are in color. One is of the couple hoisting the bicycle overhead in Bar Harbour to celebrate completing the trip. Tracy calls it perfect—and lucky. “What were we thinking? Bike all the way across the country and have a complete stranger take only one picture to commemorate the event. Crazy.” Surely she knows better than to think that’s the only crazy thing described in the book.

Anyone even slightly familiar with me will know that the chances of me cycling across the country (or surviving if I did) are essentially zero. I assumed that the chances of my having anything in common with the trim and athletic Fluckes other than a love of traveling were also pretty much zero. I was surprised to learn that we share a fondness for craft breweries. Apparently, Peter and I even share a fondness for porters and Scotch ale. Furthermore, we both like to “collect” breweries. I, traveling in a medium-sized SUV, do it by logging them in an app on my phone. The Fluckes, traveling on a vehicle with the storage capacity of a medium-sized hummingbird, do it by purchasing souvenir glasses, which they then mail home fairly often.

Coast to Coast on a Tandem: Our Adventure Crossing the USA on a Bicycle Built for Two, Tracy & Peter Flucke, M&B Global Solutions (November 2, 2017), 6 x 9 inches, 230 pages, ISBN ‎ 978-1942731283
Available through Amazon.

Back to the Bikes

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I have thought of revisiting the Bicycle Museum of America quite a few times in the more than two decades since my first visit. Sometimes it has been when I’m looking for a target for an interesting day trip, and sometimes it has been due to something more specific. The most recent specific event that triggered thoughts of the Ohio museum was my visit to the Cycle Through exhibit at the Cincinnati Art Museum. When I started getting serious about a trip to the bicycle museum, I naturally took a look at the journal for my 2002 visit and noted that I had driven a bit of OH-66 to get there, and that naturally reminded me that I had driven its full length a couple of years later on the first day of a two day trip. The museum visit journal is here. The journal for the OH-66 drive is here.

So, I headed to Piqua, OH, and the southern end of OH-66 at US-36. It has become a little fancier over the years and now sports a “BEGIN” tag. That the more famous Route 66 will reach its centennial next year is getting a lot of attention. The centennial of Ohio’s Route 66 was last year, but I missed it. I wished the route a belated 100th as I started my drive. Although I drove all of OH-66, the museum was the trip’s focus, and I did not make a lot of other stops.

Cars parked on the street in front of the museum kept me from getting a clear picture of the building. It and other older nearby buildings housing restaurants and such are well maintained and picturesque, and make New Bremen quite an attractive town. The attendant, whose name I have absolutely no excuse for not asking, was extremely friendly and helpful. One of the things I learned while planning this trip was that the museum owned one of four surviving Schwinn bicycles from Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. I suspected that this might be the one I had recently seen in Cincinnati, and started to ask. I did not quite get my question fully formed before learning that not only was that customized DX Cruiser on loan from the museum, but so was every other bicycle in the display. I should have known that. The Cycle Thru! description on the Cincinnati Art Museum’s website notes that it is made up of “over 20 bicycles from The Bicycle Museum of America in New Bremen, Ohio”. Just one more thing I missed.

The museum contains a replica of an 1816 Draisine, which is the earliest known use of motion to balance on two tandem wheels. There are, of course, quite a few penny-farthings among the historic vehicles on display. When I first heard that name many years ago, I initially thought it had something to do with cost, but soon learned that it came from the idea that those big-wheeled bicycles looked like a large British penny coin paired with a small farthing coin. In the middle of all those historic bicycles is something that looks more like a farthing-penny. It’s an American Star Highwheel, which tried to make things a little safer by putting the little wheel in front. The H.B. Smith Manufacturing Company, makers of the American Star, also patented a steam-powered bicycle, and yes, I would like to see one of those.

In fairly short order, inventors applied gears, chains, and straps to eliminate the need for a huge wheel to achieve a decent speed, and the penny-farthing became a thing of the past. In addition to those on display, the museum has one on rollers with “trainer steps” for anyone wanting to give it a try. Of course, inventors did not stop inventing. A different way to go riding with your friends can be seen on the wall behind the steps. Bicycles with driveshafts existed before the nineteenth century ended, and inline skates clearly aren’t as new as you might think.

Backed by one of the museum’s windows is a replica of a monocycle from 1869. The museum also has one of just thirty existing Monovelos from 2008. Monocycles are just plain weird. Fitting between these two date-wise is a 1998 motorized version at the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville.

The museum has about 800 bicycles in its collection, so even with twenty on loan in Cincinnati, there is no problem keeping a couple hundred on display. The challenge is picking which ones that will be. That’s the same challenge I have picking which photos to post. I could go on and on, but I’m going to cut it off here with a pair I have at least a tiny personal connection to. My first motorized vehicle was a 1948 or ’49 Whizzer. The one pictured is a 1950. That’s a 1949 J.C. Higgins Colorflow in the other photo. My first new vehicle was a 1960 J.C. Higgins Flightmaster that is the subject of what I believe is the most popular post ever on this blog. The Flightliner post is here. A post on the Whizzer is here. Before leaving, I learned that the museum has a 1960 girl’s Flightliner in storage. Flightliner fans, keep your eyes peeled. It could come out someday.

I did make a couple of stops beyond the museum, but they were related to my 2004 OH-66 drive rather than to OH-66 in general. Where the route ends at US-20 in Fayette, I was happy to see an “END” tag that was not there in 2004. I celebrated completing the route with a Budweiser in the same building where I celebrated in the same manner twenty-one years ago, but the name was now Freddy’s Place instead of Harry’s Tavern, and the Bud came in a can instead of a bottle.

I also repeated my dinner stop in Archbold, where Mom’s Diner was not only still in business but had a new pseudo-neon sign hanging out front. With the exception of a few details, the inside looked essentially the same. I did not record what I ate in 2004, but today I had the fish sandwich special. The place was fairly busy when I arrived and just about full when I left. That not only kept me from taking many photos, but it also interfered with my jukebox playing. In ’04, I played “That’ll Be The Day”, but today it wasn’t an option. In ’04, I had the juke box all to myself, but that wasn’t at all the case today. By the time I settled on “Rock Around the Clock”, someone had beaten me to it. My quarter went for “Mack the Knife” by Louis Armstrong and His All Stars.

Cycle Thru and Collective Behavior at CAM

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I made it to “Cycle Thru! The Art of the Bike” within its first week. It opened at the Cincinnati Art Museum on Friday, April 4, and I attended on Thursday, April 10. It will be there for another eighteen weeks, through August 24. The exhibit includes photographs, paintings, and other pieces of art that feature bicycles, but while I enjoyed looking at those items, what I documented were the real things: Bicycles that might themselves be considered pieces of art.

The exhibit begins with an 1878 Ariel High Wheel. This style of bicycle originated in Britain and was commonly known as a penny-farthing because the pairing of the large and small wheels reminded people of the relative size of penny and farthing coins. On the left in that first picture is an Otto Dicycle, which women could ride without risking the embarrassment of exposing an ankle. In the foreground of the second photo is a cast iron and wood velocipede from 1865. I had seen the three-wheeled vehicle in the third picture in promotions for the exhibit but could not figure out what was going on until I read its description at the museum. That trailing wheel was supposed to make the ride smoother, but it’s not clear how well that worked. That rider comfort was definitely top of mind with this bike is reinforced by its “bespoke anatomical saddle“.

I thought one of the vehicles in the 1900s-1910s display might belong to Wile E. Coyote, but what looked like an Acme Rocket is one of two metal cans to hold air and keep the water bike afloat. The wall behind the very rare 1960 fiberglass Bowden Spacelander is filled with bicycles from the 1930s and 1940s. The 1965 Sears Spaceliner at upper left in the 1950s-1960s caught my attention because of its resemblance to my 1960 J. C. Higgins Flightliner. The Spaceliner was designed by Viktor Schreckengost and built by Murray, and I’m guessing that is also true of the Flightliner.

Of course, for anyone not having owned a Flightliner, the big attention grabber in that last group of bicycles is almost certainly the customized 1953 Schwinn DX Cruiser from Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. The saddle might not be bespoke, but everything else sure is.

The museum itself is, as always, free. “Cycle Thru!” is not. However, admission to the bicycle exhibit also includes another paid exhibit at the museum. Until May 4, that second exhibit is “Shahzia Sikander: Collective Behavior!“. After that, “Cycle Thru!” will be paired with “Farm to Table: Food and Identity in the Age of Impressionism“. I’m sure “Farm to Table” will be a very good show, but man, I sure liked the Sikander exhibition. The photo above is of the second edition of her sculpture “NOW”. The first edition is on permanent display outside the Appellate Courthouse in Manhattan

As the museum’s description of the exhibit states, Shahzia Sikander works “in a variety of mediums—painting, drawing, print, digital animation, mosaic, sculpture, and glass,” and I believe the exhibit contains examples of every one of them. The first item shown here, “Provenance the Invisible Hand“, combines silkscreening and hand painting. The second, “Arose“, is a glass mosaic. A detail from its center is here.

“Liquid Light II” is painted glass. “Promiscuous Intimacies” is a bronze sculpture. I made myself comfortable on a futon and watched the “Parallax” digital animation but somehow missed its description, so I am including a capture from a PDF of exhibit labels here.

I also missed any onsite description for “NOW”, so am including a capture of the PDF for that as well. It is here. As I did some fairly casual research on Sikander, I learned of an 18-foot statue named “Witness” that is similar to the 8-foot “NOW”. On July 8, 2024, while on display at the University of Houston, “Witness” was beheaded. Although an anti-abortion group had protested the statue’s presence in February, nothing is known that connects the group with the decapitation. Sikander explained her desire to not have the statue repaired with, “The damage reflects the hateful misogynistic act and it should not be forgotten.”

Two Oldies Again

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Last week’s post covered my second-ever visit to the Dayton Porchfest. My first visit was covered as the “something new” in the 2018 Two Oldies and Something New triple feature. Although the order was shuffled this year, those three events again occurred within a week of each other, and I again attended all three. So this post will complete the coverage by reporting on the two oldies of 2018. First up is the Great Darke County Fair where I found some of the critters a little eggcentric. “That’s a joke, I say, that’s a joke, son.”

Before I saw any of the critters or any of the other agricultural exhibits, I strolled down the midway past rides and games that were almost — but not quite — the same as those I strolled past as a teenager many years ago.

In the lower floor of the coliseum, almost all of the flowers that had peaked for the judging were gone along with most of the baked goods. Thankfully, quite a few fruits and vegetables remained to supply some color.

I was encouraged by the realization that I was still capable of recognizing dairy cows and also comforted by the fact that they were prominently labeled in case I falter at some point in the future.

I peeked in on the only judging that I saw going on while I was there. Junior events such as this are really the only fair competitions that I enjoy anymore. I guess it’s because I don’t need to know a single kid or critter to appreciate the accomplishments.

The day’s big event was the tractor pull. I had seen signs promoting it as I entered the grounds and glimpsed some of the competing machines when I passed the race track. My memories go back to when horses and tractors both competed in — separate — pulling events at the fair. I hesitated only a moment at the tail end of the ticket line before heading to my car and starting the long drive home.

The second oldie was the Tri-State Gas Engine and Tractor Show where my Wheel Horse collecting buddy, Terry, is a regular exhibitor. When hooked to a tractor, that trailer in the foreground of the picture becomes my chariot as Terry chauffeurs me around the grounds looking for items of interest.

There is no shortage of strange contraptions at the show. Many of them we have seen before or at least know what they are but not all. This was a mystery that intrigued us enough to pause and make some guesses but not enough to actually dismount and examine it. I commented that it resembled a small corn sheller although there were clear differences. I snapped a picture and the mystery was instantly solved once I saw it enlarged. New Era Rope Machine is cast into its surface and there is a video of it being used here.

There was no mystery in the purpose of either of these contraptions but there were some details that were far from obvious. Terry had previously seen the display and met the owner, and made me aware of just how odd this little engine was. The story of the variable displacement diesel that burned a variety of fuels including paraffin is here. A description of its operation is here. The Shaw product was another kit engine designed to be mounted on a bicycle. This example is mounted on a Gendron Iron Wheel Company bicycle. Shaw eventually switched to Briggs & Stratton engines but remained in business selling mowers and small tractors until 1962. Although it has gone through many changes, Gendron Inc. still exists as a manufacturer of mobile patient management systems.

Dale, another school days buddy of mine lives nearby and the show is a convenient meeting spot for the three of us. Along with Dale’s wife, we spent a fair amount of time this year solving the world’s problems and ignoring our own. At the end of the day, as soon as I started walking to my car, I realized with regret that I should have asked someone to snap a picture of our little group. I’ll try not to forget next time.

My Wheels — Chapter 41
The Wheels So Far

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This series has reached a pause. Even though the forty vehicles I’ve owned to date have all been covered, I don’t think that the My Wheels series is truly at an end. I suspect I’ll buy something else someday. It does, however, seem like a good time for a look back and a bit of a summary. Because of a goof in sequencing, the earliest and most recent chapters both featured bicycles. They are the only two bicycles in the series although I actually owned a couple of used bicycles prior to purchasing the J.C.Higgins. In between were five motorcycles, one truck, and thirty-two automobiles. The autos varied greatly in details, but all had four wheels as did the truck. Therefore, the current count of wheels in My Wheels is 146.

Despite being separated by nearly forty years, there was only one significant difference, other than color, between the two bicycles. The 1997 Schwinn has seven gears; The 1960 Higgins just one.

The motorcycles varied quite a bit for the small sample size. Three came from Japan, one from Germany, and one from the U.S.A. Three had chains, one a driveshaft, and one was belt-driven (with pedals). There were two inline twins, one boxer twin, and two single-cylinder models. There was even one 2-cycle in the mix. Color-wise there were two reds, one maroon, one black, and one blue. Each came from a different manufacturer: Whizzer, Honda, Suzuki, BMW, Yahama.

The lone truck was a gray Chevy van. Powered by a V8 with an automatic transmission, its crude self-made camper like interior held as many people as could tolerate sitting on the floor or the bed.

I’ve applied all the same grouping to the autos as I did with the motorcycles plus a couple of additions. I haven’t overrefined things. For country, I’ve used the country where the manufacturer is headquartered which might not be where the specific car was built. For capacity, I started with the idea of calling everything either 4 or 2 passenger even though some of the older cars with bench seats routinely handled 5 or 6 but quickly realized that I was really just dividing them on whether or not they had a rear seat. I also simplified body style categories. I did not distinguish between SUVs, station wagons, hatchbacks. or any more subtle variations. Anything with a top that folded or was removable is a convertible. Any fixed-roof car with a trunk and usable rear seat is a hardtop. With neither trunk or usable rear seat, it’s a coupe and with a rear seat but no trunk it’s a wagon. Yes, whether or not a rear seat is usable is a matter of opinion and in my opinion, the rear seats in ’94 Camaros and GEO Storms of any year are not generally usable.

Here’s the breakdown starting with characteristics having the fewest variations. There were 27 cars with rear seats and 5 without. 20 cars had four doors and 12 had two. 29 cars had their engine in the front while 3 were rear-engined. 22 cars were driven by the rear wheels, 7 by the front wheels, and 3 by all four.

Style
15 Hardtop
7 Convertible
6 Wagon
4 Coupe

Color
12 Blue
5 Red
4 Green
4 Gray
3 White
2 Black
1 Brown
1 Yellow

Engine (I=inline, F-flat, R=rotary)
9 V8
9 I4
6 I6
3 V6
2 F4
2 F6
1 R

Transmission (A=automatic, M=manual, CV=continously variable)
7 3A
6 3M
6 4M
6 5M
3 4A
2 6M
1 2A
1 CV

Make
13 Chevrolet
3 Ford
2 Dodge
2 Mazda
2 Plymouth
2 Renault
2 Subaru
1 Acura
1 Audi
1 Austin-Healey
1 Buick
1 Mercury
1 Opel

Country
22 USA
5 Japan
2 France
2 Germany
1 England

There have been more Chevys than anything else. The most common color has been blue. Based on history, my ideal car must be a blue rear-wheel-drive Chevy two-door hardtop with a V8 and automatic. There is exactly one car on the list that meets those specs. It’s the 1970 Chevelle castoff by my former mother-in-law that I owned for less than a year. I’d not thought of it as ideal when I owned it and I’m not buying into that now.

The blue Chevelle was, like so many I’ve owned, simply a car that was available and affordable when I needed one. The only exceptions are the two vehicles I ordered from the factory. All the others were either used or sitting on a lot after being built to someone else’s specifications. That those two built-to-order rides are almost as different from each other as possible is pretty good proof that there is no single ideal vehicle for most people. Ideals change.

The first vehicle I custom ordered was the 1979 truck. I was in my early thirties and my boys, although they did not live with me at the time, were eight and ten. I and several friends were into camping and that was the van’s purpose. It was fairly well-optioned in some respects. I checked off A/C, cruise, etc, but no interior options including radio. I installed my own sound system, replaced the single cargo van seat with a pair of captain’s chairs, and built out the empty space for camping.

It would be nearly twenty years before I’d fill out another order sheet. By then, the kids were grown and gone and I had moved from a four-bedroom house to a two-bedroom condo. The 1998 Corvette reflected that. I sprung for a convertible, 6-speed manual transmission (auto was standard), Z51 suspension, and upgraded sound and climate control systems. The van and the ‘Vette were both Chevys but their option lists looked nothing alike.

So this will be the last My Wheels chapter until a new vehicle comes along. It’s a series that isn’t published often (These forty-one chapters were spread over more than seven years.) so maybe that will happen before you even notice the pause but I think it’s going to be a while.

My Wheel chapters can be seen in total here or individually through the following links:
Chapter 1 1960 J. C. Higgins Flightliner
Chapter 2 1948/9 Whizzer
Chapter 3 1953 Chevrolet
Chapter 4 1954 Mercury
Chapter 5 1952 Ford
Chapter 6 1959 Chevrolet
Chapter 7 1961 Renault 4CV
Chapter 8 1957 Austin Healey
Chapter 9 Honda 65
Chapter 10 1964 Corvair
Chapter 11 1967 Dodge
Chapter 12 1961 Falcon
Chapter 13 1966 Suzuki
Chapter 14 1965 Barracuda
Chapter 15 1969 Opel Kadett
Chapter 16 1962 Chevy II
Chapter 17 1965 Corvair
Chapter 18 1971 Vega
Chapter 19 1970 Chevrolet Nova
Chapter 20 1972 Audi 100 LS
Chapter 21 1979 Chevrolet G10
Chapter 22 1970 Chevelle
Chapter 23 1972 BMW R75
Chapter 24 1983 Renault Alliance
Chapter 25 1985 Buick Century
Chapter 26 1986 Acura Legend
Chapter 27 1985 Mazda RX7
Chapter 28 1978? Yamaha 400
Chapter 29 1991 Geo Storm
Chapter 30 1992 Chevrolet Lumina
Chapter 31 1994 Chevrolet Camaro
Chapter 32 1986 Ford Bronco II
Chapter 33 1998 Chevrolet Corvette
Chapter 34 2003 Pontiac Vibe
Chapter 35 2006 Chevrolet Corvette
Chapter 36 1963 Plymouth Valiant
Chapter 37 2011 Subaru Forester
Chapter 38 2003 Mazda Miata
Chapter 39 2018 Subaru Forester
Chapter 40 1997 Schwinn

My Wheels — Chapter 40
1997 Schwinn

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Since this vehicle is still a part of my fleet, I’m claiming that it’s OK to cover it now although it should have appeared in My Wheels Chapter 33. It arrived as a birthday gift about a year ahead of the 1998 Corvette that actually was the subject of Chapter 33. In conjunction with the Forester and Miata, it provides me a full range of passenger capacities: 4, 2, or 1. The photo at right was taken when the start of my first documented road trip, in the aforementioned Corvette, was delayed, and I pedaled to the nearest watering hole to pass some time.

The bike was quite a surprise. My girlfriend and best buddy combined forces to select and purchase it. My girlfriend knew me and my buddy knew bicycles and the gift was exactly what I would have bought on my own had I been more familiar with the modern bicycle world. I had no desire to go racing or take long-distance slogs up the sides of mountains so the twenty-speed skinny-tired models I’d been seeing did not appeal to me. More importantly, the skinny seats that always seemed to sit too high above those skinny tires appealed to me even less.

The gift bike had none of that. It had fat tires and a fat seat on a frame that would have fit right in during the 1950s of my youth. Chrome fenders and white sidewall tires were perfect mates for the black and brown frame with the brown bearing a sort of faux wood grain pattern. As cool as all that sounds, there’s more. There is real magic in that bike. It’s in the rear axle. It’s a Shimano Nexus 7 Speed Hub with the workings all internal and controlled by a small handlebar-mounted shifter. The biggest magic of all, however, is the genuine pedal-backward-to-stop coaster brake. It wasn’t exactly a Pee Wee Herman bike, but it was closer than most. When I rode my new bike past a nearby playground, a young boy shouted out, “Nice bike, mister.” Nothing could be finer.

I moved into my current home when the bike was just a couple of months old. The pictured Fridays was more or less across the street, and there was a Kroger grocery not far beyond. There was a Walmart at one end of the street, and a convenience store and some restaurants at the other. Behind the Kroger was Kings Auto Mall, which was basically a 3/4 mile loop lined with about a dozen auto dealers. In the other direction, my office was less than a mile away. I frequently used the bike to reach the restaurants and occasionally did some shopping on it with the aid of a small backpack. I rode it to work several times but not as much as I should have. Days that were warm enough to allow riding the bike were usually warm enough to work up a sweat, which didn’t seem like a good way to start a day at the office. My favorite place to ride was the auto mall. Traffic was fairly light, and I could easily pedal through the lots to look over cars and window stickers. Conversations with salesmen happened now and then, but they were never quite sure whether or not I was actually a potential customer.

The picture at left shows the Schwinn in roughly the same spot as in the opening photo. The Fridays was demolished and replaced by a LongHorn Steakhouse. The Walmart turned into a JCPenney, and the convenience store has been replaced by a fast-food restaurant. The auto mall is doing well as evidenced by a Toyota dealer having taken over the Kroger store. Actually, the whole neighborhood is basically doing well. Naturally, some businesses have closed over the years, but they’ve been quickly replaced. There is overall growth in both the commercial and residential aspects of the community. And in the traffic.

I ride the Schwinn very little these days. There are many reasons but traffic is one of the biggest. The Fields Ertle exit of I-71, where I live, is often cited as one of the most congested spots in the Cincinnati area, and much of that congestion has developed during my time here. On top of the gradual increase from the population and business growth, there was a major step input from a new Procter & Gamble complex about two miles north of me. Major highway improvements have helped the flow of trucks and autos but not bicycles. Even the once rather quiet auto mall loop now has significant traffic and is no longer very relaxing. Getting there isn’t relaxing at all.

So I usually pump up the tires in the spring, as I did this week, and cruise through a few parking lots before returning the bike to its spot in the garage and letting the tires again go flat. There is a bike trail not far away, and it’s certainly fair to ask why I don’t use it more often. The truth is, the only reason I have is laziness. It is often overcrowded on weekends but not so much during the week. I have a cheap rack that takes some effort to mount on the car and more effort to get the bike secured on it. Maybe if I had a better rack that was easier to use, I’d hit the trail more often, but I’m too cheap to buy one. So maybe I have two reasons for avoiding the bike trail: I’m cheap and I’m lazy. But I’m honest.

My Previous Wheels: Chapter 39 — 2018 Subaru Forester
My Next Wheels: Chapter 42 — 2025 Forester  

Got the Hanger Before the Plane

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The title is my questionable attempt to make an aeronautical version of that saying about getting the cart before the horse. I started on a trip yesterday that is aimed at having me at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, for the 115th anniversary of the Wright brother’s first flight on Monday. In anticipation of that, I recently revisited some Wright related sites in nearby Dayton, Ohio. This was actually the main reason I was in Dayton when I made the Carillon Historical Park visit that yielded last week’s Christmas themed post. There’s been a bit of a squabble between Ohio and North Carolina over where this flying business got started, but my title is not a reference to that. I’m just acknowledging the fact that this blog post about the Wright brothers in Dayton is going up before my trip journal entries about the brothers in North Carolina. Dayton was the Wright brothers’ home and there are quite a few locations associated with them. Probably the most important single location tied to the Wrights and their development of human flight is Huffman Prairie Flying Field where a replica of their 1905 airplane hangar stands. A placard in the hangar is here.

Official input to the squabble included North Carolina putting “First in Flight” on their license plates in 1982 and Ohio following with “Birthplace of Aviation” in 1997. In theory, the argument officially came to an end in 2003 when the U.S. Congress recognized Ohio as “the birthplace of aviation” while acknowledging that the first flights occurred in North Carolina. The text associated with that recognition is here. It’s easy and maybe somewhat natural to think that Ohio got the nod because the Wrights lived there but that the actual “birthing” happened in NC. The fact is that the brothers did a lot more than live in Ohio. Tremendous amounts of research and experimentation occurred in Dayton both before and after the trips to NC, and almost all of it that took place after December 17, 1903, took place at this field near what is now Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Both of those slogans are correct. The first flight — actually the first four flights — happened in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina; Aviation was born in Dayton, Ohio.

The reason for the Wrights’ trips to North Carolina was the strong and steady winds there. They had proven that their machine could fly, but further development was required. The brothers naturally wanted to avoid the time and money consuming trips to the coast but Ohio winds are weak and fickle. They might lay out as much as 240 feet of rail only to be forced to move it when the wind shifted. The catapult near the hangar is a replica of the one they used to shorten takeoff distance to 60 feet with less need for a headwind. The brothers improved on the machine they flew in NC and eventually learned to control the craft to the point of flying around the perimeter of the field. Their flight path is kept mowed and may be walked.

Not far from Huffman Prairie Flying Field, a Wright Brothers Memorial stands atop a hill that bears their name. The area containing the field is included in the view from the overlook behind the monument. There is a small museum and interpretative center across the road from the monument.

What I think is one of the coolest sculptures around stands in the median of Main Street in downtown Dayton. Called “Flyover”, it is a full scale representation of that first flight in Kitty Hawk. The sculpture’s length matches the 120 feet covered by that first flight. Each of the flight’s 12 seconds is marked by a set of wings showing the craft’s climb and descent. It’s really eye-opening to walk the length of the sculpture and realize just how short that first giant hop for mankind was. Another full scale sculpture stand just a few blocks away, on Monument Street. The plane depicted is the 1905 Wright Flyer III in which the Wright brothers improved their design and skills at Huffman Prairie. The real thing shows up in a couple of paragraphs.

The Wright Brothers National Museum is inside Carillon Historical Park. It’s been there since the park opened in 1950 but just received the “National” designation in August. More Wright brothers artifacts are displayed here than anywhere else. The bicycle in the second picture is one of five Wright brand bicycles known to exist and one of two on display in this building. The Wrights eventually built a wind tunnel and other devices for more accurate measurements, but some of their earliest testing involved mounting variously shaped surfaces on the horizontal wheel then peddling into the wind to see how they reacted. This may not be the most famous camera in the world but it is responsible for taking one of the most famous photographs in the world. Orville set up the camera before climbing aboard the flyer, Wilbur handed off the bulb so he could help steady the craft during takeoff,  and John T. Daniels pressed that bulb at the right time to head off the “pictures or it didn’t happen” crowd back in Dayton.

The story of how this display happened is almost as cool as the display itself. In the 1940s, when Colonel Edward Deeds was putting this park together, he had a chat with his good friend Orville Wright about making a replica of the first Wright Flyer. Orville had a better idea. Why not rebuild the real Wright Flyer III? This was the first truly practical flyer and the brothers considered it their most important aircraft. It had served its builders well in their 1905 developments at Huffman Prairie, then had been shipped to Kitty Hawk for U.S. Army trials in 1908. Following the trials it had been more or less abandoned although there were some pieces in various locations around the country. Orville knew where those pieces were and of course he knew everything there was to know about the original plane. What followed has been called “The first pilot’s last project”. Not only did Orville contribute to rebuilding the airplane, it was his idea to display it in a sort of pit so that visitors could get good views of the whole thing. It is believed that approximately 85% of the original machine was recovered and 60% to 80% was used in the reconstruction. Many of the original pieces that were not made part of the plane were used in making replacements. Some of these are displayed nearby. A placard with the plane’s specifications stands by one of its wings. 

Vintage Bikes and More

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On Thursday, I was back at the Jay County Fairgrounds near Portland, Indiana. It’s a place I’ve been to a couple of times before for the Antique Engine & Tractor Show where my friend Terry displays his collection of Wheel Horses. In 2015, my friend Dale met me there. This time I was there for the National Vintage Motor Bike Club annual meet, and it was Dale who had the trailer full of gear. The picture at right shows vintage motor bikes all set to head out of the gate for a fairly slow cruise around the area.

Dale and I were already nearly ten years into our lifelong friendship when we acquired our first motorized transportation. His was an Allstate Mo‑Ped; Mine was a Whizzer. I talk a bit about both vehicles here. I believe Dale’s Mo-Ped was actually much shinier that this example but it never had saddlebags or a windshield. I don’t think either of us knew what a helmet was in those days, either. My Whizzer never looked half as good as those in the picture. That’s a mighty nice looking scaled down replica, too.

Despite the word “motor” in the event’s name, I’m guessing that nearly half of the bikes on the grounds were people-powered. That’s why Dale was there, and the collection in the last picture is the one he brought with him.

Here’s a little better view of the banner at the left of the previous picture. Heart of the City is the name of the bicycle ministry operated by Mission Church Fort Wayne. I stopped by their shop, where Dale and other volunteers repair and recondition bikes for the homeless and inner city’s needy, a few years ago. That’s Dale remounting a wheel after fixing a flat. Orley, another volunteer, was with Dale today but I failed to get a picture. All of the bicycles the two of them brought to the meet are for sale. They are a mixture of Dale’s personal “extras” and some that have been donated to the ministry but aren’t really appropriate for the earn-a-bike program.

This was the first day of the event, and my theory is that most of the traffic was from other participants seeing what everybody else had to offer. Sales were not brisk, but neither were they non-existent. By far the most interesting of the few I witnessed, was this one. I’d noticed this fellow, or at least his hat, during a little walkabout Dale and I did. He is both a collector and an active supporter of some sort of earn-a-bike program in the Detroit area. Some people walked their purchases, and some held a “new” bike’s handlebars to tow it beside the bike they were riding. This guy just slung it over his back and putted away. All that was interesting, of course, but what I thought even more so was the conversation he and Dale had as they roamed among the bikes. With an often foreign vocabulary, they discussed who made what, when they made it, and why this was good and that was bad. I didn’t understand much but I sure did appreciate it. Incidentally, that yellow bike in the first picture is one that Dale fabricated following some Cannondale geometry. There’s a better view here.

Not surprisingly, there were also a few interesting four wheeled vehicles around. We found the Nash woodie on our walkabout. The Amphicar drove by as we sat behind the bikes. As told below, I would see it again in a couple of days.

When this nattily dressed fellow pedaled by, Dale told me that he and his wife Marsha each own a trike like this. He didn’t tell me whether they dress in pure white and wear straw skimmers when they go out riding them but I’m guessing not.
 

The red Amphicar that we saw in Portland, Indiana, is in the front row of this group of Amphicars in Celina, Ohio. On Saturday, during the annual Lake Festival, an attempt was made to break the Guinness Record for the Largest Gathering of Amphicars which stood, and disappointingly still stands, at 75. This group was slightly smaller at 72. I identified the car seen in Portland by its watercraft license number, and spoke briefly with its owners.

Nothing soothes the pain of a near miss on a world record like a splash in the lake, and many of the cars’ owners wasted little time in doing exactly that.  

Trip Peek #71
Trip #6
Bikes & Stuff

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This picture is from my 2002 Bikes & Stuff day trip. It shows the target of the trip which was the Bicycle Museum of America in New Bremen, Ohio. I made a few interesting stops along the way with the most interesting to me personally being a funeral home in Centerville, Ohio. My g-g-g-great grandfather, Benjamin Robbins, was a co-founder of the town and the funeral home is built around the stone house he constructed in the early 1800s. I’d stopped by the house before but this time was different. As I approached the building taking pictures, a door opened and I was invited inside.

Trip Peeks are short articles published when my world is too busy or too boring for a current events piece to be completed in time for the Sunday posting. In addition to a photo thumbnail from a completed road trip, each Peek includes a brief description of that photo plus links to the full sized photo and the associated trip journal.

Allegheny, Monongahela, Ohio, and Nile

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No river actually runs through Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Allegheny and Monongahela flow into the city where they combine to form the Ohio which flows out. On Monday, I drove US-22 from near my home to where that wet magic takes place.

And Willie Nile isn’t a river at all. He’s a rock and roller who is performing in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. I’m here to see that and some of the city too.

This entry is to let blog only subscribers now about the trip and to provide a place for comments. The journal is here.