Made in Somerville: The Joys of a Locally Built Bicycle

I tried to hint at this subtly in previous posts, but judging by some recent conversations I was a toosubtle. So it is time to announce this formally: I am getting a custom bicycle from Royal H. Cycles.




[Customer's bike, detail. Image from Royal H. Cycles]



No, please relax - it is not the track bike mentioned earlier! My Royal H. will be a classic Randonneur-style mixte, inspired by the early French constructeurs: fully lugged, with twin lateral stays and a touring geometry. Even as I write it, I do not really believe it. Yes, it will be utterly glorious, and no, I cannot afford it. But I've been finding some creative ways to scrimp, save, and earn extra cash, and it's all coming together nicely (the deposit system really helps as well!). The frame will be ready in November, and then I will spend the winter fitting it with components. In the springtime, the complete bicycle shall emerge just as the crocuses come into bloom and the swallows sing their song.





However, what I really want to talk about is not the bicycle itself, but the experience of having it custom made by a local framebuilder. As far as "local" goes, you can't really get more local than this: The Royal H. studio (pictured above) is a 5-minute bike ride from my house, so my bicycle is being built in my own neighborhood. There is nothing quite like this.





I met the framebuilder Bryan Hollingsworth through Open Bicycle, after I saw a purple Royal H. bike belonging to one of their customers and was taken with its elegant styling. "Who made that?" I asked. And the rest was history. I met Bryan in person, discussed my ideas with him, and it was immediately clear that he understood exactly what I was talking about and would enjoy making it. It was an exciting, high-energy first meeting and in the end I had no doubt that this person was the right framebuilder for me. This might seem trite, but it can be very helpful for the framebuilder to get a good sense of the customer's individual style by interacting with them. And getting a sense of your individual style will enable them to use their creativity to make a truly personalised bicycle.





The proximity of Royal H. has also allowed me the unique opportunity to visit my frame at various stages of completion, watch it develop, and give Bryan feedback to any questions or new ideas that came up. I have held the different parts of my frame in my hands before it was a frame - the lugs, the tubes, the dropouts, the little braze-ons! - and I watched Bryan arrange them on his drawing-board. This was a thrilling experience, and it has deepened my sense of connectedness to this bicycle. It is definitely my frame, I was there as it evolved! Thanks to Bryan's generous narration about his process, I have also learned a bit about how bicycles are built in the meantime.





To add a few words about Bryan Hollingsworth himself: For the past three years, he has been a framebuilder for Seven Cycles, where, interestingly enough, he specialises in carbon fiber frames. Recently Bryan has branched out into a private frame building practice and started Royal H., with a focus on classic lugged steel bicycles. The art nouveau aesthetic of his work appeals to me very much, and I often find myself admiring his frames even when the bicycle is completely inappropriate for me - like the cream track bike I mentioned earlier.




[Track bike detail. Image from Royal H. Cycles]



And notice how simple everything here is: No over-the-top lugwork, no eccentric curvature, just a classic, minimalist track frame. But to me, it stands out from other track frames.





Of course my mixte will look very different from the cream track bike, but it will have a similar art nouveau aesthetic and, hopefully, the same feel of understated elegance.





My frame is a fairly complicated one, and there are many special things about it that you will not see on any other bicycle (like these custom dropouts!). Bryan has impressed me on more than one occasion with his ability to combine innovative solutions with classic looks, and I will no doubt dedicate several future posts to boring you with the technical details and pornographic close-ups of my bicycle. But not to worry, that won't be for another couple of months.




[Customer's bike, detail. Image from Royal H. Cycles]



In the meanwhile, I encourage you to get to know your local framebuilders, or to find independent framebuilders in an area of the country that has personal meaning for you. Boston, Massachusetts holds a special place in the history of bicycle manufacturing since the late 1800's, and Somerville in particular was home to several legendary builders, including Fat City Cycles and Merlin Metal Works in the 1980s and '90s. In fact, the Union Square neighborhood where Open Bicycle and Royal H. are located was the former home of these manufacturers. Today, the Boston area boasts famed artisanal framebuilders such as Peter Mooney and Mike Flanigan, the internationally renown Seven Cycles and Independent Fabrications, the innovative Geekhouse, and attention-worthy young builders including Icarus and Royal H. When the context and history of your bicycle's production are meaningful to you, owning it will feel truly special. I plan to have future posts dedicated to local framebuilders, to the framebuilding process, and to the history of bicycle manufacturing in Boston, and I hope that these will be of interest.

Sapsucker holes

Sapsucker holes in cedar

Edited to say:
Here's what a yellow-bellied sapsucker looks like. One of these days I might get lucky and get a good bird picture... but not today.

According to most sources, a sapsucker's drilling usually does not harm trees.

Happy Birthday, Austin!

Today was Austin's 16th birthday. He has been looking forward to this one for a long time! Happy Birthday son!



Our sweet pickleball friend, Charlotte, has a birthday only a few days from Austin's so we had to celebrate with her too. Unfortunately I forgot to snap a picture before we ate the cake, but at least we still had the writing left for this picture.

Redbud Tree Blossoms

the redbud tree is one of my favorite trees. They have these tiny, pinkish-purple blossoms in late spring. There are clusters of thousands of the pretty little blooms that sort of look like tiny orchids. The bees flock to them so they must be very sweet and loaded with pollen.

Special Sunday Drive

I haven't been blogging due to an unfortunate laptop and hard drive death that has me grieving for a few days and then working hard to get my new laptop set up the way I want it for several more days. I did grab the camera yesterday and determined to blog our Sunday drive.



This one was extra special because Nathan got to pick what he wanted to do in honor of his 46th birthday that is happening in a few days.



We headed out bright and early and started out towards a new destination. New to us at least. We stopped at our local raw honey supplier first.



We encountered a neat little plane that flew right in front of us, very low to the ground. Since we were in the country and there were no cars, Nathan stopped long enough for him to do another pass in front of us.



Then we passed one of FPL's power plants.



We passed the really neat Railroad Museum that the guys took the kids on the hobo train ride while Diana and I did scrapbooking together.



If anyone who knows this area has not figured out where we were going yet, the next few clues should give it away. We went on a very cool bridge. That is even cooler when driving with the convertible top down.





And we landed here:



We spent the whole day there, visiting the Sunken Gardens, eating a special dinner and then heading over to Fort De Soto county park. We some some really special things while at the park, but I'll have to share that later because I have far too many pictures and words to fit them all in one blog post. We had a great Sunday drive and Nathan said his pre-birthday celebration day was wonderful.

Awesome Lightning!

This evening an incredible series of thunderstorms rolled across Grand Portage Bay between 9:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. It was some of the most intense lightning I've ever seen in this area. I photographed the lightning for almost 3 hours from my boat shed on the Lake Superior shoreline. The image above was a 9 second exposure, with an aperture of f8 and the ISO set at 200. I got really lucky on the image below, as the lightning flashed almost immediately after I hit the button on the remote shutter release, and it was a very bright flash so I hit the button again right after the flash. It ended up being only a one second exposure!

Pickleball at Mulberry and Bunco at Sea Breeze

Donna has been driving up to our "end" of The Villages in the morning, so she and I can play pickleball at Mulberry. I'm thrilled at this because it means an extra hour of sleep for me. The more we play there, the more I'm getting to know people and really enjoying playing with them. I haven't snapped any pictures there yet, but maybe in the next day or two.



After pickleball, we headed out to Bunco yesterday. We went down to Sea Breeze and it was a very large group. Donna and I both won drawings and Donna won the lucky combo. I like the group there. They are a fun group to play with.



We both grabbed some pictures of Sea Breeze while there. I love this rec center. It is one of my favorites by far.



Since I was using the camera on my phone, my pictures are not good at all. I have to remember to bring my big camera some time.




You can still get the feel of how pretty and relaxing this place is. I see Donna posted a link to a video where you can take a better look, so I'm going to do the same: Sea Breeze




After I got back home and we ate dinner, Nathan and I headed back down to the pickleball courts to play with just the two of us. I really missed Donna and the other ladies there, that's for sure! We are much kinder and more encouraging to each other than the guys who take the game very seriously. The weather was perfect while we were there! It is the nicest the weather has been since we have arrived in The Villages. We are still loving our time here. In fact, we are feeling quite torn between traveling next year and coming back to The Villages and staying longer next year. I guess we'll just have to see which one grabs us the most! Living the life in beautiful Florida!

Sun in Smoke

I tried several different shutter speeds and setting trying to get a shot of the sun with all the smoke in front of it to come out the firey red that it looked like to me, but it just wouldn't come out.

Laganas Main Strip Nightlife

Dutchman and I are getting old, we have stopped doing the nightlife scene, like, really. Every time we go on holiday together especially during our yearly summer holiday where parties abound on the beaches, we tend to just shun nightlife and crawl back to our room or retreat to a quiet lounge.

Being in our 40s, parties are not anymore our thing. The noise becomes too much. The crowd unbearable. Everyone else on the dance floor looks half our age? And we can’t imagine drinking even just until midnight. You know, the list goes on...

Laganas main strip though is one healthy party place. Its where the kids who want to throw a bash here or two should go to. And it’s the place where people our age and older avoid, lol.

Anywho, we are not totally spoilsports, we did pass by the party scene and a cool very busy bar caught our attention—‘Club Zero Zante’ bar and discotheque. It was full of giddy kids wearing the same thing. It’s like the sequel to Sensation White in Laganas, Zakynthos—Greek Sensation Orange.

Club Zero Zante. Orange. Blue. White.

Anywho, I didn’t really have wild stories to report. UNFORTUNATELY. Sorry!

More blog entries about Zakynthos to come though.

Sea World Orlando

Today we had a great day at Seaworld with Diana, Lauren, Josh and Zoe.

Little Butterfly

Fount this little butterfly on one of my flowers the day before it got so cold last weekend. I know he is gone now. I see these off and on but this is first time I have ever been able to get a photo of one. They are only about a half inch in length. Flower was about 2 inches across.

Dead Tree

This dead tree was right outside the gift shop and made an interesting photo.

Exit Thursdays Gritscone ..

With our fearless leader Sammy out of town, we still had three people ready to go. Like previous weeks, we were to meet at the Park and Ride at 5pm. I arrived with Amy already waiting in the lot. After a few moments, she got a call from Greg stating he was stuck at work. She talked to her friend Dave to see if he was coming and he stated he would be arriving later after picking up his buddy.

Amy and I headed out with the intent of choosing an area en route and then relaying that information to Dave and Greg. We decided to go to the Gritscone since we did not have a guidebook. We knew the routes there and that they could easily be top-roped.

When we got there, we set about climbing the 5.7 route (So Funny I Forgot to Rope Up) on the far right to warm up. Amy and I both led it and then went to the left side to climb the 5.6 and 5.7 over there. I led the 5.7 (Snaffle Baffler) and Amy followed. She then led Lucky Arms (5.6) and I followed. By this time Dave and his friend arrived. They started with Chica Rapida (5.10a) and worked their way through the harder routes.

Amy climbing 99Grit

Amy and I went right again and did the same, although through lower grades. We both led Pete's Possum Palace (5.7) and then I led 99 Grit (5.9) and Amy followed. To finish the evening, I led Chica Rapida where I had to hang a bit on the third bolt to figure out the following moves. Amy followed the route and we called it a night.

Cleaning the anchors on Chica Rapida

It was nice to get out again on Thursday evening. It was interesting to get back to the Gritscone. I had climbed there only once before, and that was when I first started to lead. So I got to do a whole bunch of routes that I hadn't done previously and remembered why it isn't so fun to climb at the Grtiscone. Lots of dirty, mossy, pine needled holds. Being in the trees, it also does not lend itself to climbing in the evenings as it is already a darker place. While I lead 5.9 and 5.10 in other locations, last night marked the first time where I have led a 5.9 or 5.10 at Exit 38. I finally think I am overcoming the difficulties I have with climbing there.

Charleston SC From My Window

Although we already left here, I wanted to share a few shots from this fabulous city that I took on Sunday. I loved this city. We have already put this on our list of places to come and stay in!

Arlington :: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

The Changing of the Guard.
Impressive. Meticulous. Solemn. Ceremonial.
Photos taken Sunday October 11, ..