To the southern folk out there

[Mark Reimer]

Enjoy yourselves down there. But please, don't make us Northern folk feel too bad with photos of beaches and short sleeves. At least not until we get used to the change. It's going to be a long winter...

[cyclot...@gmail.com]

Why is your sand that light color?

[Ron Mc]

I think that's the fallout.  

[cyclot...@gmail.com]

"And a strange dust lands on your hands"

[Deacon Patrick]

What's really concerning is it vaporizes when you breathe it in. Who knows what that does to us? No one says anything about it, so it must be pretty bad! Increased nasal discharge is only the beginning of the horrible effects, I'll warrant. Sardonic grin.

With abandon,

Patrick

[Edwin W]

I may be in the south, but today I could not, I say could not get my rear brake to work on my Yuba as I was biking my kids to school. I got home and fiddled around with it and aha! the brake cable had accumulated a bit of water and had frozen. That is not supposed to happen down here.

Cold snappin' in Nashville,

Edwin

[dougP]

Looks like a properly shod Atlantis can handle it. 

David, don't you dare post a link to photos from last weekend.  We'll get kicked off the list :-).

dougP

On Tuesday, November 18, 2014 10:51:34 AM UTC-8, Mark Reimer wrote:

[Jim Bronson]

Actually Sunday night some areas only about 40-50 miles north of Austin, TX here got a light dusting of snow.  It hasn't been warm lately down here either.  The weekend looks warmer, but with high probabilities of rain :(

On Tue, Nov 18, 2014 at 12:51 PM, Mark Reimer <markn...@gmail.com> wrote:

Enjoy yourselves down there. But please, don't make us Northern folk feel too bad with photos of beaches and short sleeves. At least not until we get used to the change. It's going to be a long winter...

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Keep the metal side up and the rubber side down!

[Goshen Peter]

25 out now with a windchill of 10,i got your light dusting right here! Jk  😉

[Bill Lindsay]

"And a strange dust lands on your hands"

I think I detect an epic MOZ-drop there.  Let's see if I can get the next line:

"and on your face, on your fay-hay-hace..."

Bill "share some grease tea with me" Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

[cyclot...@gmail.com]

Cancellin' shows in a neighborhood near you!

[Mobile Bill]

Looks like Wednesday morning it will be about 10 to 15 degrees colder on the Gulf Coast than it is in Anchorage. Wish y'all could keep it where it belongs.

[cyclotourist]

Looks like it was an absolutely frigid weekend: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cyclotourist/15622928030/in/set-72157647014127884

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Cheers,
David

Member, Supreme Council of Cyberspace

"it isn't a contest. Just enjoy the ride." - Seth Vidal

[Mark Reimer]

Frigid? That looks absolutely perfect! 15C can't be beat, in my opinion. I'd way rather go for a cool ride followed with camping in pants and flannel shirts than sweat it out in the summer heat. Enjoy!

On my side of things, I just picked up a -30C sleeping bag yesterday... stay tuned for some VERY cold overnight reports 

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[Bill Lindsay]

Whatever it takes to keep your fAtlantis out there where it belongs.  That bike is BUTCH

[Pondero]

To the northern folk out there...keep up the great work of getting out there in in the weather and document with photos, its quite entertaining.  Oh yeah, please don't let that frigid air spill across state boundaries.

Thanks.

Chris Johnson

Sanger, Texas 

[David Hays]

Did manage to get a banana run in on Univega but had trouble keep ing the bike in a straight line and upright and the Big Apples kept finding ice underneath and moving sideways 6" unexpectedly.

David Hays

Kenmore, New York

Ridgeway, Ontario

[Tim Gavin]

I rode to work today.  It was 22 degrees Fahrenheit at 6 am, with a light quartering tailwind; not too shabby.  About an inch of snow but the streets and path were 90% clear.  The temp hasn't risen above freezing since the snowfall on Saturday, so only a little ice on the pavement.  That said, I put studded tires on for the duration.

My Riv (and other bikes) are stored in the basement for the winter.  I don't ride non-studded because ice is pervasive, sneaky, and a wipeout can happen without warning.  Studded tires sound cool on the pavement; I'm cool with purposeful noise on a bike (but not noisy hubs).

I rode my Schwinn KOM with 26 x 1.9" (559 - 50) Nokian Mount & Ground tires last year, and I concur with Peter White that they're a good all-around winter tire for commuting.  They have enough tread for snow and enough studs for ice, but not an excess of either.  But they're still heavy and slow; I noticed a huge increase in effort compared to my favorite micro-knobby tires.  ~250g heavier per tire, but tons more rolling resistance.  This year I have a new winter rig, so I loaned those tires to my girlfriend.

This year, I got a discount (I started working at my LBS as a part-time second job) so I splurged on a new Specialized Fatboy, and Dillinger 5 (~4.4") studded tires.  Speaking of an excess of tread and studs!  But they don't feel that much slower than the stock Specialized 4.6" knobbies.

Riv content:  Crane bell, German mirror.  Riv-inspired: handlebar bag, rack and panniers, fenders, and reflective tape!

(sorry for the low quality pics; just a phone camera on hand today)

Now the only thing holding me back is my will.  It was a nice ride today!  I may take the long way home (20 miles to include the Sac & Fox trail, vice 9 miles direct).

If anyone wants to chat about the fat bike, maybe PM me?  The Riv list isn't a fat bike list, I understand that.

Cheers,

Tim Gavin

Cedar Rapids, IA

[Mark Reimer]

After trying a whole range of tires in the winter, from skinny slicks to fat MTB tires, I'm convinced that the best allrounder winter tires are mild-tread CX tires. I rode Challenge Grifo XS file treads for two winters, running around 27-30 PSI (I weigh 150lb and don't carry much with me beyond a tube, pump and lock most of the time) and had amazing traction on everything but deep loose snow. The side knobs really grabbed on packed trails, and it's obviously great on pavement. I find low-pressure file treads are the best thing on ice next to studs (the key is low pressure, low as you can go! I'd hit the rim all the time but have never flatted in winter once in over 5 years of daily riding). I'm not a fan of studded tires anyway, so this works well for me. 

The sad thing is that the tires only lasted one season before the cold would inevitably destroy the sidewalls. They're very delicate tires I guess, and just couldn't handle the weather. I tried Conti and Vittoria versions but they aren't nearly as good in the cold. The rubber gets hard, almost like plastic, and skates all over.

Lately I've been riding Nano 2.1s on the Fatlantis, but so far I can't say they are good at all. They are way to fat. Fat tires don't cut through the upper layer of loose snow that is often blowing around on the side of the roads here. Instead I start to plane on top and loose control. It's like riding in deep sand. I like a tire skinny as it will cut through the loose stuff and bite into the firm ground underneath. The Rock n Roads are pretty good in winter though, seems to be about the limit in width.

Anyway, I'm not actually sad about winter arriving. I love riding in winter! Most of the time. 

--

[Mike S]

Big ups for the Morrissey reference!

On Tuesday, November 18, 2014 11:15:10 AM UTC-8, cyclot...@gmail.com wrote:

[Mike S]

And I link to YouTube videos with abandon. It's Natalie Merchant doing a nice job with that, live.

On Tuesday, November 18, 2014 11:15:10 AM UTC-8, cyclot...@gmail.com wrote:

[lungimsam]

Is Maryland a northern or southern state? I think they were with the Union during the civil war.

[Ron Mc]

Maryland is up by Texarkana - we don'/t consider that south.  We've had a week of chill, with lows into the 20s.  I managed to get a window Sunday morning for a 30-mi ride.  It was breaking 50 but the 95% humidity was fairly penetrating (still better than summer here).  Met a guy with a Rivendell custom at my halfway stop.  I don't think they had it so good, though, because it was raining right after I got home.  We're expecting clear and sunny this Sunday into the mid 70s.  All through winter we will get a weekend into the 70s every month.  

[Eunice Chang]

Some believe the North/South designations are designated by Mason-Dixon line. As in "there's no good sweet tea or grits" above the mason-dixon line.

Maryland is just right below the mason-dixon line, and therefore "southern."

In reality, it doesn't matter as all of 50 states (even Hawaii) were below freezing Monday night!

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/11/18/all-50-states-have-below-freezing-temperatures/

-E.

On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 6:57 AM, lungimsam <john1...@gmail.com> wrote:

Is Maryland a northern or southern state? I think they were with the Union during the civil war.

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[Ron Mc]

It's a Texas thing - it's jokes - Canada is up by Dalhart, Ohio is a northern county.  After all, it's 900 miles to get across Texas, either N-S or E-W.  

[Tim Gavin]

The Mason-Dixon line, aka the Waffle House line.  No Waffle Houses north of the M-D line.  I'm a Yankee from Iowa, but I prefer Waffle House to IHOP.  Mmmm, pecan waffles...

I'm not the first to make this observation.  http://www.theonion.com/articles/masondixon-line-renamed-ihopwaffle-house-line,9630/

Other foods I miss from the South:  Good BBQ, in its many regional variants.  Cajun cuisine.  Fresh seafood, especially Gulf shrimp.  Beans & rice.  Cheese grits.  Bananas Foster.  Beignets.  Muffalettas.

I flew as a flight instructor based in Pensacola, FL, and we made fuel stops all over the south.  Often, the choice for where to stop was based on what local food was available.  Typical phone call: "Hello, Lake Charles Flight Service?  You're serving Crawfish Etoufee today?  Sweet, we'll be there in a couple hours."

However, when I lived in the south, I couldn't get: Good sweet corn (Iowa's is tops).  German food.  And usually their green veggies were swimming in pork grease.

And I never understood how there are probably twice as many ice cream shops (per capita) in the North compared to the South?  I mean, it's warm down there so you'd think ice cream would sell well.  Go figure.

-Tim

[Goshen Peter]

Hell when I lived in South Carolina they spoke of those uppity damn Yankees in Charlotte and in most of NC, haha. I really miss shrimp and grits, steampots, fresh steamed crawfish and of course mustard bbq, the best hands down.

--

[Ron Mc]

We can really get a fight started if we bring on BBQ.  

This is Smitty's Market in Lockhart.  

Sauce?  We dun need no sauce  

But you better bring your knife, or everyone will know you're not from here

[Goshen Peter]

Oh no Ron, lets keep it friendly and agree that Kansas style is the worst at least?

[Ron Mc]

Last time I was in Kansas, they tried to feed me Mexican food.  I go south to eat Mexican food.  

[Tim Gavin]

No no no.  Kansas City style is decent; at least it's proper "BBQ".  Meaning, it's slow smoked.  I had some great BBQ at Arthur Bryant's and Oklahoma Joe's on my last trip to KC.

I also love west Texas spicy BBQ brisket, Carolina Gold, tart Virginia style, smoky Alabama style, Tenessee dry rub, et al.

Growing up in Iowa, I was introduced to Iowan "BBQ".  Meaning:  un-smoked chicken or beef roast, cooked in a crock pot with syrupy sweet store-bought (often Cookie's) "barbecue sauce", then scooped onto white bread buns like a sloppy joe.

That is the worst style, by far.  Un-BBQ!  Church lady BBQ!

There are now a couple decent BBQ joints up here, with proper smokers, usually started by southern emigrants.

But then, smoked BBQ is traditionally a method to prepare sub-standard cuts of meat and keep them moist.  In Iowa (a top pork producer), we get the pick of the pig that doesn't need to be smoked.  I never saw all the other parts (jowls, feet, neck, etc) until I visited the South!

Tim Gavin

Cedar Rapids, IA

[Steve Palincsar]

On 11/20/2014 04:18 PM, Tim Gavin wrote:

But then, smoked BBQ is traditionally a method to prepare sub-standard cuts of meat and keep them moist. 

Are you talking about USDA quality and yield grades below "Standard", i.e., Commercial grade and Utility, Cutter and Canner grade?
http://www.meatgrades.com/

[Ron Mc]

Between Lockhart, Luling and Llano, we have the 5 best BBQ stop on the planet, so I don't have to go very far.  

Here's a little of my own, venison flanks and backstrap

  

yes, anything after two days on the smoker is wonderful, goat, javelina, and it's next to impossible to beat a good sirloin roast off the smoker.  

[Chris Chen]

mmmmmmmmmm

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"I want the kind of six pack you can't drink." -- Micah

[Jim Bronson]

I like to go to Gates in KC and get a "pound an" in other words a
sandwich with 1.5 lbs of brisket on it, and also some burnt ends and
baked beans.

KC is hickory sauce BBQ, whereas down here in Texas it's vinegar and
mesquite. Of course in Carolina it's mustard, and BBQ is pork.

Lockhart is all about BBQ as Ron mentioned, they have like 4 BBQ
places in about a 10 block radius. I like it because it's less
pretentious than the popular places like the Salt Lick and County Line
in Austin. Plus you can ride your bike to Lockhart without fearing
for your life. I would never ride my bike on the roads to the Salt
Lick, too many drunk cowboys in trucks and SUVs, and no shoulder.

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Keep the metal side up and the rubber side down!

[Jim Bronson]

I've only spit watermelon seeds in Luling.  What bbq places are good there?

I haven't been out to Llano since the 90s.  My first wife had family in Brady, so we used to go through Llano a few times a year.

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[Chris Chen]

Llano is okay, Cooper's is there, the brisket is pretty good. But for real Central Texas BBQ my heart rests in Lockhart, in Smitty's Market.

There's a family feud there, but I love walking back to the pit at Smitty's. Top notch.

I left Texas in 1999 but maaaaaan if you're driving the Austin-Bergstrom it's just so easy to make a wrong turn and end up in Lockhart, and miss your flight.

You know? :)

[Goshen Peter]

That is a nice smoker Ron. I have the big boy webber with smoker box attached inside, not as much capacity as you but ribs out of mine after 7 hours are amazing. We are lucky to have a few smokehouses in the summer locally, one in riding distance I went to all to often this summer, haha.

[Eric Platt]

Okay, I found Steve's comment extremely funny.  Mainly as my wife has worked for USDA for 25+ years.

Eric Platt

St. Paul, MN

[Ron Mc]

Luling City Market and Smittys Market in Lockhart seem to polarize people about which is The best - they're both great, but I'm a Smitty's fan, partly because I used to eat there when they didn't offer plastic silverware - there was a pullpit with a butcher knife on a chain and if you didn't bring your knife, you had to cut your meat there.  

[ascpgh]

Really come to love the BBQ I was lucky to enjoy when I lived and went to school in Arkansas, sort of crossroads between a lot of the mentioned styles so far. 

Memphis was always a destination in the spring for the Memphis in May BBQ competition. The local place I always visit is Charlie Vergo's Rendezvous. The best way to describe how to get there is to go to the Peabody Hotel lobby bar (patronize or not), watch the duck master march the ducks from the large lobby fountain, along the red carpet rolled out for them, to the elevator and their evening trip to their rooftop aviary. When returning your empty to the bar, ask how to ge tot the Rendezvous. They'll point to the door that, when you exit it, will have you in eyeshot of the door a half block away leading down the stairs to the BBQ restaurant. 

Andy Cheatham

Pittsburgh (after several locations "down there")

[Ron Mc]

my cousin used to be the head graphic artist for the Memphis newspaper and their publishing concern.  He won in the Memphis competition a couple of times.  But around here, pulled pork is carnitas en chile rojo, and I much prefer it that way.  

[Edwin W]

You say "of course in Carolina it's mustard." I would say that Mustard sauce is popular in the Columbia, SC, area, but the dominant theme in the Carolinas is pulled pork with a vinegar-based sauce. My family is from the Pee Dee region of SC, and that's what we tend to.

Edwin

[Ron Mc]

Steve is right that BBQ originated as way to make cheap cuts of meat palatable for farm hands and migrant workers.  In Texas, it was German butchers smoking brisket for the migrant field hands.  The classic Texas BBQ market is in fact a meat market selling prime cuts, whole fresh vegetables and smoked meats on the side.  You skinny up to the counter, buy some meat, a tomato and an onion, it's handed to you wrapped in butcher paper.  You grab a Big Red from the cooler, and you're on your own from there.  Hope you brought a knife.  One of the best I grew up with was Menger Creek Market in Boerne, but alas, they went by the wayside after 100 years.  It was a shame to see them go.  

People travel from near and far to line up at Smitty's.  

  

The other thing we have in the Texas hill country is smoked and dried Alsatian sausage.  I'm a connoisseur of the stuff.  The best is Riverside Market in Boerne and a very close second is Dziuk's Meat Market in Castroville - this is their venison

Keeps forever (gets better with age), easy to haul, and makes a great fishing, kayaking or biking lunch.  

http://www.dziuks.com/shop/beef-pork-dried-sausage