Thanks for putting this together. I'm a little late to the party. I have been working on moving to DAW from strictly hardware based synthesis since I don't have room for much hardware in my life. DAW is such a different paradigm from hardware, and it seems like everyone else just gets it, while I take classes and, years later, have yet to get a track to completion. Hopefully this community can get a little more lively, and the rising tide will help everyone's digital audio boat.
Sailors know your pain all too well. The key to preventing this is air movement. The less expensive option is some kind of material to put in between your cot and mattress, such as Hypervent Aire-Flow or Dri-Deck. An expensive solution is a Froli System, which has the added benefit of allowing you to tune the firmness for different parts of your body. I have a Froli under all of the bunks on my boat; condensation and mildew are no longer a thing now. But the price is steep.
Cartridge bottom brackets FTW. Shimano no longer makes the UN-54/UN-55, but that was my goto for a very long time. Costs about $16USD and lasts forever. One of my bikes had over 100000 miles/160000km on a single UN-54. That bike saw it all: flooding (immersion), salt, ice, rain, neglect, and "Star Wars Ep 1." It was still smooth and solid when I sold that bike.
To be clear, this bike is not high end by any stretch of the imagination, even for its era. I couldn't afford any of the Reynolds 531 variants in my teens. The 501 is a seamed tubing and this particular frameset isn't butted, although I think that 501 butted tubing was available, just not for the Course. As it sits right now, the bike is just a touch over 9kg. I'm debating taking off the fender, and I'm going to get a better wheelset since these are the original wheels. The freewheel is a Maillard Helicomatic, for which it is difficult to source the parts and proprietary tool.
I was a hater since I gave up my training wheels at four years old. "Bicycles can coast?!"
On my bike rides home from work, I would frequently stop in at the LBS a few blocks from my house and have a pint with them. Then in 2009, the bike shop got in the new model of the Kona Paddy Wagon, and I thought it was sexy AF; too bad it was a fixie. The shop manager offered to buy my next beer if I gave the fixie a try, but I was determined to continue being contemptuous. So just to placate them, I went for a spin.
I wasn't even out of the parking lot, and I knew I was buying this bike. I paid for it on the spot, and one of them employees offered to drop it off for. I was hooked.
Fixies are indeed fun. The simplicity, to me, is the bicycle distilled to its purest form. If one's rides involve a lot of foul weather commuting, a fixie seriously reduces maintenance cost and time. I also like my gears, 3x9 being my absolute favorite. If my road bike can't have ridiculous gear range with a 17 gear-inch wall climber, it ain't no bike of mine! But a fixie is something different.
The inertia carries the drivetrain over top dead center. So climbing huge hills becomes waaaay easier than one might imagine. It might take a bit of iteration to get your gearing dialed for your terrain and to optimize skip patches. But then you're dialed.
I have used my fixie for brevets up to 400km, credit card tours, and even two ultralight bike tours. Most days, I have to carry too much work and errand stuff to fit on a road bike, so I'm usually on my cargo bike these days.
My fixie has brakes, so for me, less strength than JRA. On my snowy ride, stopping the cranks took no effort at all. But keeping the wheels turning acts as a kind of traction control: if the cranks suddenly require less effort, that tells me there's an icy patch under the snow and I need to be extra careful. That surprise blizzard was my very first snow commute where I didn't fall. It was also my first time doing a snow ride on my fixie. Not getting a bunch of speed in the first place helps a bunch.
Now, if you're asking about riding in dry conditions, let 'er rip. I can spin comfortably up to 135 RPM, and have gone up to ~150 RPM with A LOT of pucker. Usually, when descents got to 135, I would take my feet out of the pedals, which is its own kind of bad idea.
Psssh. That chain got nothing and liked it! :D Okay, in all honesty, I would clean and lube the chain when it started making noise. But I would run it down until the chainring and cog were nubbins. Then swap in some new cheap replacement bits every two years or so.
Ice, sand, and salt separately are magical kryptonite to bike bits. Together, they are an anti-bicycle Voltron. There's a very popular trail where I live and the surface is mostly a super fine rock dust that absolutely chews up bicycles. It's so uncannily destructive that it defies comprehension.
Would it be bragging to say that I ride a saddle with zero padding? :D Most of my tires are 32mm or smaller, although I prefer around 35mm. My gravel build is in progress, and that's going to have super plush 40mm tires.
Thank you. I honestly believe I am meant to own and ride this bike.
Port Townsend indeed! If you're doing trails/mountain and gravel, there's so much biking around here given the size. In PT, Cappy's Trails, Fort Worden which has hardpan trails you can take to North Beach. If you're on the Larry Scott Trail/ODT, there are trails to Fort Townsend. If you're feeling really adventurous, you can get from PT to Irondale on a mix of trails and suburban streets, instead of staying on LST/ODT heading south, jump onto Mill Road (near the red #2 on this map: https://www.openstreetmap.org/query?lat=48.02981&lon=-122.80702#map=16%2F48.09329%2F-122.80322&layers=C). Just hold your breath around the ponds at the paper mill. Along those same routes, you can get to HJ Carroll Park, jump across Hwy 19 and spend an afternoon around Anderson Lake.
Another favorite day ride we take is out for Fort Flagler on Marrowstone Island. While the shoulder might be lacking in places, I have always found drivers to be chill and accommodation. Be sure to stop at the newly reopened Nordland Store, which is a fun little place. Once at Fort Flagler, there are all kinds of trails to explore. Some trails require proper tread, but most are hardpan. The slicks on my fast all-arounder had no issue on most of those trails.
Further west on the peninsula past Sequim and PA is mostly an unknown to me. You would definitely know way more about all of it than I. That said, The Broken Spoke in PT could give you tons more rides and routes.
Climbs like a mountain lion, descends like a brick. My average speed over distance was 1.9 MPH faster on the fixie than on my geared road bike, even with the severely capped top speed. Also a lot cheaper to maintain given the 250 miles per week.
That's one way to put it. I tend to use much less kind language to describe my own... bike quirks. :D
My commute was 25 miles each way, 1400 feet (426m) of ascent each way, with no transit option. Last winter, a surprise blizzard rolled in during the week. My ride home took me 2.5 hours, rather than my usual 1:40, but I managed to stay upright the whole ride despite riding on slicks. Fixies and foul weather, better together!
TL;DR: this was my very first road bike, purchased new in 1986, and it came back to me twice.
I bought this new in 1986 after two problematic race seasons on an eighth-hand, hand-me-down Bianchi that fit me poorly. This was my first new bike ever. When I went away to college, I perma-loaned it to my best friend. When he went away to law school, he left it at his parents house, and his evil mother put it out at the curb as a freebie. @#%^&@%^@#$^% No, seriously, she was a horrible person and not just because of the bike.
Twenty years later, I set about trying to replace my lost first love. I had a bunch of alerts set on Craigslist. After about two years of patience, I got a notification for a Batavus Course in NYC; I lived in Portland OR. I contacted the seller, put down a deposit, and bought my plane ticket. I was doubly surprised to find that it was my same bike, same serial number. The bike was in need of some TLC with a lot of paint damage, but was otherwise straight and solid.
I stripped it down and sent it to get repainted with a triple-pearl white. I knew I was going to use Nokon cabling, so I had them color match the pinstriping to the new housing.
Other changes:
When I moved onto my sailboat in 2013, I sold the bike because I couldn't stand the idea of subjecting this bike to the salt air environment. The buyer fell in love immediately, and I was happy that my first love was going to a good home.
Cut to November 2024... the woman who bought the bike got in touch and asked if I wanted my bike back. ABSOLUTELY! It was again in rough shape and poorly maintained, but nothing that couldn't be fixed in an afternoon with a couple beers and some good music. I'm not letting it go this time.
My partner works in a bike shop, and I get to ride all of the top shelf bikes they have. None of them feel like this. I steadfastly believe that modern bikes do everything better, but something is missing. Taking the Batavus out for a sunny day fast ride, it's easy to understand how vintage sports cars are so popular. These old machines might not be the best at cornering, accelerating, and braking, but they just feel so connected and visceral. The Reynolds 501, definitely an entry level tubeset, is flexy, but in all the right places. It feels like love.
Original XP2 is a bit mushy on contrast. Printed on Ilford Multigrade RC Glossy with a 3 1/2 magenta filter to get that sharper contrast.
Fuji SuperG 400 pushed 2 stops sends the saturation into ridiculous range. The overcast day with a lot of skyscraper glass gave the concrete a heavy blue cast. Printed on Fuji Maxima glossy.
Fuji SuperG 400 was my favorite film ever. Pushing it one or two stops sends the reds and greens off the charts into surreal territory with a creamy grain. Printed on Kodak Royal II paper.
This Raleigh Raveino 4.0 is the first road bike my partner ever bought. She used this for everything: touring, triathlons, commuting, grocery getter, and joy rides. It was in desperate need of love and had been sitting neglected in favor of her mountain and gravel bikes. She was making some comments about just giving it away since we don't have space for things we don't use. We recently reached a place in our lives where road biking is back on the table. She wanted a new road bike, but nothing she test rode really spoke to her, regardless of budget. This bike has a lot of sentimental value for her, so I low-key encouraged her to hang onto it. I stealth-asked a bunch of questions about her component preferences with the intent of surprising her with a whole new modern group, but she still holds this bike as her platonic ideal of a general road bike for flogging. No major component changes, got it.
Sorry, I don't have a good pic of before the overhaul.
What was wrong:
What got changed:
Yeah, the pedals are gnarly, but she wanted the old pedals. And I'm waiting for a pack of Fastenal stainless M5 bolts to backfill the braze-ons on the stays.
Her first test ride was a climb up the biggest hill in town and was a resounding success. She's overjoyed!
Wait, isn't this how everyone does WFH lunch?