Truss Lust!

[image via ANT]



There is never a shortage of gorgeous ANT bicycles to fantasize about, and my latest obsession is the striking Truss Bike. This design is modeled after the original Truss Bridge Bicycle built by Iver Johnson in 1910, which in turn was modeled after the truss arch bridge.



[image viafixedgeargallery]

The original Iver Johnson bicycles were builtin Fitchburg, MA.The truss frame was available as a "racer" or a "roadster", as you can see in the cataloghere.



[image via oldbike.eu]

Iver Johnson was an interesting man who also made handguns, among other things. The truss bridge bicycle frame design is generally credited to him.



[image via oldbike.eu]

However, there was also La Labor - a French bicycle manufacturer that seems to have built a similar truss frame at around the same time. There have not been any truss patent wars between the two, as far as I know.



[image via Ahearne Cycles]

Another contemporary remake of the truss: a randonneur from Ahearne Cycles. Stunning workmanship, and I love the colour - although I never thought I would say this, but there is too much lugwork going on here for me. To my eye, it seems that the truss frame is best shown off with clean TIG-welding, without lugs. This is possibly the only bicycle design of which I would say that.



[image via John Grinder]

And here is an ultra-modern interpretation by John Grinder. This is a welded 29er mountain bike with sloping top tube and derailleur gearing. Certainly not your everyday mountain bike!



[image via oldbike.eu]

If anybody out there is knowledgeable about truss bridge bicycles and their history, I would love to know what the original purpose of the design was: Was the intention for it to withstand extreme stress during races? Or was it meant for loaded transport cycling, like the double top tube? I am also interested in whether the original was welded or lugged; from the pictures it is difficult to tell.



I am glad that this classic but eccentric bicycle design has been resurrected by several excellent builders. If you have a truss bike, what is it like to own and ride? "Jim the mechanic" at Harris Cyclery has an ANT Truss Bike in a deep red, but I missed the opportunity to properly photograph his, so stunned I was by the bicycle's beauty!

Hot Time to Climb

For the first time this season the freezing level is rising above 14,500 feet. This means earlier starts for summit attempts. Get up and out of high camp so you're back before the mid-afternoon heat. The high pressure should be around all weekend and into the early part of next week. Groups of excited climbers were out enjoying their first tan of the season Saturday morning. Here is a photo of the sun rising over the Cowlitz. Notice the sun cups starting to form in the bottom of the photo. If you look closely you can see Camp Muir to the left of the climber's head lamp (Photo by Brian Scheele). Come take advantage of this great early summer weather.

Trompe L'Oeil Lugwork

Having mentioned the idea of doing this as a joke some time ago, imagine my delight when I saw it in the wild: trompe l'oeil lugwork! Standing in the parlor of local pickelleur (randonneuring Dill Pickle bag maker) Emily O'Brien, when I first saw the bike across the room the illusion looked quite real. I figured it was an old beater frame, with the lugs spray painted to contrast the tubes. Then I got closer and realised the lugs looked unusually flat, and finally it hit me: They'd been cut out of tape and wrapped around the welded frame joints.






And lest you think this project is only about the fabulous looks, it does have practical merit: The tape is reflective. Just imagine the beautiful lugs glowing in the dark... A fun DIY idea to spruce up a boring frame in any event.








Apparently I am not the only one to have been fooled from a distance, as cyclists stop Emily all the time to ask about the interesting bike, usually assuming it is something vintage and Italian. Any guess as to what this bike is? Hint 1: It's a ubiquitous modern steel bike. Hint 2: The fork crown is lugged for real.

Snowshoeing Reservation River

It seems the flurry of snow storms that we were getting throughout December have stopped. The temps have dropped a little bit but are still quite tolerable. In fact, its perfect weather for snowshoeing! Over the past couple of days I've been snowshoeing along Reservation River, which runs nearly parallel to the western boundary of the Grand Portage Reservation. Its not a very big river valley, but is nonetheless very beautiful and is a great place to spend some time exploring.




One of the neat things about this area is that its littered with game trails on both sides of the river. One can scarcely walk more than 100 feet without a deer or rabbit trail crossing your path. The chickadees and woodpeckers also seem to love the Reservation River valley. I made a path that follows the eastern bank of the river for a while, then drops down into the valley and goes out onto the river itself. The trail then follows right on top of the river for a ways before climbing back up the hill onto the ridge on the eastern bank and looping back around to the first part of the trail. Its great fun and one of my favorite places to snowshoe!

Bubble Reflection

My reflection in a bubble on Hollow Rock Creek. I was out photographing some small waterfalls on the creek and watching all these bubbles float by. After watching them for a moment I realized that the trees and sky were reflecting in the bubbles. When I stood up and looked straight down on the bubbles, I could see my reflection as well. I decided to have some fun with it :-)

Cars - A Necessary Evil

When Jasia announced the topic of this edition of the COG, I'll have to admit that I cringed a bit. Cars have never been a "big" thing in my family. They were pretty much seen as a necessary evil, a utilitarian object required to get from one place to another. So much so, that I don't think that I have even one photograph of any of our cars. Well, that is, except for the one below, and several others of cars that were involved in accidents in which the cars were totaled. Those pictures aren't pretty and my brother and I were fortunate to walk away from the accidents uninjured with only a few bruises and scratches. I had a love-hate relationship with many of my cars. However, several other, more favorable, incidents involving cars and my family came crawling out of the recesses of my mind.


One of the earliest cars that I remember my family owning was the Nash Rambler. And, of course, we all absolutely adored the song "Beep Beep" when it came out in 1958. I wonder if that guy ever got his car out of second gear? It was a nice car though a bit small for a growing family. It was a bit crowded when we were all riding in it at the same time.

We lived out in the country, about 10 miles from the largest town (Warsaw) and nearest movie theatre. All of us (Mom, Dad, and 4 kids) would drive into Warsaw every Saturday to get groceries and once in a great while we would be treated to a movie. The Saturday Matinee at the Lake Theatre was a special event. We'd get a big bag of popcorn and a large pop to share. On this particular day it was "101 Dalmatians" that was showing, the original animated version, so it would have been 1961. Don't know why but that has stuck with me through the years. It is really irrelevant to the story. Anyway, the movie was over and we left the theatre. It was early evening and the street lights had just come on, shedding an eerie green light over everything which changed colors so they didn't look like they usually did. We were all excited and talking about the movie as we piled into our car. Dad put the key in the ignition and turned it, but nothing happened. The car wouldn't start. It was then that we started noticing that something wasn't quite right. We had gotten into the wrong car! We quickly got out and strolled down the block a little ways where we found our car, right where we had left it.

When my brother got out of the Navy in the spring of 1968, he bought a Chevrolet Corvair convertible. I don't remember the details but one day, for some reason, he wanted to go into North Webster, probably to hang out with some friends, and didn't want to leave his car in town. So he wanted me to take him in. Mom was at work so his was the only car available since I didn't have my own car at that time. Problem was, the Corvair was a stick shift, and I had only driven cars with an automatic transmission. No problem, he said, he'd teach me! And so he drove the car to the field out back of the house, I slid into the driver's seat and we chugged and jerked our way around that field until I could smoothly get the car out of one gear and into the next. And that is how I learned to drive a car with a manual transmission.

The first new car that I owned, and subsequently fell in love with, was an American Motors Hornet Hatchback. I spent the year 1973 in Iceland, at the Keflavik Naval Air Station, and one of the "perks" that I took advantage of at the end of my tour of duty was a discount on the purchase of a new car. I remember spending hours going over the various brochures that were provided. Sure, I wanted a car that looked nice, performed well, was dependable, etc. But most of all I wanted something that I could travel well with. Something that would even allow me to sleep in the car, if necessary. Billed as "a sports car with room to travel in" the AMC Hornet Hatchback seemed to fit my needs and also happened to fall within my budget!

The car was delivered to a dealership in Elkhart where I picked it up while I was on leave in January 1974. It was metallic blue, and beautiful. Over the next three years that car, dubbed "Old Blue," and I criss-crossed the United States several times. From northern Indiana to Florida, then to California, then to Rochester, New York, back to Indiana, back to California, and various places in-between. I just couldn't bear to part with the car in 1977 when I was transferred to Japan so it was put in storage for two years. The car was paid for. It had a lot of miles put on it but had been taken care of quite well and was in good shape. I figured it would be cheaper to pay for storage than to have to buy a new car when I returned.

A friend stationed at Point Mugu retrieved the car from storage and prepared it for my return. When I picked up the car in May 1979 it was as good as new, better even, since I didn't have car payments to make! That summer was, without a doubt, the best summer of my life and a journey I'll always remember. After a quick trip to San Diego to visit friends I headed north, along the coast highway, taking plenty of time before finally reaching friends in the Seattle, Washington area. To say that I took advantage of the fold-down back seats for sleeping would be an understatement. I lived in "Old Blue" that summer. Eventually, I made my way back to Indiana in time to start the fall semester at Indiana State University in Terre Haute.

Old Blue got me through school and held up well for a few more years. But during the winter of 1984 the heater quit working, which meant the windows couldn't be defrosted. And with winters in northern Indiana being what they are, I really needed a heater and defroster. When I took it in to get it checked out I was told that it would cost more to repair than the car was worth. So, it was with great sadness that I traded in Old Blue and purchased my next car. When the dealer looked at the odometer and saw that it said a bit over 80,000 miles he was impressed. "Wow, a ten year old car with only 80,000+ miles, and in great shape." For a moment the thought went through my mind, maybe I shouldn't tell him the actual mileage. But then, honesty, or perhaps some thoughts of bragging rights, came over me and he was astounded when I told him it actually had 180,000+ miles. Needless to say, the trade-in value plummeted, and I got next to nothing for Old Blue. Nothing except a lot of very good memories. And those are priceless.

I tend to hang on to cars until the very end. I'm on my third vehicle since Old Blue, a Chevy Cavalier, also a hatchback style, but without a name, that I've had for eight years now and it's getting close to 140,000 miles. It too has been a good, faithful car but the miles that have been put on it haven't been nearly as much fun as those with Old Blue.

Somewhere in my boxes of pictures I would like to think that I have a photo of Old Blue, but I haven't found it yet, and a picture isn't really needed for me to remember. But this picture shows what she looked like.

While trying to locate a picture on the 'net I discovered that in the 1974 movie "The Man with the Golden Gun" James Bond drove a red AMC Hornet hatchback special coupe. And, if you are a collector, for $39.99 you can actually purchase a 1/43 scale die cast model of the car. Cool, yes, but not really something that I want. The memories are sufficient.

In Memoriam - Walter Eugene Mitchell (1921-)

My uncle, Walter Eugene Mitchell, was born October 25, 1921 in Whitley County, Indiana and died May 30, .. at Columbia City, Whitley County, Indiana. He was the son of Clarice M. and Sarah Goldie (Killian) Mitchell.

Walt graduated from Columbia City High School with the Class of 1940 and spent his entire lifetime in Whitley County with the exception of a few years in Laporte, Indiana. He married Phyllis Elizabeth Phend on a snowy, wintry day - December 6th, 1942 - at the home of the bride's parents. Phyllis is the daughter of Hazlette Brubaker and Rolland Victor Phend.
Phyllis and Walt opened a bait and tackle store in their home in Columbia City in 1946. They kept the store for 23 years closing it down in 1969. Walt was also one of Columbia City's top bowlers between 1954 and 1974. In 1964 Walt was employed as a machinist and store keeper for Monsanto Plastic Company in Ligonier, Indiana. The company produced numerous plastic products, including mud flaps for trucks. Walt retired from Monsanto in 1984.
Walt also collected post cards and vintage bottles. His postcard collection started in 1928 when he was 7 years old. He purchased two cards at Trier's Park in Fort Wayne. One card was of Tom Mix and the other was of "Our Gang". In the mid-eighties his collection of post cards numbered between 25-30 thousand cards. They were everywhere! He continued to collect post cards and after his retirement the collection reached 50,000 cards. It was then that Phyllis and Walt started traveling to post card and bottle shows throughout Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio selling and buying. About 10 years ago they had several auctions, selling most of their post cards and bottles.
In addition to his wife, Phyllis, he was survived by one daughter, three sons, eight grandchildren, eleven great grandchildren and one brother, Clarice Mitchell of Columbia City. He was preceded in death by his parents, one son, 2 year old Patrick Allen Mitchell who died in an auto accident in 1948, one grandson, Michael W. Mitchell and two sisters, Ethel Nicodemus and Naomi Trier.