Bamboo Bike

Amazing what they can make bikes out of. This one has bamboo tubes and the joints are wrapped in hemp. Of course I am sure that it has some really strong glue and probably lots of layers of some sort of plasticy stuff to hold it all together, but it still is mainly bamboo and cloth.

It was built by Craig Calfee, who has being building carbon bikes for a long time. The bike is currently for sale on ebay, but I found a link to it on one of the bike message boards that I read.

The dropouts are titanium as I am sure the bottom bracket sleeve, head tube sleeve and seat tube sleeve all are. Not sure if I was want to race this bike, but it would make a great conversation piece and probably has excellent ride characteristics.

Sandy's Jersey

Here is Sandy in her jersey.

"Pale Humboldt opened his mouth. Through small teeth he gave his near-silent laugh."
p. 33

A Picture

Here are Mike, Linnea and Britta representing in the north.

Where is everyone else?

Beer

Since it is rainy outside, instead of a ride post, here is a beer review for Ommegang's Three Philosophers Quadrupel.

Dad and I split a bottle of this when we were up in Bloomington for Christmas (Thanks Annie and Jim for buying it, as it was really good).

Like all quadruples, this was a very rich, heavy beer, weight in at 9.8% alcohol by volume, and it certainly tasted like it.

Ommegang is an American brewery that started brewing Belgian style beers several years ago, and was subsequently bought by Duvel a few years back. Being purchased by Duvel must have only helped the brewery because it brought in so much Belgian brewing knowledge.

Anyway, back to this beer, it is a blend of beers actually, containing both Belgian ale and Kriek, a cherry lambic, which only adds to the complexity of its taste. Add to this the fact that it is a top fermenting ale, and that gives you its rich, heavy flavor with the hint of cherry in it. All in all an excellent beer, but not one that you would want to drink alone, no, this is a great cold dreary day session beer.