The Mystery of the Speckled Hen

The Mystery of the Speckled Hen, a summer vacation story from the 2010

Part 1: In the Middle

"Dead zone.... nothing but a giant dead zone" I mumbled under my breath as my friend Tom hurled us at a mile a minute towards our destination, a small park in a small town plopped almost in the middle of nowhere. Certainly a wireless dead zone. Neither of us had bothered to preload our GPS units with the coordinates of our destination. Tom forgot to press save, I relied too much on technology. In the dead zone, there was no way were getting the coordinates over the air. We were going to have to rely on Tom's memory and geo-senses, having found dozens of geocaches like this in the past.

Having located this particular cache before, Tom recognized the park but not GZ, ground zero, the holy grail of any cache hunt. I eyed up the park gazebo, the usual suspect for these little park caches. There would be no such luck as neither the construction or the landscaping gave any cues. I wandered about with the Pre held high in the air desperately looking for signal while Tom wandered about with his GPS. No signal, no coordinates, not even a description of what we were looking for. Oh to have had pencil and paper and have written this all down when we were back in the so-called civilized world of too much technology.

A couple of teenagers and the park groundskeeper were about. I wandered over to a bench surrounding a tree thinking it was a likely cache hiding spot, having given up on 21st century technology in lieu of common sense. Imagine that. Not seeing any metal on the wooden bench, I wandered over to some nearby electrical equipment -- a likely place for any magnetic key holder to be hidden, the most likely cache type to be located in a park hide like this.

By now we attracted the attention of the groundskeeper who was looking for a break from the back and forth motions of his grass cutting. "You guys geocachers?", he shouted from atop his industrial mower. Busted. "You were a lot warmer over by that tree than over there" he smiled as he motioned towards the electrical boxes. Busted. At least now though I stood a chance of finding the cache, a high tech treasure hunt using low tech knowledge and a friendly municipal employee.

With the log signed and a new smiley on the map Tom and I set off for a local micro-brewery. Eschewing technology for an old-fashioned map we did our best to either get further lost or towards our destination, trying to correlate squiggles on the map to what road we were on, roads with no names and no proper signage, no sense of north or south. Why bother? The locals knew where they were. After a few false leads around the town square we were just about on the correct road. I was on the lookout for the highway signs. That's when I spotted it, a little square blue and white sign with a picture of a chicken on it, with the works 'The Speckled Hen' and an arrow imploring us to go in that direction.

Part 2: In the Beginning

"Chick-CAAAAAAAAAN" the kids shouted from the cramped back seat of my little blue coupe, putting an extra emphasis and drawing out the second syllable, "Chick-CAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!" "Don't worry, daddy!", they shouted in unison, "every time we see the sign we'll shout out Chick-CAAAAAAAANN!!!! and you'll know to make a turn!!". It was mid-August, 2006, and the kids and I were on vacation while my wife remained home as she unhappily lacked the vacation time to join us. She was furious and let me know at every turn. Going out on an adventure, even if it was just for dinner, was almost a means to an escape as we headed out of cell phone coverage. Being alone with the kids for a week I thought it would be a treat to try out 'all you can eat pasta night' at a restaurant that advertised heavily in the free newspaper. My only GPS was a primitive hand-held unit that lacked any mapping function other than to let us know we hadn't yet driven off a main road. I called ahead to get directions, was told 'it was complicated', and to just look for the blue signs guiding the way. Relying on paper maps in these pre-dashboard navigation GPS days I had not much else to go on to span the 14 or so miles we needed to cover until we got close to those blue signs I was beginning to wish I never mentioned.

Paper maps and two over-enthused children shouting "Chick-CAAAAAAAAN!!!" and how they were going to guide me to our destination. Paper maps, road signs, and dead reckoning. And kids in the back seat shouting "Chick-CAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!" every time they were going to see the blue and white road signs with the picture of a chicken and an arrow. My 'back seat GPS units'. "Chick-CAAAAAAAAAN!!!" the kids again shouted, reminding me over and over that whenever they see a sign they'll be SURE to let me know. We passed at least 3 Speckled Hen signs, none of which they saw, all the while reminding me of their plans to diminish whatever hearing I had left by shouting "Chick-CAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!". They never once did either see ANY sign or call out a proper direction change. But by now had my ears ringing with the sound of "Chick-CAAAAAAN!!".

Tossing the maps aside and relying on the blue and white signs, back seat GPS notwithstanding, we managed to get onto a narrow and winding dirt road more akin to Children of the Corn than what I thought to be a popular place based on its heavy advertising.Certainly there would be a large crowd on all you can eat night. We pulled up alongside an old renovated farmhouse with a giant sign with a picture of a chicken on it, located next to a field with some old trucks and smokey and smelly trash fire burning. "Chick-CAAAAAAAAAAAAN" the back seat finally clucked properly, this time on target but too late to be useful. If I had relied on them we'd probably have been in Canada by now, still clucking. We had arrived at the pinnacle of our journey, something we were talking about all week, The Speckled Hen and its all you can eat pasta night. Counting the three derelict trucks, there were 4 vehicles there, including us, in the middle of God's country, at a small renovated farm house calling itself The Speckled Hen, along with a smokey stinky fire and a farm yard full of animals.

Inside I could hear spaghetti sauce bubbling on a stove and a local radio station softly playing. I felt more like I was inside someones house than an actual working restaurant. We sat down at a table overlooking the trash fire, got some menus, and found out how complicated it was going to be to order all you can eat pasta. We chatted, our food came, and we enjoyed the atmosphere of dad and two kids enjoying a special time together. We had to. The food was... ...OK. Not the best experience, not the worst, certainly the sauce was just not to my liking. After the anticipation, the build-up, the excited trip, the all you can eat part was simply anti-climatic.

Post-dinner we were invited to go outside and see the animals, something which my son and daughter enjoyed more than the meal. My son took to the goats, petting a more tame one, even bestowing upon it a named he held in reverence, 'Bitsy Thomas', a name he modelled after Thomas the Tank Engine. My daughter was more into the chickens, running back to the kitchen to obtain stale bread to feed to the fowl. We stayed for what seemed like hours, a magic time in a magic place that made me forget that I probably just ate what I considered to be the worst spaghetti sauce of my life. Two bowls of it at that.

The evening was soon sadly over. Somehow we made it using pencil, navigating there by map and pencil and paper and road signs. Road signs they somehow never saw while excitedly telling me how they would inform me of their presence. The 'back seat GPS' was giving about as useful directions, it would turn out, as my main GPS unit would years later on a return trip. Full and tired we navigated back by memory, nobody interested in the slightest peep of "chicken..." Instead we all simply chatted about the future of Bitsy Thomas and the hens in the barnyard and that we'll visit again next year. A visit that never happened later that year. Or the next. Or the next.....

Part 3: The End

Summer 2010 marked when we'd finally make a return visit to the Speckled Hen. As far as summers go it was not the best. The weather was not cooperative combined with generous amounts of life happening. On a sunny Wednesday afternoon we made a late start for a day's worth of activities that was to be capped off with dinner at the Hen.

The first mistake was trusting the Mio GPS because the damned thing would have us drive off a cliff if it had calculated doing so would save us .07 seconds off the trip. As we drove deeper into God's country it soon had us driving off paved roads and anything resembling civilization and on dusty gravel roads, with no buildings or power poles visible anywhere. I got the feeling this wasn't going to end good. Sure enough it was soon announcing we had arrived at our destination, the middle of nowhere, and likely with no human beings around for miles. We continued on our way hoping to end up SOMEPLACE. The collection of back roads took us to nowhere in particular although we did stumble back upon human civilization, but only after we encountered a lone cow leisurely walking along the road. Not coming to the Speckled Hen we backtracked, going past the point we turned onto the one road, thinking maybe the GPS meant RIGHT instead of LEFT when it was busy barking out its orders. Our hunch proved correct and we soon came upon a familiar looking building that had a big sign, YES WE ARE OPEN. Everybody missed the smaller FOR SALE sign, the unkempt bushes, the weeds, and the wreck of a barn yard.

As we pulled into what was left of the parking area the look and feel was all wrong. It was closed, and a look inside the windows revealed an empty shell, a sad reminder of what once was but is now no more.

The Speckled Hen was gone.

We returned the way we came, looking for another place to eat. The kids openly wondered about their animal friends, former residents of the now overgrown barnyard which lay a silent testimonial to that magic evening of a few years earlier.

Later on I turned to 21st century technology to learn more. The Hen's web site was useless, still listing a menu, giving an e-mail address, and some old reviews, a ghost ship luring us to come visit its apparitions of summers past. Frustrated by limitations of the present I went to the past, using 19th century technology, the telephone, to find out what was going on. I dialed the number but it turns out it was disconnected.

I found the property listing on an on-line real estate site, offering us the Hen for a mere $65,000. With its matter of fact coldness the web page offered us no clues to the mystery, just square footage, number of bathrooms, and a few other facts and figures. The remains of the Hen were reduced to just numbers someone could crunch and plug into a spreadsheet, its soul stripped away and tossed upon the winds.

I wonder if we'll every know whatever happened to The Speckled Hen.

OK, here we go again...

We Don't Do Windows once again lay dormant for over a year. Let's see if I can jump start the beast again!

Blogging regularly is a lot harder than it looks, so maybe regular random musings will get me in the habit. There's lots of stories to tell in a forum less limiting than Facebook status updates.

So let's see what 2011 brings.

Cheers!

All I want for Christmas is... or I Wish My Kitchen Appliances Would Stop Turning On Me

So picture this scenario: it is Christmas Eve 2008 and after a long day of preparing, snacking, and celebrating, the main course for dinner is just about ready. All the hungry friends and relations are at the table, and 5 minutes before the pasta finishes boiling the stove emits a strange series of loud bongs and its display is flashing some strange alien language.

Bong? What the hell is bonging?

Are the shrimp calling the mother ship asking for an emergency beam-out? Have the squid stormed the fortress and the revolution is about to begin? Is the pasta about to rise from the pot and seek its revenge, tangling all of its in its sticky tentacles as it slowly digests us over the course of dozen years?

Or is the most likely scenario that the range has taken this very moment in time, a table full of hungry holiday revelers, dinner minutes from being either consumed or ruined, to decide that it no longer wants to exist on this earthly plane?

A check of the owners manual verifies the worst. The language in the troubleshooting guide was just a polite way of saying "Ha ha sucker! Are you ever screwed!"

At least (at least, he says) it was 'only' the oven that took itself off-line, something about the appliance electronics equivalent of a dysfunctional family Christmas, with one electronic controller refusing to talk to another over something that may or may not have happened several decades ago but so scarring and jarring we'll take this argument to our graves. Or maybe something just short-circuited.

We managed to finish cooking with one finger (guess which) on the reset button to silence the cooktop's incandescent urgency and loud bobs of pain. The camp stove was quickly set up as a backup, and the meal continued unabated. But for the next week we have a stove up on blocks, the redneck kitchen equivalent of a dead truck on blocks in the front yard, as I set out to repair its faulty electronics. At least I got off cheap and knock wood it has been working fine ever since.


Fast forward to 2009, Christmas week. Family in town for an early Christmas dinner. Smoked turkey breast, a 6 pounder smoked in a tad under 6 hours. It came out beautiful, moist, and very delicious. Good food, good wine, family, stories, celebrations. We're all tired at the end of the evening. Good thing we have a dishwasher to help with the cleanup.

Or do we? The damned dishes were cleaner when we put them in the beast than when we took them out. The noises it made sounded like Satan himself was cleaning the china.

Yup, this year I now have a dishwasher up on blocks, awaiting repair.

I wonder if I should shoot the refrigerator now or wait until next Christmas?

Awake the Sleeping Giant

After a almost a year of inactivity I decided it was time to make a decision to either retire or recommit We Don't Do Windows. I more or less started micro-blogging on Facebook but looking back it's just not the same thing.

So after its 11 month slumber, We Don't Do Windows is back, at least for the time being.

Enjoy!

My Review of Masterbuilt Master 10.5-Quart 7-In-1 Smoker and Grill

Originally submitted at Gander Mountain

Enjoy maximum versatility in outdoor cooking with the Master 7-in-1 Smoker and Grill. This camp cooker can be used for propane smoking and grilling, charcoal smoking and grilling, as a deep fryer, and for boiling and steaming. The smoker features a durable solid-steel 19" stand, cast-iron burn...

Masterbuilt Master 10.5-Quart 7-In-1 Smoker and Grill

A very nice entry level smoker

By nucci6 from State College, PA on 1/27/2009

 

4out of 5

Pros: Attractive Design, Easy To Assemble

Cons: No ignitor on this model

Best Uses: Outdoors

I Am A: Family Older Kids

A friend put me on to the art of smoking meat. After a bit of a search I found this to be a well-priced entry model to try my hand at smoking, plus have the benefits of being able to BBQ and fry.

This is an entry model so the propane burner is smaller than most but for smoking this is a good thing as it makes it easier to maintain the lower temperatures required for smoking. This model also does not come with an ignitor so you need a long lighter or fireplace matches to light the burner.

The access door for adding wood to the smoker bowl is a bit small and I am not sure how to add water to the water bowl without lifting the smoker body, which causes all the heat to get lost. Keep long tongs handy for adding wood.

Assembly was not difficult and all the washers and bolts are handily marked to remove any guesswork which part is needed where

(legalese)

Dante's Inferno and Verizon's 9 Circles of Customer Service Hell

The other day as I cast a lazy eye towards the calendar I realized the due date for my Verizon bill was fast approaching. I dutifully logged onto my account, and was greeting with the text "The biling information could not be obtained for this BTN. Please try again later." OK, what's a BTN? (Billed telephone number, but it took a little more investigating to find that out.) So much for a clear and concise error message with information on how to act on it. Welcome to Circle 1, sloppy programming.

No matter, as I had plenty of time before the bill was due. Maybe.

So later in the day I again try, only to be greeted by this same BTN message. I try a different computer and even a different browser. Same message. Tried again an hour later. Same message. Welcome to Circle number 2, a problem that does not get resolved in a timely manner.

At this point it is getting late in the day, and I want to get this bill paid before it is too late. After all, I did switch to a non-paper billing for convenience, right? Right? So I whip out the cell phone and dial *611 for customer service. After navigating the voice menu (and remember to please listen carefully, as our menu options *have* changed) I get thru to a cheerful customer service agent. A little too cheerful. What's VZ putting in the company water cooler? Maybe the same stuff Rankin-Bass was putting in theirs back when they came up with their holdiday specials. But I digress. Funny how fast you get through the queue when you hit the option that says "I want to give you money." Often so fast it can suck the dust out from under your pant legs. No matter, I appreciated the friendly demeanor of the person I was willingly going to shell out a few sawbucks to.

The friendly voice on the other end of the ether proceeds to cheerfully explain that since I am on One Bill he cannot take my money, and that I need to call this other number and explain the problem all over again to them. I suppose he could have done that before I spent a few minutes explaining the problem. He at least offers to transfer the call so I am still not being charged for air time. Nonetheless we are in Circle 3, the 'sorry I can't help you here' stage. "Is there anything else that I can do for you today?" Yeah, let me pay my bill.

After a short wait I am now talking to another very friendly agent who lets me explain the situation for a second time. The productive parts of my life are getting slowly robbed from me as I go thru the explanation in full again. Can't you read the typed notes from the last CSR? All the while in the background I am logging on and off the VZ web site to see if I can escape the vortex I am being hopelessly pulled in to. This CSR explains he can take my payment but that there is a $3.50 service charge he does not have the authority to waive. Yep, Circle 4, 'we can help you here but it'll cost you'. At least he was able to explain in a way that made sense how they are held hostage by their third party processing firm but this is stil rotten eggs. However he does say that I may pay my bill at any VZ store to avoid the fee. CSR points for attempting to save me money.

I take him up on that option since I am cheap and $3.50 these days is at least a Creamery ice cream cone, and I kind of do resent getting nickle and dimed to death. Before we terminate the call the agent offers to transfer me to VZ's e-bill department to look into the BTN error message. I am assured the wait won't be too long and that my call is still airtime free, but given the events of the day I wouldn't be surprised if the next bill (if I can ever read it) might show otherwise. After a few minutes of hold music (music to calm the savage beast?) my agent breaks back in and apologizes for the delay. He bemused that the wait should not have been more than a few minutes, and that I am welcome to stay on the line, air time free but robbing more precious free moments from my life. He gives me a tool free number to call instead of waiting and in the interest of saving my phone battery for a call that might be more meaningful than listening to muzak. So far we've successfully only grazed Circle 5 (let me connect you to another departmnt who might either help you or pass you on to someone else, if only they will pick up the phone), but my bill still is not paid, the web site is still busted, and what's left of my patience getting thinner than my receding hair line. Unable to resist the gravitational pull, or more likely like a gawker at a train wreck, I am eventually sucked in.

I hang on on hold a few more minutes before ditching the call and to try again from the land line, saving the phone battery so I could do more productive things with it like play solitaire or doodle on the note pad. The hold music isn't doing its job and attempts in the background to get my billing information still haven't produced any results. Circle 6 and descending faster than an unpowered Boeing 767 over Canada, the 'you are in this so deep may as well keep going' phase.

By this point I have essentially forgotten that I have the speakerphone on hold and have moved on to other more important things. I glance up at the phone display to see the hold time is now almost an hour. Suddenly the tiny speaker jumps to life with the voice of a customer service agent who really wanted to be somewhere else than on that call at the moment. She collects some basic information and then the whopper comes when she insists on some 3 digit account code that apparently appears on my paper bill, if only I still received paper copies. Circle 7, we need the very information you can't get . She tells me I can look it up on-line. I try to explain that is the entire purpose of this call, because the web site can not and will not display my billing information. Apparently Circle 7 includes some lecture on security features but she fails to comprehend I cannot produce what she is looking for, and oh, by the way, again this is the entire purpose of the phone call.

Circle 8 (we're going to keep dancing around and around until you are blue in the face, die, or just give up) is with exasperation in her voice as we move on to alternate security questions such as "How much did you pay last month" or "How much is your bill for this month". "What part of I can't get to my billing information do you not understand", I want to shout, again explaining how we're caught in a circular trap, because said information once again is being held hostage on the very web site I am trying to report a difficulty with. Trying to be the only sane person on this ship of fools I navigate a series of somewhat meaningless links on my account page ("We truley are sorry but no account information on this BTN is available, and will not be until the cows come home, so just give it up already") until finally I stumble across an obscure link that actually DOES display my current balance. This information is either pulled from some other database table or I just won the VZ CSR lottery.

I at least can give this information to the CSR who can now proceed to process my request. Yeah, I think, the problem will get fixed and I an pay my bill on-line and save a trip to the VZ store, where at this point I wouldn't be surprised if they can't get my BTN as well. All hope is deflated when I am told I should hear back from them within 10 days. 10 days!!! That's speedy service and we just have to have descended to the frozen hell of Circle 9, the we'll get to it when we get to it even though a more timely response is required circle. Would you mind waiting the 10 days for payment? I bet not! I am on paperless billing you know, and that should require some parts of the on-line system actually work, or at least a system that allows me to pay my bills without paying some stupid fee.

Like Dante and Virgil I now finally spot an exit from within the 9th Circle, as this new found link somehow actually allowed me to pay the d***** bill. I expect in another week they might have everything else fixed. Maybe. But honestly I would not expect to see pigs flying out my monitor the next time I access the web site.

And all this was for an operation where I wanted to actually give them money.....

Tuesday Lunch

A smaller than usual group, on a cold day, sitting near the entrance to the Blue Chip Bistro.

Yak Trax

With all the ice and snow we have had recently I am happy to have a set of Yak Trax.




It is like having tire chains for your feet.

Tuesday Lunch

A Roly Poly Day



No Tuesday lunch is complete unless there is an extended cell phone discussion. Today got out of hand with all our social technology gear on display.



Since I've ben remiss here are some photos from lunches past.

December 2008 at the BJC:



November 2008 also at the BJC:



and one from September (Cafe Laura):

A Charlie Brown Christmas

My DirecTV has been on the fritz lately. In the summer I usually lose my local channels when my neighbor's decorative maple greens (actually reds) up but I watch so little TV in the summer it doesn't bother me. It bugs my wife for a while, but that's another story...

So this fall I was surprised I did not get my locals back as I raked away the remainder of the leaves that fell. It wasn't until last week I finally tracked the problem to a faulty multiswitch and swapped it out. My locals were back, but alas it was too late to catch any showings of my favorite Christmas special, A Charlie Brown Christmas.



I popped over to Netflix and moved it to the top of my queue but it wasn't going to get here in time. Feeling a bit down my better half tried to cheer me up by pointing out we made a VHS copy some time back. She departs for the basement and reemerges with a never-been-played-back before (gotta love how we record them then forget them) home made VHS copy.

I forgot how long ago we recorded it by after viewing the noisy recording we soon discover it was taped back in 1998. Dave Thomas is still alive and smiling and hawking Wendy's burgers, old TV news personalities come back, and stores like Ames and Hills are back in business and selling us stuff for Christmas. (I used to enjoy the Hills Christmas-time jingle "Hills is where the toys are.")

Grainy and aged, the Peanuts characters popped to life as best they could on a low resolution recording device. Not that the original was much better with its low production value and zany editing. It wouldn't matter. The message that Charlie Brown's special resonates would come thru no matter what the medium and production value. In some way the low video quality lives up to the story line itself.

Apparently in 1998 right after CB aired CBS then ran A Garfield Christmas. Amazingly enough that feline also figures out the true meaning of Christmas.

For some reason, maybe it is the weather, maybe the calendar, maybe not catching all the specials on TV, this Christmas I felt rushed, pushed, achy, and tired. Despite my children's enthusiasm and anxiousness, somehow I lost the feeling of Christmas, the feeling of something special in the air. Even copious amounts of TSO failed to revive the spirit.

Two low budget productions, recorded on an even lower budget storage device, shoved into a storage box, forgotten and trapped in a basement dungeon for over 10 years, having been recorded in another time and era when I felt so much younger, somehow have restored my feeling of Christmas, the feeling of what makes it special.

Merry Christmas one and all. Merry Christmas.

Happy Birthday, Dad

While cleaning up the house my brother came across a collection of my dad's old 35mm slides. He had them burned to DVD and over Thanksgiving we had a real treat looking at the old photos on TV.

From Dad's Slides

This photo is a snap of my dad as a young man, from a time I can barely remember. I'm guessing this was taken about 1965, which would have made him 40. The old man would have been 83 today.

Happy birthday, Dad. We miss you.

Video of the 'Week': The Cat Came Back

The Cat Came Back was a minstrel song first penned by Harry S. Miller in 1893. It has been played and rerrecorded n various forms in the century + since it was originally published. This gem I found on YouTube is a modern take on this old classic:



Enjoy!

My review of the Giant Twist Freedom DX

For the past 8 years I have regularly commuted to work via bicycle. When possible I'll also leave the car in the garage and use my bike to run short errands. Of course living in an area with hilly terrain means lots of huffing and puffing, lots of gear shifts, and a decent amount of sweat. The side benefit is I get some much needed and regular exercise. (We'll discount the occasional trip to the ER from dramatic wipeouts at speed.)

Weather is the biggest limiting factor. Too hot and too cold and the bike stays home. Same for rain and snow. Hot days are the worst since I can't afford to arrive at the office all hot and sweaty and stinky. For some reason my coworkers aren't too happy about it. There also are days when the day seemed to last too long and my legs are lead weights on the ride home. Throw in a headwind (why is it always a headwind and never a tailwind?) and the ride can be miserable.

For this reason I was looking for a second bike to throw into the arsenal, one of those new-fangled electric hybrid bikes that require pedal effort to engage the electric motor. Giant Bicycles built several such models but they always were discontinued after what seemed like a short production run. Their latest entry into the hybrid electric market is the Twist Freedom DX.

The Twist DX features twin Li-ion batteries, a 250 watt front hub motor, 7 speed hub shifter, and a claimed range of up to 75 miles with a rider of perfect BMI, flat roads, temps in the range 60-75F, and no wind. I wanted to know how such a beast would behave in the more 'real' world: semi-hilly terrain, a rider and backpack combined weight close to 215 pounds, fall temperatures, and throw in a nasty headwind every now and then.

Unfortunately it seems the only on-line review I could find was from May 2008 by Popular Mechanics. Unfortunately a late spring ride in flat Central Park in New York City did not satisfy my criteria for a good review. Not to knok the fine folks at PM, but they just did not test it in 'my' conditions.

So one day I received a phone call from Erik at The Bicycle Shop. Erik knew I was interested in the Twist so he was kind enough to loan it to me for a few days. I just hope he hasn't sold my regular bike waiting for the hybrid to come back home!

I rode the bike for a few days to drain one of the batteries down, fully charge it, and run it again until the battery drained so I could get an estimate of range and power required to charge it back up. I also wanted to see if it was as 'un-bike like' as the PM review made the experience out to be.

So let's start with the good:

Power is great! At any time you can be in any 4 of the 7 speeds of the hub shifter. I could accelerate strongly even in high gear, trading range as the motor had to work harder. On my commute home a hill that normally takes me 11 minutes to climb blew by in only 7. I was not pedaling as hard as on my regular non-electric bike but I was still getting a good workout although not as vigorous. You still have to supply some of the motive power. One evening there was a stiff headwind. Not only did I still make good time I arrived at home not feeling all beat up by the wind.

Now for the not so good:

Hill climbing power is good but definitely gave up a few mph. It is certainly not insufficient power and was an acceptable tradeoff. Hoever, pull a lot of hills in the Twist DX's Sport mode and watch the battery drains FAST. Use 'Normal' mode and they still drain pretty quick although not at as rapid a rate. The geek in me wishes there were an ammeter to monitor how much power was going to the motor.

As a commuter I have a backpack with a heavy laptop computer and lots of paperwork. Being slightly overweight myself the Twist DX had a lot of stuff to pull up that hill. I could see right away we were not going to get anywhere near the 75 mile range ('Eco' mode in flat terrain), which of course I did not realistically expect, but I was hoping to get closer to the rated specs for 'moderate hill'. I doubt I could climb PA26 from Pine Grove Mills to Joe Hayes Vista on a single charge (it is one heck of a climb).

I expect the range to get slightly better as the battery packs get conditioned by having a few charge cycles on them but currently have no way to scientifically validate that. I should also point out that temperatures were in the range 40-50 degrees F during my rides and the cold does affect that state of charge somewhat. Overall my range was more in the range of the 'steep hill' part of the range chart Giant supplies rather than 'moderate hill'. A re-review after a change to a warmer season and a few charge cycles on the packs should verify the above hypothesis. At the very least with current observations we have a measured range performed under less than ideal conditions and much closer to real world (or at least real world Happy Valley).

And now, the rest of the story:

I drained one of the two battery packs in appx. 18 miles. In those 18 miles there were some good hills to climb. The Twist DX and I blew past riders struggling in low gear, who watched in amazement as we went by at what seemed like light speed. Miles were mostly accumulated in the DX's 'Normal' power setting although a few hill climbs were conducted in the 'Sport' setting to see how fast I could get up the hill.

At the end of each of my 3 mile legs I always felt like I wanted to ride more. Even after a long day in the office with leaden legs the Twist DX made the ride a pleasure. Even at the end of the battery's charge the motor still pulled strong, losing power in probably the last minute or so of the charge cycle. I don't know if Giant fully depletes the battery or simply cuts it off at some lower level.

Range anxiety is mitigated by having the second power pack to switch to when the first depletes. When the 'Right' battery went down to 0 and cut off, I simply flipped the selector to 'Left' and was happily using the power assist once again.

With he battery depleted I hook the charger up to a power monitor to see how much electricity it would require to fully charge. The charger drew a measured 62 watts and consumed .26 kWh to charge the pack. At $.09/kWh, this translate to a smidge over $.02 electricity for 18 miles or an astounding $0.0013 / mile. It costs more than that just to start mt car!

Random thoughts:

Clearly set up as a single model for both the US and European markets, the charger comes with a European power plug and a dongle to convert said plug to a standard 3 prong one. I don't mind but dongles can be easily lost if not careful.

The Twist DX comes with an LED tailight that runs off its own batteries. Curiously, no headlight.

I have a habit of resting my foot on the pedals while waiting at stoplights. This habit would activate the torque sensor and make the front wheel want to spin. Off the line acceleration is strong so if you're not careful you can fly out into traffic. I almost did! I'm surprised Giant didn't put in brake cutoff switches.

The integrated pannier system hides the batteries and also provide some storage space. They were too small for my laptop computer and might even be too small for a MacBook Air. They were large enough to hold my paperwork folders but since they won't hold the laptop I'm still going to need the backpack. They were large enough to hold my lunch.

Giant does not recommend using a child carrier. My own children are too big for a carrier but I was hoping to use one to haul a week's worth of groceries from Wegman's. One can only fit so much into a backpack!

Top assisted speed is 15 mph. Anything above that you have to pedal to get there.

The power connector for the front hub motor makes for a somewhat wider than normal front wheel profile, making it interesting to park the bike in some bike racks. I had no problems with the rack in front of Wegman's.

Giant states in the owners book to specifically not leave the bike out in the rain.

The bottom line:

I was hoping for range closer to the advertised 75 miles but I suspected this would be too optimistic given the weight I expect it to carry and given the terrain. I find it to be an excellent commuter vehicle, provided you want to live life in the bicycle lane instead of the fast lane. The Twist DX will appeal to those who's litany of reasons not to ride a bike are effort to overcome local terrain and aversion to arriving at work sweaty and tired.

Its $2,200 list price leaves you wondering if you would buy a used commuter car or cheap scooter instead but I'll challenge there's nothing like riding a bike on a quiet uncongested bike path. As the PM review suggests, serious bikers will likely shun this bike, but they're not its intended market. The Twist DX will appeal to commuters and errand runners like myself and it offers a no excuse option for those sitting on the fence saying they'd love to bike to work, but...

I really hope that its asking price of 2 large doesn't relegate it to niche status. Go try one for yourself. You'll enjoy the experience.

The bottom line:

Would I buy one for myself? That is a tough question! Obviously I hated to part with the Twist Freedom DX at the end of the review period. I wuld love to have this bike as part of my fleet. At 2 large it is a tough decision to make. But yes, I am saving my pennies.

Acknowlegements:

I wish to express my gratitude to Erik and the Bicycle Shop for the extended test drive. Not every bicycle shop would loan out such an expensive machine for an open-ended test period, especially with the only collateral being a 6 year old entry-level mountain bike ;) But Erik is just that nice a guy and I think he's a great guy to do business with.

Video of the 'week...'

Like I said, whatever the posting frequency is... this is a funny cat vs. printer video from YouTube. The sound effects make it hilarious. Well, ok. After a long day it sure seemed pretty hilarious...

Song of the Day

Today I'll kick of the Song of the Day, week,or perhaps month. Well, whenever I get around to it, which is what the posting frequency seems to be.

Anyway for the last week I've had this song stuck in my head since hearing it on the radio on a log drive from here to there or maybe it was there to here.

This clip from '68 is unusual for its high quality and that Quo wasn't lip-syncing. They may have been singing over the instrumental track. Check it out at the 1:59 mark where Rossi starts laughing. Either the acid kicked in or the dancers were really bad. You have to dig the outfits... so much for being fashionable!

You never know what you'll see...

...while on the way to work.

Biking in one fine AM this last March (yah, I'm a little behind in my blog posts) I came across this in the parking lot at the Nittany Lion Inn:

Seems they were in town between cities while on Meow Mix Who's Cat Wants to be a Millionaire game show tour.

Anyway, imagine seeing this in your rearview window, or perhaps this view thru your windshield...

The Times They Have Changed...

So while 2 months ago I mused how satellite radio made me miss out on local flavor, XM6 with their deep catalog reminded me there is a lot of stuff out there still to be discovered by me.

While driving home for lunch the other day this one by former child star Eddie Hodges started playing:



Considered cute when sung b a 4 year old in 1961, somehow today I think this one would have 'restraining order' written all over it ;)

Sometimes you need to come up for air...

So it's been a while....

Last month I was driving to Tyson's Corner in VA for a one day conference sponsored by Microsoft. I had a rental car, no XM radio, and I forgot my iPod. What was left was local radio and flipping the dial every 50 miles or so, sometimes being forced to listen to corporate playlists. The alternative was static.

I happened upon a rather good station somewhere in the DC area as I drew close and caught this song. It was dark and rainy and I was in a mood and the backbeat was in time with the windshield wipers. The BB King sample was kind of cool and worked really well.



When I got to my hotel I was able to Google some of the lyrics was able to find it on YouTube.

Lately my XM has been stuck on one 'channel', usually 6. Sometimes you need to turn off the national services and go local to find some color out there. As long as the playlist isn't corporate...

The Tuesday Lunch Bunch

Another shot of the regular crew....

as always, a scary looking bunch of tech types....

They'll want their money back....

I have a friend who loves to send me internet jokes, even if I've seen them 1000 times before. I don't mind since at least we're keeping in touch.

Well on this day when I'm stuck at home still not feeling well and the weather miserable, a get a joke from him that I didn't find particularly funny. What made me laugh out loud was the 'targeted' ads Google inserted.



I think they'll want their money back....