June 9th: Bourg St. Maurice to Le Lechere

 Waking up I the morning, the skies were cloudy but it looked dry enough to ride. Arturo had made a reservation at Le Lechere and we had a 20 mile ride plotted out. The breakfast at the Base Camp Hotel was very good, and if the town had other attractions we could have stayed another night. After an initial false turn, the route took us down to a bike path along the river. If the entire ride was entirely like that I would have relaxed and enjoyed the day, but instead after a mere 10km the bike path rose and dumped us out onto a main road where we were climbing along with a fair amount of traffic. Fortunately, at the most difficult of the climb what appeared to be a local bike club joined us and gave us company (and confidence) before the road brought us to the SPA town.

The hotel looked popular for dinner and we would have the half pension for our two night stay there. They first had us park our bikes in what looked like a painter’s shed but because they were actually painting something they would move the bikes later into the cellar. The day was still young so Arturo proposed that we drive the car to Annecy for a rainy day visit. Xiaoqin was tired of sitting in the car so she opted to get her bike out and go for a ride instead, leaving Arturo, myself, Mark and the two kids to take the car ride.

The drive took a good 100 minutes because of traffic, and you could see during the drive that the Alps terminated right in Annecy. Of course, the ride from Geneva to Annecy would be a massive pain, and judging from the traffic not much fun. The town itself was rather cute, with lots of cool ice cream shops, Foies Gras for sale, and obviously on days with better weather than what we had we could have taken boat rides. But on days with better weather we probably would have been riding instead! It sprinkled here and there while we were walking around town and admiring the various bridges over the Thiou river which would eventually join up with the Rhone. Annecy is frequently called “The Venice of the Alps”. I’d never been to Venice but I wasn’t sure if the comparison was apt—the river was certainly not the transportation between buildings!

It was another 100 minute drive back, so by the time we got back to Le Lechere and showered it was dinner time. Dinner turned out to be rather good, but we were worn out to do much more than a cursory walk. Xiaoqin thought she could do Col du Madeline the next day while the rest of us planned a hike. Stephan would take the day to work while he was on tour so the car had room for all of us who wanted to hike.

June 8th: Flumet to Bourg St Maurice

 Waking up to a sunny day, we showed up to breakfast 5 minutes late. Despite that, it was clear that most items weren’t ready. The owner showed up a little later, frantically saying that everything would be ready soon. Either Arturo, Stephan, or Mark would tell me later that he’d just bought the hotel and hadn’t gotten the hang of everything yet.

When the breakfast was ready it was decent, and we ate our fill to prepare for our 2000m day. The climb up Sassies switched back frequently but unlike Columbiere was never super steep. The real climb would be up the Roseland in the afternoon. The descent was fast and at the bottom it was warm. When we got to Beaufort it was very warm. We got fruit, cold drinks, and bread at the supermarket and then ice cream.

Thus fortified, we started the climb up the Cormet de Roseland, our first 2000m high pass of the trip. A steady 8% grade, once we got into the forest it was warm but the trees shielded us from the sun’s burning rays. 

Plodding along, we saw a tall waterfall. The thing about climbing in the Alps is that whenever you see a waterfall, you know that you have to climb above it eventually if it’s anywhere near the road. In this case, once we were above the waterfall, we almost were at the Roseland lake just before the summit. Xiaoqin joined us there, and we rode up the pass together. Stephan had already gone ahead with his superior power to weight ratio. She had more energy than we did, so took a lot of pictures. At the summit we regrouped, got a pass photo, put on our jackets and began to descend. By this time we started to feel the occasional rain drops. Fortunately, we would stay ahead of the rain this time.

The top part of Cormet Roseland was composed of long straightaway segments and the tandem showed off its top end speed before the chain of switchbacks slowed us down and allowed Stephan to catch and then over-take us. By the time we got to the Bourg St. Maurice city limit sign it was warm and we stopped to take off our jackets and start looking at lodging.

It being a Monday, there was plenty of availability, and we in the end decided on riding to Base Camp Lodge to negotiate in person, since it looked intriguing and had dining options as well as an onsite washing machine. Getting there turned out to be a climb on top of already tired legs, but we managed it. Once there, we got rooms and I discovered a free EV charger provided we made a reservation with the hotel. The “reservation system” turned out to be the receptionist writing down on a piece of paper that we’d taken one of those spaces. When Xiaoqin arrived we parked the car in the spot and plugged it in without fuss or messing around with payment options, which was great.

By the time it was dinner time, rain had started in earnest, but we were indoors and I’d discovered the secret elevator to the restaurant that did not require that we walk outside. The meals were good, and the laundry machine while it required coins came with detergent. We got laundry done while having dinner, and after dinner the rain even let up sufficiently for us to take a walk.

There was no question that we needed a rest day. The question was whether to take a rest day here in Bourg St. Maurice or to take it in Le Lechere and commit to riding Col de la Madeline. With the rain forecast, we decided that it was a fool’s errand to wait until July 12^th for Col D’Iseran to open. I pointed out that there was Hotel Radiana in Le Lechere which was a SPA hotel. Arturo pointed out that their rules precluded Boen from using the hot springs.  There was a town swimming pool, however, and he found a well rated hotel (La Cabriere) with good food. We’d take a transfer day the next day, and another rest day to avoid the rain and also give Xiaoqin a chance to ride.

2026 Tour of the Alps Index Page

 

From June 6^th to July 6^th, Boen, Mark Brody, and myself executed a tour of the alps starting from Geneva and completing a loop into France, Italy, and Switzerland. Xiaoqin drove a support vehicle (a Volvo EX30 EV) for much of the trip and rode whenever circumstances permit. Stephan Ellner joined for a week, and Arturo Crespo joined us until we got to Hospental. Bowen came along for the hiking portions of the trip.

For Boen and I, we got in 862 miles of riding with 89994’ of climbing in 25 riding days, and 6 hiking days which added another 76 miles of walking. We had 3 flat tires, one of which was a thorn, and the other two were not identified during the trip but no other mechanicals. We had 3 train transfers (Leuk to Brig, Donat-Ems to Oberalp, Airolo to Andermatt), Xiaoqin had 2 bus transfers, and Mark took advantage of his half tax card to get in the Jobst high adventure path, which required Meiringen to Sarnen, the cable car from Stockalp to Melchsee Frutt, and the post bus from Meiringen to Rosenlaui.

On our hiking days, we used the Gemelsee Bahn, the train from Natschen to Andermatt, the post bus from Rosenlaui to Grosse Scheidegg, the train from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen, the cable car from Wengen to Mannlichen, the cable car from Stechelberg to Murren, and the Jochpass – Engstlensee cable car to achieve lift assisted hikes.

We lost 2 days to rain, both of which coincided with exhaustion where we needed rest days anyway.

This is the index page with links to pictures, videos, and day by day trip reports.

Photos

2026 Tour of the Alps Shared Photo Album

Videos

• Rosenlaui Classic Loop
• Engstlenalpsee
• Murren
• Yvoire
• Fahnenschwingen

Day by Day Trip Journal

• June 5th: Prologue
• June 6th: Geneva to Bonneville
• June 7th: Bonneville to Flumet
• June 8th: Flumet to Bourg St. Maurice
• June 9th: Bourg St Maurice to La Lechere
• June 10th: Arpettaz Loop
• June 11th: Le Lechere to Saint Francois Longchamp
• June 12th: Saint Francois Longchamp to Valloire
• June 13th: Valloire to Briancon
• June 14th: Briancon to Arvieux
• June 15th: Arvieux to Napoleon Refuge Vars
• June 16th: Napoleon Refuge Vars to Jausiers
• June 17th: Jausiers to Saint-Etienne-de-Tinee
• June 18th: Saint-Etienne-de-Tinee to Isola 2000
• June 19th: Isola 2000 to Ivrea
• June 20th: Ivrea to Aosta
• June 21st: Aosta to Grand St Bernard Hospice
• June 22nd: Grand St Bernard Hospice to Brig
• June 23rd: Brig to Hospental
• June 24th: Teufelsbrucke hike
• June 25th: Gelmelsee hike
• June 26th: Hospental to Donat-Elms
• June 27th: Hospental to Airolo
• June 28th: Hospental to Nessental Terrace Hotel
• June 29th: Nessental Terrace Hotel to Hotel Rosenlaui
• June 30th: Englehornhutte hike + Rosenlaui schlutz
• July 1st: St Beatus Caves + Trummelbachfalle
• July 2nd: Hotel Rosenlaui to Lauterbrunnen
• July 3rd: Murren North Face hike
• July 4th: Lauterbrunnen to Col des Mosses
• July 5th: Col des Mosses to Thonon-les-Bains
• July 6th: Thonon-les-Bains to Geneva
• July 7th: Epilogue

June 7th: Bonneville to Flumet

 Waking up to a generous breakfast, we loaded up the car only to discover that the tandem had a rear flat tire. An inspection of the tire carcass on both inside and outside, I found no foreign matter, and so replaced the inner tube, which turned out to have a leaking patch. I replaced that with a brand new TPU tube, which held this time. This used up all the battery on my electric pump, but there’s a reason I carry a battery bank, and it’s not for my almost 3 year old Pixel 8 Pro. I plugged the pump in and left it charging while we rode towards the bottom of our first pass, the Col de la Columbiere.

Once again, my memory lied to me. I remembered Col de la Columbiere as being an easy col because Mike Samuel and I had ridden up to it from Cluses on the road. However, from Bonneville, my new route had taken several short cuts which meant that we faced grades of 10-12% before joining up with the proper highway where it flattened out in the town of Les Respondir.

From there, the climb was manageable and quite pleasant, until near the summit where the grades went up again but we were finished well before noon. Xiaoqin and Bowen were doing a hike there—we spotted the car parked at the summit, but it was too early for lunch, so we descended the col. Every time I visit the alps I’m always surprised by how pretty it is. In the intervening years I’d forgotten how pretty Col de la Columbiere was on the descent, and when the road turned up again the hunger hit both me and Boen. We recruited Arturo to have lunch with us, but the others were well ahead and headed up the Col des Arravis already.

After lunch, we climbed to the summit of Col des Arravis, where short walks could take you the magnificent views of Mont Blanc. We had drinks or an ice cream, and then proceeded to descend to Flumet, where we had a hotel reserved for the night. Stephan had put together a size L Ritchey Montebello to the same specifications as Xiaoqin’s, with the exception that I told him to get ultralight Superteam Carbon wheels instead of the Ritchey wheelset, reasoning that if you’re paying the weight penalty for disc brakes you should try to get some of it back from carbon wheels that were relatively affordable. As I predicted, the Ritchey Montebello descended amazingly well, with its low bottom bracket and made-for-randoneuring frame geometry. Stephan was an aggressive descender on the tandem, and that comfort with speed translated directly to the Ritchey Montebello. While the tandem would still out-run him on any straight-line, if the descent had a lot of switch backs, he would catch and pass us on the corners, where the tandem had to brake earlier and slow to almost a stand-still on the corners before picking up speed again on the downslope. The tandem reached high speeds quickly on any kind of grade for us to even consider pedaling on descents.

At one point we stopped and lifted Stephan, Arturo's and Mark's bike, and to our surprise, the steel Ritchey Montebello was lighter than both Arturo and Mark's titanium bikes. Arturo's bike had a steel fork, so it wasn't much of a surprise, but Mark's bike had a carbon fork as well!

In Flumet, we stopped at the only hotel in town that was listed on booking.com. The owner was very friendly, and showed us to the dedicated bike room, and also recommended one of only two restaurants that were open this early in the season, the others all being closed. “Breakfast is at 7am”, he said confidently.

It being a Sunday, nothing was opened except the campground near the bottom of town. But Xiaoqin was so hungry by the time she showed up that she walked to it for ice cream. At dinner, we had what was essentially bar food.

After dinner, we walked around the town. I identified the fountain where Mike and I had taken a nap in 2005 prior to continuing with Col de Sassies—it had been taken over by another restaurant, which was why I didn’t immediately recognize it when I first saw it. We also found the old mill, which otherwise looked like an abandoned house by the river that was serviced by a cable platform.

We went to bed early. The next day was Monday and the forecast called for rain in the afternoon, but I thought that there was good reason for it to hold. The weather after that looked iffy, dashing my hopes for a climb up the Col D’ Iseran to see walls of ice 10’ tall. We didn't have to make any commitments, since the next day was a Monday and there would be plenty of lodging no matter where we ended up.

June 6th: Geneva to Bonneville

 Waking up at 5:30am in the morning due to jet lag, I went down to the front desk and started assembling the bikes. Xiaoqin’s road logic came together easily and well, and I was as finished as I could be within an hour. The tandem came together less easily, but by 7:30am I had it all together. Despite my best efforts, however, I could not get the bike to shift into the lowest gear. This would be a big problem during the tour, so I searched for bike shops nearby. None of them opened before 8:30am, which was not a problem since I had arranged for only a 20 mile transit day.

We ate breakfast, and then I rode over to the bike shop to try to get help. While the shop manager was initially resistant because he had a fully booked service department, he eventually relented and a mechanic rolled my bike onto a fully electrified workstand. While working on the bike he identified the problem, which was that the anchor bolt for the derailleur cable had been stripped and could no longer be tightened to spec. He replaced the bolt and got everything adjusted to spec. It would strike me later that this was another argument for going to a fully wireless shifting setup—this type of failure mode would be impossible.

In the meantime, Stephan had gotten onto his train from Munich but had discovered a missing SPD shoe bolt. After paying the shop for the work, I biked back to the hotel, and together with Xiaoqin took the shuttle over to the airport to pick up our rental car, which turned out to be a Volvo EX30 electric car. We had reasoned that the way to avoid expensive European gas prices would be to rent an electric car. The reason for all this was that unlike in the previous year, Bowen refused to ride his bike at all this year, so the plan was for Xiaoqin’s road logic to live in the car, and on days when Xiaoqin wanted to ride, she would park Bowen somewhere. If you’re supporting a bicycle tour with an EV, there’s no range anxiety—our days would not be longer than a 100km at a time, and a tour of the alps had the characteristic that some of the energy spent driving up mountains would be returned to you on the descent. Hertz at the Geneva Airport supplied us with a CCS charging cable but not one that would take a household outlet. They explained that we could return the car with 75% charge and that would be OK.

Having everything squared away, it was time to load up the car with everything not necessary for riding and head to Bonneville. There was an event that Saturday that involved thousands of cyclists taking up most of the lodging in Cluses. I disliked making reservations, but in this case opted for Hotel des Alpes in Bonneville because they took a low deposit to secure our lodging. In any case, with the antics Aer Lingus had played on us the previous night, we were in no shape to keep riding past Bonneville anyway!

We rode downhill from the Geneva airport into downtown Geneva where we got a beautiful view of the lake and the huge fountain that defined the town in so many pictures. Along the lakeshore, we turned onto the bike path. I’d remembered from 2005 that the ride from Geneva to Cluses went past lots of shops, so we did not stop for lunch in downtown Geneva for food, which was a mistake—in 2005 I did not have RidewithGPS or Komoot, and so had just ridden by following signs away from the train station!

This time, the route followed the official bike path out of Geneva into France, where we stopped for photographs for our transition into a new country. From there, the route took pains to bypass village/suburban commercial centers in favor of granting us beautiful views of the Alps before us.

By the time we arrived at Bonneville at 2:00pm we were quite hungry. However, we had caught the hotel owner as she was going out for a bike ride with her son. She paused to check us in, show us where the car parking was, and then told us where the closest supermarket was, which turned out to be quite a significant ride away. We bought what proved to be a disappointing lunch, after which we got settled into the hotel and took showers.

Xiaoqin and Bowen would show up much later, after a visit to CERN first. Stephan had gotten off the train, gotten a free SPD bolt from a bike shop, and had started riding towards us.

Arturo and I took the EV out to see how charging it would work. The car came with some form of Google maps integration that allowed searching for charging stations, though we would discover much later that the charging map frequently were missing charging stations or was incomplete in other ways. Nevertheless, this being my first time with an EV, I appreciate Arturo’s experience (he owned a Swasticar, uh, Tesla Model Y) and was familiar with how EV charging behaved—much like a smartphone, it would charge fastest when fully depleted, and then slow down, so it rarely made sense to charge it to 100%. Different places would also have different rules about whether you would have to pay for occupying a charging space after you were fully charged, and frequently there would be an outrageous deposit to be paid prior to plugging the car in, and then the charging company would take its time refunding you the difference. Every so often even paying for charging was an obscenely complicated experience requiring a working web-browser (not always easy for someone on a T-mobile slow international roaming plan). Having said that, for the entire trip, I would only once be completely unable to charge and have to switch charging stations to find one that would allow a foreign credit card. It annoyed the heck out of me that these stations required registration, a dedicated app, or sign up. Why not just let me swipe or tap an NFC credit card and then just charge? If fueling stations for gas cars were so demanding of their customers gas cars probably wouldn’t stay popular for that long.

Dinner was at a La TablEnvie, as the hotel restaurant was closed. We would repeatedly find out during the trip that we were at the leading edge of the summer season, with many lodging or other tourist facilities only opening after we had come and gone.

Going to bed early that night in an attempt to claw back hours of sleep lost to us by Aer Lingus, I had high hopes that the ride in the Alps properly would be as invigorating as they were for me years ago.

Review: Racing Through The Dark

 It's easy for me to be cynical about professional cycling as a sport. When I read that the speed of the current top racers are higher than during the EPO-doping era, I find it hard to believe that the sport is clean. Racing Through the Dark is David Millar's memoir about his cycling career. Like many professional athletes, he graduated high school and proceeded to aim directly for a career as a professional bike racer, with a half-hearted application to an art school only as a backup.

David Millar must have been extremely talented, because by his account, he did not dope and in fact, won many of his races clean, including his debut at the Tour de France. His account of his descent into doping was largely a story of being influenced by the culture, first, with teammates injecting themselves with vitamins and iron for recovery (interestingly enough, with no scientific studies showing that this was better than eating or drinking those nutrients), and with his team, Cofidis, deliberately turning a blind eye to drug use, employing metrics and bonuses that paid of with race results. Of course, at that time all professional cycling teams were like that, so it wasn't as though you could join a team that was clean.

The book was written and published before Lance Armstrong confessed to being doped up when winning his 7 Tours and being stripped of his title. Millar confesses that he didn't know one way or another whether Armstrong was doping, though he must have heard rumors.

Ultimately, Millar served his suspension and returned to racing, though much older. He describes his work and advocacy of anti-doping agencies, as well as his struggles against the French tax authorities because his agents had setup tax avoidance schemes on his behalf. I thought the book was well worth reading, and depending on how you view his credibility, makes it seem like it is possible to race professionally and win against dopers with good results. Then again, even if he was doping, he would lie and say that anyway, right?

First Impressions: Santa Cruz Blur

 Competitive Cyclist/Backcountry was offering a 2024 Santa Cruz Blur C at $4300. That in itself was a good deal, but what sealed it was that they offered an upgrade to T-type transmission for $800, and I would get to keep the old non-T-type parts for converting one of my other bikes, which I've been wanting to do for quite some time.

I will commend Backcountry for their excellent customer service. The bike arrived with a broken cassette, 

and they promptly sent me a new one, and paid for a local bike shop to do the cassette swap and also tweak the derailleur.

The bike showed up, I waxed the chain, and took it up Table Mountain/Charcoal Road. While the bike is a good 4 pounds lighter than my old hardtail from 2014, I'm not sure I could tell the difference in weight. The big differences are the AXS transmission shifting system, which shifts perfectly every time and don't get stuck in a gear like my old bike, and the remote lockout. I had no idea what a remote lockout was when I bought the bike, but now that I have one I love it!

The remote lockout lets you twist your wrist which pulls a cable to turn off suspension on both front and rear at the same time. I found myself using it all the time, disabling suspension on a fire-road climb and then turning it back on for every descent. The result is I felt way less beat up on this bike than on my older hard tail.

My big complaint about the bike is the same as my complaint about most stock bikes -- the gearing is simply way too high. I would have preferred if the bike came with 30t or 32t chainrings instead of 34. As usual, bike manufacturers spec bikes for strong 25 year olds, not people who have creaky knees and much prefer spinning up mountains than mashing up them.

Regardless, I set PRs on several downhills on my first run on the bike, indicating that yes, not having rear suspension was holding me back on descending. I also executed several jumps, which meant that the bike wasn't too heavy to get air time!

I guess I don't need to return this bike!

New Touring Bike Concept

Bicycle technology has evolved significantly since I built my custom touring bike in 2008. Back then, I used medium-reach caliper brakes (57mm) and a triple chainring (24x39x50) with a 9-speed 11-34 cassette. These brakes limited tire clearance to 35mm with fenders. After Avocet closed, quality tires wider than 28mm were scarce, so I rarely exceeded 25mm.

When spec'ing a custom Lynskey for my friend Arturo, we modeled it after the Rivendell Roadeo. By then, wide-range doubles with 10-speed cassettes were available. We used SRAM integrated brake levers paired with a mountain bike drivetrain (24x40 chainring and 11-34 cassette). This setup worked because SRAM road and mountain components shared the same cable pull — a compatibility Shimano still resists. Despite a rear-brake-bridge height error — which Lynskey fixed after Arturo returned the frame — the setup proved effective for touring.

By the time I acquired my Co-Motion Periscope, 10-speed 11-36 cassettes were standard. Later, when rebuilding my touring frame, I adopted a 1x drivetrain using a Shimano M5100 cassette and Microshift friction shifters to bypass Shimano's indexing incompatibilities. Removing the front derailleur proved so successful that I have omitted it from every family bike build since.

After retrofitting my touring bike to wireless AXS, I was convinced enough by the ergonomics — and the reliability under load — to start designing a frame around the new drivetrain. Note that if you don’t like having electronics on your bike, SRAM now makes a cable-operated T-type derailleur, which eliminates the need for batteries, and yes, someone has experimented with friction-shifting it!

My touring priorities are reliability, robustness, and light weight. Since my CPAP machine requires nightly power, I always have access to electricity, making electronic shifting a viable upgrade. SRAM's T-type transmissions are particularly tough; the derailleur mounts directly to the thru-axle, eliminating fragile hangers. Individual parts can be replaced if damaged. I’ve long been willing to pay in additional weight in exchange for a more robust drivetrain, and the T-type compromise is well within what I’m willing to accept (it's not clear to me that the T-type dropouts would cause the frame to be heavier than one built for a derailluer hanger).

I remain skeptical of disc brakes. They are heavy, prone to squealing, and difficult to service in the field. Many claim they work better in the rain, but with Kool-Stop Salmon brake pads, I’ve never had any trouble stopping in the rain. Others have argued that rims wear quickly in the rain and wet, but in many years of touring I have yet to wear out a single rim while touring — the reality is that if you’re touring for scenery when it rains your vision is usually too compromised by the precipitation to see much scenery anyway! The reinforcement required for disc forces also adds weight and stiffness to the frame, compromising handling. For example, Ritchey's rim-brake Road Logic frame is 230g lighter than its disc counterpart, before rotors and hydraulics. Given that I'm 140 pounds (and at my heaviest was 155 pounds), the additional stopping power of discs is wasted on me. Years of tandem touring on dual-pivot calipers have also strengthened my grip — enough to skid both wheels in an emergency stop.

My ideal touring bike would combine a T-type transmission with rim brakes. The 142mm thru-axle spacing matches QR 135mm, allowing a stronger wheel with equalized spoke tension provided the hub was not built to support disc brakes. White Industries can custom-build the rim-brake-only-designed MI5 hubs to this spec. Paired with a lighter custom frame built for Tektro 559 calipers, this would clear 42-45mm tires without the weight and stiffness penalties of disc mounts.

A matching quick-release front fork designed for the same 559 brakes would complete the chassis. Yes, it would look odd with a QR front wheel and a T-type thru-axle rear wheel, but the benefits of the stronger wheel and T-type robustness are worth it.

There is one niggle with the T-type chainline, which is designed for 55mm chainlines. However, you can adapt SRAM road-type cranks with 3rd party chainrings to get a 47.5mm chainline which will work with T-type transmissions. Alternatively, a Shimano GRX crank would also work, giving you a 46.9mm chainline, which is just short of the 47.5mm requirement the SRAM specifies for a 142mm thru-axle bike.

The result is a sport-tourer with the robustness of a T-type transmission, the precision of AXS shifting, and the simple maintenance of dual-pivot caliper brakes. This design offers massive tire clearance and field-serviceability without the fragility of traditional derailleur hangers. The hard part is finding someone willing to make it: pairing a T-type dropout with rim brakes is an unusual ask, and tradition-minded builders tend to push back against mixing standards this way. With Paragon Machine Works out of business it might even be difficult to source the frame parts necessary to make this frame. And there is no danger that any mainstream manufacturer (or even custom bike maker) would even consider making a production bike out of this design.

I’m probably not going to order or build such a bike myself for some time. I still love my custom built Strong frame, and it can clear all the tires I need it to clear for the road (35-38mm). But if I should crack my frame, decide to take a gravel-oriented tour or my sons start to get tall enough to steal my backup Roadini, I would start shopping for a custom builder, and this is the article I’ve written to guide him or her as to my thinking.

Upgrading the Touring Bike to AXS Wireless

I've been using the M5100 rear derailleur and cassette on my touring/commute road bike since the 2021 rebuild after the frame cracked and was replaced under warranty. The 1x philosophy has proved correct: the gear range is wide (I only ran out of high gears trying to hang with a fast pack), there's only one shifter to keep track of, and you never drop the chain because the front derailleur was shifted at the wrong time. The M5100's gear jumps are big enough to handle the rapidly changing Bay Area grades, which also force a fresh shift quickly enough that being between gears never lasts long.

My wife's Lynskey GR300 from two years ago, however, was instructive. The disc brakes still squealed annoyingly, but the shifting was amazing — quiet, and so smooth that when Arturo tried her bike he thought a shift hadn't happened until he noticed the pedaling getting easier or harder. By contrast, my M5100, while reliable, would occasionally flub shifts under load. When we built her Ritchey Montebello, I went 1x Eagle AXS again, and that bike performed admirably too: it never missed a shift, and the battery life has been superb.

My White Industries rear hub could be retrofitted with an XDR driver, letting it accept an Eagle cassette. All I'd need was a wireless rear derailleur and dual-control shifters/brake levers. However, SRAM had stopped making those levers, and eBay prices were well into the $700 range — too rich for my blood.

In 2024, SRAM upgraded the wireless Blips to pair directly with their derailleurs, without needing another SRAM device to handle the initial pairing. At $105 a pair, the Blips could be mounted anywhere on the bike. The batteries aren't user-replaceable, but SRAM claims 4-7 years of actual use, and they're light enough to carry a spare pair on tour. My other touring friends had steadily converted to AXS — its wide range and easy pack-up made it attractive for anyone flying with their bike.

In April, I spotted a deal on backcountry.com: a Santa Cruz Blur with GX AXS for under $5K. It got better when a customer rep told me that for $800 I could upgrade the bike to T-type transmission AND keep the original parts — enough to convert my touring bike to AXS. On a mountain bike, T-type has real value: there's no fragile hanger to bend, and those bikes are meant to get trashed. I sprung for the upgrade. After enough riding to confirm I wanted to keep the Santa Cruz, I bought the White Industries XDR driver and a pair of wireless Blips. I already had a waxed Eagle NX chain ready to go.

Rather than do the install myself, I took it to my local shop, The Bicycle Outfitter. I described what I wanted: Shimano driver replaced with XDR, old chain removed, Blips installed under the hoods where the Ergopower thumb-shifter lever would have been on my 2008-era Campagnolo Record brake levers. "But that'll be too fat!" said the shop employee. "Try it!" I said. We took the Blips out of the retail packaging, pulled the hoods back, and slotted them into indents in the plastic body of the brake lever, almost as though molded for them. After we pulled the hood back down over the Blip, it looked right. "OK, but if it falls off or you don't like it, it's on you!" "No problem. Just look at it, it looks as though it was designed for it!"

A couple of days later, I swung by to pick it up. "That hood placement worked out really well!" declared the same shop employee. "It makes the whole setup feel like integrated brake lever shifting. In fact, I'm going to steal the placement idea for an AXS conversion on my own bike. I just ordered the Blips for myself!"

I rode it on my commute for a couple of days and then took it up Montebello Road. As expected, the bike shifted well, and the hood placement let me shift standing, on the drops, or rolling along on the hoods. Moving my hands on a climb from the top of the bars to the hoods to trigger a shift was no worse than bar-end shifters — actually a bit better. I triggered a false-positive shift exactly once. I also programmed the "push both Blips at once" function to push the lap button. (It can also be programmed to show the map screen on the Garmin Edge 840.) The biggest difference would come off road in rapidly changing terrain, where flubbing a shift might mean having to get off and walk. While the Garmin had a gear indicator, I never used it, relying on the bike computer's beep whenever I hit either end of the cassette.

In retrospect, I should have made this conversion much earlier. The shifting is smooth, and the added 10t sprocket would have let me stay in the draft of the fast touring group last year. I wouldn't call it a "game changer" — the engine didn't change — but it's a nice quality-of-life improvement. I can see myself swapping to a smaller chainring eventually to get a lower low gear while still keeping a higher high than the M5100 offered. (As it stands, all I've gained is a higher high — enough that I wouldn't spin out even at 32mph, which is probably much too high!)

(Bike shop employee's converted blip-enabled AXS bike. Note that you can't even see where the shifters are at this angle) Note that this type of conversion can only be done using SRAM AXS components. Shimano does not have any equivalent to the wireless blips.

Recommended.

 

Mallorca Recommendations

 This was my second trip to Mallorca, and I stand by my assessment from the first trip: first, it's really hard to justify a trip to Spain if you're a Californian, since the best weather in Spain coincides with the best weather in the Bay Area as well. Having said that, apparently we got lucky because while it was sunny in Mallorca it was raining in the Bay Area, and it only rained our last day in Mallorca and it cleared up in the Bay Area by the time we got home.

Staying in Pollenca was the right move. We took advantage of both shuttles to get to places we couldn't easily get to and got to do our one way rides, and I had alternate routes that I thought would have been worth doing from Andratx as well. Of course, the return to the hotel was something we did multiple times and the repeats there couldn't be helped.

Xiaoqin thought we could have done well to split time between Pollenca and Soller. That would have given us a chance to ride Puig Major. Maybe 5 nights in Pollenca and 5 nights in Soller would have been ideal, since that would not give you a chance to get bored. The logistics would have been challenging, though: in addition to transporting bikes you'd also have to transport the bike boxes as well, and you might end up giving up some discounts you get from staying in one location for more days.

To my surprise, Trek Travel, which I always considered expensive, is actually very price competitive if you're traveling by yourself. They charge $2000 per person, and include a bike rental as part of the price. Of course, their accommodations is inland and wasn't right on the coast with easy access to Alcudia and the Assos Outlet store, but in exchange you get van support during the day. Of course, for a family you can't beat the way we did it. The single person charge for one person with Trek travel paid for us to have lodging for 8 nights, and still have had money to pay for a guide for the kids the one day we wanted to do the long ride and couldn't bring them with us!

The last time I visited the island someone told me that it was a mistake to bring our own bikes instead of renting. I think that's because he wasn't accounting for a family of 4. The cost savings of bringing our own bikes was over $1000!

The riding in Mallorca is excellent, and different enough from the Bay Area to justify a trip. None of the grades were steep, the drivers were much more polite than California drivers, and riding on the island is like being on a big event ride (century or fondo) every day, day after day. Big groups of cyclists of every type (men, women, fast, slow, old, young) would pass you every minute no matter which direction you were riding. It's just something that you need to experience once in your life, to be in a place that's so oriented towards cycling that bicycles are far more common than cars.

To be honest, even if you're not into cycling, I think it's worth a visit to Mallorca. First, there's plenty to do for non cyclists. Secondly, if you have a decent sized family, hiring a guide to cycle you around might give you an idea of what the sport is about and you might discover that you enjoy it when you're not having to cope with American drivers and bad traffic and are surrounded by many other cyclists to inspire you and maybe even challenge you.

Boen was phenomenal on this year's trip. He tackled every climb with aplomb and learned to use his gears. Watching the "chase cam" videos of him shot by Xiaoqin was a little disconcerting. He handled his bike well, but all the time I found myself aware that if he'd made a bad decision there was little my wife and I could have done about it.

I enjoyed the trip. While I wouldn't repeat it every year, I think that whenever I find myself bored by riding the same local roads for the ten millionth time I will find myself thinking of Mallorca and Girona.

Review: Ritchey Classic Zeta Wheels

 I got the Ritchey Logic Classic Zeta Wheels for around $300 from a mailing list used. At that time, I was just wanting new wheels for Bowen's Roadini that weren't as heavy, and these seemed to fit the bill. I was unprepared for how amazingly well thought out and designed they are for travel.

Without tools, you can remove the freehub body, axle, and driver. These not only come off to make the wheels flat for packing, you can also stuff them back into the dropouts to provide the much needed stiffening for the rear triangle of the bike when packed into a hard case box. This saves the need for a separate stiffener to lose, and stiffens the drive train. As a result of all these optimizations, Bowen's bike packs very nicely into a Performance hardcase (or Trico Ironcase). Much better than all the other more expensive fancy bikes!

I only wish they came in XDR, but if you find a pair of these for sale (used or new), grab them as long as you're still using Shimano HG drivetrains!

April 11: Cap Formentor and Cami de Boquer

We woke up at 6:30, ate some granola, and then rode out with lights on as it was still dark at 7:00am. The ride through town was beautiful in the early morning with no traffic and surprisingly few cyclists. By the time we got to the first pass, we had two groups of cyclists pass us. They were faster than Xiaoqin on the climb, but on the descent I caught and passed most of them—they were clearly English cyclists who were not used to the kinds of speeds you can regularly approach in the Bay Area or Mallorca.

Riding up past the tunnel, a pair of male goats started fighting each other in the middle of the road in front of me. I stopped to take a quick picture and then Xiaoqin caught up and we kept riding with vim up to the lighthouse. It was so nice at the light house with no cars, and just a few cyclists. We took selfies and admired the scenery and then descended.

At this point, I wanted to get back to the hotel to ensure the kids could eat—they had been denied entry to the dining room when not accompanied by an adult at one point during the stay. So I put in a burst of effort and set PRs all the way back to the hotel. I worked hard enough Garmin to re-assess my FTP at 187W, which was a downgrade but perhaps understandable given that I was coming down with a cold and of course was fatigue with a week of fairly hard riding.

The others had already started their ride by the time I got to the hotel, where I parked my bike and started gathering food at the breakfast room. Xiaoqin showed up after a bit and we ate a leisurely breakfast before going back to the room and changing. We packed some water into our backpacks, and then took the bus towards Port Pollenca downtown, where a 10 minute walk took us to the trail head for Cami de Boquer.

The trail took us up high and granted us views of the seaside town before weaving amongst the hills. The terrain was a lot like a desert, wind up and around the hills, but when you saw the mediterranean it was glorious, with cliffs falling straight down to the sea. Even though the forecast was for rain later that day, it was sunny and warm. The thing about hiking in Europe is that you can’t expect a wilderness experience except in a few select places, and Mallorca was not one of those select places. There were lots of people no matter where we went, and on the beach even though there were buoys marking off the swim areas it was quite clear that the water was not yet warm enough for anyone to want to jump in and swim.

We hiked back to the bus stop, and once there, rather than getting of at the hotel, we took the bus all the way to old town in Alcudia, and explored the old town, stopping at a tapa place for Bowen and Xiaoqin to sample their Tapa platter, buying ice cream and eating it before taking the bus back to Club del Sol.

We got back to the hotel early enough to start packing bikes. We started with Bowen, this time with myself being smart enough to not remove the stem but instead remove the removable front plate of the face plate of the stem. As I took  his seatpost off his bike I noted that he had an inch or so left before the minimum insertion line. We had raised both kids’ seats during this trip. We packed his bike, and then started work on mine, which was straightforward and easy --- not having paint on the titanium bike meant that I didn’t even bother wrapping the frame with pipe insulation, trusting the hard metal to resist any scratches from the softer aluminum and steel parts stored in the same box.

After that, we did Xiaoqin’s bike, which also took in the chain oil and liquid wax, as well as any tools not needed to pack Boen’s bike, which we would save for the next day. When we were done we had all the bike boxes back in the luggage storage and the balcony was free of bikes except for Boen’s.

It was Mark’s birthday, and we scrambled around trying to find a birthday present for him in vain, until Arturo had the smart idea that he could sweet talk a waitress into finding a candle and presenting him with a cake.

So it was that at dinner we sang Happy Birthday to Mark, along with the rest of the dining room as a cake got served! I gave Arturo the wine that was in our room that was untouched. It was going to rain the next day so we had no regrets about having the bikes packed so early that there was no chance to ride the next day.

April 10th: Lluc to Sa Calobra via Bike Shuttle

We ate breakfast early and started riding towards the pickup location at around 7:30, with pick up time at 7:45. We rolled into Port Blue exactly as the shuttle bus was rolling in. Stephan and Otto were getting into their “private shuttle” as we rolled out of Club Del Sol. He would later tell us that the “private shuttle” was actually a rescue van that was delivering repaired bikes all over the island. Nobody had told the driver that he was to carry a tandem, and the driver had to do some work to fit that long bike into the trailer.

Unlike the Andratx transfer where Port Blue was the last stop, Port Blue was actually the first stop and the shuttle pulled into Port Pollenca where there were more bikes waiting for pickup. I used the rest room and got a nice picture of the shuttle.

The shuttle ride was relatively short—it being early there wasn’t a lot of traffic to slow down the van with its trailer. We were dropped off at the Respol gas station where Otto and Stephan were already cooling their heels (they’d grabbed some food and popped back into the shuttle) waiting for us.

With that, we started riding towards Sa Calobra. Arturo would later explain to us that the name meant “The Snake” in Spanish, an apt metaphor for the twisty curves the road would take all the way down to the Mediterranean from 2400’ up.  The approach was not flat, but a series of easy rollers along baby-bottom smooth roads that characterize that part of the island.

At the high point, I kept going, only to receive a text message from Xiaoqin later saying that the kids had reached the high point and refused to keep going. Arturo said later, “It was clearly pre-planned. Boen even looked a bit disappointed.” I assumed the kids would ride home from there, since they knew the route, but they had misunderstood and would wait there the entire time. I was willing to let them do this—one of the reasons Boen brought the single was so that he had a modicum of independence, and if you don’t give your kids any rewards for independence then they would just learn to dependent the whole time.

We made it to the Sa Calobra intersection, waited for everyone to gather, and then I gave instructions: if you’re going to take pictures do it on the way down, because on the way up you might not feel like doing so. There’s a climb to the saddle, and there’s a café at the bottom so we’ll regroup there so those who want to ride the entire descent in a flow state won’t feel obliged to stop for regroups. Watch out for traffic because there are places where the road turns into a one lane road and the cars will go in both directions.

We then started the 200m climb to the summit. Once at the top, it was so warm that I decided to just start riding down without waiting for the others. I might have stopped a few times to take pictures, but by and large I just took advantage of the relative quiet to enjoy the flowy descent. At 7%, it was just gentle enough to enjoy the views while still gathering serious speed between corners.

At the bottom, I parked my bike unlocked, walked into the self-service café, bought a cup of coffee and some cake, and waited for the others. They arrived just as I’d taken the first sip. I waved the folks over and we all had a snack at the coffee shop to fuel up for the climb.

Before starting the climb, I mentioned the beach to the group, so we made the customary journey to the tunnel, passed through both tunnels, and reached the beach. It was already bustling with sunbathers, swimmers—most wearing wetsuits—and tourists.

We took photos and walked back, except for Joe, who’d realized that with his speedplays he was better off riding to the tunnel. Once we were back, I told everyone to do the climb at their individual pace, and that the regroup was at the intersection where there was a café. However, if you got there early and got bored, you could turn right onto the main road and ride 200’ up to the tunnel. Past the tunnel, you’d get a nice view of the lake/reservoir.

With that, we were off. Today was the day my training program called for a high intensity of effort, going for 180+ watts for the climb. This proved to be challenging—while 180W seems easy at the beginning, after a few minutes my heart rate started to rise, and it would keep going until it hit pretty high intensity. I tried sustaining this, but after 20 minutes I fatigued and had to back off a bit before resume that intensity. It turns out that learning to hold this power for longer is one of the differences between a structured training program and “riding any old how” the way I’d always done.

At the top, I paused and sat down for a bit. Mark caught up and we rode together to the tunnel and visited the lake. Mark was feeling frisky and rode all the way to the end of the lake and back while I turned around and went back down, parked my bike. Arturo and Joe showed up, as did Mark, and we grabbed a table in the shade. Joe was in a hurry to get back to the hotel, so he left pretty quick, but I bought a couple of cans of coke for Arturo and Mike and a glass of fresh squeeze orange juice for Xiaoqin.

When Xiaoqin came back we started riding back, because Joe texted us that our kids had been waiting for us the entire time and were hungry. Unfortunately, I’d bonked and wasn’t making good speed, though by the time I got to the kids they were already reassured by Joe that I was coming, so they weren’t antsy, though complained a bit about how long we took. “I thought you were going to go straight back to the hotel!” “Mom told us to wait!” “Really?” “Um.. maybe…”

I rode the kids to the Respol garage, where we parked our bikes, and bought a bunch of food to eat. I immediately started feeling better, and by the time Xiaoqin showed up and ate her fill we were raring to go again. The ride back down Col de Feminia was easy, despite the headwind, and when we got to Pollenca I turned on the GPS and routed ourselves back to the hotel along another of Mallorca’s narrow, beautiful backroads, dumping us within a block of the hotel at the main road.

Over dinner, we debated what to do. Everyone was so tired that Puig Major was out of the question. Mark had a proposal, which was to do parts of the roads he’d missed on the first day of riding. That didn’t appeal to me, so I decided that we would do Cap Formentor again, but early in the morning so we wouldn’t get any traffic. The kids didn’t want to ride at all, so we’d get back, eat breakfast, and then take them for a hike.

The others debated options back and forth. Stephan wanted to take both kids on the tandem (Benjamin would fit on a WeeRide, but the constraint then became to get him back to the hotel before he fell asleep). The rest eventually decided on doing the reverse of the short loop we had done 2 days before.