Friday, September 12, 2025
July 4: Lustenau to Lindau (Germany)
Thursday, September 11, 2025
July 3: Lenzerheide to Lustenau
Wednesday, September 10, 2025
Review: Flow Control Filter for Aeropress
The aeropress is still my favorite coffee maker. Rather than use the "inverted" method, I always use the filter upright, but immediately pop the syringe onto the top after filling the barrel with coffee. By doing so, you still get some leaks coming off the bottom of the aeropress, but it's limited to just a minute or so. Then after an appropriate brewing time I push the syring all the way to the bottom.
The problem with this is if you are pressing into a small capacity cup, you may over-estimate the amount of water needed and then you end up overflowing the cup. Aeropress recently introduced the Flow Control Filter, which solves that problem. There is absolutely no drip whatseover when you pour water into the barrel. However, when you press down on the syringe it immediately opens up the valve and you get standard flow.
I didn't expect this to change the flavor of my brew but it does. It's a much stronger brew now, and I have to adjust how much time I leave the coffee brewing as a result. This results in much shorter brew time. The filter is expensive but it's multi-use and looks so sturdy it ought to outlast the standard brewer basket.
Recommended.
Tuesday, September 09, 2025
July 2: Bergun to Lenzerheide
There, we showed the booking.com offering to the receptionist, who called her manager who immediately said: "Of course. We give them a discount for not using booking.com and showing up in person instead so we don't pay commission!" Our room was actually ready for us by the time we unloaded the bike and parked the bikes. We asked about the half pension but it seemed really expensive so we decided we would order a la carte instead.
Monday, September 08, 2025
Review: 1Q84
I previously bounced off 1Q84, but after reading about Harukami talking about it about his first attempt at a really long novel (over 1000 pages!) I decided to give it a chance and this time it stuck. I've complained about Norweigian Wood not feeling very Japanese because of all its literary and musical references. However, 1Q84 struck me as being very Japanese despite having similar literary and musical references to Western music and media.
1Q84 strikes me as being in the same sensibility as Weathering With You or Your Name. Both Japanese movies have male and female protagonists who are separated in time or space, and who live in an alternate world/timeline where fantastical events/circumstances can happen. As with those movies, there's no explanation, no rationality for why these fantastical elements exist, but it does, and the connection between the protagonists are very light, almost to the point of randomness.
Aomame is a female assassin (one who is dispatched to silently kill men who abuse women). Tengo is a cram school math teacher who's trying to write a novel on the side. The link between them was that they went to elementary school together, and Tengo showed Aomame kindness at one point in 5th grade.
The plot starts when Aomame discovers that the world she's living in is subtly shifted from what she's grown up with --- the police are carrying different weapons, there's discussion about a moon base, and intriguingly, there are two moons in the sky, but she appears to be the only one who sees the second moon.
The chapters in the novel alternate between Aomame and Tengo, though in the last 3rd of the book a 3rd viewpoint is introduced. We gradually see the two threads come together. The pace of the book is slow, and especially in the last 3rd, you wonder if Harukami is deliberately prolonging the book as though he's getting paid by the word. Most of the supernatural stuff is unexplained --- you're just asked to accept it. The characters' resolutions are satisfying, though the 3rd viewpoint near the end of the book seems superfluous.
I read the book to the end, and to be fair the resolution of the alternate world hypothesis was strongly hinted at all through the novel, and you come to the end of the novel and are not surprised by the ending and thinking that it was an unfair mystery. The book definitely could have been much tighter edited and a lot of the extraneous stuff felt more or less superfluous, or "inefficient" as Harukami would describe in his essays.
Still, any 1000 page novel that can get me to finish it in a couple of weeks is probably of above average quality.
Friday, September 05, 2025
July 1: Madulain to Bergun
Thursday, September 04, 2025
Review: Ortlieb Saddlebag 4 liter
I'd been using the old style Ortlieb mini handlebar bag. While it's satisfactory for most of my purposes, it had several drawbacks, chiefest of which was that by using the front of the handlebar, you have to find alternative locations for your front light. When you add up the bag, the bag mount, and the additional accoutements to mount the front light, it's actually substantial weight. On the tandem it doesn't matter, but on my single bike I really would prefer as light a setup as possible, while still making it possible to mount a radar tail light.
The only model I could find that fit all those requirements was the Ortlieb Saddlebag 4L. I ordered one and discovered to my dismay that the mount didn't fit the Ritchey WCS saddle! Fortunately, Pamela Bayley had sold/given me a smaller Ortlieb seatbag and that one came with a mount that worked. (I would later replace the screws that came with the newer bag with ones that work) Since all Ortlieb saddlebag mounts are cross compatible it was no issue to use them. My complaint about this design is that it's unnecessary --- I would much rather have had velcro wings which would have been less finicky.
The saddlebag slides onto the mount, and ties to the seatpost using a velcro strap. I was worried that I would feel the saddlebag with my thighs while riding, but to my surprise this turned out to be a non-issue. The drybag style flap clips off to the side and by tightening the straps it becomes narrow enough that thighs clear the saddlebag with no problems. One disturbing thing about the bag is that invariably there's sufficient air in the saddlebag to make it bulge a little, so sometimes it takes a couple of tries to get the air out. A valve would have been useful though that would have increased the weight. As a result of this air, sometimes that bag will rattle especially if it's not completely full.
When I go on a really lightweight ride, I replace this saddlebag with a mini bag that uses the same mount and has much less volume. It's little enough effort to switch that I do it as a matter of course. But for bay area riding the 4L bag is what you want: you can put in a windshell, arm and leg warmers, and snacks and tools for an extended ride while still having room for your radar. If you pack really light it might even suffice for an overnighter, though that's not in the cards for me as I would need to pack a CPAP machine and this bag just doesn't have sufficient volume for that.
For commuting, this bag will NOT fit any laptops. But bikepacking style saddlebags won't fit any laptop anyway. For carrying a laptop you still want the traverse style saddlebag.
The bag is a little expensive but it did everything I wanted it to do. Recommended.
Wednesday, September 03, 2025
June 30th: Zernez to Maudalin
Tuesday, September 02, 2025
June 29: Pontresina Panaromic Hike





















































