Novara Rainy Pass Bike Gloves - Men's

I have had FIVE pairs of these gloves going back to when they first appeared at REI in the mid 1990s. I have found them to be very useful and very dependable; although the design changes over the years have often been a step backwards.

I ride in all weather, commuting daily with frequent, all day recreational rides, totaling 3,000-4,000 miles a year. I live in Seattle where winter is in the upper 30s to upper 40s and frequently wet (although less so these last few years).

I swear by these gloves. They have generally lasted for about 3 years of heavy daily use. They are great in the 38 to 48 degree range -- our normal winter weather. Above that they are too warm and below that my fingers start to be a little cold (i often carry liners that i wear under them on the rare occasion that a Seattle night is too cold for them). They are smooth and comfortable inside and allow plenty of dexterity. They are as breathable as is possible in a warm glove and they are light and pack easily in a truck bag or backpack.

They are GREAT in the Seattle rain. They get wet but keep my hands warm, just as they should. Perfect. If i stop and take them off for a long time when they are wet, i sit on them to warm them back up (or even microwave them for 4 or 5 seconds) and they keep me warm and happy. At work in the winter i often place them on my computer monitor so they are dry when i leave.

I have recommended them to many people over the years.

There ARE some concerning issues.

The palm padding on the new models is far too thin,
the newer models are not as warm
some years the inner seams have had too much extra fabric.
the most recent pair i bought wore holes in them very quickly.

The first pair i had, in the early 1990s was when they were gray. I completely wore out that first pair; i wore them for years, until they were falling apart. I bought second pair - still gray. Unfortunately within just a few months i lost one of the gloves. So i bought a third pair, also gray, and i wore them a couple of years until they were close to wearing out with a few holes and seems starting to split open; i threw them in the closet in the spring.

The next year i bought another pair but the inner seams were badly trimmed. The thick excess fabric inside made it hard to shift and eliminated all dexterity aside from just being uncomfortable. I was very disappointed. I returned that pair and bought a different brand glove.

Several years later i noticed a new redesigned model, now black, but clearly the same glove. So I bought a fourth pair and wore it for a couple of years. When started to get a few holes i decided to buy another pair, but they had the same inner seam problem as the third pair i had so i didn't buy them. I continued to use the fourth pair for yet another year.

In 2008 i found the newest model (black) had solved the seam problem and were smooth on the inside again allowing dexterity. So i bought a fifth pair! Early in the winter of 2009-2010 i lost one of that pair, and was lucky enough that the one i had left was a mate to the lost glove from the second pair, which i still had in the bottom of a box!

So this winter i have been wearing a mixed pair, a 1999 gray model on the left and a 2008 black model on the right. They work well, and riding with the different generations side by side has allowed me to really compare the two.



The older model from 1999 is thicker and much warmer than the 2008 glove. The new one is not warm enough. The newer one has much less palm padding, it feels like riding without padding, but the glove from 1999 is well padded, comfortable, and much more like a cycling glove! The older one seems more durable, than the new one, even though it's had more abuse. The older one fits somewhat more snuggly increasing my dexterity (i can operate my cyclometer or mobile phone with the old glove, but not with the new one). The new one has finger tip reinforcement which is VERY useful as that is the primary failure point on the old model. The older glove is splitting at the seams. The newer one has reinforced seems, is a nicer, more neoprene like fabric, but has torn easily.

I'm hopeful that next year's model is black with the reinforced fingertips, and smooth inside seems, but is thicker, snugger and with more palm padding like the older model.

ZZQ

Two antenna cables,
power wire,
mounting bracket,
knobs & dials,
in a nifty blue case!

A little singsong jingle that i will never forget. Sung to the tune of the then popular Big Mac commercial, it was a wonderful in-house produced spot for an FM converter (to allow AM radios to receive FM broadcasts) on the legendary ZZQ in the early 1970s.

WZZQ 102.9 FM in Jackson Mississippi in the 1970s was at the vanguard of the movement towards Album Oriented Rock radio -- they basically invented the format.

I feel extremely lucky that i got to experience ZZQ. I eventually spent some time working in radio in Jackson, and a lot more time as a fanatical follower of Jackson radio, so i sometimes receive email asking about that time.  A recent email allowed me to write it all down: "When did JDX FM become ZZQ? What made that happen? Did all the staff go with the change?"

While this question is about something that happened in 1972, the way it is phrased, as a concern about complete change is really because of 1981.  The callsign change was made in about 1972. It was simply an administrative licensing addendum. There was no format change, no ownership change and no staff change when the callsign changed. They applied to the FCC and got a different name.  It is possible to request a specific callsign when applying for a broadcast license, and many stations do.  I've always wondered if the wonderful calls "WZZQ" were randomly assigned, or if they were specifically requested.   In any case, it was the name of one of the truly great rock radio stations of all time.

It's just a name. Nothing more.However it certainly was a part of the evolution of the station into what i eventually knew in high school. Knowing what i know now about how radio works, i'd guess that once it became clear that the incipient AOR format on the FM side was a ratings success, they wanted to create a unique identity and distance themselves from the news & top 40 format on the AM side. Ownership didn't change, they were still sister stations, still had the same sales staff and still were in the same building on Beasley Road at Watkins Drive.

My understanding of that evolution starts in the 1940s when Lamar Life Insurance, which owned WJDX-AM was competing against their arch enemy Standard Life who owned WSLI-AM. Top 40 WSLI was the original ratings leader.

Actually there are three major Jackson stations that we have to look at in this history. WJDX 1300 AM went on the air in 1927; JDX=Jackson distance (DX is radio jargon for long distance). WSLI 930 AM joined them in 1939; SLI = Standard Life Insurance. WRBC 620 AM came along in 1948 and had several periods at #1 in the ratings when my father was growing up; RBC=Rebel Broadcasting Company.

I'm not sure why but WRBC and WJDX swapped frequencies (and transmitters) in 1952. The 620 kHz channel had better propagation, more strength and a better signal and WJDX quickly took over as the top station, and, in fact, the premier station in the entire state. WRBC never recovered their competitive edge and when i was growing up they were news and sports and never in the top 10.

In the early 1940s when FM licenses became available, both competing life insurance companies grabbed a license and put an FM station on the air, not with any belief that it would be bigger than AM radio, and not even with any real conviction, but just to say they had it, for bragging rights and to keep up with the other guy.

That's the origin moment when ZZQ started. While there was a license, a signal and even music transmitted, it was all just for show.  No listeners had FM receivers in the 40s, 50s & 60s and ratings books were not produced on FM.  No one was paying attention, not the station owners, not the program directors, not the advertisers and not the public.

Initially, nationwide, FM stations were added by AM stations and given the same calls. Mind you Lamar Life and Standard Life probably WANTED the same calls as their AM side, for bragging rights, but initially at least, that was all the FCC would issue. WSLI-FM was on 97.3 and WJDX-FM was, of course, on 102.9 mHz.

When TV licenses became available, a decade later, the competition between the AM stations was still going strong and they did the same as before, each got a license, just for show. Standard Life first, with WSLI TV-12 (ABC), in 1953 and, less than a year later, WLBT TV-3 (NBC) owned by Lamar Life and associated with WJDX AM. LBT= Lamar Broadcasting Television. FM radio was still a non-existent business. They both got a TV license and started broadcasting not really because either side thought it would turn into something bigger than AM radio, but because they had to have the newest thing, the coolest thing, to keep up with the other guy.  For decades WJTV-WSLI AM & FM were a single operating unit and WLBT-WJDX AM & FM were a unit.

In addition the local newspapers (The Clarion-Ledger and Jackson Daily News) got a UHF TV license, WJTV TV-25 (CBS) JTV = Jackson TV.  Television took 10 years or so to take off, but of course it did. WLBT did well and the others struggled. At some point in the mid sixties WSLI-12 shut down and was sold to the newspapers which started broadcasting WJTV-12 (CBS). In 1970 they were joined by WAPT-16 (ABC) owned by, you guessed it a life insurance company, American Public Life Insurance. APT=American Public Television.

At some point WJDX/WZZQ was sold. Lamar Life owned it in 1972, when the ZZQ callsign change happened, but they did not own it at the end in 1981. I'm not sure when that sale happened, and in fact there may have been more than one. If i'm not mistaken it was Kirby Confer who owned them in 1981. Lamar Life held on to WLBT TV for a while after that, but in the early 80s they were forced by the Feds to sell the station for blatant and over the top racism on the local TV news.

Back on the radio, WSLI-FM changed calls in the late 1960s. Although that station didn't have much success, it may have been another factor in the decision over at Lamar Life to change the calls on JDX-FM.  (When i was in high school i knew what station the former WSLI-FM was, but i don't remember now. It wasn't very big. The FCC database says it was WYYN but i only barely remember that station and i think that was yet another callsign change..)

Over at WJDX-FM the format was 'beautiful music'. And no one listened. That was typical across the country on the FM band. Most of the stations played classical music to appeal to the few wealthy audiophiles who might buy the exotic equipment. That went on for close to 30 years!

No one listened because even into the late sixties and early seventies, people didn't have FM tuners.  There was a vicious circle:  no station wanted to invest in full fledged, full time radio programming until people bought the receivers. And no one wanted to buy a receiver until there was something to listen to. That's why WZZQ, and WBCN Boston (which, sadly, went off the air just last week!), and KFOG in SF and WCCC in Chicago and KJET in Seattle and other great pioneer FM rock stations that did make a go at the big time sold those generic FM converters that let you listen to FM on an AM radio!

Really the only places that had FM receivers in Jackson were the big department stores which tuned to 102.9 for background music. Ironically that frequency continued to carry the background music for those stores well into the 1990s!  This is because the channels were designated by the FCC back in 1932.  The bandwidth allotted for an FM signal was 1,000 kH with 1,000 kH padding; but by the 1970s the technology had developed so that a high quality FM stereo signal only required a a fraction of the channel, leaving lots of unused frequency space.  Many FM stations, including ZZQ, would piggyback additional programming on a sub-carrier of their signal, to generate a extra income.

A sub-carrier is just a radio signal that normal radios ignore but if you have a special radio, it will decode that signal.  One of the main things that was carried on the sub-carrier was Muzak™ Inc.'s programming tracks!!! They were embedded in ZZQ's signal! I was, and continue to be very amused at the idea of Muzak™ being delivered under the same signal as Hendrix, Rundgren and the Who! I doubt that elevator music is still delivered that way.   But that's not all, before the the internet provided an easier method, the stock market ticker direct to stockbrokers and stolen credit card number blacklists to stores were distributed on sub-carriers of major FM stations and there were various contracted private channel text transmissions. I don't how much of that ZZQ did, but as one of the most powerful stations in the state, it stands to reason that there were lots of sub-carrier channels on their signal.

There continue to be many sub-carrier services: pagers use that method, reading services for the blind go out on a sub-carrier and even sometimes the programming of the AM side is sent across town via a sub-carrier to avoid having a wire run to a remote transmitter! In some countries they send text the name of the song, weather and traffic forecasts to display on your radio.  All over the US there is a GPS correction signal which goes out on an FM sub-carrier and helps GPS receivers with elevation among other things.  You'll notice your GPS receiver is more accurate close to a major FM station. 

But i've gotten ahead of myself.  Back in the 1960s, AM radio was king.  Because no one listened to FM, no one had receivers.  Because no one had receivers, Arbitron didn't do books (ratings) on FM stations.  Because there were no Arbitron books, there were no commercials.  Because there was no income from commercials the owners really didn't pay any attention to the FM side of the hall. This was the case across the country, but eventually out in the little building on Watkins & Beasley in Jackson Miss, the AM program director started letting the hippie kids working as janitors do air shifts on the FM side. Those kids started playing some interesting things. They played what they liked, they played the underground music of the era. And this was 1967, we know what the MAINSTREAM music was like then!  And after a year or two of that people started to notice, just a little, started to notice.


So in 1968, a format change was made. WJDX-FM became officially 'underground' rather than 'beautiful music'. One story says that Bob McRaney, the AM Program Director, was inspired by a station he heard in Memphis. Another story talks about a jock traveling to San Francisco and being impressed with the radio format he heard there (on KFOG i assume). Other jocks i worked with told me that the kids at JDX-FM came up with the idea on their own. (And some claimed the Memphis & SF stations were actually, fact, inspired by JDX-FM!)

However there were a couple of catches with this format change. Number one, they didn't really create an independent station on the FM side, it still didn't have a program director, it was still run by the PD on the AM side. Number two, they had a rule that the jocks still had to play one 'beautiful music' song every hour!! So you'd have the Stones & Jefferson Airplane followed by Andy Williams. Some accounts suggest that this restriction only lasted a few weeks, but i don't think that was the case. For one thing, i'm pretty sure i have a memory of actually HEARING this bizarre format, and i didn't move to Mississippi until 2 years after the format change. And secondly several people, including the legendary Wayne Harrison, told me that part of the way that they developed the thematic set philosophy which so defined ZZQ in it's glory years, was by finding more and more interesting ways to integrate those 'beautiful music' songs in with the rock.

Still, the AM sales staff was less than interested in in the station and the jocks themselves couldn't really convince anyone to buy ads. So most of the advertising was self promotion. The few ads they did have, the jocks made in-house because they couldn't afford an agency. They had fun in the production room, which of course became another creative outlet and another trademark of the station.  (Thus the FM converter jingle at the top of this post!)

It was sometime around 1971 that Arbitron finally included FM stations in the book, almost as a joke, and to everyone's shock, especially the folks at the station, JDX-FM did very well. Top five (some accounts incorrectly say #1, but i don't think ZZQ EVER hit #1). After this they did get their own PD and at this point they certainly dropped the one song an hour requirement, if they hadn't already. The ownership woke up, gave them some support and started selling ads.  It became profitable.  And AOR was born.


 In '72 they changed calls and became WZZQ.  Nothing else changed at that point.

The format that developed at WJDX-FM and the early WZZQ popped up at other places around the country, perhaps a few were earlier, but JDX-FM was clearly one of the first to develop it and ZZQ became a model that many stations around the country looked to as the format that became AOR (Album Oriented Rock) developed. There is no doubt that they were trendsetters. Many stations around the country put a Q or Z in their calls in homage to the station that started it.

During the whole run of the station from the mid 60s through the notorious end in 1981, there were really no mass staffing changes or firings. The staff evolved and the original staff in 1968 didn't really contain any familiar names (except Terry Stenzal who i worked with at WZRX). The jocks i came to know and love joined slowly. My Mom's British friend Judy Genthon did a few overnight shifts out there at some point, although i don’t remember her air name.


Strangely they went through program directors even more quickly than is typical in radio! Wayne Harrison was PD for a short while in the late 1970s.  Wayne was instrumental in creating what was, perhaps, the signature of WZZQ, and that was the sets.  All day long music was carefully selected (rarely in advance, usually on the run) by the jock.  Songs were chosen that sounded good together, that segued well into each other and, most legendarily, that had a similar theme or made a statement when placed together.

Some sets had a lyrical theme in common, some had a musical connection, some sets were more complex.  Not just a 'car' set, or a 'dog' set, but deeper and more complex sets.  Almost every song ZZQ played related in some way to the previous song, and to the rest of the songs in the set between breaks.  It was fun as a listener picking out those themes.  Sometimes they were very obvious, sometimes incredibly obscure, but always very thoughtful.  I'm told that many sets could only be understood by insiders, the people actually in the control room.  There were LOTS of inside jokes.


1970 through 74 were the true glory years. Freeform sets, no playlist, lots of support of local music, great jocks, in house production (ads), a passionate following, great stickers: the whole thing. The ratings were not bad. 5th, 6th, 7th in the market was common. Always top 10.

Most good radio stations develop a club-like fan base in their city, (stations strive for that!) but the camaraderie and patriotic devotion of WZZQ fans in the seventies was truly astonishing. It connected people across generations! Jackson Mississippi was a turbulent and difficult place. Let's just say there was lots of suspicion. But if you saw someone in the car next to you rocking to the same song you were listening to, you knew they were a ZZQ fan, you considered them a friend. A ZZQ shirt or sticker wasn’t an emblem of a clan, it was an essential identifying feature. Starting to listen to ZZQ became a rite of passage for kids growing up.

ZZQ was doing something truly special and, unusually, everyone realized that at the time.  We knew we had something very special.  It is not exaggerating to say that it was the most important thing in our lives.  It was wonderful, innovative, creative, and it connected. It connected with a huge segment of the population from age 15 to 40.

One big thing that helped to create the stature, is that they simply had no competition in the market. There were country stations, funk stations, top 40 stations, gospel stations, news stations, but absolutely nothing in the same universe as what they were doing. No watered down alternative, no harder rock or or more pop station substitute. They were all there was.

It's worth pointing out that ZZQ benefited from Jackson, Mississippi being a middle sized market. In the large markets there was too much money at stake to take any risks and so program managers and station managers always went with what was proven, what was 'safe'.  (I can't tell you how many times i heard that word, 'safe', in the years i was in radio. It drove me nuts.)  Small markets had few resources and rarely had anyone interested in breaking new ground.

But the mid-markets were ripe and Jackson was one of the most notable mid-markets. This manifested in other ways outside of radio too: Jackson was a frequent test market, always geting the new brand of potato chips first.  (Sometimes they were so bad they didn't go any further!) And, for example, Jackson was one of the first 3 markets in the country to get cable TV, and HBO in 1975!

And it still was an important middle market when i was working in radio in Jackson in the late 1980s. We had more influence than you'd think a market of a quarter million could have. I saw us break several songs and albums nationwide in the late eighties, most notably when Wayne Harrison working with me at WSTZ made Joe Satriani's Surfing With The Alien a hit. We were the first station in the country to add it. Everyone followed us. (The record company gave us the gold record as a thank you!)

This influence of being a mid-market was very important in helping WZZQ to thrive and in helping it influence the format at stations around the country.  Through the late 70s ZZQ was riding high.  They did well in the ratings, never the top spot, but usually in the top 5 and occasionally number 3. The advertisers certainly came in droves and the joint AM-FM sales staff was very excited about the station.


A partial playlist was introduced around '74, but they still did quite well. A strict playlist was introduced in 1978.  But they were part of defining a new format, Album Oriented Rock, and the playlist, while still set up around the same kind of annoying rotation that AM playlists had, still had deep album cuts, longer songs, older songs, local artists, the wonderful sets and well, a certain comfortable feel to it.  It made us happy.  It was a friend. Even if there did grow to be too much Journey & Foreigner -- the absolute devil's curse of the late 70s.

I learned so much from ZZQ. I would stay up late at night listening to Bowie, JJ Cale, Rundgren, ZZ Top, Hendrix, Warren Zevon and much, much, much more.

And then there are some songs, some things that i heard on ZZQ, maybe heard often there, so i assumed were well known nationwide, but in fact were local bands or deep album cuts that no one knew about. Even today, every once in a while i will be surprised to discover that people i know don't know about a certain song that i heard on ZZQ!

There were great jocks like David Adcock, Wayne Harrison, Sergio Fernandez, Dave Perkins, Bill Crews, Bruce Owen, Victor Hawkins and many more -- my memory is, unfortunately, fading.  There was an overnight jock who called herself Carla, had all of us high school boys in a lather. She played Kraftwerk's Autobahn now and then. Blew my mind. One night she played Pink Floyd's Careful With That Axe Eugene in it's entirety!!


But for me, and many others, the guy who epitomized it all was Perez. I can't think of WZZQ without thinking of Perez, he was, and still is, the best jock i've ever heard. I wanted to be like him. I listened to him like a teacher, a mentor. I listened to his breaks, i learned from his music, from the way he talked, from his production (something i could never, ever match!). He was amazing. I can't possibly say enough about his skills, his creativity, his knowledge. I was truly honored to work with him in later years.

By my junior year in high school (September of 1980) things had changed somewhat. There was a quickly aborted attempt at a shock jock type morning show with a guy (who i think was also PD) using the name Gary Phillips. Pretty much everyone hated that. ZZQ was a mellow friend, a conduit of excellent music, a community connector. That in your face thing just didn't fly.  They dropped it quickly.


They were still a great station, but much more strictly formatted. They still had no competition and the following was as passionate as ever, but now there were people who were upset. It was one of the most frequent topics of discussion. No one, i mean no one, that i knew, or that my parents knew, actually turned ZZQ off, but people were calling it "the new Q" and were comparing it negatively to both the '68 to '74 format, the '74 to '78 format, and even to last year. A lot of the loyalty in those days was felt to be based on past performance, not present. It was not what we had come to love. There was talk of petitions. "Bring back the real thing." But there certainly was no other possibility at all, people couldn't change the station. There was only top 40 or country.

Some people saw all these changes as a bad sign, and sure enough in early 1981 rumors started that they might be changing formats. People were horrified. People who were complaining a few months earlier were now shocked and furious at the thought of losing ZZQ entirely. I have to say none of us could actually imagine ZZQ being gone. It was like suggesting the sun was going to go away.

By the spring the rumors were confirmed and i remember fury in the newspaper, petitions in record stores and letter writing campaigns. There were frustrated, sad and angry discussions. It seemed impossible. We knew we'd had something very, very special, in a very dark place, and we really depended on it. We couldn't imagine life without it.

Years later i learned that the same thing was going on inside the station. The jocks, the program director, the general manager, the sales staff and pretty much every one from the secretaries on up protested the idea. They begged the new owner to think again. They were not happy at all. Even the folks on the AM side didn't like it. Some of this leaked out on the air. Comments were made.

Staff started to leave. New voices didn't help the situation. The new (sometime in late 1980 i think) PD and abrasive morning drive jock Keven Vandebrook took a lot of heat. We hated him for the overly commercial, less mellow, friendly changes. It may not have been his fault but among the fans he was universally blamed.

There was nothing anyone could do. I felt hopeless; I signed petitions, I sent a letter. But i knew we couldn't do anything. For the last weeks, perhaps all of June, they abandoned the New Q format and returned, albeit with the abrasive Keven in the morning, to glorious the freeform ZZQ of yore. It was a wonderful few weeks. We enjoyed it although it was like having a rock hovering over your head about to fall.

I have a reel to reel tape of the last 6 hours, (and i have recently transferred it to MP3). On the evening July 2, 1981 they played a series of songs, a death set, ending with Todd Rundgren's Death of Rock N Roll and the Door's The End. They signed off at midnight with the horrible last words: "This was WZZQ Jackson", and then dropped the signal, just static.

I cried. Lots of people did. I get goose bumps just writing about it. I was 18. It was in every way, a loss of innocence, a loss of youth. Nothing has ever been the same. I know at least one person who claims to this day that he has never recovered. We had lost a family member, a mentor, a connection, a strong friend who was always there. The emptiness was amazing. It is still known in Jackson, at least among people my age as the Day The Music Died. No one has to ask what day or what music.

But we had lost much more than just a friend, much more than just a radio format. We'd lost what connected people throughout the city. Those connections, between different high schools and neighborhoods disappeared. We also lost our identity. As rockin' teenagers we lost the focus of our identity but let's face it, Jackson was not a national leader, in well, anything. We had had something very special, something unique, something groundbreaking, something widely copied. We had had something that made us special and it was gone. We had been proud of it. Now we struggled with inferiority.

We felt this deeply. From the best imaginable to nothing. It was quite a shock. There is a full page in my high school yearbook dedicated to the end of ZZQ, and this was a yearbook that was published a full year later!!  Everyone in the school considered it the most important event of the year -- despite  happening before the year started.  And it was a profoundly emotional experience for a high school kid who planned to grow up to work in radio.

It was shocking to tune to 102.9 and hear country music the next morning. For weeks, even months, we would accidentally find radios still tuned to 102.9. Always shocking. Some people really didn't believe it would actually happen and when they heard the country twang, it was horrible. It made many of us really hate country music, which wasn't fair, but it did. And there was no alternative, it wasn't a matter of changing the dial, there was nothing.

I knew someone who printed out vicious letters of complaint on an early word processor and anonymously sent them to the stations periodically for almost 10 years! I knew someone who made a point of driving past the studio on the outskirts of town in the middle of the night and breaking a bottle in the middle of the driveway once or twice a month for years and years. People were hurt and angry.

There's something else too. Jackson had struggled to have a nationally recognized music scene for a number of years, starting in the late 1970s. Bobby Sutliff, The Windbreakers, Tim Lee and Radio London had some national releases but the scene never really got rolling. I can't help but feel like a big part of the reason for that was losing ZZQ. When i hear people talk about the Athens & Austin music scenes, especially in the late 80s, i can't help but think of what could've been on the middle of the Austin-Athens axis.

Because of the deep and powerful effect of having WZZQ from 1968 - 1981 Jackson always had an unusually thoughtful, educated, and deeply devoted fan base for non-top 40 rock; which is kind of surprising considering the size and location of the city. It was very noticeable in the late 80s when i was on Z106.

Our station was around for about 13 years, 10 with the name WZZQ.  After it changed to country it took another year to change the callsign to WMSI (i believe, but i ca not confirm, that one of the reasons it took so long was that they wanted WMIS but couldn’t get it). So for a whole year MISS 103, country, ID'd every hour as "WZZQ 102.9 Jackson." That really hurt. As a radio geek i have to admit i would occasionally tune in at the top of the hour just to hear it.

In the last book, even with the strict playlist, ZZQ was 3rd, which is fantastic. MISS 103 has been consistently #1. The owner thought he could do better financially with country and he was right. However, i did hear through the grapevine inside of Jackson radio that he only later realized how potent that station really was, and there are rumors, rumors only, of regrets.


A couple of years after the Day The Music Died, a small station north of Jackson got the calls WZXQ. It was on 101.7 with a very weak signal.  They adopted a rock format and called it ROCK 102. I think it was in early 1983, i don't know who was responsible. They were trying hard to continue the tradition. They hired some of the same folks. And it wasn't bad. Perez had some amazing shows. But it wasn't the same: ZZQ was gone and ROCK 102 didn't really last long. A station in Vicksburg got a Q in their call and advertised as "The New Q", but they couldn't deliver.

In 1988 WSTZ 106.7 adopted a rock format and had Victor Hawkins as PD with Bill Crews & Perez and, well, me. It was ok, not great, strictly playlisted except on the overnight. I had fun on the overnight and i always, always did it in the spirit of ZZQ. David Adcock started doing a weekly show. Wayne Harrison did one too.

But it also didn't last. There was a major shakeup and change of direction after only a year. The tower fell in an ice storm and we were on low power for 9 or 10 months after that and then we all got fired. That's when i left town. I can't personally speak to any other events. I know David Adcock continued his ZZQ memories show for many years on various stations. The spirit of the Q clearly survived in the city.

There were some strange changes in Jackson radio in the 1990s. WJDX-AM moved to 97.3 FM which was WSLI-FM's old frequency. They later moved back to AM, although i don't know if they are on 620 kHz now. In the late 90's the original WJDX (620 AM) became WJDS and WJDX moved to 96.3 FM which was occupied by what was WSLI-FM. So there was a WJDX-FM again.

The former ZZQ, MISS 103 i see, is now owned by Clear Channel and WSTZ 106.7 where i worked is also owned by Clear Channel.  They have combined the operations in the old Beasley & Watkins studios with Miss 103.

A station in Terre Haute Indiana got the WZZQ calls and they were around for probably something like 20 years (longer than our Q). I believe they were top 40. The owner lost the FCC license because he was caught sexually abusing children. A couple of years ago a Christian station in Pennsylvania got the calls, but they never broadcast under them, they changed after on a couple of months to WZXQ (which were the calls of the short lived Rock 102 in 1983-4). Now a country station in South Carolina has just gotten the WZZQ calls.

ZZQ is gone. But we remember.

Two antenna cables,
power wire,
mounting bracket,
knobs & dials,
in a nifty blue case!

© 2009 Mark Canizaro

Some links:
http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/newbonham/835/airchecks/mississippi.htm
http://wzzq1029.tripod.com/index.html
http://www.wakeatlanta.com/WJDXfm1_0.html



LAST SET July 2, 1981
Seven Stars {Peter Green 1979}  (All the tribes of the earth will mourn)
Yesterday {Beatles 1965}
[break.  Keven]
Sunshine of My Love {Cream 1967}
Station to Station {David Bowie 1976} (it's too late)
Changes {Black Sabbath 1972} (lost the best friend that i ever had)
She's Gone {Hall & Oates 1973}
Death Of Rock & Roll {Todd Rundgren 1975}
 [Keven goodbye message]
The End {The Doors 1970}
 [this was WZZQ]



Below is some of the licensing research i did today.
WEAC -
WZZQ - 07/13/2009
Where this callsign has been:
08/04/2000 on 107.5 in TERRE HAUTE IN - now DWZZQ
10/16/2002 on 88.3 in CHAMBERSBURG PA - now WZXQ
10/02/1995 on 107.5 in TERRE HAUTE IN - now DWZZQ
10/02/1995 on 1230 in TERRE HAUTE IN - now DDWBUZ
06/15/1982 on 107.5 in TERRE HAUTE IN - now DWZZQ
12/09/1981 on 102.9 in JACKSON MS - now WMSI-FM

July 2000 Indiana RadioWatch
Rock/WZZQ (107.5fm, Terre Haute) morning co-host Debbie Hunter exits, as well as air talent Danny Wayne. The two moves are un-related. Wayne is now at Country/WWSY (95.9fm, Seelyville).

July 2000 Indiana RadioWatch
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed Michael Rice attempt to regain his licenses for WBOW (640am, Terre Haute IN), WZZQ-FM (107.5fm Terre Haute) and WZZQ-AM (640am, Terre Haute). In 1998 he was jailed, and stripped of FCC radio licenses, for sexually abusing children.

March 2001 Indiana RadioWatch
A stunt goes awry at Alternative WZZQ (107.5fm, Terre Haute). On Monday 27 March, MD/night guy Aaron Green played "Stoplight Jeopardy" with his listeners. According to the Terre Haute Tribune-Star, listeners won prizes for stopping at green lights, calling the station on a cell phone, and reporting other motorists' reactions. After calls from angry listeners, as well as an irate local police department, GM Dave Kirsch decided to dismiss Green the following morning. … Before we leave WZZQ, PD J. Jay King exits. Dave Kirsch is handling PD duties in the interim.

October 2002 North East RadioWatch
The FCC assigns new calls "WZZQ" to 88.3 in Chambersburg PA;

October 2002: North East RadioWatch
Across the state in Chambersburg, Four Rivers Community Broadcasting (the folks behind contemporary Christian WBYO 88.9 and its relays) have a new CP: WZZQ on 88.3 will run 140 directional watts when it signs on.

Dec 2002: North East RadioWatch
And while it's not yet on the air, WZZQ (88.3 Chambersburg) has already changed calls: it's now WZXQ.

October 2008 the Tribune Star.
107.5 WZZQ silent; was adult alternative "Z107-5" //1230; (640)

July 2009 REC news
license granted WZZQ - 07/13/2009 GAFFNEY SC US country and football

Sept 2009
Gaffney SC has a new fm station to fill the void of the old WGGI FM station. The new station is WZZQ FM 104.3 will simulcast with WEAC AM Why the new callsign -- WZZQ? What was wrong with the heritage WEAC callsign? Could have resurrected the WAGI callsign? Must have been playing "drop the Scrabble tiles"? At 250 watts, it has some problems covering all of Cherokee County. It's not ideal for Gaffney football fans.

Sept 2009
Word FM - Christian hits
88.3 (WZXQ) Chambersburg, PA

Light Rail with Becca

Light Rail is open in Seattle!

It's been a long, long, long, long wait.  Three years of voting (and 20 more before i moved here) and then 15 years of political delays and glacial construction.  So i'm pretty excited that it's finally ready to run.  The first run to was on the weekend; i didn't go the first day because i wanted to avoid the fanfare.  So today seemed a great time for a first look.

My friend Becca, who is also a long time transit advocate, went along with me.  Becca hasn't cycled a great deal around here, so we decided to do a bike ride after the light rail ride and i could show her some cycling routes.

Becca prepares to board LINK light rail for the first time!

We met at the stop where her bus arrived in downtown and since we were both interested in some breakfast, we stopped for crepes at a little place in Belltown. Then we pedaled the few blocks to Westlake Station.

I've been down into Westlake Station many times, the tunnel has been there since 1988 running express buses under downtown. But this was exciting as it was the first time that i would be able to ride light rail in Seattle. We carried the bikes down the stairs and got to the platform right as a train arrived.


We were both very excited.

Becca is excited.

I took a photo of Becca taking a photo of the new light rail.

The train was comfortable, and the ride was smooth and we were both thrilled to finally get to ride it. I love rail and i think it is an enormously important part of any transit system. I was quite disappointed that they spent a over a billion extra dollars and 12 extra years putting it underground to make sure it never slowed down a car. Still the system is very nice. The fare payment (ORCA card) was easy, the seats were comfortable, although too many were sideways. The bike rack was strangely oriented perpendicular to the wall instead of parallel. It looked like they could've gotten double the bikes in if the had turned it 90 degrees, and with the bike perpendicular to the wall it wobbled A LOT more than if it was done right.

It was great fun riding along MLK Blvd S because you could see the interesting, active neighborhoods -- neighborhoods that have been pretty invisible to folks in north Seattle until now. That was my favorite part.

There are two tunnels and several elevated sections of rail as well as the street level section.  I  took an elevation profile of the route from the map (below) and drew on by hand the tracks, so you can see the different sections, as well as the actual grades.

The ride was so comfortable and so much fun that it seemed to go very quickly.  We couldn't believe it had been 35 minutes.  We rode the full route to Tukwila, currently the end of the line. The last leg to the airport won't open until December.

The multi level maze like Tukwila station was a little strange. I must say.

 There was some very nice public artwork. I particularly like this one.

The ticketing was all on a Mezzanine level, down an escalator. With the bikes we took the elevator, but were completely baffled by the labels on the buttons. We're both pretty smart, and have quite a bit of experience with transit, but we both stood dumfounded, unsure which button to push. Finally we only figured it out because we must want to go to the floor we were NOT on, so the light, not the label showed us. How hard is it to put a word or an icon on the panel? M for Mezzanine and T for train i guess.  But really unnecessarily unclear.

The next elevator, from the Ticketing Mezzanine to the Exit on the ground floor was even worse.  There is no possible way to figure this one out, you just have to ignore the crazy secret labels.  We actually wondered if they installed them wrong!  P could maybe possibly stand for platform, but it's hard to figure out how that could be Exit.

This is in contrast to the wonderful geological themed elevators at the Zoo stop in Portland that are labeled (full words): Present day (surface) and 16 million years ago (tunnel) in addition to street and train icons.

Overall it was a comfortable, easy, fun transit ride. We were both very excited to finally ride it. We were impressed that the system, only three days old, was getting pretty heavy use.  There was a couple from out of town heading to the airport who didn't know this was the first week of the system!  And The Tukwila station parking lot was completely full.




Once we found our way out of the unmarked, maze like parking lot we went fast down a long (1 mile) hill, which had a narrow, but very much appreciated bike lane.  We had to cross some nasty traffic for a half a mile or so at the bottom, before we found our way to the Green River Trail.   Even though i know the trail really well, i turned the wrong way, and we started heading south a bit before i figured it out and headed north.  The trail down through Fort Dent and Allentown is very nice, and excpet for one section, it is entirely separated from the road, running through the trees along the river. It was a very hot summer day, and we appreciated the shade.

I finally got to test my camera.  I've had it 2 years (almost to the day) and i have never dropped it.  The specs say you can drop it from 10 feet with no problem.  I didn't feel like dropping it on purpose, but i knew it would eventually happen.  Today i was riding, as i often do, with the camera in my shirt pocket ; when i hit a big bump and did a little bunny hop, the camera rocketed out of my pocket and over my head, landing on the asphalt trail behind me.  Becca laughed and picked it up, but the camera was just fine.  I wasn't surprised, but i was quite relieved.

We zigged and zagged through South Park.  I almost always get lost trying to find my way through here, but i didn't today.  It's a really nice little neighborhood.  I like it.

North of South Park we picked up the Duwamish trail which runs along the railroad tracks.   As we were pedaling along looking at the trains, Becca was talking about how her dad (a train engineer) talked about train buffs watching trains, calling them foamers.


At one point we came to a train parked across the trail!  It's not supposed to do that!  We were a little worried, and felt a little stranded.  Right after i took this photo Becca turned to me and said, "I'm a foamer now!"

But after only about 90 seconds, the engineer looked back out the window, saw us standing there forlornly and moved the train for us!

The ride up to Alki beach was pleasant and went quickly.  We stopped for lunch and since we had worked up a good sweat on the hot day, we jumped in the cold salt water of Puget Sound for a few minutes.  It was a great way to cool off.  

We decided to cut off some of the more industrial sections of the ride by taking the Water Taxi across Elliot Bay -- yes a FOURTH method of transportation for the day (bus, rail, bike, boat).  That was quite fun and i always enjoy the skyline views.


Once back downtown we rode up to Becca's  house via the really cool Pier 91 trail, which she had never seen. All told we rode 31 miles together -- that's really good for someone who rarely rides.  She struggled just a little on the last hill up to her neighborhood, but that's all.  It was an exciting day and a fun ride and i really enjoyed spending time with Becca.

On the map, the new light rail line is in green our rides are in red, the ferry in blue dashes and my ride home in purple.  Without the light rail, our ride would've been at least 45 miles!

Share The Road

The chant of the bicycle advocate for the last 15 or 20 years has been Share The Road. It's a wonderfully crafted political phrase. Happy and smiley, it quietly tries to sneak in a message that bicycles belong.

I think it made a difference. It had a good run, it may have been right for the time, but that time is clearly over. It's just too timid, too hesitant, and far too subtle for today.

I've been a bicycle advocate for 32 years, i'm passionate about bicycles' right to the road, but even i,



when i see the classic SHARE THE ROAD sign, think: hmmm, Bicycles need to share the road!

It's time to retire this message.

It is the wrong message. Putting the bike icon on it makes it seem to apply only to Cyclists. Most of us correct that message in our head consciously but we are still sending the wrong message. We do not need to demurely request permission to use a tiny piece of motorists' own private pavement. We need to demand that motorists, however distracted or disinterested, obey the law of the land and the law of good sense.

UPDATE: Science shows that this weak, confusing message does not work.  Neither motorists nor cyclists understand that it means Bicycles are legal in the lane.  http://usa.streetsblog.org/2015/09/02/share-the-road-signs-dont-work/



Let's stop saying Share The Road and start saying something more like Get out of my way!

About a year ago i was riding to work, i was descending Yesler way, a very, very steep 4 block two lane street with a double yellow line and TWO stop signs in those 4 blocks. I stopped at the first stop sign and waited my turn. I took the lane, it was the obvious, safe, legal decision. It is far too dangerous for a car to pass a bicycle on that section and i have to hold my brakes to keep below the speed limit, no car can legally pass me. Some wack job in a red BMW accelerated, crossed the double yellow into oncoming traffic, leans over, rolls down her window, and yells, Share The Road!! I thought she was going to throw her coffee at me. All this while descending a very steep, shorthill. Then she cut hard in front of me and slammed on the brakes and skidded through the stop sign.

Johnnie Moss

In May 1994 i was preparing to ride a week long Seattle to Spokane bicycle ride called Trek Washington. I had previously worked as road staff on the ride, and related rides.  I knew many of the volunteers and HAM radio operators.

One of them, Anthony, KB7UQY, announced that he was going to lead a training ride on Memorial Day. Anthony was a great guy and his ride was popular; many people signed up because the ride was up Hurricane Ridge on the Olympic Peninsula.  One of the important parts of riding across the state of Washington, and the most concerning for most people, was crossing the mountains.  In mid-June we were going to ride over the North Cascades Highway: it's two mountain passes at 4,500 and 5,500 feet, so getting some climbing training was important.

Anthony was a monster rider; he once told me that he didn't feel like it was worth going out for a ride shorter than 140 miles. Our upcoming ride, Trek Washington, was on a different scale: 385 miles across the state of Washington in six 60 mile days.

He had planned to start this Memorial Day "training" ride at the Dungeness Spit in Sequim, quite a long way from Hurricane Ridge. When people saw that, many canceled.  I told him that i thought it was because a lot of people were going to have problems with an 85 mile ride that included a 6,000 foot climb.  He told me he thought i could do it. I thought i could too, that wasn't the point.

My friend Dianne and her new boyfriend Micheal decided to ride from Seattle to Port Angeles the day before the ride, camp, do the climb, then ride home the following day.  I thought that was a neat idea!   When i talked to them, they didn't really know how far it was to PA and they were traveling very light, planning on going out to eat while they were there, but they were excited and ready to play it by ear.

I was very excited about the ride. On the morning of the ride an acquaintance named Kirk picked me up in his van and drove me to Sequim. His wife and kids came along in the van, they were going to spend the day having fun, and then meet Kirk at the top.  When we arrived at Dungeness Spit, only a handful of people had showed up.

I was somewhat surprised to see Johnnie Moss (KB7CTI, now a silent key) in the parking lot preparing his bicycle. Johnnie, as well as a committed HAM, was a committed bicyclist. He found it a great way to manage his diabetes, but he also loved it and rode many organized rides with a passion. But Johnnie was a very large man and people who didn't know him were always very surprised to see him on a bicycle.

"I need the training." He told me that morning. Certainly, we all did, but i was still surprised to see him on a ride this intense.  It took quite some effort for Johnnie to get over the big climbs and he was extremely slow.  But he loved to go fast on the downhills. Once, when i met him at the bottom of Stevens Pass after a ride he walked up to me, got right in my face and said "FIFTY-FOUR!"  Johnnie was a challenging person and lots of people had a tendency to avoid him.  I'm ashamed to say i did a little as well, although i felt something of a connection, perhaps just through the Aspergers.

As we prepared to set out from the parking lot in Sequim it was about 70 degrees with bright sunshine, we were all wearing short sleeve jerseys and shorts. I had a pair of tights with me and a heavy fleece jacket for the descent.

Kirk and i rode out together.   But first, i had this great idea, i gave my heavy fleece jacket to Kirk's family to carry in the van for me.  I would get it from them at the top, for the ride down.

It was a gorgeous ride, 35 miles on the old highway from Sequim to Port Angeles, through farmland sprinkled with forest and peek-a-boo water views across to Victoria. Kirk and i quickly dropped back from Anthony's bunch and rode together. Johnnie soon dropped back behind us.  Of course we left the rain shadow, and as soon as we turned towards the National Park in Port Angeles it started to rain pretty hard. Kirk and i started climbing and it kept getting colder. We never saw Johnnie.

The first part of the climb is a very steep, short section that gets you up to about 1,500 feet.  We met Dianne and Micheal pulling out of the campground at 1,200 feet. They looked awful.  They had had a very difficult ride up the night before at the end of the 90 miles from Seattle.  They didn't realize that the campground was a couple of hours ride from town, and up 1,500 feet, so for dinner they had eaten all of their food for the climb, they were heading up with nothing to eat. The four of us rode together in the rain.  The rain turned to sleet as it got colder at the higher elevations.

By the time we got to the National Park ticket booth it was sleeting and snowing pretty hard and i knew i was going to wind up hypothermic if i continued riding.  I wanted so badly to ride this climb, but, sadly, i sent Kirk & Dianne & Michael to ride on and i stopped to wait for Kirk's wife to drive by with my jacket. I stood, kind of dejected, under the overhang at the Park entrance for what seemed like hours and hours, waiting, while tourists in rental cars and RVs drove through, heading for the top.

The rangers kept giving me the evil eye. The snow continued and even got heavier. I did wonder a bit how Johnnie had gotten in front of me, because he never passed the ticket booth. Somehow he must have gotten ahead and was pushing it up the mountain in his typical, surprising, but dedicated way.

I waited a long time.  Almost 2 hours.  Eventually, Kirk's wife and kids came and gave me my jacket.  They also gave me a sandwich.  It was late in the day and she offered me a ride to the top. I had a hard time deciding, because i really wanted to complete the ride, but it didn't seem like the best idea.  I ate the sandwich trying to convince myself to make the intelligent decision and climb in the van.  Finally i just jumped on the bike and took off into the falling snow, heading up the 4,500 climb feet to the top. I don't think i even said goodbye!

I struggled, of course.  I took a few short rests, but i just turned the cranks and pushed on up the hill. It was a hard climb and i was rather enjoying it.  This is a steep road, but there were no sweeping views today, the visibility in the falling snow ranged from a couple hundred feet to maybe 20 feet at times. A few vehicles came up through the snow and quickly disappeared ahead of me, but mostly i was alone in the small bubble of visibility around me. The snow was coming down hard and every time an RV passed me, i'm sure they were talking about how crazy i was. Riding alone is always harder than riding with others, but i really wanted to make it to the top. I had wanted to do this ride ever since i had moved to Washington.  I don't know how long i rode alone, but it was quite a while. 

Eventually a bicyclist sped downhill out of the falling snow, passed me and disappeared below, descending quite fast. Then another. And another. They were swallowed by the falling flakes.  And then the rest of the group came towards me, including Kirk, Micheal and Dianne. They had reached the top and turned around to for the long ride back to Sequim. Anthony pulled up to a stop next to me facing downhill, blocking my path.

We were filling the middle of the narrow mountain the road with a crowd of snow covered bicyclists.  They had been worried about me, they were happy to see me. Kirk was not with them, he had figured the descent would be too dangerous and had thrown his bike in the van and the family had headed back to Seattle.

The group told me the snow got heavier as they got higher. Everyone was eager to be down in the sun again. Micheal and Dianne were wet and cold and hungry and told me they had no food for dinner but were going to huddle in their tent overnight.  They were all telling me that i just HAD to turn around. Insisting that i turn around right there, midway up the climb.

They were right of course. Anthony is a lawyer.  He was making a very good case. Not only would it be dark before i got back to Sequim, but i wouldn't even have a ride home to Seattle. And riding alone, aside from being not much fun, isn't very safe.  Nevertheless i was fighting them, i wanted to get to the top.

While we were arguing i was worried about what would happen if a car came while we were all standing in the middle of the snowy road like that, and sure enough a car's headlights showed through the falling snow as it approached from below us, coming uphill around the curve. Dejected, i pulled to the side of the road and prepared to turn around. The car pulled up, and instantly, without needing an explanation of the situation, Johnnie Moss stuck his head out the driver's window and ended the discussion.

Johnnie looked right at me and said - "GO!  I'm with you."

I was overjoyed, i almost teared up, but i didn't wait even a second, i just started turning the cranks uphill, while the rest of the group continued descending. Johnnie supported me the rest of the way, leapfrogging, pulling into turnouts and even offering me food and water. It took another hour but i pushed it up to the parking lot at the top.

I had never been up Hurricane Ridge before, by bike, car, bus or anything else. The snow was so heavy that i couldn't see across the parking lot, i rolled up to where Johnnie was stopped and asked him, "Isn't there a lodge or something up here?"  It was not visible. He pointed and i rode the 200 feet across the parking lot.  I leaned my bike against the railing and went inside.

All the people in bermuda shorts from the RVs and rental cars stared at me as i walked in, snow dripping off my helmet and ordered five cheeseburgers. One for Johnnie, two (garden burgers) for me and two for my unprepared camping friends. When i came out with the food, Johnnie had already loaded my bike onto his car.   We headed down the hill, stopping briefly at the campsite to deliver food to to a very thankful wet couple in a tent.

Johnnie told me that less than half way to Port Angeles he realized this ride was not for him and he turned around and rode back to Sequim, packed up and got in his car. As we drove back through Sequim we passed a rainbow. Johnnie drove me all the way back to Seattle.

But there is one more part of the story -- after we got off the ferry we were driving north on Alaskan Way when someone ran a stop sign at Clay Street. I looked up and a car was coming down the hill at 40 mph directly at me, it was going to T-bone the car, right at my seat. Johnnie, calmly zigged and zagged through traffic, i honestly don't know what he did, it seemed like magic, to avoid the impending doom.

I told him he'd saved my life TWICE that day.

Off the Freeway

I work at a bicycle advocacy organization. Among my tasks is answering telephone and email questions about bicycling in general and frequently those questions are about possible routes.

Today i got a request from a father in Bellingham (far in northwest Washington) who had a wonderful idea as a parent. His son graduated from high school last month and is heading off to college next month. As a way of symbolizing the rite of passage, and a (possibly last) chance to spend some time together, they decided to bicycle together to his university, WSU (in the far southeast corner of the state). I thought it was a great idea. (He seemed to need my encouragement.)  Neither are serious bicyclists, but they've been enjoying riding together the last year or so and decided to take on this very big undertaking (It's 400 miles or more).

His reason for calling was a routing question. He said,

"I know we go 100 miles down Interstate 5 to Seattle, get on Interstate 90 and go east a couple hundred miles, but i don't know where to go once i get out towards Spokane, can you tell me what turn to take?

There was a long, long pause as i gathered my thoughts and prepared for a nasty conflict.

The route he was suggesting was awful: 5 to 8 days of really miserable riding on Interstate freeways.  This is not that unusual; many people forget to stop thinking like a car when they get on a bike. Still, i was shocked... and nervous. I had a good suggestion for that last day of riding, (there is also a major highway similar to his suggestions) but i also had half a dozen much better routes to suggest for the first week.

I took a deep breath and started in... Stevens Pass, North Cascades Highway, White Pass, Chuckanut Drive, The Skagit Valley, The Centennial Trail, back roads, country roads, bike trails, away from the highways. Quiet roads.

I finished my monologue and prepared for the response. People get very defensive about routes and it's a strangely common reaction to be pretty angry at the suggestion of quieter routes.

I was met with silence. A long silence. A concerning silence. I wasn't even sure he was still there.

Finally he said,

"I'm really embarrassed, i've lived here my whole life and it never occurred to me that there was any other way to get to Seattle except on I-5... of course it would be nicer to ride on some of those other roads."

And why don't more people bike?

I've had the same experience in Seattle with new or prospective cyclists asking me about routes around town, assuming that the ONLY option was the nasty, clogged, smelly, loud, intense, motor filled arterial. Forgetting that the quiet streets, the neighborhoods, the pleasant and interesting streets even exist. Missing the point.

Cyclists need to stop thinking like cars. Actually i think everyone: city planners, drivers, developers, pedestrians, EVERYONE needs to stop thinking like cars, but it's amazing how often i see cyclists stuck in that car-think.   

The Best Sound

The best sound in the world:  rain.

The worst sound in the world: chain saw.

Mark & Emily's new Kayak Trailer!

I have been dreaming about having a kayak trailer for my bike for about 7 years -- at least since the day in the late 90s when i saw a Farington Chariot at a kayak shop in Sitka Alaska. I waffled for a while, but when i decided to buy the Chariot a few years ago, the company was gone. (Val at Bikesmith suspects that they lost the company in an insurance lawsuit because the web domain at one time directed to an insurance company.)

Then for quite some time i tried to build one, or to get someone to build one for me, with no luck. I spent a lot of time researching and planning it. The idea i have in my head is for two 20" or 16" bicycle wheels which are connected with a structure and some way of cradling the kayak, either a fabric hammock or a couple of lateral (running front to back) foam bars. The boat would sit with it's center of gravity on the axle between the wheels. Then it could be pushed or pulled like a cart, or attached to a bicycle. My friend David has talked of building a trailer with a very high axle so that one kayak or canoe can be put on top and the other suspended with straps below the axle.

The big challenge is a connection to the bicycle. I imagine the options to be:
* axle hitch like the BOB uses - i like this but it may not be stable enough.
* chain stay connector - may need an additional front wheel
* something that connects to a rear rack
* seat tube clamp on a rising tongue.

The long tongue connecting the trailer is of course a big issue -- if you have a tongue, it has to run 8 to 10 feet under the boat to the bike and then, i assume turning up to the seat post. The tongue is the key that makes the trailer expensive and awkward. However, i have a 'Sea-Kayaker' magazine which shows directions for an easy to make hitch which attaches to the nose of a kayak, eliminating the need for the long tongue.

But this has all been solved because recently my great car-free friends Emily & Chris got interested and decided to go halfsies with me on pre-made trailer. I was absolutely thrilled to get moving on this!

We very seriously considered this trailer at Bikes At Work, and Jim was very helpful.

After a long discussion we settled on a neat trailer from a great guy named Tony Hoar in Victoria BC. Tony is a brilliant engineer who builds bikes and trailers in his one person shop, Tony's Trailers. He is also a racer who finished LAST in the Tour de France FIFTY years ago (and still races!). I thoroughly enjoyed meeting him and working with him.



So, with great excitement today we assembled and test rode our new kayak trailer!! Although late January, it was a summer-like day in the upper 60s. I quite regretted not wearing shorts.

Assembling it out of the box.

Emily has photos posted too!

Tony's innovative connector

It's very long

Comparing the length with my BOB trailer

One cool thing about this trailer is that Tony made it so that it also converts to a grocery getter model.  You just use the quick release to take a section out of the tongue and drop a Rubbermaid(tm) container on the back.  You can ride it to the grocery store, disconnect it and use it for a shopping cart!

Learning the feel of the trailer on my first test ride.

It has a surprisingly tight Turning Circle

Emily rides by with the trailer on her folder

Already advertising for Tony!

This thing gets noticed! People comment on the trailer. They stop and ask questions about it. We handed out several of Tony's business cards today just while testing it! I'm going to carry a stack of them with me whenever i take the trailer out.

Emily's boat on board, i'm ready to Go on the...

First Ride!!!

We were both a bit worried about how this very long load would navigate on city streets, especially around Seattle's neighborhood traffic circles. But the trailer tracks very nicely behind the bicycle and could get around obstacles pretty easily.

Cruising easily around a neighborhood traffic circle

This is FUN!

One really nice thing about this trailer is that the kayak sits over the axle, which carries almost all of the weight. When loaded correctly the tongue weight is almost nothing, so your seat post, the flexible tongue and the hitch don't carry any weight.

There is a large compression strap which hooks over the axle and holds the boat tightly on the foam pad across the axle. Then another compression strap goes around the nose of the boat to hold it in the Y shaped yoke. A third strap goes around the body of the boat and the tongue. This supports the flexible tongue, keeps it from bouncing (mostly) and transfers the structure to the boat. The kayak itself becomes the structural beam of the trailer!

After getting used to riding with one boat on the trailer, we started thinking about stacking the second boat. I was a little nervous about the weight involved. Emily's neighbor Stella was watching this whole process and so Emily figured she could help.

Stella paddles up Ashworth Ave!

Somewhat reassured, we put my boat on top!

Two Kayaks.

We used an old car rack set up i bought years ago. The two foam car-top frames went between the boats and a bunch of compression straps held the two boats together very well. We put a lot of straps on them, i think we can leave a couple off. We probably only need two, front and back to hold the boats together.

Going up hill wasn't really difficult with one boat, but with two boats it was a bit harder. Otherwise the stacked trailer worked great!

fully loaded

And then i headed off to ride 9 miles on the trail by Lake Union, getting quite a few stares! It was getting dark soon so i didn't get to paddle today, but i rode up to the University and out to Ballard (where i bumped into an old friend, Liz!). 

Off to the lake

I was just getting the feel for the trailer. It rode very nicely... I could tell i had a big trailer, but it wasn't unwieldy at all.


The kayak gear, flotation vests, spray skirts, paddles, dry bags, food, clothing etc get stuffed in the cockpit. I figured i would put a spray skirt over the cockpit when it was on the trailer to enclose the gear, especially if it was raining.

You'd think that with two kayaks and all the gear that the weight (about 200 lbs) and the length (about 24 feet from front wheel to the back of the kayak) would be the biggest challenges, but they were really not that noticeable.

What did require my attention was the width and the bounce. At almost 3 feet between wheels it was sometimes hard to thread through Seattle's very narrow bicycle trails, i almost hit a wheel on a wall, a tree, and a couple of bollards. It would be nice if it had a bar in front of the wheel to deflect such an impact.

And while the weight of the load wasn't a problem at all on the flats (it did make hills really big!) the heft of the thing combined with the long tongue could get a good bounce going if i didn't have a smooth pedal stroke.  On my few attempts to go up a small hill it was the bounce that stopped me before the weight became unmanageable.  I was very glad i had clipless pedals and a full pedal stroke.


And on a personal note, I noticed a very strange phenomenon, a contradiction which probably says more about my personality than it does about this wonderful new trailer.

What i noticed was my reaction to bystanders' reactions. When i rode through a middle class family neighborhood like Ballard people were amazed. They would point and shout 'oh my god he's towing kayaks!'.

My reaction (usually kept to myself) was always: 'What's the big deal? Bikes can do anything. Move along, nothing unusual here.'.

But when i went through a more jaded, younger, hipper neighborhood like Fremont and i found that no one looked up, no one noticed, no one said anything, my reaction (usually kept to myself) was: 'WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU!!! CAN'T YOU SEE I'M TOWING A PAIR OF KAYAKS!?!?! PAY ATTENTION!.

29 Reasons Bush Won't Be Allowed to Lose

We've had almost 3 years of George W Bush. The election is a year and month away;  everyone is caught up in declaring whether they LIKE or HATE him, but few people are willing to see past that divide to analyze what is LIKELY to happen. Here's my 29 reasons why W is certain to serve a second term. In no particular order. This is not an exercise in doom saying, or promoting, rather, it is intended to shed light on the issues that honest Americans MUST confront if we want to defeat Bush.

Republican EC Advantage, Sound Bites, Head of State, Most People Don't Care, Charisma , Incumbency, Everyone Votes With Their Feet, It was a Tie, Patriotism, Mississippi & Kentucky, California & Texas , $Money$, Good Looking, Convention Schedule, Democratic Primaries, Clinton/Gore, Black Box Voting, Action vs. Proof, Running Mate, Media Control, Media Preference, People Hear Nothing Bad, The Dems Expect to Lose, Clinton crowd, Florida, Another War, Make Shit Up, Call Off The Elections, Blow Something Up

Details below