My wife and I got into tandem riding a couple years ago leading to the purchase of a sweet 90's era Burley Bossa Nova frame which we Riv'd up <http://dr2dc.blogspot.com/2015/06/barlow-pass-burley.html> and got in a number of short local rides before branching out on the C&O including an epic (for us) 2 day Harpers Ferry overnight <http://dr2dc.blogspot.com/2015/07/harpers-ferry-by-tandem.html>. That ride was all of a sudden 2 1/2 years ago and alot has changed around our household. Our daughter Rebecca just turned 2 in June and we traded in the Burley for one of the last Hubbahubbah's back in April. The HHH was an impulse purchase about a year in the making... I followed Grant's blahgs and newsletters regarding the development of the frame intently but was to caught up in baby stuff to make the move. That and our inability to use the tandem last summer put the damper on things. But last year we managed to get Rebecca out quite a bit on the XO-3 and Clementine via a Yepp Mini front seat and this year we added a Burley trailer which opened up the Saluki and the potential for an extra long tandem-trailer expedition. So when one of the spring blahgs mentioned single digit HHH stock in size small I finally pulled the trigger and I'm glad I did.
<https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-GJcpmZ2y-HI/W0CM3miE3gI/AAAAAAAAvBs/aM9fTqEK30YLRJc6gxn0CpQOqPjuWQr_wCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180705_103541907_HDR.jpg> Our HHH was bought through and partially assembled by James and Candice at Analog before they left MD. It was nice dealing with a knowledgeable and enthusiastic company like them, thanks guys! Even with the assist it took a while to sort the bike out into full ride-able shape and with all the rain we had in April and May and a competing project (wooden boat build) the HHH didn't see alot of action. In the last couple weeks though after tweaking the rear disc brake to add a bit of caliper clearance and equipping the bike w/ a nice set of matched grey sackville luggage - Saddlesacks Small, XtraSmall and a Basket bag the bike was finally ready for a real test ride. Finally on to the actual ride. The initial plan was for a 'Leesburg Loop', consisting of a C&O outbound to Whites Ferry, overnight in Leesburg (hotel) and return via W&OD partaking of the breweries and good bike shops along the way. The temperatures (exceeding 90 on day 1) and the thought of being that remote on the first real extended ride for the HHH ended up convincing us to reverse that plan and start via the W&OD. While the C&O would have been cooler w/ its shade I just wasn't comfortable being that much more remote on the first big ride, the W&OD offers plenty of bail outs, bike shops and access to uber if there was a bike or toddler emergency. The W&OD is a real treat of a rail trail, it starts technically in Shirlington and goes all the way to Purceville some 43 miles. We connected from our Alexandria neighborhood to the trailhead via the Four Mile Run Trail and started the steady climb out of the inner beltway area. Its only about 460' of climbing over 10 miles but in that heat and with the full load of tandem + trailer I was definitely feeling it. <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ONUj_ZnM6Bs/W0CQQHqoOjI/AAAAAAAAvCI/3iZzKFoZXFAoxQ09Tt1OTuhuABXGlnzDwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180705_121258030_HDR.jpg> <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-OBQDl3yECyk/W0CP4EngqKI/AAAAAAAAvB8/HfO4hilKRLEVmY3BGhTwt1jZPn0x4TZWACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180705_122627641.jpg> We made our first stop at the longtime classic Vienna Inn <http://viennainn.com/>, just off the trail in downtown Vienna it's still easy to miss but highly recommended. We tanked up on the house specialty of fully loaded chilly cheese dogs washed down by a frosty mug of beer. The first leg was about 14 miles non-stop and we decided to make the remaining segments a bit shorter as we were really hot and tired easily, we averaged 11.2-11.7 mph over both days (moving speed measured via strava). Momentum on a tandem is a fickle beast, once rolling its amazing but the many starts and stops especially in Vienna and again in Reston along the W&OD make for alot of lost momentum. Stop #2 is a big favorite of mine, the Green Lizard Bike Shop <https://www.greenlizardcycling.com/> which is also serves coffee and beer now. We were mostly interested in their Port City Derecho ale <https://www.portcitybrewing.com/the-beer-old/derecho-common/> - a local brewery and an accidental beer recipe resulting from a significant power outage changing the brew sequence for an ale they were brewing. It was very refreshing and I took the opportunity to upgrade our lock situation to an Abus bordo lock during this stop. Green Lizard is a great shop in a great location, about 22 miles from home for us its a good destination in and of itself. Not exactly BOB-ish, but they are friendly and have more fatter tired bikes on the rack these days than ever before at least. The last stop pre-destination was the Carolina Brothers BBQ <https://carolinabrothers.com/> in Ashburn, we weren't eating as we were so close to Leesburg but we enjoyed some real sugar Coco-Cola's and Rebecca enjoyed running around inside the nicely AC'd dining room. <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-H2i9fPe49gM/W0CQYtyyJ3I/AAAAAAAAvCM/PuUyYXewSwoEjUr9IPBaqt-Ob_IZLizgwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180705_150502531.jpg> <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-VObiX8iJ2sQ/W0CQcWcYxHI/AAAAAAAAvCQ/7472fx6SW2Acuke-sFWUPA8MRzWxAjqRQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180705_125134631_HDR.jpg> <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-WXqDM5XWM3o/W0CPzHRiD5I/AAAAAAAAvB4/yqeBw9J2bdApl95yY2nfzY5JBUvQDfROgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180705_162623597.jpg> We rolled into Leesburg around 4pm, about 6 hours of total time since our departure which was exactly what I had been budgeting... I figured ~ 10 mph moving speed plus 2-3 long stops. We had plenty of time before we needed to check in so we hit up Black Walnut Brewery <https://www.facebook.com/blackwalnutbrewery/> first. The beer was excellent but even better was the practically empty upstairs and comfy leather chairs to rest our somewhat sore backsides on. The upstairs also allowed us to somewhat contain Rebecca who had considerably more energy left in the tank after her cushy trailer-napping day. I should have taken some pictures but our hotel ended up being a really nice choice, the Leesburg Colonial Inn <http://www.theleesburgcolonialinn.com/> is right in the heart of downtown. It sits on top of a breakfast cafe and a bar, 10 rooms, excellent AC, excellent water pressure and a eclectic/antique look and furnishing. The owner, Fabian, met us in the restaraunt to check us in. He cheerfully accomodated my request for tandem parking letting me use the back patio which was covered. The patio is available for bar seating but wasn't in use during the Thursday night we were there. It wasn't 'secure' parking but I was able to lock it up and it was out of plane sight which I felt was good enough, no issues. The rate included a full breakfast the next day for all three of us and everyone we met was very nice. The bar was a nice spot to unwind after dinner, live music every night, on the weekends I suppose the bar (open till 2) could be noisy if you were right above it but that wasn't an issue for us. Bottom line I highly recommend it. Dinner followed in the beer theme with the Delirium Tremens Cafe <https://deliriumcafe.us/> which I'd had my eye on for a couple years on driving visits to Leesburg but never tried. The food was excellent and of course the beer is well recognized for quality. We had the meatball sandwich and a chorizo mussel pot... it was great! Day 2 promised a variable but high chance of thunderstorms starting around 1000 and ending around 13-1400. I kicked off the day a bit earlier than my family over at the King Street Coffee house <http://www.kingstreetcoffeeleesburg.com/> which had a very nice Brazilian single origin from Lone Oak Roasters (in Winchester VA). A slow coffee spent examining the radar with a large storm cell approaching the blue ridge convinced us to keep it slow, hit up a museum and stay in Leesburg till lunch and let it pass. Given the later start and the prospect of rain/mud on the trail we also decided to return via the W&OD instead of the C&O. As it turned out the storm broke up over the mountains and never really dropped anything on us but we still had a nice morning patronizing Shoes Cup and Cork <http://shoescupandcork.com/brunch/> and Sidebar <https://www.facebook.com/SideBarLBG/>. We tried to hit up the Leesburg Museum and Cooley Gallery but both were closed till at least after noon (not on their scheduled hours). Back on the trail it was way less sunny and a little less warm. Rebecca nodded off almost immediately so we pressed our advantage all the way back to Green Lizard for a repeat visit where we enjoyed watching two slightly older girls get fitted for their first training wheeled bikes. The next leg and the last of our beer-tourism took us to Caboose Brewing <http://www.caboosebrewing.com/> back in Vienna, this is a regular stop of ours on and off the bike so nothing new but we had very nice service and sat outside for the first time on the whole trip - a tribute to how much cooler day 2 was! The final leg of the journey, once we'd made the last climb was a joy as we had a nice 10 mile descent all the way back to our house. Home before 6, about 5 hours on the trail total given one less stop than the first day <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-sYXKG9rr9mw/W0CYxQFCkWI/AAAAAAAAvCk/AttS7v1UyhIKfSgAo3tfIf1tKpQkMvLigCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180706_161805755_HDR.jpg> <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-RmmSU0ajjFA/W0CY-V86W8I/AAAAAAAAvCo/E2SJEnnA6Q0YMXr5b7cmGNEBzq1Je6B3wCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180706_140117775.jpg> <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-pI69juoh_mM/W0CZC5TsFkI/AAAAAAAAvCs/CRki9VACrns3mUJ8aNoxomr5DsHNXNotQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180706_155529817.jpg> All told it was a great trip, the bike performed splendidly and since you made it through all the beer and accommodations discussion I'll give a couple thoughts strictly on the bike; -HHH handling - utterly superb, especially at low speeds (where we were a lot) its as stable as my Jones Plus w/ 3" tires. Truly the lack of wobble or shimmy as you come to a stop or slowly build up speed rolling out is very confidence inspiring for captain and stoker. The lack of drama starting and stopping on the HHH can't be oversold in my opinion. -HHH brakes - I've got Paul motolites front and rear and paul klamper rear, the rear moto is not hooked up yet but will be set up for the stoker to operate them. Even w/o the second rear brake the braking was smooth, squeak free and powerful. We didn't do any serious descending but especially given the trailer I was very confident in my brakes - and didn't cringe around other cyclist b/c mine were noisy! -Jones bars front cockpit - you may notice that my bars are nearly Dutch-high... I don't love the look, but they are up there to facilitate plenty of room for the Yepp Mini while I still am using it (not on this trip but around town we will). That said, I was very comfortable and had excellent control of the bike w/ the bars set up like this. I knew I liked the jones bars, on my Bombadil, and on the Jones Plus but this was the longest trip I've used them on and really enjoyed them with no hand pains. I do need to dress up the bar wrap/grip area though... my inner tubes as tape job started to loosen up late on day 2. -Sackville luggage - that grey is wonderful to look at and feel. These bags are my first new from Riv sackville's and they are beautiful and useful. The newer design on the basket bag did frustrate me by not including the side tabs for connecting the bag to the basket but I did enjoy the inner wallet pocket for organization. The extra small held my tools and was never opened in anger. The small was the workhorse while on the bike holding sunscreen, lock, diaper clutch and Erika's wallet and phone. Such a great bag, I did have to remove the rear rack to allow clearance for the bag but the SKS fender was adequately rigid to hold the load. -Burley trailer - this is a used trailer, the D'lite model I believe and it performed splendidly. I did use the axle attachment though I had to file it to fit snugly in the hooded rear drop outs Riv is using on the HHH and Clem's. It's a double capacity trailer but we sit Rebecca in the middle. She does slump over when she passes out but there is plenty of room for her to have toys, drinks and we used a neat little AA powered fan so that even when we closed the screen/sun shade she was getting a good breeze. In the rear of the trailer we had a little Ozark Trail soft cooler w/ milk and the girls luggage (a small duffel - Erika packed very efficiently!). The Ozark Trail dissapointed but that may be due to some poor quality ice packs. We ended up w/ spoiled milk by the end of both days so that was a fail. I'll keep experimenting because ideally we want to keep milk cold and fresh for a full day if possible especially in a C&O type expedition. -Schwable Big Ones 650Bx2.35 - how can this have not been #1 on the list... i had to chuckle as I looked at the number of gravel bikes at Green Lizard w/ 42mm tires and thought how great that was, then I walked outside to see my big honking 2.35s WITH fenders and just smiled. I'm running with tubes and i've got the inflation in the 40-55 psi range to account for the total team and luggage weight. I really don't want squirmy tires in a turn w/ all this weight. The tires did great in all occasions, there was one curb appron under construction w/ a 2" or so hard corner that we took and I felt the rear bottom out on the rim - no apparent damage thank goodness and I think with better communication to Erika I might have even avoided that if she had stood at the right moment. The tire capacity was the biggest single factor driving me to consider the HHH and I wasn't dissapointed. I know that a paved rail trail is no test for tires like these, the C&O will be more telling, but I was extremely comfortable on these tires. There is probably more but I think this is enough, great ride, awesome time with my family and they had as much fun as I did so we'll get to do it or something like it again soon! <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-KxLHkn6B2wY/W0Cahbh9faI/AAAAAAAAvC8/Qdz5_eVXd-YJKx3vy4U8CPy9Ti_U6qfjACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180706_162141530.jpg> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
