My won­der­ful duplex neigh­bor Jill just host­ed a cou­ple from Ger­many, Frank and Mar­git. They found her place on a cool web site she had found and reg­is­tered with called Warm Show­ers and spent Mon­day and Tues­day nights with her on their San Fran­cis­co to Los Ange­les adventure.

Here they are yes­ter­day morn­ing with their unloaded bikes as the three of us are about to start off on a very nice day of explo­ration as far as Coal Oil Point. Its always spe­cial for me to meet cycle tourists and have a chance for a good chat.

Things for bik­ers to notice:

• Frank wrapped both frames, forks, etc. with insu­la­tion padding thus allow­ing an unboxed air trip from Ger­many (and back) .
• Sprung/wide Brooks saddles.
• Very upright rid­ing posture.
• Inter­nal­ly geared rear hub with one chain­ring and and a very nice, very com­plete chain guard. This allows shift­ing when the bike is stopped!! Very cool, when I stopped us quick­ly on a hill — I was the only one in the “wrong gear” for restarting 🙂
• Front hub/dynamo = lights when­ev­er need­ed with­out batteries.
• No span­dex!
• Frank is a very expe­ri­enced cycle tourist hav­ing solo toured to Moroc­co twice, Nor­way, and to Patag­o­nia with a friend.