More Creatures + Roller Brake

Thursday's commute continued creature week here. On the way in I saw a red squirrel, my second of the year. Then on the way home, again on Windmere, I saw a broad-winged hawk, my first ever sighting. I didn't even know what it was, but the Sibley guide came to the rescue. (Two people suggested it might have been a rough-legged hawk, but Sibley's pictures mostly ruled that out for me, and then I found the rough-legged is here only in winter.)

Windmere is just a great place for creature sightings. A couple years ago I saw my most obscure animal there: a black mink. I didn't even believe the expert KH at first, but after looking it up I became convinced.

In other news, my slush/rain bike's rear brake continues to disappoint. A fender is great for most of the bike, but it douses the rear wheel in gritty muck, which destroys rim and disc brakes. So I'm fantasizing about a Shimano Nexus 8 internal hub back there with the cable-operated roller brake. It would be a lot like our old 3-speeds with coaster brakes, except 8 speeds and a hand brake lever like all the other bikes. Downsides are I'd need to go to flat bars and swapping slick tires with studs would be harder. It's a daydream for now, but it's holding together in that realm.

Creature Commutes

One of the nice things about morning bike commutes is the wildlife is most visible then. This morning I saw a great blue heron at the base of Windmere Drive. I startled it into flight, getting a good look, then when I descended this cull-de-sac I saw it again and nearly caught up to it. [Windmere is the toughest hill I've found to tie into my commutes, a 9% slope. I avoid it in the winter; this was my second attempt of the year so far. I try to ride it regularly in the warm half of the year to build up some strength.]
Two days ago I saw a large red fox in Acton during my previous morning commute.
March 17 I saw my first ever fisher cat, on yet another morning commute.
These are all relatively common animals, but still interesting and a delightful addition to the day. But part of my mind wonders whether I'm seeing them because they're thriving or because they're displaced. A couple years ago I saw lots of turkeys after never seeing them at all, and I formed the impression that the housing boom was pushing them into view. Here's hoping they're thriving.

Homemade Mongoose Linkage

We had a one-wheel bike trailer made by Mongoose for E before he could ride a 2-wheeler, around two years ago. Even then he liked mountain biking, so we took it onto rough gravel paths and other unpaved adventures. It may not have been designed for that, but still I was shocked one day to find that the critical linkage between his bike and mine had broken and bent and was on the verge of total failure. (Such failure would have made him crash badly, like ejecting the front wheel of a conventional bike.) Not only that, but the second linkage we had (for a different adult bike) was broken the same way.
I set about building a replacement, and making it as strong as possible. I also decided this would be a first milling project that E could help on. The banner photo above is from this milling. In the photo below, the original part is on the left and the new on the right.
While building this was fun, and it worked perfectly, it was a bit foolish to make it before contacting the manufacturer and asking for a repair. Also, at the time of creating this part I somehow imagined it a long-term investment, but E outgrew it within a year.
If you want a metallurgy puzzle, why didn't the original part fail catastrophically? The shape looks horribly weak, but finding two copies in the same state before failure suggests it's rather stable. My guess is the steel inner surfaces work-hardened, making them stiffer and stronger? Also note the manufacturer's weld to the steel pipe is in the worst possible place.