Sound

Fredo Viola is who I consider an artist

Dealing with crowded sidewalks

Thanks Vik!

Useless?

Shortest bike lane in the world.

Found on London Cycling Diary.

Streetriders again

Thanks to Bicycle Fixation for their great site.

I've sent my second picture to them and they've posted it.

I think it's the first bent on their gallery.

Ride on. Get Bent.

Rodeo

This past weekend was the Rockyford Lions Rodeo.

I didn't know what to expect from this weekend. Not the rodeo, but living on the same block at the rodeo grounds. I've been a long time fan of rodeo (oh, no) and usually get to one or two a year. For those who think that rodeos are terrible, cruel and all the rest, you're entitled to think that. I happen to know people doing it, and see the money they spend and the hours they spend with their animals. Saying that cowboys are mean to their animals is like saying old English ladies are mean to dogs by grooming their poodles and taking them to shows. Anyway, be not haten cause I like rodeo.

Being now a Lion, I was volunteering at the main entrance gate. Easy job. Nice to be able to interact with people.

What I wasn't sure about was the contestants sleeping across the street from me with their animals. I was glad it wasn't as I imagined it might be. Sure there are horses up and down all the streets by my house, stock trailers rolling by all the time, but it was kind of fun too. Seeing all the cowboys and cowgirls walking, washing, feed, grooming their horses. This is what I had outside my window all weekend long.

I took this picture while enjoying a moment in the sun with Bicycling magazine

Between the Rodeo and the project, it was a busy weekend. Sadly, no bikes. Boo hoo.

Cruisen

Last night was a great night to take the boys to the park. Follow that up with a ride out our cruisers. Love the summer.

Mantra

Our new mantra:

Yay for Beer!!!

Spread it. Thanks Smudgemo.

Morning Light

Absolutely my favorite time of day. Early Morning.

Tornado Warnings

Yesterday I didn’t ride my bike to work, and it turned out to be a good thing. My first biggest fear while riding is birds. Attacking me. We’ve got these little marsh birds (I’m going to find out just what they are) that protect their young by hovering over you, say 10 feet, chirping and being all vicious. They usually follow me for about 1 km every day when I go past their marsh.

My second biggest fear isn’t actually a fear, just something I’d rather not run into. Bad, Bad stormy weather. Reasonable I think. I’m sure most folks would rather not ride in the nastys. Summer around here can be very good for storms. You can usually tell in the morning that you’re going to have a nature show in the evening. And when they do come, they come fast! In a matter of ½ hour you can have great, calm, warm weather, and then tornado style stuff. I had to return my Dad’s roto-tiller yesterday, so I drove my truck. Always hate driving my truck when I could be biking, but even this morning, I knew it would probably end up being the best decision. I left Strathmore after work and it was a nice 32C outside, very calm winds, great weather. Half way home, I saw the storm coming. Here is a picture half way home.
As I was coming into Rockyford, it was just starting to get bad. Here is a picture of that.
Right after I took this picture, I saw a lady walking her bike down the road, and leaning at what seemed to be 45 degrees. I pulled over and offered her a ride for the 1 km to town. She gratefully accepted, and it wasn’t 30 seconds after we loaded her bike into my truck that the hail started. In my life, I’ve never seen hail like this. You could not see 10 feet in front of you and it was completely white. The roads were covered in about 2 inches of water in about 5 minutes. I unloaded her bike for her, and was completely drenched. I was sure my windshield was going to crack from the way it sounded inside my truck. Incredible. I drove the ½ block to my house and ran into the house as fast I could while being pelted with golf-ball sized hail. After the storm passed (15 minutes) 3 of our friends called and said that the weather service just interrupted television and radio broadcasting to issue a Tornado warning for Rockyford. Thanks weather service.

It rained off and on throughout the night, and when I woke up, it was dry. Until about 5 minutes into the ride to work. It rained on me for about 45 minutes and I was sure appreciating the fenders on my Volae. I was tempted to turn around, as I hate getting a good bike all rainy. My mind just thinks about the crap building up on the chain, the bearings etc, but then I always say to myself, I’d rather wear out a nice drive train, than keep it in perfect condition from being afraid to ride. These bikes were meant to be ridden, and so I ride them.

Here is a picture that I’ve been meaning to take for a while. Sometimes, in the morning light, it looks incredible with fog coming off the canal, and the sun setting it a glow. Love this bike. Love this bike ride. Ride yer bike!


Jerome

Sometimes the Truth Hurts

This is for the Vegetarians who read my blog. I get where you're coming from.

Update

As you can see, I've changed things up a bit. Just to keep things fresh and new. All changes may not be done, but we'll see. Links list will continue to be updated. Let me know if you don't like.

Cheers.

I could do that if I wanted to....

Recumbent

Shake down

160kms, 3 days, 1 great bike.

That’s what I’m learning about the Volae. It’s just a great bike. One very noticeable advantage is when riding into a headwind. Yesterday on my way home, it was hot and I had a headwind of about 30km/h. I was amazed that I was still able to maintain a decent clip. It was as if I didn’t even feel the affect of the wind. Of course it does make a difference, but it’s not near as big of a deal as it is when you’re riding an upright bike.

On my setup, I actually think it’s going to work out fairly good for commuting. That cheapo insulated bottle holder from Canadian Tire I bought kept my Nalgene bottle cold through the 1 ½ hour ride home last night. When I got home, it was 31C in the shade. Kind of a nice to be able to keep your aqua cold. With those panniers, I am able to open them up and root around there while riding. I keep my camera in them and it’s no big deal to reach down and grab it. Same with the water bottle cage position. I can actually think of very little I don’t like about this setup right now, except the fact that it doesn’t look all that polished. Kind of home-jobbie. But, I’m usually going so fast, people don’t even get a chance to notice anyway. Ha, ha.

This morning I met up with Tyler and we rode in together. It's kind of nice having someone to talk with while you’re riding. We played around with drafting on the downhill. Tyler would get in the right position to me, and he could coast while I peddled, and stay exactly tucked in. He said it was almost like a vacuum, which I guess it sort of is. I was amazed when we were doing 50 km/hr and for about 1 minute he never pedaled at all, yet stayed right on my tail. Pretty cool.
I’m getting closer to dialing this bike in just right and the seat has so much adjustment, it takes a while to figure out where is just right for you. I think I need to lean it back a bit more. It felt as if there was too much weight on my butt. The pedal reach seems to be really good and my legs feel great during and after riding. A few more adjustments and this baby will be perfect.

My good wife and I are spending the weekend in Calgary (without the kids) to do some riding on the bike paths there, and have a mini-getaway. It’ll be fun to note the difference between an upright and the bent, how that I’ve had a bit of time on the Volae. We bought her a half decent Trek road bike last fall in Montana. She was quite pregnant at the time we bought it, and with the narrow country roads around Rockyford, we’re a little timid about putting the boys in the bike trailer. As a result, she’s gotten very few miles on it. Some nice easy riding, coffee shop to coffee shop, sleeping in and hitting some good restaurants is what’s on the agenda. Can’t wait.

Can't resist

I zipped out to my parents house to fix my Moms garden tractor (loose fuse) and while I was there, I moved my Marlin from the garage to the shop. Couldn't resist snapping this pic. She's worthy is she? I so dig this car, just wish I had more time for it right now. Oh well

Improv

Day two commuting on the Volae was great. Still don't have a 'system' or setup for the gear I'm going to carry etc, but really, do you ever get your equipment to the point that you are still fiddling with it some way or another? I've never come close to being there, but I've got a long way to go on my Volae.

Being sick of not being able to carry water yesterday (and as my truck was at work already, I knew I wouldn't be riding home in the heat of the day) I decided I better figure something out. Today I'll be riding to and from work, and this afternoon the weather network is saying it's going to be 32C, and 42C with the humidity factor. That's blinken not to be riding without water for 26 miles.

I picked up a couple of those adjustable pipe clamps and clamped a water bottle cage to the frame just below the seat. Using pieces of an old inner tube between the frame and cage/clamp of course. Thanks Steeker for the idea! This is for now an interm fix. While ordering some bags and accessories online would obviously take several weeks for the stuff to show up after I ordered it, I needed some solutions now. Enter Canadian Tire. I don't really like this store either, but they do have some different things, and here in Strathmore, it's one of the only stores that has 'outdoorsy' kinds of accessories. I found an insulated water bottle holder with a shoulder strap of 8 bucks. Cashed in some Canadian tire money and took it home to see how it would work.
Without any modification or altering of the shoulder strap, this thing fits on the back of my seat really well! I just crossed the strap, adjusted the tension and installed it under the seat cushion. Fit's my 1 liter Nalgene perfectly. The test ride proved well. No flopping around, and seems to have stayed exactly where I installed it after 26 miles. Stink that was easy.
Third thing was an old set of department store panniers I've had kicking around for years. On a whim, I thought, 'what's it going to hurt'? These are the type that have compartments that go on each side of the rack and one on top. With the top one empty it laid down nice and flat, and fit great under the seat cushion. All my clothes fit in there with plenty of room to spare. I ditched the seat bag I temporarily mounted backwards on the handle bar yesterday for tools (you can see it in the picture in the previous post to this).
All of the above fixes are by no means going to stay, but, they certainly are better than plastic bags and drowning yourself in water prior to heading out. Actually, I'm very surprised at how well these three things have worked. I've just bought some time for research, and learning what other have found to work well prior to me ordering up some stuff.

Ole Volae

Well, the previous post was a Vik style intro of things to come.

Last night I met up with Vik at IKEA (that miserable place) and bought his Volae! Good deal on a great bike. You can tell that Vik has looked after this bike, and that he knows what he's doing in the way that it's been maintained and set up. Here is the deal going down.
Today, I rode it to work. I was going to drive my truck to drop of a roto-tiller that I borrowed from my Dad, but who can do that when there's a brand new (to me) bike waiting to be ridden. Not even the heavy fog would keep me from ridding. I was pleased when it started clearing up as I rode.
This is what I bought this Volae Expedition for, commuting. Right now I'm pretty busy with my house project, so there's not a huge amount of free time for recreational rides. If I were doing a bunch of those right now, I'd be sacrificing time with my family, and that's not something I'm willing to do. So, I ride to work as much as I can.

Today I got up at 4 am to install some pedals and figure out how I was going to carry my stuff in to work. I still need to come up with a bit of a system, but for today, a grocery bag with my clothes in it velcro'd behind the seat did the job. No water bottle mounts yet, so I chugged 2 liters right before I left, to make sure that I'd have enough for the 26 miles.

After riding without a computer on my bike, it's kind of fun to have one again. I stopped 4 times en route to make little changes here and there to get the seating dialed in. It's not quite there yet, but getting very close.

At work, this thing was a magnet and I think that about 12 people have sat on it already. Everyone thinks it's cool and ask what it's like. I'd never ridden one until last Wednesday, and riding a bent, is so much different than I'd imagined it. Very comfortable. You do notice that you are exercising different muscle than you do on an upright. I've heard it mentioned before that you need to get you 'bent legs' and I suppose that's true.

All in all, a huge thanks to Vik for selling me the bike, and I'm so looking forward to getting some miles on this baby. It's always fun dialing a bike in and figuring out your setup. So stoked!!

Volae Expedition

People First, what a concept

Thanks Vik!

Last night, Vik hauled a couple of his bent bikes out to Strathmore to let me have my first ride on a bent. Many thanks Vik for your time. It's most appreciated.

We met up at Tim Hortons, and headed a few blocks over to where I work. After a few practice laps around the block, we cruised out to my in-laws place, where my wife was visiting with her brother and sisters. I was an incredible evening for ride, no wind, 24 degrees C, and the lighting would have been perfect for some snaps if either one of us had brought our cameras. Dang.

As this was my first time on a bent, I must say that it was totally different than I had imagined it to be. I've been researching them, and studying pictures lately, trying to figure out how they would feel, based on the look of the frame. Waste of time. It was nothing like I had imagined. In a good way. No, in a great way.

I can't believe that these bents are being missed out on by so many folks. Starting and stopping is a little difficult at first, but it's like track standing on a fixie, you'd get the hang of it after a while. The ride was incredible. I don't know if it's that the bike was just suited to me or not, but I felt I could have comfortably had a snooze on that bike. I’m not sure if all bents are this comfy, but I was amazed at how this one felt. The weird part is when we're out on the highway, and two different groups of bikers (motor-bikes) gave us the wave. Never have I had a motor-cyclist wave at me when I've been on a bicycle.

All in all a totally cool, sweet style of riding, and thanks again Vik for all of your effort and letting me test-pilot your bike. Most enjoyable.

Cheers. And maybe even.....get bent.

Burden

This morning I set my alarm bright and early (4:30) for the ride to work and for some reason started to convince myself that I should drive my truck instead. What? I gave my head a good shake and pack up my back pack and headed out.

One of the reasons I was thinking of driving was because I had quite a bit of junk to take with me to work. I crammed it all into my back pack without giving it much thought. I’m not saying I should have driven my truck, but one thing I now know, a heavy pack on a light little saddle makes for some soar sit-bones. Not after the ride, but during. It makes quite a difference on your comfort level while on a bike, having a big pack on your back. Kind of makes me realize what they invented racks for. Not that I'd ever try to figure out a rack system for the Allez. Oh well, after the ride nothing felt out of the usual, so chock it up as a lesson learned.
Right after I snapped this picture I headed west on the Trans-Canada toward Strathmore, and luckily I did a random shoulder check and saw a massive house coming down the highway. I check again once he go a little closer, and ended up having to pull completely off of the shoulder (a very large shoulder at that) and into the ditch! I guess he thought it would be better to let the rig-pig pass him on the left than to move over, have the pilot truck (who wasn’t supposed to be 10 ft behind the house) control the traffic passing the house, than to wipe me off the road. If I hadn’t pulled over into the ditch, I would have been creamed by a house doing about 50 miles per hour! It took everything in my power not to raise my hand than give him the bird, but what would that have done anyway? Make cyclists look like a hot-headed cocky pricks and put us in a bad light. I know if ever someone gives me the finger (not that I've ever deserved it) I usually laugh and say, "Oh muffin, it's okay....". There are times for speaking your mind. But middle fingers accomplish little if anything more than make people angry. Show me your middle finger and I'll pat my shoulder and offer it to you for a good cry cry. Muffin.

Sign me up

Last night I rode my new (to me) Sekine 10 speed to my second Lions club meeting. After the meeting, I filled out an entrance form and joined the club. I want to get involved in this little town that I now call home and this is one way to do it. It's also helped me meet a whole lot of people really fast. In a town of 375, you can't just sit in your little house, minding your own busy life without everyone else thinking you're just some stuck up snob from the city, who doesn't like anyone. Sure there are advantages and disadvantages to being is such a small population. The biggest everyone seems to say is that everyone knows your business. I think it's true. But, if you have nothing to hide or be ashamed of, what does it matter? I've so far found it to be a good thing. People know I'm gone camping for the weekend, and watch the house for me. They keep an eye out for your kids. If your kids are getting into trouble, they let you know. Not that my kids will ever be getting into trouble.
I could see a concern with such a small town if it were made up of no-so good people, but so far, I'm amazed at how many good folks live in this little village. We've been over to our neighbors house's for bar-b-q, coconut cream pies, coffee and the hospitality and welcome has been amazing. So far, I love living here and wished I had moved years before.


Back to this little green bike I found. It was again at the recycling yard that I picked this one up. I grabbed it for the head-badge and handlebars (I've got a fixie project going that could use some cool bars like these) but after seeing that everything was is working order, even the tires still had decent pressure in them, I decided to take it for a beer run. After a block I knew that this was a keeper. I might restore it, might not. After the meeting was done at 10:30 last night, it was a great ride home. All 4 blocks of it. The bike is a little on the small side, but I haven't even adjust a thing on it yet, so I'm sure it can be tweaked a bit. The 27 x 1 1/4 inch tires are fast, yet very plush and roll nicely on the gravel roads. This bike is perfectly suited for zipping around town on and little errands here and there. And great for going to the Lions meetings.

Trail riding

Had a great long weekend. We headed up to Sylvan Lake for some camping with some friends of ours. It's been a while since I had done any trail riding, and they've got some great trails in and around the campground. Nothing hard-core, as I had my almost 3 year old son and my friends 4 year old daughter in the trailer behind the bike, but I was amazed at how well the Chariot does on narrow little trials. I sure notice how different of a line you're forced to take when negotiating tight trails, around trees and rocks when you've got a trailer behind you. Had a blast, and so did the kids.

Today, I'm hating consultants! I've got to be careful here, as I don' t want to be completely unprofessional, but man are they are a pain in the ass sometimes. Sure they're like everything, there's good ones and bad ones. Sometimes they're incredibly useful, other times, just a waste of time and money. These ones are the ladder. I finished a project over 7 months ago, and while I was enjoying a Friday away from the office, they thought it would be a good idea to email me what they think is their latest punch list!!! I flew to site 6 months ago to have a "come to Jesus" meeting, in that we bring up every single deficiency and absolutely everything that the airport wants changed, and after that point, they are no longer able to bring up a single item. Apparently they forgot. Not a big deal, but it means I've got to spend about 4 hours putting together a document in response to theirs. Like I said, a complete waste of time and money. Errr!

Thank you Ebay

Finally some parts I bought on Ebay arrived. Nothing too exciting, a Nitto stem that's slated to make my Bianchi a little more comfy, and a Park Took SP-8 free-wheel tool. I've got a few wheel sets that I want to convert to fixed (I've actually had decent luck with a track cog and a BB locking ring) and single speeds.

Thanks to the recycle yard for these pedals. I don't know what brand they are, but they spin super smooth and I think they look cool. I don't have a bike for these to go on yet, but I'm sure they'll top off a future project quite nicely.
Yesterday's hot ride home was great. I don't have a computer on my Allez but with a strong tail wind and the down-hill part of the steepest hill on my route, I must have been doing at least 70 or 80 kms. Cars passed slowly. You sure do notice how twitchy a bike is at speeds like that.

The ride in this morning was once again fantastic. This is from this morning. It hits home that summer is well under way when the farmers are taking the first hay crop off.

Now I know what all the fuss is about

Happy late Canada Day, eh

I was off the ball and missed the post before it was too late. I did enjoy some fireworks on the big day though.

No biking other than a test ride on a new (to me) Sekine 10 speed roadster. I saw the bike at the recycle yard and took it for the vintage parts. After riding it, I'm going to give it a bit of a restoration. It might be the new bike to leave at work for coffee runs. Super comfy, and with the 27" wheels, fast enough, for a coffee run.

Tonight I'm dropping my truck off at a friends who needs to clear out some trees from his yard and I'll ride my Allez home. It's gonna be about 29 degrees Celsius (84 F) so she'll be a great, warm ride home. 2 bottles of water mandatory for 26 miles in that heat.

Cheers and happy 4th to my American friends.