Waste of Time

This is a waste of time. But so gratifying.

Yeah Baby!!

Check it out! Here's the bike gang! All 5 of us who rode in today. Last year, it was just me all summer, and even this morning with temps just above freezing, 4 others are seeing that biking rocks!!

From Left to right: Jon(with the bike I built for him), Ido, Me in the middle with 5 shirt, Brendon beside me (with the bike I built for him) and Brian on his full suspension, big hit commuter! He's even got a cycling computer on it. Sweet!

Good Morning

The weather is getting sweet now! Today was such a great ride to work, I almost kept on going. I've battled a cold and I'm sure I could have call in well, as Tim might have done. Maybe I should have. When I got to work, I was glad I didn't. There were 4 other bikes, taking my bike parking space! We've got loads of indoor bike parking space, but was I ever shocked to see that 4 others had ridden their bikes to work. Even last summer, I was the only one who ever rode a bike to work. And now, for the last several days, there has been 3 of us riding in regularly, but now 5! That's over 10% of our humble workforce! Talk about excellence!

I'm working with some co-workers drawing up plans on some renovations and additions we plan to do in our office, and it's even been brought up that we should think about bike parking! I'm stoked.

Anyway, these pics below show the great weather we're having and man is riding to work getting sweeter every day. I'm going to try to grab a group photo at coffee of all of us riders, just because this is worth celebrating!!

Cheers.

Living Vicariously

One of my favorite things to do on my way to work, is drop off eBay packages for my wife. She sells a far bit of stuff on eBay and I just dig doing the post office runs.
I’ve always dreamed of being a bike courier, but that dream has never materialized. I even have the anarchist spoke cards on my fixie, a courier bag and roll up my right pant legs just to try and feel what it might be like to be a courier. It’s what you call living vicariously though your bike.

Ride on

Pathetic

I was picking up some groceries in Calgary last night and on the back of the receipt that we got from Safeway, check out this coupon.
You can save $300.00 on a brand new vehicle just by bringing in this coupon! What a deal! I can't believe that we live in such a pathetic consumeristic state that by advertising on the back of a grocery receipt, the car dealership might just make a sale. I think that cyclist by nature, tend to be a little more level headed and realize that you don't need everything that's pushed on you, and you can make do quite well with less. That's not to say that we couldn't all be idiots just like other people and buy all kinds of new crapy vehicles. I would say that a huge number of cyclists who ride their bikes could drive very nice, expensive cars, and many of them are not riding for financial reasons. It is a huge benefit, but I think that relying more on bikes is to most cyclists a responsible, conscious decision. The banks love everyone to borrow their money. The dumber, the better. This just hit me in a real way, how pathetic our reliance on cars, and always having the latest and great one has become.

Me, I rode my fixed gear bike that I found at the recycling yard and frankly, I probably had a much better trip to work, than fudgy puff who saved $300.00 on his brand new SUV.

A side note: Brendon is back from school, and as I had hoped, he's racked quite a few miles on the bike I re-built for him! It feels good when you help others to realize the joys of cycling and them seeing that it is a viable method of transportation. Ride on!

Jerome.

What's Gives?

Check out what I woke up to today!

What’s up with this?

It’s April 20th for petesake.

I’ve been down with a nasty cold for several days now and not riding the bike, but today would have been a woolly ride. 3 cars were struggling to get out of the community that I live in. Best of luck. As I was passing the golf course, all of the snow that I didn’t wipe off the roof of my truck, slid down my wind shield. Just after this last picture, my window was completely covered with 4 inches of wet snow. I ended up opening the window, driving Ace Ventura style to pull off onto the shoulder to wipe it off. Luckily there was no other vehicles around. Crazy.

Lords of the Logistic

Some times, we as cyclists enter a mind set very much like this:






Jerome.

It's Unfortunate

On my way to work today, I was coming up to a 4 way stop that is usually quite dead. I’ve never ever had anyone stopping at it going the same direction as I am. Today, I came to the stop and two other vehicles were there before me, so being a law abiding cyclist, I waited for them to proceed through. Behind me, all of a sudden, I hear a honking?! I look back and there’s a muppet (as Steve calls them) giving me the finger and the horn. Whatever, I thought to myself. Then, dingle nuts pulls up on my right!

It was now my turn to go through the intersection so I did, and I heard his little CRV sucking air as he pinned the pedal to the floor. I just kept going hoping not to be eaten my the geezers POS SUV. He past me with about 4 inches to spare, and I was on the right hand side of the lane. I was a little more than pissed, but got his license plate number. I noticed that he made a right hand turn up the road a little bit, so I thought, why not. I’m not afraid of a grey haired geezer. Me being 6’2” 195 lbs must stand at least a bit of a chance.

He turned into the Sacred Heart Catholic school. Excellent. As he was getting out of his tin can, I ride up to him, stopped and asked if he knew anything about bike safety. You’re not a F*&%#$G motorcycle, you’re a bike! I politely told him that I have the exact same rights and entitlement as a motorcycle on the roads and if I wanted too, I could ride right in the middle of the road. He continued to argue with me as he pulled out a case for what was probably a bass or some other stringed instrument. I got off my bike, wrote down his license plate number (I wanted him to see that I was getting it) and told him that I would call the police an they can explain it to him. He continued to get all angry and was yelling and I kind of felt sorry for the old guy. He’s just an old moron and there’s nothing I can do to change that.

When I got into the office, I called the school and left a message on the principals VM. After that, I call the RCMP and filed an official complaint. I am still waiting for the principal to give me a ring back, and I’ve been told that an officer will be contacting me today to discuss the particulars.

I was beginning to think that bike and cars could co-exist very nicely in this town, as for the past several months I’ve been more than impressed with the courtesy that Strathmore drivers have been giving me. It happens regularly that I’m the last one to a 4 way stop and every other vehicle will wave me on to go ahead of them. People here seem to have a great deal of respect for bikes and the safety of a cyclist. Unfortunately, not the music teacher at Sacred Heart.

He’ll get his though. I’m making sure of that.

I'm Hungry writting about this

Don’t know why I posting this, but who cares. I ate some incredible food this weekend!! My wonderful wife is an amazing cook and she woke up early Saturday morning to fix this breakfast. Breakfast bread pudding (like French toast but baked and with raisins and other stuff in it) syrup baked bacon (she cooked the bacon and then brushed syrup on it and caramelized by leaving it in the oven some more) and finally, roasted cherry tomatoes fried with fresh basil and some other herbs that I don’t know about. At to this some kicking horse ‘Kick Ass’ coffee, and this is one of the better breakfast meals I’ve ever had. I was smiling all day long after this!!! Thanks to my great wife!! Soon I’m sure I’ll be 350 lbs.

For lunch that day, I took some home made bread my wife made and built a roast beef sandwich. As I said my wife is an amazing cook, so there were no deli order cold cuts here. We’re talking Alberta Beef, roasted and put on a sandwich! Add a little spinach, cheddar cheese and honey mustard and Badia (a spice mix we found in Grand Cayman) and oh my goodness is there a better sandwich out there? I can’t say I’ve found it (and I am always looking)! Totally not bike related but totally excellent! I love food.

Jerome

Longer Rides

Well, it looks like my commute is going to get a lot longer! We are moving to Rockyford Alberta. A little village that has 375 people in it! I’m pretty stoked. The thing is, it’s about 24 miles from where I work. Right now, our house is 3 miles from where I work. One great thing I can see coming from this: I think it’s going to be a lot easier to justify spending even more money on bike!! So long as I actually do ride. I’ve already got a few items I am seriously thinking about purchasing. One being a Nitto stem from Rivendell that allows you to position your drop bars higher up, making it a little easier on your back. I’d love a whole new Rivendell bike, but $2,500.00US for a steel bike isn’t going to happen any time soon. Another upgrade I’m thinking of for the Bianchi is a Brooks B-17 leather saddle. While checking out the fully loaded touring bike gallery I noticed that many, many of the bikes are running with Brooks leather saddles on them and I’ve heard it said to many times to ignore it that a Brooks leather saddle is one of the most comfortable seats for long rides, and they’re almost indestructible.

On the bike note, I built up a single speed commuter for Jon this weekend. It’s an old and cheap steal road frame that I put a mountain bike stem and handle bars on. I remove the free wheel cluster and installed a Dicta 18 tooth single speed free wheal I got off Ebay of $2.00. Some old cottered cranks (just for some old school flair) and removed the 0 from the decal that called this beast out as a 10 speed. Now it correctly states 1 speed. We’ll see how he likes it after the first few rides and see what need to be adjusted and all the rest. I’d love to keep this bike, except for the fact that I’ve got 9 bikes already and on a day when I pull out this stead, I be overcome by the addiction to fixed gear travel, and other than the free wheel option, these bike are purpose-wise the same bike. I hope Jon enjoy his ride.

Numbers are growing

Yesterday was a pretty exciting day. First, yesterday morning Ido rode his bike in to work! He said he was going to for a while and now that he's settled in his new house, he did. Being from Holland, you think it would only be natural for him to ride his bike. Later that day, his daughters (who clean the offices here) rode their bikes to work also! That's a grand total of 4 people out of the 40 are work. 10% of us road our bikes today!!

It's a dream of mine to get as many people riding their bikes to work as possible, and this was a taste of what realizing that dream might be like.

Today, Ido rode his bike again. If he and I keep regularly riding our bikes, that would be 5% of us that commute by bike at our company. I think that's not too bad. Brendan (who I helped build up a bike) is riding his bike to tech school right now and will soon be back to work and riding to work. Also, Jon told me yesterday that we would like me to set him up with a bike to ride to work! I think that we might realistically meet the 10% of our company riding to work on a regular basis.

SWEET!

Sunny Day

It was a bright sunny day today and a great ride to work.
I wish they built buildings out of brick like this still. I don't think that sheet metal or vinyl siding could ever look this good in the morning light.
Cheers.

Bianchi Update

Well, I've made a few changes to the old Bianchi (newer to me) my beloved bike that cost me $0.00. I put on a set of 28 tires instead of the 38s that I had on there and they make quite a difference. I've bought a cheep set, and I am just trying to find out what set up I want to go with. When I found the bike, it had 32s on, but I thought I wouldn't mind going a little narrower if it gave me a little less rolling resistance.
I took an old set of drop bars and with the aid of my brazing torch, mustered up something that resembles the on-one midge bars. That was the goal, and without having a set of real midge bars, I think I came pretty close. For the first ride to work, they're working out okay. Still not convinced that this will be the final set up, as the reach to the bars is still a little too aggressive for what I am building this up to be.
I'm trying to make a long distance commuter, with the anticipation that I might be moving, and if everything works out and we do move, I'll have a 24 mile commute each way! I'm really looking forward to it. It'll be a lot more than the 3 miles I have now (but now I do go home for lunch which brings my daily mileage up to 12) and I'm stoked. Since almost all of it will be on highway, I don't know how it's going to work in the winter, but I'll deal with that later.
A new rack from MEC and some planet bike fenders and this bad boy is rolling quite nicely. After lunch today was the first that I was able to take this out as the road are finally free from ice and slush. It's amazing how much more efficient these rode bike are than than mountain counterparts. Noticeable immediately and quite enjoyable when you've been stuck commuting on a old mtn bomber.

This bike might be almost done now. I think the only things left in my mind that could use help would be the bars or the bar/stem combo. We'll see. Rivendell has some stems and bars that are tempting me seriously right now. We'll see.

Slop

Riding right nowthe weather is nasty! What's up? It's almost mid April and we're getting snow all day. Not warm enough to accumulate, but warm enough to keep a nice layer of slop everywhere.


Weather like this is a good reason to have a beater bike to commute with. I'm glad I've converted this beast to a single speed. Just imagine how ruined the drivetrain would be right now. I haven't clean this bike at all winter, and I don't want to. It's nice to have a bike that I can just ride. Check the tires once a week or so, but that's it. I don't think I would be getting away with no cleaning if this thing had a few gears to worry about.

Ride your beast with pride!

Jerome.

Non-bike related weekend

Well, this past long weekend was a bit of a crazy one. I ended up working Friday and taking Monday off. Thought it would be a great start to a long weekend to watch the Flames kick some heiny on the Edmonton Oilers (I was born and raised in Calgary so I have a chemical imbalance in my head that makes me really hate Edmonton!! If you’re from Calgary, you’ll know what I’m talking about.) I was a bit more than disappointed with that game! About half way into the 2nd period they announced (in the middle of play!) that Nashville had defeated the Colorado Avalanche. To that the crowds came undone. The roar lasted for close to a minute, with standing ovations. I think the Flames took this to mean that they didn’t have to play anymore. They did take it that way. Edmonton is currently a team that you beat. Not that you get beaten by. They’ve lost something like 17 of their last 20 games!!! Very disappointing to see the Flames give up and make me spend perfectly good money on tickets to watch them relax. I’m still a little miffed. Oilers, you suck, but we shouldn’t have felt so sorry for you. You come by it honestly.

Sunday, after church, I headed over to my sisters place for Easter dinner (the first one of the day) and got a chance to drive my mom’s new (frame off restoration) 1956 T-Bird. It’s a pretty sweet ride I tell you. Small though. My knees come to the center of the steering wheel and I think that after about 20 minutes, I’d be cramping up.

(That's me shoe-horned into this little car)

After that dinner was done, we headed out to the lake for dinner # 2. Cruise down the hi-way, making the 1 hour drive we were all of a sudden jumped by a fox!! I think it was a mistake for him to jump right in front of us. He lost. I think he must have been running from something, because it seems that instantly he was in front of me, and instantly under me. I’ve made some pretty desperate saves when deer jump out in front of my, but never have I had and incident happen this fast. I turned around to make sure it wasn’t a farm dog, and sure enough, as this picture shows, it was a fox. RIP little buddy.
Later on down that road, a set of harrows lost a wheel, ended up passing the half ton that was towing them, and stopped blocking off the entire road. Nice. We did little 4 X 4ing in the mini van and carried on our way.
All in all, a pretty weird weekend. Good news, everyone is safe and I even got to pick up some new tires and a beauty aluminum rack for my Bianchi project bike. I’ll have some pics of that up soon. Hopefully ya’ll had a good weekend.

Cheers.

Night Rider

I left my bike at the office yesterday afternoon and ended up going to pick it up later on in the evening. It's been a while since I was riding in darkness and I forgot how peaceful it can be. Light snow falling -4C and no wind made for a great little ride.



Cheers.

Geese

Here is a picture of some geese on my way back from lunch. It’s so nice to have scenes like this still a part of the urban landscape that sprawls out without control. Not that I’m a fan of urban landscape and Strathmore with its 10,000 people is hardly an urban landscape. I do know that pictures like this can be taken downtown Calgary and it’s nice to be able to do. When I took this picture, it was so bright outside that I couldn't even see the birds in my little tiny screen. I pointed in their direction and hoped for the best. Turned out okay.

I was right about the traction at noon. The roads were slop and those that weren’t were hard packed snow. Ye ole Schwalbe snow stud tires are ideal for these conditions. Fenders are a must and I was surprised at how clean my pants stayed. Again, one of those rides that puts a smile on your face and you feel so sorry for the poor schmucks stuck in their cars. Oh well, it could be worse. I could be me stuck in the car and not enjoying the ride to and from work.

Jerome

Where's the Pugs?

Today I wish I had a Pugsley. At least for this morning’s commute. I’m sure that by the time I head home for lunch, I’ll be glad I’ve got my studded tires, but this morning would have been great on a Pugsley.

We’ve gotten about 3 inches of snow in the past 24hrs and much of it has drifted. I am glad though that it is snowing. I’ll be a little sad when there is no more snow riding for the season. I don’t know why I like it so much, but I think that most people who do it, really enjoy it. There something different about it. You feel more like a kid when you’re riding in the snow, maybe because most adults would thinks it’s crazy.
Anyway, a great ride in this morning. -8C and not too much wind. I ended up stopping half way to work to loose some of the air in my tires, as the soft ruts in the snow were having their way with me. Once I had my tire foot print a little bigger and softer, things seemed to settle down quite nicely.
Today was actually a day that I had to ride my bike! I lent my truck to a friend who is picking up a wheel chair lift for his wife in Saskatoon, and my wife and our boys need the mini van. This is probably the first time that I’ve actually had to ride my bike, and I can’t say it feels any different. I didn’t have a vehicle to drive to work, and yet the first time it crossed my mind was after I was at work. I think I’m starting to live like I have wanted to. I think my mind set is getting to a good place, and on top of all that, it’s so stinken fun!!

Love your bike!!