Red Zeppelin

After reading reviews, it's here! Cheap at MEC. As usual. I love MEC!

Life in the fast lane

Those crazy folding bike riders!!

Progress

Okay, so there are some folks interested and that's a good thing. I think we'll do it in Blogger, just to keep it clean and easy. I've got some of your email address, and have sent out the invites to the folks who've given me their address. For those who want in, email me: jeromebike(at)gmail(dot)com. I'll send you an invitation to be a blog author!

So far 7 or 8 people are in. Any suggestions on the date? I'm thinking in the next month sometime, but I'm open to suggestions.

Cheers

I have an idea

Well, it's not my idea, just one that I would like to relay to all you who ride and blog and take pictures. Here it is:

A picture an hour, for 12 hours, from people all over the place. Many of you know that this comes right from FGG and their 24hrs of Fixed Gear Gallery Forum. They did a project where different people would take pictures of their day one hour apart. Regardless of whether or not it was about bikes. Just a series of pictures to share little parts of your day. I was thinking if we could band together and pick a date in the future, giving ourselves enough time to get as many people in on it as possible, and even set up a designated blog where people could upload their photos. We could have as many contributors as possible. I've met several bloggers, many other bloggers have met or already know other bloggers, and if we could get them all involved, we could get a pretty neat project on the go.

I think it would be really cool to have a blog that you could go to and see what November 20th (arbitrarily) would look like from 8am to 8pm (arbitrarily) from places all across North America.
The more people could get together on this, the better. While there are some logistics to work out I think it could be pretty neat.

Some of the logistics I am thinking about would be this: If we could get all those interested as members of a shared blog - 12 Hours in Photos - (I've named one, but if we didn't use that one my feeling wouldn't be hurt) so that after the pictures have been taken, we can all upload them and have them there. We should come up with some protocols on how they are labeled (probably your name and where you are from as the title?) and limit the verbage. Actually I think for it to be a true photo project, we should not have any verbage. Simply 12 pictures at as close to 1 hour intervals as you can do. Be creative. If you're sitting at your desk, take a picture of your desk, or an object on your desk, or the view from your window in a creative manner. Great examples are over at the FGG. One important rule, keep it clean. No sick or perverted pics. This is something that I would like everyone to be able to enjoy.

What do you all think? If someone out there has a burning desire to manage this (set up the blog, make sure all who want in are sent invitations to be team members of the blog, etc, let me know. Even in my own little bloggy world I can think of people who I'd love to see their pictures; Doug, Vik, Jeff, Smudgemo,Tim, Rigtenzin, the ever hiding Jim Thill, Jeff, Steve and the list goes on and on.

I certainly don't mind managing it and if you're in, you can email me at Jeromebike@gmail.com. I'll send an invite and make you a member. Put in the subject field of your email "12hrs"

Would this be something better done with something like a flickr feed? The thing I like about a blog is that they will all be on one page.

Anyway, I was just throwing this idea out there and would like to see what yall think. No date in mind, no times in mind, really not much other then a skeletal outline of an idea. Let me know your thoughts and spread the word around. This might just turn into something cool.

Peace.

Even better than an Xtra Cycle

For groceries.

Riding the Prairies

There is Beauty in the Fall

Truck for sale
Morning light
Fall colours can be spectacular on the prairies

Bikes, in a different flavor

Here's a link to some bike related stuff different than the high performance full suspension mtbs or carbon fiber lightening fast roadies. Radio bikes? How to make your bike ugly? How to make your own stereo system for your bike or an ipod charger? How about this groovy radio bike. Wouldn't this be sweet for your collection. This is from Dave's Vintage Bicycles.
Just something different for your browsing pleasure.

Not too swift

Myself. This morning.

Rode the fixie after 2 months of not riding a diamond frame bike.

Headwind, large hills, 26 miles, 75 gear inches, complete darkness, 4:30 am.

Almost puked when I met my dad for breakfast this morning.

Poor decision.

Great ride.

Can't walk.

Rec. Ride

This past long weekend was the Canadian Thanksgiving. Why is ours on a different date than our southern friends is? I have no idea. But, I do know that it's great to celebrate both of them! I always try to get in on both of them. Much of the time I've been State side for their celebration.


Anyway, I had planned on a big weekend on the house, but sometimes being good to oneself prevails. That was the case this weekend. I did get a few little things done on the house, but I spent most of the time just hanging with family and friends. Made extra time for the park and even got a ride in that had no other purpose other than the sake of riding. While it wasn't a long ride, it was a gooder.


As of lately I've very rarely riding a bike that wasn't for running errands or commuting. I took the Volae out for my first recreational ride on it, other than the test ride with Vik. There is a monster hill about 5 miles from my house that I've been dying to try on the Volae. Heading out was a fairly strong head wind and my average speed for the first 5 miles was only about 23 kph. Heading East on the 564 was steady at 30 kph. Up the hill, I was struggling for 10 kpm and down to 8 for moments. But the other side was a reward. 68kph was the fastest I could manage on the downhill. I was hoping for more but it did feel pretty good.

Different uses of the bicycle

This is kind of cool, kind of geeky. I'd like to try mowing my lawn with a bike, I'd hate for anyone to see me do it.

Click the pic for a link to more bike mowers.

This is just geeky!

Click pic for a link to FRIDA bike

Ever Tried This?

Go Man Go!

LDR

Vik has started up a new blog, highlighting bent riders, and the bikes they use for longer distance rides. Long Distance Recumbents. I've checked it out and will be spending quite a bit of time going over the information there in the future. As Vik says, it's a great place for those who might want to get into bent riding. Myself being a newbie, this site will be a good knowledge base. Thanks for your work Vik.

MOJO

Woot. My MOJO bag finally arrived from Jeff! Thanks a bunch Jeff! Most appreciated. I think I can safely say this is probably the only mojo bag that gets mounted on a bent! There is a cross bar under seat that is the perfect location to hang so mojo, so there it is. (Just above the super-flash blikie)
I finally mustered the courage (and the fact that I don't have anything to pick up in my pick up after work) to ride my bike to work this morning. I've be riding every day, but only like 3 or 4 miles tops. It was 2C when I left this morning and didn't warm up at all the whole way to work. The first 1hr 20 min was in darkness. After that, the sun started to show it's evidence. I must say that riding in the light is far better than in darkness. It's amazing how having your focus concentrated within about 40 meters of yourself changes things. I kept finding myself straining to find what what lurking (in my imagination) in the field beside me.

It felt incredibly good to get back to bike commuting again. The inside of my truck was seeming like an insane asylum that I just couldn't escape. While I was much slower today (23 minutes!!!) than before, I think that within a week or two I'll be right back to where I was. There was also a fairly strong headwind, so I was expecting to be slower as soon as I left.
I solicited Vik for some advice on riding the highways at night and one of the points he gave was reflective tape. Great common sense. I put a couple of square pieces on my fenders and just didn't like the look. "I can do better than that" I told myself and came up with these. Draw skull and flames on the tape, cut out with hobbie knife, and there you have it. People see me coming with think, hey, there's an old geezer on a recumbent..... until they see my reflectors! Who's bad? I also got a new GPS unit via Ebay. My last one crapped out on me and I was doing a little shopping to see what else is out there. I ended up with an updated version of what I was previously using. I do run, so a bike specific wasn't really an option and the this new forerunner 205 has cycling modes that should work well enough. Besides, I haven't been able to bring myself to mount a computer on either my fixie or my Allez for some reason. Sure they are very common, but for some reason I just like the look of having nothing on the bars. I like the Protege 8 that's came with the Volae (thanks Vik) and if I had another one of those, I might just put it on the Allez. Having a wrist mounted GPS allows me to have all the stats regardless of what bike I'm riding.