Albuquerque has weird bugs

Just glad to be out of Fresno.

Riden the Hood

I will say that we are not staying in the nicest part of Fresno. We actually tried finding a nicer place, but everything for a travel trailer was about 40 miles away. I think that where we are is safe, and it is relatively quiet. But, on my commute, I ride through places that feel like bad part of Caracas. I know, because I've been to some bad parts in Caracas. I'm just glad that it's in the morning light, and things seem to be fresher in the morning. Even in bad parts of Caracas.

My Obsession

As of late, and only while at work. Getting this relatively simple, but very messed up control panel to work. 6 programming changes (via modem and a programmer back in the home land) and 27 wiring mistakes later, the inbound baggage carousel at Fresno Yosemite International works! Cheers. I am for sure!

Fixie @ Work

Unescorted Access Air side. Sweet. Bike lock not required.

What I learned today

Fixies with platforms and no brakes is not a good combination. Never realized how much of my leg braking relied on being clamped in.

I can't for the life of me skid when riding platforms. The 3 attempts were very painful and embarrassing.

Emergency right hand turn at lights when I couldn't stop in time.

Urban riding is not so great without brakes.

If my time wasn't mostly spent on quite country back roads, I'd probably have brakes on the fix.

Coffee is easier to not spill while riding platforms.

Today was the first day since I've been here I wasn't wearing Starbucks into the airport. Couldn't go without biking, couldn't go without coffee. Such is the life I live. I love it.

Commuting Elsewhere

Today was a very different bike commute for me. New bike? Nope. New Route. New city, new country. Fact is, I've only ever commuted to work on bike in and around Southern Alberta.

Friday at 3:30pm I got some news and made a decision that I needed to go to Fresno to help finish up a project that was not coming along so well. I already had a week long trip schedule the following week to Albuquerque, and the thought of being away from my family for 2 weeks straight wasn't too appealing.

So: Load up family, dog, bike RV and drive. And that's what we did. Pretty much straight.

Lost mucho tiempo driving through (all the way through) Yosemite. Never trust GPS!

9 miles from camp-ground to airport. My wife can have the truck and I can ride a bike. What a deal. I'm not used to city cycling. On a bike with no brakes or gears, it does take special attention.

Peace.

This time, no dog

I tried taking this picture on Tuesday when I rode to work. I pulled over, just started fiddling to get my camera out, and I heard a dog from a house near by barking at me. Looked to see he was also running at me.

So, I shut my panniers, jumped on the bike and started pedaling my arse off. I kept checking back, and to my surprise, the dumb mutt didn't stop at the drive entrance. He continued down the high way after me. I was obviously putting distance between us, but I bet that dog ran for a good half a mile. I was pissed. I hate having to hammer for no reason, and I wanted that picture.

The light wasn't the same, and on Tuesday there were more clouds that looked incredible. But today I pulled my car over on the side of the highway and took the above pic. If the dog was going to come at me again, I would roll up the windows and wave some of my lunch in it's face. I am a dog person, but I hate dumb dogs. Based on him running after me in the middle of highway 21, I'd be surprised if he lasts long.

Salsa Fargo

Looks like an interesting bike doesn't it? 6 bottle braze-ons. 700 X 35 road touring tires or 29" X 2.3" off-road meats. Makes choosing a new bike harder that's for sure.

6 water bottle braze-ons and disc brakes! Wow, I like where some people in the industry are going.

Available February 2009. Hey, my birthday is in February.....

Not Included

Obviously when you sell a bike, you don't include the accessories that you've attached to it. Mostly the pedals and the saddle. Those two items are quite specific to each rider, and more often than not, the person buying your bike doesn't share the same preference in these. They are also 2 of the 3 interface points on a DF bike.

I keep getting asked if I could please include the Brooks from numerous buyers and when selling two different bikes. Obviously the answer is no. It always makes it's way to my next favorite bike.

I've run into a problem though. I have more clip less-pedals now than bikes to put them on. Boy, I better buy a few more bikes or something huh?

Bikes are gone

Two of them. The sequoia and the Volae. Sad I know, but these are things we must sometimes do. What makes it bearable? I'm making room for a new bike.

The Sequoia will now live in Radium and the Volae in Edmonton. Both went to get homes and the sequoia will probably be doing a Radium to Vancouver trip in the next several weeks.

Now, I've got some order-placing to do......

Kona Ute, eh?

Early Morning Ride

With the summer season ending, fall fast upon us, the time has come when lights are now pretty much mandatory for any type of morning commuting.

I was up at 5:30 and couldn't believe how black it was outside. Right now, I run a planet bike rechargeable light that is no longer in production and I forget the model. It works well though. With 3 output modes and the brightest being 15w and close to 2hrs run time on the brightest mode, it's perfect for commuting. I can run on low output and get a little more than 10 hours and 8w of light. Pretty decent. The only draw back is that it takes 12hrs to charge. It's also heavy, but who really care about that anyway. I've also got a petzl headlight on my helmet and a planet bike superflash on the back

It had been a while since I'd ridden in the dark, and there something fun about it. Kind of reminds me of when I was a kid and how much fun was had from playing with a flash light while camping. I guess it's pretty much the same thing.

I'm looking into different options for a dynohub right now, and I think that would accompany my upcoming bike quite nicely.

I've also given my winter commuting a second thought. I was pretty sure that my bike commuting was coming to an end for the season because it is getting close to freezing at nights. I've already scraped the car windshield twice this year! But, last night while getting my gear ready, I pulled out some of my winter riding stuff. This morning when I left my house it was 4 C (39.2F) and I was very comfortable the whole ride. In fact I ended up unzipping my outer shell to let some heat escape though the neck. I sort of forgot about all of the great winter gear I've accumulated mostly for winter running over the past several years. I remember when my commute was only 3 miles one way and I would do it every single day. The coldest did that distance was -32C. This year I rode to work when it was -36, but that was only about 1 block so it doesn't count.

I've come to the conclusion that I've still got some pretty good bike commuting ahead of my this year, and as long as the roads aren't icy or snowy, I should be able to ride. I've set up a little goal to commute at least 3 times a month, every single month of the year. It'd be fun to get three 50 mile days on the bike in January and February and all those other nasty cold months when I ride mostly short distances and exploring rides. The right gear makes all the difference and often can be the difference between riding and not riding.

Two other great things I was thinking about with the cooler weather settling in.

1: I've got a sweet S/S snow bike that's just waiting to prove to me what it can do.

2: Hockey. I took up hockey after Christmas last year, and found myself as a back up goalie for both of the teams in Rockyford. I was playing 2 and 3 times a week. I won't commit that much time this year, but I am stoked to have people shooting pucks at me again. The best is when you can make the swear after robbing them of an open net. Great game.

Bikes are going

My bikes. I'm selling some of them off. I figured the list of bikes I'm keeping will be shorter than a list of bikes I'm selling or have sold.

Stay bikes are: Snow bike, Xtra, Rockabilly Boogie and Fixie. All others are on the chopping block or have already been cut!

Why, why why you ask. Or you don't. I'll tell you anyway. I'm putting together a bike I've been thinking about for a long long time. I'm going to outfit it the way I want. Actually order up bits and pieces rather than scrounging the recycling yard trying to find something that I could make work.

Yup, I'm going to simplify my cycling habit. Money spread thicker over fewer bikes rather than thinner or many bikes.

I'm stoked about this new little project, and am in process of fitting and ordering. Don't get too excited though, it's not a custom built cycle or anything like that. But I think it will be a lifetime bike.

Cheers.

Molly

We picked up a new puppy today. I had two great dogs growing up. Both were special and I loved them very much. With my boys getting to the age were they are starting to run around the yard by themselves, I figured they needed a dog. So did my oldest. He's been asking for a dog for over a year now.

Last night we looked at the above picture on kijiji, and this morning,we decided to drive 2 hours to get our new little friend. She's a pure bread Chocolate Labrador Retriever. Registered with the CKC. That doesn't matter to me, I just wanted a dog that was young and could grow up around the boys and had a nice temperament. This little puppy is incredibly gentle, calm and 2 months old. We named her Molly. Actually my wife named her Molly and I kind of liked it.

I'm stoked to have a running partner in a few months, and a cycling partner for those slow, snowy, single-speed snow bike rides.

Molly is a great dog I'm glad she's now a part of our family.

Production 3 Speed Fixed Hub Coming Soon?

I sure hope so. According to this little bit of news, it might just happen. Wow, that would be totally killer.

Fall Cleaning

Well, I'm going trough my inventory of bike stuff and bike crap, and it's time I rid some of it.

Every now and then I'll come across a part that is nice, or something integral to a could be project, and keep it. After years of having it, and realizing I still don't plan on starting the project that this part would be so important to. It's time to get rid of the part.

I'm starting to clear out old, nice bike parts and one by one, they'll be leaving me. I'm obviously hoping they go to good homes and get appreciated and used, but that is sometimes hard. I wish there was a network or a place where you could post a part you were looking for, and possibly find someone who had it, and see if they were interested in parts that you had and could horse trade with them.

Re-Bay is a local place that Vik started, and I think it has decent success, but limited readers/users. Also I think that most of the folks that use it, are not into older bike parts. Maybe we could get something like this going, or even build up Re-bay. It'd be cool to have a place for bike nerds to share the stuff they no longer use, with another bike nerds who have been seeking those parts.


I've started with an old Shimano 3 speed hub I've been saving for about 3 years. Even when I dug it out of the basement, I thought, hey I can build up a great little commuter bikes with this. But the reality is, I won't get around to it for a long, long time. So send it off!

I've offered many people I know parts to build up a fixie, or a decent commuter bike for free, but no one ever seems to take me up on my offer. I might try some of it on EBay, but that 's a whole pile of work. Especially for a lazy person such as myself.

If anyone knows of a place where people get together and give, take, barter parts, let me know. I'm very interested, and mostly just want the parts to see good use. If you are in need of something, email me. I might or might not have it. But if I do, I'd love to help out your project.....and clean my garage.

Peace.