Bialetti Coffee Maker

When we were in Fernie for the last bit of 2010, I thought I'd check out a few of the sporting shops to see what that had in the way of back-country coffee making stuff. Thinking along the lines of micro-touring, I wanted something that was small, light and able to brew fresh with a small stove.

Beyond that, I'm a coffee snob. Have been for years. I've hand picked beens in South America, toured coffee plantations in Venezuala and visited a few different coffee roasters in multiple countries. I love good coffee. The idea of brewing a cup or two, and keeping it sealed in a thermos on my bike doesn't appeal to me the same as a cup of brewed espresso does. Even if I'm only out for a short little afternoon ride, the trouble of brewing a fresh shot, is so worth it to me.
During my search, I ended up finding a quite famous little espresso maker. The Bialetti Mocka Press. It came highly recommended by a few folks at the store and thought for 30 bucks, it was worth a try. I went back to our condo in Fernie and made a few pots to test it out. Now, this is about the only way I make coffee at all anymore. Even at home.
If you're looking to have some great coffee while out camping, and even at home for that matter, I highly recommend the Bialetti. They are available in sizes from two cup all the way up to 12. Light, tough, packable and makes excellent java.

I also have a crumby video of me brewing a cup with my camp stove in my garage here.

Cheers,

Jeremy

Chariot XC-ski attachment

Cross country skiing is where it's at right now. We were able to outfit the whole family with new gear, but finding a day warm enough to test it out was testing our patience. Today, we watched the thermometer outside of our kitchen window show that it was warming up. -15C. Yay! Still not warm, but we were getting sick of waiting so out the door we went.

It's so nice to have this open space right behind our house. If we got cold, we're only a 2 minute walk from the warmth of our home, and hot chocolate!

I had wondered about the performance of the XC-ski attachment for our Chariot X-Country (which BTW is an amazing stroller/bike trailer - one of the best "child accessories" we've ever bought and worth every penny) and I stumbled across a local (Alberta at least) blogger who uses one. Oddly enough I found her blog via twitter, and while I was in Fernie. Natalie posted about skiing in Fernie while we had just arrived there on our last trip. Small world. She highly recommended the ski attachment and said it worked very well. Her only complaint is that you can't ever find them for sale used. Good enough of a review for me! We picked one at Bow Cycle last week.

My first thoughts of the ski attachment...Excellent addition to the chariot. The skis are very simple to install, built very well (like the rest of the Chariot) and with just my 2 year old in it, it pulls amazingly well. Like really well. I had my six year old in it with my daughter for about 15 minutes, and while it's not as easy, it's certainly doable for several hours. I am amazed at how well this works!

The boys were petering-out, so they took turns riding with their sister. The brilliant design of the Chariot makes attaching their skis to the back when not being used a snap. Chariot products are so smart, and just work so well in real world conditions.

The additional skis leave an interesting trail for other skiers to scratch their heads over. The great thing is it doesn't affect the ski trials for others.

Out here on the prairies, we like to head for any trees we can find. Feels more "wildernessy" that way:)

Last time we were out in Fernie, my little girl ended up getting a mild case of frost-nip. Not quite frost bite, but enough to scare Steph and I and make us feel like terrible parents. We took extra precautions this time. It was noticeably warmer inside the Chariot (we had the covers all closed up) and when the boys were in there, they said it was nice and warm. So much so that our little girly fell asleep!
We're going to head out a few more times before our next trip to Fernie. The boys need a bit more practice at getting up by themselves, but they are doing incredibly well. This is such a fun family activity and it's so nice to have something we can all do to get out of the house in the winter.

Our yard is starting to look like a ski-lodge

Go outside and have some fun!

Back on the Bike

After a little hiatus, it's nice to have a bike parked in the empty office below mine again. Gear update: while in Great Falls, I found a great deal on some Ergon GP1s. I had a set of these babies on my snow bike, and forgot to swap them out when I sold it. That was my first experience with the GP1, and oddly enough, they came on a bike of a guy who was sponsored by Ergon. Dave Nice.

I had thought that set up would be a progression of tweaking mid ride, and it still may be, but form my initial time spent holding onto these things, the just feel good. On a flat bar, I would highly recommend these grips, or even similar designed ones, over standard round grips. These just feel so much better. The pressure on your hands is noticeably spread out over a much larger contact patch and result is great. Two thumbs up for sure.

Product Review #2 - AirZound bike horn

Well, here is installment # 2 for my product reviews. This one is a beaut if you're a bike commuter or hooligan a like. It's a 120 dB air horn for your bicycle!!!

Yes, being part hooligan myself, I was instantly grinning when I opened this for Christmas thinking of the reactions I could envoke on the bike baths right before I blow passed some unsuspecting victim enjoying the fresh air. Then I realized that it also might have some very practical application. All joking aside, this is a great bike horn for traffic!! Let's get down to the details.

This product again is available from MEC as well as other I'm sure, but MEC is the only place that I've seen it. It retails for $17.00 Canadian as is also made here in Canada.

The horn itself fastens like most other bar-mounted bike accessories, clapping around your handlebar. The actuator button lifts to reveal a schraider valve. Hook up your bike pump, or gas station tire-filler hose and load up the included 500ml air tank (plastic bottle) up to 80psi!. They say that you shouldn't use any other air reservoir than the one that they provide, but I'm sure that any other plastic pop bottle would do. I haven't tried any bigger bottles because this has enough capacity for about 50 loud blasts, and obviously we cyclists tend to like to keep things small and neat. But it would be fun to ride around all day just blasting your horn for the sake of blasting your horn with a 2L bottle. Maybe something to try next time I'm bored.

The air tank (plastic bottle) comes in a Velcro sleeve and mounts using another piece of Velcro and 2 zip ties. Another easy way to mount the air tank is just stick it in your water bottle cage. One could also go out to a fabric store and buy a second piece of Velcro to mount to another bike if this would be something that you would like to use on different bikes. I don't think I'll be doing that. This will stay on my winter commuter bike.

Now, how well does it work in the real world?? Great! The second day I rode to work with this bad boy, the town was clearing snow from a big dump we had. At 6 in the morning, dump trucks and loaders that are moving snow don't really expect to see a cyclist. I was riding down one of the main roads in town and a dump truck full of snow was wanting to make a left hand turn in front of me. I think that the driver did see me (as I'm now lit like a Christmas tree) but thought that I was going slower than I really was. He started to move after stopping at the stop sign and I gave him my first real blast. He stopped instantly and looked around. Then I think he realized that the noise came from me. As I passed in front of him, I gave him another little honk and waived thanks. This thing works great!! If you are riding in traffic, in the dark or find that you're often yelling to get cars to yield to you, this is a very useful product.

Add to that, the limitless amounts of fun and it's well worth adding to your collection of bike stuff. I am very excited for the summer to come, as right when I leave my house, I ride a bike bath that runs 15ft from the 13th and 16th holes of a golf course. I've had fun before with a fog horn. Now the get a way will already be in progress when the offense takes place!! Yippee.

Please use only as directed and for safety reasons only.

I thought I should put that in, just in case.

Cheers,

Jerome