Monday Morning Weigh-In X-80

That felt as good as losing 10 lbs. earlier in the year. I was able to enjoy the holidays, crank up the workouts a touch and hold.

No Grasshoppers This Time

Cecelia and I hit the trails at the tree farm today. Ethel (and you thought the 'e' in ebike meant exercise) and I are not speaking as she is doing unspeakably painful things to my butt lately. Since I upped my daily ride to 12km my butt has been very uncomfortable, so with the cooperation of the weather I headed out to the golf course via the bike paths on Saturday and loaded her onto the car rack for a run out to the 25th Side Road today. I rode until dark tonight, got nipped 3x by a large black poodle named 'Angus' but could not have had more fun in an hour. The city keeps the bike paths plowed quite nicely and the MNR pushes the white stuff off of the narrow roads among the young forest. It sure beats watching dvd's and going nowhere fast.
I'm hoping that not missing any workouts, not even Christmas day, will make tomorrow's weigh-in a respectable one.

I Know What I Want Next Christmas

This is the answer to winter riding, $400 for the ski and tractor kit, its called the Ktrac. Gotta be a dealership here in the Bay for this.

Monday Morning Weigh-In X-81

Another week in the holding pattern. Not much to report, evening rides and morning walks continue and I still wish it was spring. The next couple of days will be the big challenge, I want to enjoy the holidays but not too, too, too much (to quote my fav Ginko). If it's warm enough I'd love to take a short ride sometime in the days I have off.

Santa at the Gardens

The annual Northwood Hockey Christmas Skating Party was this afternoon and everybody seemed to have a great time. My old partner and past president, Ken Sutton who I haven't seen in 3-4 years dropped in. Tom Petrie gave away a $100 stick to a player who had brought in their skates for one of the 2 free sharpenings we gave them. Parents brought baking and snacks for the kids, there were some small draws for toques and sweatshirts and lots of tunes. And of course St. Nick made an appearance. Ginko dropped in but he missed 'hockey papa', I can't imagine why.

Riding With Some Old Friends

Last night I found myself watching youtube clips of Rush in concert. I looked for the dvd today but didn't find it. I did find one of Yes in concert so I thought I'd give that a try, the next 6 discs of '24' are rented out for a week.
Since I missed the treadmill this morning I decided to go a bit further on the ebike and threw on the Yes disc. It was recorded in '04 so the band is pretty old looking but they still sound tight. They were labelled progressive rock and their music can be anywhere on the map from heavy to classical, their musicianship is second to none and their songs are very intricate. I always wondered how long they would have to rehearse to be able to go from full speed ahead to a full stop, start and do it all again in a live setting. They pull it off very well. The ride went quickly even considering the extra 5km.

Monday Morning Weigh-In X-80

Well I guess if I can hold for another 2 weeks through the holidays I can get back to it in the New Year. I finally got the second season of '24' going, my first attempt had no sound. I rode with some network tv and a movie but the '24' episodes are timed almost perfectly so it keeps the routine solid. I want to add some situps and other exercises suggested at the Conquer Cancer riders page. The ebike is fixed. With AJ's help I got the belt on but then the pedals simply would not move. I took it off and tried it another way with the same result. So I tried eliminating the small pulley (what I think caused the destruction in the first place) and she rides better now than when new. Nice and smooth.

Unless I Win Some Big Cash...

Unless I come across some big cash I've decided to stick with Bridget for the ConquerCancer ride. I had a talk with Farsum this afternoon regarding high pressure tires. They can be used and will improve the way the bike rolls quite a bit. The knobby Kendas Koyotes on her now have a maximum pressure of 60psi and the tread makes them slow on pavement, but Schwalbe makes a tire in the right size that can take 100psi with more of a smooth tread that will roll nicely on pavement. I have a set of Panracer Cross Town tires for Eyowen that will hold 75psi with a smooth tread design so she'll best the test rig for tires. I ordered in the Ergon grips (pictured) with built in extensions which are supposed to be the cat's pjs for hand comfort and eliminating numbness. Now I just need a saddle that is a bit more comfy, either a Specialized Body Geometry or Brooks leather B17 but I have a lot more reading to do in that area.

EBike Saved

Good news on the stationary ride. I pulled it apart in about 15 min. and found the belt badly damaged. Everything looks to be lined up so I'll size it up at work (just a normal fan belt style) and should be ok to ride again.

Monday Morning Weigh-In X-80

Another week in the holding pattern, not that I'm down about it. Winter is proving to be a b***h, and now the ebike feels like the guts are going to seize up. Oh well, as we learned from buying a bike earlier, you gets what you pays for and at $99 the ebike was no huge outlay of cash. The treadmill time pretty much flies by until I hit the 4mph part of the program, but I'm running it now. Walking at 4mph is tricky, very easy to trip.

Why is this man smiling?

He had a free day and decided to ride his faithful steed in the cold and snow.

I wanted to go out to the tree farm but the temp was -17 and windchill of -27 so I said heck I'll just ride to the video store and return some movies. An hour and a half later I came home after a great ride. My toes were just starting to get cold as the sun hit the horizon. I got a bit aggressive with the new front brakes and kissed the pavement for the first time all year leaving a few inches of skin on the right pedal, and then parked myself in a snow bank but in the cold nothing hurts for long. As Eyowen emerges Cecelia will be retired and I thought one more ride would be a great way to retire her. Who knows maybe if the weather stays like this she'll get out again. I loved every minute of it, now that I'm warmed up it hurts like hell but its a small price to pay for 90 minutes of fun.

In a Perfect World

Project Eyowen: Ready to start Paint Stage

I have the frame totally strippped down, the crank and fork removed and she's ready to be shot blasted. I decided on a nice gloss orange as the main colour and the front fork will be black. I have almost everything ready and just have to find a few hours to get this stage done.
I'm looking for a scrap bike with drop handle bars to cut and flip. If the bearing in the bottom bracket are good I'll order a new single speed crank and a higher gear for the other side of the flip/flop hub.

Insane

This video is called "Bike Messengers are on Crack". It starts off a bit slowly and then they start dodging traffic, I was waiting for the inevitable "crash". Give it a look, its a bit long but totally insane.

Project Eyowen

A few weeks ago I was in a customer's shop and noticed a Giant Acapulco bike off in the corner. I asked about it and the owner told me to haul it away if I wanted it. I stripped down the frame and used the handle bars and stem on CeCelia, along with the new brakes I imported but the new setup only saw about a half dozen rides before the snow hit. I decided to give the Giant frame some fresh paint and then switch the singlespeed setup from CeCelia over and create a new bike to be named Eyowen (Ay-o-when), you'll have to guess the source of the name. I'm torn between my fav colour orange and a nice classic tan for the job. Once I get into a paint store I'll decide. The frame is in at FCD where it will be shot blasted, primed, painted and then clear coated. I'll have some pix up as Project Eyowen progresses.

Monday Morning Weigh-In X-81

My first week without any rides, I sure do miss it. It's hard to replace on the e-bike but I managed to finish 24 episodes of '24' in 29 days, so 240km sitting in one spot, yippee. I did the last one tonight and have the first 4 episodes of season 2 ready to go. I have been hitting the treadmill almost every day, every day that I don't have 32 cm of snow to shovel that is. That dump has to be worse than all of the last 2 years combined.