Happy Halloween!

We bought 32 chocolate bars for treaters and we hand out none, apparently treaters don't come to apartment buildings to trick or treat. I didn't go for a ride tonight, it has been raining hard, and hopefully it won't start snowing tonight, I don't think it will because it isn't cold enough yet. It's funny how cyclist seem to watch the weather alot, wind direction, that kind of thing, it's especially true of cyclist in colder climates like we have here in Canada. I just got the Hostel Shoppe catalog in the mail today, so I can dream a little over the winter. I know that I shouldn't talk about cars on here, most cyclist don't like that to much but I think that this subject fits my blog. I've noticed that lately, at least in Canada many of the automakers are coming out with hybrids or ultra small cars, I'm talking about the Smart Car, Toyota Yaris, upcoming Nissan Versa, and the Chevy Aveo and Suzuki Swift. I've been looking alot at the Yaris lately, I can't afford one right now, but it is supposed to get alot better gas mileage then my Pontiac Sunfire. Also I find that the Sunfire isn't the most practical car for a bike owner, the trunk is too small and the only saving grace is that the seat folds forward. If I lived somewhere that was warmer year round I would probably just have a bike and commute with that, in the winter it can get down to -40 Celcius here so you pretty much need a car to commute to work. I've always liked small cars that are good on gas, hatchbacks are the best because you can fit so much in them compared to a regular car. Unfortuantly alot of people still buy pickups and SUVs for just driving around, I think that in the future gas prices will rise to the point that pickups and SUV's will become too expensive to run for anyone that isn't using them for work related things. Hopefully I will be able to go riding tomorrow night if the weather is good, until then, ride safe and have fun.

Out and about

Here is another photo for "Mars", the Saigon Rose on Pacific Ave, the old part of town.

Another photo for "Mars" from www.bikeforums.net, this is the Black Duck Freehouse on 2nd Ave.

Some of you may have noticed that I've been using a larger picture size for my jpgs, I find that this works better because people no longer have to enlarge most of the pictures to see the details in them. I figured that today would work well for me to go take a ride downtown and finish taking the rest of the pictures that "Mars" from www.bikeforums.com had requested. Sunday morning is always the best day to explore the downtown, there is very little traffic so you can pretty much ride everywhere without worring about cars. It is getting very cold out, I had to ride with my earmuffs and gloves on, no snow though, the thick bank of grey clouds melted away in the late afternoon and it warmed up alot. I'm really getting used to the recumbent now, and it is getting more and more like a regular bike for me to ride. I've been looking at lowracer recumbents lately, I think that these are directly parallel to road racing bikes in terms of performance. I've never actually tried one, but I think that being that close to the ground would exaggerate the speed factor of this style of bike. Unfortuantly most lowracer designs would not really be that practical in everyday use. Being so low makes forward visibility an issue as well as making them less visible to traffic. There seems to be alot of debate on the net regarding which is better, lowracers or highracers, especially after this year's RAAM (Race Across AMerica) which pitted the two types of bents against each other. Many people are saying that one is better then the other, one is faster, etc. I don't think that it really matters, as far as speed goes between the two bikes, I think that it is more about the person riding it rather then the bike design. I think that the highracers were probably in a more comfortable position which may have contributed to difference in performance at RAAM. Anyway I don't think that it is fair to totally write off an entire class of bicyle based on the perfomance of them in a race. Anyway I will probably write again on Tuesday, tomorrow is Halloween night so I don't think that it is very safe to be out riding at night. Till next time, ride safe and have fun.

It is going to snow!

We rode back into the city on Highway 7, we decided to grab a bite to eat at Cory Park ESSO, they always let us use their storage shed to put our bikes in when we go there.

My friend Leo, he just got his Giant touring bike last year and already he has around 9000kms on it, he rides almost every day and alot in the winter months too.

We were going down Valley Rd. south of Saskatoon. Valley Rd is in the valley which the river flows through and it is lined with small farms and u-pick berry businesses, as you can see it is very flat and open.

My friend Julian taking his jacket off, it got a little hotter around 12:30pm and we were starting to overheat so we all decided to take a few clothes off and cool down.

The new suspension bridge that it supposed to span a small bay of water at River Landing. I was debating whether or not it actually was a suspension bridge or if that wasn't all just a decoration, I'm still not sure. In the foreground you can see workers laying bricks for the new multi-use pathway.

This is the site of the soon-to-be River Landing Park, it is supposed to showcase the river in south downtown, with a dock to moor boats, a large center, fishing platforms etc. It is taking shape nicely and I think that it will be really nice looking when it is complete.

Fine Arts Cafe, where all our rides usually start, it's on 14th St and Temperance Ave. if you ever come to Saskatoon check it out, they usually have semi-normal artwork and a good atmosphere.

Today I arranged to meet my friends Leo and Julian for a longer ride. We met at Fine Arts Cafe around 11:00pm and headed off from there, we decided to head south because there was a headwind from the south. We managed to cross the river on Victoria bridge and then we headed south to Valley Road. My back wheel held up good, I even rode it on some gravel on the way to Valley Road and it was fine. When I bought my bike I greased the seat track to make it easier to adjust, this proved to be a stupid idea because now the seat tends to migrate toward the rear of the bike slightly, especially when I'm really pushing on the seat back. I had to stop and fix it a few times on our ride. It started to get cold in the afternoon and a bank of grey clouds formed in the west and it looks like we may get some snow tonight. I did alot better on my bike today, it was the first day that I really went on a longer ride and my muscles seemed to hold up alright. Anyway, ride safe everyone and have fun.......

Gray Skies...

Here I am cruising down the street past City Hospital, that is 20kmph by the way, so I'm not being too dangerous :)

While I was headed to 2nd Ave I passed through downtown, around 3rd and 4th Ave there are alot of older buildings, I really liked this old brick apartment building so I snapped a photo of it.

Another veiw of Kinsmen Park, it looks so beautiful in the fall with all the leaves changing.

The back of City Hospital.

To get to Earls I had to ride west over to 2nd Ave, I cut through Kinsmen Park, and decided to take a few photos of City Hospital, I find that it has some really unusally architecture, especially for a hospital.

You can see how dark and grey it was outside today, hardly any wind though, as you can see the surface of the river is like glass. We are supposed to have snow on Monday, I'm really hoping it dosen't happen yet

I took this picture for "Mars" over at www.bikeforums.net it is a picture of Earls resturant on 2nd Ave with it's very unique sign that includes giant parrots.

I get off early on Fridays, so I like to head out for a ride while it is still light out. Today with the highly overcast skies it was beginning to get dark at 5:00. My wheel seemed to hold up well, I certainly tested it out too. I couldn't cross Spadina Cres to get to the Meewasin trail because of traffic, so I opted to ride down it, I've actually broken spokes on my other bikes on this particular section of road, but my back wheel held up well to the beating. When I got home I retensioned the spokes again because I felt they were a bit loose. We went out for supper tonight and when we got home my girlfriend noticed that my tire was flat on the back. I took the tire off and it appeared that a small rock had gone through the tire and punctured the tube, oh well I put a new tube in and it was all good. If any of you were curious to see some of the new bents that were featured at Interbike 2005, head over to www.bentrideronline.com , they have updated and feature a section on the 2005 Interbike, some interesting new designs out there, definatly worth a look.

My Burley is fixed :) but it is raining outside

My getto truing stand, I took my mountain bike frame and attached a ziptie to the chainstay, it works the same as the feeler on a proper truing stand, also I line the rim up with the seattube so I get proper dish, or very close to it.

Tools to do the job, spoke wrench, grease, screwdriver, and Zinns Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance, which has a great section on wheel building, with diagrams

Last set of spokes are in, the wheel just needs to be tightened and tensioned.

Third set of spokes in.

First two sets of spokes in, two more to go.

Parts needed to rebuild my wheel, I bought 34 DT stainless spokes so I have two extra, and brass nipples for them as well.

It was raining today, so it worked out well for me, I got some spokes at the bike shop after work, this time I got 14 gauge DT stainless spokes, I think DT makes some of the best spokes, I've never had problems with them. I started on the wheel after supper and had it laced up in about a half hour, however I made a mistake somewhere and I had to take half of the nipples off and change the spokes around. Finally I got it set up properly, then it was time to tension and true it. I don't have a truing stand so I had to make my own, I took my mountain bike frame, put a ziptie on the chainstay for a feeler gauge and used that. It turned out pretty well, and hopefully it will work well too. Hopefully I will be able to try it out tomorrow and see how it works. Anyway, ride safe and have fun..

The Burley Broke! (kind of ) :(

Just returning the favor, EZRIDER put
a link to my blog on his, so I think that
it is only fair to do the same thing, plus
his blog is pretty interesting too.
Check it out here: www.ezbiker.blogspot.com

Started out on a nice ride tonight, beautiful weather and a light wind. I made my way downtown and was starting to cruise down some back alleys when I noticed a ticking noise coming from my rear wheel, at first I thought that it was my panniers rubbing on the spokes, I check and that was fine so I continued riding. I could still hear the ticking noise so I finally got off and checked the back wheel again, it looked all fine until I grabbed the spokes and noticed that they were very loose. Sure enough I found a broken spoke on the no-drive side, broken off where the spoke enters the hole on the hub. I gingerly rode it home and then removed the wheel for a closer inspection, it seems that the stock spokes are very cheap no-name ones, I expect that they would have all gone snap eventually. Tomorrow I will visit the bike shop and pick up some DT stainless spokes so that I can relace the wheel and get my bike up and running again. I will post picks of the wheel build up tomorrow for you guys to see.

Hmmm...Maybe winter isn't coming

A portion of the Spadina bikeway, it is modeled after similar bikeways in Europeon countries, kudos to the city for trying something like this, with a very large cycling community in Saskatoon it only makes sense to have more and more of these bikeways. I guess it helps that the city planner in charge of bicycle traffic is an avid cyclist, cycle commuter and president of one of the local bike clubs.

Picture from tonight's ride. This is a potion of the Meewasin Trail, it is a paved pathway that runs up and down both sides of the river, it is looked over by the Meewasin Valley Authority, they manage all the land that borders on the river in Saskatoon and surrounding area.

A leftover picture from Friday

This is a statue of Gabriel Dumont in the park downtown, he led the Metis people in rebellions against the Canadian government, the last of which took place in 1885 at Batoche, which is 100km north of Saskatoon

BOOTS AND SALUTES

Salute

To Burley, for making an affordable quality recumbent that is still fun to ride

Salute

To Raceface, a Canadian company that is growing more and more each year, these guys deserve a salute for making the stiffest, lightest and most beautiful looking crankset that I have ever had the pleasure of using, the Raceface Evolve X-type with external bearings I bought recently has been taking my punishment without so much as a squeak, and it feels like I'm directly connected to the back wheel of the bike.

Boot

To Shimano, for pricing their comoponents through the roof and for dual control levers for mountain bikes, really just a marketing gimick, anyone who has them hates them.

Salute

To Sram, for making trigger shifters that are better then anything Shimano has made in years.

Boot

To people who hate cyclist and think that they just get in the way of them when they are driving

Salute

To everyone who rides, dosen't matter who you are, I think it's great

Salute

To the bicycle, what a funny little invention, dosen't pollute, get's you from point A to B, endlessly fun, and good exercise too.

Sorry I didn't get around to posting last night, there was a mountain of laundry to do, and I had to go to a meeting for the mountain bike club that I'm on the excecutive of. I knew this year that I would be getting rid of my mountain bikes, but I still wanted to help out at races and help with trail maintainence work, so I signed up again this year. Tonights ride was one of the best in a long while, it was very warm out tonight with a little breeze that changed directions so I had a tailwind both ways :) always nice. It was wonderful riding along the bike path, the Burley is so silent and when you are on the smooth pavement you can't hear a sound at all, plus with the little tailwind I was just gliding along effortlessly. I'm starting to loose a little weight now, all this summer I'd done nothing but gain weight, because I wasn't riding much due to the problem with my wrists. By the time I got my recumbent a few weeks ago I was topping the scales at 240lbs, for a 6' tall guy that is too heavy, and more then I'd weighed ever before. Since riding the Burley regularly I've lost about 7lbs and I'm on my way to the 218lbs I used to weigh. I'd really like to get down to about 180lbs eventually, I don't even know if that is possible though as I'm a pretty big boned kind of guy, but here is hoping. I just want to say a few things before I go for the night. Thanks to anyone who reads this regularly, it's nice to know that someone is listening to at least a little of what I write. Also I'd like to let our neighbours to the south know that I'm pulling for them with the whole hurricane deal, that must be awful and I hope everyone gets through it all safely. Beyond that, I'd like to say ride safe and always have fun!

Why I bought my bike

I just realized tonight that I never posted on here about how I came around to getting my Burley Sandpoint recumbent. It all happend about a year ago, I noticed at night that I would wake up and my arms were all numb and sore. In the spring, when I began riding again I noticed that on longer rides my hands would go numb and my wrist would hurt, at one point it got so bad that I was unable to ride at all. I thought this was unusually because the previous summer I'd competed at the 24 hours of Adrenaline in Canmore Alberta, I did it solo on my 29" hardtail mountain bike, besides being totally wiped out of energy my hands had never gone numb and my wrist had been fine the whole way through the race. I told someone at work about it and they suggested that maybe I had carpal tunnel syndrome. Shortly after that I went to the doctor, he sent me to a specialist for a nerve scan. If you've never had a nerve scan, they aren't that fun, basically they hook you up to electrodes and shock you while measuring how much your muscles contract from the shock. The specialist confirmed that I did have carpal tunnel quite bad in my left wrist and moderately in my right wrist. My doctor suggested that in terms of biking, maybe I should just go on short rides instead so that my wrist wouldn't be bothered. Needless to say I didn't like that idea that much. Surgery was an option, but I rejected it for several reasons, first of all, I would need to take considerable time off work, which wouldn't work, because I couldn't afford to do that. Surgery doesn't always cure the problem and if you hit the palm of your hand on something hard you can actually cause damage to the nerve in your wrist, so surgery didn't appeal to me and I decided to take the natural approach instead. So far I'm basically trying to eliminate everything that causes me problems, I switched jobs at work, to something that is easier on my wrist. As far as biking goes I sold my road racing bike soon after my diagnosis, I was unable to ride it farther then 5 miles without pain, I sold my 29" mountain bike to get some money. So then I was left with my 2005 Gary Fisher Ziggurat which I just purchased, having spent a considerable amount on it I was determined to ride it. This summer a few buddies and I went to Batoche Provincial Park, it was a 200km round trip which we did in a day, I think that is the defining moment when I decided to sell the Gary Fisher and sell all my other diamond frames as well. On the way back from Batoche my wrist were causing me considerable pain, to the point where I had to stop several times to relieve pressure on them, nothing seemed to help. Other shorter rides after that brought the same results for me, more pain and suffering. Finally a little over a month ago I ordered a Burley Sandpoint from www.triketrails.com. It came about a week later. Being one of the cheapest quality recumbents you can buy I expected cut-rate components, the cranks were replaced with my RaceFace Evolve X-type mountain bike ones before the bike was even fully assembled, the brakes were replaced with Avid SL Ti's shortly after that. I didn't realized until after, but when I recieved the bike the chain was on the idler pulleys wrong, so on the first ride the front derailer would hardly shift at all. On the second ride I tryed to drop it into the bottom chainring on the front and proceeded to bend up the front derailer pretty bad. I looked in the instruction book when I got home and realized that the chain was on wrong, I switched it over and got a new Shimano Deore front derailer, everthing is fine now. I find little wrong with the Sunrace gripshifts and rear derailer, the rear derailer sometimes wants to go into a different gear then I do, but most of the time it is spot on. www.Bentrideronline.com had tested the Jett Creek, which is basically the same bike, except with better components, they said that it handled very well and was a breeze for first timers. I was very dubious of this statement the first time I took it for a ride, after nearly crashing several times I finally got it and then I didn't want to get off :) Now I'm so used to the balance of it that I can carve up the tight switchbacks on the Meewasin pathway without having my feet down, or walking it around the corners :) After riding my Burley for some time now, I don't know why I'd ever go back to a regular bike, it is even more fun then mountain biking, and a total lack of any pain at all makes it even better. My ultimate dream bike now is a Greenspeed GT3 trike, folds for easy storage and it will pack a small load for the longer rides I like to take, as soon as I win the lottery I will buy one, until then it works well as a dream, thanks for listening, and always ride safe.................

Back Again....

Well I'm back from the weekend, we went to a friends house in Kindersley SK. for the weekend, had a good time. Sometimes it is nice to get out of the city. When we got home tonight I went for a short ride, just down along the river for a bit and then back home again. Originally I didn't really feel like going on a ride, but it was such a nice night that I went out anyway. Usually when I feel like that I have a really good ride, tonight was no exception, in fact I broke my top speed record of 54kmph on the Burley and set a new one at 60kmph. I really didn't feel like heading back home I was having so much fun, but I was getting cold feet from the wind so I decided to call it a night.

It's a beautiful day in the neighbourhood.........

Speeding along, well not really, but I have mastered riding the recumbent enough that I can ride with one hand and snap a picture with the other.

Looking up Spadina Cres.

A look in the rearview mirror, yes I think mirrors are really dorky too, but it is a safety issue on a recumbent, without it you can't see behind you at all.

The new traffic circle at the end of Victoria Bridge, it looks pretty cool!

The Burley, basking in the rays :)

The Bess' in the daytime

Well I finally got to ride during the day, on Fridays I start work at 5:30AM so I also get off work at 2:00PM, it gives me some daylight to work with. We are leaving for the weekend at 4:30 today (so no posts until Sunday night) I got in about an hour of riding, and managed to do almost 18kms. It was nice and sunny today, but actually alot colder then it has been for the last few nights that I've gone riding, very cold wind. The bike is starting to make creaks, which means that everything is setting into place, I have to regrease the hubs and headset soon and adjust them. The chain is very silent on this bike, if you lube it often you can rarely hear it, apparently this is a trait with Burley bents. Anyway, we have to head off now, so everyone have a good weekend.. see you Sunday.

Ha! Winter hasn't come yet........:)

Saskatoon skyline at night, you can see the Delta Bessborough hotel pretty clearly in this photo, probably the most prominent landmark in Saskatoon, it used to be part of the CN hotel chain, but was taken over by Delta hotels. Having stayed in one of the rooms overlooking the river I can say that there is nothing quite like it. It is very nice.

The Peace Pole, it has a flame on top of it all the time, they are supposed to represent striving for peace in the world, the first one was erected in Japan, now they are in 160 countries around the world, Saskatoon just happens to have one.

I took a picture of this house on Sask Ave. too, not really because I like it, but it is just so over-the-top that you take a second look at it.

A house that I really like, took this on my ride tonight, it is along Sask Ave., which is the road that follows the east side of the river. It's really funny how wealthy people have big houses, but they seem to run out of funds when it comes to buying curtains, maybe they are just showing off though.

Finally a picture in the daytime :) View from our balconey of our lovely back alley, and surrounding businesses.

It was a very nice night for riding tonight, when I started there was a bit of a chilly wind, but it died out after about 20 minutes and the rest of the ride was very enjoyable. I focused on climbing hills tonight, so I set off for the river banks, one of the few places that has hills on the flat prairies. One of the fun things about hill climbing is going back down them, I hit a top speed of 53.5kmph, which is not bad on the steep, short downhills around here. I find that hill climbing really helps, especially with the bent, it really seems to build up you leg muscles, and apparently your core muscles as well, because my stomach was a little sore after the ride tonight. While I was riding around I heard alot of yelling and sirens coming from downtown, I decided to investigate. Turns out it was a Woman against Violence protest, there was a whole crowd of protesters walking down the streets downtown with a police escort. We are starting to have a problem with gangs here in Saskatoon, and just violence in general, so I guess some people are really getting frustrated. Funny part is, when I'm out riding late at night it is usually women by themselves that are walking down the pathways and sidewalks, rarely men at all. I tend to worry about being mugged and stuff like that while riding, I try to stay in well-lighted areas and good parts of town. I have heard of gangs stealing bikes from people along the pathways, so far I've had no problems, I'd like to see them ride the bent away anyway, it isn't the easiest thing to balance. Since buying the bent, I've sold all my upright bikes (or upwrongs as recumbent people like to say) except my folding Dahon, after experiancing this comfort, I really can't see myself ever going back to an upright bike again. I can finally do long rides in comfort and enjoy them, that is why I've decided to do some randoneering next year, and hopefully qualifying for the PBP in 2007, fingers crossed. Anyway, I'd just like to say, keep on having fun, and always ride safe!

Spadina Cres. winds along the river banks through most of the city, a beautiful road that just recently benefitted from the addition of large bike lanes on either side, you can see one in the above picture, if you ever come to Saskatoon I highly recommend taking a ride or at least driving down Spadina Cres., it is beautifully lined with trees downtown and is very scenic.

The Weir in Saskatoon, it is kind of like an underwater dam. It was built to rasie the water level in the river for the Queen Elizabeth Power Station. It is a popular destination in Saskatoon for people to go and enjoy the river, at night it is lit up with several spot lights and it looks pretty cool.

Went out for a nice ride tonight, quite warm with a nice breeze, just enough to keep me cool. I love going for rides after dark now, the city seems so much quieter later at night, and I don't have to deal with nearly as much traffic as normal. Sorry about the nighttime photo's, as I said in a previous post, by the time I get everything done after work it is already dark out, I'll have to wait until a weekend to post some daytime photo's. A little note about my bike, I've come to notice that people either seem to love it or make fun of it :) It's funny how some people are so resisitant to something a little different, I try to keep an open mind about things and I like to try new and different things out, that is what mostly led to my purchase of the Burley. Speaking of different, I originally was going to get a trike, but I realized that it wouldn't have been practical with an apartment, no place to store it. The only folding trike I could find was the Greenspeed GT3, which would have been cool, but it is way out of my budget. Anyway I like my Burley alot, I already got 350kms on it since I got it less then two weeks ago, the only thing that would have been nice about a trike is that I could have ridden it more in the winter without having to worry about crashing on ice or something of that nature. Recumbents and folding bikes are pretty rare around here, so I get some funny looks sometimes, also I had to mail order both of them, since none of the bike shops around here have heard of them. Anyway, this blog is supposed to be about recumbents, cycling and everything entailed in that, but sometimes I like to talk about other stuff too, so if you are here for the cycling rants:) bear with me, and if not, then you will probably enjoy it more when I get sidetracked. I like to talk about Saskatoon and show pictures of it, it is a beautiful city to live in, if you are ever close by, I highly recommend visiting for a few days and taking in the sights. I was going through my favorites yesterday and found two interesting links, both regarding using a bike for working. I think this is only a good thing, helps the envirnoment, and it is good excercise too. The first link: http://www.bikesatwork.com/ has alot of good info about starting your own bicycle business and the type of gear you need, trailers, pedicabs and much more. The second link: http://www.lightfootcycles.com/ is for Lightfoot Cycles, they make some really interesting bikes alot of which are specifically geared to working hard, they are quite inexpensive for a specialty bike as well. Well I have to go now, so ride safe and have fun..................

No much happening today

Didn't go for a ride today, went to a movie instead, Bad News Bears, it was pretty good. I know it's bad, but I can't go out everyday. Anyway I will go on our treadmill later and make up for it hopefully :) We are having fantastic weather lately, hopefully I will get in alot of cycling on the weekend. I've noticed that the last few rides have been easier on the bent, so I must be starting to get my bent legs. On a totally unrelated topic, I'm looking for a different job, I got semi serious about it last night, I updated my resume and printed out some copies, I'm looking for something that I can apprentice at, I've been at my current workplace for four years now, the pay and benefits are good, but I really feel like I've hit a deadend now, my career, if you can call it that, just seems to be going downhill now. I'm kind of losing my motivation these days too. Well, I can whine some more, but really it will do no good. Anyway, enough for one day, sorry there are no pics today, I'll see what I can do tomorrow. Thanks for reading, stay safe............................

Winter's Coming!

Home after the ride :)

The Burley at rest

Broadway Bridge

Bandstand downtown

View from the cockpit :)

Victoria Ave Bridge

Working until 4:00pm, by the time I get home and have supper, do the dishes, etc. it is almost dark out these days. So I have been forced to ride after dark. I have a VistaLight light system that I bought for racing in a 24 hour mountain bike race, I haven't used it much since then, until I got the recumbent, now I'm using it daily for riding after dark. I love the VistaLight system because you can mount two batteries under your bottle cage, that is four hours worth of battery power and it doesn't use up a bottle cage. As I headed out tonight I noticed a bite in the air, a little chill, you can tell winter is nearly here. I didn't have to wear my gloves tonight however, so it wasn't too cold yet :) I rode downtown tonight, Saskatoon surrounds the South Saskatchewan River, and is known as the city of bridges, inculding rail bridges there are 6 bridges crossing in the city. I love riding along the river banks, especially at night with all the lights reflecting off the water. I rode down the Victoria Ave. bridge, it is currently shut off to auto traffic because the city is making a traffic circle at the end of the bridge, so it was nice to ride down it without having to worry about cars. Then I rode past the Broadway Ave bridge, up along the river banks too University bridge and then home. Halfway along my ride I was interupted by some teenagers on mountain bikes, one of them threw a water ballon at me but it missed and hit my panniers, for some reason this made me mad, so I gave chase. Apparently they didn't realize how fast the recumbent can go, because I was within 5 feet of them, and they were pedaling like crazy, finally they rode off onto a side road cutting off a few cars in the process, kids these days! :) Anyway I finally got some new batteries for my digital camera (I wish I got a new camera instead) so I took some pictures on my ride, here they are hopefully :) I guess they went at the beginning of the post, sorry still new at this blogging thing :)

Here is a picture of my Dahon folding bike. It is a Piccolo, I bought it this spring and I use it for running errands or when we go somewhere on a trip, it folds up very small and fits nicely in the trunk of my Pontiac Sunfire. Since this photo was taken I removed the folding flat pedals and added Shimano SPD pedals, as well as a sealed cartridge bottom bracket. I find that this bike rides very well for having 16" wheels, if I close my eyes I hardly know that it isn't a full size bike. For more information check out:
www.dahon.com they also have a very good message board that is invaluble for people considering a folding bike. These bikes are great for commuting too, if you want to ride to work and then ride the bus home if weather turns bad, these are the ticket.

Here are a few links for anyone interested in learning more about recumbents. Bentrideronline is particularly good and they have a really nice message board.

http://www.bentrideronline.com/
http://www.recumbentbicyclesource.com/
http://www.recumbents.com/home.asp

And here is the shop that I ordered mine from:

http://triketrails.com/

If you need something, they are awesome, I would suggest phoning them however, as they don't update the webpage very often, but they seem to have alot of bikes in stock at their land location.

A few more places to look at:

http://www.hostelshoppe.com/

http://www.calhouncycle.com/

There are many more too, Bentrideronline has many links on their site alone, also check out the forums at:

www.bikeforums.net

Sorry everyone, guess that it didn't work the last time, anyway, here is the picture.

Here is a picture that my girlfriend took this last January while we were at the Grand Canyon. It sure is beautiful there, I would love to go back there sometime and look around some more. I was however, very cold when we were there, you can't see in the picture, but I was shivering :)

Welcome!!!

Well I just created this blog to voice my opinions on many things. Mostly my interest revolve around cycling, specifically recumbent bikes, so I won't lie to anyone, many of the post on this blog will be about cycling. Also I will talk about how cycling changes the way we live, mostly for the better. I own a Burley Sandpoint recumbent bike with many modifications, I love to ride especially long rides. Well check back often to see new posts and ride safe, have fun.