I'm so lazy..

Well, I didn't go for a ride today. Of course it was -15 and snowing tonight, so I guess that is why I didn't feel too motivated. I've been hanging out at www.bentrideronline.com and checking out the forums. If you frequent the site I started a post for people to post their bikes, so far there are a bunch of pretty cool rides on there. My Burley kind of pales in comparison to some of the other bikes on there, but it's my bike and I love it! Really I think that LWB is the way to go, the only other bike that I may consider is the Rans V2 Formula, it is pretty much the same size as my Burley but Ran's managed to get it down to 27lbs somehow. I know that my Burley flies along pretty good and it is almost 40lbs, so I can only imagine how fast the V2 Formula would be. Of course the Burley is a lot cheaper then the Rans to buy in the first place, so I think it is still the bargain. Originally when I first started looking at recumbents I was a little scared about the whole monotube frame idea. Being a big guy (235lbs) I was a little concerned about flex and possible breakage. However after owning several 4130 CroMo diamond frame bikes I felt fairly safe purchasing the Burley. It actually doesn't flex at all, but the chainstays do flex quite a bit, which is actually really nice because combined with the long wheel base you get a little suspension action out of it. I really think that 4130 is an ideal frame material, it is really strong, relatively lightweight and usually easy to weld up if it breaks. I've noticed that it usually doesn't rust too easy either. Anyway I'm just rambling so I will post tomorrow when I've actually hauled myself off the couch and gone for a ride. :) So ride safe and have fun.

Freezing icy coldddddddddd.....

Icebergs on the South Saskatchewan River! They sure sound funny when they smash into the foundation on the bridges.

It was snowing and very cold out, I didn't want to take the camera out too much in this weather, in case it freezes it.

I did go for a ride tonight, it was really cold about -13 Celsius, really cold for now until January or so when it will probably hit -30. I suited up in my parka, ski pants, three pairs of socks, and I actually managed to fit my balaclava under my helmet. I was actually pretty warm all bundled up in my winter clothes. I managed to get in almost 11 kms and it was a pretty good ride. There is starting to be some ice on the river. It usually gets ice around the edges, I don't think I've actually ever seen it frozen right over. Is it a little crazy to be going out in this weather? Maybe, but I want to stay in shape as long as possible, it only takes two weeks to start losing you fitness level, and I don't want that to happen. Anyway the recumbent is a lot better then any other regular bike that I've ridden. I feel warmer on it I think because your full front is not exposed such as it is on a diamond frame. I think that if it gets any colder I will probably need some heated socks, I wore three sets of socks tonight and my feet still go cold. Hopefully I will be able to get out tomorrow, unless it starts to snow even more. So ride safe (if you still are) and have fun!

Well today sucked :(

CPRail Bridge

So I went to my CPRail group interview today, and I didn't end up making it to the second part of the process in the afternoon. Sure I feel bad, but realistically there were 85 people there and out of those people they were only hiring 14 people. My odds weren't very good to begin with I guess. I did however get a call today from the POS Pilot plant on the University grounds, they wanted me for the operator job that I applied for. However the wages weren't good enough that I could possibly work there, which isn't too great because it sounded like a good job. I'm trying not to get to discouraged after today, but it's pretty hard. Anyway with all hope I will find something soon. I didn't go for a ride today, it was a lazy day today. Hopefully I will get out tomorrow if the weather is nice. Until then, ride safe and have fun.

Slippery out there!

I believe that in a previous post I took a photo of the Weir from the west side of the river in the dark, here is another photo of the Weir, this time from my side of the river (east) and in the daytime.

I was heading back from Circle Drive bridge when I decided to stop and take this photo of the Meewasin pathway, you can see how overcast and grey it was out today.

My friend Leo harnessing up the bikes in front of City Perk coffee shop.

Yesterday I had arranged to go on a ride with my friend Leo, we were going to head out of town for a longer ride. This morning when I woke up I looked out the window and the pavement looked wet, the only problem was that it was too cold to be water, it had rained the night before and it had frozen into a sheet of ice on the road. We decided to wait until afternoon and see how it was. I didn't think that it would thaw because it was too cold out, so I spent the time reinstalling my studded tires. In the process of installing the studded tires I noticed that my bearings were tight in the front hub and loose in the rear hub, so I took them both apart, greased them and then retighten the bearings up again. I figured that having freshly grease hubs might make up for the added friction of the big snow tires, but it didn't. :) Around 12:30pm I phoned Leo and we decided to meet at City Perk coffee shop downtown and see how the weather turn out. It took me 27mins to ride 6 kms to the coffee shop because of all the ice on the road, and with the snow tires I'm quit slow. In a previous post I mentioned that I had taken most of the studs out of the back tire to prevent flats, so now there is only studs around the sides of the tire, this doesn't work nearly as well as it used too, but when the tire starts to slip they generally grab hold when it leans over enough for them to touch the ground. I managed to make it to the coffee shop without wiping out, although I slid around a few times. We sat at the coffee shop for a while and then decided to go for a little ride around town because it seemed unsafe to go out of town in this weather. When we got outside I noticed that it had gotten alot colder out while we were inside. We headed up to Circle Drive bridge and I basically did the same loop that I did yesterday, except today I was freezing the entire time. I got some more strange looks today, but today I can't really blame them :) Anyway I'm thinking that it may be a little crazy riding around in this weather, but it still beats sitting on the couch, clears the mind too, I notice that I have some good ideas when I'm riding, which I usually forget by the time I get home, sometimes I wish that I had a little recording device so that I can remember what I was thinking about. Anyway I have my job interview tomorrow! I hope it goes well, I really need to do something different and I think that I would like working on the railroad, lot's of traveling and working outside, I think it would be fun. Totally offtopic, but I downloaded the Firefox web browser today, and after only a short use I very highly recommend it, it is totally free (can't get any better then that) and is better then Internet Explorer in my opinion.

I may not go for a ride tomorrow, but I will still post about something even if I don't, so check back tomorrow, until then ride safe and have fun!

Finally I see the daylight!

Nutana High School, it is right on the river in the Broadway district and is one of the oldest schools in Saskatoon. The Nutana area used to be a small suburb of Saskatoon in the early 1900's.

I was riding around Diefenbaker Park and a CNRail train was going through so I decided to take a photo of it while it went by.

The north end of Sask Ave.

A cool photo I took today, it was nice and sunny out so the camera was working better then usually.

As many of you know that read this regularly, I get off work early on Fridays, so this is really the only time that I can go riding during the week in the daytime. It felt refreshing to be out in the sunshine, it was only about -1 Celsius but with a bit of a wind it made it feel a lot colder. I was going to go out in the country a bit, but with the cold wind I decided that wasn't so smart so I stuck to staying in the city. I went down along the river and did some hill climbing, I find that this really helps the fitness, almost like doing intervals on a road bike. My cruising speed when I got the bike was around 18-19kmph, not bad, but not good enough either. Now I noticed that my cruising speed has climbed to 24-25kmph on average. I mentioned in my profile that I want to qualify for the Paris Brest Paris randoneer ride in 2007, so by 2007 I have to be in good enough shape to ride 1200kms nonstop at a minimum speed of 15kmph. It will be incredibly hard, I plan to do some 200, 300 and maybe a 400km ride next summer to prepare for the 2007 season. Anyway I will likely go for a ride tomorrow, so stay posted for photo's tomorrow. Ride safe and have fun!

My new rack and it's installation.

What passes for a hill in Saskatoon.

Statue of Gabriel Dumont in the park by the Broadway Bridge.

A statue in the park along Spadina Cres.

I bought a new rack today (see the above picture). I was trying to get something that is a little bit more rigid then the Burley factory rack installation kit. So I bought a Axiom rack today for the Burley, it is rated for 70kgs and has nice brackets on it for panniers. I took the mounting bars off the front of the rack, and then took the front mounting bars from the Burley rack kit and bolted them into place on the front of the rack. Then instead of adding mounting bars to the chainstays like before, I mounted the rack directly to the chainstays, so the front mounting bars will reach just about perfect, it isn't perfectly level, but it works. Anyway I went for a ride tonight, it was quite warm out and I managed to get in some good hill climbing. Hopefully I will have some daytime photos tomorrow as I get off early from work. So until tomorrow, ride safe and have fun.

Bloody Cold!!

I went out around 8:00 tonight, I did manage to get in a little over 11kms of riding. Tonight was by far the coldest night that I've gone riding. I didn't take any photos because I didn't want to stop and get colder. I had my headband over my ears and even with that my ears were getting numb, I guess I will have to dress warmer tomorrow night. Til tomorrow ride safe and have fun...

From 4X4 to sports car.....

Broadway Ave. at night, I plan on taking some more pictures of the Broadway district later once they get their Christmas decorations up.

The Weir at night, they've gotten the lights on again this year, last year they shut them off because people complained that they were too bright.

St. John's Cathedral on Spadina Cres.

The Fine Arts Cafe at night.

My slick tires are back on, and notice that I've finally quicktied my back blinky light to the seat rail.

With the weather the way it's been I haven't really needed the snow tires since a couple days after I installed them, so tonight I took them off and reinstalled my slick tires. As I mentioned yesterday my bike came with Kenda Kwest 100psi tires, I really like them and they seem to be holding up well to our pothole and glass filled streets. Boy switching from the snow tires to the slick tires sure makes a difference. With my snow tires on I was averaging about 17kmph, with the slicks on I average about 22kmph, it is so much easier to pedal. Tonight I got reminded that I shouldn't get too cocky on my 'bent. I was just returning from my 25 km ride and I was flying around a corner into a parking lot close to our apartment, about mid corner I hit a patch of gravel and almost when down. If it wasn't for the fact that the Burley is a very stable bike I would have been picking rocks out of my leg. It certainly takes a different balance point to keep recumbents upright and with the tiller steering it makes it even worse, I just have to be careful in the future. Another fact is when you cycle regularly you can expect to crash once and a while, heck on a mountain bike I've crashed three times on one ride, which makes me wonder why more people don't wear helmets. Sure they look dorky, I'd be the first to agree with that, but you have to decide what looks worse, a dorky helmet, or a mangled face and brain damage, or how about a mangled face and death? So for those out there who don't wear helmets I urge you to stop and think about it for a second, it might make a lot of sense to start wearing one. And for those of you who don't think that you ever will land on your head, I didn't think that I would ever land on my head either, but a crushed helmet has taught me otherwise. Be careful out there, ride safe and above it all, have fun.

Crisp and Clear

A look through the fence of the Boffins Club, it is a private club on campus.

A look down in the Galleria, it is kind of like a recessed pavilion with walk ways stairs and benches, pretty cool.

Christmas lights at the Saskatchewan Research council Galleria on the University Grounds.

Sorry about the poor quality of photo's tonight, my camera wasn't really taking very good photo's, could be the air quality or something, it was pretty frustrating because I took a lot of photo's tonight and only the one's above turned out at all. I finally decided on a new digital camera, after wading through the thousands and thousands of choices out there I've settled on a Canon Powershot S2 IS 5megapixal with 12 times optical zoom and image stabilization. I was kind of thinking of an SLR, but with all the different lenses you need to buy it would be pretty expensive. The Canon S2 is a advanced compact camera, so it looks almost like an SLR but it has a built in zoom lens, so I don't have to carry around lenses and a big camera bag. Also the image stabilization sounds pretty cool, I guess it is needed with the 12X zoom lens which is comparable to a telephoto on a SLR. I read through a lot of reviews online and never really got any solid feedback, camera's must be pretty good because everyone claims the one they bought is the best. :) Finally I went to the magazine store and bought PC Camera's 2006 Buyers Guide, that was a lot more helpful because it gave hints on what to look for in a good camera, then I decided from there. I will just have to find the money to buy it now, at $650 Canadian it is pretty pricey too, but I guess I can save up, I'm in no hurry. Tonight I went on a tour of the University, I applied for a job at one of the businesses there and I wanted to see where it was, so I checked that out, then I just rode around a bit and had fun. I'm not feeling too good today so I really didn't push it too much. If the weather stays nice and dry like this I will have to put the slicks back on the bike, I'm missing how easy it is to get going with them on the bike. Tires make such a difference on a bike, the studded tires slow me down by at least 5 kmph over my Kenda Kwest high pressure slicks. But the slicks aren't too good on ice either. :) Anyway until tomorrow ride safe and have fun.

Went for a ride today, finally!!

I took this photo while I was heading back down 3rd St on the way home.

I took this picture right after I got my tire fixed, more on that later.

I took this picture while I was following Leo out of town.

And here is me. :)

Tina wrapped the border between the kitchen and the living room with tinsel, we both took our pictures looking through it, here is Tina.

Our tree without the lights on. :)

Our tree lit up.

So I was finally feeling better today, good enough to go for a ride. My friend Leo called and wanted to know if I was well enough too ride yet. We didn't get too far, I was feeling better but not 100% and I didn't want to push it, even though it was 8 Celsius and beautiful out today. We road around Furdale, which is a small kind of town on the south end of the city. We stopped at one point to have a drink and Leo noticed that my back tire was flat. So I sat down in the ditch to fix it, one of the studs I had put in the center of the back tire had come loose and stuck through the tire. I decided to take all the studs out of the center of the tire with Leo's pliers so that it didn't happen again, now on the back I only have studs around the edges of the tire, I'll have to see how that works. We had coffee at a small shop call TasteBuds on the way home and then I went home and washed my car. Hopefully it will be nice tomorrow after work and I can get in some more riding. Also Tina got all our Christmas decorations up last night, now we just need to buy presents :( Oh well maye I'll win the lottery before Christmas :) Until next time, ride safe and have fun.

The tree is all up ready for lights, tinsel and decorations. Tina is trying to hide behind it. :)

Our tinseling job after we finished. Tina also put little stocking things around the TV stand, you can kind of see them in this photo.

Tina assembling the Christmas tree.

I was helping Tina put tinsel up tonight.



Well I was in the hospital so I couldn't post on here. About 3:30am Friday morning I started vomiting, which continued on an hourly basis after that, at 9:30am Tina took me to City Hospital Emergency. I was at City Hospital for 12 hours with an IV giving me Gravol and saline to replenish fluids and keep me from vomiting any more. I guess there is a really bad flu bug going around as this is the same thing that happened to Tina earlier in the week. I really got to hand it too Saskatoon City Hospital, excellent facility with the nicest people working there. Although I really hate going to the hospital (most people do) it really makes it just a bit better to go there. Today I felt pretty weak still, mostly because I really hadn't eaten anything since Thursday and that was all long gone :) It was beautiful out today, 8 Celsius and sunny, it killed me that I couldn't go riding, oh well maybe tomorrow, I'll see how I feel. Instead today Tina and I drove around to all the potash mines around Saskatoon so that I could hand in resumes and hopefully get some results. I wish I had remembered to bring my camera so that I could have posted some photos of the mines on here, they are pretty quiet for a mine, but I guess everything is happening underground. While we were driving around to the different mines I had the radio on and the DJ was talking about a survey that someone had done asking children what they most wanted for Christmas this year. The number one thing that most children wanted for Christmas was an IPod Nano, followed by other MP3 players and then other electronics like gaming systems, DVD players, TV's and stereos. The IPod Nano is around $250, both Tina and I thought that was a tad excessive as a gift for a child. I can't recall ever getting anything that expensive for Christmas and I wouldn't expect anything like that either. I think that lately people are getting way too carried away with gifts, they forget that Christmas is about so much more then that. Meanwhile retailers rub their greedy little hands together every Christmas season. So remember to keep it real and don't go broke buying gifts, it's not about that. Have a Happy Holiday season, ride safe and have fun.

Riding all over the ICE!

A pretty wild shot, I took it while riding and the camera isn't stabilized enough for the long exposure, I thought it looked neat so I put it on here.

Looking down the Victoria Bridge, it is snow covered and unused, you can almost see it dying, so sad.

A street that joins Victoria Ave. close to the Victoria Bridge, in the Broadway District, a very cool part of town.

Check out my photo that is very similar to this one in the last post. Very similar except that there is little snow or ice on the road in this picture, just lots of water from everything melting. Yes, the weather can change fast here. :)

Good news! I got a call today from Canadian Pacific Railway, apparently my application payed off and I am going to the group interview on Nov. 29th. It is only the first step to getting the job, but at least it is a ray of hope for me. I've been wanting to change jobs for quite some time and recently I've been getting more aggressive about it by sending out resumes to various companies, unfortunately with no post-secondary education it is quite hard to get a good job these days. Well I hope it works out good for me. I managed to get 10kms in tonight, I now have about 750kms on my bike since I got it in September, pretty good. The water that had melted this afternoon froze tonight and really made for icy roads, I cruised downtown and back home again without any problems, I never slipped at all. It warmed up tremendously today and it is supposed to get warmer towards the weekend. Check in tomorrow for more :)

Ride safe, and have fun.

They call me Icebiker :)

Ready to go riding, you don't have to be crazy to do this, but it sure helps!

Riding around on the snow and ice.

My lovely fairing, it's ugly but it works.

My front tire.

My back tire.

Look at all that ice, just waiting for some nut to ride his bike over it. :)

Took this photo off our balcony today, it was just starting snow a little.

Last night around 2:30am I had to take Tina to the hospital, she came down with a really bad flu and couldn't stop getting sick. At the hospital they gave her Gravol and saline through an IV, this made her feel much better and rehydrated her. We were able to leave the hospital around 8:00am. Tina slept most of the day, she is still feeling pretty bad, but at least she isn't getting sick anymore. Tonight I decided to finish off my front tire, I got two of the last 20" bike tubes from the shop by our house today, so I carefully reinstalled a new tube in the tire and all was good. I finally decided to take the bike out and test it. I managed to get in a 5km ride even though it is -18Celcius out there now. I'm happy to say that I didn't embarrass myself in my attempts to make studded tires at all. They performed way beyond my expectations. I rode the Burley over to this car lot that is close by our apartment, the whole lot was covered in a nice layer of glare ice. I rode across the ice fast and then slammed my front brake on (with my feet unclipped of course) the tire skidded for about a inch and then regained traction, I was turning and everything and the bike hardly slid at all, even taking off I couldn't spin the rear tire. I find that it is pretty weird with the studded tires, it just seems unnatural to be riding a two wheel bike on ice, but I have to trust that it works I guess. Also my really ugly fairing works well, it really keeps the cold wind off my legs and upper body, especially my knees which usually bother me in cold weather. Now I realizing that there are no limits to what I can do on this bike, properly equipped it can handle just about any weather conditions. Hopefully I will have some more photo's tomorrow, so keep watching :) Remember to ride safe and make sure you have fun.

PS: be sure to check out the link to www.frozenbike.blogspot.com, a fellow Saskatoonion who commutes by bike all year round, very cool.

Well I tried.......

I promised photos tonight, but everyone will have to wait until tomorrow. I went to the hardware store today and got more screws for my project, I also got a 2X4 sheet of chloroplast. I studded the rest of the tires, which went well now that I came to my senses and started using my cordless drill instead of a screwdriver. After that I took the chloroplast sheeting and made a very ugly but hopefully functional fairing to keep the cold winter winds off me and help me stay warm. I will post photos of it all tomorrow. I was going to test ride it all tonight but I had to deflate my new front tire to fit it in between the V-brakes and when I pumped it up again it exploded with a good Bang! I had gotten the tube caught between the tire and the rim :( So I have to wait until tomorrow and get another tube (I didn't want to use my spare). Also tonight I want to thank all the people who leave comments, I appreciate the feedback. I'd like to address Tony's comment from my last post. Yes I do plan on riding my 'bent during the winter, the Burley is actually quite easy to handle and much like riding a regular bike once you get used to it, I don't think that I will have a problem, but time will tell. Again thanks for all the feedback people, and I will for sure post some photo's of the bike in full winter gear tomorrow. So ride safe always and have fun until next time.

It finally snowed :(

My poor car freezing away outside, still very dirty too.

I went to go and get groceries, I took this photo looking down 7th St in front of our apartment, the roads are very slippery, but no crashes on the way to and from work today :)

I awoke to snow covered ground this morning and needless to say I was not impressed at all. I guess that this is what you can expect this late in the year though. The roads are glare ice, that is the bad news, I was hoping that it would warm up enough during the day to melt some of the ice off, but it never did. By the weekend it is supposed to get really warm and melt all the snow, we'll see I guess. Of course this weather makes it all but impossible to go riding, it would be suicide to even try. I'm going to go to Walmart tonight and buy a set of cheap tires for the Burley, then a box of sheet metal screws so that I can make a set of studded snow tires. I won't go riding in weather like this, but once it clears up a bit and stops snowing I would like the extra security of some studded tires. I've never made studded tire before, but I think that it won't be all that hard, except for screwing in all those screws. Once I get them made I will post a photo of the finished product on here, hopefully I don't embarrass myself. Anyway, check back tomorrow for some more photo's and the latest news. 'Till then ride safe and have fun.

Back in 'Toon Town

This is a photo from Thursday afternoon that I forgot to post, I was riding down the multiuse pathway that runs along Preston Ave on one side and borders the University on the other. I rarely go this way home, usually I take 12th St. so I decided to take a photo of the occasion.

A quick shot down the street in front of Tina's parent's house, there was a lot more snow in Porcupine then we had in Saskatoon, but most of it melted off on Friday and Saturday.

Tina's Mom was repainting her kitchen while we were there, here she is on the ladder painting around the coat closet.

Tina's cousin Brendan watching a movie and finishing off his pancakes :)

Tina's little brother Tristan watching a movie on the couch.

We got back to Saskatoon about 9:00 tonight and after we got everything unpacked out of the car and refilled it with gas it was about 9:45. I decided to go for a little ride anyway, just because I wanted to get back on the bike. This recumbent is so darn addictive I don't know what I will do when it gets really cold and snows out. I went for a little over 30mins and got in 11.8kms, not bad I guess, that is about all I could do anyway because it was quite cold out tonight and I didn't dress nearly well enough. I went down across Victoria Bridge and then tooled around downtown for a bit until I started to get cold and then I decided to head back across University bridge. I was moving pretty good tonight because I finally retrieved the bike pump from my car and fill both the tires up to around 90psi. I'm almost hoping that if we get a nice spring that I may be able to mix it up with the road riding club when they start riding again in May. They seem to have this thing against anything that doesn't closely resemble a road bike, so I think it would be funny to take it out to a few rides, I just need to be able to keep up first. Anyway if it doesn't snow like crazy tomorrow, I'm definitely planning on a good ride tomorrow, until then, ride safe, and always have fun.