Beautiful Day..

Heading West on Grasswoods Road.

The train tracks beside Highway 11

It was a nice day out today, very sunny but a little cold, around 1C. I decided to go for a small ride so I headed out of town on Highway 11, thankfully the shoulder had dried up a lot yesterday so I didn't get nearly as wet. I headed towards the Grasswoods ESSO and when I got there I turned onto Grasswoods Road and headed west. I turned onto Clarence Ave. to head back into the city and they've built a huge overpass over the train tracks there, it is really quite high, I managed to set a top speed record for this year so far coming down the other side of the overpass, I hit 47.5kmph. Overall I road for 22kms today. I didn't post yesterday because I had to take Tina's car to the shop and I took her out for lunch. I will only be on evening shift at work for a few more weeks, when it's over I will move back to dayshift again. :) I won't be posting tomorrow because I have to work early, but check back on Saturday, until then ride safe and have fun.

Heading away, out of town...

Riding out towards Clavet on the highway.

The divided highway ends here, so I gave the Burley a rest on the sign.

I finally got off my butt and went for a ride, I decided to head out of town on the highway because the shoulders on the highway are dryer. I still got pretty wet heading out of town, even with the slicks and the fenders. I road out towards Clavet for about 45mins and then turned around after I got to the point where the road goes to single lane from divided. I then headed back with a bit of a tailwind and I got back to the city in about 25mins. The bike seems to work good now and I'm done playing with it. :) Today was my second day of night shift and it's really wearing on my because I don't ever get to see Tina, that and I just don't like it. Since yesterday at lunch I've seen her for about 10mins, and now I won't see her until I get home at 1:00am. Very frustrating because I'm also bored senseless and there is nobody to talk to all day, or do anything with. Hopefully I'll be done this shift soon (fingers crossed). Anyway I probably won't go riding tomorrow, I've got to take Tina's car to the shop and get it looked at. So ride safe and have fun....

No photos today

Well I decided not to go riding today, it is extremely wet out right now and I would be soak to the skin by the time I got home. I may go out of town riding tomorrow, I'm thinking of heading out on the highway towards Yorkton and maybe circling back into town on some backroads. This is the new time that I will be posting now, I'm working nights and I have to go to work pretty soon (I hate it) so I will try and post every day around this time. Check in tomorrow for more. Ride safe and have fun.

Me and my snazzy new shorts.

This is how it was today, it was really ugly out.

I wanted to do some cycling but the weather didn't work in my favor, it was windy and raining out most the day, the streets are all wet (as you can see above) and even with the fenders I don't want all my new components dirty. Instead Tina and I went to Canadian Tire to get some stuff for her car. Then we went to Petland to look at the animals (I want a kitty) but they really didn't have too many animals there. We can't have a pet because we live in an apartment, but I really want a cat. I've decided to take the computer course at SIAST (Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science), I was thinking of going to University, but I don't think I can handle the tuition at University. The course at SIAST is only $3300 a year plus books, and it is a two year course. Plus I think that computer technology would be a fun thing to take and I would probably do good at it. Anyway not much to say besides that, I might go riding tomorrow if it doesn't snow, but it probably will. Ride safe and have fun.

Tina got a new car!

Well we test drove it and Tina decided she wanted it, so she bought this very nice (but a little dirty in the photo) GrandAm GT.

I had a post all written up last night, I was just about to press the publish button when the computer froze, I was frustrated to say the least. By that point it was so late that I wanted to go to bed so I didn't rewrite it. Basically it was just about my bike, I found out that the stock freewheel has bitten the dust, when I coast the chain backlashes. I took it to the bike shop and found that just buying a new hub would be about the same cost as fixing the freewheel. So I got a Shimano XT rear hub and then I relaced it to my rear wheel. The XT freewheel is like butter compared to the stock hub I took off, I got the new hub all laced up now and I dished the wheel a lot better then last time, so I had to readjust my brake arms so the brakes didn't rub. I'm also going to nightshift (4:00pm-12:30am) at work starting next week, so I will have most of the day off and Tina will be working most days, I really won't have much to do all day so I will probably go riding, I'll be in pretty good shape this summer from all the riding. Ride safe and have fun.......

A few more photos

Beautiful lake in the sun.

A squirrel by my parents place in Nordegg.

The church in Nordegg.

Tina filled out a credit application on a car tonight. We went to look at a 2003 GrandAm GT. Tina wanted a four door GT and we haven't seen one for a long time, but tonight we seen two, a silver 2001 and the white 2003 Tina is interested in. I found out today that my Burley has a wrecked freewheel, so I have to get that looked into on Saturday. I finally think that I found what is causing the troubles with my shifting, the high gear limit screw on the rear derailer was screwed out way too far (whoops!) so the chain was shifting off the inside of the small cog on the front. I fixed that and it seems to shift fine now, we'll see on the next ride. Until tomorrow, ride safe and have fun.

More Photos

A small lodge we came across, it was on the shore of a lake (which was frozen).

Driving back to Nordegg from Lake Louise, the setting sun shining on the mountain sides.

The sun was very bright all day, made for some really nice photos

Tina and I on the lookout platform at the gorge by Nordegg (see previous post).

Lake Louise, too bad it was frozen over.

The chalet at Lake Louise

Tina's real engagement ring, I just picked it up yesterday.

A close up of a Whiskey Jack, he was really tame and I walked right up to him to take the photo.

The fake engagement ring

Nordegg cemetery, in sepia coloring.

I went to have coffee (okay, icecream) with Leo and Julian at the Dairy Queen tonight. I decided to take my bike, so I got in 7.5kms of riding. The roads are drying up fast, it was even thawing tonight, but there was a really cold wind. I'm still having problems with my shifter, by the time I got home I didn't feel like dealing with it, so that is a project for tomorrow. Anyway, check in tomorrow for more, until then ride safe and have fun.....

Some photo's from our trip

Beautiful mountains

A big horned sheep, I was probably 15 feet away when I took this photo

A gorge by my parent's place

We recreated my proposal because we didn't take photo's when the real thing happened.

I wanted to put a lot more photos on here tonight, but Blogger is acting up like it occasionally does and it isn't going to work. Anyway I got some of the good photo's I took up here today. I actually went for a ride today, only 6kms but still a ride. I wanted to test the Burley out, I just installed the speed struts and I wanted to see how the 9 speed system was going to work. I found out that I have some issues with cable tension that led to skipping in the lower gears, I adjusted the cable some more and hopefully it won't skip. The trigger shifters are beautiful, they shift like butter and the whole drivetrain is really quiet now. The bike is wayyy faster now with the slick tires on, I hit 30kmph several times just riding along. Anyway hopefully the site will be working better tomorrow and I can get the rest of the photos up here. Ride safe and have fun.

First post from out of province and some surprises!

View from my parent's cabin in Nordegg. I took this on Friday.

Tina and I in front of the Black Stump restaurant in Rocky Mountain House.

Well this is the first post that I've made out of province. I could only upload two photo's tonight, I had many more that I wanted to but on here but it is just too slow with my parent's dialup internet. I will be posting a lot more when we get back to Saskatoon, either Monday night or Tuesday sometime. Friday we drove to Red Deer and we stopped in at Bentley Alberta at the Bentley Cycle and trading post (you can check out the website HERE) to get some seat struts for my Burley and a spare idler pulley. Grant Patton at Bentley Cycle has a really great bunch of different bikes so if your in the area I highly recommend the drive to Bentley to check it out. Today we went back to Rocky Mountain House again, we were supposed to go exploring out west of Nordegg, but the snow kind of put a halt to that plan, so we went back to Rocky Mountain House again to do some shopping. Tina didn't know this, but for a long time I've been planning on proposing, I wanted to keep it a surprise and went to great lengths so that she didn't find out. I had decided that this was the weekend to propose to her because we were on a trip and I thought that it would be more memorable that way. I had the ring and everything, but really wasn't sure how I was going to do it. Well we ate at the Black Stump restaurant on Friday and since the food was so excellent that day we decided to eat there again today. I decided to propose at the restaurant, I wasn't really sure how I was going to do it. They had these napkins rolled up with a band around them, this gave me an idea to surprise her, so while she wasn't looking I slipped the ring into my napkin and then switched my napkin with her's. Then I waited until our meal came and she started to open here napkin. I did achieve my goal of catching her completely off guard, she was so stunned she didn't answer me for a while after I asked if she wanted to marry me. She finally said yes and made several comments about how "sneaky" I am :) I actually couldn't get the ring I wanted in time for the weekend so the jeweler gave me a ring that was close in design with a cubic zirconia in it, so on Tuesday we will have to go and get the real ring. Anyway it's getting late, I probably won't post again until Monday or Tuesday, so until then ride safe and have fun!!!

One more day left till our trip!!

New houses at the new Willows subdivision.

Lawson Civic Center and Rusty MacDonald Library.

'Slapping up houses at the Willows.

The Hospital Home Lottery House, $700,000, really nice!

Sorry for the subpar photo's tonight, it really wasn't a great day for photo taking today, cloudy and it looks like it was going to snow soon. I really wish I had my camera this morning, I could have shown everyone the most beautiful sunrise that I've ever seen. The whole sky was red, I left for work early so I was able to enjoy it longer, by the time I got to work the sun had risen. Tina and I went to the Library (see photo above) and then went to look at the Willows subdivision, some really nice houses there, they are slapping them up all over the place and they seem to be selling pretty good. I really don't know who is buying them, they are very expensive, but obviously there are some rich people in Saskatoon. Anyway there will be no post tomorrow because we will be travelling to Alberta tomorrow, we will be getting there very late as it is a 9 hour drive. I will probably post Friday night or Saturday. Ride safe and have fun. Check back soon.

Let's get personal

I was thinking the other day (something I try to do at least once a day) and I realized that most of my post on here are about things that I do or rides I go on, very few of them deal with me. As most of you know I've been looking around for a different job for a while now. Having only high school education makes it difficult to find something that pays close to what I make now at my current job which I've been at since shortly after I finished high school. I don't really get much satisfaction from my job, I'm looking for something that is more challenging and something that offers a better future. For almost the last year I've been job searching and the other day I finally came to the realization that I won't find anything (at least in Saskatchewan) that comes close to my current job without some sort of higher education. My problem with going to school is an ongoing debt problem that is mostly of my own making, due to my current wage I can't get much for a student loan and with my current debts that makes school out of the question. I've decided that instead of talking about going to school and about how I hate my job, that I should really do something about it. I've decided to postpone my ParisBrestParis attempt until a later date. I'm still going to follow through with my riding plans for this summer but I think that I will focus on local Brevets in the mean time. I need all the money I can get right now to pay off debts and save money for school. I've made a goal of attending school in 2 years at the most. Hopefully I will be ready in another year. As much as I like riding I think that I should shift my focus to other more important things in the next few years. What could be more important then cycling? The quick answer is that there are many things that are more important to me then cycling, it is something that has changed my life immensely for the better, and I enjoy it as a hobby very much, but I find that a lot of other things are more important. My future, my girlfriend, family, and friends. I really find the blog helpful for setting goals for myself, because I feel that after telling everyone on here I have to live up to my statements. :) Anyway I have been going on the treadmill lately and haven't taken any photo's or anything. I'm really going to make that up to all of you on Thursday when Tina and I go to Nordegg, Alberta to visit my parents for the weekend. Tina and I both took Friday and Monday off so it will be a enjoyable time for both of us. I may go out and take some photo's tomorrow, so check back then, in the mean time, ride safe and have fun!

Just skiing around......

Leo skiing in front of me.

Looking down the river towards downtown.

Leo wondering where I went. :)

The sun trying to peak through the clouds.

I managed to get my lazy butt outside today, I phoned Leo and we decided to go skiing. It was actually a pretty nice day out and the fresh snow was good for skiing. I actually got my skis to work good today, and it was pretty easy going. I'm not much of a skier and I would rather be biking, but with the cold snowy weather it is a good workout and it's fun too. I remembered to take my camera today so that I could get some photo's. We mostly went skiing around Leo's house in Lawson Heights. I hope everyone likes the photo's. Ride safe and have fun.

Finally Finished

My slick tire on the front and my fender.

The rear tire and fender.

My new Kool-stop brake pads, pretty spiffy.

I worked on my bike a little tonight and it is now finished. Well not quite, I got a tandem brake cable for the rear and it wasn't long enough, I had that same problem with the shifter cable, guess I will have to order one from the bike shop in the right size. I already ordered two 4000mm shifter cables, that should be long enough. Tires are another problem, I can get the rear tire, but the front one is a problem. I would like Kenda tires like the bike came with, maybe Big Apples would work too, if I can jam them between the fork blades. Anyway I don't know what I'm doing tomorrow, we got another huge dump of snow today so I might go skiing, we'll see. Until tomorrow, ride safe and have fun.

Nothing much to report...

I finally got all the parts to get the Burley up and running, and it is snowing now!!! I got the rear brake cable and I also got some new brake pads. The bike shop had some cool red and blue Kool-stop pads, now I have to decide which color to put on the front and which on to put on the back. :) Well that is about all I have to say that is interesting, tomorrow I will post photo's of the bike completed. So ride safe and have fun until then.

Sunset Photos

Tina and I took these at the Whitecap Reserve dog walking park.

No funny looking bikes today, we had a really cloudy sky so I thought it would be perfect for sunset photo's, I took 77 photos all together. Of course everyone only gets to see the very best :) so here are the 5 best photos that I took. It was quite nice today, a few more days like this and we will not have any more snow lying around. I finally put my slicks on the Burley (so now it will snow for sure) and the fenders so I'm ready for spring now. Check back tomorrow, ride safe and have fun.

Not much today...

Well the Burley is out of the hospital now, all ready to fly, just need a rear brake cable (I never found the one I lost) and it really needs some brake pads bad, the ones on there now are nearly worn down to the metal insert they are slid into. Love the handlebar room with the trigger shifters on the bike, looks so vacant now. I was looking around last night and found this really cool site, thought I'd share it with you guys, take a look HERE. This is a really cool recumbent bike that is steered by your feet, no handlebars. If you follow some of the links on the site it will take you to other bikes of this design. There is also a link to a video, which you can see HERE that shows a guy riding one around a parking lot. It looks like there might be a bit of a learning curve to riding it, and you would need to pedal smooth otherwise you would be all over the road. Ever wanted something that nobody makes, check out www.emachineshop.com they can make you anything, just draw up the item in their free software, send it to them and they will build it. Anyway ride safe everyone, have fun and check in tomorrow for more cool stuff.

Burley in the hospital still :) JUST PHOTOS TODAY

Chain, check, derailer, check, cable, check, I think its all good to go now.

The old left hand shifter, stupid gripshifter! :)

The new and improved trigger shifters, more room on the handlebars too.

I've installed full length housing for the rear derailer, hopefully this will eliminate the problem I've had with road dirt jamming up the gear cable. I plan to do this to the brake cable as well, just as soon as I find the cable and housing that I bought and put in a "safe place".


Ride safe and have fun everyone!!!

Some jewels for the Burley

These are going on the Burley tomorrow, beautiful X-9 trigger shifters.

New Sram cassette and Sram X-O rear derailer. I will be shedding a little wieght with these upgrades but hopefully it will improve the shifting.

Well I finally decided to start equiping the Burley with 9spd components. The two things I hope the improve with this is upgrade are improved shifting and an improved gear range. When I got the bike the smallest chainring was 24 teeth and the largest cog on the rear cassette was 28 teeth, now I have a 22 tooth chainring on the front and my large cog on the rear cassette is a 34 tooth. With the 22 tooth front and the 28 tooth on the rear I found that I would run out of gears quite a bit on steeper hills, I'm hoping that the new combination will help out a bit on the hills. And since I hate gripshifters with a passion I will be welcoming the new trigger shifters. Hopefully I will get the bike up and running by tomorrow night. Turns out the call I got regarding the job on Friday didn't turn into anything, I'm a little depressed about that, but hopefully I will get something soon. Anyway, there is supposed to be freezing rain tonight so I doubt I'll be riding for a while, but check in tomorrow I will post some new photo's of the Burley. Until then ride safe and have fun.

Went skiing

The sun setting over the South Saskatchewan River valley.

This is why I was lazy on Saturday, this is a photo I took off our balcony of the back alley.

My friend Leo finally managed to haul me out to go skiing today :). We went skiing by Leo's house in Lawson Heights, I forgot my camera unfortunately so I was unable to have some photo's of the skiing for everyone. We did go for quite a ski, it was even harder because I put too much wax on my skis and they weren't sliding at all and it was pretty tough going. I scraped some of the wax off and then I was good to go. I don't think I will be riding for a while, there is a ton of snow out here and a lot of ice on the road, it is even scary driving around in the car, hopefully all that snow will melt away soon. Ride safe and have fun...........