Christmas Eve

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Just a short little post to wish everyone the best this holiday season. I want to thank those that regularly visit my blog as well as those that just dropped by for a peak. There were many changes this year for us and I don't think that will stop in the new year with the arrival of our first child and all the things that go with becoming a parent. We are currently in Porcupine Plain at Tina's parents until boxing day, then we will be returning to Saskatoon for a couple of days so I can work and we can straighten everything out for our trip, then it's off to soak in some sun for the next three weeks. There may be some post made while we are gone, who knows. :) Ride safe and have fun in 2008!

Last Ride of 2007!!

Is your work like that?

The bike rack at the library.


Ready to go cycling.

My bike, all ready to go with a ton of books on it.

My new light, not bad, since that is after 7 hours of run time.

Ice on the river.

Being bad and cycling on the sidewalk, the city filled the bike lane with snow piles.

Another look down the sidewalk.

Looking down 4th Ave by the library.

This is probably the last ride of 2007 for me. I did my weekly trip to the library to bring my books back. It was pretty snowy out, we've had a lot of snow lately and most of it is still on the road. The snow tires I made work pretty good, I slipped around a little but it wasn't anything too bad. My new light works decently, it could be a little brighter, but it shows most of the obstacles in my way and the cars can see me. The batteries started to die down a little near the end of the ride, it could have been the cold or the fact that I had run the light for 6 hours previously, I don't know how long the batteries last. 7 hours is pretty good with the cheap batteries that came with the light, with my rechargable batteries it should last a long time. It was pretty cold out (-16Celcius), but there wasn't much traffic and the bike worked well. I may post again before the new year, but possibly not so have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Ride safe and have fun.

Why can't it stop snowing!?!

We got some frost the other day so I took these photos of the Castle on the River.

Another shot looking up the river.


The roads are still pretty icy out, really icy actually, so I haven't been riding my bike, just really isn't too safe. Anyway the other day we got some frost and more snow (surprise) so I went down to the river to take some photos, it was pretty dark out so these are the only two that worked not to bad. I can't wait until our trip. I guess I never mentioned on here yet, but Tina and I along with her little brother are going down to Southern California and Arizona for a little while in January. You will get some really good photos I hope, because now I will be bringing my new camera with me. Anyway, ride safe and have fun!

Random Stuff

Besides the snowman decoration on our door, this is our sole Christmas decoration. A gingerbread house that Tina and I combined our artistic talents on and it came of not too bad. I take all the blame for the droopy windows.

Eb's trails in Nesbitt Forest. Very nice XC ski trails.

They are groomed all winter for skiing.

The Saskatoon Nordic Ski Club looks after them.

Tina before she got her hair all cut off. :)

Kristen and Chris's dog Cooper with his really cute hat on, which he hated by-the-way.

Look at that belly! :) The new mommy with her new hair.

Here I am, attempting to find my XC ski wax in the disaster that is our storage closet. You
just have to close the door fast when your done.

Well I haven't done any cycling since my last post, it really has been nasty outside. This weekend it warmed up to around -10Celcius but I was doing other stuff like sleeping. :) Yesterday I took off work because Tina and I went to the Bon Jovi concert last night (which was awesome). Since I had the day off I decided to go with Leo for a ski up at Nesbitt Forest which is a little over an hour north of Saskatoon on the highway to Prince Albert. The trails were very good and I had found that magic wax combination for my skis so it went really smooth for my first ski outing of winter. I didn't even fall down the whole time (there were some close calls). Last weekend we went to Kindersley, SK and spent the weekend at Kristin and Chris's house. On Saturday I helped Chris move his sister to Hanna, Alberta and Tina got Kristen to chop off a lot of her hair, something new, I think it looks really good for the record. I'm excited to try my new light out on the bike, so I wish it would warm up a bit for that. Anyway, ride safe and have fun!

New Bike Light (again)

A photo showing the beam pattern right in front of the bike.

My mounting system

A photo of the whole light and mount

As some of you may know, I have a VistaLite light system that I bought several years ago for a 24 hour mountain bike race that I did. Lately I have been having problems with the batteries, they seem to die out in about 20 mins from a full charge, often leaving me in the dark for the trip home. I've been trying to think of an alternative to the VistaLite system for a few weeks now. Ideally a Dyno front hub with front and rear lights would be the best, except that it would cost several hundred dollars for that. Another lighting system would cost me around the $250 that I paid for the VistaLite system that I bought and would still leave me saddled with batteries that would likely go the route of the VistaLite ones in short order. I have several LED flashlights that are very bright and last a very long time on just common batteries. My best one is a 3Watt Maglite flashlight, it is huge and very heavy though, not the best to hang off the handlebars of my bike. Several of my other flashlights are bright but have a very focused light that wouldn't work for a bike light. So I got a 1 Watt LED light that Dorcy makes with an adjustable beam, it takes two AA batteries that are the same as my camera takes. Next I ripped the mounting braket off my VistaLite headlamp and then I went looking for those little plastic things that you always get with cycling stuff for mounting it to handlebars and other round stuff. I found a good one and then used a bolt to connect it to the VistaLite bracket. Then I attached the whole works to the handlebars. Since the VistaLite bracket has a small knob on the bold for it you can loosen it by hand, I used this to hold the flashlight so I can take it off downtown in case it get's stolen when I'm parked. I think that the light will be at least as bright as the VistaLite it replaces, and so far I've ran it for 4.5hours without the batteries going low at all, of course in the cold weather battery life will suffer, but I'll be using NiMH rechargeables, so they should still last as long as a conventional throwaway battery will. I'll post something after my first ride with the new light and let you guys know how it works. Until then, ride safe and have fun.