Not much going on.......

Well not much to write in here today. I was going to go for ride today, but it started to rain, freezing rain, not really good conditions for cycling. Instead I jumped on the treadmill for a while. I think I will switch the bike over to 9spd tomorrow. If I don't start on that, I may go for a ride depending on the weather. So until tomorrow, ride safe and always have fun.....

Mr. Fixit

My method of taking the pedal apart, there is actually a small wrench that you can buy to grip the plastic part at the end, but I just used the visegrips. I have the screwdriver stuck through the pedal for leverage.

The pedal on my bike, it's very rusty but it still seems to function okay.

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The pedal all torn apart. That is the bearing assembly at the end with a bearing race and jamnut on the very end of the axel. I took the bearing apart and greased it, then reassembled it and adjusted the races so it is nice and smooth again.

It's been a while now that my pedals have had what felt like loose bearings. When you grabbed them they wiggled, I however, never attempted to dismantle them until I talked to a mechanic at my local bike shop and he showed me how to take them apart. It is actually very easy and you can do it on the side of the road with a pair of pliers and a screwdriver. I took them apart, readjusted the tension on the bearings and regreased the whole assembly. Now the Burley has pedals that are like brandnew and I breathed new life into this rusty old set of pedals. I might start putting 9spd parts on tomorrow, we'll see what happens. Ride safe and have fun.....til tomorrow.

CCCCold!!!!!!!.............Ride

Riding home on the Meewasin Trail.

Snowing like crazy...

I decided to go for a ride with Leo today, we arranged it that I would ride to his home in Lawson Heights and then we were going to go take a ride North of his house towards Silverwood Golf Course. It was my longest, coldest ride to date. I think I froze portions of my face on the way to Leo's place. We rode a mountain bike trail that was covered in snow up past the golf course. The whole way down the trail I was wondering if Burley intended their recumbent to be used in this manner, probably not, bumping down a off-road trail in -15C weather, slipping around on the ice and snow. It was starting to snow a lot on our ride and on the way home it was even worse. I will probably take a day tomorrow to do bike maintenance, but I will likely write something in here so check back tomorrow. Ride safe and have fun.

Cold riding

Miles of nothing, but it looks good.

Here is the Furdale sign, I've talked about it before, I finally took a photo of it today.

Leo's "winter bike" in front of the Fine Arts Cafe before our ride started.

I went for a ride with my friend Leo today. We left around 3:00 this afternoon. It was very sunny and nice today, not really that warm though, it was around -10C out when we started to head out. I did a little over 26kms, we headed out towards Cranberry Flats but didn't go all the way because there was a very cold wind and I had to be back in the city at 5:00. I headed back around 5:00 but I had to stop at the Library on the way home to let my feet warm up a bit and get some books :) Anyway not much happened today, I will be going skiing tomorrow I think. Ride safe and have fun.

Friday ride, this time in the daylight.

I underexposed this to make the clouds look even cooler then they already were.

The ice sculpture of Chief Whitecap, it is starting to melt so I decided to take a photo before it's gone.

University bridge.

Took this photo of the Burley to hopefully show how much the seat is tilted back now.

The barriers at Victoria Bridge to keep cars from driving on it.

The park downtown.

Not much to say today. I did get a nice email the other day from Chad Ash, West Coast Manager for Burley, he was reading my blog and read about the problems I've had with the sliding seat. He offered to help me come up with a solution, I haven't been able to call him back yet, but I think that speaks volumes of a company, that a representative would go to these lengths to ensure customers are satisfied. I really don't know why Burley bikes aren't more popular, they are very well made, comfortable to ride and they obviously are a very supportive company. I went for a quick ride today, only covered 10.5kms, but it was better then nothing I guess. Depending on the weather I might go on a ride out to Cranberry Flats or something tomorrow, maybe down Valley Road. So ride safe and have fun until tomorrow.

No Title Today

I went for a ride tonight, but I didn't take the camera with me because I wanted to do a fast ride. I averaged 16.5kmph and had a top speed of 36.5kmph, not bad with studded snow tires. I think I got the whole seat issue sorted out now, I left it reclined and it seems to work well, I'm hoping that it will reduce my frontal area slightly so that it is easier to ride into headwinds. Since I didn't take any photo's today I'm going to put a link to this cool video that I just got off Bentrideronline, someone posted it there and I thought it was pretty good considering the fellow in the video was riding with one hand while filming the entire thing. Here is the link:

RECUMBENT VIDEO


Have you ever thought of what your ultimate dream bike would be. The spare-no-expense, no compromise dream machine. Well I thought that maybe I could share my dream machine. If I one day win the lottery this is the bike for me, sure it would be pretty rough over our Saskatchewan roads, but I'm sure it would be capable of blasting down the highway all day at 40kmph. So my dream machine is the : Velokraft NoCom
Not the most practical bike on earth, but it does have a storage compartment under the seat. It looks fast just sitting still.

Rants

After tonight's ride I have some issues with my Burley.

Issue #1

I hate grip shifters, they are the worst component ever made in my opinion, why people actually choose to put them on their bikes is beyond me. I was so happy when Sram came out with triggershifters, and since Shimano went to that silly dual control system Sram is miles ahead in the shifter department. I own and love my Sram X-9 trigger shifters and as soon as spring rolls around I will throw the grip shifters in the garbage and put the trigger shifters on.

Issue #2

The Sunrace rear derailer on my bike is possessed by the devil, I'm convinced of that. Yesterday I actually took the time to adjust the cable so that it was actually shifting flawlessly (this is a very rare occurrence, believe me) throughout my ride. Today I went out and after two shifts it was skipping wildly around again, very frustrating, I just left it like that, my poor cassette is taking an awful beating. When I get the 9spd parts on it will hopefully clear up all these issues.

Okay, I'm done for today, so ride safe and have fun. Check in tomorrow for more. Thanks for listening.

MonDAY ride

Some photo's of the sun trying to shine through the clouds.

Some photo's of my ride through Gabriel Dumont Park, I've never taken any photo's down here yet because I usually never ride through it as it is more of an offroad trail. But the snow makes it a little easier going.

Here is 3rd Street, I usually use it on the way home because there are hardly any vehicles driving down it most times.

Well Folks, you heard it at BentUpBike first, that's right it is officially spring time now!! Yes I seen a fly today, just a regular house fly, but it still got me excited. If there is a fly out already it must be spring, right? Well I hope so anyway. My chain held together for 16.5kms today, I was worried, but it worked out okay. I left at 4:50pm this afternoon and it was beautiful out, a little cold, but I actually overdressed a bit and was a little too warm. I was experimenting with the seat on the Burley a bit, I increased the angle another notch because I felt like it was a little too upright. This messed my seat distance all up though, so I ended up too far away from the cranks, then I shoved the seat ahead, but too far and my knees began to hurt. I moved the seat back a bit and I think that it is perfect now. However I find that I'm not generating enough power in the more laid back position. But I may just have been tired today, I'll have to try it some more tomorrow. Anyway I will probably be out tomorrow night, so until then, ride safe and have fun.

Bike Fixing

Quick, yet ugly solution to the sliding seat problem, hose clamp and an old tube.

Sweating away on the treadmill.

I had a post all typed up yesterday, and was just about to post it when the computer froze up, pretty much summed my day up yesterday. By the time I ate supper and Tina and I went for groceries it started to snow and so I had to put my bike ride on hiatus, today was really no different, I went on the treadmill both yesterday and today, it was a good workout, but really not nearly as much fun as riding. Hopefully I can go riding tomorrow after work. I'm going to head out right after work so I can get in some daylight riding hours. The last few days I've also spend some time working on my bike, spring is fast approaching and it needs a lot of work done. As I was fixing the sliding seat problem last night I noticed that one of the links on my chain was trying to part company with the rest of the chain, the entire side plate had ripped off the rivet, and the chain was just hanging together by the one side. I need a new chain, the one that is currently on there is starting to get many loose links in it, and it's only a matter of time before I'm fixing the chain everytime I go out. I cleaned off my old 9spd cassette to ready it for installation on the Burley, I just need to buy some new chains. Today I took the stem and headset apart to regrease them, I think the headset was a little on the loose side and I managed to tighten up the flip ahead stem considerably. My website is back up again, check it out HERE. Check in tomorrow for more, make sure to ride safe and always have fun.......

Another Sunday Ride

Sunset photo's at Diefenbaker Park again. If anyone wants to not see any more of these please leave a comment. :)

The Burley sitting against the bench at Cranberry Flats, the perfect place to nap on a warm day.

Riding into Furdale where the town sign says, " Please Drive Safe, our roads are our sidewalks".

The Burley with the South Saskatchewan River in the background.

Cruising along, it's hard to shoot photo's with the SLR and ride at the same time.

Here is where I went riding today, I rode out south of the city a little ways to Cranberry Flats.

I just started my website on freewebs.com and it seems to have died, I don't know what happened but it's gone, sorry guys. Anyway I went for a good ride today, it was one of those days that reminds you of a scene out of the movie "Fargo" very cloudy and depressing. But it was quite warm, when I started riding at around 12:45 it was -8C outside. There was a cold wind coming from the West and I ended up riding into it for most of the ride. I took my horn off today, I realized that I had used it only once in the last couple of months and I wanted that water bottle holder back again because it is warming up. Not much though, by the time I got to Cranberry Flats I had nothing but a 7Eleven slushy in my water bottle :) I took some photo's at the lookout point at Cranberry Flats, but I didn't stick around long because it was such a cold wind. I rode back into the city and did some hill climbing around Victoria Bridge for a while before heading home. All together I got 34.5kms on the bike today. Not too bad, but I'm hoping to be in reasonable shape to log 200km and 300km rides in the spring. I want to go back to Batoche national park which is just around 200kms round trip from Saskatoon, and I want to take a lot of photo's there, it is beautiful there. So I guess that is something to look forward too, for everyone that follows my blog, I like to show you guys new things and for the non-cyclist I want to show you how much fun it can be. I think it takes a certain person to get hooked on cycling, some people never catch the bug, no matter how many good rides they go on. I just like to say that my worst day cycling is always better then my best day at work. And it is a cheaper hobby then golf, not much cheaper, but a little bit. :) If it doesn't snow like it is supposed to tomorrow I will head out for a ride, so ride safe and have fun.

I'm being lazy again!

The gates to Riverside Country Club in Black and White.

Okay, I'm obsessive, we testdrove the ugly green Smart Car, I personally think the Black one has my name on it. :) This is a Mercedes dealer too, but I guess the Smart Cars attract all the attention so they put them out front.

Sunset at Riverside Country Club

This is my vacation home when the apartment is feeling a little small for me. :) I wish, as long as someone else was paying the heating bill and taxes for me.

So the last few days I've been lazy and haven't gone riding, I want to go tomorrow but my friend wants to go skiing so we'll have to see what happens. I've been looking at underseat racks and panniers for my bike. After giving up on the whole trailer idea I think that this is the way to go. I have some cheap panniers I can put on the rear rack for light goods, but I want to get a Terracycle underseat rack and then mount some Arkel RT40 panniers to it. I wanted to just use duffel bags, but after looking into the Arkel panniers a little more I decided that the price is cheap for the level of product and support you get with them. In the end it will be almost as much as a trailer, but easier to store and also easier to ride the bike with panniers rather then a trailer. Really a recumbent is the ultimate touring bike, with underseat racks and a rear rack you can really pile stuff onto one, and they are comfortable enough to ride all day in a t-shirt and jogging pants. Well hopefully I will get out tomorrow, until then, ride safe and have fun.

PS: The site which is managing my website seems to be down right now, so I'm unable to go on it and update.

It's still COLD out!

Pictures of "the bike room" I cleaned it tonight, it will stay like this for about a day. :)

It was very cold today, -32Celsius, that is -43C with the windchill today. So I didn't go riding today, it was so cold that I started to freeze my face as I was plugging my car in after work. I did finally clean my "bike room" out though, it's been a long time coming and I think it looks really good now that I'm finished. That is my Dahon folding bike and Tina's mountain bike in the corner, there is actually a fair amount of room if I put the Burley upright. It is supposed to be really cold tomorrow too, so I don't know if I will go riding or not, I might have to wait until Saturday. So until then, ride safe and have fun...

It's COLD out!

We got a windchill warning tonight, it is supposed to be -40Celsius with the windchill, but it will start to warm up tomorrow. I was going to go riding, but -40C is a little on the cold side for me :). So I went to the gym after work, did some weight lifting and then tonight I went on the treadmill for 24mins. I've been thinking about some things I want to do to the bike this summer. I believe I mentioned that I want to switch it to a 9spd drivetrain, this is easy, I just need to buy some chains. I was thinking of a trailer, but then the idea of towing a trailer long distance really didn't appeal to me. I've been thinking about panniers, I already have a rear rack, but I think I need a underseat rack to even out the balance of the bike. With a full rear rack it handles a little poorly. Terracycle makes underseat racks, they are a little pricey, I've been looking for cheaper alternatives, also it would be cool to find some underseat panniers that are cheaper too. Underseat panniers combined with some on the rear rack would make for a lot of hauling ability. I may go riding tomorrow, depending on the weather, so check back then. Ride safe and have fun!!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

The Hospital Home Lottery Grand Prize.

Happy Valentine's Day, I hope everyone took their significant other out for a nice meal, or bought them flowers and chocolates. I got Tina a little rose inside a glass vase that looks pretty cool and I got her a box of chocolates too, she bought me chocolates too which is okay by me because I'm a confirmed chocolateholic. We went out for supper at Cheesetoast on Broadway, mostly because last year on Valentine's Day it wasn't that busy, this year it was crazy in there, the food was good as always, but the service was a little slow because they were so busy, overall it was very nice though. Every year there is a Hospital Home lottery with the grand prize being a really nice house. This year the house was in a new area called the Willows, the show home just opened last week so we decided to go see it after supper. I wasn't sure if I could take a camera inside, so I just took a photo of the outside. It really doesn't look that big in the photo, but in is built into a hillside and most of the house is facing the other way. It's too bad I couldn't take a camera inside, because the insuite washroom off the master bedroom was beautiful, arched ceiling, jacuzzi tub surrounded by tile, his and her's sinks and mirrors, a huge shower with two shower heads and a bench in the shower, all with glass panels and then a separate little room for the toilet. It was really a lot of wasted space, but it was so extravagant that it made up for that. It has really cooled down now and it's supposed to be even colder tomorrow, hopefully I can go riding tomorrow, until then, ride safe and have fun...

Check out my website!

I decided to make a website on www.freewebs.com, it's kind of like a blog, but it offers me more freedom to expand and have more features then the blog. This will by no means detract from this blog, I hope that they can compliment each other. You can check out my site HERE, right now there isn't much one there, but I hope to get a lot more on in the next few days. I did go riding today, I rode over to Dairy Queen to meet Julian and Leo for coffee, I did forget to reset my computer though, so I don't know how far it was. The weather is very nice here right now, but it is starting to cool off, it is supposed to be -25 on Thursday brrrrrrrr.....Hopefully it won't last too long. Check back tomorrow for more, ride safe and have fun.

Going for a Sunday Ride

Sunset over the river

The moon rising up over Diefenbaker Park

Leo hitching his bike up at Taste Buds on Lorne Ave.

The back of the old grandstands at the exhibition grounds.

It was beautiful today, as you can see.

Yesterday was Tina's 23rd birthday, I went to a job fair in the morning and then around lunch time I went to my friend Leo's place to help him move his couch downstairs (he's getting a new one). After that I went home and Tina and I went to test drive a SMART car, it was really cool and I want one more then ever now, however that won't be for a long time now, I have to relieve myself of debt first. Today it was very nice, at 7:00 tonight it was still 4C outside, and as you can see from the photo's it was melting quite a bit out. I decided to get the bike all muddy and went out for a ride, I headed out for Cranberry Flats Conservation area and I actually met up with Leo on my way out there, so I decided to postpone the ride for another time and go for coffee with Leo, so we rode back into the city and stopped at Taste Buds on Lorne Ave. I still managed to get in 16kms of riding though. I phoned Tina on the way home and tell her to hold off on supper so that we could go and take some sunset photo's. However she had already started to make supper and she wanted me to pick up some sausages when I got home. I decided to make my first grocery run on the Burley and I stopped at Sobey's on the way home to pick up some sausages and then I headed along on my way. I then decided to take the Burley to the car wash by our apartment and give it a good washing. It looks pretty shiny now, but I doubt that it will stay that way for long. I've been giving some serious thought to getting rid of my car lately. If I could get some bus service to work (or find a job along a bus route) I would get ride of it. Tina wants to buy a new car anyway, so then we would have her's for longer drives, we use mine for all that right now because her car is small and has a few mechanical problems with it once and a while. I plan on cycling to work throughout the summer anyway, so we will see how that goes. Ride safe and have fun..

Friday Night Riding

I switched down to my lowest gear and rode into the snow, this is as far as I made it before running out of momentum.

There was some strange looking mist on the water of the river tonight, must be because it got colder today and the water must still be pretty warm from the last few days.

This is the first time that I've gone riding on a Friday night, and it will probably be my last. I really didn't feel like riding today, but I decided to force myself to do it anyway. It seems that on Friday nights everyone is in a hurry, I had several people try to pass me and then high center their cars on the ice mound in the middle of the road. Also I had several people honk at me and a few other people found the need to yell at me out the window of their cars. I did almost 9 kms though and it wasn't that bad of weather so it wasn't all bad. I'll just make sure that I don't go riding on Friday nights anymore. I likely won't be riding tomorrow because it is Tina's 23rd birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY TINA!!) so we will be going out for supper and having some friends over for a movie later in the evening. I will try to get out on Sunday again, if it isn't snowing like crazy. :) Ride safe and have fun.....

POST NUMBER 100!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well this really is a milestone, post number 100. And to think that I don't even have photos today for everyone. :) Actually it looked like it was going to snow tonight when I headed out, so I left my camera at home. It was only -2C out, blowing hard, I did do 12.8kms though. It's been the first time in a while that I've gone on a ride wearing my fall jacket instead of my winter parka. I was quite warm with the exception of my ears which I should have covered better. I headed south tonight, down along Sask Ave. then up to the Exibition area. I headed home on 3rd St, which is one of my favorite ways to head back home when I'm in the south end of the city, I road the entire 4kms of 3rd St and only encountered one car. I did almost crash though, most of 3rd St was ice covered with a thin layer of snow, and it was pretty slippery, I started to slid but got my feet off the pedals fast enough to catch myself. I will probably be out again tomorrow night, unless it really snows or something, so ride safe and have fun until then.

The Burley rides again! :)

Green houses at the University

The Meewasin Trail, it looks nice and smooth, but that snow is covering up ice, so I found out. :)

I went riding today! Finally worked my way up to going out, I was actually over-prepared for the weather, it was cold this morning, but when I went out riding tonight it was only -5Celsius, there was a warm wind blowing, I actually had to remove my balaclava because it was so warm with it on. I actually did a little over 16 kms and I wasn't that cold, my feet started to get a little cold near the end of the ride. It was snowing a bit when I started out, which made it scary in spots. I got on the Meewasin Trail and it looked very stable and snow covered so I was cruising along at 23kmph and then suddenly I slid and almost went down, it was the closest I've come to crashing since I bought the Burley last September. I guess the light dusting of snow covered up the sheets of ice that covered the pavement of the trail, making it look like nice grippy snow, I proceeded much more carefully after that. If we don't get a huge dump of snow tomorrow I will be out again tomorrow night. Until then, ride safe and have fun.

LAZY today...

No photos, no riding, no skiing, that sums up today pretty good. I'm just really felt lazy today. It turned really cold here today (well not really cold, but cold for this winter) it was -22Celsius this morning and it only started to warm up a little in the late afternoon. The roads are still a mess, but they are getting worn down again, so I may be able to head out tomorrow night. I went to the library tonight to pay my fine :) $20.00 later and I can again take some books out, I really wasn't paying attention to when the books were supposed to be going back. The library got in a few new cycling books so I took those out. One is about living on the Postal Team bus, and another is written by Lance Armstong's mother about rasing him. I also got some issues of PhotoLife and E:environmental magazine. So now I have something to read. I hopefully will take the bike out tomorrow, so until then, ride safe and have fun.......

Back again..

Our friend's dogs Dexter and Cooper, Cooper is the one looking at the camera.

Kinsman Park

My skis sliding in the tracks. :)

There are trees in Saskatchewan! They were planted though. :) This small grove of evergreens is in Kinsman Park, right by City Hospital.

We got back in Saskatoon around 5:00pm on Sunday, apparently Saskatoon got a large dump of snow over the weekend because the streets were covered and I almost go Tina's car stuck behind our apartment in the deep ruts. Obviously this didn't look promising for getting in any riding. So tonight instead of the bike I pulled out my cross-country skis and headed to Kinsman park to do a few laps around the park. The stretching job I had done on my ski shoes worked well, but they are still pretty narrow in the toe, and I really don't think that they can be stretched any more, at least my feet didn't hurt tonight. I did take some photos of the park, I was a little uneasy about skiing with the camera, but I managed to not fall (I'm really clumsy on skis) and some of the photos turned out not bad. Anyway, we'll see what happens tomorrow, ride safe and have fun.

Still Sick...

Well not much to say tonight either, I'm still feeling pretty poor, so I didn't go riding or anything tonight. Sorry no photo's tonight either. I was browsing www.bentrideronline.com and came across this scooter (or kickbike as it is cleverly called) you can check it out here, I think it is pretty cool, I'd like to try one out sometime. However I do recall breaking my chain one time and scootering my bike home 11kms, it actually wasn't that fun, :) but maybe these would be easier. It definatly provides a good workout anyway. We are going to visit friends for the weekend, so I won't be back on here until Sunday or Monday night. Hopefully I will be feeling better then. Ride safe and have fun.

I'm sick, ...again...

This is what it looks like out there tonight, not too nice, we some snow today and it really messed things up.

Not much to say tonight, I'm getting sick again, so any hope of riding tonight is gone. :( Also it got considerably colder today and snowed a fair amount, so it will be a while until the roads clean up enough to get out. I guess I can't expect too much, it is winter, and it's been very nice so far. I just hope that we are good until spring now. Anyway, ride safe and have fun, hopefully I can come up with something better tomorrow. :)