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.

New Light

Computer Geeks :) Tina's cousin Brandi, myself and Tina's friend Louisa, all on laptops.

My new super bright light, notice all my reflective tape, I'm really safe now. :)

It's a BLT Ultra Wazoo DX. this thing has 8 LED, very bright.

Well I wanted to by a Planet Bike Super Flash rear light for my bike. (see hear) I've been looking something really, really bright for the back of my bike. Since I couldn't find the Planet Bike Super Flash anywhere in Saskatoon so I got the next best thing. This light is supposed to b visible for 3500meters and last for 150hours on batteries. It came with very nice mounting brackets so that I could attach it to the bar on the back of my seat. Anyway ride safe and have fun until next time.

Bike Stuff

New snowtire for my Burley. $15 for a 20" Kenda tire, not bad.

I had to take all the fenders off the bike to fit the snowtires on my bike, notice my reflective taping job.

Another failed attempt at making a fairing, I got the brackets down pat, I didn't buy the right type of plastic I guess, it cracked very easily, as you can see in the upper corner of the fairing. When I drilled the holes in the plastic it cracked around all the holes.

The lower bracket that I made from aluminum strips.

The upper brackets.

I decided to get my bike ready for some winter riding, I wasn't going to but I want to get out a little bit this winter, hopefully if we have some nicer days. I started the day by trying to craft a fairing/windshield for the front of the bike. This went really well until it came time to drill the holes in the plastic, as soon as I started drilling the plastic cracked. Apparently they use a different type of plastic to make commercial fairings. When Tina came home and told me my windshield looked retarded I had to agree and admit defeat. If it hadn't cracked it would have looked and worked much better. The upside is the brackets appeared very sturdy, so I may have to find some different material to make a fairing out of. I also got a Kenda kids bike 20" mountain bike tire for the front of my bike. The last winter I rode I used a Kenda BMX tire on the front and frankly it was just grippy enought, this new tire has really huge lugs that should grip good, I also screwed some sheet metal screws into the luges for studs. When I went to put the new tires on my bike the fenders wouldn't fit, I could remember if I had them on last time or not, I guess not. Well ride safe and have fun.

Alberta and stuff........

Cresent Falls by Nordegg, as you can see it's getting cold there.

I snapped this photo on the way back from Leo's house about a week ago.

My parent's dog Kramer, wondering why I keep blinding her with the flash, she is adorable though, isn't she?

Looking upstream from Cresent Falls, you have a beautiful scene that is very much the Canadian Rockies, river bed, evergreen trees and snowcapped mountains in the background.

I lent Tina my latest hat with ear warmers cause she said her ears were cold, she seems to like it. :)

My brother Matt and I found this huge water bug carcass at the bottom of the falls, I guess he froze.

My brother Matt, his first time on my blog.

I guess I haven't mentioned this yet, but I quit working at BJ Services in Red Deer and I'm now employed in Saskatoon at Seimens Laserworks. I had to bring all my gear, credit card and fuel cards back to BJ's, so Tina and I took of to Alberta for the Remembrance Day weekend. It was a nice trip, we got to spend time with my family and I got to visit with some friends that I worked with at BJ's. Friday I didn't have to work at night so I thought that a ride would be in order. I met Leo and Julian for lunch at the Parktown Hotel and then Leo and I departed on a ride after lunch. Since it was my first really cold ride of the season I wasn't quite prepared. I was decently warm as we headed south along the river towards Valley Road, however as we left the confines of the city I became acutely aware of a really harsh wind that I hadn't noticed in the shelter of the city. About this time the zipper on my fleece jacket decided that it didn't want to be zipped all the way up around my neck and the two sides parted in the middle letting the wind blow down my neck. We were originally intending on heading south on Valley Road, possibly to the Berry Barn. I wimped out and told Leo that we should ride back towards the city. I was almost frozen when we got back to the shelter of the buildings and trees. I guess this should teach me that summer is over and I should dress a little warmer on the bike now. I bought some supplies to fabricate my long overdue homemade fairing for the front of the bike, I'm also toying with the idea of putting my snow tires back on it now that we got our first little drift of snow this morning and it seems to now be melting. I may look for a more aggressive 20" tire for the front of my bike though, the old kids bike tire I have is pretty worn out now. Anyway to those in warmer climes, happy riding, ride safe and have fun. Those up here in the North, just try to stay warm and keep the shiny side up. :)

Winter's coming

Signs of the upcoming provincial election, if you need choloplast to make stuff out of, here is a good supply of the stuff.

Heading home from Leo's place it was starting to get dark out, only 5:00pm in the afternoon, winter's coming!

It was a beautiful day on Friday, here it is looking down the street from the front lawn of our apartment building.

A lone cyclist riding across the CPRail bridge.

The university farmland, you can see the university in the background.

The mural at the end of the Circle Drive Pedway is complete now.

Looking down the Pedway.

I haven't been biking too much lately, but on Friday Leo invited me to his house, so I decided to ride my bike up there. It was really sunny out but it there was a really cold wind. I had a really good ride up to Leo's place but it was cold and dark coming back, winter's coming for sure. Ride safe and have fun!!

Winter is coming

Tina at 16 weeks pregnant, nice belly! :)

My Burley

The ultrasound that we just got on Thursday. You can see the face in this picture, the baby (or fetus I guess) weighs 6oz right now.

Leo and Howie on the way to Clavet.

I know I shouldn't take photos while riding after last post, but this time I was careful not to run into anyone.

Howie taking a drink after we turned onto the Paitence Lake Road.

Leo and Howie turning onto the Paitence Lake Road.

I had a really hard time doing this post. First of all I switched my internet browser to Opera from Firefox. Opera doesn't seem to like the blogger site to much, I got my photos up but they were all messed up. So I restarted it all in Internet Explorer, I'm still having glitches with blogger, but it's working enough to get this on here. For the last few weekends I've gone on rides to Clavet. Leo has a friend named Howie that has a WizWheelz trike that is really cool and he has been going on ride with us. Last weekend we had a good group of recumbents, Julian on his Rans Stratus, Howie on his WizWheelz trike and myself on the Burley. I unfortunately didn't bring my camera with me because it looked like it would be dampish out, however after a while it cleared up and the sun came out making for a really nice day. This Saturday we went to Clavet again this time just Leo, Howie and I. It was a really good ride but it got pretty cold on the way back with a decent headwind, I was tired at the end of the ride. I've been riding a little at night after work as well, just around town and down to the library downtown. Anyway, ride safe and have fun til next time...