Sorry No Photo's Tonight

Just a quick note, I decided to wait until tomorrow and post from my home computer, check back tomorrow and see the rest of my pictures for the weekend. Ride safe and have fun.

Up in Porcupine Plain - Remembrance Day

Tina's parent's house in Porcupine.

Main Street in Porcupine, it was getting a little dark when I took this photo however.

A statue of "Quilly Willy" Porcupine Plain's town mascot, a lot of small towns have things like this, it is kind of cool. Notice the snow :)

This photo was taken on my last lap, I was completely void of any energy at all and very sore, I still think that physically it is the hardest thing that I've ever done.

Here is a few pictures of me from last year's 24Hours of Adrenaline in Canmore Alberta, I entered under the solo category and qualified to go to the World Championship 24hour solo race in Whistler BC., because of a lack of funds I never went.

It was a really nice day out and most of the snow around here melted. I found the above photo's of me at the 24 hours of Adrenaline on Tina's parent's computer, so I decided to post a few. We mostly just visited around today and played some cards. I was a little bit disappointed this morning that I hadn't brought my folding bike, but then I remembered that I'm supposed to be getting my motivation up again, so it's all good. Porcupine Plain is a little less then 300kms northeast of Saskatoon, I may plan a ride here next summer as training for my randoneering. I may have mentioned that I want a new digital camera, mine is a HP digital camera from about 4 years ago and isn't the best. I want to get a Canon A620 or A610 camera instead, around 5-7 megapixels. Hopefully I can pull together enough money so that I can get one in the new year. I will post more photo's tomorrow so check back then. Ride safe and have fun.

City of Bridges Part II

Carving up the Weewasin Trail, and soaking up the sun.

It was a beautiful day in Saskatoon today, as you can see from this photo looking down the river.

Circle Drive bridge in the daytime, I believe that it is the newest bridge in Saskatoon.

The CPRail bridge, it has a small walkway on one side of it, that get's pretty scary when a train is going across the bridge.

My bike, ready to ride.

I got off work today at 2:00pm as tomorrow is a holiday. It was so beautiful out that I had to go for ride before we left for Tina's parent's place. I headed up the Meewasin Trail towards Circle Drive bridge, I had a really nice tailwind and I was hitting 40kmph quite often, I got to a part of the trail that is really twisty and I was seeing how fast I could corner on the Burley. I managed to slid the rear tire around a few corners, which left me lusting for a lowracer or something a little more sporty then the Burley. The Burley is a fine touring bike and long distance rider, but when you try to get aggressive with it, which I occasionally like to do, it seems like you have to fight it a lot. It could be the long wheel base design or the tires, but it feels pretty nervous when you are really pushing it. I suppose that you have to be really smooth with recumbents, you can't really ride them hard like a diamond frame bike otherwise they will be pretty scary. My ultimate bike I think would be one of the Optima lowracer designs, something like the Fuji or the Jester, I don't mind the extremeness of it all, as long as I still had the Burley for when I wanted to go slow and enjoy the view. Anyway I am in Porcupine Plain now, about 2 1/2 hours northeast of Saskatoon, there is quite a bit of snow on the ground right now, but that is okay, I didn't take my bike, I think I need a few day's off of it as I'm feeling less motivated to ride lately, a sure sign that I need a little break to get me pumped up agian. Now that I'm riding daily I can feel a difference in my body for sure, I feel like I have more energy and I notice that I'm developing a little more muscles in places. Tomorrow is Remembrance Day here in Canada, so I want everyone to stop and remember the sacrifices that our veterans made for us, even if just for a moment, it would be a grave sin to ever forget what these men and women went through for our freedom. Until tomorrow, ride safe, and always have fun

City of Bridges

Traffic whizzing by on Circle Drive Bridge.

University Bridge

The Vimy Memorial bandstand downtown in Kiwanis Park.

Victoria Bridge, it was built in 1907 and was the first bridge in Saskatoon. Unfortunately a structural inspection was just done on it and it was found unfit for use. It will have to be dismantled and a new bridge will replace it.

Today I went for a ride shortly after work, so there was still a little daylight present when I started my ride. It was pretty cold today so I only managed to get in 16kms. I wanted to take a picture of the Victoria Bridge, it was the first bridge to cross the river in Saskatoon and it is almost 100 years old. When it was built in 1907 it was designed to handle horse drawn traffic and the odd car, now before it was closed to vehicle traffic a few months ago it would handle over 10,000 cars, trucks and small vans per day. Also because the structure is made of iron it is rusting from the road salt on it in the winter. The extensive rust and erosion of it's foundation is the main reason for tearing it down and building another bridge to replace it. It is too bad that it can't be repaired, put the cost of repair would be more then it would cost to build a new bridge and there would be no guarantees that it would work. My girlfriend and I are going to her parents for this long weekend, so I will likely not post again until Sunday night. I found a trick for getting my bike to ride better and be more comfortable. I have the 100psi Kenda Kwest tires on it and if I let some air out so that they are at around 80psi they are much more comfortable to use. So far I have had good luck with these tires, except one flat from a piece of glass that went through the tire. I can't say the same about the rear derailer, basically there is no shifting precision at all, it seems to skip around a lot in the lower gears for some reason. I may have to get an 8 spd Shimano one, but for now I will suffer it out. Also my bike came with a 11-28 cassette, this was a mistake because the spec sheet said 11-32, I would much rather have had the 11-32, but lucky for me I have a 11-34 Shimano cassette in my parts pile, I will change it soon. Over all I think the Burley is a good bike and I don't regret buying it for an instance, it was a good first recumbent because it is so easy to ride, I think that my next bike however will be a Rans SWB bike. I might post a bit over the weekend, but if I don't, everyone have a good weekend, ride safe and have a blast..

It's a dark night..

I decided to take a picture of the old Sask Wheat Pool Elevator in Loreburn, I worked here all through high school, it closed down about 2 years ago and was auctioned off to a local farmer who stores his grain in it.

The power station on the north side of the dam, upstream is the South Saskatchewan River.

Looking out on Lake Diefenbaker, it is a big lake, over 100miles long.

Gardiner Dam, earthfilled hydroelectric dam on Lake Diefenbaker which is about 10 mins from my parent's home in the car.

This is what the prairies look like, flat and grassy, headwinds are a real issue here with cycling.

Glancing in the rearveiw mirror, miles of nothing, and nothing :)

Pictures from the weekend, my girlfriend and Dad in the kitchen cooking, it's very steamy!

Here is the last of the pictures from the weekend, I was finally able upload them tonight. My girlfriend and I went to see Saw II tonight, I liked it as much as the first one, pretty gruesome though, but I like that it had a real suprise ending just like the first one, the ending also leaves it open so that they can make a third movie. After the movie I went on a short ride just for kicks, it was pretty cold out, but I managed to get in a little over 10km. Just a quick cruise downtown and back. The recumbent bike is definatly better in the cold then a diamond frame bike, maybe it is the position or something, but I feel alot warmer on it and my knees don't get sore in the cold like they used to on my diamond frame bike. Anyway if it doesn't snow tomorrow I will be able to head out an get some more good photo's hopefully. Until tomorrow, ride safe and have fun.

Just a short post today, it's getting late.

Really short actually cause for some reason my photo's won't upload tonight, so sorry guys no pictures tonight. I guess you will just have to wait until tomorrow. I went for what was supposed to be a short ride, but like so many it ended up being a long one. I got a skull cap today, I had one a while ago but ended up leaving it behind when I went to the library one night, they are wonderful for keeping your head warm under your helmet. Also tonight I switched to my Northwave hiking style cycling shoes because they are much warmer then my Diadora shoes. I was so warm that I decided to put in 25kms, there was a slight mist in the air, that was the only thing that made it uncomfortable, because my glasses kept fogging up. I've been thinking lately of a few things that would make my Burley perfect. Some Paul thumbies with barend shifters on them for shifting better. Some Burley speedstruts to beef up the rear end. A fairing for riding in the winter it would keep me warmer. And this summer I want to try and make my own tailbox out of kelvar cloth, that would go well with a fairing :) Anyway it's late so I must say goodnite to everyone, ride safe and have fun until tomorrow.

Out in the Country.. PART II

Cool photo I took while riding on Saturday.

My parents have a mural painted on the wall in their coffee shop.

yours truly, playing around in the backyard.

My girlfriend Tina in the backyard at the motel with her bike.

My brother, hanging out in the coffee shop.

My Dad, warming up by the heater.

My Mom making supper in the kitchen.

My parent's very cute dog Kramer.

Canadian actor Tom Green sitting on the donkey outside my parent's motel. He stayed at the motel while filming his latest movie, "Infamous" He is best known for his roles in "Road Trip", "Saving Harvard" and "Freddy Got Fingered"

Well we got back to the city tonight around 8:30pm, I still have a ton of pictures from the weekend and they will keep showing up for the next few days. Tonight I went for a quick ride after I took the bikes out of the car. I decided to go for a rip downtown and check it out. I noticed that on my recumbent I can whip around corners pedaling because of the high bottom bracket, this makes it really fun on an empty pathway that is really twisty, I was thinking that a recumbent would make a good crit bike if it was legal, you never have to worry about hitting the pedals on the ground. I did however almost break my ankle tonight, I was cruising down 12th St at about 30kmph and I was trying to pull my sleeve over my glove as I was getting cold. I must have hit a rock or something with the front wheel at the same time which threw me down, I stuck out my right leg to try and right myself as I was headed for a curb really fast, my foot impacted the pavement at about 25kmph which really hurt and it bent backward, the pavement scraped a lot of plastic off the bottom of my shoe, I managed to slow down enough to get the bike upright before slamming into the curb and I was shaken but okay. I learned two lessons from that, I should pay more attention while riding with one hand and if I start to fall I shouldn't put my foot down to right myself. My ankle is still pretty sore, but I think that I just sprained it a bit. I will be riding tomorrow too, if it isn't snowing like crazy. Make sure you ride safe (not like me) and always have fun.

Out in the country..

Cruising down highway 19 just south of Loreburn, it was cloudy today, but still nice for a bike ride, as you can see there isn't a lot to see around Loreburn, just miles and miles of open space, kind of nice actually.

YUMMM... Part of my parent's motel also houses a small coffee shop that my parents also run, for some of the best soup and sandwich and of course baked goods come to Loreburn, and the pie is always homemade from scratch.

This is my parent's business. Just off of highway 19 in Saskatchewan you will come across the small town of Loreburn and my parents run the only motel in town. Don't let the outside fool you, the rooms are very modern and recently renovated, also very cheap, so if you are ever up this way check them out. I know it's a shameless plug, but that's okay, their my parents. :)

My girlfriend's 2005 Gary Fisher Marlin sitting beside my very muddy car. We thought that the weather would be good this weekend, so we could do some riding. Believe it or not both my recumbent and my girlfriend's bike fit in my Sunfire.

Here is my car out in front of my parents house in Loreburn, notice the dirt roads, Loreburn is a pretty small town.

Finally got the bikes unloaded and set up from the car ride here, I've biked to Loreburn before but it is a 135km ride which isn't a good idea this time of year, so we took the car. I've taken a lot of photos for the blog today, but I will not be posting most of them until Sunday and Monday nights when I have my broadband connection back again, the dial-up just takes too long. I did get my camera to upload to my parent's computer though, so I can at least tease everyone with a few photos tonight. My parents have a house in town, but there motel is about 1km away near the highway, so my girlfriend and I rode out there this morning for breakfast at my parent's coffee shop and then we hung around there most of the day, I decided to go for a real bike ride just before supper so I went for about 12kms down the highway, I would have gone longer but I left my tights and other pairs of socks at my parent's house in town, so it got kind of cold, the bike feels a little lighter and more lively without the rack and panniers on it, I take them off because it is easier to put in the car that way, I hang a small handlebar bag off the back of the seat to put odds and ends in like my tire pump, spare tubes and various tools I take on my rides. My girlfriend's mountain bike wasn't shifting really good, so I decided to take it for a spin and sort it out for her. I took it for a little ride behind the motel and was amazed at how weird it feels now, I'm so used to riding the recumbent that it feels really high up and the steering feels really sluggish, also it is really not that comfy, but my girlfriend probably wouldn't like a bent because she thinks that mine looks like a grampa bike. I admit that maybe it does, but it is so comfy that I don't really care :) We rode home after supper in the dark and got the bikes all muddy riding down the dirt streets in town, but it was fun to slide around in the mud. Anyway it's getting late and I have to go to bed, so stay safe and always have fun.

It's Friday!!!

I actually didn't go for a ride today, when I got home from work it was snowing quite a bit. We were supposed to go to my parents for the weekend in Loreburn which is about a hour and a half south of Saskatoon. I brought my bike in the car with me as well as the camera, so expect to see some pictures of my parents place and surrounding area up on here soon. I read an interesting article in the Financial Post the other day regarding oil production peaking in the future. Oil is a nonrenewable resource and it is bound to peak sometime in the future, from that point our oil resources will begin to dwindle. When you think about it this is kind of a scary idea, 90% of our transportation system relies on fossil fuels to run. Fossil fuels are also used in plastic production as well as pretty much every other type of manufacturing. Imagine if we no longer could use fossil fuels for all these things, basically everything would shut down. The point that was brought up was why would researchers waste valuable time and money developing alternatives for fossil fuels when they don't have to yet. While this works in theory, when it comes to a crunch, how fast can researchers really come up with an alternative? And why not come up with alternatives right now so that we can at least stop destroying the environment with pollution? Because there is big money in the oil business and nobody wants to be the person to jeopardize those profits by trying to develop something to replace oil. While there is still a lot of oil in reserves and countless amounts still left undiscovered, the fact that developing countries such as China are just now starting to use more and more motorized vehicles and equipments means that oil production will have to grow exponentially to keep up with the growing demand. I like to think that we can all do our part and help reduce oil consumption, but really people are so ingrained in the car culture that it is hard to convince people that they need to use their cars less. But maybe just think about this stat that I heard recently. If we all stopped using fossil fuels, driving, etc right now, it would take 150 years to get the earth back to the same condition it was in 1900. Also just a fun fact for everyone, the average person takes in more information in a day then a person in medieval times did in 18 years. I'll try to post some photo's tomorrow if I can get my camera to work on my parents computer. Until then ride safe and have fun.

Nice night to go riding

Went for a ride around the University tonight, most of my photos turned out poorly for some reason. Here is one of the good ones. This is the back of the Biotechnology building, the greenhouses look neat all lit up at night time.

I guess I never mentioned this before, but Saskatoon is home to the University of Saskatchewan, the campus covers a large portion of the east side of the river bank in Saskatoon. I decided to take a ride around the campus tonight as it isn't too far from my apartment and I was running pretty late to go for a ride tonight. I thought it would be really cold out tonight, but actually it was nicer then last night, about -5 Celcius. I tryed to take some photos on campus, but my camera was acting up (anyone want to buy me a new one? please, pretty please :) and most of my photos ended up looking very dark and blurry. The rest of the ride was good, I fixed my shifter cable, it had pulled out of the anchor screw about 1/4", so I tighted it up and luckily the shifter worked perfect. That is however something that I feel the need to rant about, what was so wrong with good old friction thumb shifters? I had a chance to ride a bike with them recently and was amazed at how accurate they were, and you can adjust your gears with just a simply touch of the shifter, how simple. I've been thinking of getting some bar cons and Paul Thumbies and making a set of my own. Gripshifters and trigger shifters need your cable adjustments to be right on, otherwise they just don't work, when they are adjusted properly they work wonderfully, but how often does that happen? I think that it is all just marketing, they keep coming up with new components that are supposed to be better then the one's they replace, everyone buys them because they are new, not because they work better, Shimano Dual Control levers/shifters are a perfect example of this. Which brings me to my next pet peeve, bike snobs, these are the people that think that you have to be riding the latest and greatest or your not a real biker. They are also the people that shun recumbents, through nothing but ignorance, not because they have actually tried one and hated it. The fact is (and I hate to preach) recumbents are so much more practical then a diamond frame bike, not to mention comfortable and efficient. My Burley weighs almost 40lbs, but it is as easy to scoot along on as a diamond frame bike weighing half as much. Also I can pack a ton of stuff on it and be really comfortable while doing it. I wonder what touring cyclist are thinking, for the price of a decent touring bike you can get a recumbent and tour in total comfort, the miles just melt away. Why would you want to spend hours each day with a tiny seat wedged up you butt? I know some people will bring up specialized parts, but my recumbent is made of 4130 Cromo, easily welded any where, it fits a standard rack, and as for components and tires, any Walmart in the country will have tires, brake pads, etc that will fit my bike, it is no more specialized then a regular touring bicycle. Okay, now I'm done, I'll get off the soapbox now, I hate to tell everyone to buy a recumbent, but if you are a serious cyclist and you spend alot of money on bikes, why not just try one out at least, keep your mind open to different things, that's all I ask. I will be posting from my parents house tomorrow as my girlfriend and I are going there for the weekend, so until next time, ride safe and have alot of fun along the way!

BRRRrrrr...it's COLD out!

I found this scenic outlook in a park overlooking Spadina Cres, in the distance you can make out Circle Drive Bridge.

Cars whizzing under the University Bridge at night.

I took this picture of the Bessborough and Spadina Cres today, it's the same as the photo I posted earlier except taken at night.

This is a picture of lighting that I took off our balconey this summer, it is pretty easy to take pictures of lightning with the digital camera, I just put it on a tripod and keep snapping until I get something, I took about 150 pictures of this storm and really only got about 10 good photos, this is the best one.

It did snow out last night and this morning while I was at work. But by 10:00am it started to get really warm out and by the time I was finished work most of the snow had melted. So tonight I was able to get in about 20kms of riding. It was very cold out tonight, I wore a headband to keep my ears warm and two pairs of socks, but my feet got really cold anyway. My water bottle had ice in it, and my rear derailer cable froze, when I tried to work it loose it pulled out of the anchor screw a little bit so I only had about 4 gears on my ride. By the time I started heading home the road had iced up, I slid around a bit, I may need to get some cheap knobby tires from Walmart and insert some screws in them to make studded tires. As a side note, for riding in the cold weather I usually wear an undershirt, then a long sleeve jersey, and then a fleece fall jacket over all that, I find that I stay warm and it seems to breath well. Then I wear boxers, cycling tights covered with track pants, the tights fit close and keep in body heat while the track pants cut the wind. I find that in cold weather the secret is alot of layers, so that you can shed layers if you get hot or put them on when you start to cool down. I hope to ride during most of the winter, I will probably switch to my ski pants and parka when it starts to get really cold and make my rides a little shorter. If the weather holds out hopefully I will be riding tomorrow. Until then ride safe and have alot of fun...

I took this color picture tonight, I thought it looked pretty cool because a car was going by while I was taking the picture, because of the long exposure you can see red streaks where the tailights were on the car. You can see a little cloud, it is supposed to snow tonight, but I don't think that it will because it is too nice out right now, but we'll have to see I guess.

It is supposed to snow tonight so I figured I should get in a good long ride before it does. I did a little over 25kms in 1hour 32 minutes, that isn't too bad for just cruising around town. I think that I may have to stop taking the camera with me due to the cold weather, I'm scared it may wreck it in my panniers. The bike is working well other then I need to tension my rear wheel up again, the spokes on the non-drive side are getting pretty loose again. I may have to purchase some booties to cover my shoes on Friday as I found that my feet were starting to get really cold tonight, some sort of neophene booties would also keep my feet dry in the rain. When I bought my recumbent I opted to not get Burley's Speedstruts for the back of the seat, and up till now I didn't think I would need them, but as I gain muscle power on it I can see that it may cause problems soon because the seat flexes considerably while going up hills and cranking along. One thing that puzzles me about Burley is that they offer Speedstruts, rack package and kickstand mount as options, however none of them will work together because they all mount at the same points, so without alot of messing around you can't get all of them to mount together. Other then this one nagging issue there is really nothing else wrong with the rest of the bike, I guess all recumbents have their idiosyncrasies though. I will be riding again tomorrow night if it dosen't snow out, unitil then, ride safe and always have fun.

Happy Halloween!

We bought 32 chocolate bars for treaters and we hand out none, apparently treaters don't come to apartment buildings to trick or treat. I didn't go for a ride tonight, it has been raining hard, and hopefully it won't start snowing tonight, I don't think it will because it isn't cold enough yet. It's funny how cyclist seem to watch the weather alot, wind direction, that kind of thing, it's especially true of cyclist in colder climates like we have here in Canada. I just got the Hostel Shoppe catalog in the mail today, so I can dream a little over the winter. I know that I shouldn't talk about cars on here, most cyclist don't like that to much but I think that this subject fits my blog. I've noticed that lately, at least in Canada many of the automakers are coming out with hybrids or ultra small cars, I'm talking about the Smart Car, Toyota Yaris, upcoming Nissan Versa, and the Chevy Aveo and Suzuki Swift. I've been looking alot at the Yaris lately, I can't afford one right now, but it is supposed to get alot better gas mileage then my Pontiac Sunfire. Also I find that the Sunfire isn't the most practical car for a bike owner, the trunk is too small and the only saving grace is that the seat folds forward. If I lived somewhere that was warmer year round I would probably just have a bike and commute with that, in the winter it can get down to -40 Celcius here so you pretty much need a car to commute to work. I've always liked small cars that are good on gas, hatchbacks are the best because you can fit so much in them compared to a regular car. Unfortuantly alot of people still buy pickups and SUVs for just driving around, I think that in the future gas prices will rise to the point that pickups and SUV's will become too expensive to run for anyone that isn't using them for work related things. Hopefully I will be able to go riding tomorrow night if the weather is good, until then, ride safe and have fun.

Out and about

Here is another photo for "Mars", the Saigon Rose on Pacific Ave, the old part of town.

Another photo for "Mars" from www.bikeforums.net, this is the Black Duck Freehouse on 2nd Ave.

Some of you may have noticed that I've been using a larger picture size for my jpgs, I find that this works better because people no longer have to enlarge most of the pictures to see the details in them. I figured that today would work well for me to go take a ride downtown and finish taking the rest of the pictures that "Mars" from www.bikeforums.com had requested. Sunday morning is always the best day to explore the downtown, there is very little traffic so you can pretty much ride everywhere without worring about cars. It is getting very cold out, I had to ride with my earmuffs and gloves on, no snow though, the thick bank of grey clouds melted away in the late afternoon and it warmed up alot. I'm really getting used to the recumbent now, and it is getting more and more like a regular bike for me to ride. I've been looking at lowracer recumbents lately, I think that these are directly parallel to road racing bikes in terms of performance. I've never actually tried one, but I think that being that close to the ground would exaggerate the speed factor of this style of bike. Unfortuantly most lowracer designs would not really be that practical in everyday use. Being so low makes forward visibility an issue as well as making them less visible to traffic. There seems to be alot of debate on the net regarding which is better, lowracers or highracers, especially after this year's RAAM (Race Across AMerica) which pitted the two types of bents against each other. Many people are saying that one is better then the other, one is faster, etc. I don't think that it really matters, as far as speed goes between the two bikes, I think that it is more about the person riding it rather then the bike design. I think that the highracers were probably in a more comfortable position which may have contributed to difference in performance at RAAM. Anyway I don't think that it is fair to totally write off an entire class of bicyle based on the perfomance of them in a race. Anyway I will probably write again on Tuesday, tomorrow is Halloween night so I don't think that it is very safe to be out riding at night. Till next time, ride safe and have fun.

It is going to snow!

We rode back into the city on Highway 7, we decided to grab a bite to eat at Cory Park ESSO, they always let us use their storage shed to put our bikes in when we go there.

My friend Leo, he just got his Giant touring bike last year and already he has around 9000kms on it, he rides almost every day and alot in the winter months too.

We were going down Valley Rd. south of Saskatoon. Valley Rd is in the valley which the river flows through and it is lined with small farms and u-pick berry businesses, as you can see it is very flat and open.

My friend Julian taking his jacket off, it got a little hotter around 12:30pm and we were starting to overheat so we all decided to take a few clothes off and cool down.

The new suspension bridge that it supposed to span a small bay of water at River Landing. I was debating whether or not it actually was a suspension bridge or if that wasn't all just a decoration, I'm still not sure. In the foreground you can see workers laying bricks for the new multi-use pathway.

This is the site of the soon-to-be River Landing Park, it is supposed to showcase the river in south downtown, with a dock to moor boats, a large center, fishing platforms etc. It is taking shape nicely and I think that it will be really nice looking when it is complete.

Fine Arts Cafe, where all our rides usually start, it's on 14th St and Temperance Ave. if you ever come to Saskatoon check it out, they usually have semi-normal artwork and a good atmosphere.

Today I arranged to meet my friends Leo and Julian for a longer ride. We met at Fine Arts Cafe around 11:00pm and headed off from there, we decided to head south because there was a headwind from the south. We managed to cross the river on Victoria bridge and then we headed south to Valley Road. My back wheel held up good, I even rode it on some gravel on the way to Valley Road and it was fine. When I bought my bike I greased the seat track to make it easier to adjust, this proved to be a stupid idea because now the seat tends to migrate toward the rear of the bike slightly, especially when I'm really pushing on the seat back. I had to stop and fix it a few times on our ride. It started to get cold in the afternoon and a bank of grey clouds formed in the west and it looks like we may get some snow tonight. I did alot better on my bike today, it was the first day that I really went on a longer ride and my muscles seemed to hold up alright. Anyway, ride safe everyone and have fun.......