Lunch Date November 07 2011, 0 Comments
Today was perfect for a mid day escape to ride with my wife and the dog, childcare does allow for the occasional date.
While we were out-of-town, winter seems to have jumped right past fall. Morning temps have been in the low 40's and just creeping over 60 in the day. Time to hang up the lightweight AC shirts and pull out the flannel and rugby shirts. Granted, we are spoiled when winter riding still includes shorts.
Transitions November 02 2011, 0 Comments
Making the rounds today was a bit of a shock coming from 15 days of 85% relative humidity and tropical warmth to the single digit RH, 40 mph winds and dust storm we are having today.
Still though, keeping things in perspective, it is better than ice and snow.
Made it out for a bit this morning to run some errands, 24hr grocery stores hooray, and cruise by the beach.
Looks like I am going to be getting some work done today, pretty small surf, and yes the fog is looming just off shore.
On the news front, the niner had up for sale, then not, is up for sale again. You can see it
here. I also have plenty of the silver shifter bump caps,
here. These and a few other items will be starting to sill up my shop/garage sale pages in the coming week. I have 4 bike projects for friends in the works with more to come, this should help spice up the content around here in the next couple of weeks too.
Happy Monday, be sure to ride this week!
Thank You for taking a look!
I have made it a year now today, and without the encouragement of you all looking regularly it would not be so much fun. I have learned a bunch, met some new people and achieved some of my goals. The foremost, using the tools at my disposal to encourage you to get outside, ride your bike, escape the inertia of using your car to get around and play a bit. It appears to be working on that front. The rest has some room for growth, but that will come.
Back to the photo stuff. I really have enjoyed the GoPro for its ease of use and angle of view. The thing is that I have been feeling a bit lazy with respect to my creativity. The creative outlet fuels the rest of the passion to keep this going. I will be relying less on the GoPro an da bit mor eon my other cameras from here on out. With darkness approaching I decided it was high time to teach myself the art of long exposure night shooting. Not as tricky as I thought for my first stab at it.
The shots take a little more setup and gear hauling. The results are well worth the effort. This was the most fun I have had shooting in a while.
Thank you again for your readership, and as we roll into the fall and winter do not forget, PLAY OUTSIDE!!
Happy Friday.
First order of business was getting the new old Fuji to its new owner for some weekend fun prior to deciding on the final build out. I am pretty sure her stoke is apparent,
after some fast wide loops to get a feel for the handing, she was showing off, hopefully there will be miles of smiles.
Then the munchikin and I made our way around the point to check the surf, just for fun,
Of course, since it is thursday and I am on daddy duty the surf is overhead and pumping, so it goes.
Back to work, exciting things are happening, more on that in a bit.
Surf Check October 12 2011, 0 Comments
Made a quick stop to check the surf on my Wednesday rounds,
Low tide is going to be good, time to get things caught up double time so I can get out there for once. It is looking to be a good day.
Load Testing October 10 2011, 0 Comments
Today was another fantastic day to be out on the bike gathering the groceries for the week
ide blue skies to the east with the fog looming just offshore behind me. THe high sweeping clouds made the blue skies pop, this one made me think of the swallows that will be heading back south pretty soon.
Enough day dreaming, and time for the business end of the trip. Two stops totaling, 1 gal milk, 1 gallon Tangerine Juice, 3 quarts yogurt, boxes of cereal and crackers, more juice, bananas, and some how squeezing the camera gear back in the bags. One trick I use is to take the bags of stuff out of the boxes, getting every little bit I can out of the hauling capacity.
Fully loaded with over 30 lbs of stuff I decided to head uphill to push the bike and myself a bit. The handling climbing up was very precise, not slow speed wobbles all over the road, even mashing a 36/30 low gear. The views were fantastic once above the fog, the bank looming just off the beach, with the channel islands poking out the top miles away. This shot diving into one of my favorite turns captured it best.
Adding a twist to the regular Sunday ride we have been heading over to the playground as a family before keep on riding to the market.
Then it is time for me to keep on keepin on for the next 10 miles to get the veggies. Today was another incredible day to be outside.
This area of southern California is really is a wonderful place to ride and call home.
While setting up for some pictures came across one of my pet peeves. I will never fully understand why changing a tube is so intense that you throw the dead tube off on the side of the road.
I usually pick them up, take them home and patch them. While a free tube is a nice bonus, they are usually 23mm tubes, and do not see much use in my stable. have a few ideas on how to curb this kind of waste, but implementation is going to be a bit of a process.
Another beautiful morning to get out early and go for a spin before getting on with the day.
You may have noticed the state fixed my favorite bridge to kep us safe this summer, kind of a bummer.
After taking the Roadeo out in the morning yesterday, I headed out in the afternoon on the Trek to get some groceries. I opted that way as I knew that the load was going to be a bit bulky, diapers. By the time all stops were made I had about 40 lbs of juice, milk, food and god knows what loaded on the front. Even with a bit of sloppiness in the panniers the handling was fine. Actually better than fine with stop and go traffic, slogging up hills into a 15 mp headwind and bombing down the other side.
Most bikes I have owned would handle like crap with that much up front, or anywhere for that matter. My xtracycle setup does ok with loads like that, but just ok, and is a bit more like a clunky old station wagon. The Trek with the 650b conversion is cushy, but sporty. The handling is a bit light with nothing at all up front, but a 5lb u-lock in a bag fixes that. With loads weighing in between the lock and, well yesterday's 40 lbs, the handling is still smooth through fast turns, holds a line grinding up hills and no wobble or drift at slow speeds.
For those not familiar with the geometric trail of the front end, the subject can be daunting. For those interested in the physics of the whole thing, Wikipedia has a decent
article. The subject has spurred religion/politic like arguments on the web forum over the recent years. I remained fairly neutral until this. Previously I had only ridden the low trail bikes I had built up for my wife, both handled great with a basket, but were way too small for me. This project bike has really opened up my eyes. I still love my Roadeo, just differently, and keep the load in the back. I prefer having the stuff up front, as long as the bike is designed to handle the load, it makes it much easier to keep an eye on the load.
While we were out-of-town, winter seems to have jumped right past fall. Morning temps have been in the low 40's and just creeping over 60 in the day. Time to hang up the lightweight AC shirts and pull out the flannel and rugby shirts. Granted, we are spoiled when winter riding still includes shorts.
Still though, keeping things in perspective, it is better than ice and snow.
Looks like I am going to be getting some work done today, pretty small surf, and yes the fog is looming just off shore.
On the news front, the niner had up for sale, then not, is up for sale again. You can see it 
The shots take a little more setup and gear hauling. The results are well worth the effort. This was the most fun I have had shooting in a while.
Thank you again for your readership, and as we roll into the fall and winter do not forget, PLAY OUTSIDE!!
Happy Friday.
after some fast wide loops to get a feel for the handing, she was showing off, hopefully there will be miles of smiles.
Then the munchikin and I made our way around the point to check the surf, just for fun,
Of course, since it is thursday and I am on daddy duty the surf is overhead and pumping, so it goes.
Back to work, exciting things are happening, more on that in a bit.
Low tide is going to be good, time to get things caught up double time so I can get out there for once. It is looking to be a good day.
ide blue skies to the east with the fog looming just offshore behind me. THe high sweeping clouds made the blue skies pop, this one made me think of the swallows that will be heading back south pretty soon.
Enough day dreaming, and time for the business end of the trip. Two stops totaling, 1 gal milk, 1 gallon Tangerine Juice, 3 quarts yogurt, boxes of cereal and crackers, more juice, bananas, and some how squeezing the camera gear back in the bags. One trick I use is to take the bags of stuff out of the boxes, getting every little bit I can out of the hauling capacity.
Then it is time for me to keep on keepin on for the next 10 miles to get the veggies. Today was another incredible day to be outside.
This area of southern California is really is a wonderful place to ride and call home.
While setting up for some pictures came across one of my pet peeves. I will never fully understand why changing a tube is so intense that you throw the dead tube off on the side of the road.
I usually pick them up, take them home and patch them. While a free tube is a nice bonus, they are usually 23mm tubes, and do not see much use in my stable. have a few ideas on how to curb this kind of waste, but implementation is going to be a bit of a process.
Most bikes I have owned would handle like crap with that much up front, or anywhere for that matter. My xtracycle setup does ok with loads like that, but just ok, and is a bit more like a clunky old station wagon. The Trek with the 650b conversion is cushy, but sporty. The handling is a bit light with nothing at all up front, but a 5lb u-lock in a bag fixes that. With loads weighing in between the lock and, well yesterday's 40 lbs, the handling is still smooth through fast turns, holds a line grinding up hills and no wobble or drift at slow speeds.
For those not familiar with the geometric trail of the front end, the subject can be daunting. For those interested in the physics of the whole thing, Wikipedia has a decent