velo bread

to be young

2009-10-30T08:13:00.002-05:00

okay, i know it has been a while since my last post but i had to share this one.

my nephew is currently doing one year of study in France. he uses the local bike rental system (25 euros for a year) and this is what he and some friends did one day...

KL

2009-07-17T05:44:00.002-05:00

the third city in our southeast asian tour and as unique as any other. whereas HK was tight and crowded, KL is spread out and crowded. a city that has grown way to fast to make any sense. for example, our first hotel was attached to a mall (ugh) and you literally had to circle it two times to get in or out of the parking lot, it was like a traffic circle inside a traffic circle. there is a subway/train system, but it is divided between three or four different private companies so you need to purchase separate tickets everytime you change a train.

a full report of the tour, with pictures, will be put up once i get back.

hong kong

2009-07-12T20:36:00.003-05:00

hong kong island

last thursday mrs. dr. and i left bangkok and made our way to hong kong for 4 days. hk is a crazy city with an interesting mix of eastern and and western cultures. my very good friend from library school lives and works in hong kong and visiting with her was the main purpose of the trip - so seeing her has been a blast. today we'll wander around a bit more before heading back to bangkok and then kuala lumpur

bangkok II

2009-07-08T21:43:00.002-05:00

having the damndest time trying to get pictures on the blog. any ways, bangkok is great and would recommend it as a destination for any one. more will be posted later but a few qucik observations:

the friendliest people and verypolite, and at the same time there are those who will hustle you in the blink of an eye - depends where you hang out.
hot, humid, rains every afternoon
the food is out of the world everything from inscets to deep fried breads, to the most amazing fruit - hot, sour, salty, sweet and spicey
caucasian men walking around with thai women and boys are creepy
luxury to poverty in twelve steps or less
thai massage is fantastic - and no, i did not get the massage with the "happy ending"
with my certificate from cooking school i am ready to venture forth in new cusines, now if i can only find some great markets
traffic lines on the road are only mere suggestions, a free for all that seems to work(those in the lead have the right of way)
ferrys and boat rides are way to get around

more later....

hmmm - street food

2009-07-06T22:30:00.003-05:00

after the first day we are starting to get a little more adventurous with where one can go to eat. hawkers are everywhere and everything they have looks interesting, did not try the variety of insects that went by on the one cart - maybe today though. if you jettison north american concepts of food handling and storage from your consciousness there are great tastes everywhere.

chinatown

2009-07-05T23:05:00.003-05:00

a little more crowded than a winnipeg street. probably only 2 meters wide, 30+ degrees and some very very new smells - love it, but maybe not all the time. i think all of the crap that ends up being midway prizes are sold here.

more later.

Bangkok

2009-07-05T02:34:00.001-05:00

Arrived after 24 hours of travel time. Will try and find a place where I can download pictures. More later.

Mrs. Dr's ride

2009-06-22T08:26:00.002-05:00

The parts finally came in last week and it was time to put Mrs. Dr's bike together. Funny how building bikes always takes longer than expected. Started putting it together on Thursday at the shop and finished on Friday at 9:30 (they kicked me out on Thursday otherwise I would have been there till midnight working on it). Too bad it took so long cause it looks like I missed a great race on Friday night, but I really wanted to her bike done before she gets home today (Laura has been gone for 5 weeks and this is her welcome home present).

Pretty excited about the bike and I believe Laura will be as well. It comes in at 22lbs the way you see it here, which is not bad for a city/utility bike. Many thanks to Tomek for building the wheels and the gifting me some brakes, the guys in the shop for advice and not laughing (too much) at my silly mistakes, and Matt for the handlebars.

am i cold hearted?

2009-06-09T14:45:00.003-05:00

been a long time since i last updated the blog - in fact, i drifted all the way below boredom manifestation, so it is time for another post.

on saturday i was filling up the car with gas before i headed out to bur oak to map the trails with vern from the OCC. as i was filling up with gas, i heard a loud crash coming from the street behind me. i looked over my shoulder to see a bike down on the street in front of a car, the cyclist was sitting on the pavement looking rather stunned. she quickly got up as the driver of the vehicle ran out to see if she was alright. people gathered to offer their assistance so there was no need for me to go over to help. at first i was a little shocked and my sympathy went to the cyclist. i've come very close to this scenario several times and know how disconcerting this is. but then i began to change my mind on what had just happened - you see, the problem was that she was riding her bike on the sidewalk and i soon felt she was the author of her own misfortune. statistics have shown that sidewalks are often less safe than roads for cyclists, this appeared to bear that conclusion. this cyclist was going against the flow of traffic because she was riding on the sidewalk on the south side of Portage Ave traveling west, like a salmon swimming upstream; drivers turning onto Portage would be looking to their left for traffic and not their right. this is not to say the motorist is without fault, it is just the cyclist put herself in a very risky position by riding on the sidewalk. i was glad she was alright, i just think she put herself into a very vulnerable position when she thought she was being safe by riding on the sidewalk.

too many cyclists do not ride with enough precaution and are immediately outraged when they have close calls or encounters with vehicles, but how many times is their own fault?

yesterday's free press had the following letter to the editor, the editorial cartoon, and the front page article on the local section of yesterday's free press - somewhat timely considering what i witnessed on the weekend.

letter to the editor:

Get jerks off sidewalks

E. Rosenberg is right (Put bells on bikes, June 4). I was the other pedestrian who shared his close call while walking on Wellington Crescent last Sunday. Shortly after, I met head-on with a sidewalk cyclist running a large dog on a leash, followed by a caravan of four adults, one trundling a babe in box arrangement at the rear.

How safe is that?

As I pointed out in an article printed in the Winnipeg Free Press in August 2006, cycling on sidewalks is illegal. The provincial Highway Act states, only bicycles with a wheel circumference no greater than 410 mms are allowed on Winnipeg sidewalks. This law is not respected or enforced. Pedestrians are increasingly at risk.

Pedestrian is defined in the Act as "a person afoot or a person in a wheelchair or a child's carriage or physically handicapped person operating a motorized mobility aid." Yes and some of those can slow down too.

The situation is getting worse. Freewheeling on the sidewalk is leading more and more to freewheeling on crosswalks. Try crossing Osborne and River; on second thought, don't. The "blue-haired brigade," which includes me, has a tough enough time beetling across before the lights change without cyclists compounding the challenge.

Why not license bicycles? Plate numbers included. Open cyclists to inspection by police for functioning equipment such as front and rear lights and brakes, a warning device, knowledge of road rules and adherence to speed limits.

Dedicated cyclists, who are the majority, would gain from this elevated profile. It would increase public respect for them, emphasize their legal right to safe passage on the road and enhance their campaign for more dedicated cycle paths. Let's work together to get the jerks off the sidewalks.

Jean Palmer
Winnipeg

article on city councilors cycling to work

me being selfish - laura benefiting

2009-04-19T09:41:00.003-05:00

steve hajula, who some of you know, wrote a ethnographic paper for his own amusement on guys who build bikes for their partners. the theory is that they do it more for their own needs and desires than those of the partner who is getting the bike - as far as I can tell I am a case study of this.

laura is receiving the benefits of my need and addiction of building bikes. is it more bike than she needs - she seems to think so, but i would argue that sh will be getting a kick-a** bike that should last a long long time. doesn't matter who you are, you got to appreciate a well built bike that is going to be easy and comfortatble to ride.

in case you are wondering here is the tubing that is being used for the bike (from Mike's email)

"I have some sweet tubing here that I have been hanging onto, and this could be the perfect bike for it.DT, TT and seatstays are all Tange Prestige- the origional stuff, made in Japan, super strong and medium light weight.Seat tube - Reynolds 631 ,externally butted.Chainstays - true temper HOX2 - these are bent specifically for 29" wheels, which is perfect in this case"

more to follow...

whatcha doing next thrusday????

2009-04-08T12:01:00.003-05:00

mrs. dr. has a concert and it will be really cool, here is the promo from the organizer...

Blow Them Away, curated by Diana McIntosh

WHEN: Thursday, April 16, 2009, 8 pm
WHERE: Eckhardt-Gramatte Hall, U of W
TICKETS: Adult: $19 / Senior: $17 /Student: $9

Concert Description:
The exciting international duo of Allen Harrington, saxophone, and Laura Loewen, piano, our featured artists, will 'blow you away' with their breath-taking artistry, virtuosity and musicality. They'll amaze you with their expressive and dramatic powers in works by Belgian composer Piet Swerts and Jean-Luc Fafchamps, French composer Jean-Pierre Leguay and Canadians Robert Lemay and Diana McIntosh. Winnipeg's own colourful clarinetist Patricia Daniels will join Diana in the premieres of pieces for clarinet and piano by Sid Robinovitch and Allan Bell.

Performers:
Allen Harrington, saxophones
Patricia Daniels, clarinet
Laura Loewen, piano
Diana McIntosh, piano

mother nature's cruel april fools joke

2009-04-01T10:24:00.001-05:00

new training method

2009-03-30T14:18:00.003-05:00

started a new training regime - i've constructed an oxygen deprivation system, using WWII surplus materials, which i use when i am on the trainer while the weather continues to be crappy. i'm hoping that this will boost my red blood cell count thereby delivering more oxygen to my aging muscles and allowing me to keep up to the younger set in expert.

training

2009-03-23T12:56:00.006-05:00

time to start training in earnest - real time on the bike outdoors. gianni and i headed out to BHP for some laps and it was fine despite the predicted forecast. as we were doing laps we discussed a more concerted, possibly group effort to the training. the idea we came up with was a tuesday, thursday, sunday schedule for now: tuesday, meet at assinaboine park for intervals and sprints; thursday leave from the shop for a more casual spin; sundays at BHP or other location for longer distance rides. this could be the spring schedule until more formal things begin out the club.

theory and reality

2009-03-15T10:03:00.003-05:00

with yesterday's temps rising to the happy side of zero, tim kevin, and i thought it would be a good idea to do a little spring classics training and hit the gravel roads for a ride. the theory was that the roads would still be frozen and we'd get a little gravel road ride in. the reality is we got muddy, kevin spun his deraillieur and we learned something about the sun, thawing and dirt/gravel roads. all in all tim and i got 25-30 kms in.

road trip report

2009-03-08T14:46:00.013-05:00

the spring training road trip started on friday, february 27th. after a morning meeting at work i was on the road by 1:30 - 11 1/2 hours later i was in madison wisconsin.

what it looked like when i left

after a short 5 hours of sleep i was back on the road, making my way to indianapolis to take in the 2009 north american handmade bike show.

(more here)

the show was very cool with a ton of amazing bikes. it was pretty crowded, but if you were patient you could talk to the various frame builders who were more than happy to chat. in addition to the bike builders there were also reps from components such as: paul, velo orange, chris king, white industries, etc.

following a quick lunch i was back on the road. durham was still 10 hours away, which meant it was going to be a long day of driving.

finally, no snow

the end of snow - well did not really end. somewhere in west virginia the snow started to fall as i gained altitude in the mountains. at times it got pretty heavy but since the ground was still warm it did not freeze.

driving through a tunnel in west virginia

arrived in durham sometime around 1:00 in the morning. the next morning it was raining pretty steady and temperature was hovering around zero. chris and i went for a quick ride in the morning and soon found ourselves inside continuing our spring training

interval training

the next morning we woke up to this. snow in north carolina is not that unusual, but in march it is not that common. schools were closed (as soon as there is any snow on ground they usually close the schools - even if the streets are drivable).

jonah was more than happy to go for a ride in the snow

on monday chris and i headed out for a little 'spring classics' style riding, durham has plenty of paths to cycle on and we tooled around on these for a few hours. the other thing durham has is hills and i quickly discovered that riding around winnipeg in winter does not prepare one well for riding hills

day two of riding - cool, but not as wet as day one

the next day we headed out to pisgah national forest for three days of riding. along the way we stopped at first flight bike shop in statesville. this a very cool shop that collects vintage bikes as well as being a great all round shop.

almost as cool as the handmade bike show

we arrived in pisgah shortly after lunch and started on the first ride. the way it works here is you climb for 40 - 60 minutes and then spend the next 20 bombing down single track.

our first climb was all on pavement

although you can't really see it in the picture this shows where we started

our next ride for the day started with a climb on fire road. it was 9 miles of climbing (higher altitude and steeper roads than our first ride). by mile 3 i was gassed, chris and i on our singlespeeds soon found it to steep to pedal and we began our death march to the top. because of the altitude, and the way the slope faced we soon found our selves pushing our bikes through the snow. as this took quite a bit of time, more than we expected, all we could do when we reached the top was to turn around and bomb down the same road it had taken us 2 hours to climb. taken the trail was not going to be an option as the snow would have been too deep and we would have lost light by the time we were half way down.

pedaling uphill while we still could

we pushed through the white stuff for about 5km

the next day alex had selected a longer ride along a ridge run called turkey pen(???). again, the ride started with a big climb with the trails starting off dry and gradually filling with snow as we climbed higher. during this climb i tweaked my hamstring as i was pedaling through some snow. rather than risk a full pulling of the hamstring we decided to cut this ride short and try another ride which would not be as epic in length (this gave us time to get into town so i could get a tensor bandage and heat balm for the hammy). during the downhill i put a small gash in sidewall of the racing ralph and had slap an tube in the tire (the racing ralph is perhaps a little to thin for riding on the rocks).

chris climbing

starting the downhill

one of many stream crossings on this trail

day three we picked a couple of new trails and continued the modus operandi of riding fire roads up and bombing down technical single track for the descents. the arms were getting quite the workout as i rode rigid for the entire 3 days

checking routes

riding through a rhododendron tunnel

a rare photo of us going downhill

it was a great trip and many thanks to chris and alex for taking time off so they could show this flatlander around the great trails of the pisgah national forest.

bike porn

2009-03-08T14:08:00.006-05:00

on my way to visit chris and spend some time cycling in north carolina i stopped for about an hour and a half at the north american handmade bike show in indianapolis. the show was somewhat overwhelming, so much to see and too little time to see it (was still trying to make durham that day - 10 hours away). here are some photos...

naked bikes 29er

a lot of wood on this bike: rims, seat post, grips, inserts (pedals and pivot covers)

great lug work and paint job. liam at the shoppe is getting a trials frame made by this guy

very cool dropouts for chain tension

the most phallic award winner - great imagination on the design of this handlebar

detail of how the handle bar pivots

street bike?

interesting brake detail

okay, your dad is a frame builder and he builds this bike for you, do you take this to school?

once you get this up to speed...

nice downtube detail

i thought the aesthetics of this brake mount was very interesting

36 inch wheels - the builder said it is not practical for off-road

29er by the same builder of the 36er

steel/carbon 29er

an internal two speed crank system

road trip

2009-02-08T18:43:00.003-06:00

19 days and counting till i drive down to visit the good doctor in north carolina for a little bike vacation. hopefully he has fully recovered from the most horrible thing ever and is in a good frame of mind to show me the trails he rode for that event

View Larger Map

the plan is to leave on friday at noon, and weather permitting, make it as far as madison WI before i stop for the night. the next morning i plan to get to indianapolis in time to take in the north american handmade bike show. after a couple of hours there i will try and make the push to mr. dr's place. the next 5 days will be spent biking on the road in the mountains before i make the long journey back.

i ain't no engineer

2009-02-03T13:00:00.008-06:00

so, i had two goals for the new brake mount that i was getting mike to mill and and put on my 29er frame: one, allow me to use the full range of the paul dropouts on my bike; and two, allow me to remove the rear wheel without taking any bolts out of the rear brake bracket. based on a photo i saw of the fisher superfly singlespeed, i tried to find a brake mount similar to what i saw in that photo. since i could not find one i asked mike if he knew of anything, he told me he could make something as long as i provided him with a drawing. cool - all i had to do was come up with an sketch and i would get my brake, one that would allow the brake to pivot on an arc which would allow me to do the things i wanted with my rear wheel.

after some time fooling around in the with the brake on the frame i came up with a design and sent it off to mike. on monday mike sent me the photos of what he did based on the drawing i sent.

the first photo looked pretty good, showing the mount that he had milled for me.

the next photo - oops. seems like i forgot to take into consideration the cylinder for the brake and as you can see in the next photo i don't quite get all the use of the slot i designed for the brake mount. this is why professionals get the big bucks for what they do, they take into consideration things like this and design and build systems that have taken these things into account.

the good thing though, i had put in a longer arc than i needed. mike saw that, and positioned the brake mount in such a way a that it works - thank god for people who help me solve problems that i create for my self.

weekend update, january version

2009-01-26T20:34:00.006-06:00

one of things i wanted to do in the new year was post more often to the blog. little did i know that the mca gig was going to be so time consuming, its great, but it takes a lot of the spare time i have in a day to do things. here is a little catch-up from this past weekend.

i've decided to go with the changes to the 29er frame, that is, adding a new rear brake mount and a dropout for gears. of course making the bike gear friendly, means more bike parts and new rear wheel - my addiction is so hard to cure.

stripped the rear triangle with a little Permatex Gasket Remover, which actually worked quite well for removing powder coat.

mike truelove is going to mill a new brake dropout based on this drawing i provided. the new brake mount will allow me to use the full travel of the dropout (fewer chains to change out), as well as allowing me to remove the rear wheel by simply loosening two bolts (previously i had to loosen one bolt and take the other one out completely - not a lot of fun when you need to fix a flat in a race).

diagram of the dropout

saturday tinker tim, kevinb and i snowshoed the bur oak trail. we saw a couple of potential lines that will be helpful for next year's wednesday night series and found ourselves really wishing that spring would get here soon.

sunday night was reserved for the schubertiad. it was a really cool performance that combined excellent singing and playing, poetry reading, cool pictures projected on a screen to the left (out of picture), and really interesting sound scapes mixed into the more traditional schubert lieder.

i had a hell of time trying to take an inconspicuous picture of the performance (no flash etc.)

post concert tenacious v and mrs. dr. reflect on the choices of wine sitting on a table just out of the picture

i have had an ongoing battle with electronic devices this past year. so far i am down one camera, one ipod (suffering the same fate as the cell phone), and now my cell phone. at the moment i am trying to revive my cell phone which i sent through a wash cycle. as you can see it is sitting in a bag of rice which i am using to draw the moisture out, and it seems to be working. at first nothing happened when i turned on my phone after i pulled it out of the washing machine, but after a few days i am finally able to call and receive calls. the ring tone is pretty quiet and the there is no image on the screen to speak of, well there is, but it is both backwards and really weird colours. i am going to let it sit in the rice for a few more days.

a new project

2009-01-16T13:47:00.003-06:00

here is a project that i am working on; its called wednesdays in pictures. the concept for the project can be found here (i shamelessly stole the idea from here). send me an email if you are at all interested in putting up photos of your wednesday (not here, but on the blog i created for the project).

here is a sample of how it looks...

Name: Hal
Occupation: Librarian
City: Winnipeg
Date: Wednesday, January 14, 2009

early alarm

breakfast of oatmeal with cranberries

today was run to work day instead of bike to work day - it was bloody cold

after arriving at work i decided to check the temperature

the banana i brought for coffee break did not fare so well in the knapsack

computer stations at work

had to buy lunch today: spinach soup, grilled cheese with pickle, apple and a orange

at the end of lunch, waking up from a little refresher nap on the yoga mat

having to order a new copy of this book because someone decided to cut out the pages rather than photocopy them - jerk

on the reference desk waiting to help someone

later, helping a student with her literature search assignment

getting ready for the run home

what was on the ipod when i got home

off to the supermarket to get groceries

mottle waiting for her dinner

making our dinner: penne with vodka tomato sauce

driving to my 10:20 volleyball game - not my farvourite time to play volleyball on a week night

we (dark blue) beat them 3 games to 1

finishing a long day by watching the daily show

librarian humor

2009-01-15T09:01:00.003-06:00

thanks go to gianni for this one

from here

skiing is hard

2009-01-11T17:54:00.003-06:00

i did not know what to call this blog, potential title's included:

in the pain locker
i got a long way to go
waxing is a science beyond me

first race of the year for me took place at grand beach today and it was painful, rewarding, but painful. ski racing is fun and it is quite the work out. after my first loppet last year it took me three days before i could put my pants on without sitting on the edge of the bed and using my hand to lift my knees up. not in that type of pain today, but i am feeling it.

the other thing, and definitely the more important, is that my techniqe sucks. it is one thing to ski around windsor, but skiing around grand beach with those hills is another. only bit it twice, but it was watching the 13 year old kid pull away from me that was somewhat humiliating. like biking, learning good techniques and building skiing muscels will take some time.

the other thing that i am discovering about x-country ski racing is that waxing in iffy conditions: colder (borderline between two different glide wax ratings) and fresh snow, made today's wax choices difficult. yesterday i spent the morning at the shop putting on what i thought would be the right glide wax and today i felt like i was skiing in sand. the grip wax was not an issue, but the glide was not what i wanted. now, i don't think anyone had great glide, the fresh snow took care of that, but some seemed to be faring better than others. i know that waxing can be tricky and it can also be expensive with some waxes running $40-60 and more. i am not about to spend huge bucks on waxes (one expensive hobby is enough). waxing also requires a fair amount of knowledge and creativity, one of my fellow competitors used two different waxes and a fluro powder. you can do quite well with some of the more reasonable waxes, but i do need to pay better attention to upcoming conditions and i really need to get my waxing bench made so i can change waxes if needed.

all that said, i'm looking forward to the next race

friday distractions

2009-01-09T09:14:00.005-06:00

t was my birthday over the holidays and for a gift i received a bottle of wine from my sister-in-law who works at kenaston wine market. it was a bottle of cono sur reserva syrah and it was lovely. the cono sur winery makes some very nice bottles of wine and they have an appealing philosophy with environmental considerations. also appealing is the use of the bicycle image on their bottles, but it does not stop there, they extend it their overall philosophy as well...

"Both in life and in wine we believe in returning to bicycle basics, to those simple things you never forget."

very nice. we often buy the organic wine for our "table" wine and quite enjoy it.

on another note, the other day something triggered my memory to an album that i used to own called "the secret policeman's ball" the album contained music from an amnesty international benefit concert which also featured british comedy acts from monty python and rowan atkinson. this was one of my favourite albums at the time because it contained killer tracks by pete townshend doing solo acoustic versions of drowned and won't get fooled again; youtube is truly a great thing...

(sorry, they don't allow embedding of the video below, if you want, use the link above to see the video)

to cave or not

2009-01-06T12:52:00.007-06:00

hmmmm, anyone in for iditabike?

so, any day now i will be packing my 29er frame and sending it off to mike truelove to do some modifications on the brake mount. he is going to cut and weld on a new rear brake mount for me that will be more adjustable than the current mount. here is a picture of the type of mount that i am having added, the curve of the bottom slot makes it easier to adjust the brake as the wheel moves back and forth, as well as removing the wheel.

as there is no prefab mount that mike can add he needs to cut a mount himself based on drawings that i provide (yikes!).

the question is, do i have him add a hanger at the same time. one part of me likes the idea of having the option of gears (the part of me that wants to see if gears would be faster and more beneficial for some races), while the other part of me is totally repulsed by the idea of having anything to do with gears when it comes to mountain biking.

a decision will need to be made soon.

too much snow for skiing

2009-01-03T13:24:00.002-06:00

the new snow is great but when it comes to the misery sticks, too much of it puts too much emphasis on the misery part of the equation.

mrs. dr. and i really don't do the x-mas present exchange anymore, opting to make donations instead. however, we did buy ourselves some snowshoes this last week to give us another outdoor option when we get too much snow, or the temperature gets to cold. i guess you might call them seasonal gifts, i like to think of them as another way to stay active, a nice thing about living near assiniboine park and the river is there is always an option to go for a quick stomp through the snow. last night mrs. dr. tried it for the first time and had a great time, because it is snowing again today it looks like we'll go for another walk tonight.

if anybody want's to give it a try please let me know and we'll be glad to let you borrow them.

project funtown

2009-01-02T09:51:00.007-06:00

i had full intentions of completing "project funtown" this holiday season but preparations for our new year's eve meal, some skiing, and family gatherings have interfered with my intended schedule. typically these areas, known as mantown or man towns (in fact that's what i was calling it up until now) are areas in the basement or garage which guys set up to reflect their hobbies, drink beer, and put up pictures of half-naked women. i decided to switch the name of the project to "funtown" because it better reflects the intentions of the space that i am trying to create: a place to work on my bikes, store my sport's stuff, wax my skis, and set up my rollers and a tv; it is not intended to be some misogynistic hovel with pictures of half-naked women on the wall.

project funtown is back on track and shortly i hope to have it completed with such functional features as: a bike repair station (sort of there, but needs to be organized better), a wax bench for skis (this is the model i am using with some modifications for holding the skis in place); an indoor bike wash station, jersey and sport's wear storage, tv and roller set up, work bench, and a couple of comfy chairs.

2009

2009-01-01T14:27:00.002-06:00

out with the old and in with the new. hoping all have a happy and joy filled new year.

mrs. dr. swears she bought this tree, i think she found it in a ditch somewhere

part of the meal preparation for new year's eve meal - lamb stew for the cassoulet

making duck confit for the cassoulet, hmmmmm confit...

working off the libations from the previous evening, a 6km showshoe in the park

come out and say it...

2008-12-14T09:23:00.002-06:00

now, usually i find these types of post somewhat self-aggrandizing. to me they most often have a tone of conceit, filled with statement of 'i did this' and 'i accomplished that.' that is not the intention of this post, this is a public statement of intention and accountability. if i put it out there that i have some goals it becomes public and maybe someone will ask me 'how's it going?' that, or the fear that someone will ask me that, are the types of motivation that seem to work best for me. i find public statements of intention motivating, you know the 'walk the walk' type of thing.

last year was a good year for racing. i placed well in several races and was generally happy with my performance. this was somewhat surprising seeing as i did not really train that much, definitely without much consistency. i am hoping to be better prepared for this season and will be spending more time getting ready for the upcoming season.

so here it goes, my fitness goals for the upcoming season:

better overall conditioning prior to the start of the race season
better core strength
a race weight of 185 by mid-season (starting at 195)

sometime later i will post what i am doing to meet these goals.

bikes in the news

2008-12-01T17:37:00.005-06:00

normally i would post these on the fgbc blog but i thought i would let the jersey info sit at the top for a bit

good story about how important bikes are to Namibia

a piece on cyclocross in the nytimes - similar to what we have been doing with the mucr cross labs

hooray for mrs. dr.

2008-11-27T11:04:00.006-06:00

it's mrs dr.'s birthday today.

no gifts being exchanged today, but a much larger project is in the works - a new ride for the good mrs. dr. what's in the works is another custom frame project form mr. truelove that will lead to a lifer (in my vocabulary a lifer are those special bikes that should last a lifetime - currently i own two lifers) for mrs. dr. planning is currently in the beginnig stages, we're looking at something that will be versitaile, very comfortable, and something that she can use for light to medium touring. current bikes that are being used as models are the A.N.T. light roadster and the Heron Randonneur.

the ANT light roadster

the Heron Randonneur

now some of you will undoubtedly accuse me of being selfish with regards to this project. 'all he's doing,' you'd say, 'is satisfying his need to build yet another bike;' and you would be right. hey, i have an addiction and i am the first to admit it and like any junkie i need my fix.

friday fun file

2008-11-21T12:45:00.001-06:00

brilliant

even more brilliant

to be continued

2008-11-17T11:02:00.002-06:00

managed to get some more of the siding up on saturday with the help of gianni and tinker tim. maybe my christmas present this year will be the completion of this phase of the project.

spamming

2008-11-14T22:33:00.000-06:00

i don't know if i should laugh or cry

housing crisis

2008-11-09T10:07:00.004-06:00

okay, the price i must pay for all of my play (bike racing) this fall is that i, well myself and the unfortunate souls that i convince to help me on this project, are now forced into uncomfortable environments while working on the house. last monday was warm so we got out the halogen work lights and took advantage of the comfortable temps.

cutting the hardie board

fastening the board to the north side

saturday was the day to tackle the insulation of the attic. we contemplated cutting an access in the gable end and loading the insulation into the attic that way, but nixed that idea when we saw there was shiplap underneath the plywood siding. so we had to go through the access which is located in our hall closet, this went much more smoothly than anticipated. in 4 hours we had the attic insulated.

insulation waiting to be shoved up into the attic

aiden putting isulation down

the white stuff you see is styrofoam pellets which is what the previous owner used to insulate the attic. the energy audit showed that we should increase the amount isnsulation so rather than trying to remove the existing insulation we used a rake to smooth out the styrofoam and move it into the corners, we then laid batts of insulation on top of this. this should significantly improve the heat retention of the house in winter and keep the heat out in summer.

supercross and provincials

2008-11-04T12:44:00.008-06:00

two races in one weekend with a pizza party throw in the middle meant for a rough monday. the races went surprisingly well for me.

in the provincials race i managed to hang with the lead group until olli decided to up the pace. this spit me out the back fairly quickly which put in no-man's-land for a few laps. i managed to bridge up to dylan and brian and dylan and i took turns at the lead until the sprint for the line. second in the 40+ and 5th overall.

as per tradition, saturday night was the annual pizza party for those who volunteered, or committed to volunteer and help with the course clean up, setup and take down.

supercross was again a spectacle to behold. the course was built for the bike handler and included, again, the fan favorite mud bog to beat all mud bogs. i was skeptical about doing well in this race having spent everything in saturday's race, but things turned out well. i big part of that was due to the fact that somehow i managed to avoid crashing on this very technical course. guys that were riding really well and always give me a run for my money (luc, allan, tom, and daniel) all went down at one point or another, some more than once. this allowed me stay ahead and get 4th overall which was a huge surprise.

bike is done

2008-10-26T18:07:00.004-05:00

after what seemed forever the cross bike is finally complete. yeah. somehow wires got crossed and the rear spacing came in at 135 mm instead of 130 mm, but the beauty of steel is that additional 2.5 mm on each side can just be squeezed in to accommodate the difference.

the colour of the frame worked out great

yes, that is the longest head tube in manitoba. so long that none of the shops headset presses would work, the top cup had to be persuaded into place with the only tool left in the shop that would work

the final weight 18lbs 11oz fully dressed

after

southern cross pics

2008-10-22T18:05:00.004-05:00

little pink houses - weekend turkey update

2008-10-14T23:10:00.007-05:00

while i did not get the opportunity to participate in the turkey cross put on by gary and company, i managed to keep myself busy enough with other projects.

most of the weekend, when it was not raining was spent working on the house. we (my dad and tinker tim) managed to get the house basically insulated. some work still needs to be done to finish the insulation, but once this is done we should be able to start to put up the siding

this was also the first weekend of bread baking. as is usual, with the first firing of the oven was the traditional pizza bake

firing the oven

pizza fixings being prepared

pizza in the oven

even the spider was anxious for the pizza to be done

next morning, getting the bread ready

bread about to go in the oven

loading bread

bread in the oven

finished bread

sliced and ready to eat

managed to do some work on the bike. sunday afternoon i went to tom's place and we spent the next hour gluing the tires for the rims. hopefully the wheels will be built up shortly and, if the gods are willing, the bike will be ready in time for southern cross

gluing tires

tires ready - all i we need are the spokes and at least the wheels will be ready

so you want to build a bike?

2008-10-09T12:34:00.008-05:00

observations on building a bike from scratch...

building a custom made bike is an exercise in joy and frustration; joy in the construction of a well-made and beautiful bike and frustration in the amount of time it takes for the project to unfold - and there will be frustration. it should not be surprising how long it takes to build a bike, but it always seems to take longer than you expect and want; how long it takes depends on what you want.

the first step is deciding that you want to have a custom made bike and are you willing to commit to the time and money it takes to build such a bike. once you make this decision you need to think about what you want: how do you want it handle, what do you want to use it for, and how do you want it to look and many other options. of course the question you then need to ask is 'do i know enough about bikes to ask for something that will give me what i think i want?'. if you do know enough you are good to proceed, if not, you need to talk to those that do. once you have decided on the bike you want you need to find someone who can do this work for you; of course who you pick will determine both price and time it takes to get a frame, any where from $1100- $5000+, and anywhere from several months to well over a year or more. funny thing is this is the easy part. the planning takes time, but you don't notice this as this is fun because you know you are building something special; it's when you've placed your order and you find out how long it takes to fill that order that the frustration can kick in.

of course there is more to a bike than just a frame, you need all the other parts that make a bike a bike. collecting these parts is both expensive and time consuming. if you are building up a bike, and depending on what you want and where you live, it can be relatively quick or can take some time. sometimes your local bike shop has the stock and other times it needs to order in the parts and hopefully, hopefully, what you want is available and does not need to be back ordered.

here are some facts and observations about my latest project:

1) time:

decided shortly after i got my custom 29er that i would get a custom made cross bike - the 29er is the best bike i've ridden and wanted the same thing for a cross bike.
talked to mike truelove about this project in june and placed a down payment then. mike was able to start building this in september and finished it shipped it by the end of the month.
currently the bike is sitting in winkler waiting to be powdercoated - initially i wanted mike to have the frame painted in squamish but when this was not possible i had the frame shipped to winkler where i had my last frame coated. i picked a colour that was not in stock (a 100% upcharge from their in-stock colours) and they are waiting for the powder to arrive - the bike has been there for 8 days, arrrgggghhh.
parts have taken some time to collect because most of them had to be special ordered, this took about 3 weeks because the supplier had to order some parts themselves.
forgot to order spokes (assumed the bike shop would have spokes in stock) and this has delayed the building of the wheels even more
when i started this project i hoped to have the bike for the beginning of the cross season - now i hope to have it for the last half of the season.

2) cost:

here is what i orderd:

Frame - Truelove
Paint
Headset - Chris King
Stem - Thomson Elite
Seat Post - Thomson Elite
Seat - ?
Fork - Redline Carbon Cross Fork
Brakes - Paul Touring and Retro Canti
Brake Levers - Cane Creek
Handle Bar - Bontrager Cross
Cranks - SRAM
Pedals - Crank Brothers Candy SL
Chain ?
Hub - Chris King Cross (rear)
Hub - Chris King Cross (front)
Rims - Mavic Reflex
Spokes - Revolution
Tyres - Tufo Tubular

list price cost of the above, $3720 (before taxes and with still more bits to come). now, i did not pay this price. what i paid is between me and my bike shop. will you get the same price as i do? maybe, maybe not. it depends on what you do: do you race under their name, do you help put on their races, do you refer customers, do you buy with them even though it may be slightly higher than buying online (the will try and get as close to that price as they can). maybe i could have received even a better price if i would have gone strictly online but by buying from a LBS i get great service, easier warranty work, stuff to try before i buy, great advice, etc. in essence, it helps tremdendously to develop a relationship with your bike shop.

just thought i would share some insight on the bike building process for me.

soon

2008-10-07T14:01:00.002-05:00

it is starting to come around, bits are coming in and the new cross ride should hopefully be ready by southern cross. the frame is in winkler waiting to be coated; it'll be a green brown colour (RAL 8000), hopefully similar to the colour of the '07 speedvagen. the rims are in the city and are probably being deliverd to my empty house as i write this (if only i could train my cats to answer the door and accept the delivery - damn them and their inability to complete simple tasks). but at least this stuff is in...

cool people doing cool things

2008-10-02T10:50:00.002-05:00

this is a story about a guy doing urban farming that gets rewarded for his efforts.

weekend update

2008-09-29T11:08:00.009-05:00

busy but excellent weekend. started off by working on the house. almost all the studs are up and new front door and all the windows are in; next step the insulation and then the siding.

after working on the house mrs. dr. and i went out for dinner, but this was more than just going to a resturant, we borded a bus and headed out to an organic farm for a dinner put on by organza and the dandelion resturant.

mrs. dr and alberto on the bus

the farm

appetizers served on a board

the table

sunday was race day (see the mucr blog for details). the race was perhaps one of the toughest that i've had. after the preliminary sorting out of positions i found myself in about 7th place, behind olli, dave d, adrian, brian s, tom and don s. things became more interesting when tom went down because his pedal came out of his crank (seems like standing up on the pedals and cranking hard and then having you pedal come out equals catastrophe). dave d flatted and suddenly i found myself in fifth, the only problem was i was all by myself. the reason that was a problem was there was a train of death behind me working to catch me - which they were doing rather effectively.

the train

dj broke from the train and soon passed me. for once i managed to jump on his wheel as he passed me worked hard to hang on (luc and allan were still on our tails and not giving up). dj tried a couple of times to drop me, but i managed to stay with him, catching up every time. heading into the last lap i decided to see if i could pull ahead of dj and drop him with a short sprint - didn't work; dj stayed on my wheel.

dj and i going over the hill

because dj was drafting i decided to slow the pace a little not wanting to do all the work and have dj pass me on the final sprint - i had to have something in my tank. at the same time i had to keep an eye on allan who was behind us, i did not want to bring him into the picture as well. coming around the last corners and heading into the last 150m straight away i was planning on when to start my sprint when i heard dj shifting behind me. knowing that it would take him at least 1 if not 2 pedal strokes to get into gear i immediately jumped on my pedals and started my sprint and some how i managed to hold him off long enough to beat him by a wheel - my god, that was hard.

thanks to jonny g for taking my camera and capturing these pictures.

on a happier note

2008-09-23T09:53:00.002-05:00

okay, maybe the last post contained too much detail, but hey racing can be ugly at times.

looks like the cross frame is done, now we need to find the powdercoat guy in squamish. i asked mike to have the frame coated out there but his guy has not been getting back to him. may just have it done here again - any ways, it should be here soon. yeah!

as the stomach turns

2008-09-22T14:09:00.002-05:00

was wondering when it would happen: 24 hours of 9 mile, any one of the manitoba races, test of metal, buffalo pound.... every once in a while my gut decides to, well, kick me in the gut and make a day of racing less than pleasant; yesterday was one of those days.

the day started well and it was good turn out. temps were cool at the beginning of the race, but warmed up quickly. the course was a nice layout for an 8 hour event, a nice mix of challenging up hills (not too crazy), rolling flats, speedy downhills and one or two technical sections. for the single speeder there were three hike-a-bikes for the first couple of laps (or more if you have the leg stamina) which morphed into additional hike-a-bikes as the day wore on. the first few laps went really well, but this turned quickly. in these events your first two laps are fine, however i find laps 3 and 4 are usually quite difficult. laps 3 and 4 are not so much a huge physical challenge, more of a mental challenge because you realize that you are going to be doing this for the next 6 hours and it is going to be a phyical and mental grind. the reason it is such a mental grind is that you know what to expect on every lap and there are sections you qucikly begin to despise because they are phyisically tough and you know that your are going to do those sections over and over again. once you except the challenge you can get on with your ride, settling into your rythym - that is if your stomach decides to behave. upset stomaches and bowels are a challenge present in every endurance event, and yesterday i lost the challenge mid way through lap 6. what did it cost me? 1 velo artisan bread singlespeed cyclocross cycling cap (something needs to sacrificed when one does not carry TP (if you are riding at birch and you come across a vab ssc hat it would be best to leave it be). that was it, my day was done, having suffered these bouts before there was no need to try and continue on which was too bad because i had 6 laps in 4.5 hours, although the last lap was about 15 minutes slower than it should have been. c'est la vie.

2008-09-15T21:42:00.003-05:00

the festival of belgian sports took place on saturday and mrs. dr. partook in her first 'cross event, no, her very first sporting event where she was not forced or obligated to particpate because of school. not only did she race cross, she bowled and competed in pole archery where she took down one of the birds.

here are just a few pictures of her cross participation.

XC aching

2008-09-08T09:01:00.002-05:00

XC8 was a slug fest this year which saw over a 1000 feet of vertical climbing per lap, coupled with no real recovery sections (downhills don't really count because you can't sit and spin), making this year's event a very tough challenge. you can tell that paddy has benefited from the move to lethbridge (altitude and hills to climb) and is riding really strong finishing first in the singie speed category. dave persevered and put in another gutsy effort to finish third behind pat doyle and and paddy. i managed 7 laps in 7.5 hours (i think) which i was happy with considering the difficulty of the course that had anywhere from 5-8 hike-a-bikes per lap depending on the will and leg power, in fact a lot of the gear heads out there were pushing it also. greg had a really good race and there was a great manitoba contingent at this year's event: allan r, shawn z, mike k, bill a, seema, and young luc (am i missing someone?). photos and results will be up soon.

sweet finds

2008-09-01T15:28:00.003-05:00

yesterday we had a great ride out in morden. tinker tim, jl, james, scott, ger ger, matt (not matt h but a local matt) and myself had great time in the heat, humidity and wind on the lake and trans canada trails. some definte happenings on the lake trail with new lines being marked and going into development soon (i would have some pictures but the new camera is in the shop for repairs) - as if they don't have enough trails. any ways, after the ride we stopped at the world's best trail head shop and i spyed a set of these on james' product board (but in the 9 speed variety). seems like james brought these in for a customer and they were never installed and ended up sitting on the shelf for some time. these were exactly what i was looking for. the plan is to set up the new cross bike with paul thumbie shifters on the top of the handle bars and to do this i needed a pair of bar end shifters. my plan is to run a solid housing from the shifter to the derailleur so i can easily switch from singie to mutli speed without having to remove the bar tape from the handle bars all the time. james gave me a sweet deal and in turn i took them off his hands.

this is the stuff

2008-08-28T10:28:00.002-05:00

let me know if you want one

busy boy

2008-08-27T11:16:00.002-05:00

been busy with little time to update the blog.

here's a question; who's going to XC8? it sounds like there will be a decent contingent of MB riders going - it'll be a blast, consider coming.

jaded or not

2008-08-20T09:46:00.004-05:00

the olympics provides for some cool moments, so far my favourites are:

the 105 kg class in weightlifting - the german dude lifts 7kg over his personal best to win the gold on his last attempt - his reaction is priceless, even more so because he promised his wife he would win gold at the olympics and then lost her to a car accident shortly there after.
simon whitfield winning silver in the triathlon - it looked like he was done and rather than giving into the 'i'll settle for fourth demon' (if you race you know this demon) he makes an unbelievable charge and gets silver.
the men's eights in rowing - these guys know how to put everything on the line and pain be damned.

yipee

2008-08-15T09:54:00.003-05:00

well, things are starting to move again on the new 'cross ride. emails with mike truelove were exchanged this week and with some good luck i should be getting the new frame by mid-september.

started collecting parts and here's what i am going with:

thomson stem and seat post
chris king headset
bontrager handle bars - morgan gave me his old ones, thanks morgan
tektro brake levers - cane creek's without the cane creek price
paul's brakes - neo-retro front and touring canti rear
chris king hubs - these if i can get them, road if i can't
mavic open pro rims - already have a set, with revolution spokes
truvativ cyclocross cranks - 175mm
crank brothers egg beater pedals

i'll be setting this up as a singie speed, but have left myself the option to run gears in the future (mike is going to weld a hanger onto the paul dropouts). will probably run paul thumb shifters when i do.

folkarama

2008-08-12T18:05:00.003-05:00

another year another 'cross display working at the belgian pavilion. contrary to popular belief, one is not required to wear a skinsuit while working at this display. belgian beer and fries with mayo are pretty much the order of the day, that and explaining that cross bikes really do work better than mountain bikes for racing (people are quite dumbfounded by DVD of the 2006 world championships and watching the racers ride through the mud and sand).

life becomes a blur by the end of the evening

luc ready to answer the first question that comes his way

more 24 hrs

2008-08-06T21:46:00.002-05:00

it was a blast doing the race with these guys. having a positive, fun loving group makes the show that more enjoyable.

weekends dealing with demons

2008-08-04T19:06:00.011-05:00

24 hour racing is a curious creature; attractive to some, cruel to all, and satisfying to those who participate.

on thursday cam, dallas, luc, colin, laura and i left for wausau after work. after a quick stop in grand forks for dinner at burger time (it was going to be subways but someone forgot to tell colin's gps unit that the subway programmed into the map had recently been moved).

the crew getting dinner

after a bite to eat it was off to minneapolis where we were going to crash for the night. because of our late start we only rolled in to our hotel around 1:30 in the morning which meant that it was going to be short night, not a good thing to do prior to a 24 hour race.

mrs. dr. and i shared a room with the bikes - the boys got to fight over the two double beds in the other room

after a quick breakfast at denny's it was off to wausau

after we arrived in wausau we set up our camp and then it was off to town to buy supplies for the race. buying the food can be a tricky thing, you need to find something that tastes good, gives you the calories you need (about 250-300 an hour), and is something that is so easy to take and that won't repulse you later on. one of the hardest and most important aspects to 24 hour racing is nutrition; you need to stay on top of it or you will bonk or get an upset stomach which is a sure fire way to knock yourself out of the race. the foods of choice this race were boost, tapioca pudding, cherry strudels, and the odd banana which was washed down with water and some gatorade (got be careful with that stuff - too much and you'll get an upset stomach because of the sugar content). after the shopping it was time for a ride.

by friday afternoon we were on the trails for the pre-ride

colin coming out of the technical singletrack

after the pre-ride we registered, had dinner, and settled down for the night.

the next morning we set up our station on the course and got ready for the race. i decided to keep an easy gearing for the race and ran 34X19 and swapped out the rigid fork for a suspension fork hoping this would make for an easier race. with the food and water station set up it was time to race.

just before the start of the race; it was too hot to wear the dark jersey which was saved for the night laps.

the start line

finding alberto

speaking of sweet jerseys, i got to get myself one of these

the race started pretty well and i got towards the front following the le mans start. this was good because it meant that i could ride the first sections of the single track rather than walking through it which most of the riders have to do on the first lap until the group spreads out. cam and i started out pretty hot in hind sight (our first 3 lap times include 2-10 minute breaks during each lap as we stopped at our support tent for food and water) and it caught up with us quickly as we both experienced cramps on the 3rd lap - cam's more serious than mine.

dallas loading up for another lap

dallas had the better strategy; slower more even paced laps with less breaks in between each lap. dallas would come in after each lap behind me and leave before i would be ready to start the next lap; i would catch him, we ride together and then get separated on some single track later on the lap. if i would have been smarter i would have pace myself better as i soon started to spend more and more time between each lap getting ready for the next one coming up.

by 6:00 we had to get our lights on the bikes

as night came i was starting to get beat up. it is one thing to do a 24 hour race as a member of a team where you get a chance to recover between each lap, it is another thing to go out there lap after lap and get beat up by the roots and rocks that wait for you on the trail. riding the laps becomes especially difficult at night as the smoother lines you ride during the day are harder to find because of the artificial light changes the way everything looks and you are getting more and more tired, making it difficult to control your bike and pick those good lines. it is also the night time when the demons start to creep into your brain.

me dealing with the demons

it is also at night when you start to play mind games with yourself: how many laps you can do, when and how long you should rest, 'maybe i should lie down for a little while...,' i'm not hungry so i won't bother to eat; stuff like that which takes laps out of you. i finally succumbed to the tired demon at 5:30 and lay down for a short nap complaining to no one in particular that i lost my soul somewhere along the way.

in the morning wondering if i still had it in me to go out for another lap

dallas - the king of this stuff - knows how to do these type of events. here is with a cup of joe that mrs. dr. kindly picked up for us when she came back to the race site in the morning.

cam and i finally fought off the demons and managed to get our gear back on go out for one more lap. i am glad that i did because i would have been disappointed if i had not managed to do at least 13 laps this year. i completed 13 laps last year, but apparently the course was 2 miles longer this year (?) which means i covered more distance - a goal that was important to me

it really hurt to get back on the bike

many, many, many thanks to mrs. dr. and colin for their help during the race. support is important to doing these races. without them it is so hard to keep going because there is so much more to do and think of other than riding your bike.

the crew

more to come...

weekends not working on my house

2008-07-31T08:03:00.004-05:00

hoping this is not a wisconsin death trip ....

dallas, cam, luc, colin, mrs. dr, and i are off to wisconsin today for the 24 hours of 9 mile (there is still time to join us). if you are under house arrest or quarantined because of suspected avian influenza and you have some time to kill you can follow the progress of the race here (apparently there are live updates with their new timing system).

have a good weekend - we sure will

weekends not riding my bike

2008-07-28T17:21:00.010-05:00

the long drawn out saga of our house renovations continued this weekend with some actual progress being made. i've attached some pictures as well as a mock-up of what we hope the house will look like when we finish (laura hopes this will be sometime before we retire). i used a cool little program called google sketchup do the mock ups; it is free download and you can do some neat things with it.

removing the stucco took place in spring and we've lived in a tar paper shack since then.

the north wall stucco removal

removing the tar paper so we can start building up the walls. the plan is to put is to add 2" of insulation to the exterior and then cover this with hardie board (see diagram at the bottom).

the new window

tyvek - apparently it works better if you put it on upside down

mock-up of the back of the house. the hardie board siding will be cut into 3' X 8' sheets with the cut offs being used for the gable end. we hope to put a metal roof on - maybe in spring.

front view

friday food file

2008-07-25T09:01:00.003-05:00

something a little different, some interesting articles about food; more political and economics with a fun one thrown in for good measure.

there was an interesting article in the new york times on the celebration of the slow food movement in the US. some time ago i bought the book by carlo petrini which is a collection of essays about the importance and need to slow down and enjoy food and relish in the social interaction, culture, and pleasure that food provides. if anyone wants to borrow this book...

also from the new york times, a link to and interesting post on food subsidies and other agricultural truths (or not) from the freakonomics blog.

finally, like the shedworking blog there is this one on cake disasters. blogs can be really cool.

more on robert lang's origami

2008-07-24T09:51:00.003-05:00

last week' friday fun file prompted some discussion on the origami pieces made by lang. here he explains some the principles involved in making his pieces:

a quick search did not reveal what it cost to buy one of his works, but he does make a living off of it by selling books and his work on commercial projects

mudfest

2008-07-21T08:27:00.004-05:00

race at pinawa this weeked was a wee bit of a mudfest, but that turned out to be a good thing. the mud brought some fun and extra challenges to flat and fast course. the rocks were also a challenge, causing a few flats along the way - that and a two seat post issues (snapped bolt for dr. h. and a snapped seat post for nathan weslake). one of the highlights for me was the last ditch stretch before the finish line when i heard some kid cheering me on from the road, turns out it was teagan algeo cheering me on as he rode his bike alongside me on the road - that was cool. way to go to leanne, for gathered up her first win of the season (i think), and just after moving up to comp.

thanks go to tom and luc for getting me wheels to race on as i am currently without because of hub changing project (hmmmm, maybe it would be a good idea to do something like that after a race and not the night before).

the rider was muddier than the bike

friday fun file - one day late

2008-07-19T14:12:00.004-05:00

started this on the fgbc blog site before i took my hiatus - time to start it up again.

read about this guy in the new york times magazine some time ago. i have always admired people who enjoy craft and mathematics (which is really weird because i am so bad in this discipline). robert lang is one of the leading practitioners in art of origami. originally a published physicist and engineer, lang became a full time origami artist - go to his site and you see why (i particularly like the inscets).

tarantula made from one sheet of paper with no cuts

a wednesday night spazz attack.

2008-07-17T09:34:00.004-05:00

another wednesday night race has come and gone. only 5 expert races showed up and i finished third, right in the middle. seems like this year is the resurrection of crash - my moniker before i took on the name of alberto; just as i was coming into the finish i took a look at my watch to check my time (like i wouldn't be getting that information any ways?!?) only to look up to find myself heading towards a lonely scrub oak. a quick bail to the right saved my ass. the last time i did something that bone headed was in my first year of racing at birch when i looked over my shoulder to see who was passing me causing me to veer off the path and crash into the bush.

on another note, our friend gianni has garnered some well deserved attention from this cool blog site.

sunday ride

2008-07-14T18:00:00.003-05:00

tom and i headed to ingolf on suday. great day for riding

tom tries the climb

tom on the "stairs"

to say there was a little water would be an understatement

yard work

2008-07-13T04:50:00.006-05:00

well, saturday was a day to remember. i don't think i have ever seen a crappier day in july. i can't imagine what it was like out at the folk festival. speaking of the folk festival (segwaaaaay), the front yard project is finally starting to take shape. two years ago i decided that lawns were boring monocultures - well that, and i was tired of cutting the damn thing every five days. so i decided to kill the lawn and replace it with xeriscaping. (interesting info here and here on xeriscaping) why the reference to the folk festival, well to kill it the lawn i placed tarps over it for a whole summer - thereby making it look the tarps placed in front of the main stage at the folk festival

any ways, the lawn finally died after a year (my neighbour thought that roundup would work pretty well too - tarps get better attention) and after rototilling i replaced the tarp with woodchips

well, we are into the final phase of this project and we started planting native plants, grasses, bushes, and trees in place of grass. i anticipate this final phase should take 5-7 years before everything is mature.

the picture is becoming complete

2008-07-10T13:10:00.004-05:00

while in squamish i was lucky to stay with mike truelove, the builder of my 29er frame. while i was there i put down a deposit for a cross frame, the final (well - nothing is really ever final, but definitely final for the next few years) bike in my collection. after some research and discussion with tom, i sent mike an email with details of how i would like the frame built, here are some of the particulars:

A. Specs
1) Seat tube - 600 mm
2) Top tube - 595 mm
3) Chain stay - 425 mm
4) Head tube - 220 mm* (11/8"dia)
5) Rear spacing - 130 mm
6) Bottom bracket drop - 70 mm** (68mm shell)
7) Head tube angle - 72.5
8) Seat tube angle - 72.5
9) Stand over height - 850 mm

* I would like the head tube to be a little higher coming up from the top tube - sort of sticking up a bit if that make sense.
** I will be using 180mm cranks (most likely SRAM Rival). My Surly travel bike has a drop of 66mm - plenty of pedal clearance with the 180's I have on there, would this be too much?

B. Features
1) Paul dropouts with a hanger added
2) Canti brake bosses - circular guide stop coming from the seat stays if possible
3) Brake guides on top of top tube
4) Rear derailleur stops on top of top tube. Just two stops on the top tube and two guides on the seat stay - I plan on using a full housing from the top tube to the drop out.
5) Front derailleur, regular number - but fairly high on the seat tube.
6) Water bottle bosses on the seat and down tube

I was thinking of all True Temper tubing if possible, but if there is some good Reynolds kicking around I would not be opposed.

i decided to give myself the option of gears, but will initially set it up as a singie speed.

on another note: tinker tim, kev b, jane and i spent an evening out in the sadilands with some of the body driven riders trying some of the other trails in the area. the trails were good and there were some excellent flow to some sections. they are hoping to be able to create a new race course since they lost 70% of the old course to fire earlier this spring (damn atv riders).

sometimes i am such a spazz

2008-07-07T08:35:00.003-05:00

as predicted, the colours on the bruise have come in quite nicely. its been a while since i managed to add some interesting colours to the normal skin tones...

i am also trying a new method of removing the effects of poison ivy from my leg - the jury is out on this method.

back in the rut

2008-07-05T10:36:00.003-05:00

the falafel place is now open. still some work to be done and pictures to be hung, but they are open for business. in case you don't know their new location you can find them here. mrs. dr. and i are now back into our saturday morning rut.

of rides and envelopes

2008-07-03T23:02:00.010-05:00

first, canada day saw kev b, tinker tim, and i enjoy 50km of riding around the city finding trails to ride. of course, i started off by taking the wrong path through ass forest and quickly found myself in the middle of a swamp which i had to negotiate on foot while carrying my bike on my shoulder - moral of the story: know your paths!!! i quickly joined up with tt and kb and we tooled around on the some of the neat paths this city has to offer.

tinker tim negotiating the pallets in the concrete jungle

those that are going to join the red river racing crew for their sunday extravaganza will have a blast.

so on wednesday i headed off to the bur oak trail for a ride. the round trip was 92km and it was a great evening for cycling. since i was going to leave from work i had to pack everything that i would need for the ride in a backpack.

(foreshadowing)

anyone who races at bur oak likes to ride the trails fast, it improves bikes skills and teaches you the importance of a smooth even riding style. the first couple of laps went well, not blistering, but nice and smooth. after all, this was a ride to work on some skills i would need at 24-9, which is all about riding quickly and evenly which ends up yielding you the most laps at a 24-hour event. on lap 3 i entered the "root cellar", and was enjoying the great lines i was picking through the forest. i was actually enjoying them too much when i caught my right hip on a tree i was cornering. now, most of us, when we ride bur oak, usually come out of there with a few scrapes and bruises, its the way it is on those trails. when we do this we usually ride through it and only notice the damage later when we get home. but this was different, this one i could not continue riding after the contact, this time when i caught the tree as i went by i almost came to a complete stop. for the first time in a long time i actually had to catch my breath - this one hurt.

this will fill out quite nicely

when i got home i took a good look at the damage i inflicted upon my self and found my self with a extra love handle on my right hip, it was actually the size of a small grapefruit and i looked a little lopsided - ouch. the insult to injury occurred later when i pulled the camera out my backpack pocket.

lovely - the camera was f*#ked. nothing like pushing the envelope a little while riding. ces't la vie, i now have a new camera and will be a little more cautious in where i keep it when i ride. lesson learned.

24 hours of 9 mile is just around the corner

2008-07-02T22:19:00.004-05:00

okay, its really a month off but for those planning on going get your registration in soon. mrs. dr. and i have booked a room at the super 8, if anyone else is interested in sharing a room, the rates are reasonable ($67 a night). those that i know that are interested include:

alberto - confirmed
dr. mr. - possible
cam - strong possibility
luc - strong possibility
john m - strong possibility
colin a - support possibility
dallas - possibility

also, there is no time like the present to get ready for the race, so frequent postings about rides in prep of the race will be posted.

how does one go downhill this fast and stay in control!?!

2008-07-01T11:49:00.001-05:00

this is nutty. if you did not see this on how to avoid a bummer life you should watch this. to destroy the field by that much time in a world championship is nuts; easily on par with what floyd did in mountain climb in the tour two years ago, if not more insane. remember, video makes it look three times flatter and tamer than it is in real life.

different type of music video

2008-06-30T15:20:00.001-05:00

the good mrs. dr. showed me this one which is making the rounds with the music types. funny stuff.

reprise

2008-06-30T14:49:00.002-05:00

another year another bad bout of poison ivy. as with last year's bout with the evil weed, it was bad enough again to force to me race in full tights in the middle of summer day. sometimes the challenge of racing singlespeed is just not enoug; sometimes you need the challenge of racing a singlespeed bike while suffering the discomfort of sever poison ivy and being dressed all in black on a hot sunny day. you would have thought i would have learned my lesson last year???

poison ivy sucks

2008-06-28T20:18:00.003-05:00

and mosquitoes do too. it appears that jeans and long sleeve t-shirt are not enough protection against poison ivy spread through the weed wacker. it will be a cold day in hell before i ever work on the bur oak trails again in anything but 2 layers with outer layer being completely water-proof. although not as bad as last year it may be bad enough to require another trip to the doctor. f*#k

ughhh!

2008-06-26T18:55:00.004-05:00

so tom and i headed off to the bur oak trail to do some maintenance and we were determined not to put ourselves in the same poison ivy predicament as last year - some of you may remember.

of course i wish i had taken some of the same precautions at the bring a friend event. this is behind the knee - lovely.

surfacing...

2008-06-26T08:31:00.016-05:00

after too many questions it feels like the right time to bring the blog back to life. the first order of business is a little recap of interesting items and moments form my recent trip out west and back. in the form of a few photos and captions....

mrs. dr. was working at an opera training program in edmonton earlier this summer and she was staying with a lovely couple who lived near the u of a. on the walk to the u of a, where the program was held, she passed by this house where every two or three days the recluse owner would post messages on his garage door; this one was worth noting. if fgbc every considered changing their mission statement this one would be worth considering, but in the plural tense.

also on the walk to the u of a were these two cats, sasha and checkers who greeted mrs. dr. on her way to or home from work. the evil magpie in the picture would torment the two cats by
pecking at their tails - crazy bird.

while in edmonton i tried to find some trails to ride. to help me with this endeavor i dropped into this local bike shoppe and asked for directions. they told me that the trails were hard to find but if i showed up at the coffee shop across the road at 6:30 i could join them for their group ride - enjoyed 2 hours of riding with a bunch of really nice guys and they didn't even charge my $25 to join their club. if you are ever in edmonton, look up the guys at redbike, helpful, and nice shop to boot.

while in vancouver i spent one day riding the trails at simon fraser university. great trails that are xc friendly, while still having some fun stunts to fool around on.

traveling on the lion's gate bridge on my way to squamish

a picture of the back of mike trueloves head. here is pointing out the trails we will be using for the test of metal. at this particular moment he is showing me where i will be bonking.

a picture of some of the forest trails in squamish. there are plenty of trails in and around squamish and they are much more biker friendly for the xc crowd than most of the trails around whistler.

some more of the trails. i think the trunk of the tree that the bridge is built through is a bit on the tiny side

on the way home i stopped in canmore to ride the trails. i spent the night in a campground beside the highway (thank god for ear plugs) and had the classic campfire snack of oka cheese and red wine.

some of the single track trails in canmore. i only had a little time to spend on these trails and would love to spend more time there next year.

after spending some time on the single track in the forest you come out into this nice open field.

Ryan Trebon 2007 cyclocross Nationals Crash

2007-12-19T13:50:00.001-06:00

that's got to hurt in so many ways

ski bike

2007-12-17T07:53:00.001-06:00

having taken up the misery sticks this year, as well as purchasing a pass for the windsor park nordic centre this year, i wanted to try and ride my bike to most of the ski trails in winnipeg. after looking at several options for transporting my skis on my bike (i.e. strapping them alongside the top tube) i settled on the bob trailer with a rack made of pvc pipe. the system works great; the inaugural trip took 50 minutes from my house to windsor at an even pace.

phase 2

2007-12-05T00:22:00.001-06:00

last night was christmas for me. put together the sledgehammer (my silly name for the bike - stolen from napolean dynamite) with some borrowed parts as i need to wait for a few parts to come in. it is here that i need to bow to the wisdom of paddy - if i had ordered everything months ago and received it then i would be looking at one or two trinkets which would be very pretty but somewhat unhelpful for the construction of the bike (i guess this is how shops keep somewhat of a normal semblance of inventory, by listening but not acting on every knee jerk whim of impatient customers - sigh). any ways, here are some pictures of the evening:

the lewis getting stripped of the cranks and headset. anybody need a large single speed frame that comes in at under 3.5 lbs?

like the chain on your bike, keep your mechanic well lubricated

the naked frame

i have a 140mm rotor on the back; to accommodate the brake tab/wheel location we added an additional spacer to move the brake a touch higher

the obligatory chain line shot

sledgehammer

the sledgehammer comes in at just over 21 lbs with these tires (and tubes) - this should drop by .5 lbs with new tubeless tires and other stuff

phase 3 will be the addition of the final components and the decals (minimal) and headbadge . i also need to figure out the correct stem length as the effective top tube length is slightly longer than that of the redline. phase 4 will be improving the engine that drives this thing, which is much harder and takes longer (and may not be possible) than actually planning, collecting the parts, and putting the bike together.

thanks to the mike t., tom, paddy, and especially mrs. dr. who supports my silly habit. woo hoo!

phase 1 pt. 2

2007-12-05T00:19:00.000-06:00

the other photos that did not load this morning.

phase one

2007-12-04T07:01:00.001-06:00

crap - there was suppose to be a couple of other photos of the frame on the blog when i got to work. tried to download three photos just before i left for work so i could do my silly little write ups with my morning java - guess it didn't work.

things i discovered about my frame:
it comes in at 4lbs 7.8oz - sweet
it is not a 27.2mm seat tube (guessing it might be 27.0 - will find out at the shop)
it looks very nice with the new wheelset i had built up (black stan's rims, black revolution spokes)

more later

this just in...

2007-11-24T09:28:00.000-06:00

well not really, it was in earlier this week, but it is now in this province. the hard thing is, i have not actually seen it in the flesh so to speak. the frame was sent directly to winkler. cousin john picked it up for me and dropped it off at powder coat shop on friday. he was nice enough to send me the following pictures of the raw frame. the colour of the frame is going to be RAL 9001 (an off-white)

with any luck i will be driving to winkler next weekend to pick up the frame (and with more luck, to put the bike together so i can do a loop of the lake trail).

mncx2007, and don't believe your own press

2007-11-19T19:22:00.000-06:00

so state's has come and gone for another year, and if you have never gone you should really go (i am looking at all fgbc members - think of it, $35 gets you into the best cross party in town, even better than cross 'tona).

cam, ian and i left early friday and got to minneapolis in time to stop at both one on one and hurl's c-r-c coffee bar. saturday started off with the stop at the sunny side up for breakfast. having learned from last year's fiasco of ordering huevos rancheros for breakfast (and also witnessing what biscuits, gravy and italian sausage did to the good dr.), i ordered the oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar. this proved to be a much more reasonable breakfast, with none of the after effects of 'oh crap, i think i am going to see my breakfast again' after 2 laps of the race. after breakfast we arrived at the course and quickly registered. cam and ian had the option of the 35 minute singlespeed category, or the 60 minute (cat 1&2)/35+ category, while i had the options of the singlespeed or the 45 minute 45+ category. cam and ian chose the singlespeed and i chose the 45+ which meant that we would go off at different times (cam and ian were in the first "b" wave, and i was in the second). b1 was huge, starting 92 riders, while there were only 60 riders in my wave. if there is one thing you should experience in your biking life, it is the feeling of starting a race with 60-90 racers surrounding you as you leave the line - cool. cam and ian started a little back in the pack but managed to make their way through the ranks to finish 4th and 10th in the singlespeed category, an excellent result. having had enough of cam kicking my ass this season it was nice not having to race him in my category, of course i now had a mess of cat 3 and other 45+ guys to deal with that were going to kick my butt all over the place. the start of the race was good, but i found myself in the middle of the road which was not a good a place to be because of the crazy washboard that made up that part of the road. after negotiating the start i quickly settled into my race. i received some good advice from ian and cam and avoided some of the pitfalls they experienced with the start of their race (cam found himself squeezed into the snow fence, and on top of the fence at one point when too many riders bottlenecked into one of the first corners). highlights of the race included cheers of "go winnipeg" by the kenwood boys, passing a cat 3 guy on the inside corner going into the corners while on the uphill climb, and taking a whiskey hand-up at the double barrier. it was a good race, where i did not get lapped by the leaders (a goal this year - which i met in most of my races). checking the results after the race it initially looked like i finished in 2nd place for the 45+ category which was very surprising - but this was latter dispelled when i checked the official results today; 11th in the 45+ which was not bad (not too confident about this as they had ian listed as sam hall, they missed jesse lalonde in the "a" category, and cam and ian thought that i was higher than this based on the guys that came in ahead of me - but official is official).

the "a" was complete nutty with more whiskey hand-ups, dollar primes on the ground and barriers, insane bunny-hopping of the double barriers, firecrackers thrown at the feet of the leader, great tunes all over the course, and a guy dressed up as death stalking all the riders. this and the 24 hours of nine mile really need to make it on to the calendar of future fgbc events, right up there with the annual spring ride.

more alberto photo's here.

getting closer

2007-11-12T22:51:00.001-06:00

this in today from mr. truelove...

Hi Hal,
the frame is pretty much done.
I would like to stamp a serial #, usually 6 or 7 numbers or letters of your choice.
The balance owing: the DT was less $, but the dropouts were more $, and more work. So it kind of balances out. I'd like to keep the price at $900
so,
$900 + $54gst = $954
subtract $450 deposit

balance owing $504.00

the frame is being shipped to winkler and powder coated by enviro-tech

hope to have it in a couple of weeks. here are the two pictures that came with today's highly anticipated email:

(i really like them paul drop outs)

okay, now i am excited

2007-11-07T15:38:00.000-06:00

here we go, this was in my inbox - i am going to be checking my email way too often over the next few days

the down tube is in and the top tube, head tube, and down tube are attached

cx provincials

2007-11-06T18:36:00.000-06:00

as always, a blast. in fact the whole cross season has been a blast to this point - well, the civic park course was more than painful, but still fun in a sick sort of way. mud, pea gravel, turns, climbs, the course had it all. a few quick observations:

singlespeeders rocked, taking 7 out of the top 10 spots in the senior event
the mud bog was more than a challenge, running it was better than riding in terms of racing because your bike stayed clean and if you were not riding a mountain bike, it was more often miss than hit
39X17 was good, but i think 39X18 would have been better - scott m. and i discussed the merits and difficulties of singlespeed cross and it is the acceleration out of the corners where we can, if pushing too big a gear, lose a lot of ground to the gear-heads. of course having said that, long straights also prove challenging - it seems like we're damned if we do, damned if we don't. definite benefit is not having a derailleur spin into your spokes in the mud (sorry allan).
belgian beer is wonderful, especially when accompanied with fries and mayo
there might be no better club house than the belgian club (waiting for the flames on this one)
pea gravel sucks - took me 200 -300 meters to get clipped in after every run through the stuff.
there are no better pictures than cross pictures (kevin, dave b, aiden's (with some help from me))
the fans at provincials (and all cross races) make racing even more fun
thanks to ian, tom, olympia, and everyone that helped put on a great event.

apparently i am too tall...

2007-11-03T15:27:00.000-05:00

so, on friday i had this email in my mailbox

Hi Hal,
I ran into a snag on your bike. The down tube I have here is not long enough. A 29er has a lower BB 'drop' and your top tube (25") is pretty long. Those factors combine to create a long distance between the BB and head tube. The reynolds 853 tube I ordered is pretty standard (680 mm) Your bike needs a DT about 710 mm long I checked the specs from reynolds and they DO offer a DT that is 730mm, however I can only get what the distributor in California stocks. I will find out tomorrow. I also have access to True Temper tubes. They have an 'OX platinum' series at the top of the line, it IS long enough ( 740mm) to work. I also moved the jig around a bit to find out what I could build with this tube. The closest to your geometry I could get was a 24.75" TT (not 25) and a 71.5 deg ST (not 73) I know this kind of sucks, I've made lots of 29er frames, but none this big. Unless the longer reynolds tube is available (this is unlikely) I guess its a choice between the true temper or modifying the geometry. thanks mt

so, it looks like i won't be having 853 on the down tube. the geometry is more important than the material, and besides going to the OX platinum is more of a lateral move than a vertical one. i asked MT his opinion and he likes both, saying that i would not notice the difference in ride characteristics between the two.

looks like the shipping date will be sometime during the week of nov. 12-16. i am going to have it shipped directly to enviro-tech in winkler who is doing the powder coating and clear coat ($125).

yipee.

sweet

2007-10-26T12:27:00.000-05:00

found this in my mailbox this afternoon...

Hi Hal,
OK, I just got those dropouts, should be starting your bike early
next week.
i'll keep you posted.
mt

frame update

2007-10-19T17:02:00.000-05:00

received an email from mike truelove, and it looks like there is movement happening on the new bike front.

here are some specifics for the bike:

29er singlespeed

head tube angle: 72 degrees
seat tube length: 21.5"
seat tube angle: 73 degrees
top tube length: 25" (sloped)
chain stay length: 17.5"
BB height 12"

seat tube and down tube will be reynolds 853
top tube is tange ultimate
seat stays and chain stays will be reynolds 725
dropouts are paul single speed rear drop outs with axle keepers
adjustable disc mount

other details:
two water bottle mounts and guides for hydraulic brake lines

the bike will be built with the following:
thomson elite seatpost
selle italia slr gel flow saddle (if it comes back from warranty)
race face next sl handlebar (31.8 mm)
ritchey pro stem
chris king headset
avid jucy 7 hydraulics
pace rc29 carbon fork
truvativ stylo cranks (180mm)
egg beater candy pedals

i'll have two sets of wheels for this bike
set 1 (just built by the poosher) will be tubeless with notubes ztr rims, revloution spokes, white industries hubs, and a 16/18 dos freewheel (tires to be determined)
set 2 i will use with tubes. this gives me flexibility to use different tires and ability to use these wheels on my cross bike. they have mavic open pro rims, revolution spokes, and chris king hubs (singlespeed rear).

this is about as close as it gets to being like a little kid at christmas.

we need a drum band

2007-10-11T19:10:00.001-05:00

that time of the year

2007-10-04T20:54:00.000-05:00

the banner of this blog says it is about bikes, beer, and bread - well its october and that means it is time to start baking again.

one helluva race

2007-10-01T14:15:00.000-05:00

one of the better races and cross courses to come our way. fast, with a nice mix of technical sections - also a very pretty course to ride on. probably, one of the best races of the season to watch (too bad for those who missed it). the "b" race ended with a print to the finish line between rick y and dan lockery - a great race where rick had the lead the whole race as dan continued to make up ground lap after lap, finally catching him with 3 to go. dan took the lead going into the final lap, but rick caught and passed him at the line. there was a lot of support from the "a" racers and it was a riot watching dallas and others rag several "b" racers, while giving support to others. in fact the support for all the riders was classic - pure cowbell madness. The "a" race also ended in sprint to the line between ollie and daniel with daniel taking it by a wheel or less. luc rocked and almost stole 5th from jon b in a sprint to the line. there was some classic racing go on in the middle of the pack as cam and tom broke out on their own as jon, kuc, brain s and I worked together to try and reel them in at various points. eventually brian fell off the back and the rest of us conitnued our pursuit of the second tier crown in the "a" race. cam got too far ahead of us but the lead between the rest of us changed hands several times. jon broke out alone eventually, and tom also created a gap. luc and i found ourselves trying to catch tom somewhere in the middle of the race. we worked together for 3 laps and managed to pull tom in and the three of us rode together for a bit. luc jumped again and he and tom took off after jon - I just couldn't hold their wheels and settled into 8th place with nothing left to try and catch tom. luc managed to reel in jon and the two of them sprinted to line where jon won by three inches. sweet stuff. i was pleased with my race, finally making it through a race without getting lapped by the leaders, a first for me in an "a" race.

keeping up with the jones's

2007-09-20T19:43:00.000-05:00

okay, i made the leap into 29er-ville at the beginning of sumer more on a lark than a well laid plan. in spring i thought that i would be racing the bianchi lewis and using the redline as a fun bike. what i did not realize at the time was that this bike, the redline, would become my preferred choice for a race bike and that the bianchi would just end up sitting in the basement (hope to be selling it soon). at the end of this season i decided that i wanted to get a lighter frame and decided to look into buying a new frame. after consulting with the poosher and paddy at the shoppe i have finally made a decision on a custom made fame from mike truelove. some of you may recall that i was looking into this earlier, but did not bite at that time. well, that is no longer the case as mike and i have sent several emails back and forth and a new custom made frame will soon be in the works. so far i have decided on a more aggressive head angle, more slope on the top tube and slightly longer top tube. the bike will be mostly made from reynolds 853 and maybe some tange ultimate tubing. even though the frame is not scheduled to be built until some time in october, i am way too excited - almost like a small kid at christmas. more details will follow.

wednesday morning cross training

2007-09-12T11:13:00.001-05:00

who ever thought that running cross training rides the morning after a fgbc tuesday night ride was a good idea may need to reconsider their decision making abilities.

(does this look like it is going to lead to high levels of participation for cross training?)

by the time i got to bed it was 1:00 am, and the thought of getting up at 6:30 to be at omand's creek park at 7:00 sat about as well as the sometimes skanky beer that is served at the f-n-h. regardless, i rolled out of bed with the encouraging words of mrs. dr. trailing behind me ("are you nuts?"), and got into cycling gear. half of my motivation for getting out of bed was that this was going to be good for me, the other half was avoiding the ridicule of the others if i did not show. when i showed up, only deanna and scott were there. with scott still on the mend, deanna and ran hills, did laps, and practiced our cross dismounts and mounts. after 45 minutes we were done. we headed home feeling good about the training, and for me, an added sense of moral superiority that i showed up (soon to be dispelled i am sure)

running laps up and down the hill

this time with the bike

xc8

2007-09-10T09:22:00.001-05:00

last weekend the poosher and i headed out to xc8 for eight hours of joy and pain on the fabulous course at buffalo pound provincial park. we left the city at about 3 pm and headed west

(yet another car window view of the prairies as we speed by)

7 hour later we arrived and promptly set up the tent and had a pint of the good stuff

the morning was cool and we woke up to find a slew of other manitobans had made the trip (dave, seema (sp?), corey smith, shawn zayak, mike kuczer, shane lindsay, and others). it was at about this time that the karma that the poosher was going to experience the rest of the day made itself apparent. at the very first wednesday night race of the season someone left a nice cycling vest at the race site, tom picked it up and carried it around for the next 5 races. since no one claimed it, tom thought he had some nice trail swag for himself. of course the first time he wore it (this weeked) shane identifies the vest as his and tom gives it back - which is not so bad, but tom felt embarrassed. that behind him, tom got ready for the race and just prior to the start did a warm up climb on the hill which was the at the start of the race. anticipating a long day the poosher had selected some tunes for his ipod shuffle and clipped it on to his jersey. he did not turn it on for the warm-up so he did not notice that it had come off during his warm up some where on the hill - where it still lies as i write this post. with the embarrassment of the vest and missing shuffle behind him the poosher settled into the race. on his third lap tom was pushing the pace and attacking a downhill section which was fairly straightforward except for a few bumps and at times a high sided rutted main path - well this got the better of him. as he describes it he knew he was in trouble even before he got in trouble, and the trouble was there was nothing he could do about it. tom caught the rut at a bad angle and slammed hard into the ground, breaking his catlike helmet. it was right after this that i came upon him and he was pretty banged up and shaken. we discussed whether i should go get the medic, but tom said he felt okay enough to ride out - his race and weekend were done.

(morning of the race)

the race course at buffalo pound was excellent, much like birch, but with some really fast twisty flowing single track descents - what a blast and one of the better coursed i have ridden. i was riding the 29er with a 32X20 set up which was find for the the first 4 hours, after that i wish i had 22 cog for the back, because the climbing started to take its toll. the last 4 laps that i completed were hard as the climbs and bumpy descents (i also like to punish myself by riding a rigid fork) added up. i managed 10 laps and think i finished 7th overall which i was pleased with. dave finished with 11 laps and corey had an excellent race and finished in 6th with 10 laps just ahead of me. seema rocked with 8 laps and managed to make the podium with a third place finish, where she got a medal, prizes, and cheap champagne to spray over the crowd - cool.

following the race the poosher and i packed up and headed back to winnipeg, arriving at 3:30 in the morning; a long day, but well worth it (tom may disagree).

i heart dr. laura

2007-09-03T19:34:00.000-05:00

when it comes to beer in winnipeg, our selection is somewhat limited. we need a better beer store. someone needs to open a fine beer store, just like there are fine wine stores. minneapolis has plenty of fine beer stores, and laura proved that by bringing these fine selections home from her weekend trip to the twin cities. yeah! i am going to put on my belgian cycling socks, pop in a 'cross dvd and enjoy a fine lambic.

friday night fun

2007-09-01T10:41:00.000-05:00

with mrs. dr. out of town visiting friends from her doctorate progam, my social calendar was wide open. with nothing better to do i headed to the shop to hang out and shoot the breeze. paddy was building some wheels, the poosher was helping a friend price out bike parts, al was working the front, and john and adrian were turning wrench in the back. upon discovery that the fridge was bare, i departed for the f-n-h to replenish the stock. upon my return i was pleased to see that jon b and dave had joined the fray. we sat around the back, talked and had few beers as jon's trusty steed got a makeover. when it was time to close the shop jon, dave and i decided to take in a movie. now, i had a couple of beers, jon had a couple of beer, but dave - dave had a couple of beers and a bottle of wine earlier in the day. i had no doubt jon and i would make it to the theater in tact, but dave was another story - would he survive the ride to the theater. the short answer is no - in fact dave wiped out big time on portage avenue as we made the turn to cross the st. james bridge. big ouch (thank goodness for helmets). dave got up, dusted himself off and declared himself good to go - and he was until just before we got to the theater. we stopped so jon could take care of some plumbing issues and when dave came to a stop down he went like a poorly constructed house of cards. dusting himself off, dave once again declared himself good to go and we finished our ride to the theater. arriving at the theater we locked our bikes to the rack - well at least jon and i did, dave on the other hand managed to get the lock on his bike and that was about all. i quickly re-locked dave's bike to the rack and the three of us found our way into the theater to watch the movie. good times and a funny movie with some great lines. after the film we parted ways and i made my way home - what happened to the other two i do not know, but there must be another story there somewhere.

belgian fun in the sun

2007-08-26T07:27:00.000-05:00

the belgian triathlon went off on saturday afternoon - what a blast. the day started with an early morning meeting at the pole archery grounds where myself, tom and ian met to set up the 'cross course

(the poosher surveying the grounds - "yes, it is good")

following the setup i headed back home to get my ultimate gear and make it to assinaboine park for our first playoff game. on the way i had a very president-like moment when i lost control of my bike after hitting a rock on the river trail behind balmoral hall, causing me to careen into a tree - ouch. after a hard fought battle on the ultimate field (we lost - however, our team came back in its second game of the day to win. yeah team.), it was back to the pole archery grounds for the triathlon. the format for the triathlon had one cyclocross rider pared with a bowler, pared with a archer. each team received points based on how the team member did in their event, you could enter any or all of the events. maybe i was still feeling the effects of the run-in with the tree, for whatever reason, i did not put my name in for all of the events and found myself only entered in the cyclocross.

ian and eric figuring out the teams

cyclocross went first and we had to race around a short course which was all grass. nothing kills me more than racing on grass - it sucks you dry from the get go.

tim on the 'cross course

the next event was belgian bowling. belgian bowling consists of rolling a beveled disc, which curl as they roll, at a stake placed in the ground.

jon

gianni

apparently tom has signed us up as team for the belgian bowling league this winter. our team name is mucr-vecken(sp?) and our team uniform - yellow 'lion of flanders' cycling socks.

the final event was the pole archery. pole archery is where you try and knock birds off their perch on a pole 110 feet above your head with a bow and arrow. the arrow's have blunt ends which is a very good thing for obvious reasons.

birds on the 'fork'

here is what it looks like from below

tim shooting with his homemade bow (he built this while in high school)

arlene shooting at the women's target which was 40 feet away and horizontal

sol shooting

the next four pictures show colin preparing to shoot

of course the final event of the day was going back to the belgian club for their other national activity - hooray for the belgians!

tom's pictures from wed night race

2007-08-20T12:03:00.001-05:00

pictures from the last wednesday night race. only one more race this year coming this wednesday. unfortunately i will not be there to fly the fgbc - anyone willing to step up to the plate?

me looking at the back of the braunonator's bike (this is the only thing i ever get to see - and only for the first 7 minutes of the race). i know i look like some soccer ref with the knee high socks, but damn, i hate that poison ivy

arlene and sol

good times

bianchi for sale

2007-08-17T19:55:00.001-05:00

selling this bike. only ridden 4 times and it's time to let it go. reason: went to 29er ville.

option 1: frame (21") and fork (reba team) for $700
option 2: above and wheels for $1000
(wheels are mavic 717, revolution spokes, white industry hubs, and white industry 17t freewheel - wheels are two seasons old)

gianni's job

2007-08-17T14:03:00.001-05:00

yesterday tom, ian, paddy, and i went for a ride to scout cross courses for the upcoming season. prior to the ride ian told me had a good day a work because he got to take pictures of llamas. here is ian's picture of cinnamon