SNOWING!

It is finally snowing. I have a feeling its going to stay around this time. So I got firewood into the house, picked up the dog toys and gave the snowblower a test run.

So i get the s'blower out. plug in the electric start and give it a crank.

whopwhopwhowhopwhhopwhhopwhowhopwhhwp pahh!
whopwhopwhowhopwhhopwhhopwhowhopwhhwp pahh!
hophwhopwhowhpwhopwhopwhophwopwhopwhop pahh!
whopwhopwhowhopwhhopwhhopwhowhopwhhwp pahh!

Humm. I pulled out the spark plug and see that there was no spark. shit. well I hope that NAPA is open. So fly up to Farmingdale, find a new plug and a little started fluid and get it all home.

Give a little spray with the fluid, put in the new plug and give it a go....

whopwhopwhowhopwhhopwhhopwhowhopwhhwp pahh!whopwhopwhowhopwhhopwhhopwhowhopwhhwp pahh!
whopwhopwhopBRAGEBRAGBRABBBbrabrbrabrabrabrbrabababababababb!

Feeling like I just rasied Frankenstein from the dead I bellow into the neighboorhood...

"ITS AHLIIVE!"

Bring on the snow. I got a floating holiday to use tomorrow and a hankerin' to throw some snow.

Bent ride '07

So the weather-people are all excited about a snow storm finally coming. They have been jumping up and down about it for three days now. Give me a break already. Anyway, in a last ditch effort to ride before the snow really flies I squeezed in two rides actually. One on Friday during lunch. My usual loop up to falmouth and back.. -13.somthin' miles at about 18 mph avg.

Then on Saturday i took the 'bent out for a 27+ mile loop around the homelands. I tried to shoot some video footage with my helmet cam but i am having a problem with the download. Apparently, the PC isn't 'seeing' the files when I open the drive. The data is there, as evidenced from the reduced shoot time, but I cant see the files. I fear I may have damaged the video card some how.
But at least the ride was awesome. My legs were blasted. I had an avg. speed of 15.6 mph which is about right for that bike, considering the terrain. One day I need to bring this bike to a flat state somewhere mid-west. Maybe try the RAGBAI in the future.

cant believe it!

In 2006 i thought i had got an early start riding (see march 06 post). But today i just finished my first ride of 2007. January 4, 2007. wow.

Skillins Loop 13.39 miles at 18.5 mph avg.

The weather was overcast, 45 deg.F, and the roads are dry...sandy, but dry.

Im thinking the whole global warming thing could work out to be good...(more on that later)


*its a beautiful day in the neighboorhood*

Cycle Trainers

so my wife calls me. 'HEY! guess what I'm borrowing? Two cycling trainers. and three Carmichale dvd training videos." Cool. so I get these yellow framed kinetic (i think) trainers set up and she tries it out first and got a really good work out. The next day I tried it out with her...so we are in there spinning along and I was just overpowering the thing...after 30 mins i stopped. I was getting sweaty but just not really worked. On tuesday wife...

*sidebar* at this point wife is on a mission to find a trainer. i got her into cycling this year and I have created a monster. which is great! but its all classic wifey this is awesome i want all the equipment now. Of course it has taken me years to get the shit i have, but somehow she has almost everything by the end of her first season. anyway... *

on tuesday she went to the LBS (local bike shop) and managed to bring home (without purchasing it mind you, just borrowing) a different model Kinetic trainer , who the guy at the store..swore i would not be able to over power.

Well, he was right. I busted my gnads last night for 30 mins. I suspect it will be purchased by the end of the week and my abs will be ripped by the end of February.

Dry, dark roads.

So the riding this year has been extended greatly as a result of the lack of snow fall. Which is really making me enjoy the whole global warming concept. Anyway, my riding is way down from the summer peak months but I am still getting out. Though the rides are shorter. Last night I took the Rans in to town to return rental movies.

~11 miles. 46 minutes. 15.3 avg.

I am convinced there is no better way to see the Christmas decorations that people put up this time of year, than to bike by them slowly. The night sky was great from the seat of the 'bent too.

I think in all the ride was very good. But the benefits were far greater. I completely de-stressed. Have re-newed my energy and feel GREAT!

today I feel like...."BRING IT ON!"

Riding is getting cold.

So i managed to do well over 100 miles in November. Im quite happy about that.
This past Sunday I got in 37 on the 'bent. Tonight after getting home from work wife was complaning that I was grumpy. So I said well Im going for a short ride then.

I had all the lights hooked up to the 'bent and with the front fairing breaks a lot of wind and makes the spin more enjoyable. So I took it out for a dark, 24 deg. F, 8+ mile spin around the block.

I arrived home in a much better mood.

I did have one casuality....my backup front light. I was stopped to let a car pass before a made a left hand turn. I started to get going again...my foot popped off and kicked the light right off the mount. While the light still works I now must come up with a way to re-attach it.

Im thinking a large amount of duct tape will take care of it nicely.

Useless commuting statistics

Cycled in from Yarmouth today via Route 1 for the whole length. I thought the 30 degree temps. would be a problem but, no. I chose the right clothing.

0:46.48 minutes
14.28 miles
18.2 mph average speed

on the ride home:

0:41:41 minutes
14.15 miles
20.3 mph avb. S.

and that's on a Trek 520 with rack, panniner full of clothes, tool kit, water and light system. How fast would I be on a Felt?

Cycle-commuting

I live 50 miles from where i work. The driving can be...well, long.
But this year I finally figured out a way to get some extra riding in and bike commute to work. So what I did was first remove the passenger seat in myToyota Tercel to get my bike to fit. This does two things: First, removing the four bolts to the seat was easy and WAY cheaper than buying a rack for the car. Second, if i take Trek to work, it is inside the car and safer from possible bicycle-theives.

Now with that done and lost of drive time to think about it, I realized that I could park my car in Yarmouth at a 'Park n Ride' commuter spot, and ride in from there. 14+ miles, about 45 minutes.

While the logistics are a bit more complicated than being able to go directly from home to work, it is very doable. The only things I must account for are extra time in the lot, getting the bike in, out, wheel on, bags and day stuff organized and the 45 minutes to get in, plus the 15 in the shower. But i got the parking lot time to about 10-15 minutes.

I also cant do this everday, because of equipment I frequently must haul for work. So one day at a job site would gobble up 3 days of ride time. That is a bummer but acceptable.

Anyway, last night was my first commute home in the dark. I have lit my self up with two rear blinky lights(Mars 3.0's) , two white foward lights: a Blackburn X3 as the main and a 3 led 'headlamp' attached to the fork (which lights the spokes up wonderfully) , and a tire fly on the rear valve cap. I also added a small blinking light on the rear of my helmet. As christmas tree like as possible.

It appeard to me that all the cars last night saw me and gave me my due space. The only thing i really worried about was flatting. and my concerns were amplified after mile 5 when i heard this glassy-clang sound under both wheels. Luckily though nothing happend. I made it in 46 minutes last night at 18.2 mph average. A decent speed. I have done it faster, I have done it slower. Im happy, plus i got in 29 miles in for the day.

Cool.

One morning last week I came across this misty potato field in Houlton.