Sure is nice to actually be on the bike outside. Two days in a row no less. About 2 hours on Friday. 3.5 hours on Saturday. Saturday's ride was really nice. No too much wind. Roads were clear, but a little wet from melting snow. I ended up getting a little wet from the spray but never got too cold. I started feeling pretty tired with about 45 mins to go. I guess riding this much back to back is something I'll need to get used to again. Hopefully over the holidays. Anyways got home, did a few things with the kids and passed out for 2 hours. I couldn't believe how tired I was. Oh well. Good training....hopefully I can keep it up so I have some sort of conditioning for the 24 hours in the Old Pueblo in February.

I found this old photo from many years ago. Anyone guess from what race it was at? Hint....my best ever 24 hour solo result. Hopefully my form this year will help my replicate that result.

Steve

Went away all last week to San Diego for work. Now that is the place to ride. Weather was amazing. Flying in I could see trails going for miles. Pure heaven. Unfortunately I barely saw the light of day with the seminars I had to attend. But I did come home with a new gadget called the HP iPaq 510 smartphone. Should be fun to play with.
Didn't get any riding in and of course I came home with cold. Feel awful today. Maybe I'll get something in tomorrow. Going to the Leafs game with my son tonight.....kids night out they call it. For $120 you get 2 Leafs tickets, hot dogs and drinks for 2, plus 4 Marlies tickets. Pretty good deal. Hopefully they win.

So I was spending one of my favourite past times on MTBR and came across a post about a Shimano skewer snapping while attached to a bike. Turns out certain skewers made after November 1 2005 can fail randomly. Of course I happen to have a set of XT Skewers that might fall into the recall. The problem is they came off a wheelset that I sold with a bike (with different skewers) and I can't remember what version of XT hubs the wheels had. I'm pretty sure they were pre 2005. I don't have the bill for them either. Not sure what to do. 90% sure they are older that Nov 1 2005. Here is the recall for those who have Shimano skewers. It affects a whole range of skewers (only front)....XTR, XT, Dura Ace etc.

http://bike.shimano.com/publish/content/cycle/sac/us/en/news_and_information/news0/front__quick_release.html

In other news, got some solid riding in over the weekend. Got over the flu thing and felt okay riding. A short ride on Saturday and a long one on Sunday. I was slowed down by the Milton Santa Claus parade a bit....I usually cut through town to avoid a few busy roads but ended up in the middle of the parade. I thought about riding along the parade route since I was wearing my colourful red Hammer Nutrition jacket and might fit in....but since I can't do any wheelies I figured I'd be worthless entertainment and found another route to bypass the whole thing.

There's a guy in Oakville who just rides around town all day doing wheelies....he's known by everyone as wheelie guy....maybe he could teach me?

Steve

Got the flu shot a couple of weeks ago. I have the flu. But it is not completely debilitating, just fever, chills, upset stomach, etc. Only dry heaves. Oh well, weather is crappy outside anyways.

The weekend looks a little better, but the trails will probably be wet so they'll be out unless they are frozen.

Thinking about getting a seasons pass to the Halton Region Conservation Areas which will allow me to ride at Kelso and Hilton as much as I want. I'm not one to go in a back route and ride. I've asked for the family pass for Christmas which basically gets a carload of people in so now all of us can go. We were up at Mountsberg a couple of weeks ago to do research on the Snowy Owl for a project and took a bunch of pictures. I really liked this one in particular of the eagle. All of these birds are rescue birds. Also, nice thing about Mountsberg is they have a couple of bike trails which are perfect for the kids....about 10km long which is just right. The pass gets us in here as well. Lots of good hiking too.

Got in a good ride today. As an experiment I decided to ride the exact same route I did last Sunday which was on Cyclocross tires. Those tires had a tremendous amount of wear on them after just a couple of rides so I have put on the Kenda Small Block 8 which is what I have used in the past. I thought the cross tires would roll a lot faster and be lighter which would increase my speed, but last weekends ride made me wonder if that was really the case. So I got the Kenda's on got on my way. It was pretty chilly today but at least the sun was out which always makes for a good ride. I had on quite a few layers and was drenched when I got home, but I was warm during the whole ride. So last week the route I did took me about 4 hours and 15 minutes. This week was good. I left around 11:30am and had a tailwind for the first half of the ride. Unfortunately the first half is where all the climbing is so I don't benefit as much as if it was on the 2nd half (like last week). I didn't check my time at all during the ride but about 3/4 of the way through I could really feel myself slowing down with a combination of the wind and fatigue. When I finally got home I was really surprised to see that I had finished at 3:25 which means I did the ride in 3 hours and 55 minutes which is 20 minutes faster than last weekend. So I think the Kenda's are definitely faster than the cross tires. I think that makes up a large portion of the time difference....maybe I was feeling better as well although I didn't feel like it. So the Kenda's will be staying on now, maybe I'll save the cross tires for the Paris to Ancaster race....but then again the Kenda's would probably still be faster.

Steve

A little chilly

Sure is cold today. I'm not a big fan of the cold....I'd much rather deal with 100 degree heat personally. Anyways, Santa Claus parade in Oakville was this morning so everyone bundled up and headed out for the 9am start. It was pretty good this year....not too many Shriners this time. After the parade Evan and I headed over to the LBS to pick up a couple of things....a neck warmer and a Knog tail light. The Knog is really cool and just what I have been looking for. Some of my rides have stretched into dusk lately and I want to make sure I am visible.

Once Sue & Noelle got home from the craft show I headed out for about 2 hours on the Niner. Man I am really liking this bike. Hopefully I'll get a nice long ride in tomorrow too.

Steve

Picture of the Niner

A picture of the new Niner.

Got the cockpit all set up now. It is identical to the Asylum. Someone suggested I put a single chainring on the front...next thing he'll tell me to turn it into a singlespeed! I like it the way it is....just need to put on some bigger tires!

Steve