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| First snack stop on our way to the trailhead |
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| One of my favourite views: cross loop. |
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| Start of the 50 |
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| Beaver Trail building |
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| Pipolinka's pit stop |
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| beauty cross territory |
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| the tunnels under the highway |
badger bicycles
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Photos: Doublecross Recce
Thursday, 26 May 2011
hide-a-bike
When I was leaving work the other day I couldn't find my bike... just as panic started to set in and I thought my bike had been stolen from right inside the office, I found it in the transport bay hoisted up to the two storey ceiling. Engineers....
Sunset Series Kickoff
The first Wednesday night race of the year took place last night at Camp Fortune. The course was in good shape in spite of all the rain recently, and the bugs were out in full force.
The elite men's race did 4 laps of the short course, with a modification at the tail end of the loop: the "T&L" descent had been removed from the course and replaced by a series of super-tight bermed switchbacks on the bottom of Clifford. This change sparked some debate, as some riders found it to be too slow, while some thought it didn't hurt to bring down the technicality of the course a little bit. I thought the section was pretty fun (on my 'cross bike), with a nice fast descent leading into a sweeping left hand corner, resulting in a lot more speed being carried through the flat start/finish area.
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| Senior Elite men being led out by Neil |
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| The big sport field |
The elite men's race did 4 laps of the short course, with a modification at the tail end of the loop: the "T&L" descent had been removed from the course and replaced by a series of super-tight bermed switchbacks on the bottom of Clifford. This change sparked some debate, as some riders found it to be too slow, while some thought it didn't hurt to bring down the technicality of the course a little bit. I thought the section was pretty fun (on my 'cross bike), with a nice fast descent leading into a sweeping left hand corner, resulting in a lot more speed being carried through the flat start/finish area.
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| Ryan negotiating the switchbacks |
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| Ryan exiting the switchbacks |
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| Imad after passing in the switchbacks |
It was a successful kickoff to the racing season at Fortune, with many good races yet to come.
Bike Storage
For those of you cycling enthusiasts who live in small apartments or homes (like me), it can be difficult to find enough room for all the necessary bicycles. Of course you need your commuter to get around or to get to work, but you also need your cross bike, mountain bike(s), road bike etc etc etc. Each of these bikes has a specific purpose, and needs to be readily accessible at all times.
In my previous apartment, I was living with fellow bicycle enthusiasts, so bicycle storage wasn't a huge issue. We would either leave our bikes in a sort of bike pile in the entrance or use the hooks from home hardware that you screw into the wall:
While these hooks are cheap and relatively easy to install, they leave huge holes in the walls and it can sometimes be difficult to wrangle your bike up into the hook (especially with MTB tires 2"+). It's also hard to find a suitable spot to thread the hook into the wall in some old apartments where the walls have 6" of plaster and no studs to be found.
There's also the issue of having your bike hanging in a direction it wasn't intended to be stored in, suspended by the wheel. For mountain bikes with hydraulic brakes, hanging a bike like this can be less than ideal as bubbles can head up towards your lever, resulting in squishy brake syndrome.
So as my beautiful fiance and I were preparing to move into our new place, I decided it would be a good opportunity to come up with a new bike storage idea. I heard from a friend of mine that he had built a bike shop style rack from pieces he got at IKEA, and he sent me the link to the instructions. Here's a few photos pulled from there (IKEA Hackers):
Despite the inconvenience of having to go through IKEA looking for individual little pieces, I managed to get everything I needed for the rack and put it all together in one Saturday morning. It ended up costing me about $75, including the hardware and aluminum rod from Home Depot. Here's the first trial of the rack, with the miyata as the guinea pig:
The length of the post can be adjusted for a large range of ceiling heights, and there are three holes in the top allowing you to screw it to the ceiling. The post is very solid without the screws, but I guess they just ensure that the post doesn't get pushed over.
I like this rack because it supports the bikes by the top tube, holding them horizontally, and doesn't require you to drill any holes in the wall. It's also super adjustable and you can actually adjust the height of your two bikes, and rotate them around the post. You could also have two more bikes on the backside of the post, if you had the post further away from the wall, or any number of other helmet/tire/tool/shoe holding hooks and accessories. Plus, I'm not much of an interior designer but it definitely makes the room look nicer (we've gotten lots of compliments so far).
So, if you're looking for an alternative bicycle storage method, I would recommend giving this one a try.
In my previous apartment, I was living with fellow bicycle enthusiasts, so bicycle storage wasn't a huge issue. We would either leave our bikes in a sort of bike pile in the entrance or use the hooks from home hardware that you screw into the wall:
While these hooks are cheap and relatively easy to install, they leave huge holes in the walls and it can sometimes be difficult to wrangle your bike up into the hook (especially with MTB tires 2"+). It's also hard to find a suitable spot to thread the hook into the wall in some old apartments where the walls have 6" of plaster and no studs to be found.
There's also the issue of having your bike hanging in a direction it wasn't intended to be stored in, suspended by the wheel. For mountain bikes with hydraulic brakes, hanging a bike like this can be less than ideal as bubbles can head up towards your lever, resulting in squishy brake syndrome.
So as my beautiful fiance and I were preparing to move into our new place, I decided it would be a good opportunity to come up with a new bike storage idea. I heard from a friend of mine that he had built a bike shop style rack from pieces he got at IKEA, and he sent me the link to the instructions. Here's a few photos pulled from there (IKEA Hackers):
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| The Hardware |
Despite the inconvenience of having to go through IKEA looking for individual little pieces, I managed to get everything I needed for the rack and put it all together in one Saturday morning. It ended up costing me about $75, including the hardware and aluminum rod from Home Depot. Here's the first trial of the rack, with the miyata as the guinea pig:
The length of the post can be adjusted for a large range of ceiling heights, and there are three holes in the top allowing you to screw it to the ceiling. The post is very solid without the screws, but I guess they just ensure that the post doesn't get pushed over.
I like this rack because it supports the bikes by the top tube, holding them horizontally, and doesn't require you to drill any holes in the wall. It's also super adjustable and you can actually adjust the height of your two bikes, and rotate them around the post. You could also have two more bikes on the backside of the post, if you had the post further away from the wall, or any number of other helmet/tire/tool/shoe holding hooks and accessories. Plus, I'm not much of an interior designer but it definitely makes the room look nicer (we've gotten lots of compliments so far).
So, if you're looking for an alternative bicycle storage method, I would recommend giving this one a try.
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| His & Hers cross bikes on the rack |
Thursday, 19 May 2011
2011 Tall Tree Cycles Ride of the Damned
My dad and I decided at the last minute to partake in this year's running of the 2011 Tall Tree Ride of the Damned (RotD). We showed up at the lac-leamy parking lot on sunday morning expecting a hellish day in the rain and cold, with lots of wheelspray and rough road conditions. However as the ride got underway and the rain faded, it turned out to be a beautiful day riding some of the nicest roads in the area. In fact, this ride exposed me to all kinds of new roads around the cantley/wakefield area that I have never ridden before. Some of which were great for the cross bike, with steep paved climbs swoopy long gravel downhills, and rolling gravel through farmland.
The loop took riders all the way up to Paugan Falls, where we crossed the gatineau river on the dam. As seen from space below:
This is somewhere I've never crossed the river before, and it opens up all kinds of possible new routes and rides. It's also quite scenic, with the all the rocks eroded from water rushing through the dam (when they open it up). Shortly after the dam crossing, we stopped in Low where there was water, pretzels, raisins, bananas, and even pre-made PB&J sandwiches available for riders to re-fuel. We then continued on the loop back to wakefield, and followed the usual route from wakefield back to Lac-Leamy (The entire route can be found here). At the end of it all, we were greeted at the start finish area by the smell of freshly cooked burgers, and the lure of salty chips and lots of different salads/beers/veggies.
Kudos to the guys over at Tall Tree Cycles for putting this event together and coming up with such a fantastic route. It was a great day, and a great ride. Pictures from the ride can be found on Tall Tree/Steelwool Bicycles' Flickr.
The loop took riders all the way up to Paugan Falls, where we crossed the gatineau river on the dam. As seen from space below:
This is somewhere I've never crossed the river before, and it opens up all kinds of possible new routes and rides. It's also quite scenic, with the all the rocks eroded from water rushing through the dam (when they open it up). Shortly after the dam crossing, we stopped in Low where there was water, pretzels, raisins, bananas, and even pre-made PB&J sandwiches available for riders to re-fuel. We then continued on the loop back to wakefield, and followed the usual route from wakefield back to Lac-Leamy (The entire route can be found here). At the end of it all, we were greeted at the start finish area by the smell of freshly cooked burgers, and the lure of salty chips and lots of different salads/beers/veggies.
Kudos to the guys over at Tall Tree Cycles for putting this event together and coming up with such a fantastic route. It was a great day, and a great ride. Pictures from the ride can be found on Tall Tree/Steelwool Bicycles' Flickr.
#1
Found a pretty cool Etsy Shop called Darkcycle Clothing. They have an entire section of their store entitled "Animals on Bikes", where all you'll find is t-shirts of various animalia riding bikes... pretty cool. I found this awesome rendition of a howling wolf riding a track bike, and the badger on a pennyfarthing pictured above. Stop by and check it out... I ordered a few t-shirts two weeks ago and am still waiting for them to arrive.
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