April Rides

April was still pretty cool, with a few warmer days...



Finnegan has taken over my mom's old Bike E as his get-around-the-city bike. It's in pretty good shape. She didn't ride it a lot.



And The Girl has taken over Finnegan's Linus.



Put away the Big Fat Dummy and got out the Yuba for Spring/Summer/Autum hauling. Still lots of ice on the river well into the month.



Still wearing winter helmet.



Spotted my first beaver amidst the ice in this gully by the art gallery.



Close up shot of said beaver.



New buildings still going up at Riverlanding. Starting on a third on that site.



Noticeably longer days. A few day with little wind.



Riding home from evening dance classes and it's still light out!



Summer helmet, summer gloves.

 

Still jacket weather, but Finnegan's at least transitioned to a summer helmet.

 Pretty sunset behind the Bessborough Hotel one night riding home form dance class with The Girl.



Got home before the rain.



Well, those bike lanes brought $12000 downtown from us - two kids braces! Too bad they voted to tear them out before 30 June the other day... I guess downtown don't want our money no more.



Lovely warm day just before Amanda's birthday - we rode out to meet my folks at Güd Eats for a late lunch.



Lunch at Güd Eats



Riding home from Güd Eats into the wind was a bit chillier.



Along the river.





While looking for her New Bike, Amanda rode the Jake 24 over to Doug's to see what they might give us for credit towards her new bike... it wasn't very much... so we're trying to sell it. Almost everyone that contacts us seems to be under the impression that it's a smoking' deal on a full-sized adult cross bike. Perhaps we should post THIS picture with it.



We did get out for ONE ride that was just for the fun of it.





Just a loop around the Meewassin Trail - up to the Circle Drive bridge and back down the other side.

This was partly a chance to try out the new (to them) bikes the kids will be riding this summer.



Finnegan tried out his new mountain bike (my old Surly 1x1)



The Girl tried out her new gravel adventure bike (Amanda's old Soma Double Cross).

She's at an awkward age/size - any kids bike she sits on is WAY too small - but this adult (Extra Small) cross bike is looking just a touch on the large side! Hopefully she'll grow some more through the summer.



The other reason for the ride was to check and see if the crocuses were out.



They were, but it felt like we were a little late - most were looking rather dried out and forlorn. It has been a very dry spring.



Continuing on, under the Rail bridge.



... and back across the Traffic Bridge.

And that was April. Hopefully we'll do some more FUN riding in May!

A Couple More Warm Days

It's been back and forth between melting and damned cold again here for the last bit. Friday and Saturday were warmer - and the occasional melts have cleared MOST of the roads of snow and ice - so the girl got out her bike and rode it for a couple errands on friday and to her dance classes (with Amanda on Saturday).

On Saturday, after running my weekly errands downtown, I did a bit of monkeying about with bicycles  to see if I could make Amanda's Soma Double Cross bike set up so that Finnegan could ride it. I did some swapping around of some stems and saddles and seat posts and through trial and error, we finally got it to the point were he could kind-of-sort-of-maybe ride it.



So we went out for a short ride out Spadina south.

While we were out we spotted a beaver.



It's there, if you look close.

It's supposed to snow again tomorrow and be cold again for the next week or so. So we probably won't be going riding again for a bit. With any luck he'll grow and inch before spring cycling season is truly upon us. If Finnegan can ride the Double Cross, The Girl will probably be able to ride his old Kona Jake 24 and we can all do some backroad adventuring this summer!

For myself, well... this kind of happened in January...



My friend Ryan sold me his old (2013) Salsa Fargo!

I had been thinking I might convert the Surly CrossCheck into something close to a light backroads touring machine in the spring, but with the purchase of the Fargo the CrossCheck has kind of become redundant (as I have serious doubts as to whether I'll ever RACE 'cross again).... it may be time to say good-bye...

08 AGM Cross

This past weekend was the AGM cross – the first Cyclocross race of the year, always held on the Saturday before the Sask Cycling Association’s Annual General Meeting (Which this year happened to be in Saskatoon!).

This year the race was a fundraiser for the CIBC Run For The Cure for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (the weather was nice and the course was easy so in reality there wasn’t that much “RUNNING”… but, whatever…). There were prizes for best costumes and the bike/Rider with the most pink on them.

I wasn’t feeling much like riding so I hauled the kids across the city to watch and cheer on Amanda! I don’t have piles of good pics because I was mostly shooting video… and I filled my damn card n the first 10 minutes of the race and then had to figure out how to delete stuff!?

One of these days I’ll figure out how to knit the clips together and add text and a soundtrack… bt for now here’s a few of the pics I took

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Riders marshalling… in the wrong area… Look at all that PINK!?


The women waiting to start. Amanda’s hiding in the back.


I don’t know who this was but she had a crazy, crazy dress on… earlier I had seen her riding around in some white… I don’t know… Go-go boots? Which would have been cool if she raced in them… but she apparently decided to ditch them before the race started…


Kevin “the machine” Williams. Damn that guy is FAST!


Kevin again. Not sure what the hurry is everyone else is miles behind…


Not sure who that is in the Bike Doctor jersey… they all look the same… but I think that’s Susan Clark in the background. She’s a speedy one too!


Amanda approaching a barricade. (Don’t worry she’s not about to crash into it, she’s going quite slow at this point…)


UP! UP! UP!


This guys rocks my world! I met him a couple weeks ago, and I totally forgot his name. Sorry, dude. Anyway, that’s a pretty wicked singlespeed he’s riding! YEAH-BABY!!


Can’t be suffering that bad… She’s smiling! Ah well, that’s what it’s all about right? Having “fun”?


Mr. Stephen Cooley. Another damn fast rider. I can honestly say, however, that in the last cyclocross race I rode in I beat Stephen to take the gold medal at provincials in 2005 … in, uh, Cat 5… the, uh, first year he was racing… and, um, well, really, it was only because he broke his chain and there was no one else riding in Cat 5…. But a VICTORY IS A VICTORY!!!


Erica Musyj in her dollar store tutu.


Amanda on her second last lap.


Amanda recovering post race with part of her cheering section. Amanda was Dead Last - but she won a Run For the Cure Umbrella for being so very, very PINK! (which was handy because she lost her only umbrella at the movie theatre earlier this summer....) YAY AMANDA!

I dunno… I suppose I should probably show up for a few races this year… since I went and bought this silly racing license thing and all… Guess I’ll have to get out and practice a bit…

Amanda’s Soma Double Cross

Here it is! The cork tape finally showed up and I’ve finished off Amanda’s new ride! Now I just have to dig out the spare pair of Crank Brothers cleats I have for those Mallets.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Pretty isn’t it? It’s kind of hard to tell but it’s dark green (a dark, DARK green).


Maybe you can see the colour a bit better in the close-up.


Another little test ride around the yard – hounded by autograph demanding fans!

There may be a bit more tinkering over the summer – like removing the front derailleur and the big chain ring (she’ll never use them…).

Amanda’s New Ride

It was sunny and warm yesterday afternoon and the kids wanted to play out in the pool which was nice because it afforded me the opportunity to do some work on Amanda’s new bike.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Me working. Kids playing.

I had been thinking of selling the Cannondale Cross bike, when Amanda alluded to an interest in racing cross and having a cross bike of her own. Obviously the Cannondale would be WAAAAAY to huge for her… BUT if I could find a smallish frame at a reasonable price I could simply swap all the parts off the Cannondale and presto: new cyclocross bike for Amanda!

Now it took some looking about but finally John at Bike Universe provided a solution in the form of a tiny 46cm Soma Double Cross!

After the kiddies were in bed I was able to finish up as much as I could (still waiting on some bar tape) and Amanda took it for a test spin around the yard just to try it out and work out a starting point for adjusting seat height, etc.


Look out Wendy Simms!


Gosh there’s enough obstacles in our yard we could almost set up a circuit…. No run-ups, though…


I considered trying to convince her to dismount and run through the kiddies pool – but she didn’t have her helmet on…


The smile kind of says it all, huh? Nothing like a new bike… especially a slick little ‘cross bike that actually fits. Bless those little frame companies that make stuff in smaller sizes…


We need to cut some single-track through those lilacs..

Later she showed me her appreciation for all the hard work I put into the project….


OH-LA-LA!!

Am I going to get a kick in the junk for posting that one…?!