Tag: bikes

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bikes canada

making a crunchy pudding from the bones of americans

Driving to work along the highway this morning: notice leaves are looking increasingly yellow. Combined with snow on surrounding peaks, begin to suspect it isn’t Summer any more. Contemplate purchasing worm farm. Will not help fend off approaching winter months, but will reduce production of bags of rubbish. Also will be able to have pet outside-worms, which is considerable bonus. Resolve to raise the issue at next board meeting.

 

Up at Whiteman’s Gap, feeling the breeze of a surprise chinook as the sun sets

 

Watch WALL-E and Get Smart, and am amused by both. No repeat of the hiding-under-blankets incident which followed viewing of Dark Knight. Ponder whether the Autumn will drive away the swarms of RVs which seem to come to the mountains to breed during the Summer months. Will continue my efforts to monitor the behaviour of this strange species.

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bikes canada

bike park squirrel was not amused

He sat there looking at me for 20 seconds, then chattered loudly and ran away with his pinecone.

 

 

And just to prove it really was in a bike park:

 

 

Ok, even that shot doesn’t look that much more bike-parky. Rest assured, there were more log rides, and some jumps, and a see-saw. And a 10km single trail loop that started out fairly smooth, but then seemed to get rougher and rougher as you went round it. My hardtail and I are petitioning against the excess of pine tree roots around Canmore. Also perhaps the rocks.

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bikes canada general

testing the lht

Despite the miserable looking forecast for this weekend, the weather actually turned out ok (apart from the snow on Saturday night/Sunday morning, which cannot possibly count as ok). So when we decided to go for a ride out to Grotto Canyon followed by a hike up it as far as we could be bothered going, my backpack ended up being full of a nice ballast of warm and waterproof layers while we stripped down to t-shirts.

 

Biking out along the 1A to Grotto Canyon

 

And we ended up getting to the waterfall tucked in the back of Grotto Mountain, many kilometres up the Grotto Canyon drainage – up where it opens up wide. Hiking along a canyon can be difficult. There were no people, no wind, no noise – just silence and stillness. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end and I had to keep fighting the primal urge to go and gain the high ground..

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bikes canada european bike epic general

surly long haul trucker: i has it

Thanks to the guys at Campione in Calgary, I’m now the happy owner of a very shiny Surly LHT.

 

 

It went for its first test ride today, and seems to work. And aaahhh, the smooth gear changes of a brand new bike. All stock components on it so far, no upgrades to fancier parts. I’ll probably keep it that way too, until things actually need replacing… except perhaps the saddle. A comfy saddle is always good.

 

 

(And yes, it is green)

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bikes european bike epic general

planning for europe

As I’ve been whiling my time away looking at accounts of bike tours, it suddenly occurred to me that my two rear panniers (Deuter Rack Pack I think they are) probably wouldn’t carry enough stuff for cycling round Europe for four months. Even if I lashed things on top of them. There would be water and food and camping gear, and maybe, just maybe, tying everything to the back of my bike would be do-able, but would not necessarily be very rideable. Lots of people seemed to have front panniers. Also, I would really need somewhere to put my camera bag. I could get a basket and tie it to the front of my bike, and put the camera bag in that. This solution wouldn’t be very waterproof though. Or dustproof. Or shakeproof. So I got all consumeriffic and started looking for things online. Then somehow managed to order everything, just like that…

So I’m soon to be the proud new owner of a small Ortlieb rackpack/duffel bag:

 

 

Ortlieb Classic Front Roller panniers:

 

 

A Tubus Tara Lowrider Front Rack Black to carry them:

 

 

And an Ortlieb Ultimate 5 Classic Bar Bag – to be padded with foam to provide a nice solid camera carrying case:

 

 

The plan is not to fill these all up, just because I’ll have the space now, but instead to have spare room available for extra things like food and water – so we don’t always have to be reliant on food shops being open, or water being where you need it. So now I have all the bits I need for cycling wherever I want. Hurrah! The most horrifying part of all of this is that my order came to about AUD$340 (with postage free) – but pricing these things at Australian shops comes to around AUD$700.