Ride home for Wednesday, 01 November

It looks like I may be doing another business trip up to Truro. It would have been nice to do it in summer, but I suppose I can't have everything. Given the glacial pace of the last engagement I wouldn't be surprised to be riding up there in sub-zero temperatures with studded tyres.

I also think I have found an explanation (or possibly merely a correlation) for drivers' levels of courteousness; it seems to follow the price of gas, so as it drifts downwards (as noted in the 3 month version of the Halifax Gas Prices chart) drivers are courteous and careful around cyclists, but as soon as the price starts rising some drivers start feeling resentful about being hit at the pumps when cyclists don't have to pay the same price. Not much I can do about it, unfortunately...

Distance logged: 11.916km
Time: 37:11
Average speed: 19.2km/hr
Max speed: 45.6 km/hr
Temperature: 10C, clear
Cumulative distance: 6892.850km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 26.613km
Monthly cost per km: $0

Ride home for Tuesday, 31 October

Nearly creamed three parents who insisted on dragging their children beside them into the road in front of me. Quite how they could mss me when I have a total of around 30 watts of lighting going is beyond me. The children had more sense, hanging back to let me pass. I also overheard one girl berating her father for walking over someone's garden instead of walking around on the path. I suppose at least I should have some hope for the next generation...

Distance logged: 13.617km
Time: 39:31
Average speed: 20.7km/hr
Max speed: 46.8 km/hr
Temperature: 9C, breezy
Cumulative distance: 6866.237km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 707.897km
Monthly cost per km: $0.16

Ride into work for Tuesday, 31 October

An uneventful ride in, for a change...

Distance logged: 13.316km
Time: 36:35
Average speed: 21.8km/hr
Max speed: 59.3 km/hr
Temperature: 3C, clear
Cumulative distance: 6852.620km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 694.280km
Monthly cost per km: $0.16

Ride home for Monday, 30 October

I stopped off at Idealbikes to get a few niggles checked out. The handlebar is ever so slightly loose, and I don't want to tighten it any further as it feels like it might strip. Dan agreed, and told me to bring it in when I had the time and he'd get the stem swapped out. My other concern was the saddle; even though it was fine on the old bike, I didn't like it on the new bike. Dan took a look for something suitable (non-gel, non-padded, fairly wide at the back) but didn't find anything close to what I wanted. I took a look at the bikes on the floor and spotted a couple of possibles, so I took the first one and tried it out. It feels like leather covered with suede, I'm not totally convinced yet if it'll do the trick but it was definitely way more comfortable on the way home. I picked up a spare seatpost as well, so I can swap over the beater leather saddle I have when it's not raining.

Seriously windy on the way home, even worse than on the way in this morning, and it was mostly headwinds. To add insult to injury, the wind was blowing the leaves off the trees, so I kept getting intermittently slapped in the face with flying leaves.

Distance logged: 12.066km
Time: 40:51
Average speed: 17.7km/hr
Max speed: 41.8 km/hr
Temperature: 6C, windy
Cumulative distance: 6839.304km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 680.964km
Monthly cost per km: $0.17

Ride into work for Monday, 30 October

A windy ride in, and I was cutting it close to get to work so I took a short route in.

As I was taking my gloves off to dig my keys out to open the office door, one of the guys from the office next door arrived. He looked at me and asked, "do you ride in every day?" Expecting to go through the usual rigmarole of "yes, I ride all year round from Clayton Park and no, it's not a long distance" I said "yes", and was slightly surprised when his next questions was, "oh, do you have showers in your office?" I told him no, I shower before riding in and wipe down as necessary, and he asked me where I parked my bike. I let him know I normally parked on S level in the storage area our office had, and he said he wanted to ride his bike in but didn't know where to park it. It sounds like there might be someone else on our floor riding a bike in soon!

Distance logged: 12.334km
Time: 33:59
Average speed: 21.8km/hr
Max speed: 58.9 km/hr
Temperature: 4C, windy
Cumulative distance: 6827.238km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 668.898km
Monthly cost per km: $0.15

Critical mass ride for Friday, 27 October

Went down to Idealbikes to take a few pictures, and watched Dave playing about with his new tallbike - after seeing the one Martin made I guess he couldn't resist making one himself!

Next, I headed down to MEC to pick up a new tail light as one of mine had fallen off. I found a new item in stock, the Planet Bike Blinky Superflash, so I thought I'd give that a go. It turns out to be amazingly bright - the guys over at Hiawatha Cyclery posted about it recently and gave it the thumbs up too.

After heading back to Idealbikes and hanging the light off my backpack and swapping saddles over it was time to head off to Critical Mass, so I followed Martin - it was pretty easy to follow him as he was riding his tallbike for the ride. There were quite a few people there when we arrived, probably 30 or so, quite a good turnout considering the weather. Several people had got dressed up for the occasion, too. There was a new guy with a Dutch accent who seemed to want to take charge, he jumped up and started telling everyone how Critical Mass worked. Since almost all the people there had been on a CM ride before there was a slight air of bemusement amongst everyone else, and he finally would down after around ten minutes (although I have to admit after 5 minutes of his ramblings I wandered off to talk to a couple of other guys!) Martin finally managed to get up and start talking, and announced this was his last ride for a couple of months as he's going touring in Mexico, but Peter has agreed to take over what management there is of the ride - just as well, since he's been the best promoter of the ride so far!

We finally started off just after 6:30, and went for an extended ride around downtown. In honour of Halloween, we went visiting the graveyards of Halifax. Fairview Lawn Cemetery was the only one that was still open, and we all went riding through there - it was quite a sight to look back and see nothing but a line of blinking lights the whole way.

We finally finished around 8pm or so down in the park by the train station. Martin was interviewed by a reporter who came along for the ride, and everyone dispersed. There was apparently an afterparty at Martin's house, but I was too tired to go after a couple of long weeks of work and the prospect of an early rising the next day to go to APSEA.

The pictures I took are available for viewing here.

Distance logged: 27.551km
Time: 114:34
Average speed: 14.4km/hr
Max speed: 43.2 km/hr
Temperature: 7C-1C
Cumulative distance: 6814.904km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 656.564km
Monthly cost per km: $0.136

Ride into work for Friday, 27 October

Found that the rear brake was wedged after I'd pumped up the tyre last night on the new bike, so I had a few frantic minutes where I ended up just loosening the brake cable out by undoing the nut holding the cable after I couldn't see any easy way to adjust it. As a result I had to take a short route in as I really didn't want to be wasting time hanging around at work with Critical Mass this evening...

Distance logged: 11.619km
Time: 29:54
Average speed: 23.3km/hr
Max speed: 52.7 km/hr
Temperature: 2C
Cumulative distance: 6787.353km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 629.013km
Monthly cost per km: $0.14

Ride home for Thursday, 26 October

Picked up my new bike, the guys did a bang-up job putting it together! My only problem is the new saddle, it's (quite literally) a pain in the arse. It's a gel saddle, so I shouldn't have expected any different. I'm going to see if I can swap it out for another one tomorrow when I'm down there. Other than that it's great to ride, and the friction shifters have a nice "click" to them, and work really nicely.

Got photos and video of the projects Martin and Chris have been working on. I believe they're going to be riding their new project bikes in tomorrow's Halifax Critical Mass so I'm not going to spoil the surprises!

Spent the evening personalising the new bike - moving the bars round to an angle I like, adding all the lights, and making a start on putting the reflective tape on.

Distance logged: 11.550km
Time: 36:14
Average speed: 19.1km/hr
Max speed: 44.6 km/hr
Temperature: 4C
Cumulative distance: 6775.734km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 617.394km
Monthly cost per km: $0.14

Ride into work for Thursday, 26 October

Rode in via Bedford for a Dr's appointment, then over to the hospital for an X-ray on my wrist, then down to IdealBikes to drop off my mountain bike to get all the parts swapped over to the new beater bike, a Giant Iguana.

Distance logged: 31.212km
Time: 71:46
Average speed: 26.1km/hr
Max speed: 55.8 km/hr
Temperature: 2C, clear
Cumulative distance: 6764.184km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 605.844km
Monthly cost per km: $0.15

Ride home for Wednesday, 26 October

Yet another late ride home, this time due to another customer having a downed file server. Fun fun fun...

Distance logged: 12.121km
Time: 37:38
Average speed: 19.3km/hr
Max speed: 48.5 km/hr
Temperature: 5C
Cumulative distance: 6732.972km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.39
Monthly distance: 574.632km
Monthly cost per km: $0.15

Ride into work for Wednesday, 25 October

Called the HRM police number and talked to someone who didn't give their name and asked about the incident I reported yesterday. I was told, "the plate number you gave doesn't match the number in the database, so unless you give us the right number there's nothing we can do." I asked which of the numbers I gave they checked, and the answer was "all of them" - I figured I was being given the brushoff, so I gave up on it at that point. Oh well...

Distance logged: 16.368km
Time: 39:24
Average speed: 24.9km/hr
Max speed: 56.5 km/hr
Temperature: 6C
Cumulative distance: 6720.851km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.39
Monthly distance: 562.511km
Monthly cost per km: $0.16

Ride home for Tuesday, 24 October

An uneventful ride home, pretty short as I was working late, yet again, and wanted to get home for supper.

Distance logged: 11.927km
Time: 34:53
Average speed: 20.5km/hr
Max speed: 51.8 km/hr
Temperature: 9C, cloudy
Cumulative distance: 6704.483km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.39
Monthly distance: 546.143km
Monthly cost per km: $0.16

Ride into work for Tuesday, 24 October

Muppet of the day was the driver of the minivan who tried to run me off the road. I was approaching the lights on Mumford Road just after the railway bridge when I saw out of the corner of my eye the front of a minivan about a foot away from me. As I came up to the lights the minivan drew up parallel to me, so I banged on the window to get the driver's attention. The passenger, a rather sketchy looking female with shoulder length blonde hair, mouthed something at me, then the driver swerved to the left, floored it through the lights, screeched on the brakes to slow down, veered into the right hand lane, then back into the left hand lane, then crossed into the far left hand lane to turn left at the next set of lights, then when the driver saw me approaching behind him jackrabbited into the middle lane in front of another vehicle then floored it across the lights. I got the license plate number, either CRV 107 or CVR 107, and it looked like a silver or grey Windstar type minivan. I decided the driver was probably unfit to drive, so I stopped at the police station to file an accident report. The commissionaire said, before I even asked to come in, "you'll have to park your bike outside." I was slightly surprised at that, as there'd never been an issue with me bringing it in before, but I wasn't about to argue, so I asked, "ok, where's the bike parking?" The commissionaire replied that there was no bike parking, so I asked her where I could park it if there was no bike parking. She then said I could leave it in the lobby, where there was nothing to lock it against. I asked her what I could lock it against, and she said "well, you'll have to bring it in, but we can't be responsible for any damage to it" - this seemed a rather odd statement, as I wouldn't expect them to be responsible for damage unless they caused it anyway.

I then proceeded to file an accident report with the same commissionaire, and she seemed extremely confused by the whole thing. My comment that the driver seemed to be impaired was discounted as "well, you probably couldn't tell that anyway." She also seemed to think I was travelling northbound on Mumford, which is interesting as (on Google Maps, at least) it appears to be an east-west road. I finally gave her the license plate and description, noting that it was one of two plates, and I was given a photocopied piece of paper with an incident number scribbled on it. I came home to find a message, which went something like this:

"Hello, this is Halifax Plice department calling regarding incident number xxxxx-xx, I checked the plate number you gave and it does not match the vehicle's description, unless you can give me more information regarding this... incident we can't do anything else."

So I'm going to be calling tomorrow and asking to talk to the person dealing with the incident to see just how badly screwed up it is...

Distance logged: 14.232km
Time: 35:12
Average speed: 24.3km/hr
Max speed: 62 km/hr
Temperature: 6C, cloudy
Cumulative distance: 6692.556km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.39
Monthly distance: 534.216km
Monthly cost per km: $0.16

Ride home for Monday, 23 October

Short ride in as I finished late and had to go pick up my bike. I picked out my new beater bike while I was there, a 22" Giant mountain bike. I'm going to take my bike down at the weekend to swap out the parts off mine I want to keep, and then I'll have to get it all prepped up ready for winter...

Distance logged: 12.773km
Time: 34:57
Average speed: 21.9km/hr
Max speed: 55.6 km/hr
Temperature: 9C, cloudy
Cumulative distance: 6678.324km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.39
Monthly distance: 519.984km
Monthly cost per km: $0.17

Ride into work for Monday, 23 October

Muppet of the day was the driver who decided to accelerate and drive through on red, despite the fact I was passing in front of him. I managed to put on a burst of speed and get out of his way, but it reminded me that some people just don't deserve the privilege of driving...

Just to put the tin lid on things the cable for my front derailleur snapped 3km from work, so I was riding the whole way in the big ring with the smallest usable cog in the rear being 3rd, which was fun going uphill...

Distance logged: 17.585km
Time: 43:48
Average speed: 24.1km/hr
Max speed: 61 km/hr
Temperature: 3C, clear
Cumulative distance: 6665.551km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.39
Monthly distance: 507.211km
Monthly cost per km: $0.17

Ride home for Friday, 20 October

Another late ride home, but this time it was a good thing as I missed the worst of the rain! Got back into the office to find yet another puncture waiting for me, this time I rinsed out the inside of the tyre under the tap, then wiped it dry with a kitchen towel, then a damp kitchen towel, then another dry kitchen towel. I managed to get home without another puncture this time, at least...
Distance logged: 11.893km
Time: 38:27
Average speed: 18.6km/hr
Max speed: 39.4 km/hr
Temperature: 13C, light drizzle
Cumulative distance: 6647.966km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.39
Monthly distance: 489.626km
Monthly cost per km: $0.14

Ride into work for Friday, 20 October

The roads were wet on the ride in, the wellington boots seemed to do the trick, though. I had great fun after (I think) running over the remnants of a beer bottle that someone smashed in the road. 5 punctures later (!) I managed to limp into work, about an hour late...
Distance logged: 14.159km
Time: 38:40
Average speed: 22km/hr
Max speed: 60.0 km/hr
Temperature: 10C, cloudy, damp
Cumulative distance: 6636.073km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.39
Monthly distance: 477.733km
Monthly cost per km: $0.14

Ride home for Thursday, 19 October

Short ride home, as I didn't leave the site till 6:30 and had a doctor's appointment at 8:15.

The doctor's appointment was about the results of my bone scan, and my doctor informed me that as suspected, I do indeed have a scaphoid fracture - no great surprise as I could see it pretty clearly on the screen when I had it done. I'm now going in for X-rays and a consultation with a plastic surgeon (because, apparently, "they're experts on hands, you know").

Distance logged: 11.320km
Time: 31:10
Average speed: 21.8km/hr
Max speed: 53.4 km/hr
Temperature: 12C, cloudy
Cumulative distance: 6621.914km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.39
Monthly distance: 463.574km
Monthly cost per km: $0.15

Ride into work for Thursday, 19 October

Muppet of the day was the guy who decided to pull out of a parking lot and stop on the bike lane on Brunswick Street just as I was approaching at 50km/hr with a bus on my left. I hauled on my brakes and skidded to a stop, bouncing my front wheel off his front wing. I then entered into an extended discourse with him about his responsibilities under the Nova Scotia Motor Vehicles Act, and how if the roads had been any wetter I would have hit him at significantly higher speeds and would have most probably been quite badly injured. I found it difficult to accept his apology as he was smirking the whole time, so I expounded upon his apparent lack of concern. What did seem to concern him was my comment that if he caused injury to a cyclist, he would be looking at an extra $2000 or so on his insurance costs. Hopefully the muppet will be a bit more careful next time - but I won't hold my breath on that one...

Distance logged: 15.274km
Time: 37:34
Average speed: 24.4km/hr
Max speed: 57.2 km/hr
Temperature: 9C, cloudy
Cumulative distance: 6610.594km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.39
Monthly distance: 452.254km
Monthly cost per km: $0.15

Ride home for Wednesday, 18 October

Short ride home as it was raining and I realised as I left that I'd forgotten my clip-on fender. I got well and truly soaked, so after supper I decided to finally go get a pair of rubber boots so I would at least be able to keep my feet a bit drier...

Distance logged: 10.143km
Time: 29:12
Average speed: 20.8km/hr
Max speed: 50.8 km/hr
Temperature: 11C, raining
Cumulative distance: 6595.320km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.39
Monthly distance: 436.980km
Monthly cost per km: $0.09

Ride into work for Wednesday, 18 October

Muppet of the day attacked before I even managed to make it out of the street I live on. I was approaching the end of the street, signalling left, when a car approaching from the right decided to turn and massively cut the corner. I slammed on my brakes, he slammed on his, then he waved me on. Not, I feel, entirely unreasonably, I didn't really want to drive in front of such an obviously inept driver, so I waved him on in front of me. He then shouted at me, "hey, you go!", so I shouted back, "no thanks, I don't want to drive in front of you, I don't trust you, you go ahead." His response was to wave at me again, so I just stood there and stared at him. He then proceeded to slowly roll backwards down the incline while staring at me, which made me want to drive in front of him even less. Finally, another car came up behind him, and he pulled over to the curb in a rather wobbly fashion (still going backwards), then reversed into a driveway and took a right and headed back the way he came from.

I really couldn't make this stuff up.

Distance logged: 16.850km
Time: 40:52
Average speed: 24.7km/hr
Max speed: 62.9 km/hr
Temperature: 6C, clear
Cumulative distance: 6585.177km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.39
Monthly distance: 426.837km
Monthly cost per km: $0.09

Ride home for Tuesday, 17 October

Muppet of the day was the driver who overtook me and immediately turned right in front of me, and had the nerve to look annoyed that I had to slam my brakes on and skid around him. I really must get around to mixing up some adhesive and sand to apply to the side of my boot for added traction in emergency situations.

Distance logged: 16.195km
Time: 42:41
Average speed: 22.8km/hr
Max speed: 52.4 km/hr
Temperature: 13C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 6568.327km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.39
Monthly distance: 409.987km
Monthly cost per km: $0.09

Ride into work for Tuesday, 17 October

Dark, chilly, early start this morning. Sunrise hit about halfway through and I had to change the lenses in my glasses.

Distance logged: 12.924km
Time: 30:57
Average speed: 25.1km/hr
Max speed: 60 km/hr
Temperature: 3C, clear
Cumulative distance: 6552.132km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.39
Monthly distance: 393.792km
Monthly cost per km: $0.1

Ride home for Monday, 16 October

Late ride home, I'm on a new gig doing helldesk support for 3 weeks but for the price the client is paying I can't complain too much. Unfortunately it means wearing a shirt with a collar, and also being on-site from 8:30 to 4:30, which means getting up earlier and arriving home later, just as darkness is hitting (sunrise is currently 7:27am, sunset is 6:26pm). Oh well, at least I should get a bonus for this quarter out of it...

Distance logged: 16.265km
Time: 44:18
Average speed: 22km/hr
Max speed: 56 km/hr
Temperature: 11C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 6539.208km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.39
Monthly distance: 380.868km
Monthly cost per km: $0.1

Ride into work for Monday, 16 October

Short ride in, as I was running late this morning.

Muppet of the day was the driver approaching me who, as I was signalling left to turn into the car park at Scotia Square, swung his vehicle into my lane, then swung it back to the right to turn into Scotia Square car park - all done without any signalling. I recognised the driver as he swerved in front of me as one of the people in the real estate business down the hall on our floor. He got in the same elevator as me, kicked the valve on my front wheel, and asked, "what does that do?" In my frigid, talking to idiots voice, I said, "Please don't kick the wheel. It's called a valve." This bemused him further, and his followup question was, "what does it do?" Being more than slightly bemused, I could only answer with the obvious answer of, "it stops the air from escaping out of the tyre." Delving deeper into the lands of muppetry, he came back with "what do you mean?" Starting to wonder if he was putting me on at this point, I said, "it keeps the air on the inside of the tyre so it doesn't go flat." He looked dazed for a few seconds, and said, "oh, not that... the other thing there, what's that?" I told him it was a magnet for my bike computer, and his next question was, "what does it do?" Feeling rather small-minded at this point, I decided to tell him exactly what it was; my explanation of "it's a magnet that trips a reed relay to fire off a sensor so the bike computer knows the wheel has done a revolution and how far it has travelled" just seemed to mystify him further. At this point the elevator arrived at our floor, and I got off. Muppet stayed on the elevator and went for a ride all the way back down to the bottom of the tower...

Distance logged: 11.293km
Time: 29:44
Average speed: 22.8km/hr
Max speed: 63.4 km/hr
Temperature: 4C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 6522.943km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.39
Monthly distance: 364.603km
Monthly cost per km: $0.1

Ride for Friday, 13 October

Rode back downtown for the midnight mystery ride. About 10 people showed up, and we had a ride around downtown Halifax. People started peeling off pretty early, and by 1am there was just 3 of us, so it seemed a bit pointless building up a bonfire just for the 3 of us, so on that slightly anticlimactic note, we headed home. Maybe next time we'll go up there for a fire?

Distance logged: 33.229km
Time: 119:35
Average speed: 16.7km/hr
Max speed: 46.5 km/hr
Temperature: 12C-10C
Cumulative distance: 6511.650km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.39
Monthly distance: 353.310km
Monthly cost per km: $0.11

Ride for Friday, 13 October

Went down town to the hospital to get an injection of nuclear goop ahead of my bone scan. I then had 4 hours to kill, so I went into the office and saved the world for a couple of people, then headed back at 1 to have the scan done. I was scanned at around 2, then told to wait as a re-scan was needed at another angle, so I finally left around 3:30 and headed home.

Distance logged: 38.168km
Time: 105:12
Average speed: 21.8km/hr
Max speed: 58.6 km/hr
Temperature: 16C-20C
Cumulative distance: 6478.421km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.39
Monthly distance: 320.081km
Monthly cost per km: $0.12

Ride home for Thursday, 12 October

Left work early as there was a wind warning of gusts up to 90km/hr, it was topping out at 60km/hr when I left. There were small rivers running along the side of roads, and people were getting blown about on the sidewalk from the wind. Environment Canada deemed this a "light rainshower", in a witty piece of understatement.

Distance logged: 14.200km
Time: 47:43
Average speed: 17.9km/hr
Max speed: 48.8 km/hr
Temperature: 15C, heavy rain, windy
Cumulative distance: 6440.253km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.4
Monthly distance: 281.913km
Monthly cost per km: $0.14

Ride into work for Thursday, 12 October

Windy ride in ahead of the rainstorm...

Distance logged: 15.456km
Time: 38:10
Average speed: 24.3km/hr
Max speed: 55.5 km/hr
Temperature: 12C, windy
Cumulative distance: 6426.053km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.4
Monthly distance: 267.713km
Monthly cost per km: $0.14

Ride home for Wednesday, 11 October

Windy ride home. Also had several drivers stopping for me again. There must be some sort of campaign or something going on that I haven't heard about...

Distance logged: 15.377km
Time: 42:09
Average speed: 21.9km/hr
Max speed: 51.4 km/hr
Temperature: 14C, sunny, windy
Cumulative distance: 6410.597km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.4
Monthly distance: 252.257km
Monthly cost per km: $0.15

Ride into work for Wednesday, 11 October

Another 3 drivers this morning waved me on in front of them, 2 of them without any traffic behind them. This is definitely starting to be a trend. Either that, or they're feeling sorry for me being out in the "cold".

Distance logged: 13.841km
Time: 34:01
Average speed: 24.4km/hr
Max speed: 59.5 km/hr
Temperature: 4C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 6395.220km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.4
Monthly distance: 236.880km
Monthly cost per km: $0.16

Ride home for Tuesday, 10 October

Managed to break my pump at work pumping up tyres on the dollys. Handily enough I had the receipt from MEC so I went in at lunch time, and picked up a replacement (and a spare inner tube - the one I punctured last week seems to be hosed).

Noticed an odd behaviour from drivers on the way home; they were stopping and waving me across at intersections where I had the stop sign. I don't know if someone said something on the radio or what, but it was rather odd - I counted 7 drivers doing this. Particularly odd were the 3 that waved me across in front of them even though there was no traffic behind them - it was nice of them to wave me through, but pretty much completely pointless. Still, it was better than the usual muppetry I see on the roads...

Distance logged: 16.729km
Time: 44:27
Average speed: 22.6km/hr
Max speed: 54.7 km/hr
Temperature: 16C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 6381.379km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.4
Monthly distance: 223.039km
Monthly cost per km: $0.17

Ride into work for Tuesday, 10 October

The downside of the weather getting colder is it takes time away from riding that I have to use for putting on cold weather gear, which sucks. Even though I didn't get so much distance in I was still 5 minutes later than I'd normally be... Time to start thinking about cutting back on my route, I guess.

Distance logged: 13.995km
Time: 33:15
Average speed: 25.3km/hr
Max speed: 65.4 km/hr
Temperature: 8C-7C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 6364.650km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.4
Monthly distance: 206.310km
Monthly cost per km: $0.16

Ride for Sunday, 08 October

Went out with Martin to a mystery spot to gather firewood in preparation for the Mystery Ride on Friday night. It looks like we should have enough wood for a pretty good bonfire, I'll have to pick up a bag of potatoes for something to eat. We were there for an hour or two gathering wood, the location was pretty deserted and we covered the wood with a handy tarp before we left so that if it rains, we should have some dry wood at least.

Distance logged: 22.442km
Time: 70:28
Average speed: 19.1km/hr
Max speed: 55.9 km/hr
Temperature: 18C-13C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 6350.655km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.4
Monthly distance: 192.315km
Monthly cost per km: $0.17

Ride home for Friday, 06 October

Pleasant ride home, took in a few more streets to add to my Openstreetmap collection. I took a look in JOSM this evening, it looks like someone is covering the North Shore - it looked like all of Antigonish and Pictou were mapped on there, good work!

Distance logged: 15.958km
Time: 44:58
Average speed: 21.3km/hr
Max speed: 56.5 km/hr
Temperature: 12C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 6328.213km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.4
Monthly distance: 169.873km
Monthly cost per km: $0.19

Ride into work for Friday, 06 October

Back to the hints of winter... Cold ride in this morning.

Distance logged: 14.332km
Time: 35:21
Average speed: 24.3km/hr
Max speed: 60.1 km/hr
Temperature: 4C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 6312.255km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.4
Monthly distance: 153.915km
Monthly cost per km: $0.21

Ride home for Thursday, 05 October

Most of my clothes managed to dry out by the time I left, lucky I've got the server room there generating heat to dry everything out. Went to the bike shop and took some pictures of bikes, headed off to see a friend, then went home via a rather circuitous route to add extra streets to my Openstreetmap traces.

Distance logged: 19.160km
Time: 65:57
Average speed: 17.4km/hr
Max speed: 50.8 km/hr
Temperature: 11C-7C
Cumulative distance: 6297.923km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.4
Monthly distance: 139.583km
Monthly cost per km: $0.24

Ride into work for Thursday, 05 October

Rode in via Bedford for a doctor's appointment. Environment Canada's forecast was for "light rainshowers", which was (to use a French expression) un crock de merde. It absolutely chucked it down on the way there, and I was riding into a strong headwind. The ride back into Halifax was about the same, but at least this time I had a tailwind for most of the way. Environment Canada are alleging sun and cloud for this afternoon with a low overnight of 4C... It'll be interesting to see what it actually turns out to be like.

Distance logged: 26.204km
Time: 61:20
Average speed: 25.6km/hr
Max speed: 53.9 km/hr
Temperature: 16C-8C, raining, windy
Cumulative distance: 6278.763km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.41
Monthly distance: 120.423km
Monthly cost per km: $0.27

Ride home for Wednesday, 04 October

Took another long ride home to gather more data for Openstreetmap. I did a render of the data for Halifax when I got home, here's what it's looking like so far (click for a bigger version):



It's actually starting to look like Halifax, I'm mildly impressed!

There's someone else logging data, but they appear to be doing highways - Highway 101 and St Margaret's Bay Road on this map. The rest was done by me riding around on my bike. I think I've got the street map names right, but a lot of it's on the order of "I think that's North Street, so that must be Gottingen"; if anyone wants to go through and correct my data I'd be interested to know how close I was! I'd recommend using the Java JOSM utility - the online web app is crawlingly slow, for some reason.

Distance logged: 17.946km
Time: 48:43
Average speed: 22.1km/hr
Max speed: 47.7 km/hr
Temperature: 20C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 6252.559km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.41
Monthly distance: 94.219km
Monthly cost per km: $0.35

Ride into work for Wednesday, 04 October

So much for the start of winter - it's starting to feel like the end of spring again!

Distance logged: 16.329km
Time: 39:10
Average speed: 25km/hr
Max speed: 65.9 km/hr
Temperature: 11C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 6234.613km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.41
Monthly distance: 76.273km
Monthly cost per km: $0.43

More weird queries

Continuing the "weird queries" theme... Some more have come out of the woodwork.

"bridge wire tensionmeter": I don't think my Park Tool tensiometer would be up to the job. Sorry.

"what halifax commons looked like after concert": It looked like several thousand people had been stomping all over it in the rain. It still doesn't look too great.

"convert 27 wheels to 700c": Usually doable, as 700c wheels are slightly smaller than 27" wheels. The limiting factor is the brakes; if the brake pad will slide down far enough, you're fine, otherwise you'll need to replace the brakes. Note that you may be able to use a Dremel or similar to grind out a bit more space in the calipers if the pads only need to go down a few more mm.

"halifax ns seized dirt bikes": Keep em greased so they won't seize?

"wd40 stuck pedal": Good luck on that. What you'll probably need to do is replace the pedal. If you're lucky and it's a sealed bearing pedal, you can disassemble the pedal, clean it out, replace the bearings (if necessary), regrease and reassemble. If it's not sealed bearing, you can try repacking the pedal but you will probably need to seal the pedal with something like polyurethane sealant, as the caps are a bugger to get out without ruining.

"what was weather like in nova scotia in 2005?": Cold in the winter, warm in the summer, and in between in spring and autumn.

"ns handlebar": I don't think there's a handlebar specific to Nova Scotia...

"canadian tyre quinpool road": Yep, there is.

"home trick bike chain rust": Replace rust bike chain on home trick bike?

"average bicycle speed km/hr": Anywhere from 6km/hr for kiddies, up to 60km/hr for professionals on the flats, or somewhere in excess of 150km/hr if you're drafting, from what I hear.

"ride to work wednesday": Ride to work every day!

hairline scaphoid healing time: Bloody ages, if you're not able to stop your life for a couple of months till it's healed. Mine's still not healed after 3-4 months - my doctor is sending me off for a bone scan to check it out now.

"max et mary biker": I so have no idea on this one.

"flanges-meaning": A flange is, as any fule kno, the collective term for baboons (wikipedia don't know what they're talking about - "flange" is the term used quite seriously, and is the first choice for the Oxford Dictionary).

"handlebar bags problems with steering bike": Don't put so much stuff in there, and make sure what's in there is evenly distributed.

These still don't beat Knox's queries, though!

Ride home for Tuesday, 03 October

Went into MEC at lunchtime to get a new pump, as I noticed I'd left mine on my other bike and figured it was a sure-fire way to get a puncture if I left work without one (and it seemed a good idea to have one on each bike anyway). Unfortunately this prophylactic move crashed and burned when I got a puncture on the way home - but at least I had a pump to get me going again!

On the upside, I found an mp3 player on the way home. It had been run over several times by cars, by the looks of it, so I picked it up just to see if it would still work. Surprisingly enough, it does; it's a Sony of some model, however it looks like it uses Sony's proprietary ATRAC format, so it's not much use to me. It is a 512 meg USB stick, though, so it's not entirely useless. I need to fix the play button on it, but otherwise it seems to work fine; I think play button just needs a shim to offset it, as it looks like it got crushed - if I used a screwdriver to push back against the play button it works fine.

Distance logged: 16.759km
Time: 46:36
Average speed: 21.6km/hr
Max speed: 56 km/hr
Temperature: 15C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 6218.284km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.41
Monthly distance: 59.944km
Monthly cost per km: $0.55

Ride into work for Tuesday, 03 October

I think I may have overpumped my tyres a bit last night as the bike was really fast and jittery this morning. Cold ride in too, winter is just starting to make itself felt - although it wasn't cold enough to wear a jacket, and it was too cold not to wear a jacket, so at stop lights I had to keep venting out the hot air...

Distance logged: 15.357km
Time: 37:09
Average speed: 24.8km/hr
Max speed: 69.1 km/hr
Temperature: 7C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 6201.525km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.41
Monthly distance: 43.185km
Monthly cost per km: $0

Ride home for Monday, 02 October

A damp ride home, but too warm to wear a rain jacket.

Muppet of the day was the driver who decided to overtake me as I was on Roslyn just after the intersection with Connolly, with cars and trucks parked on both sides of the road. I heard a clunk, but it wasn't me; I think the driver may have hit a car on the other side of the road. After that I watched her tailgate a car going down Connaught and continue tailgating onto Micmac Street, rabbiting across the opposite lane just in front of a truck. She reminded me that some people are only alive to be a warning to others.

Distance logged: 15.737km
Time: 48:45
Average speed: 19.4km/hr
Max speed: 50.4 km/hr
Temperature: 13C, light drizzle
Cumulative distance: 6186.168km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.41
Monthly distance: 27.828km
Monthly cost per km: $0

Ride into work for Monday, 02 October

Environment Canada had a heavy rainfall warning on, but I guess it must have all blown over by the time I left. I was stuck wearing all my rain gear on the way in, so I was dripping sweat by the time I got into work...

Distance logged: 12.091km
Time: 32:31
Average speed: 22.3km/hr
Max speed: 48.9 km/hr
Temperature: 12C, cloudy
Cumulative distance: 6170.431km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.41
Monthly distance: 12.091km
Monthly cost per km: $0

Ride into work for Monday, 02 October

Environment Canada had a heavy rainfall warning on, but I guess it must have all blown over by the time I left. I was stuck wearing all my rain gear on the way in, so I was dripping sweat by the time I got into work...

Distance logged: 12.091km
Time: 32:31
Average speed: 22.3km/hr
Max speed: 48.9 km/hr
Temperature: 12C, cloudy
Cumulative distance: 6170.431km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.41
Monthly distance: 12.091km
Monthly cost per km: $0