Ride home for Friday, 29 December

Left work and rode around for a bit to log some more streets for OpenStreetMap before Critical Mass. Unfortunately CM turned out to be a bust, I got there a few minutes late and only Peter was there. We hung around for a few minutes more discussing mapping, and came to the consensus no-one else was going to come, and we headed off.

For Peter, here's a link to the mapping I've done so far (plus the highway mapping that someone else did): http://labs.metacarta.com/osm/?lat=5534169.01971&lon=-7081405.92363&zoom=9&layers=B00. Thanks to the Metacarta guys for a great rendering job!

I found a bunch of old GPS files from last year as well, so when the planet.osm is next updated, I should have the Salt Marsh trail on there, plus highway 3 as far as Oak Island, and the trails down to the far end of the Aspotagan Trail.

Distance logged: 30.783km
Time: 113:58
Average speed: 16.2km/hr
Max speed: 39 km/hr
Temperature: -9C, windy
Cumulative distance: 8034.531km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.37
Monthly distance: 443.971km
Monthly cost per km: $0.17

Ride into work for Friday, 29 December

Rode in via Bedford for a doctor's appointment. Had a headwind most of the way there, which sucked. My bike computer appears to be on the fritz, I think the battery needs replacing - it got stuck on various speeds through the ride, which is usually a sign of it not picking up the reed switch properly, my GPS worked fine for logging the distance though. Talked to the doctor about my knee pain, he compared my knees and saw there was swelling all the way around, with some bruising just under the kneecap that I hadn't even noticed. He reckons the synovial membrane has punctured slightly (probably due from the knee injury I had a couple of years ago), and he recommended I carry on with the ibuprofen and ice treatment and to take glucosamine/chondroitine supplements - I've been taking glucosamine supplements but he recommended I take ones with chondroitine as well.

Rolled over to 8000km for the year as well, beating the 7000km from last year. With Critical Mass tonight and a farmer's market visit tomorrow I might even get up to 8100 before the new year...

Distance logged: 32.795km
Time: 82:15
Average speed: 23.9km/hr
Temperature: -12C, windy
Cumulative distance: 8003.748km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 413.188km
Monthly cost per km: $0.18

Ride home for Thursday, 28 December

Windy ride home after going out for the evening with a bunch of friends. Managed to get home safely, but it took quite a bit of work going against the headwinds...

Distance logged: 11.143km
Time: 44:40
Average speed: 15km/hr
Max speed: 36.9 km/hr
Temperature: -7C, windy
Cumulative distance: 7970.953km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 380.393km
Monthly cost per km: $0.19

Ride into work for Thursday, 28 December

Took a short ride in as it was a bit cooler and my knee didn't seem to like it too much...

Distance logged: 11.521km
Time: 36:09
Average speed: 19.1km/hr
Max speed: 54.6 km/hr
Temperature: -8C, clear
Cumulative distance: 7959.810km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 369.250km
Monthly cost per km: $0.2

Ride home for Wednesday, 27 December

Tweaked the saddle height a bit to experiment to see if it would get rid of the knee pain. I have a faint suspicion that piling on 10 pounds over the holiday season might be putting a teensy bit more stress on the knee. Pushing the saddle a bit higher seemed to help quite a bit, though. I think I'm going to have to make a plumb line and fiddle about with bike fit theory, which should do a nice job of wasting a few hours over the New Year holiday...

Distance logged: 13.551km
Time: 45:11
Average speed: 18km/hr
Max speed: 45.7 km/hr
Temperature: -2C
Cumulative distance: 7948.289km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 357.729km
Monthly cost per km: $0.21

Ride into work for Wednesday, 27 December

Bit of a slow ride in as I was carrying all my gear back to work, not being inclined to push my knee too hard I took a fairly short route in.

Distance logged: 11.903km
Time: 35:49
Average speed: 19.9km/hr
Max speed: 47.2 km/hr
Temperature: 0C
Cumulative distance: 7934.738km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 344.178km
Monthly cost per km: $0.21

Maintenance day

Repacked the hub on the front wheel, it was full of rusted goop which explained why it wasn't spinning so well. I'm going to need some new bearings for it though as the ones in there are all pitted now, apart from that everything looked fine, with the bearing races showing no signs of brinelling that I could see. I also trued up the wheel a bit as it has some loose spots, seeing as I got the whole wheel for $20 I can't really complain though. I also did the usual chain cleaning and rim cleaning, I think I probably have another couple of weeks' wear left in the chain before it needs replacing.

Ride for Saturday, 23 December

Rode downtown to meet a friend for drinks. Nasty weather out with heavy winds and rain, though it did at least mean the pub was pretty quiet and we got some really attentive service. After we closed the pub down we moved on to a nightclub, just for kicks. The waitresses were definitely hired for their looks; the darkest beer they had was Corona, and the only port they had was Masi (which, in the rest of the world, is known as a red wine). We ended up drinking gin and tonics on the basis that the waitress couldn't possibly screw it up since the ingredients were in the name of the drink.

The weather calmed down a bit by the time I headed home around 4am, I went through the North end and dropped off a Christmas present in the letterbox of a friend before riding my way into the headwind home.

Distance logged: 31.114km
Time: 115:24
Average speed: 16.2km/hr
Max speed: 54.6 km/hr
Temperature: 6C-9C, heavy winds, heavy rain
Cumulative distance: 7922.835km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 332.275km
Monthly cost per km: $0.22

Ride home for Friday, 22 December

Another quiet ride home, apart from the muppet of the day who overtook me as I was signalling to turn left, positioned in the middle of the road.

Distance logged: 14.653km
Time: 51:07
Average speed: 17.2km/hr
Max speed: 44.6 km/hr
Temperature: -3C
Cumulative distance: 7891.721km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 301.161km
Monthly cost per km: $0.24

Ride into work for Friday, 22 December

After being at head office all week I was mildly surprised at the lack of traffic on the roads, until I realised it was because all the kiddies were out on vacation...

Distance logged: 15.950km
Time: 46:19
Average speed: 20.7km/hr
Max speed: 56.7 km/hr
Temperature: -4C
Cumulative distance: 7877.068km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 286.508km
Monthly cost per km: $0.26

Ride home for Tuesday, 19 December

Managed to arrange my kneewarmers and rain pants so there was plenty of slack around my right knee, and I rode home with no more than twinges.

Peter passed me on the way as I was spinning a low gear up a slight incline, he graciously failed to mention how slow I was going and instead commented that he had to speed off as he was racing against a bus - he was certainly going fast enough to beat it.

Muppet of the day was the driver of the truck who drove in front of me at the pedestrian crossing, despite the fact the lights were flashing, I had already crossed the other side of the road, and I was halfway across the road. I had to yank my bike back to stop it from getting hit, and I saw the driver laughing with her companion as she drove past me. I really need to look into a long poky scratchy stick, I think...

Back at head office for the rest of the week, so no more riding till the weekend.

Distance logged: 13.402km
Time: 46:21
Average speed: 17.3km/hr
Max speed: 41.9 km/hr
Temperature: -5C
Cumulative distance: 7861.118km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 270.558km
Monthly cost per km: $0.27

Ride into work for Tuesday, 19 December

There was a light dusting of snow on the ground when I left this morning, and intermittent flurries on the way in, but nothing of any great substance. I rode in with just knee warmers and rain pants and the looseness definitely seemed to help my knee, although the rubbery inside of the rain pants caught occasionally.

Distance logged: 12.602km
Time: 35:35
Average speed: 21.3km/hr
Max speed: 54.5 km/hr
Temperature: -3C, clear
Cumulative distance: 7847.716km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 257.156km
Monthly cost per km: $0.29

Ride home for Monday, 18 December

Went into IdealBikes and dropped off my present for the guys - 3 boxes of beer, always a welcome present at a bike shop.

I think I may have found out what was causing my knee pain, I normally wear a knee brace in the winter for a bit of extra warmth. Just to see if it made a difference I left it off on the way home, and I felt an awful lot better - not perfect, but nowhere near so much pain, especially when I bunched up the fabric in my cycling pants around the knee so it didn't pull so much. I'm going to try wearing just kneewarmers and waterproof pants tomorrow to see if that gives me enough freedom of movement.

Rode up Main Avenue where a new road has been built to see if it linked up over the other side of the hill. The road now ends in gates with fire trail type paths behind it, I went for a ride in the dark there to see what I could find but there were just a whole bunch of radio transmission masts there - it doesn't look like there's going to be a cut through any time soon.

Distance logged: 16.323km
Time: 57:45
Average speed: 17km/hr
Max speed: 44 km/hr
Temperature: 1C
Cumulative distance: 7835.114km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 244.554km
Monthly cost per km: $0.3

Ride into work for Monday, 18 December

Managed to ride into work OK, still with knee pain so I took a short route in.

Distance logged: 11.204km
Time: 33:58
Average speed: 19.8km/hr
Max speed: 60 km/hr
Temperature: 4C
Cumulative distance: 7818.791km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 228.231km
Monthly cost per km: $0.18

Ride for Sunday, 17 December

Went out for a ride to gather more data for OpenStreetMap. Logged a chunk of the BLT trail but then disaster struck when my knee started aching. I ended up pedaling most of the way home standing up, which took quite a bit of effort. I think all the walking I did last week (a large portion of it uphill) may have thrown my knee off. Since the pain is at the outside front of the knee and my saddle is all the way back I'm a bit puzzled as to what's causing it; raising the saddle helped a bit but not for long. I can't think of any other changes I can make to the bike to make it fit any better, and I haven't changed anything else, so I'm going to have to avoid walking so much next week, which means I'm going to be stuck in cars for the latter half of next week as I'm back at Head Office.

Distance logged: 35.412km
Time: 107:58
Average speed: 19.7km/hr
Max speed: 41.6 km/hr
Temperature: -1C to 2C
Cumulative distance: 7807.587km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 217.027km
Monthly cost per km: $0.18

Ride for Saturday, 09 December

Rode down town to go to the Farmer's Market. Noticed when I dropped my bike off at the office that one of the screws had come out of my front rack, so I stopped off at Idealbikes and picked up a replacement. After I went back and got my rack reassembled and everything put back on, I went over to Jack Nauss on Agricola to see about an adapted bike for the sprog. I got there 15 minutes before closing time, but Dave was incredibly patient and went through all the options, narrowing it down to either a trike with some custom welding, or a Trail-A-Bike with a back rest with some additional work to strengthen the back rest connector. When I got home I talked it over with the sprog and he decided to go for the trail-a-bike - the idea of being able to go out for long rides with me on the trails really did it for him!

Distance logged: 23.080km
Time: 84:54
Average speed: 16.3km/hr
Max speed: 54.5 km/hr
Temperature: -9C to -6C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 7772.175km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 181.615km
Monthly cost per km: $0.22

Ride home for Friday, 08 December

Stopped off at Idealbikes to get a new front wheel. Dave generously gave me a price break on it since the bike was new, even though the wheel was actually off my old bike. It was definitely easier to ride without a wobble hitting me on every revolution, and the hub was quite a bit smoother too.

Snowy ride home, I had no real problems but I saw plenty of cars spinning. I had to go around quite a few that were just sat there spinning their wheels, I tried hard not to look smug and I think by and large I succeeded. The only sticky point was the fire trail where there was about 4cm of fresh snow, that took quite a bit of effort to ride through but was doable.

Unfortunately it looks like I'm not going to be riding next week; I've been booked in at head office to install an anti-spam server and a Samba file server with AD integration so I'm going to be there all week, and it's definitely not a bike friendly place. There's nowhere there to park a bike apart from locking it to lamp-posts and the like, and I know one guy there who's had three bikes stolen from outside the office during the day - not something I want to risk!

Distance logged: 13.723km
Time: 57:46
Average speed: 14.3km/hr
Max speed: 45 km/hr
Temperature: -1C, heavy snow
Cumulative distance: 7749.095km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 158.535km
Monthly cost per km: $0.13

Ride into work for Friday, 08 December

Damp ride in this morning from all the fog caused by the melting snow. The fire trail had turned rather mushy, but was just about ridable. That'll change later on today, it's supposed to drop down to a low of -9 tonight with more snow on the way, which should make it interesting going to the market tomorrow...

Looks like OSM updated the data file with the data I worked on last weekend. If you go to http://labs.metacarta.com/osm/ and type Halifax into the search box, it comes up with a rather nice looking map. Zooming out shows the highways I added (and, er, also highlights the fact that even after multiple corrections, I managed to cock up a section of the highway in Cape Breton... Oops!) Now all I need to do is figure out how to overlay the OSM data onto the data from Google or similar (possibly using Viking so I can see what streets I've missed in Halifax - I know most of the North end is missing, but I want to get some of the minor streets in Halifax too. Hopefully whoever it was that logged all the data on the highways in Nova Scotia will continue doing it and add more data in...

Distance logged: 12.671km
Time: 36:22
Average speed: 20.9km/hr
Max speed: 55 km/hr
Temperature: 6C, foggy
Cumulative distance: 7735.372km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 144.812km
Monthly cost per km: $0

Ride home for Thursday, 07 December

A wet ride home, just as well since all the gunk on the roads had washed off all the oil on the chain and the rain was all that was keeping it lubricated. When I got home I had to run the chain through the chain cleaner several times plus give it a blast of WD40 before it started getting anywhere near clean. Since this chain has done almost 1000km for me now it's probably going to need swapping out anyway fairly soon.

Distance logged: 13.912km
Time: 47:25
Average speed: 17.6km/hr
Max speed: 43 km/hr
Temperature: 7C, windy, rainy
Cumulative distance: 7722.701km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 132.141km
Monthly cost per km: $0

Ride into work for Thursday, 07 December

Rode in via Bedford for a doctor's appointment. Had to stop off at home on my way in to work as my front wheel managed to go severely out of true after I hit a few of Bedford's excessively deep manhole covers, it rather looks like I'm going to have to get a new wheel. Not only is the wheel not holding true, the spokes are looking really dull and worn out, and there's a divot forming on the rim from the brakes. I'll drop into Idealbikes tomorrow and see if they have anything suitable...

Distance logged: 35.441km
Time: 103:47
Average speed: 20.5km/hr
Max speed: 55.8 km/hr
Temperature: 4C, windy
Cumulative distance: 7708.789km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 118.229km
Monthly cost per km: $0

Ride home for Wednesday, 06 December

The fire trail was ploughed very roughly, enough that I'm glad it's going to be raining tomorrow - there's nothing but ice ruts on there now. I ended up coming off and taking the back route through the sports stadium. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if all the rain tomorrow and Friday ends up as ice on Saturday, though...

Distance logged: 14.222km
Time: 48:30
Average speed: 17.6km/hr
Max speed: 45 km/hr
Temperature: -6C
Cumulative distance: 7673.348km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 82.788km
Monthly cost per km: $0

Ride into work for Wednesday, 6 December

Muppet of the day was the driver who overtook me going downhill, then realised that without studded snow tyres he had no traction at all and started skidding all over the place. Some people...

Ride started off chilly at -14C (or, as Knox would call it, 7F); it was interesting to feel the ice on my balaclava from my exhalations crackling as I inhaled. By about the halfway point it had warmed up quite a bit and I switched over to a skullcap and swapped the ski goggles for regular glasses.

Distance logged: 13.005km
Time: 39:30
Average speed: 19.8km/hr
Max speed: 55.5 km/hr
Temperature: -14C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 7659.126km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 68.566km
Monthly cost per km: $0

Ride home for Tuesday, 05 December

Rode home in a light snow, the wind had died down though. Muppets were plentiful trying to see how close they could get to my bike, so I'm going to have to put the flash flag on, and perhaps tip it with something nice and scratchy. The fire trail looked to be partially ploughed, but as I got deeper into it I found it was just from where someone had dragged a sled through, so I cut off and went behind the sports ground.

Distance logged: 13.867km
Time: 62:06
Average speed: 13.4km/hr
Max speed: 39.5 km/hr
Temperature: -6C, light snow
Cumulative distance: 7646.121km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 55.561km
Monthly cost per km: $0

Ride into work for Tuesday, 5 December

The major roads had been ploughed, but still had lumps of ice on them in places. Some of the minor/residential roads had had a slightly half-hearted attempt done on them, but by and large it was a mix of ice, compressed snow and slush. Fortunately with my winter tyres I was able to cut through the worst of it, but some of the rutted ice was a bit on the tricky side.

Nice weather otherwise, I managed not to overheat too badly - another couple of C cooler would have been just about right, though.

Distance logged: 11.951km
Time: 38:05
Average speed: 18.5km/hr
Max speed: 46.9 km/hr
Temperature: -5C, cloudy
Cumulative distance: 7632.254km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 41.694km
Monthly cost per km: $0

Ride home for Monday, 04 December

After continuing promises of snow that turned into (at best) light rain showers, and with the forecast for flurries, I was rather surprised at the heavy snow this afternoon. I think in total we got around 10cm. The roads were a mess, essentially gridlocked the whole way, with cars slipping and sliding all over the road. I ended up walking most of the way from downtown to home, and I reckon I got home sooner than the vast majority of the traffic I saw. I ended up walking a ways with a guy who had abandoned his truck at a car park after taking two hours to go a block and a half (!) and we marvelled at how incompetent some of the drivers were.

I put on my snow tyres when I got home, so I should at least have better grip than with the semi-slicks!

Just for Knox I got my wife to take a picture when I got home - note the Nova Scotia Aero Wheel in the front!



Distance logged: 12.868km
Time: 156:32 (or 2 hours, 36 minutes, 32 seconds)
Average speed: 4.9km/hr
Max speed: 19.5 km/hr
Temperature: 0C, snowing
Cumulative distance: 7620.303km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.39
Monthly distance: 29.743km
Monthly cost per km: $0

Ride into work for Monday, 04 December

Nice cool ride in. Muppet of the day was the driver who pulled up next to me as I was stopped and signalling left to turn at the junction ahead, waiting behind the car in front. I'm sure it was sheer coincidence that the muppet's mirror was knocked by my arm signalling left. The first time, anyway, probably not the next five or six.

Distance logged: 16.875km
Time: 46:35
Average speed: 21.7km/hr
Max speed: 58.6 km/hr
Temperature: -4C
Cumulative distance: 7607.435km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.39
Monthly distance: 16.875km
Monthly cost per km: $0

Off sick

Seems like the flu shot I had earlier in the week had some live virus in it! I've been off sick since yesterday feeling completely wiped out with headache, sore throat, intestinal cramps (so I'm hungry, but it's so, so painful after eating) and a hacking, dry cough. Looking out the window, I don't seem to be missing much as it's just rainy and windy anyway. I guess a few days' rest off the bike probably isn't a bad thing anyway every now and then...