Sunday, April 29, 2007

Ride for Saturday, 28 April

Rode down to work to set up the racks after they were moved to the new office, and rode home 10 hours later.

Distance logged: 14.232km
Time: 44:55
Average speed: 19km/hr
Max speed: 61.5 km/hr
Temperature: 11C-6C, damp
Cumulative distance: 2718.638km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.3
Monthly distance: 685.016km
Monthly cost per km: $0.74

Ride for Saturday, 28 April

Rode down to the farmer's market and back to do my shopping.

Distance logged: 25.228km
Time: 87:13
Average speed: 17.4km/hr
Max speed: 54.3 km/hr
Temperature: 7C-9C, cloudy
Cumulative distance: 2704.406km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.31
Monthly distance: 670.784km
Monthly cost per km: $0.75

Ride and Critical Mass for Friday, 27 April

Rode into work and tore down the servers ready for moving, then went to Critical Mass. Quite a nice long ride, there was a young girl of 9 or so there with her parents. She looked like she was having a great time, and lasted all the way along, I think. It was amazing how drivers who looked like they were suddenly going to overtake stopped and waited as soon as they saw her. Also, all the buses were corking behind us, which was interesting - it meant there was a line entirely closed off for us, and the buses seemed to be deliberately keeping it clear. A police car showed up halfway through, his only comment was "please ride in single line and only take up one lane, but you're allowed to take the full lane"; he followed us for a block or so then that was the last I saw of him.

Headed home afterwards to an early night...


Distance logged: 40.263km
Time: 145:27
Average speed: 16.6km/hr
Max speed: 52 km/hr
Temperature: 2C-6C, cloudy, intermittently rainy
Cumulative distance: 2679.178km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.31
Monthly distance: 645.556km
Monthly cost per km: $0.78

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Ride home for Thursday, 26 April

Ended up being stuck late due to the network switchover, there was some really screwy stuff going on that I think was due to BGP being used on the old connectio but not on the new one; all the addresses worked except for one, I couldn't even see any traffic coming in when I sniffed the connection. Eventually got it up after configuring a laptop with that IP and tracerouting out, I guess either the ARP cache in the modem was screwy or the IP somehow got blackholed. Regardless, I was glad to get out of there and ride back home, though I'm definitely going to have to spend some time looking at alternative routes...

Distance logged: 6.296km
Time: 25:03
Average speed: 14.8km/hr
Max speed: 31.5 km/hr
Temperature: 14C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 2638.915km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.31
Monthly distance: 605.293km
Monthly cost per km: $0.83

Ride into work for Thursday, 26 April

Down to the old office to finish off packing my desk, then over to the new office to get another Internet link switched over. I'll be so glad when this is all done...

Distance logged: 20.277km
Time: 52:12
Average speed: 23.3km/hr
Max speed: 61 km/hr
Temperature: 1C-8C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 2632.619km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.31
Monthly distance: 598.997km
Monthly cost per km: $0.84

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Ride into work (and back) for Wednesday, 25 April

Rode down to the new office to oversee the transition of one of our Internet links. It was a bit of a screwup, as the engineer complained I should have notified them earlier as he only got the order this morning - even though I placed the order almost 2 months ago! Rode back from the office, I can tell it's going to suck as the rotary is essentially at sea level, so any direction I go in I immediately hit a hill straight away...

Distance logged: 13.260km
Time: 39:41
Average speed: 20.1km/hr
Max speed: 61 km/hr
Temperature: 3C, sunny and 10C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 2612.342km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.32
Monthly distance: 578.720km
Monthly cost per km: $0.87

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Ride home for Tuesday, 24 April

Another loaded ride home, this time carrying even more than yesterday as I'm going to head office tomorrow morning with my laptop and toolkit to set up temporary servers and get them working on the new DSL connection.

Distance logged: 11.927km
Time: 43:37
Average speed: 16.4km/hr
Max speed: 45.4 km/hr
Temperature: 18C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 2599.082km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.32
Monthly distance: 565.460km
Monthly cost per km: $0.89

Ride into work for Tuesday, 24 April

The weather is definitely picking up, and even with the wind this morning there were plenty of other cyclists around. I don't know if this was encouraging motorists to be a bit more careful but I had several occasions where motorists stopped dead where they had right of way to let me cross in front of them - slightly unnerving, if truth be told.

Distance logged: 12.563km
Time: 33:22
Average speed: 22.6km/hr
Max speed: 63 km/hr
Temperature: 7C, sunny, breezy
Cumulative distance: 2587.155km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.32
Monthly distance: 553.533km
Monthly cost per km: $0.91

Monday, April 23, 2007

Ride home for Monday, 23 April

Rode home with around 50 pounds of miscellaneous equipment I saved from the garbage - a Winterm 3820TX (which I'm hoping I can use with Linux), 5 72 gig SCSI drives, a laptop to run as my new geexbox (with a flaky IDE interface so it would die after use, but since I'm netbooting the geexbox I just ripped out the hard drive, DVD drive and battery), NVidia Quadro 380 XGL (which on closer inspection looks to be a workstation card, or, to put it another way, a bit of a chocolate teapot), a 24 port switch, a couple of wireless PC cards, and more... Needless to say I wasn't riding too fast today!

Saw a lot of cyclists today, I lost count but I think there were around 40 or so that I saw. I guess the warm weather must have been a big draw.

Stopped off at MEC at lunch to pick up a new lock, and got some other odds and ends while I was there. I left the lock at the office, I figured I was carrying enough weight without another 3 kilos of metal in there...

Distance logged: 10.831km
Time: 42:03
Average speed: 15.3km/hr
Max speed: 35.7 km/hr
Temperature: 23C, sunny, breezy
Cumulative distance: 2574.592km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.32
Monthly distance: 540.970km
Monthly cost per km: $0.93

Ride into work for Monday, 23 April

Took the Giant in today as I'm hauling a whole bunch of stuff back from the office. Saw lots of cyclists today, looks like the promise of warm weather (22C!) has drawn plenty of people out on their bikes...

Distance logged: 12.576km
Time: 33:34
Average speed: 22.5km/hr
Max speed: 61.5 km/hr
Temperature: 5C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 2563.761km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.29
Monthly distance: 530.139km
Monthly cost per km: $0.8

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Ride home for Friday, 20 April

Went over to IdealBikes after work and (after much fiddling about) got their server up and running. I ended up trashing the Windows install as that was pretty well toasted, and put Ubuntu on there instead. After a lengthy wait while Ubuntu downloaded packages over a slightly flaky wireless Internet connection (average speed of around 15kB/sec) the install finally completed, and I was able to get a desktop going that was also doing DHCP, DNS and NAT gatewaying - as well as, most importantly, a Samba file share for the music on that machine...

Fast ride home as I left fairly late and wanted to get home before the pubs started emptying. Got home to a reminder from Peter about Critical Mass - CKDU are going to broadcast a special Critical Mass themed show on Friday evening, so Peter's encouraging everyone to bring along portable radios to listen to the show. This should mean we have music for the ride without depending on one unit - which, last time, was a boombox Peter found in a thrift store that was a bit lacking in volume!

No ride down to the Farmer's Market for Saturday as we went down by car; I had to go to work and pick up a whole bunch of stuff that was getting thrown out (since we're moving offices), then my wife dropped me off at the Farmer's Market to do my shopping while she went to the superstore with the sprog to do her shopping, and we met up at the superstore after that. The car was stuffed full, the sprog ended up carrying a box of nappies home on his lap! Saw Mr Pants at the Farmer's Market, unfortunately Mrs Pants was ill with something she'd picked up.

Went out with the sprog Saturday afternoon on his bike for a two hour ride:



He enjoyed it but it wiped him out - he had an hour long nap when we got home, then he slept for 14 hours Saturday night!

Distance logged: 11.527km
Time: 33:12
Average speed: 20.8km/hr
Max speed: 50.5 km/hr
Temperature: 13C
Cumulative distance: 2551.185km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.29
Monthly distance: 517.563km
Monthly cost per km: $0.82

Friday, April 20, 2007

Ride into work for Friday, 20 April

My bodge job on the cranks held for a few kilometres then it loosened up again. I managed to limp most of the way in, until at Sackville Street the pedals stopped turning - never a good sign! I walked along Sackville for a while until I noticed that the lockring on the left hand side had worked its way all the way along to the crank. I tightened it back on by hand and managed to limp into work.

Took the bike down to IdealBikes where Mike engaged in some chinrubbing to decide what to do (not least because no-one there is tall enough to ride the bike, which leads to problems testing if it's working ok...); it should be ready when I go down this evening to finish off setting up the network there.

Distance logged: 12.566km
Time: 35:15
Average speed: 21.4km/hr
Max speed: 51.2 km/hr
Temperature: -1C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 2539.658km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.25
Monthly distance: 506.036km
Monthly cost per km: $0.64

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Ride home for Thursday, 19 April

Stopped off at IdealBikes to see if everything was ready for me to take my bike in for the new brakes tomorrow. Dave had managed to find the brakes, so I'll be taking it in for new brake handles, wider handlebars and longer stem.

Had a bit of an issue on the way home, it felt like the cranks were coming loose. As a result I had real difficulty staying in gear, and the big ring was unusable, so I rode most of the way home rather gingerly in 1st to 3rd gear on the small and middle rings. I checked the cranks when I got home and took them off, but I couldn't see anything obvious. I put them back on and tightened everything up more and it seemed better, but I think it's just as well I'm taking the bike in again tomorrow... I guess this really is quite a junker bike - which is, after all, what I asked for!

Distance logged: 13.619km
Time: 49:34
Average speed: 16.5km/hr
Max speed: 46.1 km/hr
Temperature: 6C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 2527.092km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.26
Monthly distance: 493.470km
Monthly cost per km: $0.66

Ride into work for Thursday, 19 April

The weather seems to have settled down a bit; Environment Canada is promising a high of 13C and sunny for the weekend, too!

Distance logged: 12.679km
Time: 32:11
Average speed: 23.6km/hr
Max speed: 53.4 km/hr
Temperature: 1C, cloudy
Cumulative distance: 2513.473km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.26
Monthly distance: 479.851km
Monthly cost per km: $0.67

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Ride home for Wednesday, 18 April

Stopped off at Ideal Bikes on the way home to see if it would be possible to put wider handlebars (as my hands don't really fit with my waterproof neoprene gloves on) and a longer stem on when the cyclocross brakes come in. Mike recommended sanding off the skin on my hands as a simple short term measure to solve the problem, but assured me there were quite possibly one or two spare handlebars kicking around - and that there were cyclocross brakes in stock, he just had to find them.

Had a fun little interlude going across Joe Howe Drive from Bayer's Road when my chain snapped in the middle of the intersection. I coasted over to the other side, then crossed back with my bike and waited for the lights to change so I could safely dash over and grab my chain. I'm not sure what happened, it's a KMC Z chain which I've used before without a problem. I put it back together with a Masterlink and headed off.

Up on the fire trail I encountered the muppets of the day; a couple with two dogs that I've encountered before. This time one of the dogs was defecating by the side of the trail while the muppets wandered on obliviously, but one of them must have heard me coming as when he looked back and saw me coming he ran over with a plastic bag to clean up. As I passed the muppets I saw the other dog wandering across the path and said to the female muppet, "your dog is supposed to be on a leash". She then yelled out what sounded like "Blowers all a grass!". Puzzled, I stopped and had the following conversation:

Me: "I'm sorry, what was that?"
Female Muppet: "Blow it out your ass!"
Me: "Your dogs are a hazard, and they're legally required to be on a leash on this trail."
FM: "I recognise you! You go too fast on this trail! We've got witnesses that say so!"
Me: "No, with the trail the state it's in it's not possible to go fast."
Male Muppet: "You go over the speed limit on here all the time!"
This confused me, as there's no speed limit on this trail.
Me: "Really? There's no speed limit on here that I'm aware of, where's it posted?"
MM: "You know you exceed the speed limit! We've got witnesses that say so!"
Me: "OK, what's the speed limit on here, then?"
MM: "I don't know, but you're exceeding it!"
Me: "Well, let me know what it is. In the meantime, if your dogs come at me, I'm going to boot them out of the way, I'm fed up with being attacked by dogs."
MM: "You do that and it'll be the last boot you'll do, because I'll boot with my boot so you won't boot no more!"
At that point, it was fairly obvious these people really weren't worth wasting my time on, so I just waved them off and continued on. Unsurprisingly enough, one of the dogs chose to leap out at me (although I'm sure they would consider it my fault for riding in the wrong direction); this time I didn't bother to swerve out of the way, and discovered that the little yapper actually had a survival instinct of sorts and got out of the way. I heard a "Fhtagn!" behind me but decided to continue on before things got any worse.

The rest of the ride with, in contrast, quite pleasant; joggers who smiled and said "good morning" to me, some arboreal workers trimming back the trees who advised me to contact HRM to get the trail repaired, and a class of children that chanted "ding ding!" to me as I rang my bell to warn them I was coming up behind.

Swapped the chain out when I got home for an SRAM chain I had kicking around, and just for kicks put on the old 28c Continental tyres with a tyre liner to see how the bike would do with skinnier tyres.

Distance logged: 12.469km
Time: 42:28
Average speed: 17.6km/hr
Max speed: 47 km/hr
Temperature: 2C, breezy, occasional drizzle
Cumulative distance: 2500.794km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.26
Monthly distance: 467.172km
Monthly cost per km: $0.69

Ride into work for Wednesday, 18 April

No ride in yesterday as I was at home working on a presentation, and remotely getting a server prepped for a switchover. Came in at 3am for a scheduled outage, the storm surge and heavy winds predicted didn't seem to be particularly noticeable...

Distance logged: 10.764km
Time: 31:15
Average speed: 20.7km/hr
Max speed: 40.2 km/hr
Temperature: 4C, windy, raining
Cumulative distance: 2488.325km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.26
Monthly distance: 454.703km
Monthly cost per km: $0.71

Monday, April 16, 2007

Ride home for Monday, 16 April

Went into MEC at lunch and picked up some cheap studded pedals and a mirror. Picked up my bike after work and put the pedals and mirror on, then headed out into the mess. As well as high winds and rain/hail, a major accident at the junction of Highway 102 and Joseph Howe Drive backed up traffic all the way downtown. I didn't realise what was going on, just that I was riding round an awful lot of traffic, until I tried to go up Elliott Street with the intention of carrying my bike over the barrier onto the sidewalk then riding off onto the street - until I saw the fire truck parked right across the intersection with police and ambulance crew working there. I doubled back and went up Spruce Street instead and came to the Bayers Road / Joseph Howe Drive / Dutch Village Road intersection where a police officer had taken control directing traffic through. I watched with amusement as the vehicles adopted a "deer in the headlights" approach, stopping and staring at the police officer even as he was yelling things like "I'm waving my arms at you to go, look where my hand is pointing, MOVE YOUR ARSE NOW!" The officer was rather surprised to see me there as nominally it wasn't possible for traffic to come through the intersection (although anyone living on the road could have come up); he called over and asked me if I was going straight through, and I pointed I was turning left. He pulled through a few more cars while waiting for traffic to build up on the opposite side ("come on, I know you've got a gas pedal in there somewhere, buddy!") then called back to me, "OK, GO!"; he seemed quite happy that managed to accelerate through without hovering on the line.

I was pretty wet through when I got home, but at least I made it in reasonable time, unlike most other people out there. I found out when I got home that a dump truck overturned, unfortunately crushing another car.

Distance logged: 12.532km
Time: 35:01
Average speed: 21.4km/hr
Max speed: 45.2 km/hr
Temperature: 2C, raining, windy, occasional hail
Cumulative distance: 2477.561km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.26
Monthly distance: 443.939km
Monthly cost per km: $0.73

Ride into work for Monday, 16 April

Short ride into work as I got paged with a server down about five minutes after I set off. Took the new bike in, the cassette is slipping more now. Dropped it off at IdealBikes, it should be all fixed up by this afternoon.

Distance logged: 11.655km
Time: 33:01
Average speed: 21.1km/hr
Max speed: 50.5 km/hr
Temperature: -1C, windy
Cumulative distance: 2465.029km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.25
Monthly distance: 431.407km
Monthly cost per km: $0.7

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Ride for Saturday, 14 April

Rode downtown and back to the farmer's market to pick up my weekly shopping. When I got home, I went out on the new bike to the liquor store, but halfway there I found the front derailleur lever was slipping as the screw had come loose, so I had to ride the rest of the way there in first gear. Managed to bodge the screw back in tight enough to get home with a barrel key from an old U-lock.

Distance logged: 31.591km
Time: 99:50
Average speed: 19km/hr
Max speed: 49.7 km/hr
Temperature: 1C, light drizzle
Cumulative distance: 2453.374km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.26
Monthly distance: 419.752km
Monthly cost per km: $0.72

Ride home for Friday, 13 April

Went up to Staples at lunchtime and picked up a couple of cheap switches for Idealbikes. Went there after work and was told that in 20 minutes the shop would be closing so everyone could attend a memorial ride for Jack Nauss, who died on Good Friday. Went over to Nauss and there was quite a crowd, plus CBC were there to do a live interview; Peter lent me one of the earbuds from his radio to listen in as it happened. About 30 people showed up for the ride, both people I've seen before at events like Critical Mass and people I've never seen before. We went up through the Hydrostone where Jack lived, then over to the fire station where Dave (his son and current proprietor of Nauss Bicycles) is a fireman, over to Spring Garden, then back up to the Nauss bike shop.

Headed back to Ideal after that to work on their network, it looks like Windows in all its glory crashed and burned quite horribly; DHCP services aren't starting, there's no icons in the network folder (so how it's connecting to the wireless network I really don't know, but it explains why filesharing has gone for a burton), and the installer service is pretty much completely broken so it's not possible to install anything. I tried installing Ubuntu but the CD I put in failed to work - either that, or the CD drive is broken too. I tried downloading Ubuntu on a laptop there but left it running and headed home after the swarm slowed down to 4kB/sec (only 36 hours to completion!) - I have a feeling the machine has some other hardware issues too, as both drives in there are on one channel, and the BIOS is complaining they're not on an 80 pin cable. I'm going to head down there next week with my laptop so I can (if necessary) PXE boot it and do a network install.

Mike (the unfortunately nicknamed "Snowball", who had to endure a bike put together by Chris that day in the Nauss ride - with a seat below the handlebars and chain that slipped) told me that the cassette on my new bike probably needed replacing, as it was a new chain on an older cassette which must have had more wear than he thought.

Distance logged: 28.573km
Time: 99:21
Average speed: 17.3km/hr
Max speed: 51.2 km/hr
Temperature: 1C, light rain
Cumulative distance: 2421.783km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.26
Monthly distance: 388.161km
Monthly cost per km: $0.78

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Ride home for Thursday, 12 April

Picked up my new bike today as it's due to snow tomorrow. I'm getting it for free in exchange for fixing up the network at Ideal, which is by all accounts a bit iffy. They have a windows install that's got heavily infected with spyware, so I'm going to throw Linux on there and see if that will do any better for them.

The new bike is a Bottecchia that has been pretty heavily modified; it has a new rear derailleur, a 7 speed Megarange cassette (up from a 5 speed road cassette), new brake handles, new brakes, and new fenders. I also had to swap out the seatpost as it was too short. The guys at the shop told me I'd have to ride it myself to find out any problems, as no-one there was tall enough to ride it! The only problems I found were a slight rubbing on the front fender from the tyre, rubbing of the chain in the big ring on the top of the derailleur cage, and slipping in high gears on the big ring. I have a suspicion that the cause of the slipping is having a Megarange cassette on a road bike with triple chainrings, so I'll probably have to step down to a mountain bike cassette. The downtube shifters took a bit of getting used to, and I think I might look into seeing if I can move them further up the downtube at all.

The bike itself is extremely fast and agile; for summer use I may well strip off the fenders and put some skinny tyres on (it currently has 32C and 37C tyres on). The feeling when cornering is most odd, it feels like it's on rails. This came in handy when I encountered the muppet of the day; I was going down Dublin approaching Cork when I saw a car approaching the stop sign at the two way stop but looking like it was going to try to jump out across me. I suspected the muppet was going to try to jump the sign but the the car slowed down, so I rode on. When I was about 10 feet from the intersection the muppet decided to go for it, and it took some fairly agile swerving around to avoid getting hit (although there was a moment of temptation when I thought, "hmmm, I have the opportunity to get a new bike here..."); after I stopped I looked back and the muppet had stopped in the middle of the intersection and wound down her window. She said she was sorry and that she didn't see me; my comment that she should look before going through an intersection instead of apologising afterwards didn't really seem to register.

Fun ride home the rest of the way, although I had to take a shorter route as I was running late. Not as fast as I could have been due to the problems with gearing, but for a first ride things went pretty well.

Distance logged: 12.767km
Time: 39:06
Average speed: 19.6km/hr
Max speed: 49.7 km/hr
Temperature: 8C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 2393.210km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.23
Monthly distance: 359.588km
Monthly cost per km: $0.61

Ride into work for Thursday, 12 April

Sunny ride in, spring seems to be arriving. Or it would be, if it weren't for the forecast of snow for the next few days...

Distance logged: 12.912km
Time: 37:42
Average speed: 20.5km/hr
Max speed: 52.9 km/hr
Temperature: -2C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 2380.443km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.23
Monthly distance: 346.821km
Monthly cost per km: $0.63

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Ride home for Wednesday, 11 April

Sunny ride home. Stopped off at IdealBikes, my bike is all ready!

Distance logged: 14.829km
Time: 48:58
Average speed: 18.2km/hr
Max speed: 46.9 km/hr
Temperature: 5C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 2367.531km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.23
Monthly distance: 333.909km
Monthly cost per km: $0.65

Ride into work for Wednesday, 11 April

Nice ride in, but I'm wishing for rain to wash the salt off the roads - this would be great weather to ride the road bike in, but I don't want to expose it to all the salt...

Distance logged: 15.715km
Time: 43:51
Average speed: 21.5km/hr
Max speed: 55.5 km/hr
Temperature: -3C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 2352.702km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.23
Monthly distance: 319.080km
Monthly cost per km: $0.68

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Ride home for Tuesday, 10 April

Warm ride home, would have been quite enjoyable if it weren't for all the people who aren't quite sure how wide their vehicle is and prefer to err towards the curb regardless of anyone else on the road.

Saw around 20 cyclists on the way home, including 3 kids who were being taught how to ride by their dad, circling around in a church car park. It looked like they were having quite some fun, although the youngest looked like she was just trying for tight spirals as fast as possible - I was glad I wasn't on cleanup duty there!

Distance logged: 14.140km
Time: 44:15
Average speed: 19.2km/hr
Max speed: 44.3 km/hr
Temperature: 5C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 2336.987km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.23
Monthly distance: 303.365km
Monthly cost per km: $0.72

Ride into work for Tuesday, 10 April

Late ride in as I was paged last night.

Distance logged: 12.999km
Time: 34:42
Average speed: 22.5km/hr
Max speed: 62.9 km/hr
Temperature: -1C, sunny, breezy
Cumulative distance: 2322.847km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.23
Monthly distance: 289.225km
Monthly cost per km: $0.75

Monday, April 09, 2007

Ride home for Monday, 09 April

Windy ride home, another of those rides that seem to be doing nothing but riding into headwinds.

Distance logged: 14.418km
Time: 52:31
Average speed: 16.5km/hr
Max speed: 40.3 km/hr
Temperature: 2C, windy
Cumulative distance: 2309.848km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.23
Monthly distance: 276.226km
Monthly cost per km: $0.79

Ride into work for Monday, 09 April

Back on the mountain bike as the roads have been well salted again due to the snowfall. The fire trail is now a complete mess, the bobcat driver who tried to clear the trail must have been drinking or something... Large sections are nothing but divots 6 inches apart, and at the end of each section of trail there's a big pile of snow, ice, gravel and earth all mixed up that's going to make a real mess when it all thaws...

Distance logged: 14.556km
Time: 45:58
Average speed: 19km/hr
Max speed: 60.9 km/hr
Temperature: -2C, cloudy
Cumulative distance: 2295.430km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.24
Monthly distance: 261.808km
Monthly cost per km: $0.83

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Ride for Saturday, 07 April

Down to the Farmer's Market to do my weekly shopping. Since we're under a heavy snowfall warning (with up to 25cm forecast) I took the mountain bike in case the roads were salted. Just for fun I took the seat and seatpost off the hybrid and put it on the mountain bike; there was no creaking sound! I guess it's not the saddle or seatpost. When I got home I greased up the seatpost collar, as that's about the only component I can think of that it might be...

Distance logged: 25.935km
Time: 90:41
Average speed: 17.2km/hr
Max speed: 51.3 km/hr
Temperature: 3C-4C
Cumulative distance: 2280.874km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.24
Monthly distance: 247.252km
Monthly cost per km: $0.88

Ride for Friday, 06 April

Got paged at 3am with a server down, so I rode downtown to the office to see what was up. I decided to take the shortest route possible - normally not a good idea due to traffic volume, but at 3am I figured I should be OK. Even then I had a driver on Bayer's Road decide that even though there were two lanes available, he would try to pass me in the lane I was in...

Distance logged: 19.775km
Time: 67:01
Average speed: 17.7km/hr
Max speed: 49.6 km/hr
Temperature: 0C
Cumulative distance: 2254.939km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.24
Monthly distance: 221.317km
Monthly cost per km: $0.99

Ride home for Thursday, 5 April

Wet and windy ride home, not much fun... I was glad I wore my wellington boots in to work though!

Distance logged: 13.155km
Time: 45:54
Average speed: 17.2km/hr
Max speed: 43 km/hr
Temperature: 1C, raining, windy
Cumulative distance: 2235.164km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.24
Monthly distance: 201.542km
Monthly cost per km: $1.08

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Ride into work for Thursday, 05 April

Rode in via Bedford for a doctor's appointment. Had a tailwind on the way there which turned into quite the headwind on the way into work...

Distance logged: 30.452km
Time: 81:30
Average speed: 22.4km/hr
Max speed: 58.6 km/hr
Temperature: -1C to 1C, foggy, windy
Cumulative distance: 2222.009km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.24
Monthly distance: 188.387km
Monthly cost per km: $1.16

Ride home for Wednesday, 04 April

Found I had a slow flat due to a chunk (!) of rubber missing from my back tyre. Decided to change both tyres to more puncture resistant ones, and picked up a couple of Continental Gatorskin tyres from MEC. The ride home after changing the tyres was slow, but I suspect that might have been from lack of sleep.

Distance logged: 12.534km
Time: 44:26
Average speed: 16.9km/hr
Max speed: 47 km/hr
Temperature: -3C, sunny, breezy
Cumulative distance: 2191.557km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.25
Monthly distance: 157.935km
Monthly cost per km: $1.38

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Ride into work for Wednesday, 04 April

2am ride in as I had a scheduled outage. Nice time of day to ride as the roads are pretty much deserted, and pretty well all the traffic lights are set to flashing red (equivalent to a 4 way stop), making the trip noticeably quicker.

Distance logged: 12.914km
Time: 32:32
Average speed: 23.8km/hr
Max speed: 56 km/hr
Temperature: -3C
Cumulative distance: 2179.023km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.21
Monthly distance: 145.401km
Monthly cost per km: $0.88

Ride home for Tuesday, 03 April

Muppet of the day was the bus driver who stopped on Spring Garden without signalling and picked up some passengers, then honked at me when I overtook in the other lane. At the red light at the next intersection the driver shouted at me "you shouldn't be in my lane! Use your head!", to which I replied, "I wasn't in your lane, I was overtaking you while you stopped to pick up passengers without signalling." This didn't go down to well, and she said, "yeah, whatever, just drive on." When I pointed out that the light was red (meaning stop, not go) she got all huffy for some reason and turned away.

Distance logged: 13.567km
Time: 41:47
Average speed: 19.5km/hr
Max speed: 46.1 km/hr
Temperature: 3C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 2166.109km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.21
Monthly distance: 132.487km
Monthly cost per km: $0.97

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Ride into work for Tuesday, 03 April

Cold ride in, but at least the rain held off...

Distance logged: 18.835km
Time: 48:48
Average speed: 23.2km/hr
Max speed: 56.4 km/hr
Temperature: -3C, cloudy
Cumulative distance: 2152.542km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.21
Monthly distance: 118.920km
Monthly cost per km: $1

Monday, April 02, 2007

Ride home for Monday, 02 April

Went into MEC at lunch and picked up a new backpack as my old one was falling apart. Went into IdealBikes and arranged for my new bike to be ready for Friday. It needs new wheels as the ones that are on there are 27" and I want 700c's - I may well ride this bike in the winter and I want to get tyres that will fit! It needs a new wheel anyway, as there's only a 5 speed freewheel on there and I want an 8 speed cassette.

Chilly ride home, with lots of muppets wanting to demonstrate how close to me they can drive. The concept of a hammer velcro'd to the handlebars becomes more tempting by the day.

Distance logged: 17.551km
Time: 51:28
Average speed: 20.5km/hr
Max speed: 52.2 km/hr
Temperature: 3C
Cumulative distance: 2133.707km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.21
Monthly distance: 100.085km
Monthly cost per km: $1.18

Ride into work for Monday, 02 April

Short ride in as I had a sprog who didn't want to get out of bed after lying there singing from 2am to 5am...

Distance logged: 11.519km
Time: 31:58
Average speed: 21.6km/hr
Max speed: 62.5 km/hr
Temperature: -7C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 2116.156km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.18
Monthly distance: 82.534km
Monthly cost per km: $0.71

Ride for Sunday, 01 April

Rode downtown to a client's site to do some work on their VPN.

Distance logged: 24.675km
Time: 77:14
Average speed: 19.2km/hr
Max speed: 60.6 km/hr
Temperature: -1C to 4C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 2104.637km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.18
Monthly distance: 71.015km
Monthly cost per km: $0.82

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Ride for Saturday, 31 March

Rode down to the farmer's market to do my weekly shopping. Stopped off at IdealBikes to get my new gear cable tightened as it wasn't shifting into low gear while riding under load, even after twiddling the limit screw all the way. Tightened the saddle nut a bit more but the saddle is still squeaking, so I'm going to look into regreasing the whole thing with a syringe.

Took another look at the bike there, which is a Bottecchia; opinions vary as to the quality, but the ride seems to be pretty good. The wife's comment on my buying another bike was "mmm-hmmm", which, since it was not a negative must therefore be a positive. Mike said I'd be looking at $175 for it with fenders and a mountain bike cassette, so with any luck I'll be picking it up some time next week.

Added in the costs for turtle lights, turtle light helmet mounts, clif bars and electrolyte solution that I forgot to add for Friday.

Distance logged: 25.414km
Time: 87:50
Average speed: 17.4km/hr
Max speed: 53.4 km/hr
Temperature: -3C to 0C, sunny and cloudy
Cumulative distance: 2079.962km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.18
Monthly distance: 46.340km
Monthly cost per km: $1.26

Critical mass ride for Friday, 30 March

Left work early after being paged early (and the text on the monitor screen was starting to go fuzzy) and took some pictures for IdealBikes. Saw Peter on the way round, he gave me some more stickers, and when I got back to the shop Mike gave me a challenge of "disposing" of a rusted out bike shaped object which wouldn't even hold air in the tyres - not to mention the chain had fallen off and rusted in place. I stickered it with Critical Mass stickers and left it outside the shop as an advert; it was still there when I left at 6, but apparently it disappeared shortly afterwards.

Critical Mass was fairly well attended with around 25 people there, although I was expecting more - quite a few people who sad they would come didn't turn up for one reason or another. The purpose of the ride was to show where the new bike again project is, and Scott handed out leaflets for it with the following text:

"Are you interested in fixing your bike but haven't got the right tools? Do you have an old bike that needs a new home? Do you love bicycling? If so come visit us at the Bike Again Community Project.

We are a locally run, all volunteer community bike shop. We recycle bikes, teach bike mechanics and promote safe urban cycling.

We are always looking for volunteers with differing skill levels.

Bloomfield Centre
2786 Agricola Street, Halifax
Wednesday 5:30-9:00pm
Sunday 1:00pm-7:00pm
E-mail: bikeagain (at) hotmail.com"

The ride finished up at the Bloomfield Centre where Scott showed the entrance, a grey door off to the side. He also mentioned a movie night, but (since I was at the back with a headband covering my ears) I didn't hear the time and date, but I did get to hear the tale of woe of the last one, involving duff projectors, duff displays, duff laptops and culminating and a scratched DVD - hopefully the next one will come off better!

After that there was an unofficial ride around Citadel Hill then back to Victoria Park. A bunch of us headed out home towards Vernon Street, with bikes peeling off one by one. Finally, by Quinpool, there was just Godwin and I, and we were able to pick up the pace a bit - up till I had a moment of cognitive dissonance trying to figure out the fastest way to Mumford, as the route we were going was the opposite of the way I ride in and doesn't work "the other way round"; we ended up going down Chebucto onto Mumford after I had a few seconds' thought.

Pictures from the ride here; not too many as it was tricky getting the camera out of the bag and taking pictures with two sets of full-finger gloves on!

Distance logged: 20.926km
Time: 82:45
Average speed: 15.2km/hr
Max speed: 39.4 km/hr
Temperature: 5C to 4C, cloudy
Cumulative distance: 2054.548km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.16
Monthly distance: 20.926km
Monthly cost per km: $0