Month: February 2012

Making Time to Ride

Just for fun.  Today was too nice outside not to go for a ride, not errands, just a ride for the sake of riding.  A recent saddle acquisition motivates me to take out the Eisentraut.  What a fun riding bike.  The tire clearance is the only limitation that bike imposes, the rest is up to the motor.  I have a set of vintage NOS Specialized Touring tires on it at the moment, labeled 32mm, but measure at 23mm.  Not sure if it is the overstated tire size trend of the era, or dyslexia.  For super skinny tires they ride pretty well.

I was out for a few hours, and about 30 miles before the wind came up too bad.  I shot more video than pictures on this ride.  Something else I will be teaching myself as part of the Ocean Air Cycles project.  Some of it actually came out OK.  I learned that video takes a different level of planning than pictures.  Lots of scouting and thinking about timing and angles of view, and how to get it done solo.  Next up is post production, I will see what is usable and hopefully have a short movie by next week.

Winter is Still Here

The weather as you all are likely aware has been a bit nuts this year.  We are starting into out second winter storm this week.  I headed out between the drops, 45 deg and damp, to run some errands.

There was a rainbow for a moment in the storm clouds closing in, bu the GoPro was not able to grab it.  I almost made it home dry.  By this afternoon we should be back to 40 mph winds and snow down to 4000 ft or so in the mountains out back.  Never a dull moment this year, although it keeps me inside and busy.

 

Daddy Days

Fridays are daddy days now that the first four days of the week are child care days.  At this point it is still just a recovery day for the both of us.  Today was a quick ride to dump off the compost, take a look at the ocean and then home for the rest of the book marathon.

And yes our jackets now match, she has made it to a point where such things really make her day.

The Masu / Bike project hit a turning point today where I think we are about to make a big jump to the next step.  Monday is going to be a busy day, and the week to follow is going to fill up fast.

Timing and Surf

I have spent over two-thirds of my life as a surfer, and never thought that life would get to busy to make time to get into the water.  The last few years have proven that wrong in a big way.  Looking back it is hard to figure out exactly what changed.  The biggest thing with surfing is the need to be completely flexible in timing so that when the swell, wind, tide and free time all converge it becomes the obvious choice.  It seems that finding that convergence, or making it happen, is harder than it used to be for some reason, even living about two blocks from the beach.  At least there has been a bit of a replacement with the bike.  I get the glide, and the benefit of transportation, and the convenience of the bike being there when I want.  I still miss getting in the water.

Today the swell was good, really good, but the wind was howling, and the choice of getting out for a bit at lunch fell back to the bike, not a bad thing at all in the big picture.