Category: Rides

Commitment

There is nothing like a monetary commitment, skin in the game, to keep you focused on the target.  Aside from the myriad  of bureaucratic and general business expenses there are the specific costs, engineering, prototypes, testing etc.  Each new cost is another step to the center of the ring.  Today I signed up for my first Expo, Philly Bike Expo October 27 & 28 to be exact.  The check is in the envelope and on the way, locked in, I need to get busy so I have something to show.

My post office rides seem to always fall on stormy days.  Today is supposed to be a rain day according to the weather man, but it looks like a miss.  I am not sure there is going to be any rain this year, the hills never turned green and things are all brown and crispy before spring has even shown up.  It is going to be an interesting year in the coastal desert, where easy access to fresh water is often taken for granted.

It was good to get outside for a break though, and a quick trip to roll past the ocean.

As a side note, I am loving the new/old pedals.  I need to get a deeper set of half clips fabbed up, but outside of that, they are sublime for riding around town, even in Birkenstocks.

Video From Last Week

As promised I put together a quick video from my ride last week.  I am using IMovie on my wife’s IMac to edit and post process.  While intuitive, it is a double learning curve for a lifetime PC guy like me.

I learned a bunch just making this short clip, from the importance of really thinking out for each shot to the need to have the camera perfectly plumb and level.  I am working on adding music and refining my editing skills, for now it was time to quit editing and move on from my first pass at video.  There will be better ones to follow for sure, this was fun.

Any tips you out there can provide are welcome, Thanks for taking a look.

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.