Sunday, February 10, 2008

Couldn't stand the weather


After a couple of uneventful commutes I went on the Hiawatha ride Saturday morning. Even though Jim and Kevin are in Portland for the NAHMB show four of us still showed up for the ride. Temps were in the mid 20s with the forecast calling for them to plummet. For comparison, this morning it was -16 with wind chill factors of -40+. No, I'm not talking celsius. We rode up to CRC and chatted with B Rose a bit before riding back to the shop. The shop was closed and there was really no reason to go back there, but it felt like the right thing to do. On the way home I pulled out my new camera. It's an upgraded version of the old Canon I've been lugging around for about 6 years. The new one is a Canon PowerShot SD870. It's a little better zoom, but the real difference is moving from 3.2 megapixel to 8.0.
Though it was actually a pretty nice morning I look cold, don't I?

I didn't feel cold, and actually rode about 1/2 a mile with only one glove so I could get this panda shot.

I really like this shot for some reason. It's now my new desktop background.

The Mendota Bridge was plenty snowy. The greyness of the day comes through in all these shots.

This shot of Ft. Snelling really captures how fat the snowflakes really were.

Here's a shot of the new 3 speed rear wheel. I know Rob has been having trouble with broken spokes on his, but so far so good for me. I'm going to take a wait and see attitude.

With the new wheel came new equipment up front. I added an old Suntour barcon to run the SA hub and a set of new grips from Hiawatha. Both are mounted on an old set of bars from a Schwinn Suburban. The Weinmann brakes are from the Suburban, as is the stem. I just pulled the entire assembly out and relocated it to the Triumph.

Not much of a snowtongue.

While the snow couldn't form a good tongue on the fender, it did a bang up job of obscuring both my light and my reflector.


Today was incredibly sunny. The kind of sunshine you only get in the northern states when it's butt cold. I drove up to Blaine and wandered around the Bike Swap, but didn't make any purchases. Nothing motivated me. I did see some beautiful bikes (not in my size or price range). And the National Sports Center got some of my $5 admission, so it's all good.

Date: February 6
Mileage: 18
Ride type/Bike: Commute/Triumph
February mileage: 18
Year to date mileage: 327

Date: February 7
Mileage: 12
Ride type/Bike: Commute/Triumph
February mileage: 30
Year to date mileage: 339

Date: February 8
Mileage: 12
Ride type/Bike: Commute/Triumph
February mileage: 42
Year to date mileage: 351

Date: February 8
Mileage: 23
Ride type/Bike: Hiawatha/Triumph
February mileage: 65
Year to date mileage: 374

4 comments:

rigtenzin said...

I like the photos. I missed you at the swap meet, but saw others I knew.

Jim says the more spokes you have, the less the washer thing will matter. My wheel has 28. That's not too many. He says he doesn't use washers with 40 hole Sturmey Archer wheels and does not have problems. If I remember right, yours has 36, I bet that's good enough.

Frostbike said...

Interesting. I thought for some reason your hub was a 40 hole model. Mine is indeed a 36, so hopefully that means I won't have problems.

KM said...

Thanks for having the ride in our absence. Stay warm

Apertome said...

Cool camera ... and the shots demonstrate it's quite capable. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with it, hopefully you'll feel inspired to take more photos on your rides.

That looks like a fun ride, I'm impressed with how much you still ride during the winter.