spring meanderings

The last few days have seen a fair bit of wandering about by me, my family, and my friends. Spring is here - despite what the snow and ice pellets we are getting today might suggest - and that means that opportunities for taking pictures outside are on the rise. At least, they are on the rise if colour and contrast is something that is of interest.

on the subject of freds

"Real" cyclists, whatever they are, do not like Freds.

What, dear reader, might a Fred be?

There is much blather about this on the interwebs but it boils down to this: a Fred is a person who has more gear than their apparent abilities suggest they can really make use of. Sometimes, this is true. The implication though is that the person referring to the owner of said nice gear as a Fred can make better use of that gear. Sometimes, this is also true. Also, Freds talk about training all the time. They talk about numbers. They are merciless enthusiasts who are often out to convert the heathen. But mostly they ride nice gear that costs a lot and dress the part. This makes them either genuinely smug, or gives them the appearance of being genuinely smug.

That bugs some people. Especially those who really wish that they had that nice gear who have fallen under the sway of the green monster.

However, what the term Fred really seems to refer to in practice is a person riding a nice or expensive bike who is going slower than the person calling them a Fred. This way, they can say, "You should have seen that guy I dusted/smoked/beat on his expensive bike! He couldn't ride! What a Fred!" thus implying that the victor in the one sided race up the road made better use of their money by buying a cheaper bike which they can clearly ride faster than that Fred. Moral superiority attained!

The fact that this "Fred" may have just ridden that day ten times what the "victor" in the Cat 6 (commuter MUP race) event rides in a month may not enter into the mind of the self righteous.

A person's degree of Fredliness becomes relative to the person referring to them as a Fred. A fast rider who dusts off a slower rider on a nicer bike may, perhaps, refer to that slower rider as a Fred. A slow rider who dusts off a tired faster rider on an expensive bike may do likewise. Ironically, all this does is make the name calling "victor" either genuinely smug, or gives them the appearance of being genuinely smug.

So, to avoid a bad case of pot calling the kettle black, Fred not!

small world, isn't it?

Lately, for some reason, I have found myself having fun taking pictures of very small things.

this ride brought to you by garmin connect

Went out on a bit of a ride with Cedric and Rob today. Was a good one. The sun was out, it was a pleasant if chilly temperature. I had a good time. Soon, very soon, speeds will rise on this route as the collective gets their riding legs back under them.

more spring madness

I managed to get out with Martin today for some photo work and coffee. We travelled from Waterloo to Paris (Ontario, not the one in France) and took some pictures along the way.

Here is a selection of what we got on our travels today.

Found in the river at Glen Morris - this area is usually not under water at all. With the usual springtime melt, coupled with the heavy rains over the last few days, the river is running very high and much along its edge that normally is dry, is submerged.

Shot from the sidewalk, this collection of things out front of this stuccoed house struck both me and Martin as being worthy of a photograph.

The light today was that very muted light that comes with rain and heavy overcast.

Most of the bright colour came from unnatural sources thanks in large part to our delayed spring.

The barest hint of green is all that is out there, even along the shores of the river where you would expect to find more of it.

Excellent advice here - driving to the left of the sign would be a messy and rather wet experience.

Running high and not dry. Lots of water today over the dam in Paris.

ice see

Had some ice fall down from above today. Not much, but it looked (n)ice.

uptown ice sprinkles

entombed thorns

waiting for warm butts

icy forests

out for coffee

A good friend of mine and I spent a bit of time out for coffee today. We talked about cycling, photography, and life in general.

Talking about photography reminded both of us that it has been too long since we have done anything with the cameras. A short walk ensued.

single speed outside the coffee shop

alley windows

name a beer

working hard

from a later walk

schmuck truck

'twas a good time.

a deflating experience

I am going to have to bite the bullet and get some real tires.

I was hoping to avoid spending the cash on some good ones, but I am left with no choice.

After winter, I found an old set of Bontrager tires kicking around the house, installed them with some Mr Tuffy tire liners, and used them for a while. They were an intermediate step from the studs to some proper commuter tires. They rolled so well I thought I might keep using them.

Then I got a flat.

Thankfully, I was not in a hurry. They are a pain in the arse to remove from the rim since they are old and stiff and feel a touch small. I could not find anything wrong with the tire or rim or tube. I expect the valve just let go. The tube still held air, but not a lot.

A few days later, I swapped out the old knobbies for a pair of 26x1.5 Continental slicks we have that used to be on my wife's recumbent. Great tires. Nice and fast. Used them twice.

Got a flat.

Hit a minor bump. Pinched the tube or something. The rubber is not that thick on these tires. Oh, and the bike was not loaded down at all. Again, nothing in the tire, nothing in the tube, no holes, nothing. But it would not hold air. 

You have to understand something.

I don't get flats. I just don't get them for whatever reason. I can go well over 15 000km between flats.
_____________________________________________________

This winter, spear of glass went through a tire.

One flat.

Bad luck. First flat in a year at least (had one two winters ago - someone threw flint on a bike path. Bad luck. Prior to that, last flat was a number of years of heavy riding ago.)

Add to that two flats in the last week...
_____________________________________________________

I have an old pair of Schwalbe Marathon tires. The original ones. They have seen over 5000km of use. Use that was partially loaded commuting, partially pavement, but mostly gravel and mud rail trail riding. 1000s of km of gravel use.

No flats.

They are about 3/4 burned out.

But no flats.

Ever.
_____________________________________________________

So tomorrow, I am to haul myself off to my LBS and get a set of 26 x 1.5-1.75 Schwalbe Marathon tires, which ever size they have of whatever Marathon they have in stock.

I should have known better.

Just use the Schwalbes.

Don't kid yourself.

I just wish this was an april fool's joke

Really weather?
Really?
Snow?
Again?
REALLY?!?

This just about sums up how people around here are feeling about the weather.

Today, we had strong west winds, and white out condition flurries with patchy blue sky and cloud. Temperatures were a full 10 degrees Celsius below normal for April 1.

Sigh.

That said, I managed to get a lot of work work done on my day off, got some errands run, and rode around the city on the bike. Thankfully, the rain we got yesterday and last night washed most of the salt off of the roads and the city managed to resist the urge to salt again today.

Here is hoping that Spring arrives properly this week sometime.

rolling hills

Thankfully, the weather is at last cooperating around here.

With temperatures hovering around 10 degrees, a ride was in order.

I did not go too far - 58.99km - but really enjoyed the outing. My route took me over a series of rolling hills which I have not seen for the bicycle since sometime last October. In total, I managed 219m of elevation gain, not bad for this part of Ontario. We lack real hills around here.

I was reminded that commuting on a heavily overloaded bike is not a replacement for road riding. Yes, I have been very active this year so far - evidenced by the 1653km I have logged on the bikes after today's efforts. But that riding has been overwhelmingly slow and choppy, and has done nothing to build endurance. Today's ride, on the other hand, was a spin fest, with lots of climbing - km 5 to km 19 was mostly uphill with some minor descending - over mixed surfaces which included glass smooth pavement, broken up potholed roads, and gravel.

It was a great way to break in the new cyclocross bike - my bright orange 2013 Kona Jake the Snake.

So far, I am absolutely loving that bike. It is lighter than the old one, and much faster. The cockpit of the bike is very strange to me compared to what I am used to. The stem is shorter - all of my bikes have longer stems which were popular about a decade ago - giving me a seemingly cramped riding position. In actual fact, the slightly more compact riding position, matched to shallower road bars compared to the old bike, makes it significantly easier for me to get into the drops and produces much more assured steering than the old bike had. In part, this has to do with the very stiff (yet comfortable) carbon fiber fork vs the old bike's steel mountain bike based fork, and the tapered head tube. I point the bike where I want it to go, and it goes there with no drama, no matter how smashed up the road surface is.

The tires that come on the bike are not that great for asphalt, but are marvelous on gravel, and will be a hoot later on when things dry down a bit after the spring run off. For low pressure cyclocross knobbies, they roll along quite nicely and contribute to a fairly cushy ride on broken up surfaces. Speed is sacrificed though. I still managed a reasonable average speed for me in March. If I could afford a second wheel set, I would get one with slicks mounted for road use, and save these for trails and gravel road riding. The tires are Maxxis Mud Wrestlers.

Back to the riding though.

My legs and lungs need to be reforged as a cyclist's legs and lungs. I found myself gasping a few times when I shouldn't have, and honestly considered one hill on gravel -  an elevation jump of 33m over 310m - to have been a mistake being as it was near to the end of the ride.

And yet, I felt refreshed. It was wonderful.

I estimate that in another four or five rides, things should be back to normal and start to look up for the rest of the season.

Where is that pesky hammer and anvil...

first time fast

First time out on one of the faster bikes this year. Not the new Orange One, but rather my eight year old Jake the Snake, with 700 x 23c slicks and fenders.

Oh the gift of wings.

It was so much faster than what I have been lumbering around on for the last several months!!

Now I just need to get out and ride and ride some more.

Soon, there will be no salt left on the roads, and day time temperatures at more reasonable levels which will allow me to get on the new bike, strip off several layers, and really get moving.

Anticipation.

a busy few days

It has been a busy few days.

On the surface, not much has been going on. I have gotten up, gone to work, returned home, worked some more, and slept. Rinse, lather, repeat all week long.

But a few things came to an end this week, ushering in as they did some new beginnings. Firstly, the Friday I have been waiting for finally arrived.

the new bike leaning against one of my daughter's many book cases

I was finally able, after long last and much saving, to pick up my 2013 Kona Jake the Snake cyclocross bike. This thing looks to be a beauty, and I am really very much looking forward to riding it. Lots of pictures of it and a mini review will come later when I can get to it. It is still very salty outside - left overs from winter - and I refuse to ride it outdoors until the salt is washed away.

The pick up of the new wheels happened on Friday.

Saturday, I had a pile of errands to run, a birthday party for my nephew to go to, a birthday party to drop my daughter off at for her friend, and a visit with a friend of mine. We went out walking for a bit around Uptown Waterloo and I shot a couple of pictures.

sign outside a local restaurant

inside a local bike shop

Besides a very good coffee and some light refreshment, one of the things that was accomplished was that my friend picked up his new bike.

There is a lot of that going around it would seem.

He needed a new commuter, and settled on a pretty sweet basic Brodie to help him cart his carcass around the city. Nice bike. Good colour. And a very happy friend. I don't have a picture of it yet, but that is, I assure you, coming. You see, this friend of mine wants to do more biking, and wants to use the new wheels as a car and we can both foresee our collective families getting together for many rail trail rides this spring and summer. Should be good fun.

Today? Busy as well. More work, a bit of play, and some furniture moving.

I almost look forward to getting back to work tomorrow so things can settle down a bit.

say what cloud?

Had an interesting talk with my father today about cloud based processing and "the cloud" in general. He is a retired computer person, who was working in the industry back in the 1960s through to the early 2000s.

Goes something like this.

Before, we had computers that were stand alone devices. I might have one, you might have one. We all, perhaps, might have had one.

Then, we started to build networks which could link one computer to another computer within a building. Files could be shared, etc etc.

Diagramming the connections between different computers was easy. A symbol could be used to represent each computer, and another for a router, and lines could be drawn to illustrate the connections between them.

Enter the Internet in its infancy as it became more than a research project.  Now the network diagrams became more difficult to draw. The local ones would be relatively unchanged. Mapping out how things moved from a local network to the Internet hub was easy as well, but beyond that? Tricky. Mapping data leaving the net was easy as well. But in between? Tricky.

So, on the whiteboard would appear the following. A map of the local network, a map of the end result, and a single word. That word is network. And it was surrounded by a "thought bubble" that was cloud shaped.

That's it. That is the cloud. Nothing new here.

When you use cloud based storage or software, you are essentially trusting that another company has your best interests at heart. That they won't do anything with your stuff. That they will even exist when you need them. You better encrypt it before you store it, or it is open for viewing.

Ironically, your fancy pants computer has become effectively an expensive terminal using someone else's big computer (or network farm). Just like in the old mainframe days of the 1980s.

today was about a trip

Took a short tour over to Grand Bend to see the swans this morning. 

Tundra Swans in Grand Bend

Tundra Swans in Grand Bend

Tundra Swans in Grand Bend

There were literally thousands of them in the fields resting on the ice. It was, though, bitterly cold outside with a strong west wind blowing off of Lake Huron. No snow, but very cold.

After that, it was lunch at the local Timmies, and off to Bayfield for some more pictures in the cold.

Picture in the Cold in Bayfield

Picture in the Cold in Bayfield

Picture in the Cold in Bayfield

Then we went home.

garmin edge 200 review

Again, the usual qualifiers: I am not a product reviewer, but rather a user of products; I am not being paid by Garmin or anyone else to review this product; I paid for it myself with my own money; etc, etc, etc.

What in the world prompted me to buy this you might ask?!?

Ok. I am the first the admit it. I am a geek.

I like numbers and have been, for well over a year now, anally recording every single km ridden on my bikes in a spreadsheet and have been content doing so. With my new bike on order (due to hit the road late April) and being faced with the prospect of buying yet another cycling computer to track the numbers for that bike, I did a bit of digging into some non-traditional approaches as to what to use to track my km and other data.

Benefits of a GPS system (for me)

There is no set up. Simply attach the unit to the bike, stick it in your pocket, what ever you want, and go. If you swap tyres around like I tend to do, there is no (relatively) tedious set up like there is with conventional magnetic ticker counter bike computers.

Data is therefore consistent between different bicycles and tyre sizes. Any error in the reading of the speed and distance will at least be a constant error regardless of any variation in the bicycles or tyres used.

Disadvantages of a GPS system (for me)

Battery life is not what I am used to. Usually, I get several years out of a battery on my bike computer but the GPS systems need more charging. All this means is that I have to remember to do it. But, since I am disciplined to charge my cell phone and tablet every night, what is another device? No big deal. Just remember to do it is all or that next ride might be dataless. Something which only matters if you care, which you do or why bother with a GPS device?

Errors. Yep, there are errors with a GPS system. Venture into a tunnel? Bye Bye signal. Trees? Can do it too apparently. As long as this is not a huge deal, it is, well, not a huge deal. Depends on the person and what they are using the data for.

How I am using the device / Mounting the device

My intention is to use this device as my speedometer for all of my bikes except the off road bike. That bike spends a lot to most of its time under heavy forest cover and is also voted most likely to crash and crash hard. This means that mounting a GPS unit to it is not something I am interested in doing.

Garmin is nice in that they ship the device with two mounts, and enough thick stretchy elastics to choke a goat so an owner of this GPS can immediately set up two bicycles with the unit without having to move the mounts around. Extra bits can be ordered if so desired. Also, the elastics are long enough, and varied enough, that they can accommodate stem or handlebar mounting. This is a nice touch and something that Garmin should be praised for.

Garmin, Sram, and a few other companies also make mounts to put the device (all of the "edge" GPS units from Garmin use the same mounting system - set it in the mount sideways, twist, click, and it is mounted) out in front of the handle bar stem without using much handlebar real estate. Ever see those speedometers riders in the Tour de France use sticking low and out front of the stem? These brackets will mount the device like that. I am going for the Sram bracket as the Garmin one is crazy expensive ($65 here in CDN dollars vs $25 for the Sram) for what amounts to basically the same thing.

At the end of the day, this GPS will replace several different bike computers. No more magnets, cords, zip ties. All gone. The bikes will look a lot cleaner and will be easier to wash up when they get filthy.

In use

When the device is first turned on, the screen is broken into four sections. Clockwise from the upper left, they read as follows:

1. Courses - a list of preset (by you) courses that you can follow. This is not a feature that I have explored and wonder, now, if it is something I will use. Time will tell if I will use it. If I do, I will report back and say what I think. For now? No comment.
2. Ride - press this when you want to go on a ride. It will geolocate you via satellites, and you are off.
3. Settings - does what you think it does. You can set how you want distance counted, your weight, height, etc etc. Useful if you want the calorie counter to be as close as possible.
4. History - this allows you to browse previous rides stored on the device. 

Each section has a little arrow pointing to the button on the side nearest to it and each function is selected by the button. The screen is not a touch screen.

Press the ride button, and the device attempts to find your location. You now have two options, "back" and "start". Press start and the device starts to track what you are doing.

Once a ride is "started", the screen reads like this from top to bottom:

1. Current speed. This is in a smallish font compared to what I am used to. Even the smaller speedometers I have use bigger numbers for the speedometer than this Garmin unit does. That said, I no longer notice now that I am used to seeing it. Next to the current speed, on the left of the numbers, is the little +/- symbol to tell you if you are over or above the current average speed.
2.  Distance. The font is the same size as the Current Speed function.
3. Time. This is the elapsed time since the ride was started. If the auto pause feature is selected from the settings menu, the timer will pause when no motion is detected. The lowest of the four lines of text on the device will display how long you were paused for. The device will sound an alert if no motion is detected, and again when motion resumes.
4. The last data item is variable. It has Average Speed (default), Ascent (done by GPS tracking not barometric pressure so it is not so accurate - more on that later), Calories (a guess since this device does not support heart rate monitors or any other external add ons), 

Once a ride is done, pressing the upper right button takes you to some options. Again, upper left in clockwise rotation they are as follows:

1. Back to start -  an rtfm moment for me - not a function I have used.
2. Resume - restarts the ride again. This is a nice feature. When riding to work, I pause the ride, work all day, and restart it for the trip home. I end up with three "times" this way - moving time, elapsed riding time, and total time since the ride was first started. I can see when I left the house and when I got home that way. Depending on how long the day was, this can be a depressingly large number (heh).
3. Save - stores the ride in the device's history.
4. Discard - dumps the ride from the memory.

The first ride out, the device seemed to be confused a bit in its display of speed. My speed was constant, but the unit reported wildly - over 5kmph - different speeds. I was under a very light tree cover. The unit has not done that again, either at the same spot or even under broad highway overpasses. I am marking this down as a hiccup and am not going to worry about it.

A couple of things I like about the device have to do with how rugged it is. For one, it is rated for operation down to -20 Celsius. That is very handy for someone who commutes all winter in our moderate Southern Ontario winters. Should I need to use it ever when it is really cold, under the jacket it will go in an inside pocket. It should still work there as my cell phone GPSs have done when under coats in the winter.  The device is also rated quite highly for waterproofing. It has a IPX7 rating which translates to 30 minutes under water up to 1m deep. Good enough for rain and snow... and nice when coming inside from the cold.

The best is saved for last

And here it is: http://connect.garmin.com/ 

When you buy a Garmin device like this, you get a free account on Garmin Connect. With this, you can post routes in your area for the public to see, compare stats with your friends using Garmin devices, form groups to track data (clubs etc).

I use it to track my stats. Check the site out - there are sample screen shots of the various features there for you to look at.

One nice thing about it is this. Remember I said that the Edge 200 uses the GPS satellites to track elevation? Garmin Connect auto corrects any errors based on the breadcrumb trail the device passes over to the site. Their maps have accurate elevations, and their software fixes any errors in this regard so that the profiles it draws are accurate.

Final word for now

Would I recommend this product? Yes.

some mornings it is worth getting up

My snowy icy ride into work looked like this; it was worth getting up for.

pre-season preview

Well, not exactly, but due to a wonderful day, my wife and I took a walk at the turn around spot for one of my favourite routes. The wind was bitter, snow was everywhere, but the sun is starting to have some staying power and is melting snow anyplace it touches.

This ride I mentioned above sees me leave from North Waterloo heading towards South Kitchener via my good friend's house. We make our way down past Conestoga College, across Highway 401 on a footbridge, and through the hamlet of Blair into South Galt (Cambridge). From there, we take a ride down a rail trail to Paris, Ontario. Locals to me will know the trail - it is one of the more beautiful ones around the area.

Total kilometers, my door to Paris, are around 54km. We ride it as an out and back giving us (well me unless my friend comes by my place and then home again) an easy 108km. There is not a lot of climbing on this ride but for a few sharp spiky hills where we drop in and out of the Grand River valley. Mostly, it is a low to no car spin fest, with the option to add some seriously steep nasty climbs in and out of Paris if that is desired. Roads down that way are truly marvelous if road riding is something you are interested in. There are some very nice roads, both paved and gravel, with steep gradients which I intend to ride more this year while down that way.

Here are some pictures of the town taken today. It is a lovely place.

Mid picture here is the cafe we usually stop at and grab a snack or shake. It is called the Brown Dog Cafe and Frittery (they make excellent apple fritters). The shake I usually get has two scoops of vanilla ice-cream, a double shot of espresso, a banana, some chocolate sauce, and is topped off with whipped cream. Holy banana pants does that get you going. It usually fills the energy deficit caused by riding there and gets me home without an issue. I should eat something real though but the shake is sooooo good. It is called the "Brown Dog Shake" if memory serves.

The climb out. We drop down this, and climb out again after visiting the downtown. It does not look like much, and really it isn't, but it spikes a bit part way up the hill and steepens up on the right fork you can see mid picture. This is not the steep climb that I mentioned above. That one is on the other side of the town and is very hard to capture as a picture. Let's just say that I can sprint up this one flat out and not get winded, while the other one sees me grinding at a walking pace risking muscle cramps. It is much more evil. This is the margarine of evil.

The Grand River. We pass by the Grand several times - follow it actually - on this ride. Come spring time, this will be a very nice spot to sit and watch the river flow by. Today though? Cold and windy it was. If you drive a Toyota Corolla and live in North America, there is a good chance it was taken over that rail bridge. Exit along the track picture right and you will end up at the Cambridge Toyota plant (TMMC).

There you go, a bad photograph of the sign for the Brown Dog Cafe. Go there. It is worth it.

Exit picture right and you will be on the start of the evil climb. Basically, it scales that cliff you see mid picture right. The road in front of you bends to the left, and then spikes up a bit while bending to the right. If you want the easy way up, keep following to the right and it loops around back a bit and follows a gentle arch up to the top of the cliff. That is the way the trucks take when they grind up the hill. Want to cause some pain? Head left instead of taking the bypass. You will reach "Main Street." Turn right. Enjoy. It climbs fairly sharply for about 2/3 of the way up and then gets very very steep for the last third. That is the spot that can induce leg cramps in people who do not live in areas with a lot of climbing. For me, it is nasty. For someone used to constant non stop up and down, it would not be that bad. But, this is all relative isn't it?

Final shot today. This is the rail trail as it enters Paris. 21 km down it is Cambridge. Before we use it again, that snow has to be gone, and the trail has to harden up again. That usually does not take long since this is an old rail bed and has been seriously compacted. Even spring melt off does not soften it up much. I anticipate riding it by mid-April if all goes well. If not, soon after.

girl you're amazing

The above was posted today by RANTWICK, a blogger friend of mine. Thanks man, that made my day.

Happy Valentine's day everyone.

Why Chris Hadfield, The Barenaked Ladies, and the Wexford Gleeks simply rock

One of the niftiest things I have seen in a long time.

This is one of the reasons I really like Chris Hadfield.

http://music.cbc.ca/concerts/Chris-Hadfield-and-Barenaked-Ladies-ISS-Is-Somebody-Singing-2013-02-05

I would have embedded the player, but Blogger won't let me since it is not from YouTube. Follow the link, it is worth it.

The first Grand Tour of the year is coming. I love this promo.

***

I have been doing a lot of different (for me) training this winter on the bike. Instead of doing a whole lot of nothing - something that happened a lot in the past - or just riding outside when I can, I am trying to ride in to work several times a week, and am riding on a borrowed trainer in the basement for around about an hour each evening.

What makes this workable for me is YouTube.

I park the bike and trainer in front of the computer monitor, turn up the speakers a little bit, and watch while spinning away.

Slowly, I am working my way through the various stage races and classics from the 2012 season in Europe, all thanks to kind folks who upload things from ITV4 and EuroSport.

Wonderful stuff. Very inspiring.

I wonder if I will fly by my bandwidth limits for February?

creative brick wall

It has finally happened.

Truthfully, it happened sometime last summer, but it has taken me until now to acknowledge it.

I have hit a creative brick wall. Full tilt. Hard.

Time was, I would not leave the house without a camera with me. I would always find something interesting to see in the everyday. I would "see" things that others would question, would not "get". And I was ok with this (still am) but the problem is that I have, for whatever reason, stopped seeing things.

Or, to be more accurate, I have stopped caring about seeing things, or at least have stopped caring about recording what I am seeing and displaying it in a meaningful way. Make sense?

I am struggling with why I bother to take photographs. Who am I taking the pictures for? Me? My friends? My family? The public at large? I don't know.

I have tried the "social thing" on flickr and other sites and came to the conclusion that I just don't like social networking enough to make my pictures popular. Truthfully, I just don't care enough about people pleasing to bother with a lot of meaningless tripe to garner attention.

I feel as if I have taken every picture around where I live that I can take. It is funny. When I am out walking or riding about, I see something and think, "That would make a nice picture. Wait. I have that exact picture in this exact light at home on my hard drive. I took it last May. Or whenever." And then I don't take the picture.

Picture taking has been for me a social thing as well. I love taking pictures with people. However, the overwhelming majority of my friends who are interested in photography are simply, and legitimately, too busy with life to have time to use their cameras. They have disengaged from the hobby, at least to some extent. And when we do manage to get together, I often won't take any pictures worth looking at if I even take any pictures at all. I always have a great time though, so I doubt that this is the cause of my picture taking blahs. And truly, it is the people in such circumstances not the photography which matter anyway.

I am honest enough with myself to know that I am a bit (ok, more than a bit) of a gear head. My two hobbies, cycling and photography, both rotate around gear to some extent and I genuinely enjoy working with fine gear. This is not a beg for new gear since my cameras are not holding me back either technically or creatively in any way. They will only be an impediment to creativity when they stop working.

What is missing, I think, is purpose. Why bother has sunk in rather deeply.

I have to find that groove again. That track. That drive to take what I see around me and show it to the world and say, "See? This is what I saw today!" I need to get excited about the creative process and about breathing life and light into the mundane.

there are a lot of angry people out there so let's not join them

Via various wanderings around the Internet while home sick today, I came up with the following observation:

There are a lot of angry people out there.

Now this is not news to anyone who has had a social interaction in the past decade or so, but it is worth the mention I think.

Much is being said in the media about the "war on cars" etc being led by the pro bicycle movement. Every time there is any mention of creating more bicycle infrastructure, a suggestion that motorists need to share the road with cyclists ,etc, the vitriol in the comments sections of whatever news media outlet publishes such stories reads like a litany of death threats towards cyclists by irate motorists, and Social Darwinism, taking the form of "if you swim with the sharks you will get eaten" type of comments, at its worst. Makes me feel great knowing I am sharing a road with sociopaths. Weeeeeee...

Cyclists don't help themselves though as they knife through traffic, cut people off, and often times act like asses themselves, pissing off the people in cars through irresponsible behaviours seemingly designed to "prove" the negative stereotype of the urban cyclist right, and giving "justification" to the screw loose crowd to risk some innocent person's life in a dangerous game of tit for tat. To them I say thanks for nothing.

Which leads me back to my original observation. There are a lot of angry people out there.

This past year, I have had several motorists deliberately take runs at me in their cars in order to "teach me a lesson" and get me out of their way (in all cases, I was not in their way - I am very careful not to be that ass I mentioned above) for having the nerve to take the lane in order to make a left, avoid a car door, or whatever. All of which, by the way, I am allowed to do - no, supposed to do - according to the Highway Traffic Act of Ontario.

This has prompted me to want to get one of the nice new GoPro cameras. The one with the adjustable focal length so that I can mimic the field of view the naked eye has so that it will be easy to prove how close a person in a car got to cancelling my stamp. So when (notice I said when not if) a person does this again, I will have video for the police.

I have not done so though, as I do not wish to become angry. I am working hard at not being angry, at avoiding situations where this might happen, and why go hunting for reasons to become so? I don't want to litter this blog with videos that show what we all know to be true: There are a lot of angry people out there.

I don't want to be one of them.

That said, as I was watching someone on YouTube have an angry bike ride through downtown Toronto this morning, yelling at other road users who broke the law, who got too close - legitimately too close I might add - that a lot of what I was seeing was actually good. Many people were giving this cyclist a lot of room. They were not cutting him/her off. They were doing what they should be doing. So too were most - as in almost all including the one making the video - of the cyclists that were visible.

So if most of the interactions are good, most of the road users no matter what the mode of transport are behaving themselves and managing to get along, why live in paranoid angry fear?

I don't see the point myself.

Yes, a cyclist has to be cautious. Yes, there are risks. I know all the arguments. But that does not mean that it is worth living in fear.

So I do want the GoPro camera with the adjustable focal length. Littering the blog with good news stories of interactions between road users, high speed "bombs" down single track, and the such would I hope help, for my two readers anyways (heh), inject a little optimism into what I am trying to do here.

And should someone be an ass, I would still have the video for the police.

I just would not fixate on it. I would not waste my time and yours with more pointless negativity designed to give justification for more sociopathic behaviour on the part of motorists and cyclists alike.

Because in a civil society, or in one that pretends to be civil like the one we live in now, we simply don't need any more of that negative crap. We need instead a realization that the other is simply a person. They are not a label.

And the sooner we collectively get that message, the sooner we will live in a civilization that is actually civil.

one rainy evening, imagination soared

One rainy evening...

Rain is my kryptonite. I do not enjoy riding in it. The cold and damp seem to seep through more than the coldest winter day (coldest here defined as -25 Celcius). Rain in the winter is the worst since temperatures fluxuate so much and so rapidly that hypothermia is a real danger if the weather catches you out.

The rainy evening in question starts with a rainy afternoon.

I met with a good friend of mine for a coffee before wandering off to the LBS to pick up my commuter bike which was in for a repair. My friend, a fellow cyclist, does not like using his trainer and since I do not own one, agreed to lend me his for the duration of the winter.

One rainy evening, I set up the cross bike in front of the computer and rode a piece of the 2011 Paris Roubaix spring classic. For forty-five minutes, I rode with the best.

One rainy evening, imagination soared, and my legs woke up from their commuter induced slumber.

cornering a cyclocross bike

Not my video, but a good one.

Once in a while, I like to share something that I stumble across on YouTube because once in a while, something really resonates with where I am right now. And this video resonates.

I have been biking for a long time (over three decades) and love riding in the dirt and fast on the road. Well, fast for me :)

If I have a failing in my dirt riding, it is in looking down too much. I have a hard time trusting my peripheral vision. I have known for years that where you look is where you go, but at times, I forget that. When I don't forget, things go much better.

New to me on this video though is the notion of the weight shift hard over the back wheel inducing an over steer power drift under control. The idea, if I remember rightly, is to unload the front end, load the back end by shifting your weight backwards, and let the bike slide a bit while pedalling evenly at a high cadence. Maintain a constant torque output and a chunk of speed. The ass end of the bike might slide out a bit, but in theory it is easier to control and more speed should be maintained.

Well, this morning, while out mucking around on my commuter mtn bike equipped with studs on a very twisty paved but snow covered lane way, I tried it. I maintained more speed that I normally would through a curve, forced the eyes up to where I wanted the bike to go, did a subtle weight shift backwards, maintained high cadence and torque pedaling, and guess what? The front tracked beautifully, the back obligingly stepped out, and I powered out of the corner on the snow significantly faster than I would have otherwise and felt totally in control. I also applied a bit of downward pressure on the outboard (in this case left as I was turning right) end of the handlebar which helped plant the front a bit.

It felt like an all wheel drive car drifting - slight under steer, relatively a lot of over steer, and way more speed.

I will have to try it in the dirt come spring on the mtn bike and the new cross bike.

What fun!

2013 Kona Jake the Snake

Photo Credit: konaworld.com

All I will say so far is that it is hanging on a hook at my LBS awaiting me to come over with the rest of the money for it. I was not planning the upgrade right now, but since Kona is out of stock and the store isn't, my plan for an April/May purchase went out the window. I came very close to getting caught out like that last time I went to buy a 'cross bike, and don't want it to happen this time.

Thankfully, my LBS likes me and is willing to hold it for me.

The bike is lighter, stiffer, and on the surface at least much nicer than my current Jake the Snake (a 2005) model which is wearing out and getting tired.

I am looking forward to spring now more than I was before if that is at all possible.

After I ride it a bit, I will indicate what I really like about it, and what I think might need work.

In the mean time, it is ORANGE!!!  *big grin*

videos worth watching

YouTube thought I would like to see this. YouTube was right.

The biggest thing I picked up from it, besides a big grin from how well filmed it was (mostly - the transitions between the same scene in different seasons, while well done, got a little old) and a big appreciation for the incredible skill the riders in the video showed was this: keep your eyes where you want to be. Despite my many many years of riding in the dirt, the one trap I keep falling into is looking low. This video really makes it obvious what a huge mistake that is.

Personal riding goal for the year? Look up, look longer, look farther.

95 to 115

One thing I do a lot of when I am commuting by bicycle is think.

Lately, I have been thinking about the nature of cycling, how people use their bikes, what they use for bikes, why they ride bikes, things like that.

Some I know use them purely as transport. They ride upright bikes, often with racks and fenders. Simple and practical bikes. The kind that might be left locked up outside and largely be ignored by someone passing by while the owner is in a coffee shop enjoying a warm beverage. The kind that get used to commute to school, to work, to get groceries. Ones that take to having a trailer attached. Get left in the rain. Not expensive Dutch bikes, but these fit this category well. I refer to inexpensive, almost cheap, lock them and leave them bikes. Plod along bikes, the kind that do not get ridden fast (although they could) because their very nature suggests a slower more relaxed pace.


Some I know ride them in the dirt. They use cyclo cross bikes, mountain bikes. Bikes with knobby tires, with slick tires, with big hit suspensions, hard tail back ends. Bikes with exotic suspensions, bikes with none. Bikes with xtr rim brakes which stop you so fast you get nose bleeds, bikes with huge diameter disks. All sorts of tire sizes, all sorts of tire types. They go fast, very very fast, in the dirt. They come alive when they leave the asphalt and pavement of the city. Lumbering and truck like when out of their element, they possess a soul transformed by the place they are meant to be.


Some I know ride the roads and ride them hard. Race bikes, some steel, some titanium, some carbon fiber, some aluminium. All share common features - hard, thin, skinny tires that roll fast over pavement, and skitter then on gravel. Low drop outs. Low weight. High speed. High control. Low center of gravity, and cornering prowess. Touring bikes, loaded, filled with things, go slow but go far. Explore what is over the horizon.


Some I know ride the urban scene. Trials bikes, fixies, odd ball cruisers. Hipster been seen bikes. Making a statement. Part of the urban landscape. Battered, bruised, well loved. Often old, sometimes new. 

It is their use that defines them, and their use that defines how they are often ridden.

And it is that which made me think.

I am a cyclist. 

I ride for transport, in the dirt, on the roads, and to some extent in the urban scene. 

But I don't fit in any box that anyone might try and put me into.

What I do, no matter what I ride, and for what purpose, is 95 to 115.

And it is in that wonderful pedal cadence that I float away and fly, dancing on two wheels. Regardless of the bike, or the purpose for which I ride.

adobe lightroom 4.3

I have been a fan of Lightroom for a number of years now and consider it to be if not the best then certainly one of the best programs for sorting and editing photographs.

Lightroom 4 is something special. I has breathed new life into my old camera by giving me almost a stop more in both the lights and darks. The difference in processing is quite something. I am not going to spend a lot of time talking about this here - much has been written elsewhere and all I would be doing at this point is repeating what should be obvious to anyone who is following the subject even remotely.

However, LR4.3 is pretty nifty, and that is worth mentioning. I am not 100% sure what fixes they did with the software, but I have noticed a big improvement in the tones I am seeing from my pictures.

Here is a shot from the Fuji X10 (processed from a DNG made from the Fuji Raw Format.)

This picture is nothing special really as a picture. I used the onboard flash as a fill flash and just took it. There was no "purpose" to the photograph beyond seeing how fast the new memory card zipped along. What I noticed is that after minimal processing, none of the blacks are blocked up, and none of the highlights are blown. The colour and tone look better than what I was getting before, even with earlier versions of LR4 (never mind 3 or 2).

Here are a couple of shots from my Olympus E-3 and 50-200mm swd lens (processed from DNG files made from Olympus Raw Format.)

Just a shot because I was bored while waiting for a friend to finish his photograph. This is my Golf. What is worthy of note is that the in camera jpeg preview showed the sky blown out totally since the camera metered off of the shadowed side of my black car. Once in LR4.3, the sky appeared with no processing. After minimal processing, detail came out in the sky and in the shadows under the car. The only blocked blacks are a little bit in the holes in the rims near the brakes and a tiny bit in the rear wheel well. None of the highlights were blown. Again, the tones are very progressive to my way of looking at it.

To me, this one is just delicious. Yes, I got the exposure right, but the tones LR4.3 were able to bring out strike me as better than what I was getting before.

Time for a direct comparison I think.

Here is an older photograph, processed with an older version of Lightroom. I believe it was Lighroom 2 seeing as it was taken in the fall of 2009 and I did not ever have Lightroom 1. Both pictures were denoised slightly using Nik Define 2.0

Processed in LR2 - note, the lights picture right are totally blown out. The shadows are also a bit too deep.

Processed in LR4.3 - note, nothing is clipped or blocked up and the shadows could withstand more lightening without degrading the picture, particularly around the wing. Look at the picture large (click on it) to see what I mean. As an aside, this picture is noisier than the above one, but I did nothing to reduce it except for a slight bump in LR4 unlike with the original where I used Nik Define 2 since it holds up well when viewed at a normal distance.

Here is a more challenging example of the differences between the older versions of Lightroom and LR4.3.

Processed in LR3. The blacks in the original Raw were completely blocked up on the island, stump, and lower right hand corner. Processing to the point seen here largely fixed that up.

This is the exact same file processed in LR4.3. The blocking is gone, and so much more appeared - both detail and colour - than could be attained with LR3.

So, is the jump to LR4 worth it if you are sitting on the fence?

In a word, yes.

cycling end of year wrap up and new goals

I did not make my goals for the year with my bicycle but still managed to have a terrific year with my two wheeled machines. In 2011, I rode 8345km on all of my bicycles combined. For 2012, I managed a total of 7938km split evenly between commuting/around town riding and faster road and rail trail riding. My goal was to exceed the km ridden in 2011 during the 2012 year.

While the mileage for the two years was similar, the way 2012 panned out compared to 2011 was quite different. During the 2011 calender year, my job saw me working in the same city that I live in. I was able to commute all winter and through until the end of spring. This resulted in about 30km for every day that I rode to work - free km if you will. Steady constant cycling all year round brought me to my best year yet in terms of mileage. During 2012, my work assignment was in the next city over, and riding in the winter to that city is problematic at best, and dangerous at worst due to lousy roads, and unploughed (but existing at least) bicycle infrastructure. This meant that most of my mileage during 2012 was compressed into the warmer months of the year with only a little around town riding through the winter months. Even though the total km ridden did not match what I rode in 2011, my 2012 season saw me faster and more powerful on the bicycle and finally approaching the levels of fitness I had back (way back) when I was 29 or so due to the kind of riding I did. Happily, I managed to get fit enough that I could largely ignore the wind - it still slowed me down of course, but it was not the torture that it has been in years past.

So what of 2013?

Work sees me back in the city again, at the same location I was at two years ago. This means I can commute every day again and gain a free 30km per day. The commuter bike is heavy, with studded tires during the winter, and takes a lot of effort of move quickly. The intention is to do what I did last time. I will use the ride into work as a relaxing clear the cobwebs of sleep out of my mind warm up to the day, and use the ride home as a sweaty heart pounding as fast as I can workout. Hammer hard enough, and I will get some decent winter rides in and keep my conditioning up. Combined with all of my running around town for social reasons and shopping, things should be looking pretty good come spring time.

Once the warmer weather arrives in the spring and the roads clear of snow, ice, and road salt, I will add to the commuting several road rides a week. I also hope to get out on the mountain bike once a week as well since my off road skills are fading away to nothing through lack of use.

Essentially, the idea is to combine the best of 2011 with the best of 2012. I am fortunate that I am in a situation where I can do this without impacting the thing that matters most to me: my family.

My daughter is getting older, and is interested in cycling as well. She got her first adult bike for Christmas, and is looking forward to riding with us come spring time. My wife is recovering from some health concerns and is looking forward to getting her bike legs back. We honeymooned at a mountain bike resort a long time ago, and both really miss riding with each other. Our riding together has been hit and miss for a long time. This year looks promising for many family outings along local, and some not so local,  rail trails together. I am really looking forward to this.

So here is hoping that it works out as planned. May your year be good for you, and full of the things that make you happy. There are other things coming up for our household that I won't mention in this blog that make 2013 look like a fantastic year, and I hope that the same is true for you.

at the lbs

So, I go into the local bike store (LBS) this morning with the bike with the fouled up brake on it and the guy behind the desk says, and I quote, "Uh oh, what did you do?"

I go through the story (see yesterday's post).

He invites me to take it down to the basement to the mechanic I know. We are old riding buddies, and have known each other for about 20 years.

He sees me coming and says, and I quote, "Oh no..."

____

It is nice to be so predictable.

I think.

____

As an aside, the SanDisk Extreme SDHC UHS-1 card is howling fast in my Fuji X-10. Much more so than the Lexar Platinum 2 card I was using before. I think it is approximately twice as fast. Write times are almost instantaneous.