Snow Flake Homicide

With the new snowfall we received in the last couple of days. Today felt like a good day to cause mayhem and terror to snowflakes.


                                   Your virginity is MINE.

             And taken. With no whimpers, just some low squeeking.

All this virgin untracked trail And no one comes out and rides it? I would have thought we would see more tire tread. But I guess minus -14 is to cold.

 The snow flake mass murder tool of choice...with 2.5 tires.

Squeeky Insularity

Awoke to it snowing and maybe 5-7cm's in the back yard. And after a quick check of the tea leaf and pigeon entrail readers aka Environmment Canada forecast. The thought of some frash tracks came to mind.

The trail head was as to be expected. No one else other then a couple of dog walkers.

                           Will it be slick.....nope.

Beeratorium and no beer or Rum today.

                             Ah...first tracks.

Some shiny Gold coloured chain ring bolts arrived from the Irish.

2013 Dreams, Goals, Fantasies, and Delusions

 It's that time of year again where one looks at the future year and comes up with a fantasy list of things for the year. Delusions of frames, events, ride, and filling that you say you will do before the 80 car freight train of reality with Murphy as the Engineer laughing evilly comes screaming into it all at freight train speed.

 So here we go,

Events:

East Cup Kingston Stop April 21
Kingston Endurance Ride
Anti Race October 19th
Dundas Monstercross Fall

  Now I must mention that 2013 has one very important requirement for any event.  Only can do events that require entry fees that are within a 50 minute drive of my house. Anything past that time can only be done if it is free. Simple reason to do this is to avoid last years numerous event cancellations due to fuel costs.

 One addition. I am looking at putting on a wee old school MTB time trial in the summer. As well as test run the course for an cx bike type gravel grinder.

Frames, Bikes, and Parts:

Canfield Nimble 9 Frame size large
Retroshift
Dropper seatpost
On One Fatty
Disc brakes for CX bike
Disc wheels for CX bike
CX chromo fork... disc of course
Cree XM-L T6 light for helmet mount

 Only listed the big ticket items as little things like Hope master cylinder seals are minor details really. Though I do admit that after nearly 3 years of delays it would be nice to make the 29er frame happen.

Misc,

Ride Shabomeka trails
Join MTB Kingston
Ride Camp Fortune
Get down to a 38" waist.
Clear overgrown unofficial K&P section.

 In reality nothing earth shattering that would cause NORAD to go to status yellow.  Though as long as Murphy firmly understands that there is a line and it's open season on him if he crosses it.

Snow Buzz

After work on Saturday morning it was to Collins Bay for a 90 minute snow ride.

Looks like ice covered creek but only strong enough to hold a dog.

Dog walkers where being useful.

Near the end and time for Tim's.

New year's eve Snow

Headed out to do a couple of errands and took the bike.

Snow on knobbies 

Wow... it's a highway

Good thing I wasn't on foot.

                               

Wool Arm Warmers... Endura vs Defeet

 I have 2 pairs of wool arm warmers in use in the gear pile. One newer pair from Endura and the older DeFeet pair. So now comes the question.. how do they hold up to each other and which pair does the better job.

The Endura Baa Baa pair are my newest pair. Ordered I admit because I had left them at my in laws and needed some before I could get them from Toronto.  First thing I noticed was that they are a muche thinner build. With as you can see in the pic thin vents on the inside elbow. And one feature they have is little silicone like dots at the upper arm to help decrease drift down the arm.

 I have noticed that they are not as effective when it gets colder say down to plus 4. The thin layer doesn't trap as much heat in. Plus the other down side is the wool easily begins having that pulled look. While it seems minor it is a potential concern as it may be to easy to have it pull apart.

 The Defeet's I have had since 2008 and are of course Merino Wool Just like the Endura's but is a much thicker build and as you see in the pic it does not have any venting. And unfortunately it does not have any silicone dots near the upper part to prevent any downwards drift.

The Defeet's because of the tight weave do not suffer from pulling and do not show much in the way of wear despite 4 years of being used and hauled around in hydration packs. And they are much warmer then the Endura's which in our Canadian climate is a huge bonus.

So the end result is the DeFeet's are the winner hands down.  While the Endura's are okay for the not so cold days the Defeet's are much more usable overall. So in the end the Endura's will go to back up duty while the defat's will continue as the gold standard.

2012 Dundas Monstercross

The date was set for the 2012 edition of the Dundas Monstercross and the date chosen by Marc was October 27th. Which seemed like a normal date like in past editions of this ride. Maybe it was to close to Halloween this year. With Roger the Raincloud on Friday night making threatening moves to spoil the fun on Saturday. And it would be at 7am on Saturday to see if the ride would be a go despite Roger Raincloud.

 And in the morning it was a go for the Monstrecross on a rain route. So it was out the door to get to Dundas and Roger Raincloud did his best to not let me get there.  But got there later then planned so it was a quick change in Cafe Domestique and grabbing the ill prepared Kaffenback. Ill prepared as I had been lazy on Friday night and not changed the front tire for something a bit knobbier. And lazy as I had also put off getting a replacement knobby for the one I wore out in the Spring. So this would make it a bit harder ride then usual on CX tires designed for non wet, leaf covered  soggy clay.

  So with 19 other Flahutes it was off for the route and to see how wet one good get. Of course modified for the conditions though as some sections would become mud pits with the storm. It was definitely a day where the ducks where smarter.

  Of course thanks to my poor tire choice I had to mince my way on the wet clay trail sections. Though it did make up for it on the Rail Trail and road sections.  But nary a whine or snivel from me as I made my choices and one has to deal with their results. Which can either be good or bad in the end. But it is all part of the journey and fun.

After a crash due and a wee bit of road it was down Sydenham Hill into the Dundas Valley. And to Vafe Domestique to change out of water logged gear , grab a warm drink, and get the car to head over to Garage Monster HQ for burrito's and to see little Theo for the first time.