Wizard Lake Ride

Hi de ho Riders!

Well as of this past weekend I passed the 500k mark for the year. While this number may seem tiny to some I think I am doing great. I do think that 2500k this year is an attainable goal. Besides we have had a very cold spring up here! The good weather is upon us and I am going to make up k.

This past weekend ALice and I went up to Alberta Beach saturday for our Annual ride around the Lake (well south east roads anyways) It was a great ride and our daughter Kara rode with us. Its nice to ride and see the open water and wondering road. Our regular training rides are straight east or west and back along highway 39. Same old thing alot.

Sunday we had 9 riders out for 1st ananual Wizard Lake and Picnic Ride. It was a Sunny and breezy day with a good stiff headwind on the way back. We had a nice hot dog roast along the shores of the Lake and then rode back to Calmar. A relaxing weekend with a total of 63k of riding. But thats not the exciting News!

A couple of weeks ago I went to an informational meeting at a local church to see if there was enough interest for a 10 day rail trail ride in the West Kootenays this summer. Alas the dates did not hook up with my holidays so I decided to pass. Fellow 'bent ryders Sandy and Murray Greer lLoved the idea and decided to go. I have had my eye on those trails for couple of years and was envious of them, but I couldn't take the time off and force my kids to ride that much on "our" holidays. Well over a couple of weeks and listening to the Greers I was starting to feel trapped by my business. (Small business owners can be slaves to thier enterprises and find it really tough to take breaks often) To make a long story short: Alice surprised me with the offer to stay home and run the shop then we would go on our family holiday. I was astounded. It took another 12 hours before it would sink in and ask if she was really serious. She was/is! I have a wonderful spouse. So I will be away from my shop for almost three weeks. The longest time I have had off in over 17 years! WA hOO! It looks like I will be joining the group on my TE on a large segmant of the Spirit Of 2010 Rail trails. http://www.spiritof2010trail.ca/ Part of the Trans Canada Trail in BC. Trestles, trains, tunnels and track.
I am so excited! hmm how many sleeps left...

Home made tailsok frame

I thought it was time to share how I made my tailsok frame. I originally found how to do this from a now defunct web page (tigrr8?)
I also believe that this was from an ERRC magazine article a few years ago (I have not seen the issue. But since I was interested at the time I copied the web pages into a CorelDraw file that I used.) So I don't deserve the credit.
Items needed:
4- smaller hose clamps
2- zip ties
2 fibre glass bike flags from Canadian Tire
some flexible metal clamping strips
dremel
assorted small nuts and screws
some copper airplane tubing (from local hobby shop)

Actually its easy to do this if you have the time and are patient. I think the total cost was $30 cdn .

So here is the pics use them if you you want to create your own tailsok

The rack ferruls - just clamp on a piece of copper tubing, cut to about 1.75" on the diagonal braces oon eitherside your rack. Use a nail set to ding a couple of insets about 1/4 from the bottom of the tubes, so the fiberglass poles won't pass all the way though.

For the seatback ferruls I used the ones that came with the flag poles. I just flattened the ends drilled a hole and used the flexible metal clamp stuff to attach to the seat back. Worked out nice as they are on sort of a swivel too.

I cut down flag poles -they come in a pack with a flag at the top that I ripped off along with the joining ferruls. I sized the poles to meet at a point.

I adjusted the fibreglass poles to fit together using an antenna ball from Jack in the Box. Drilled the holesin the ball, stuck the poles in.
The Tail Sok its self came from Terracycle via the Hostel Shoppe; but you can search the web or the Easy Racer Forum for other places to get one.

Overall I am happy with the looks, safety and perforance I get with the Sok. Now I should fly on the MS TOUR!


Oh Yeah!

I saw in ERRC Magazine letting on a fellows fairing. I made some minor adjustments and had a local sign company do it in vinyl and put it on mine. I have so many people ask about the bike or oogle it when I am in a store or restaurant. So I thought this was a cheaky self promoter when they do:



I like to listen to music or Audible books when I do longer rides. This year the local MS TOUR has stated they would like riders to not use earphones on the Ride. So after some thought and seeing some examples on the web and at the Recumbent Rally; I added a pair of Creative Travel Sound Speakers to use with my mp3 player. They sound great and my wife likes 'em also when we ride together. I will probably let her use them on the Tour (I always use earphones that sit on my ear not in the ear canal, so I hear all the traffic anyways.)

Well it looks like I got the Tour Easy all Blinged out and ready to go on the MStour. Just gotta ride some more to be ready!

See ya Soon
Larry

T shirts

I like to fool around with Coreldraw and have always created my own riding and work t-shirt iron ons. A couple of years ago I found a site that takes my designs and adds them to shirts for you to buy direct. I have several images, If you like one get it. Its fun to promote our kind of ride. The little I make helps to send a couple of kids to summer camp!

Click the link on the side:

Larry

Slip sliding Away

on Beboop Cleats and pedals. Last year I had put on some clipless pedals on the Django. When I traded it in, I took off the Beboops and kept them in my bike stuff drawer until Sunday. I replaced the bigger platforms with studs for the Beboops and dug out my biking sadals to test how I liked riding clipless on the Tour Easy. So far I have mixed feelings. Going flat out on a training ride down the highway they seem to deliver more power (speed). Starting and stopping in town is a pain. I plan to give them a couple of weeks to break myself in again . I know that alot of riders use them for speed and distance. The Editor of Recumbent Cycling News dosen't seem to care for them on a 'bent. I plan to take my other pedals and wrench to the lake this weekend, just in case.

Got an opinion?
Larry

And The're Off!

Today we rode with 60 others for the MS tour Rookie Ride,

Okay I'm not a rookie but my wife and other team members are. Plus our team supplied the refreshments at the turn aound point, so I thought I was justified in riding with the group.


It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky, reason... it was bloody windy! I had to lean the TE over to go striaght! Needlesss to say it was a bit nasty for some of the newbies. Have I mentioned how much I like a fairing in windy conditions? While my team mates were toiling away trying to to do 13k I was toodling along at 23k . (evil smirk) It was a great ride I did 79.3 kph down the coulee on the way back. Would have matched it on the way out but my visor bent down into my face after I hit 60kph, so I did 60kph one handed, with the other holding the visor up so I could see! So on the way back I put it in my jacket and gave 'r! Wa hoo!

This is My TE with a New Zipper Extreme BodySok Width Fairing
and Terra Cycle Tailsok with home made frame.

I get alot of comments and questions from other riders about the bikes and why we ride them. I ride em 'cause I can go further and stay reasonably comfortable. Can others go faster.. yep, Can others go on single trak ...yep. But thats not why I ride recumbent. Its fun for me! Everytime I ride my TE I enjoy it more!
Have a good ride today!
Larry