Big ol’ collection of bike blogs

Mink on a Bike

Out of school and in the prime of my youth, I’m giving my brain a rest and challenging my body. If Kili taught me anything, it’s that you REALLY can do anything. So here I am. Doing anything and everything…especially cycling.

Born and raised in Houston, Texas, I discovered road cycling exactly 1yr ago and I will be forever hooked. My obsession with the sport, my health and other ways to stay healthy have become a big part of my life and this blog is an outlet for my thoughts, events, and troubles. I’ve carried the nic-name Mink since I was 13, so it only seemed fitting to title my blog “Mink on a Bike”.

If you’ve ever felt like you didn’t have anyone to share in your cycling, running, snowboarding happiness’s and horror’s, then I want to be your friend! Check out my blog at http://minkonabike.blogspot.com!

Blog-By-Bike

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, your body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming, ‘Woo hoo! What a ride!’” - Unknown

This is my ride: http://blog-by-bike.blogspot.com/

Rick’s Bike Blog

I feel anyone interested in Electric bikes would enjoy my blog. I have just started biking again after over 30 years of not riding. I have also been a smoker for over 32 years. Hence the need for an Electric bike to get started. The need for good cardio lend me to bicycling. The need for motivation and forced exercise lend me to comute to work. I am looking for people to follow my story and add their comments and input. Please take a look. I am riding a Currie Technologies EZIP rmb series bike.

Thanks, Rick

Take Me To The Promise Land

There are so many people around the world with the dream of moving to North America to start a new life full of tremendous opportunity.  Coming from a poorer nation or one at political unrest allows them the chance to do so much more and to provide the things they desire for their families.

When I hear about people who have moved here with nothing and built up an empire, it gives me a huge sense of inspiration and my applause go out to them in spades.  Heck, I know of a couple brothers who had to literally escape from Laos and somehow made it to Canada.  They arrived here with absolutely nothing and now own a majorly successful restaurant as well and several investment properties.  They are living the life.  I love stories like these, but they bring with them an inner feeling of disappointment…that I was born with all these opportunities and didn’t use them to their full advantage.

I also have grown up feeling a desire as strong as those dreaming the American Dream…..however, mine is quite different.  Growing up in Canada, I’ve lived most of my life yearning to live in a different environment.  One with a much warmer climate.  One that allows me to do the things I love year round.  My dream isn’t about the opportunities of money and career.  Mine is about lifestyle and core values.

Now, this Canadian hasn’t had to spend his entire life in the arctic north.  I’ve spent three years living and working in St. Kitts, West Indies and another two years in Austin, Texas.  St. Kitts is actually where I developed my love for road biking so obviously it was one of the best moves I’ve ever made.  Austin, of course, is a major cycling city and it only further increased my love for the bike.  But one thing led to another, and here we are back in Canada.

There are many reasons for my continuous chase….my search for the endless summer.  But one of the top reasons is my desire and passion to live my life on my bike.  I love the bike (and everything about it) so incredibly much, that a huge part of me is empty during these winter months when I can’t be outside on the road.

When I close my eyes and see it, I am living in a beautiful small community where my family and I ride our bikes as our main source of transportation.  I’m out on my road bike whenever I want, venturing out on great routes with varying terrain.  I follow my beliefs and am true to my core values.

We seriously looked into moving to Dominica recently, because it fit with most of the ingredients we desired and also was home to a great business opportunity.  Our choice to not move there honestly came down to the fact that the roads in Dominica are terrible and not road bikeable.  Enough said.

We are currently looking at a move to Grenada or Belize.  We were just in Grenada last month and found that it  contains many of the items on my wish list, but definitely not a location where my family and I can rely on bikes for daily transportation.  I can probably live with that, but the search continues in the hopes of finding the location that has it all.  I’ll be off to Belize very soon to check out how it rates on the checklist.  My research so far has been positive…cycling is definitely huge over there.  They even have a variety of races. I’m really hoping my list checks out over there.

Bike Shops and Bike Folks

Many of you have likely shared the experience of walking into a shop and having someone treat you like crap because you don’t fit into their idea of a worthy customer or cyclist or you just aren’t necessarily into spending a bunch of money for stuff you don’t want.  Some of you may have even ranted and raved about it to other folks, I’ve certainly heard it.  I’ve had the experience with a few shops around here but have also been lucky enough to find a couple where people actually seem excited to perform a service for you in exchange for money, or perhaps hand over a piece of merchandise for the same.

So I just thought it worth mentioning that this morning I sent an email to  just to make sure they didn’t mind if I used a picture of their 58mm Carbon Clinchers on my blog as I talked about the process of picking a wheelset.  I always figure that folks don’t mind if you are giving them free advertising, but I often check to make sure.

I got an email not fifteen minutes later from Keith Williams, the president and founder.  He said go right ahead with using the image and he also let me know that they are coming out with a different product soon that I might be interested in as well.

Obviously it is in his interest to share information about his products and likely to get pictures of and favorable descriptions of his products in as many places as possible.  But I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised at someone taking the time to answer an email (just sent to the info@ address on their website) and it made me think that much more positively about the company.

So there’s hope out there yet that even if you aren’t a super star, or even that serious of a bike rider, that people who make really great stuff for bikes will still take you seriously!

Chapeau to you Mr. Williams.  And here’s to me someday rolling a pair of your sweet, sweet wheels really quickly down the road!

Many new submissions coming up!

Be patient with me, for some reason my email mechanism which alerts me to new posts was not working and we had a bunch backed up in there. If you’ve posted any time in the last few months it should be up soon! I’ll do two new ones per day just so everyone has their time in the spotlight! Thanks for reading!

I made it! 54 miles…

This past saturday I got my butt in the car with all my gear in tow with every intention of riding from the bike store when I picked up my bike. I got my bike and headed out to the car and started dressing myself in my winter gear.

One of the riders came out and said “hey, you want to come on our group ride?”
Me…”how far you going?” knowing in my mind that it’s been a while since my last long ride (like 3 months).
He replied, “54 miles…” noticing my concern he added “…but it’s mostly flat with about 750 feet of climbing.”
Relief and as fast as my brain cells could decide I blurted out “yeah, I think I will come.”

So I followed him to the local sizzler where we met up with four other riders. Immediately intimidated but not an ounce of “back down” in me I geared up and made introductions. Also noted that there were no other girls other than the one I know we were picking up en route about 5 miles away.

When we were all ready we headed out. Luckily they were all staying at the “slow” speed of 20 mph. Remember that it’s been a few months since I rode seriously. So 2o mph is pushing me a bit. But we got to the pick up point for the other girl and then we were off.

This is my first group ride…ever. So drafting and all that stuff was foreign to me. But I got clued in real fast. I got a chance to ride side by side with all the riders and get to know them. At one point we spotted a lone rider up ahead so it was decided that we needed to race ahead and catch him. I couldn’t keep the pace up. I mean once they made the decision to do it it was like they hit the accelerator on the motorcycle. Just amazing how they could accelerate like that. The other girl, and I got left behind. I was more in the middle, but she was lagging badly. A couple of the other riders slowed down to make sure she was ok. We stopped at the stop sign and waited for everyone to regroup. She was about to turn back thinking that she was going to hold the group up, but this goes to show you how awesome these riders were, they said no and so we were off once more. We were about 15 miles out already.

Up ahead was West mountain. Not much of a mountain, but some climbing was definitely up ahead. The first part wasn’t too bad. We separated out a little. I was determined to catch up to the first three riders. Once I caught up we decided to stop to wait for the others. Apparently one got a flat. At this point we were about 20 miles into it. The landscape was beautiful. The lake was partially frozen with snow drifts all around. In hindsight I should’ve broken out my lone granola bar, but I just didn’t think of it. Also I took a few pictures, but again next time I’m going to take video with my phone.

So once we all regrouped we were off yet again. We had some more serious climbing ahead. I lagged behind this time. On the straight away one of the bikers hung back with me to make sure I was alright and all my brain was computing was “Chuck-a-rama”. I told him that my body was shutting down. (this is around mile 35ish) So he asked if I had eaten anything and if I had food with me. So I said that I was ill-prepared but I did have a granola bar. So three of them stopped with me as I scarfed down a granola bar.

I was informed that the steepest hill was ahead. That really didn’t do my heart any good. Once we got there I just about hopped off my bike, but my inner self said that I would rather die than get off that bike. I kept telling myself that I was almost to the top just a few more cranks out and we’d be at the top. Such tremendous focus for me. But once I was over that it was minor hills and then flat. The food was starting to hit my blood stream and I was starting to feel much better and able to crank out some better speeds.

By this time of day the wind had picked up in front of us. Drafting became very important. I couldn’t believe the difference. I got a gust with my open jacket and I sailed back about 40 yards from the last biker. This was disheartening. Finally one the riders came back for me and let me draft off them. We stopped at park for a bathroom break, but the bathrooms were locked. We were at mile 45ish at this point. I took a gel pack from one of the riders. (it was the chocolate gu and this was soooooo good).

We decided to get our bathroom break at the parents of the leader’s house. It was a great relief. We were off yet again battling the wind from the front and then to the side. We stayed mostly in two groups drafting each other. By this time most of us were dead legged and numb butts and with the wind our speed was around 15-17 mph sometimes slower.

We got to the drop off point for the girl then continued on our way just a few miles out to our end point. The first three bikers had a spur of energy and decided to do race speed til the end. Me and one other were left to tough it out to the end. We did fine, but it had been a while since either of us made a long trek.

I just remember the feeling of making such an accomplishment. There were points there in the middle where I was seriously wondering if I was going to make it another mile. I was so amazed at how they looked out for all of us. The comradery they had. Most came prepared some did not. Everybody shared what they had. I definitely have my list of things I want to invest in for my next 54 miles.

The other things I noticed is that no matter how tired I was my legs were pumping til the end and I was able to keep going. I was very impressed with my body’s stamina. Not in particular my body, but just the make-up of the body in general. I wonder how far I could’ve gone before I would’ve broken down for good.

I did hit the chuck-a-rama afterwards. I actaully only ate one plate and then a little dessert. I went home to think that I would just hit the hay and be so sore the next day and be in pain for a while. But to my surprise I felt like a million bucks the next day. I felt like I could pump out another 54. Well my crotch may not heh heh heh… I figure that in a couple of days when that area heals a little better I will crank it out to work and school and back. Which is no easy fete in itself considering that I will be cranking out the last 4 miles uphill.

I’m just so pumped up that I made it! So I’m going to sign up for my first century, Ulcer, in August.

Prague spring: Ten views (from a bike)

The weather in Prague was so beautiful on Friday that I took the afternoon off work and went for a bike ride. This time I set myself a specific goal - to photograph ten of my favourite panoramas of the city and post them here on the blog.

Prague - always photogenic - surpassed herself in the spring sunshine. Even with my meagre photographic abilities and facilities it wasn’t hard to take some decent shots. And it was a true joy to feel the warm sun on my back for the first time since last autumn.

So here are the results. These are all vistas I see regularly on my weekend spins around the city and they are all visible from or near to marked cycle paths. At the bottom of the post is a map indicating where each shot was taken. If I’ve whetted your appetite, why not take a look at the slideshow in the bottom left-hand corner of the blog?

R A N T W I C K

Memoir of a “Kampung (Village) boy”