2010 has been an interesting one to say the least – It’s still my year, but with lots of fog. Regardless of whatever has happened, and what is to happen I’ve been spending my time working on some goals that I’ve had set for the past few months. I’ve decided to sell my car regardless if the trip happens or not – and go entirely car free. It’s an unnecessary expense at this point in time, and while I’ll miss the convenience of being able to drive and stay out of the rain, I can always employ the services of the Vancouver Cooperative Network or ZipCars – which allow one to rent a vehicle for a short amount of time. It also gets me back into using the Transit system, which the government offers reduced Income Taxes if you buy passes for the month or year. It’s too bad our system shuts down so early.
The bike got some good spring cleaning – (Even though spring hasn’t even started yet, Vancouver set records for the warmest February on record in 104 years) recently and some parts replaced, one being the brake pads. I moved over to Kool-Stop Eagle II Salmon pads, and after some frustrating adjustments, they are performing wonderfully. Almost too good I would say, as I’ve had a few wheel lockups, due to their wonderful performance. A huge step up above the pads that came with the Surly Long Haul Trucker.
A new stem and small set of bars to hold Handlebar Bag
I also added another stem to my steering column as well, something that was mentioned in one of my postings on the way down to Mexico. The reason why I wanted to perform this modification is that I found the real estate available when riding was minimal, and I wasn’t able to have enough hand positions, which possibly resulted in the numbness that occurred in my middle finger. Essentially I purchased a new stem for $20, a $1.99 bathroom towel rack from the local Home Improvement store, and hacked it down to a reasonable size, and put a new Ortlieb Handlebar bag adapter on the tube because Ortlieb makes you buy a new adapter when you move it to new handlebars due to poor design. Total cost for the
Closeup of additional stem and mounted handlebar bag
modification was $45 and change, however now my bag is not directly on my handlebars and I have room to put my bell, and light on the bars now! It was either that or move to some Trekking bars, which also would have resulted in me either changing my Shimano shifters to Rapidfire types, or performing additional modifications to the bike (V-Brakes being one of the majors!)
Yup – that’s right, there are corks on the ends of the makeshift handlebars. Normal plugs wouldn’t work for the diameter of the tubing, however it offers the added benefit for me to store photocopies of my ID, or other things should I need to have some discreteness while crossing borders.
Hardly worth $25 for a cable.
The final project I’ve yet to complete is to make a tripod mount on the front of my Surly Nice Rack Front Rack. I noticed that it would be a definite benefit to have some videos and photos taken while riding – and all other ways seemed to give far too much shake. I can’t rely on the Gorillapod as it cracks too easily so once I come back from my little trip I’ll figure this final piece out.
The past two and a half weeks have been a real blast in Vancouver – What with the Olympics and all, the energy has been intense. I had a chance to run into old friends, meet new ones, avert the flu many times, and have the opportunity to put alot of trauma behind me. Overall, I say it was a win. Being where I am living has been so good for my heart, brain
Unusable Ortlieb Adapter
and soul with the ocean nearby, the massive amount of exercise I’ve been receiving and the mediation I’ve been doing twice a day at the Y Yoga centre. How I missed out for all my life on Yoga until now is beyond me, but I’m hooked. Especially the hot classes.
The spinning has stopped – and I’m just looking to find my proper magnetism in order to rebuild my internal pyramid. Optimism over Pessimism – I feel good. Wish me luck for my trip into the Rockies.
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