morning of the pub crawl

12pm at Galactic Pizza.

I'm expecting modest turnout on account of the recent cold weather, but a good time should be had by all.

Some pictures from MT

In no particular order:

Here we are waiting for security to open 1 hour before our flight home in the Helena airport.

Shannon's brother's Bianchi mountain mountain biike as we put new cables, grips, seat and tires on.

Us waiting in Salt lake to catch our flight to Helena (like I said no particular order)
Some excitement on the tarmac in Salt Lake
Phredde, the hunting dog, hunting for treats.
Honey found them.
It was a good trip. more on that later.

two bikes out to stud

Last night I put the schwalbes on the Instigator and Edward.  In the back of my mind the front wheel might be enough, but I want to have a spare bike in case someone needs a ride for the pub crawl on Sunday. 

Holy crap I never posted about Edward! 

Guy Woodhouse has been redubbed Edward after the painting this fall.  I think I am going to repaint again in the summer though. I didn't like the way the paint came out and I suspect it had something to do with the cold weather we had the weekend I painted it. 

also I am concerned the bike looks too good, and someone might steal it...

Year briefly in review

I said at the beginning of the year I would try to keep better track of my biking milage. This never happened. II put more miles onto more bikes in this year than any year before, but I know I didn't break 3k, I figure something just over 2k. Whatever, I had fun.

In the early summer I bought a Surly Instigator off of craigslist and rode it for a month getting ready for our trip to Montana where we were going to and did ride our bikes in the Gravely mountain range. Flirting with 10,000 feet the riding was more strenuous than I expected but we had a great time. When we got back to Butte, our tent tried to fly away while we were aiiring it out (it rained on us while we camped in the mountaiins) but obsessive staking saved the day.

We saw a lot of family on the trip to and from Montana, and I am glad we went. 

When we got back to Minnesota I kept riding the instigator and eventually needed new tires. Forsaking the mountain tread for Shwalbe Big Apples. A kickass tire I say. not much good in snow though. 

Except for a few rides I really haven't been riding Frenchie at all this year. The instigator and the wiinter beater ride better on the city streets with the pot holes and cracked road surface. I like having a faster bike around, but I am really liking the feeling in my hands.

Shannon was sent overseas for work and I went to visit her there. and that was an awesome trip too. We went to Hong Kong, hung out in Manila, ate some fantastic foods for half a pittance. When we went to Hong Kong the first night we ordered small beers and they returned with gigantic beers to our figuring. 

After I got home I went to plays and movies and camping with my friends. I look back and see all the things that didn't go well in 2009; the car accidents, and lost loved ones and I think: this was a pretty good year.

If we can't look at what goes right in a year I don't know what to do. Here's to a pretty good year and many to come.

coil on plug

Apparently the VW 1.8T engine has a bit of a design flaw.

as we have been having problems with rough idles and stalling.  Having checked the engine over with diagnostic equipment and listening to the motor the coils on cylinders 1 and 3 were found to be the culprits. two coils replaced and everything is peachy.

cars are annoying.

All you haters...

I have managed to sell the Murray. Slightly below asking, but not so I was hurting.

You'll notice that like all my bikes, I expect the instigator to carry its weight in luggage.

Today I discovered the importance of deflation.  I rode home with the tires partially deflated and though there was increased drag, when I got going I didn't feel the bumps.

Last fall at work we got an engraving machine. basically if I can connect two points on an object it can be engraved.  So my "new" bash guard tells haters what they can do in their free time.

a recap of recent happenings

So the last post was about replacing the oil breather hose on our 2001 VW jetta 1.8T.  The very next morning after fixing this hose I had the car in the shop for 1. oil change 2. tires.  My brother had been over seas studyign and having just returned home to the states I was going to take him out to lunch.  So we piled into the Jetta and I took him into the city.  

In the middle lane on Marion on a sunny day at 11:30am, an early 2000s silverado pickup heading the opposite direction cut in front of us to enter I94 East bound.  Thus clipping the corner of the jetta, and continuing onto the Highway.

So the police come by and we fill out a report, and we tried to match the plate I read to the truck that hit us.  Not so much luck.

So we took the car to Superior Collision in Eagan and they did a great job replacing the fender, the hood, bumper, and rehanging the passenger door. The paint is perfect.

And then AAA sent the check to the wrong address. dammit.

Memorial day weekend was a blast, as we went out to Maryland to see the new nephew and my sister's other kids (and obviously my sister and her husband), and some old friends that live outside Charlotte who drove all the way up so we could hang out. 

We went to Annapolis, we went into DC, we drank in a micro brewery.  We had an awesome time. pictures to follow.

Then this past Saturday we went to see Gogol Bordello at the Cabooze.  Which was awesome.  And then we played Settlers of Catan till 1am. And when we got home finally, I hopped onto Craigslist.  And some guy was listing his Surly Instigator for less than the cost of buying the frame. 

So, after sleeping on it, today I bought another bike.

Anyone want to buy a Murray three speed?