Take your bike to work day

It's right around 3 months now until we leave.  It has been a busy February at work so my riding has not been happening as much as I'd like.  My cross continent bike is also my general "beater" camp bike.  I try to bring this thing everywhere.  It's definitely the one bike I could not live without.  I'll go through the specs in a later post.

The days are starting to get longer around here which is nice

 I packed everything in the work truck and headed off to Zama City for the next week or so.

Normal highway conditions for half the year. Can you seen the 18 wheeler 100' in front of me?

You get funny looks when you are unloading your truck at camp.

It's definitely nice to have the option to ride even when I'm away.  In the summer I still bring the bike but can ride outside which is lots of fun in these remote locations.

If you're in Zama City AB stop on by and say hello ;-)

Benno

Hanging out with JaBig

Triple dip - cross continent ride. Stage 1

Stage one of our ride this summer begins in the lovely town of Prudhoe Bay Alaska then takes us over to Whitehorse YT.  Not much selection on route here so it's as simple as plugging Prudhoe Bay into our starting point and Whitehorse as the finish.  We are thinking we should start riding around June 2 and arrive in Whitehorse two weeks later around June 16th.

----->Click me for the link<-----

How To - Protect your parts washer tank from internal corrosion

Here's a quick and cheap way to protect your parts washer tank from corroding.  I've noticed the cheaper tanks require a water based solvent which are almost always acidic so here is an easy way to protect your tank from corrosive solvents.



Step one - Attach some copper wire to some scrap aluminum by using a steel bolt.  Here I used a scrap piece of an old Stan's rim.  I sanded it down a little so that the bare aluminum could be in contact with the fluid in my tank.  In my case I use about 1 gallon of purple power to about 12 gallons of water.  The acidity will only affect the consumption rate of the aluminum, the tank will be safe as long as you install a new piece of aluminum when the old piece gets consumed.



Step two - Attach the other end of that wire directly to the tank (inside or out, doesn't matter).













                     Step 3 - Submerge scrap aluminum inside the tank



That's it, you're done.  The most important part is that the aluminum is electrically continuous with the steel in the tank and that the aluminum is placed inside the fluid.

Here you can see I measured the results using a CuCuSO4 reference cell.  My native steel potential is about -593mV.  Minimum protection is -693mV.  With the aluminum anode I have achieved -1136mV which proves that the steel is easily being protected by the aluminum.

Native steel potential of the tank and reference cell for testing.  This was taken before the aluminum was placed in the tank.



Now protected at -1136mV.  This is after the aluminum was submerged in the tank.  Note: this only works if the aluminum is somehow connected to the tank.



All done

2016 South Carolina Reunion!!

Well it's been a while since I did anything here other than post a few brief comments on some older posts.  So I thought I would make this post a good one :-)
I've had some pretty awesome adventures for the last 2 years and have been lucky enough to have the chance to do some pretty fun and unique cycling trips.  I get quite a bit of time to do whatever I want during the spring months so I figured I would do something extra special for 2016.
Yes folks is a South Carolina reunion!  At your favourite of venues, The Palace.  Not to say that I will never do this again but it will not be a yearly thing.  There are too many other awesome trips I want to do.  So please try to take time out of your busy schedule to meet me down there to get in some riding cause who knows when this opportunity will come again.  I will be bringing a mountain bike and a road bike.
You should all know the drill and the house by now.  The only difference is that this year I am booking the weeks Monday-Monday.  Arrive any time on the Monday of your week and leave any time the following Monday.

Availability for 2016 (updated Nov 29, 2015)
April 11 - April 18                        Full
April 18 - April 25                        1 Spot
April 25 - May 2                          1 Spot

Price;
$200/week CAD per person.  As always, this pretty much just covers the price of the house.

Email me at mmmbenno@yahoo.com to book.

Datfineprint
Lets make this simple and just say that you have to pay all of the money up front in order to book.  My spare time in the winter is exactly zero and I have no interest in chasing people down for money (believe me I have learned my lesson on that one).  You can cancel as close to 4 weeks before your arrival date.  After that you can find someone to replace you.

House Info (as far as I know)
Top Floor - 2 Bedrooms, both with a Queen and a Twin
Main Floor - 3 Bedrooms. Master Bedroom has a King. 2 Bedrooms have Queens.
Walk out Basement - 2 Bedrooms. One with a Queen and a Twin. One with a Queen and a Full
-70" big screen t.v. in the great room
-all rooms are equipped with a small cable t.v
-Wireless internet
-Pool Table
-6 bathrooms, 7 showers
-Fully furnished rooms and kitchen
-big dining room table
-on the water with a nice dock and deck
-bbq
-2 car garage for bikes (and garage crit championships) and lots of parking outside
-full central air conditioning (yes we've used it before)
-gas fireplace
-2 refrigerators
-2 laundry rooms with washers/dryers
-towels/sheets/pillows included in each room

Kitchen

One of the 2 lofts with full ensuite bathrooms

Master (my) bedroom har har har.  Ensuite bathroom with Jacuzzi tub.

The pool room is just one of the many hang-out spots in the house.

Ritchey Foam Grips

'Nother little part came in at the bike shop.  Picked up my Ritchey foam grips this morning.  Mostly I was excited to get these since I needed to cut my old grips off to be able to cut my handle bars narrower.  The bars were a very wide 29.5" which while fun in the fast stuff were very cumbersome in the twisties.
I cut an inch off each side so now she sits at 27.5" which if I remember correctly is what I normally run.  The Ritchey grips are so much nicer.  The Lizard Skins were extremely hard on the hands.  Put them on the scale and was pretty obvious why, they are 1/2 the weight of the Ritcheys!  I was really surprised about this but oh well, I will have to save weight elsewhere.

The weight of the Lizard Skins grips plus the inch of bar I cut off (which had aluminum inserts in the ends) were still lighter than the Ritchey grips :'-(

Daang you heavy

Looking clean.

Next on the chopping block, these boat anchors.  Can't wait to get these off the bike!

Bought this horrible cage to hold me over until I can find something nice ;-)

So I'll just keep plugging away on this beast.  I think she still has about 4lbs to lose.  Gonna be a challenge.

Benno

Ze Germans are coming!

Went and bought myself a little treat the other day.  It was somewhat forced *twist my arm* because the saddle on my new-ish mountain bike managed to expire.  No idea how really, wasn't too concerned about it as it was pretty uncomfortable.  Not to mention I need to put this new bike on a diet so was not upset at all to see the old saddle go.
Soooo what did I get?  Thought I would try out the new Tune Komm-vor saddle.  Chose this model for a few reason.  It's not the lightest of the light saddles but it does seem to be a little more durable maybe, and is rumoured to be quite comfortable.
Post man came today.  Saddle was well packaged and initial cosmetic impressions were very good.  You never really know what you're going to get with this handmade stuff but everything looks pretty straight and true with a fairly high grade finish.  No complaints here.

Chucked it on the scale.

Came out at a respectable 91 grams.  About half the weight of the Syncros saddle that came off the bike.

Broken rails

Initial sit-down was positive but I'll get back to ya'll when I get some mileage on it.  My main problem with the Syncros was that there was zero flex in the shell, it was as hard as a rock.  In comparison the Tune seems quite soft.  But time will tell.  Flying back to Ontario this weekend from BC for a friendly 5man team at the Summer Solstice 24 hour.  Should get some good time on it then.
Benno