SLUSHY SLUSHY

Due to the unforeseen change in whether this past week, I think it is safe to say that the race will not take place this evening. If we all cross our fingers and toes, another opportunity may present itself before the spring melt. I'll update with any new race info in the weeks to come. Looks like road ridin' until then......

Brad

SLUSH BALL UPDATE

Well, I wasn't able to get out to the trails in the last couple of days due to illness and nasty whether. At this point I am fairly confident to say that the race will not take place. I plan to take a ride out tonight after work and confirm. I'll post my findings......stay tuned.

Brad

SNOW BALL 2010 UPDATE

Well folks, Mother Nature has decided it was time to unload some dandruff from the sky and cover up some of the great winter trails we have been enjoying. At this point, I would advise all to stay tuned to the blog for daily updates on the race status this Saturday (Feb.27). I will be out tonight and over the next 2 days to confirm whether or not the race will go ahead.

At this point we may have to push the date back a week or two. I'll keep ya'll informed.

Brad

New England Milling Machine

The Nichols

We are slowly assembling all the gear we need for the frame building shop in the store, and the piece we really wanted was a nice milling machine. We had been watching the Busy Bee specials and had decided we would get a small bench top mill (made in China) for $699. This wasn't the ideal machine for us, but with our limited space we should have been able to squeak by with it. We went out pick the machine up but alas they were out of stock. So instead we put down a deposit and resigned ourselves to a month and a half wait. The wait turned out to be a blessing in disguise.


While we waited I decided I would try and figure out which hole saws we need and other bits and pieces to get the mill set up for tube mitering. After lots of phone calls to tooling shops and confusing info I decided to give Toby at Hot Tubes a call, Thom and I took framebuilding classes with him last year and he is a wealth of knowledge.

Toby and I at Hot Tubes

During our conversation he asked what kind of mill we were using I told him we were getting this bench top mill, to which he promptly replied that we should forget that piece of #%*** and come down to his place and pick up a Nichols horizontal mill that he had just acquired that morning. Well it took Thom and I a total of 5 minutes to decide we had to make this happen, especially since it was going to cost us less than half the Busy Bee. This mill was the same type we had used to build our first frames in Toby's shop so we were somewhat familiar with it.

1244383682">Thom enjoying one last Timmies stop before crossing the border.

A few days later we were on the road in a pick-up truck destined for Boston hoping to heck the mill was going to fit in the truck bed without causing some major catastrophe, it weighs 1200lbs.

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Dicey manuvering

It was quite the production to get the beast into the back of the truck, luckily there was a local forklift operator who Toby managed to commandeer.

ize="1">Seriously weighed down

There was lots of creaking and groaning on the way home, causing a number of nervous stops to check the straps.

Then the big question of how to get it off the truck without a forklift. The answer was with our friendly ATS driver, his hydraulic tailgate and my dad's huge winch.

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A treacherous operation

Wheeling her in

2" border="0">Winching her upright.

It took me another full day to strip off all the hydraulic automatic feed adjusters, and then scrub all the old oil off the body of the machine, thank goodness for respirators. After that, a coat John Deere green paint and it's looking pretty good.

Stripped and scrubbed

The final product

Getting into the good stuff.

Spring tune-up Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

I woke up to snow today. Light, no problem. Then is picked up...doh. My weekend window for riding was to be today, and I knew it should be near zero. Sloppy snow would cover up stuff I had to see...not optimal.

I waited it out, did some stuff around the house, and monitored the melting. And melt it did. By about 11:45 I rolled out of the house, dressed the same as last week. 2 degrees warmer made all the difference; I was warm and stayed that way.

Today was a solo affair, everyone else occupied or otherwise. I enjoy riding alone, I'm able to ride exactly according to how I feel, and I wander wherever I like. When I err, nobody's there to jeer me. I love riding with friends too, just saying I'm happy either way.

Feeling fine physically, I took the opportunity to try out the Cantley side of the Gatineau river for the first time this year. Since the bike paths are still snow covered, I improvised my route and pieced together a good path across the river. All was great on the hilly side with the exception of the Chamonix neighborhood neat Cascades. This is an optional loop that packs in some steep climbs and fast descents. Up to the hard right onto Oslo (see map), all was clear, and the dirt sections were great. Turning onto Oslo could have been avoided, but I figured I'd risk it. Sure enough, this less traveled dirt road was snow covered and offered zero traction to my slick Challenge Roubaix rear tire. I got off and sprinted up, carrying my bike, cross style. Kidding. I walked up spastically as my feet slipped. Once up the road pretty much points down. I tested my brakes and sure enough, found I had zero traction. Each turn had to be slid moto-style. I was fortunate not to encounter oncoming traffic. THe descent could only be described as 'hairy'. No brakes in a straight line, sliding the turns. Not recommended at the moment, not even with cross tires. The snow was covering ice.

Back onto Mountain road, now past Cascades, thing returned to normal, with some sloppy sections breaking up pavement and packed dirt. No problem. Despite experiencing pain once again in a quad near my knee, I decided to check out Woodsmoke, the area's most brutal climb. Perhaps a blessing, it too was snow covered, and would not provide enough traction to either climb or descend safely. Ah well, no problem, maybe better not to push it. Beyond Woodsmoke, the dirt road was often dry, and rather smooth and solid. I passed Maxwell by and continued onto the next branch West to head over to River road, which would head me back South to Wakefield.

Good surfaces delivered me to Wakefield, where I stopped for a visit to Pipolinka in their new location. Back on the road, a slight tailwind helped deliver me back to town along River road and the 105 to St. Joseph, bringing the day's total distance to about 110k. Good sensations, despite the knee issue and a very achy neck (I've been seeing a Martin at RE:FORM to sort out a couple issues lately, and its tender). I felt strong all day and had fun; success. If you are thinking of getting out there, fender up your bike and roll. The roads are for the most part as good or better than they were last March.