‘Twas the night before Wintermas and all thru the house,all the xc ski creatures were busy, except for the mouse. 

The addicts had prep’d all their skate-ski’s with great care 

in hopes that St Glide-a-claus soon would be there.

The skiers were huddled all snug in the shed. 

with fumes from sweet Fluorocarbons dancing in their heads. 

with weather apps and snow thermometers used with great care

We all hoped the glide would be awesome, when we got there.

With Nesspresso’s consumed and last nights scotch therefore banished

We jumped in the car, ………..despite headaches ‘n being famished

We live in Quebec which means winters really…. suck

But with a fresh 30cm’s, heading north was just for luck

There was a debate, Oka or Ptit train, to be specific

But it was unanimous that conditions anywhere were sure to be terrific

So with a snub to our Western friends who had being skiing since November

We hit the trail hard knowing that St Strava would remember

On Fixie, On Bubba, and last of all Timber 

Skate skiers of skill, sizes and shapes that will.. linger(?)

Down the flats with V1, up with hills with V1-stagger

Will be done in 2 hours and the legs will knackered. .
Guest post by Ulfy ‘JubJub’ Waxmeister

About three years ago, I set about to build the lightsaber of bicycles more commonly known as a fixie conversion. A good friend had an old 1973 Peugeot UO-8 lying around in his shed unused and collecting dust. So I set about restoring it, only to be convinced by Fixie Jedi Master Zuke to turn into a fixie for my commute into town along the Lachine canal. Since there were no hills or stop along the way a “track bike” made a lot of sense. Some considerable man hours of research on Sheldon Brown’s most awsome site and some great advice from Zuke, Fab and the good folks at Bikurious. The original Peugeot Fixie was done.

Speed ahead some 12,000 KM and many many innertubes, tires, chains, one saddle and three bottom brackets later, I thought the old Brokie (thanks Alister for the new name) was finally beyond repair. The original headset/stem and just about the only original part left on the frame finally snapped under some repairs and need to be replace with something a little more modern. I ended up picking up a quill stem replacement at the LBS in Lachine on a ride home and unknowingly attempted to ram a 22.2mm stem into a 22._0_ headtube before realizing my mistake. I struggle with some heavy twisted and greasing and to be honest nothing was working until a neighbour suggested heating the headtube up with paint removing gun. This just about worked and with the help of a 12 inch nail pressing up against the quill and some light to moderate to heavy hammering, the stem same loose and proceed to shoot across the garage floor. So after sanding 0.2mm off of it and gently trying it again and again, I was finally able to fit it properly, replace the handlebars, install new brake cables* and apply some fresh tape to the bars. She is done and I am quite happy to put aside my thoughts of buying a Surly Long Haul Trucker or MEC National off again for another season.

All kidding aside about its new nickname, the tires and chains and other parts I have to replace are still cheaper than 6 months of buss passes and petrol for that Jetta that hasn’t moved in 9 months. When I do decide to get a serious tourer to compliment the Red Rocket in the stable, it will be because of a long trip like: Land’s End to John O’Groats or Vancouver to LA, or even Montreal to the Rock. For now more training and time spent along Mother Natures longest natural wind tunnel: The Lachine Canal.

*Yes, I installed brakes on a Fixie, 1) I value my life 2) the hoods are comfortable 3) I value my life 4) Hills Suck 5) I value my life.

So I was already having a bad with a noisy bottom bracket and a gear ratio I can no longer sustain for 25KM twice a day when half way home this happens:

So the rest of the ride home felt pretty much like this:

In the end I changed my gear ratio back to 48×16 from the insane 48×14 I had been grinding away in since last spring (2013). To be honest, the added speed on the non windy days, never made up for the trouble on every other day that I had head wind along the canal. And if I don’t get my spinning back up to 90RPM with this, I’m changing the front crank to a 46T. More spinning, less grinding.

But I must give a huge shout out to Marissa and the crew at Bikurious that have been single handedly keeping by Peugeot “Brokie” on the road for the past 9217KM. Sure this is my third bottom bracket in as many years, but that is pretty much my fault for being 200+ lbs and trying to thrash my way up Peel everyday. Seriously though if you need any solid advice on getting your fixie built or want a real nice custom bike, nice gear or retro parts, just stop by on Amherst and Robin and ask away.

A colleague at work brought in this amazing Tardis cake which could theoretically feed the entire floor.

If you like it and are in Mtl area, ask for Angie at http://tinyurl.com/melkenmeals

A little tinny but remarkably refreshing!

Just spent the afternoon exploring And riding on various engines and trams at the ExpoRail Canadian Railway Museum.

A slightly bizarre game has taken over my group of weekend riders, some of which also like to run and sometimes swim and not particularly in that order. So among these Dads, several of us use either the Garmin Forerunner 410 or our iPhones to track our rides and runs. And as of late, we have been drawing some pretty bizarre stuff with the tracks. Like the time Christopher decided that a lizard should be eating my house:

And then at seem point later thing quick went straight into the gutter as John decided to dedicated a portion of a lazy run towards marking out a todger into the side of a nearby hill.

To which Christopher replied with his own dealing sabre.

I this point I could not let these feeble attempts at obscenely geo-tagging our hood go unanswered I replied with my own pecker in the park.

However it them dawned on me that no one would ever see our masterpieces unless they were to zoom into one of our cock runs. So the only way to make sure our meta-hooliganisms got he appropriate attention of unsuspecting Strava browsers was to make the entire run a giant knob to which I proudly present:

Of course there are always be those who take it that one step too far! Jim of course wins the Internet with this magnificent Coq & Balls.

And I’m sure that some will say that none of this is anything new, as mad Englishmen were doing this kind of silliness back in the 17 century across the chalk hill of Dorchester. May I present to you: the almighty Cerne Abbas Giant

Sometimes it really is who you know. probably the coolest Mtl Metro Shot I have seen in a very long time. This is an awesome shot taken by a buddy Benoit @benoit_lefebvre, who’s dads just happens to be a Montreal Metro train operator.

Yours truly looking through the end of a f1.2 85mm Prime Canon lens (yes the one with the red stripe). it’s a very good shot taken by Benoit with a 35mm prime.