April 19th (Morning)

Happy Birthday to Tim!

Yes, April is the month for birthdays it seems, as today Corrie’s older brother, Tim, is celebrating his 31st I think? Maybe 30th... Not sure... I have a hard enough time remembering how old I am, let alone brother-in-laws! :)

Anyways, this morning’s ride was really great! Made it to Lansdowne in 14minutes (previous best was 15) and then from Rogers Way to work in 12minutes (previous best was 13, set just last Thursday and Friday). All the way from the highway overpass to the bus stop, I was in 3:7 and 3:8 where I’m typically in 2:7 and 2:8, so that was great. My top speed down Juniper’s hill was 74kmh, which was really good actually as I was behind a trail of cars and actually had to tap my brakes on a couple of corners. My average speed was a record 23.4kmh, beating last Thursday’s record of 22.1kmh.

I did clean the bike up, fine tuned the brakes (no more dragging)  and derailleurs so the bike was running in top form this morning. I even spent the time scrubbing and oiling each link of the chain one by one, so I think that paid off a bit. That and the rest of the weekend. I did nothing this weekend but a bit of hiking (flat, no hills) so I feel that this resting really helps a lot. I made the Hugh Allan hill again in the middle ring, so I think I will ride this route one more time and then attempt from TRU. I’m trying to employ the Detroit Red Wings style of development. Keep kids in the minors longer than most, so they are fully developed and accel rapidly once they hit the NHL! :) So, yeah, I’m staying down in the ‘minors’ for at least one more day!

I’ve been having some traction issues coming down into Peterson’s creek as I believe I mentioned earlier, so I put on a couple of knobbier tires this weekend (a Kenda Kinetics 2.35 up front and an IRC Freedom Cross Trailbear 2.25 on the rear, both having very similar treads). I’ll post some pics here soon. Anyways, I cranked them up to about 55psi and all in all I didn’t notice much difference in the ride this morning (other than better times, hah!).  Obviously the rumbling at low speeds was noticeable, and the constant low hum was ever present! But as for more work? Didn’t really notice it, so hopefully on the way done the hill today they will help with better control and traction, maybe even through the sandy switchback that gets me every time!

Here's the IRC on the rear. It's an older tire that I'd bought off of eBay a while ago for my old bike. But the tread is still decent, and its a quality tire. I will probably replace this yet this summer as I'm sure dragging it down Peterson's creek every day will wear it right out!

Here's the Kenda on the front. I'm really becoming a fan of Kenda tires, and yet hadn't 

even heard of them when I bought this last year! I bought it also for my other bike, but as you can see it didn't see alot of use! Good directional tread (actually, this tread and the IRC's are extremely similar), so that will help against the rolling resistance that I was worried about.