Merry Christmas, a bit to "WHITE" to ride, RATS!

Well it's 19F degrees, partly cloudy with a 16+ mph.wind, which make it about "0F" feeling to the human body so it goes to say "we ain't gett'in to RIDE", RATS!! :( Still Jo and I are just kicking back, we put some time on the Resistance Trainer (exersize bicycle) after breakfast and will do another "round" tonight so were still pedding but getting nowhere! ;)  We did get a couple of last minute gift's for the bicycles, new halogen headlight's and rear reflector's, decieded just "incase" we got caught out in the dark due to say a bike breakdown, ect. we'd better have some light to be seen by! These are Cateye HL-500 unit's, the style is older and from what I read there the "first Halogen" bike lights.

They have kinda see thru bodies, even though Jo's is basicly "pinkish" and mines, "blueish" so they even light up the handlebar area. The only bummer is that I had to take off my "2nd. handlebar waterbottle holder" so I'm back to only "2 waterbottles" and going to Plan C, to figure out where to mount a 3rd. waterbottle cage, rats! Still it will be a lot safer having a headlight on the bicycles and we even got Jo's on 1/2 price, LOL, "pink" is not a real popular color in the bicycle world it seems. ;)

It's not looking good for a New Years Day Ride either at the moment, we just keep getting "Artic Air" masses coming down from Canada, "Snow, Snow go away, go back to Canada and STAY"!!!!! Hope your getting in a good Christmas Ride, put in a extra mile or two for US!!

Happy Holidays!

B.J. and Jo

Rat's it's "Back to the Trainer"!!! :(

Well, looks like it's "back to the trainer", ie: indoor exersize bike for the next week, today is the warm day at 32F and cloudy, tonight it's suppose to SNOW and then we go back into a deep freeze with Artic Air coming down and keeping the "high" temps in the 20F's or LESS, BUMMER!! :(

So we will continue our workouts on our $20 used, Weslo Pursuit 650 Adjustable Resistance Cycle, wow what a title for a "exersize bicycle", LOL! ;) It seems that since we've been using the trainer on the UGLY days in Dec. that when we do get to "RIDE" in the outdoors, the bicycle seems so much easier, LOL, you take a beating in 45 minutes on the trainer that I swear on a bible takes 2.5 hours on the bicycle! :O 

The main thing for us is it keeps "reminding" our mussles that Yes, we do plan to continue to ride bicycles, as the old DOORS song went, "Waiting for SUN"! :)  Well if your taking a beating on a trainer, we feel your pain, it's help's to have an iPOD and listen to some good old Classic Rock and Roll, it makes you spin to the beat, DISCO is real good to a 120 beats level. 

Take care, Ride (or Train) Safe, have FUN!

B.J. and Jo

We both got to RIDE today!!

Even, with a very chilly breeze today, Jo and I got in a good ride on the bikes! I got the "trekking bars" installed on Jo's bicycle on Saturday so now we have both bicycles "converted" to 90% road riding, instead of being mostly MTB off-road bikes.  We did one of our 3 "normal" routes, from the apartment down to pick up the Rock Island Trail/Path down to Weber St. and downtown, then side street's over to pick up the main, "North/South" trail system called the "Pikes Peak Greenway".  We ride that up north to Criterium Bicycle Shop, stop fill up the water bottle, releive the bladders and snack on a choc/cherry Kashi Bar, YUM! ;)

We were wishing we'd have put the "sweatshirts" in the rack packs for "1" more layer as the breeze was now a 10-16mph. headwind! Still it was Sunny and it was GREAT to be on the bikes and not stuck in the apartment on the "trainer bike"!! Poor Jo's gota go back to work tomorrow on Mon. and it looks like the last semi-decent day for the REST of the WEEK, BUMMER!!  Hope you got to get in some miles, come on Summer!! ;) 

Happy Holidays!

B.J. and Jo :)

Got to ride 2 days in a row!

It sure was nice to get in a bike ride, 2 days in a row in December!! Although there was a bit of a chilly wind on todays ride, there was quite a bit of sunshine. 15+ miles but you take what you can get in December! :)

Happy Holidays!

B.J. and Jo Ondo

The "TEST" ride

The weather has been warm enough to melt the majority of the ICE we had from last week so I actually got out for a ride to "test", the new "Trekking Bars"! Yes, I'd say these are a big improvement over the MTB bars with extensions as, #1. I don't get the small pain in the bottom of me neck, #2. It give a total of 4 hand positions and makes so I don't have "overextend" as much. #3. I'm able to use "double waterbottle racks" so I can now carry "3" bottle of water! At first I was weary of these funny looking "European Touring Bars", otherwise known as "Butterfly Bars" but I didn't want to put "drop bars" on this bike as it still has to be able to be a "Rec. and Utility" bike but now it's got some "touring" built into it! The ONLY thing this bike can't do is "hardcore" MTB trails, but it's still capable of a hardpack dirt trail if we decided to take a shortcut! ;)

B.J. and Jo

The new handlebars are here!!

I finally got a set of "trekking or butterfly" bars installed on my "frankenbrid" conversion so now the bicycle has been totally transformed from a "Mountain Bike" to a more "road worthy" touring bicycle! Without a lot of income it's taken a few "months" to make the changes but I think it will really help as Jo and I want to start "Weekend or Overnight" road touring in late Spring/early Summer 2010. 

Our dream is to one day ride "multi-day" tours but that's more for the future as Jo works retail so she only has the weekend and even though she get's 2 weeks vacation, the place she works has a cow, if she takes more than "1 week at a time", bummer. Our other limitation of course is "always" MONEY, as in "not enough", RATS! :(

Still we are ever so slowly working our way to the goal, now it's getting Jo's bike totally converted and getting our old, slow, bottomends "out on the ROAD! ;)

Happy Holidays!

B.J. and Jo :)

Dec. Riding, BAH HUMBUG!! ;)

Well, it's better than no ride at all, it's been WAY COLD here in the Springs!  Several day's below zero and It's just built up the ICE and there's several drifts around our car outside so it's goin be "hump'in" on the trainer till the "big thaw" comes along and let's us get the real bicycles out on the road again!! 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO YOU AND YOURS!!

Ways around Mother Nature!

Wow, the weather has been "CRUD", snow, winds, temps in the teen's and below zero at night for 7 days!! Being a POOR cyclist we can't afford a sweet wind or fluid trainer for those days you can't "get out on the road". Found a old exersize bike on Cragslist for $20.00, YEA!

Well after "cleaning, overhauling" and having to go out and buy a cheap "tap and die" tools set (left pedal thread stripped out when removing the pedal), to re-tap the thread on the "1-piece crankset" (astabula style), were in business!! The WIND is blowing it's brains outside as I type, so it's SO NICE to be able to do some "spinning", while it's snowing and blowing outside!!

Happy Holidays to YOU and YOURS

B.J. and Jo Ondo :)

Oh the weather outside is fightful!!!!!

Major Bummer, it's been SO COLD, below zero at night and high's in the 20's in the day and it don't look much better for the "whole" next week, RATS!! I've got to find a used exersize bike ASAP!! Hope you've got better weather and get in some miles!!

Happy Holidays

B.J. and Jo :)

Rider on the Storm!

Well to be honest I don't do "training rides" but If I did, the route I took today would be it! It's a lot of my general rec. ride on local paths and backstreets but today I added the Sinton Trail, which is 85% uphill and a good uphill grade to the Post Office off of Centenial Blvd., here in the Springs. From the PO back down to the trail is a very good bike lane with now down hill grade so I slam it up into the BIG GEAR's and haul bunn's as fast as me and "Frankenbird" can peddle! Then it's "Reward time" a sweet run down the Sinton Trail, thru urban fortest and smooth as glass asphalt!

Felt so good I decided to tackle a city street and traffic over to my LBS on the Westside of town, bought some bottled water, hung about the shop for 30 minutes and then headed home via more of the same. Not, offical but I figure 25 miles or so, good thing as they say a cold front is coming in tonight and we could get 3-6 inches of SNOW over Wed/Thurs. and the weekend won't get out of the LOW 30's, burr!

Happy Holidays!

B.J. and Jo Ondo