A Short February Catch-Up

The beginning of 2018 has not been horribly kind to me health-wise thus far. I have managed to contract the flu twice in the span of about 30 days, once from Sam bringing home a strain from work, and the second (I suspect) came from helping someone who was sick. It's not been the most conducive means of being able to start the new year riding. The first round knocked me out for about a week and a half, and the second round (that I'm still dealing with) has been quite intense and debilitating too. In between the two bouts though I have been able to find a small amount of time to ride, which has been nice.

Of the approximate 150 miles I've ridden thus far in 2018, about 85 of them were on the tandem and another 25 have been on a trainer. Which means, if my math skills are working in conjunction with my still cloudy head, I only have about 40 miles of solo riding on the roads thus far. Not exactly the stellar start to riding I had hoped for, but a start nonetheless.

Having so many down hours provides time for thinking and daydreaming about future rides though, which has its benefit too. I'm pondering an early season race to see if it will motivate me to push the miles a bit more than I have thus far, Sam and I are likely going to enter a fairly early-season ride on the tandem too, and there are several local rides I'm anxious to get to in the near future.

As far as bicycles go, the cleaning out process has gone fairly well. I'm still debating one more potential sell-off, but the new frame from the UK arrived (mostly) in tact, so that's been exciting to watch become a bike. I was able to even sneak in a couple of short rides on it before this round of illness took hold. I am very excited to get to ride it more and at some point report back here on details. Thus far, I've found it to be smooth rolling and comfortable, and those are my two highest priorities with any bike.

The new bike and me out testing the waters... or testing the ice? 

Several of the parts for this build were scavenged from other bikes that were sold or that no longer needed the parts. I did "splurge" on a new set of wheels (mostly because I had no choice), but didn't end up spending much on those. I'm interested to see how the wheelset does as part of this build too because the cost-to-value ratio seems to be a winner.

Sam and I are scheduled to rent a different tandem soon too. We wanted a real-world test, even if it isn't long term, to see if a better fitting/lighter weight tandem can aid us in our quest for longer distances (How could it not?). A shop in Denver happened to have a workable sized tandem for us to try, so it made sense to ask to rent it for a few days.  Hopefully, we hold up health-wise so that we are able to thoroughly test this loaner out, but the shop has been very kind and told us if weather or other factors arise, we can postpone the rental. Winter can be a challenging time of year to plan rides, but thus far, it looks like we may have found a nearly ideal window. Keep fingers crossed for us.

This little lady separated and cracked pretty badly during firing, but I plan to try again (with some modifications) - hopefully, before the tour.

In non-bike related news, if you are local, I will be participating this year in the East Boulder County Artists Studio Tour at the end of April and hope you'll stop by and say hello. I've primarily focused the last couple of years on clay work, rather than painting, so I'd love to hear what others think about the work I've been doing. It should be fun to open up my work space to visitors as well, as spring will likely be well under way by then. Most of the pieces won't be related to bicycles but they are whimsical. Do stop by, if you can.

I hope winter has been kinder to all of you than it has to me and that you've been able to get out and ride as much as possible. If you have the time, I'd love to hear about any adventures taking place for you, so feel free to share in the comments or send me a note.