Evil Moose in the land of the rising sun…

Megan and posse on tour in Japan...

If you haven’t been following her adventures already I’d recommend you take a look at Megan’s Japanese bike tour reports and photos.  I’ve had fun tagging along as a virtual tourist in her panniers…=-)

Ride Long Haul Truckers ride!

Congrats to RANS on a great RAAM!

Photo: RAAM Website

Congrats to Team RANS on performing so well during this year’s RAAM.  It’s fun to see recumbents do so well in a race like this.

Adios Amigos

We'll be riding the revised CDN GDR route on the right.

Well we are off for Montana in a few hours for our South to North CDN GDR assault.  We’ll be riding a revised version of the CDN GDR route that features more remoteness and more dirt..=-)

See you next week!

My Pugsley loaded and ready to roll...

Amy’s on a roll this Friday!

Amy aboard her new red rocket Bike Friday!

Amy lives nearly 2hrs from me so we’ve been trying to figure out a good time to connect so she could grab her bike.

Amy's Pocket Sport is nicely setup for commuting and touring...

It was raining on and off, but we managed to find some dry-ish time to get the fit dialed in and go over the basic controls.  This is Amy’s first bike since she was a kid so we talked about how to shift and brake as well some fit items [seat and stem height] she may want to play with as she gets use to riding her Bike Friday.

Rolling through the woods...

We were able to go for a short ride to get some practice with gear shifting and braking.  I adjusted her seat height again.  Since Amy is virtually brand new to biking her riding position may change a bit as she gets used to the bike so I gave her some tips on what to look for and what she could adjust.

A tale of two Fridays...

Eventually my time ran out and I had to say goodbye.  Amy was super excited with her bike and based on her other hobbies, like marathon running, I’m certain her Pocket Sport will look well worn when I see her next.  If our schedules workout we’ll try and get in a 2-4 day bike tour at the end of July.

Sandman Fatbikes

Prototype Sandman fatbike in action...

Details are still sketchy, but there seems to be a new fat tire bike coming to market in Europe from a Belgian company called Sandman.  You can visit their website here, but it lacks info so far.  You can check out this thread on MTBR.com for some information.

The pictures look really nice and I’m excited to see more interest in fat tire bikes.

Sandman Gobi

Learning to Kite Board DVD

An excellent instructional DVD from Fat Sand Productions.

Philippe at Airtime hooked us up with this instructional DVD from Fat Sand Productions.  I was quite impressed with how well it was made.  It covers all the basics without getting too advanced and there is enough repetition to be useful without being boring. Not only is this a great DVD to watch when starting out – it will also be a helpful refresher after taking some lessons.

When the time comes there are more advanced DVDs avilable.

Surly Pugsley Rack Options

My Pugsley with two rear OMM Cold Springs racks

Fitting racks to a Surly Pugsley can be a pain.  The uber wide 135mm front fork and offset drivetrain make fitting normal front and rear racks a challenge, but there are ways to get around this.  I figured I’d post a few possible options in one place for easy reference.

Option 1: Old Man Mountain

• OMM racks are very versatile and great racks.  These are the racks I use on most of my bikes so it’s no surprise I put them on my Pugsley.
• I used two OMM Cold Springs rear racks.  I had to flip around the silver adapter parts [bottom of rack legs] and reattach them to centre the racks correctly.  I also had to use a few small washers to get clearance for the lower mounting bolts.
• Have a look at the close up rack photos on my Pugsley Flickr page for mounting details as well as this post about Kurt’s upgrades to my OMM racks.
• You can also see this post about how Doug [MN Bike Commuter Blog] mounted two OMM racks to his Pugsley.

Pigeonfarmboy's Pug with a Front/Rear Surly Nice Racks Mounted.

Option 2: Front/Rear Surly Nice Racks

• check out my post on my Bow Cycle Blog discussing mounting front & rear Surly Nice racks on a Pugsley

Martin's Pug with a modified Surly Nice rear rack mounted up front.

Option 3: Two Surly Nice Rear Racks

• with a bit of modification you can mount a Surly Nice rear rack on the front of your Pug.
• this reduces weight and makes fitting on the Pugsley fork easier than a front rack.
• check out this post on my Bow Cycle blog for details.

Kurt's Pug with a Filzer Rear Rack attached.

Option 4: Filzer Disc Brake Rear Rack

• Filzer makes a rear rack that is extra wide to clear disc brakes. We picked one up at MEC and mounted it on Kurt’s Pugsley.
• It mounts up reasonably well.
• The rack is decent for a $30 unit, but the way the lower portion of the rack mounts is flawed.
• If you look at the picture below you’ll see how the rack is attached with adapters to get around the disc calipers.  This weakens the rack and makes it unsuitable for carrying heavy loads on rough terrain.
• If you only need to carry lighter loads [change of clothes, lunch, etc…] on smooth roads it could be a decent solution for you.
• Kurt is removing this rack and buying two OMM Sherpa rear racks from Bow Cycle for our up coming GDR tour.

Filzer disc brake rear rack adapter.