An update of sorts and some vintage steel for your morning Joe.

An update of sorts and some vintage steel for your morning Joe.

1976 motobecane nomade sprint bicycle bike trainer cycleops fluid 2 cycling for weight loss fat guy on a bike healthy life style low calorie diet Weight Loss

I cross posted this with my cycling blog so you can check it out there if you haven't seen it, My weight has how do they say? plateaued? lately, I can't figure it out because I am eating ok, exercise has been coming more often with the weather I have been taking the little one out on rides on the Adams trail a bike but the weight loss has stalled. I am not going to worry about it but will keep on doing what I am doing and call it a slow time because if I let it get in the way I will undoubtedly gain weight in the long run and I ain't down for that. I mentioned the weather warming up and its got me in a bike kind of mood, like I said me and my eldest daughter have been going on rides out on the lake with the trail a bike and I started working on the old Motobecane again, we're getting close on that bike I tell ya! soon enough I will have a new ride in the stable even if its short lived as I am unsure I am a roda bike kind of guy but we will see.

I needed some down time so I headed off to work with the Motobecane yesterday for a couple hours and finished up cleaning the rear derailleur, the shifters and I got the cables/housings installed. I am still not done by a long shot and there is still a lot to do before the bike is done I did make some good solid progress on the bike last night. I chose Jagwire platinum braided cable housings to blend in with the frame a bit and I really like how they look on the bike! I did make a couple decisions on just how closely I was going to polish things up, I was thinking about the fact that I am planning to ride this bike and polishing everything to a mirror finish didn't make a lot of sense because of that fact, I mean if its going to get grimy anyways why make it shinier than when it was new?

With that said, I did not skimp on the polishing! I think that the bike is starting to look pretty nice even if this shot makes my basement look like a dungeon! who am I kidding.. it IS a dungeon! I still have to completely do the wheels (I just tossed them on to see how the bike looked) as I have not touched them other than a small test spot where I polished the rust off of the chrome and I do believe that the wheels will look pretty good after some elbow grease. You can see that I laid the rack on there just for a look at how it would play out and I think that I like it and will stick to the original plan of doing fenders and rack on this bike.

Above is a closer shot of the braided cables installed on the shifters, I think they compliment the silver frame pretty nicely! I am still on the fence with what color I should do the tape/hoods/saddle in but I am sure that it will come to me... eventually. I originally wanted to do the bars and saddle in brown/honey but that is more expensive than the other options and since I am not 100% on whether I will keep this bike in the long run I keep going back to just do the bars red, black saddle and brown or black hoods, I am very on the fence with the whole thing. I don't really ride road bikes let alone vintage road bikes! and that is why I am unsure about whether this will become a permanent ride in my ever growing fleet of bicycles even though I have put a good amount of thought and time into this bike.

Finally a shot of what I started with compared to where I brought it, I think there is a big difference and when I am done I think it will be even bigger! Next on the list of things to do will be the tape and saddle and I am very anxious to see how it looks with a bit more of a finished feel to it. Now the decision must be made on the tape, once that happens I can choose a saddle and finally hood color, some new tires and we will be off for a ride to snap a couple photos in a nicer setting than my dungeon... er I mean basement!

Over all I am on the right road and with the spring right around the corner I am expecting the biking to pick up some which will hopefully help tear away some of my winter jelly that I have packed on during the hibernation. I will never stop striving to get to my goal and some day I will be able to say that I weigh 250 lbs, it may not be in a week, or a month but the day is coming because I will not let weight control who I am or what I do in life and that's that!

Until next we meet, keep on pedaling!

As Ever
Me

CycleOps Fluid 2 Video, tire comparisons.

CycleOps Fluid 2 Video, tire comparisons.

bicycle bike trainer Bontrager sr1 bontrager sr1 slick cycleops fluid 2 cycling for weight loss fat guy on a bike healthy life style low calorie diet

I wanted to get a compare video up between the Michelin Country Rock tire that my wife bought when she picked up the fluid trainer and the Bontrager SR1 that I replaced it with, I had a chance to set the camera up this morning when I rode so I thought I would pop the video up. The Michelin tire was just too loud for my purposes so it had to be replaced and the difference between that and the slick SR1 is incredible and it allows me to ride while my daughter takes her mid morning nap.

Now you know that you are diggin' on my blue light in the first trainer spot, and you can now see just how loud that Michelin was, I am sure that it would make a great road tire for a mountain bike but for trainer duty it will have to be saved as a back up tire. This trainer is working out good for me, when weather or the baby stop me from getting out for a real ride out comes the trainer and I can get a ride into my day, gotta love it. Here is a shot of the K2 in Trainer gear, it does not differ much from road duty when it wears WTB Graffiti SF 2.2 tires, it loses the bag on the top tube and gains a powerade bottle in the cage.

I hope you enjoyed the video, come spring I am sure that I will be posting up some ride videos as I do bring my Kodak ZX3 camera out with me on most rides. Over all I am on the right path and am hoping to hit my goal of being 305Lbs or less by May 25th, this trainer will certainly help me get there bu I can't wait for the weather to get a little better and days longer so that I can hit the rail trails again.

Soon enough it shall be so...

That's all I got for today.

As Ever
Me

My wife asked me to start using protection...

My wife asked me to start using protection...

fat cyclist fat guy on a bike Giro Xen Weight Loss

So, the little animal... er baby has fallen blissfully to sleep and I had a moment so I thought it was a good time to pop a post up here, yes yes, I could be exercising instead and that I did! I did a push up routine along with some stretches and for now that's what its going to be. Life lately has not been peaches and cream but that doesn't mean that there aren't high points! and with that thought lets us focus on my bicycling for a moment.

A quick stop from last Sundays ride I took a shot of ye olde steed leaning on a rock with her new handlebars/grips installed.

Last year I was riding a just under 20 mile section of a local rail trail and not feeling it besides for the immediate hour after the ride and that stamina deteriorated over a long winter. I started riding again more regular like when the weather warmed up but couldn't really get back to that pre winter oooomph that I had, that is until the last two weeks in the saddle. The week before last we went out for our Sunday ride and by the end of the ride I felt like I could have kept going, it would appear that the stamina has returned? after one week? nope not gonna believe it. This past Sunday we left on the same ride, same bat time same bat channel and waddya know? same deal, felt awesome after the ride so if this weeks ride goes as well I am going to declare that I am back stamina wise on the bike.

In other news wify asked me to start wearing protection a while back...no no pervert get your mind out of the gutter she meant a helmet, and though I wasn't against the idea it just wasn't on the top of the list for me. I happened into a local Eastern mountain sports a couple weeks ago and meandered on over to the helmet section where I saw more than a couple brands and designs to consider so I popped a few onto my bald melon to see how fitment was. Now the fella that I ride with on the weekend has a Giro branded helmet, it seems nice and he said that it worked for what it was suppose to all while being fairly comfy so onto Giro brand brain buckets I went. Finding a Giro Xar on the shelf I placed it onto my cranium and it felt like I was wearing a ball cap, maybe even less bothersome than a ball cap but the price was $130 and I was meh on that. I tried on a couple few more but kept coming back to the Xar because if I am buying a helmet its gotta be comfy or I will just strap it to my back pack and not wear it, I left the store.

My new brain protection unit, I give to you the Giro Xar.

I was extremely surprised when my wife asked me to start using protection after so long as you can see in my expression.

Talking to wify about the choices that I found and the fact that this Xar for $130 was perfect but I did not want to spend that much on a helmet her response was "go back in and get it, I don't care what it costs if you'll wear it its worth it" I told her I wanted to research it first. I got home and couldn't find a bad review online so I started looking around online for a better price since I now knew what size fit and that it was in fact a comfortable fit, not one of the one size fits all helmets that never seem to feel right on my head. I pull up ebay and Viola! found one for almost $40 less than at EMS so using buy it now the helmet was here 2 days later, I haven't had a chance to ride with it yet but it is all adjusted and this weekend I shall give its first test ride.

I need to start gettin down like I know how to again, not because I want to and not because of anything other than I NEED to, I worked more than extremely hard to drop the weight that I have thus far and life is not what it was at 534 pounds. I have to try my best to stay in line and Yoda once said "Do or do not, there is no try", fortunately for me Yoda is just a puppet and I do not hold his words very close to my heart. Try is all anyone can do, we will all slip and fall from time to time and we are not a single one of us perfect and all as human as the next guy or gal, the way I see it is as long as we get back up and keep going we will not have failed.

stick that in your pipe and smoke it Yoda...

That's all I got for now, keep on keepin on and all that.

As Ever
Me