Aquired a Raleigh RSW 16

So life got crazy and I have not written in this blog for a bit but here I am with an update, I want to start by saying that I have not ridden nearly as much as I wanted to this season but an attempting to get back into a groove and wanted to share something that I picked up over the summer.

My cousin works for people running their estate sales, garage sales etc and from time to time I get a text with a photo attached asking me about a bicycle and am I interested in it from these sales. The family and I were vositing Mystic Aquarium one day and a text came through with a very bad image of a small red Raleigh bike, to me it looked like a folding bike but my cousin insisted that it did not fold and wanted to know if I would like him to get it. I returned his text with what I would pay for it not knowing what it was or the exact condition as to my cousin every bike he finds "is in awesome condition" and went on with my day at the aquarium. He texted me back "Got it" a couple hours later, so now I needed to swing by to pick it up, fast forward a couple weeks and I pull up to his house and out rolls a Raleigh RSW 16.

I ride mountain bikes, I never ride anything but my mountain bikes but I have lots of bikes of all different sorts and I always tell myself that I will take the Schwinn Criss Cross out for a ride some day or I will go for a nice easy ride on that Motobecane that I am working on but I always take one of my mountain bikes and the others sit. When I saw the RSW I thought, this one is a keeper, it looks cool and like nothing that I have, a smart guy would clean it up and post it on craigslist but its hard for me to get rid of a lot of the bikes that I get, addiction maybe? or perhaps I just get attached after I do the work on them I am not sure.

This bicycle seems to be in great shape and everything works as is, the internal 3 speed hub shifts nicely with no noise or play, there is minor surface rust here and there and it has a nice chrome rack on the back. The wheels are true and even sport the original white tires! The tires are no good but are there and look cool, I attempted to put some air in the rear tire but as soon as I put the cap on the tire blew which scared the hell out of me because its not what I was expecting so it will need tires. Of course i will go over the whole bike cleaning, lubing and adjusting everything and I will probably just buy a cheap kids bike off of craigslist to scavenge the tires from for now and toss a better saddle on but I may hold onto this one for a while because I find it a cool little bike.

I wanted to mention that Motobecane that I have been working on because its just about completed and I do not think I will be keeping the bike which is unfortunate because I really think that its a good looking bike now that its almost done. I went with a dark red Fi'zi:k bar tape and will be adding a saddle with rivits along the edges to finish it off, I am also o the fence with adding a rack onto the rear as it has a sleep look and the rack may throw that off. The Moto is currently in the back of a large pile of bikes or else I would pull it out for a quick photo, trust me its looking pretty decent!

I will try and post more often again as I make progress on whatever I may be working on at any given time and I will try to get more ride photos to pop in with as well.

I thank you for taking the time to check out my little space on the web.

Until next time, Keep on pedaling!

Xcal on the trail and a new project.

I have been doing a lot more riding these days and a lot less posting but if you are reading along you know this, The weather has been incredible and what I would call perfect riding weather. The Adams trail a bike has been getting a ton of use with my daughter, I may just make a cyclist out of her yet! I have almost completed that Motobecane that I am working on and took it for a test ride, something unexpected happened while out on the ride in that I don't think that I am a road bike kind of guy. The bike felt uncomfortable to me and I am unsure why but I think that the bars are too narrow for my large frame and I just didn't feel comfy while riding down the street so I am not sure if I will keep the bike which is a shame after all of the work that I put into it.

Took a quick shot while we stopped for a break during Saturday's ride.

The Xcaliber next to my buddies Jamis Exile 1

I did get out this past Saturday with my riding buddy and we did just under 20 miles on the rail trail and I got a chance to take the Xcal out. The trail that I ride goes past the LBS that I use and the front brakes were feeling weak so we did make a pit stop and the mechanic had the brakes all fixed up and we were on our way pretty quick but I always like looking around at the bikes so I didn't mind stopping. I have to say that over all I am very happy with the Trek and my decision to go with this bike, it fits me great and is the smoothest bike that I own as far as function goes.

I mentioned that I was almost finished with the Motobecane and I like having something in the stand getting worked on so I decided that I would oblige my fathers interest in riding and put something together for him. My father has expressed interest in having a bicycle a few times to me "You should find me a bike" he keeps saying so as his birthday approaches I thought it would be nice to get something together for him, enter the Raleigh Rampar. I went into my Pile O bikes and found that I had a large framed Raleigh Rampar back there which was complete minus all of the cables had been cut by someone (before I took possession) so it was a good candidate for a clean up for pops. I am not going to chronicle the build but I will post a photo of the final product when it is done, the only things I needed to buy was a cable set, bar tape and I might need tires but may have a set of tires put away somewhere so this will be a decently cheap bike to get going.

Over all things are going good on the weight loss, I am down about 15 pounds in the last month and I think that the warmer weather with the added riding and walks that I have been doing are contributing a lot to those losses.

Keep on riding!

Motobecane progress, cables and wires done.

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!

Until then, keep on pedaling!

First ride on the new wheels.

Yesterday was such an awesome day and I couldn't let it go without getting outside for some exercise, early in the day I packed the tiniest kiddo into the stroller and went for a walk around the lake which was awesome! Later in the day I asked my daughter if she would like to try the Adams trail a bike that I picked up last year for the first time and though she was a tad hesitant she agreed so off we went.

A quick stop next to the lake so that my daughter could play on one of the beaches.

Getting out for a ride allowed me to take a spin on the new wheelset too and I must admit that I really liked the way the smoother street tires rolled and they were silent compared to the Kenda Klaws that I had on there last year. I do need to adjust the brakes to the new Avid Clean Sweeps though, I did have brakes but I really had to squeeze down to get the back brake to grab good so this afternoon I will be making adjustments because my daughter asked if we could go for another ride today and I want the bike to be set up correct before we start riding around on a regular basis. I have a new stem and set of bars for the K2 as well that I need to install but I may just wait until I decide on whether I will be doing a rigid fork or not before I make that change and once that is done there will be not much stock on this bike.

That ride ended a great day where I got out for a nice walk with my youngest daughter and a ride with my eldest daughter, the sun was starting to set while we were stopped and above you can see the view across the lake that we had.

I have a feeling this year will be a good one when looking at things from on top of my bicycles.

Until next time...

New shoes for the K2

So Here I am, I have been how do they say? distracted? and frankly very busy so I haven't had a chance to get a post up but since I am just sitting here watching television I figured I would pop up a post. Last time I posted I had the tires mounted on the new wheelset and was waiting on the rotors to arrive and they did! so I installed them with my new torx socket set and inch pound torque wrench and snapped a couple images for the blog.

Avid G2 Clean Sweep mounted on the front Rhyno lite wheel.

Avid G2 Clean Sweep & SRAM PG-850 mounted on the rear Rhyno lite wheel.

The whole wheelset ready to hit the road!

You can see the K2 sitting in the background on trainer duty but it will be the first to get out on a ride this year because I really want to mount the new wheels and take them for a spin. The weather has been decent and I am planning to get out for a quick ride before the weekend gets here, I have been itchin' to get out there but by the time I can its been dark and in the 20's and I just ain't itchin' that hard.

The Motobecane has got some lovin lately too, the Jagwire cable set came in and everything but the rear derailleur is cleaned up and ready to go, I will likely post a couple more photos of the components as they are done but a whole bike shot will have to wait until its complete. I am 90% sure that I will be going with red bar tape on the Moto but still am unsure about saddle color, my initial feeling is to do black but the idea of doing brown hoods and saddle is in my head also so I just don't know at this point.

As far as my eating goes I am on track but not really kicking ass, I am doing my part by staying within my caloric range but I could be eating a bit cleaner meaning more veggies and fruits. Stepping up the exercise has to happen and I have been riding the trainer maybe three times per week so its getting there, now to start pushing it and add some time to the rides and sooner than later I want to get out for some real rides.

Can't wait to get out on the new wheels!

Until next time...

The Rhyno Lite wheelset is almost completed.

The tire mounting saga is done, they now reside on the wheelset where they belong and I am hoping that they loosen up/stretch a bit while mounted so that if I ever get a flat I can actually remove them from the rims. I decided that taking them into the LBS would be my best bet mostly so that the cursing could be to a minimum and so that I didn't have to go through every tire lever in the state so this afternoon off I went.

I enter the bike shop and explain my situation and after I tell him what a PITA the tires are to mount, the guy says "so ya just want us to install some tubes for ya?" so I replied, "yeah we'll see" and smiled. The mechanic takes the wheels and tries to pop them on as I did, no dice, out come the levers and lots of repositioning the wheel but alas, nothing mounted. To get right to it, thirty minutes later the tires are mounted with tubes that are not popped, yep, I punctured both of the brandy new tubes that I had bought with the wheelset so I needed to buy 2 more from the LBS, such is life. Here is a look at the end product mounted on the wheelset, I still need to install the rotors but they have not arrived yet so for now they are brakeless.

PG-850 cassette installed and turning perfectly.

I am digging on the meat these tires have, they look pretty aggressive I think.

When I had first walked in I said to one of the fellas at the shop that I was a bit embarrassed to be bringing in a set of tires to be mounted as its something that I can usually do in 5 minutes. When the job was done, yes I am calling these damned tires a job! the mechanic said to me "Ain't no shame in having to bring THAT set of tires in" and I do pray that I never get a flat! its probably a good thing that these are just a spare set for the K2 but then again a flat can happen anywhere so I will have to be careful, I am just happy that everything is mounted and all I need it to wait on the new rotors.

K2 Zed with a Rhyno lite wheelset & WTB Graffiti SF tires.

Above is a shot of the bike with the wheels mounted on it, I am diggin the look of them on there and I am pretty sure that I will be going with a rigid fork to finish up this bike. I do want to mention that the wheelset seems heavy, this could be because I was handling the trainer wheelset with the slick on it at the same time but I don't think so and I will weigh the set at some point. You can also see the Hybrid style seat that I mounted for trainer use and I used an older seat post that I had so the WTB pure V that I ride with is still mounted and its just a flip of the quick release to swap seats out and pop the new wheels on and I can take it on the road. That K2 has come a long way since the day that I got it and some might say that I've put too much into it but I can't say it enough how well the bike fits me and now its almost exactly how I want it.

Now that I am just waiting on the rotors perhaps I can put a bit more time into the Motobecane and get that all done, I do believe that I have an addiction....

That's all I got.

P.I.T.A tire install! with pictures and a punch in the face!

The big brown truck pulled up and dropped off a box for me, I tore into it like a child on Christmas morning because I knew that my wheelset was suppose to be delivered and bamn! new hoops for the K2! I pulled everything out of the box to look it over and the wheels were pretty wide looking, this is a good thing! Wheels? check! tubes? check! rim tape? check! gear cables? check! headset spacers? uh huh! and into my bike bag I went for my tire levers.

Once I had the levers in hand I ran upstairs and grabbed the WTB Graffiti SF tires and was ready to go, or so I thought. Now normally I can change a tire in about 5 minutes and that's removing the tire, replacing the tube and pumped back up so I am thinking that I will have the wheels ready to go and be installing the cassette in about 15 minutes.... Wrong! I pried, and pushed but to no avail, this is the most stubborn set of tires that I have ever had the displeasure of trying to mount! so onto the net I went looking for solutions to my problem. I came across a thread on a forum saying to use a hair dryer to warm the bead up so I did... I came across another post that said to try baby powder so I did... I worked on the wheels for at least an hour and a half and by the end of that I had the front tire and tube mounted and the rear tire is on completely on one side and about 3/4 of the other. Here is a look at the wheelset as it came out of the box, they seem to spin freely and true and if I can get the tires on I hope to ride on them one day!

By the end of the ordeal my thumb was sore and I had straightened out 4 Park Tool tire levers, the levers did not break but the hooks on the end actually straightened out! worse than that? when the first one straightened out it popped off of the wheel and I punched myself in the face! yay! I did say that I got the front tire and tube mounted right? and that's awesome! well it would have been anyways if I hadn't pinched the tube while mounting the wheel, so when I pumped it up that "Hsssssssssss" sound that was deflating the tire was literally deflating my excitement over the new set of wheels. Here is where I left it, notice the baby powder all over everything including the throw rug... yeah that needed to be cleaned up before the wife got home! hey, I thought this was a 10 minute job when I started!

I haven't decided whether I am going to bring them into the LBS, buy a tube for the front have them install it and ask them if they can pop the bead onto the rear while I'm there, or if I will just but some steel cored levers and have at it myself because I am stubborn like that. I don't want to wait for Kool stop tire bead jack to come from amazon or ebay even though I am pretty sure its probably the best route to take, hey I'm a kid like that! a bit annoyed that the tires are not cooperating I did as I said put them down for the day and if the rotors were here I would be a little bit more annoyed but I suppose I can wait.

The difficulty in mounting these tires does have me thinking about perhaps getting something different to mount because if I flat out on a ride I will need a support vehicle to come and get me because if its this hard at home, imagine how it would go out on a ride.

To be determined I suppose..

and with that the end comes to another post.

A weigh in and some wheel talk.

Friday has come so it shall be that time to step upon the cold weight telling contraption made from glass plastic and Chinese circuitry again. This morning I did not know what to expect because I have stayed off of the scale for a few days, no reason other than the mornings have been hectic lately so it was business as usual and straight to the scale before my date with Joe. The last time that I weighed in for the blog the number was 364.0, then Evacgutpocolypse happened and I was up in weight which was odd because I had done nothing but evacuate my innards so I did not weigh in last Friday. This week I got back on task with the eating and even though I did zero exercise because of letting my back ease back into every day life the scale did show a loss, I came in at 362.6 which is of course a 1.4 pound loss and I am happy with that considering that I was hurt and sick in that time.

Now that we got the Friday weigh in part of this post taken care of lets talk bike for a moment! I mentioned the new wheelset for the K2 in a post yesterday and this morning I was checking the tracking number and thought that I would add up what I paid for the set, i think that its a great price for a good set of wheels.... but of course I don't even have the whole set in my hands yet so we will have to see just how good it turns out. I am into this wheelset for $159, I pieced it together instead of buying wheels that were ready to put on the bike and taking that time to do so saved me some green stuff I think, here is how the set looks as far as components go.

Sun Rhyno lite rims
Shimano Deore disc hub
SRAM PG-850 11-32 cassette
WTB Graffiti SF 2.2 tires
160MM Avid G2 Rotors
Velox rim tape
Two 26 x 2.2 - 2.5 presta valve tubes

Now I don't think that is an end all set of wheels but I do think for the price paid I got a great deal! and you know that once I get them all set up I will post some images. I have not worked on the Motobecane in a while because I get fixated on one thing at a time and since the K2 was getting some love in the way of the wheels I haven't thought about the Moto. This weekend I am going to try and get most of the polishing that still needs to be done on the Moto completed and then I will just need to get the cables done and buy some tires and tubes. I did decide on either a gunmetal or silver cable housing for the bike and as soon as I narrow that down I will put the order in but I am still undecided on the bar tape/saddle color combo, keeping it simple may be the direction that I go with black/black but like I said, I just don't know yet.

Over all things are good now that the stomach bug I had used and abused me and left without even dropping a $20 on the bedside table, as long as its gone it can keep the $20! I have an old Cannondale frame that i will be starting on when I am done with the Motobecane so look for posts on that in the future, its a 1990 Cannondale SM400 and its in my size so painting it up and getting it roadworthy again will be a fun project that leaves me with another bike to add to the lineup.

Thanks for reading along and until next we meet keep those pedals turning!

Parts is parts.... its just some of mine are.. well.. old!

So a severe stomach bug later and here I am, truth is that I have been very busy lately and between my bug and my daughter getting a double ear infection I just haven't had time to post, but enough about that because here I am! The Moto project has gotten no love lately because I have re-aimed my focus onto my K2 for whatever reason, perhaps its because I don't like seeing it with the slicks on it or maybe its just because I like to buy bike stuff.

I wanted to take a ride a few nights ago and the Trek was up stairs, the K2 was sitting in the living room raising its hand while hopping up and down saying "me me me!" but since its set up for the trainer right now it would not be chosen. I decided that I like having options past changing a set of tires out if I wanted to go for a ride so I ordered a set of wheels to have as my "I really want to ride the K2 today" wheelset. The wheelset that I decided on partially because of price and partially on some reviews was some Sun Rhyno lite rims on Shimano Deore hubs, an 11-32 SRAM PG-850 cassette and I will be mounting some WTB Graffiti SF 2.2 tires on the set, it should be a pretty solid set of wheels. I still need to pick up a set of rotors but I am debating that since the stock wheels will be strictly set up for trainer duty I may just steal the rotors off of them to mount on the new wheelset.

You can see in the image that I bought a bit more than just the wheelset stuff, I also have a Sunline XC-1 stem and a set of Bontrager big sweep 12* bars to mount on the K2, I liked the Bontrager bars on my Xcal so much that I figured I would get a set for the K2 as well. With these additions to the K2 there will literally only be a couple things on the bike that are stock (shifters, complete brake set and fork) and with THAT said, I want to install a rigid Surly Instigator fork on the bike as it will be on pulling my daughters in a trailer and Adams trail a bike duty in the warmer months but that will be for another post.

Ok a bit onto the health part of this blog now, I have been within my calorie range but the exercise has been lacking because while I was sick with the bug I also blew my back out so I am recovering from that too. When it comes to my back I don't play around, if it flares up its time to listen to it and relax for a while, old disk injuries are NO JOKE! and missing out on some trainer workouts or some calisthenics just isn't worth the pain. I am waiting patiently for the weather to get just a tad warmer so that I can start running on my 6 mile hilly workout loop on a regular basis, even though it is warmer than usual here in Southern New England I can't get out until after 6PM usually and by then its dark and getting colder so its trainer work for now.

Over all I am still on focus, the bikes are getting played with when I have some free time and I want to get that Motobecane done for some easy spring riding around the neighborhood, Thanks for reading and remember don't be afraid to drop me a comment!

That's all I got.

CycleOps Fluid 2 Video and some tire comparisons

A while back I mentioned that I was going to try and 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.

Nothing mindblowing, just an am post for those interested.

Keeping my calories within range is increasingly easier as the days tick by, I am back into a groove with the intake and now its time to get the exercise back up to par. Riding on my trainer has been sketchy at best as I have had a cold for about 2 weeks, actually its two colds with a 2 day break in between them and riding the trainer is not fun with a stuffed up head so I have been passing on it lately. We got about 5 inches of snow on Sunday and we did make it out for a walk with the kids which was nice and at least it was movement vs hanging out in the house for the day and I'll take that any day of the week!

My weight is doing something odd, what I mean is that I am up in weight from Friday which I can't understand, I mean I know there is fluctuation but there is no reason for it. I am eating perfectly, exercise is lacking but that has been the case since about Christmas with me riding the trainer only a handful of times and I had been dropping since then. I am not too worried about it as I have been here before while losing weight but that doesn't make it any less frustrating to see a plus on the scale in the morning, it is what it is I suppose. Friday will let me know how I did for the week as I don;t usually dwell on the number that I se eon the scale, I try and focus on the over all results because I do have a long way to go and letting fluctuations bother me would prove a losing battle and ultimately hurt the forward momentum.

On bike related news, The hardware for the Pletscher rack that I am going to put on that Motobecane that I am working on came in the mail yesterday so I will do a test fit later tonight with the rack. I did get down stairs for about 30 minutes worth of polishing on the crankset on that bike but its far from done so I didn't take any pictures of what I did for now. I did add some tabe at the top of the page with photos and images of my bicycles, please feel free to take a look and find out more about them if you're interested.

Over all everything is on track and moving right along and I can't ask for more than that, the weather will be warm soon and back out on that trail I will go...... can't wait.

That's all I got for today kids.

New bars and some polishing on the Moto.

This weekend I made some progress on that Motobecane bike, I rode the trainer and kept my calories where they needed to be so overall it was a good solid weekend of doing the right thing. Saturday I went down stairs into the dungeon... I mean basement where my park tool stand resides currently hanging onto the Nomade. I was suppose to go down to relax for a bit and get a couple things done on the bike, as it turns out I spent hours down there, missed a meal and disassembled the whole front end of the bike. everything that was chrome was polished with aluminum foil and rubbing compound, the paint was polished with an old sock and the polish and the bike again has chrome lower forks.

When I pulled the chrome drop bars off of the bike I polished them but did not like the way they came out so I looked to the frames hanging on the other side of the basement and I found an aluminum set that looked good. I pulled them off of the old Schwinn and noticed they were stamped with e GB logo and said "British Made" the bars are a little more flared and a tad wider than the chrome bars that were on there and they polished out nicely. I removed the safety levers from the brake levers and now the pivot bolt sticks out, I will cut it flush the next time I get a chance to spend some time on the bike and since I plan on putting hoods on the levers I think it should look good when completed.

Sunday I did not spend too much time on the bike but I did pull the crankset and kick stand off, I will polish these up and just from wiping them of they looked a lot better so when they get a bit of elbow grease applied I have a feeling that they will look great. In the spirit of doing this bicycle as budget friendly as possible I am going to stick with the stem shifters for now but I really like the clean look the bike has with them removed and am looking for a set of Bar end shifters if I can get them on the cheap and I still am unsure about the color combo that I will use on the bars and saddle.

Any suggestions or opinions on tape and saddle options is welcome, The bike is silver with low key red lettering on it and originally came with a black saddle with red bar tape and cable housing, here are some of the ideas that I have as I type. I am doing grey or silver housing for sure and then the tape/saddle combos that I am thinking about are as follows.

1.) Red tape, black hoods and a black saddle.
2.) Black tape, brown hoods and a brown saddle (when I say brown I mean honey/brown/amber)
3.) Black tape, black hoods, black saddle.
4.) Shellacked tape, brown hoods, brown saddle.

Option number 4 will be the most expensive option but I am thinking that it would give the bike a classic look, especially since I am mounting a Pletscher rear rack and with hope some hammered fenders but I keep coming back to the fact that I wanted to do this as cheap as possible. I like the idea of the red bars because its how the bike came stock and then I like the all black too because I think it will give it a slightly more modern look, I really can't decide.

Now onto my weight loss regimen for a paragraph, I am doing wonderfully on that front, I am eating mostly whole foods well within my calorie allotment, riding the trainer as often as I can and am feeling good about everything that I am doing for my health. We are looking at a possible 50 degree day here tomorrow so even though its suppose to be wet out I think that I may pull the Trek out for a quick ride around the lake but that will be something that is played by ear as it would have to be a night ride because of the schedule with the new kiddo and wify's work day, we shall see.

We're on track for another loss this week as long as I do my part and this old Moto may be completed earlier than expected, all in all its been a good week.

That's all I got for today, I hope someone is reading along and if its you, thanks!

It's weigh in day.

I have decided that instead of a long post for today I will just post my weight this morning along with a short synopsis of how yesterday went. I did get a ride on the trainer into the day, 20 minutes seems to be easy which is no real surprise but I am finding that my junk is still falling asleep in that time, this confuses me because I have ridden for far longer than that without issue, I do need to mount that comfort seat that I have laying around to see if there is a difference. My calories were exactly where I wanted them to be for the day and I made an antipasto for dinner and my weight is in fact down from last Friday. The scale whispered to me that I had reached 364.0 pounds, that is a 2.4 pound loss for the week and is fine by me! I am planning on doing some work on the Motobecane over the weekend so there may be some pictures to look at come Monday possibly even by Sunday.

That's it for today, a 2.4 pound loss on the week is fine by me and now to keep that ball rolling.

Thanks for reading.

Polishing, pedaling and a pre weigh in update.

Twenty minutes on the trainer later I decided that since I got a workout in that I would muss about with the Motobecane that I mentioned in This post, I pulled the front and rear brakes off and decided that I would clean and polish them up a bit. I did not use a wire brush or anything, just some automotive rubbing compound and an old sock, I am not going for show room shine as I plan on riding this bike but just clean and somewhat shiny and I think I accomplished that. My camera takes too good of photos and the brakes look way nicer than the image shows even though they look good in the image! The plan is to each night after dinner do something small on the bike in the hopes that one day I go down to pull something off and find a completely freshened up bicycle.

I did not take a photo before I cleaned the brakes so this is all I have to compare.

A shot of the front brakes after cleaning.

Onto the Fat guy part of this blog, I have been keeping my calories at no more than 2200 calories since re-starting down this road to better health and honestly I am finding that many days I don't even reach that 2200 mark. The lowest day that I have had so far is about 1800 and I have not gone over 2200, this calorie range seems to be working for me as the weight is coming down nicely right now at what I consider a great pace. My intake is pretty much at about 90% whole foods, I do eat Turkey pepperoni along with a couple of other things that I just don't want to give up and I have been trying to eat a big salad for dinner at least four times per week. Giving up my morning cup of Joe has proven more difficult this time around, when I started down this road back on 07 I was completely off of the good stuff but it's just something that I really enjoy! not to mention in the warmer months I like to have a half of a cup before a long ride, either way I would like to have it less.

Onto the trainer, when I first began riding the trainer I felt it in my knees a bit, now I am unsure if that was because I had not ridden in some time or if the weight that I put on was affecting me more than I wanted to admit. Now that I have been semi regularly riding again via the trainer my knees have not bothered me at all for about a week which is always a great thing! Getting my legs back is important to me because once the weather warms up I want to get back out on the bike again because I am really missing my long rides on the rail trail, having to ease back into it because of knee pain or extra weight would take the fun out if it for sure.

Over all things are on track and I honestly believe that I will reach my goal of hitting 305 pounds or below by May 25th is within reason, as long as I do my part, so that's what I'm going to do.

That's it for today kids.

A new look and a mid week update

There's a new look in town, I had some free time so I basically scrapped the entire template that I had been using to this point in favor for what you are seeing right now. The new look is cleaner I think and better represents me so this is how it shall stay.

I am finally beating this cold that has been with me for the better part of two weeks and last night I hopped in the trainer, I only did 20 minutes and felt awesome! The only reason I cut it at 20 minutes is well the trainer is not exactly like riding the bike out on the trail and what makes me say that is my junk. Yeah I went there, after a mere 20 minutes on the trainer I noticed that my junk was how do I say? falling asleep? yeah that's about right. I understand that the trainer is not going to mimic a real ride but the bike is set up for me, saddle height adjusted properly, handlebars where they should be and I have ridden this bike 25 miles before without issue so you would think that 20 minutes on the trainer would be easy peasy. Unfortunately I will have to figure this issue out because causing my boys and their friend that they hang out with any discomfort is not really an option for me, perhaps I could mount a comfort seat that I have laying around on there for trainer use.

My weight is coming down almost daily, if I can hold my ground I believe that Friday will bring me a decent loss again which is awesome news. Ramping up the time in the trainer will be a good push in that department as well and though the trainer is doing what it's designed to do for me I am really missing the rail trails with everything they have to offer. I really should just pull the Trek out and toss my lights on it so that I can do a quick after dinner ride one of these days because having my daughter all day does not really afford me a day light opportunity to get out there during the week.

My life has been so different since I dropped the weight that I have already lost and I am looking at this whole love of cycling as the beginning of a new chapter in that story. Reaching my weight loss goals will go along with getting there with my bicycling goals, they are hand in hand and I believe that by the end of this year I will reach my goal weight and my cycling will be a large part of the success.

That's all I got for today kids, but won't you follow along while I carve a new body out of the larger version that I now carry around using my bikes as the tool?

A new old project, 1976 Motobecane Nomade Sprint

Since this is a cycling related blog along with a fat guy losing weight blog I thought it appropriate that I post up a sort of project that I bought about a year ago and never started. This is a 1976 Motobecane Nomade Sprint and it is in what appears to be 100% stock condition besides the seat, did I mention that its very close to my size? I picked it up one afternoon while dropping some items no longer needed at the Salvation army when I saw it collecting dust in the back room hidden behind some children's bicycles. The price paid was a mere $13 and that's rounded up, it was $12 and changeand the photos below is exactly how I got it, everything is there and it pedals, shifts and brakes as it should but the bike needs a lot of work before I would call it reliable.

I decided that I would work on it this winter to see if I can get it on the road for the spring, the old Namade will need at least cables, bar tape, tires, tubes a new seat and lots of elbow grease to get this old bicycle where I envision it. I put it in my bike stand this afternoon and am planning on starting the take down and scrubbing of the components in my spare time, like I have much of that! I am on the fence with a couple things like what color cable housings and bar tape to use, if anyone is reading along would care to either comment or send me an email with suggestions it would help. My options are to either stick with the stock red and call it a day or I am thinking that black housings, tape and hoods would look good on a silver bike but as I stated, I am on the fence.

Another project that I have is an early 80's (1982 -1983) Zullo Criterium pictured above, this frame is very much too small for me which is a shame as it is a pretty cool little bike. My initial idea was to get it in ridable condition and flip on Craigslist but the more that I think about it making it into a nice little gift for my wife sounds like a better idea to me, she does not ride right now but I hope that one day she will head on out with me and if she has a nice bike to head out on perhaps she will be more likely to give it a go.

My weight loss is on track and the weight is still coming down, I am lighter than I was on Friday which is always a good thing! The plan for this evening is a spin on the trainer, a big salad for dinner and maybe I will head on down to that Motobecane to start taking stuff off to polish it, then I will need to start tracking down some tape and cables for it so that sooner than later I can have it ready to go. if you are reading along I hope that you are enjoying the blog so far, it helps me to write things down that have to do with the weight loss and I always enjoy sharing my bicycle obsession.... um I mean hobby.

That's it for today kids.

A Friday weigh in update for mister Clyde.

So its Friday and that means that I will record my weight on here again, Last Friday I weighed 372.6 pounds and this morning the scale had nice things to say to me when it whispered 366.4 and that is a 6.2 pound drop since last Friday. Adjusting my food so that I am not eating too many carbs later in the day seems to be making a difference on the scale and I am not finding myself hungry at all at any point in the day and that's always a good thing.

The trainer is going well, The first week my hindquarter was not really loving the experience but since its toughening back up the riding is a breeze. I rode for 16 minutes last night which I know is not an awesome workout but something that I have learned in the past couple of years is that when I start off hitting it hard I usually end up hurting myself. Last nights ride went easy peasy, I had a bit of sweat on my brow, heart rate was elevated, arse was feeling ok and my legs had a lot more in them. I am not one to really worry about such things but since I haven't picked up a wireless bike computer to mount on the back wheel yet I had my wife time a minute so that I could see what my cadence was and I am pedaling at about 84 RPM which is decent I think. If anyone can recommend a decent cheap wireless computer that is capable of using a cadence sensor I would appreciate it, I already have Sigma that is mounted to the front wheel but its not wireless and it gets used when I ride the bike outside.

I got a visit from the big brown truck yesterday as well, The fellow dropped off some cycling stuff that I ordered recently and I always like getting bike stuff! I ordered 2 front fenders (one for my Trek and one for a friend), a pair of Planet bike Trippy grips for a project bike that I have, a pair of Castelli knee warmers and a pair of WTB Graffiti SF 2.2 tires (which are not in the photo) to mount on an extra set of wheels for my trainer bike. I was skeptical on whether the knee warmers would fit me good since I am a larger fella but I tried them on and think they will do just fine, the reason for the warmers is that in colder weather I find that my knees hurt a bit after a ride and I have a strong suspicion that its because I ride in shorts no matter the weather and they are not having time to warm up properly, we shall see if this fixes that issue.

A successful week for my health a more than six pound drop in a week as awesome in my book, I should be ramping the length of time on the trainer this week so we will see what next Friday brings.

If you are reading along I thank you.

Just an update, some time on the trainer as well.

Phlegm be damned! I decided that I was taking a ride on the trainer last night, curiosity was getting the better of me and I wanted to see just how much more quiet the slick was going to be not to mention that I just really wanted to get a short ride in. I only ride for 16 minutes, artially because my arse has how do I say? softened up a lot! since not riding regularly for more than 2 months and because I want to ease into longer rides to save my knees which started hurting near the end of the year on rides. The slick was quiet enough that my wife was in the room holding the baby and she fell asleep as I pedaled so that is a plus I think, I wouldn't call it silent by any stretch of the word but it was pretty quiet, especially compared to the other tire that I had on there previously.

My intake is holding strong and the 2200 calories that I am allowing myself seems to be more than I need as I have been lately having an excess at the end of the night so I have been a tad low the last couple of days where my calories go. To make up for some of the difference I have been having a yogurt about an hour before bed and this seems to help as I wake up and do not eat breakfast immediately but I am rarely hungry when I wake up anyways but I do normally have a cup of coffee, the last vice that I am slowly weening myself off of again. Eating carbs late is again off of the menu, I cut them out of my dinner for the most part but its not something that is written in stone, just some guidelines and as long as I am mostly following that, its what worked in the past.

So all in all things are back where they need to be and in two days time I will weigh in for the blog again, the weight is coming down so I am just hoping that I can keep this pace... in fact I hope that I can increase the pace in the way of more time on the trainer.

This is the plan, I shall execute as well as I can, so until next time, keep on pedaling!

Random, food, trainer and some more of the same.

Kicking this chest thing and feeling like I may give the trainer a whirl tonight, I haven't been able to give the new slick a proper go yet and am looking forward to seeing just how much more quiet it is. Yesterday I had a bit of a snafu with dinner ad my kids had an appointment with the dentist and I forgot to eat... The plan was that I pick my daughter up from school drop her and my son off with Wify at the dentist and I was going to go looking around a local sporting goods store but its not how it worked out at all.

Breakfast was fine, I then ate at 11:30 am again and was leaving the house around 2:30m and figured that I would grab a banana on the way out the door to hold me over until later, welp I forgot the banana. The dentist was just a cleaning and "should only take 30 minutes" so I was convinced to hang out and wait, 30 minutes was an hour and a half which left me at 4:30pm-ish having not eaten a bite since 11:30am. My mood was less than pleasant and with a truck full of rowdy kids it wasn't getting better, we decided to grab dinner out since the appointment took so much longer than it should have and we ended up at Applebees where I finally got some calories put into me at around 5:45pm, now we're more than 6 hours between a meal, not good.

Eating too late is never a good thing in my opinion, but I ended up snacking once I got home to get closer to my calorie limit for the day because going too low usually ends with the next day being hard. My calories were a bit low for yesterday but that's fine I just don't like the big gap between meals and its kind of throwing me off today in the way of me feeling hungry all morning. I am hoping that by taking a ride on the trainer I will throw this feeling off as a workout tends to have that kind of effect on me, I am feeling pretty confident that if I take the ride easy I can get in something resembling a workout.

Something else that I wanted to mention is how the seat on my bike feels harder when its on the trainer, now this could be in my head or even just because I am not riding regular like so my arse needs to toughen up but I have a feeling that it has something to do with the fact that there is no give with the trainer. Kind of a random post but I wanted to try and get one up so there it is, hopefully I can get onto the trainer regularly very soon and can try and get that compare video up between the two tires and the sound levels of each, also I noticed that I have 3 followers now! I think that's awesome to know that at least 3 people have taken a look at the blog!

Until next time.

Easy like Monday morning...

Woke up this morning feeling a bit better than I have for the last 3 or so days so that's a good thing, I am still not feeling good enough to get on the trainer as this cold or whatever it is resides majorly in my chest, sucks. Because I am not feeling well does not give me free reign on the food though, I have been as strict as ever with my calories and am still tweaking the intake so that there are more veggies and whole foods than anything processed so in that regard I am still on the yellow brick road.

The bike with new slick installed is currently mocking me from the side of the room, I think it knows that this break from action is temporary and is happy that there is not a 370 pound guy working it over for the time being, this will soon change. lately I am also finding that I want to go for a real ride, if I wasn't feeling down I might have pulled the Trek out for a short ride this weekend but again, I don't want to push this whatever it is that has me coughing like a sea lion so for now its no riding indoors or out.

The plan for the week is to keep adding more whole foods back into my diet, drink much green tea and ride the trainer as soon as the seal gets out of my chest, I believe that come Friday I will have dropped some weight. I do weigh myself daily and I keep a log of it just so that I can see the trending with the fluctuations etc when compared to my food log but for the sake of the blog Fridays will be the day that I record what I weigh. There you have it, that's my big plan to get my ass back into a more fit state of being, will it work? I believe so but I will indeed have to do my part, the trainer will be a critical part of that equation and I believe that come warmer weather I will be conditioned better so that I can get right back into my regular riding again without having to "train" myself back into the same distances that I was riding before it got cold.

I noticed that I have a follower on the blog! hopefully this brave soul will be the beginning of an army of cyclists & people looking to drop a few pounds who can support one another down this road to better health.

Thanks for reading along and keep on pedaling!

Rebirth of slick, its cool like dat.

Wow! nine days since I posted but here I am with an update post, Things have been going as planned besides me getting sick and the weight is still coming down. Friday I weighed 372.6 pounds and that is a loss of exactly 2 pounds and that works for me! My eating is getting cleaner with me adding more whole foods back into my diet while taking as much processed junk out again, yes again, I was once on a path of purely whole foods and its how I lost most of the weight that I have in the past four years.

The Bontrager SR1 slick mounted on the bike.

The fluid trainer is working out great for me but the tire that my wife bought for me when she picked up the trainer was not a slick so it was not very quiet and since I plan on riding while the baby naps this presented a problem. I ordered a 26 inch slick from the LBS last week and it came in Friday, off I went to pick it up and onto the bike went the new tire a Bontrager SR1 and I have to admit the initial test ride was MUCH more quiet than the Michelin Country rock that it replaced. Thinking ahead like any good blogger I took a short video of a ride with the Michelin mounted on the bike so that I could compare the sound comparison between the two so as soon as I get a chance I will record the SR1's sound level and post both videos.

Keeping my calories within the limits that I have set for myself seems to be doing the trick for now, of course they can be adjusted along the way as I have a feeling that when the warmer weather comes back and I begin to do longer rides on the trails again the calories needed may go up. I am looking forward to this coming week even though I have to kick whatever this is in my chest I am hoping for a good week in the weight loss department.

If anyone out there is reading this, I thank you.