The new campfire thread...ooooh purrrrty!!!!!!

[Fenlason]

30 dollars a month.. you would pay for it in no time. .. and then we could ride together.

I rode this morning.. and didn't feel all that great.. or feel like tonight's ride wouldn't go so good… after lunch I went out with the SnowDog… I did some work.. and some packing. I still had a few problems with it going where it wanted to go, but I had a fair amount of places where it worked awesomely.

I then did another ride at 5:00 for our 6:00 ok race.. and I did feel fully there for that.. so I was going to just ride the race. There didn't seem like that many people in it.. I knew I didn't have it in me to crank with the "big boys" and wouldn't have anyone to ride with. Well some other riders showed up.. and while they had a faster ride than me.. I did re-catch some. Actually I caught one of the fast guys.. and we had a race.. a very painful race. I did end up beating him.. but someone else snuck in and beat me by 3 seconds.. I didn't even see him coming… I don't know if he was drafting Jeff.. and then blew by us.. or what?

I am pretty sure I didn't have it in me to do anything about it anyways. I ended up in a fetal position on the ground after anyways.

[toypusher]

Not feeling too great this morning. Trash day so that is out (has been since 6). Doing some laundry and it is almost done. Temps low to mid 30s this morning with rain - possible freezing rain. Looked bad a while ago, but looking like thinning clouds out there now. Anyway, it is supposed to pass by 10 or 11 and then warm to low 50s this afternoon. Mark wants to go to the range sometime around noonish so that will be fun if we go. Did not get anything done on my shooting bench yet, so hoping to do some more design with imput from Mark if he comes over.

[Fenlason]

We had snow all day yesterday.. not that it amounted to all that much.

Some sun and clouds today. We plan to do some riding today.. and some chores.. I am trying to de-clutter some. I had started some in the kitchen the other day.. but I decided I needed Laurie for that.

This is looking like an old time winter right now. Toward the end of March.. and we still have a lot of snow. Last year at this time we were doing a lot of work outside.. with bare or nearly bare ground. Right now.. we still have a lot of snow.. or big birdbath.. is just barely peaking out.

[Fenlason]

I didn't check the temps.. but the driveway and such is frozen up pretty good. We do have good sun though.. We were able to open up the upper sunroom fairly early to help heat the house.

We have a row of piled up ice and snow down the center of our upstairs deck. I just went out to start working on that. Peeling off the top, shoveling what's not too hard to more, and letting the sun getting to it.

We did ride yesterday… I had in my mind to do an FTP test to raise my fitness level on Bkool. I generally am riding stronger than my fitness ranking on Bkool alludes to. I was not recovered any where near enough.

We did clean out some clutter yesterday. Working in the kitchen. How many spatulas does one need? Rubber spatulas.. and other "stuff". We didn't go nuts [yet].. but got rid of a bit.

We went over to Dave and Angela's for dinner last night… and are going out to dinner with my Mother.. and brother and his wive tonight. [for our anniversary]

[toypusher]

42 degrees, been raining most of the night, but is now just drizzly and a bit foggy out there. Should clear off and hit 70 or better this afternoon they say.

I have some shopping and other errands to run today. Need to clean out my truck prior to putting it in the shop tomorrow. Might work on my shooting bench a bit too.

Actually not feeling very well today, but hoping that will improve as the day goes by.

[Fenlason]

I am still not feeling all that wonderful myself.

We had freezing rain last night.. it has warmed enough to switch over to our current rain. Of course that doesn't help how I feel…

I have been looking and doing some figuring on handle bars and such for the SnowDog. I would like to try a different location where the bars mount to the machine, thinking more forward [closer to the center of gravity.. front to back] but higher up.. so that the engine weight does not have as much leverage against me. That could dramatically change how things work.. it could be great.. or horrible.

I was hoping I could just as another temporary test.. u bolt some wider mountain bike handlebars… just having more leverage against it trying to tip, should make a bit of difference. I will have to make spacers or something.. for the new bars can't bolt on without the old bars being in the way. [The old bars are a welded together set up.]

I will do some riding today.. and work some more on my neck. Otherwise??

[Fenlason]

We are still cold and wet… rain.. snow.. freezing rain.

I did a warm up ride.. and found.. that I really wasn't ready for a harder ride. Last week was a tough week on the bike.. and I am not recovered. In my easy ride I wasn't tempted to chase anyone. There were some I could have dug a little and caught.. and I didn't really care.

I have been figuring and drawing.. and researching.. additions to the barn.. staging set ups… covered bridge designs. I did take a sauna. In the sauna.. my neck felt pretty good… of course it isn't so great again.

I will try a ride again today.. I will start with an easier ride.. see how that feels.. and see how I feel after.

[Fenlason]

I went out with the Snowdog again yesterday. More practice.. and more trail clean up. Once again at times it felt great.. at others it felt like a lot of work to operate it. Unfortunately my neck didn't like it. I am sure my neck issue makes it harder to operate.


We have more snow in our forecast. April snow is never out of the equation.. but this winter.. it just feels wrong.. At least one forecaster has said 10-16"



I have a dentist appointment this morning. I have been sort of dreading it.. It's mostly the gag reflex issue.. and just irrational childhood issues. Anyways.. I will be glad to have it over.

[toypusher]

Yesterday was a pretty nice day except it was windy. Sunny and hit low 60s. Today is starting sunny, but not going to be very warm - about 50 this afternoon. The clouds are coming in and it will thicken all day and the rain starts tonight and all day tomorrow. They say 1 to 2 inches of rain tomorrow.

Had to run to my wife's office this morning and do some other errands, so stopped at TSC and got some covering for my newly seeded areas and hope it will hold most of the seed tomorrow.

Have to go back about my knee brace I guess. It has made the outside of my knee sore and I can not wear it at all today. Waiting for a call back from the place I got the brace.

[Fenlason]

We had decent sun today.. I am pretty sure it was up above freezing… but not super warm. We are supposed to start tomorrow sunny… then clouding up for the incoming storm.

My Dentist appointment was fine… but it's good to have it over.

I went to the shop after and just hung out a bit.. taked with Paul a bit.

We had our final BKOOL race of our series. We had a great turn out.. and took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd… and took the overall for the series. I really wasn't sure how I would feel.. I am been feeling semi over trained. I didn't get to ride this morning. So my first warm up ride was a little before 5:00. I rode a short mountain bike course I have raced before.. and with no warm up.. and pushing it some.. but no where killing myself.. I set a PR…. so that was optimistic.

In our feature race.. I wasn't up with the big dogs… but I did ok. I beat some people I was hoping to. .. and beat my previous time by quite a few minutes.

[Fenlason]

As you know all to well.. I have been wrestling with whether to explore modifications to the Snowdog or not.
Well I had already cut out some parts for the first experiment. I just needed a little welding and some hardware.

I decided to move forward. I went to my friends Machineshop.. to get the welding done… I also talked to him about a new and different handlebar assembly.. I just wanted a rough idea on price. He used to not charge me.. and then was [which I was ok with] but I wasn't sure about putting hundreds of dollars into an experiment. Anyways .. he said he couldn't.. wouldn't charge me.

On the way home I stopped by my friend Jon's .. to see his new bike.. show him my Snowdog.. He was interesting in it of itself.. and I wanted to talk to him about alterations to the machine. [He is an engineer] He wasn't sure how much relocating the HB assembly would do. He did of course concur on the wider handlebars. He suggested a simpler way to get that done… Making inserts to make the bars wider , while being easy to remove and go back to the stock with.

He even gave me some materials to give it a test.

Once home I mounted up the new mounts. I looked at the width modifications.. but the stock bars are a cheaper steal.. that was thicker walled than he thought.

I did take the machine out for a cruise with the relocated assembly.. and I was pleasantly surprised.. how much difference it made. The steering is much more responsive… and it also seemed a little easier to keep the machine upright. Although there is still room for a lot of improvement there. I was pleased to have it tip to the left a few times. The engine weight is biased to the left a bit.. and my memory was telling me it tipped most if not all the times to the right. I have even contemplated adding weight to the left side to help balance it. Now ith it tipping to the right.. I at least know that won't solve my problem.. and that idea is on the back burner.

There isn't really any question that the wider bars won't help… so I will have Steve make me up something to slip in. I will also take off my temporary mounts.. and have him weld on new mounts that run all the way from the stock set up.. all the way through to where my temporary mounts are. That will give me a lot of variability. I did find my new location was much harder to turn on bare ground… but with these changes.. I will have an easily variable set up.. from stock to better.. and the machine isn't appreciably altered. [ It could go back to stock.. exepting the new mounts.. which aren't in the way.. or really harm it in any way.. so resale etc. shouldn't be affected.

[toypusher]

Glenn, maybe you "improvements" are something you could sell back to the company so they could offer them as options.

Rained all day here yesterday and most of last night. Not sure on totals, but as of 5pm we had gotten about 1.5 inches already. Had to go to post office early yesterday and mail a package. While waiting for them to open, I dropped a Gatorade in the lobby and it spilled all over. So, I got a towel out of my truck and cleaned most of it up and told them about it when they did open 5 minutes later. I am thinking if they did not mop the area, it got sticky.

NOt planning much today. Doing some laundry. If we get some sun and the grass dries, then I will mow it. Not really needing it, but is very splotchy right now and growing a bit.

[Fenlason]

So far we have lucked out on the snow amounts. We woke to less than in inch on the deck.. it then warmed up and that melted.. while it continued to snow. It did not long ago start accumulating again. It was supposed to stop this afternoon.. but didn't.. at least no appreciable amounts so far.. not that far to the south and west.. they have well over a foot.

The stock handlebar arangements on the Snowdog.. is maybe a good comprise for all people sizes and applications. It also folds up perfectly on the top of the machine.. following it's contours..without sticking out anyways. So I am not sure that they would be at all that interested. One done.. and figuring out that it works well I will in some how share the info..

We didn't do all that much today. I decided to try and look for my inversion table "boots' I think hanging upside down will help my neck some… but I can't find my boots. We did get some clean out of our entrance way closets done.

We did bring back returnables.. and did some bkool rides.

[lrrowe]

Glenn, you have special inversion boots for your machine? I have one and it bothers my feet so I do not use it much. If there is such a thing as inversion boots, what are they? Guess I will do some googling.

[Fenlason]

Glenn, you have special inversion boots for your machine? I have one and it bothers my feet so I do not use it much. If there is such a thing as inversion boots, what are they? Guess I will do some googling.

Hello Bob.. Yes my inversion table has seperate boots. It is an older one.. maybe the original brand. They aren't a full boot..although they call them boots. They wrap around the ankle with a hook on them that hook over a bar on the table.