2012-02-06T06:31:39Z Charles Copyright 2012, Charles SPHPBLOG
I'm bringing a camera and whatnot, so I'll have a journal and pictures to post. So that's something to look forward too... I won't be updating it online along the way or anything, this is only gonna be 2 weeks or so, nothing huge. 1000km round trip or so... good times.

The map to my tour is just below in the "related link" thing. Might have to detour to paved roads if some of these country roads are too bad... and I cut out most of highway 17 as well. ]]> http://www.horslin.com/index.php?entry=entry110822-094601 2011-08-22T00:00:00Z 2011-08-22T00:00:00Z
My first project that is almost done is an early 1980s Bianchi Randonneur. This is a beautiful bicycle that has seen a lot of miles already, the paint shows the patina of full use. I stripped the frame down and waxed it before cleaning and re-assembling everything else. I have a nicer front rack and a matching silver one for the back, both Jim Blackburns that are similar to what was originally on the bike. I also invested in a brand new wheelset for the bike, since the original wheels were mismatched and likely not original. Just a basic CR-18 but they are far better than what was on there. Stainless spokes, of course. I just need to get the fenders on, fix the brakes and re-wrap the bars. I thought about doing yellow bar tape but I already put yellow housing on the bike and some yellow shifter cable (who knew they even made that stuff!) so I don't want to get too hipster on the poor thing.

I really do need to get another digital camera so I can take pictures again, I do think shiny pictures are the most compelling part of this (and most) blogs so yeah. Updates less than a month apart are also great eh.

I'm planning an 8-day tour up to Elliot Lake via the Bruce Peninsula, so I need to get a camera for that I guess. Well, a digital camera.. I have an SLR but it's big and bulky.]]> http://www.horslin.com/index.php?entry=entry110717-191325 2011-07-18T00:00:00Z 2011-07-18T00:00:00Z
Anyone that claims to "need" special clothes for a long ride is simply full of shit. I've ridden 40km in carhatt work pants (much heavier than any summer suit). I've ridden in wool dress slacks quite often, they are great from October-March for any cycling endeavour. I have a pair of shorts with chamois and they are indeed much more comfortable but it's not a lot of discomfort to ride long distances in normal clothes... just drop the pace a few km/h and you'll be fine.

The most beautiful thing about cycling is how accessible it is... normal people everywhere can just hop on a bike and not worry about too much beside tucking in their pant leg if they don't have a chainguard... many of us learned this as children. People love to complicate things but the bicycle has endured nonsense like this for over a hundred years and will continue to survive as the best mode of urban transport there is.

Now, on to Pizza. I had Pepi's pizza the other night and it's some of the best in town... it is a bit sweet though but otherwise delicious. I've been toying around with Chicago-style deep dish pizza and have been getting close to something like I remember... flaky, crispy crusts, mounds of toppings under the sauce. I've made a nice vegan version of this with daya but it does have a bit of a funny taste to it, so unless I'm actually serving vegans, real cheese tempts me too much.

There has also been a growing call for me to have another "vegtoberfest" so I will likely be doing that this summer as well, and this time I will make sure to document the recipes and process that I use. It's pretty easy and anyone that's made meat schnitzel will likely only need some direction when it comes to making the vegan "egg" wash and some familiarity with seitan is helpful.

Two days in a row -- this is a new record for this blog!]]> http://www.horslin.com/index.php?entry=entry110622-072013 2011-06-22T00:00:00Z 2011-06-22T00:00:00Z
This region is a good size... I can be out in the countryside in a half-hour ride or less. This is great for roadies that like training and for day-trip tourists that want to ride as well. There are a few bike route signs out and about but there isn't any real cohesive map that combines all the trails and bike lanes into something that a normal person could look at and understand... maybe something like a london underground styled map would make sense?

I have some ideas for a route network that uses both trails and on-road infrastructure, minimizing time on busy roads, of course. Many cyclists, especially those that call themselves "vehicular" cyclists love to poo-poo mixed trails and complain loudly of people and their dogs, but I can't ignore the practical value of the trails in our community... they often follow the flattest, quickest ways to major destinations and are mostly free of threats from cars, the most dangerous thing to safe cycling.

Imagine if a region-wide signed bike route network was a reality. Signs like this one would show up every few hundred metres so folks could follow the signs. At trail heads and splits there would be a map and destination list posted. The nice thing about this idea is that it uses a lot of existing infrastructure and doesn't need to acquire land or build new paths (mostly) so over time the busiest section of the system would get upgrades and thus encourage more ridership and increase property values along the trail.

The other thing that makes this Region great for cycling is the beautiful countryside and nice rolling terrain. It's relatively easy riding out in the country. Drivers are a bit more used to sharing the road here as well due to the large number of horse and buggy users too. I've never had any problems in all the time I've spent riding in the countryside.

The snow isn't usually too terrible here, so winter riding can be enjoyable here. I've enjoyed the maintainance on the iron horse trail particularly, but I have found even riding on the busy streets in the winter no worse than the summer, in fact, I seem to get more courtesy in the winter than the summer as well. Having a dedicated bike route network makes winter maintainance much easier as well; give the bike routes priority in snow clearing and we'll see more people walking and biking on them.

The easier we make it for folks to start riding where they feel safe and on trails that can take them places, the more we will see people using the bicycles instead of driving on short trips. I see a lot of year-round cyclists in and around downtown Kitchener... many of these folks aren't really stereotypical "bike dorks" either, they are mostly normal people on old mountain bikes that need to get somewhere. These folks don't need "segregated bike lanes" or "bike boxes" or any of that other crap, they've been making it work with what we have. Surely the bike-chic crowd can see the appeal of a normal person wearing their everyday normal clothes just getting on their bike to go someplace. With a good, safe bike route network folks will be safe in numbers and safe from heavy traffic.

Let's stop painting bike lanes on the busy major roads and spend some money signing and developing the complimentary trail system that is underused in this region. In the last few years two cyclists have been killed in this region by automobile collisions. One other cyclist was killed when he had an encounter with the tracks at the worst rail-bike crossing ever designed. I think this really shows what we need to keep people on bikes and safe: good infrastructure that doesn't pit a person on a 15kg bike against multi-tonne vehicles. ]]> http://www.horslin.com/index.php?entry=entry110620-095951 2011-06-20T00:00:00Z 2011-06-20T00:00:00Z

Chocolate Muffin Ingredients:
Half a package of silken tofu (226g IIRC)
1/4 cup of oil
1/2-1 cup water/soy milk
2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup cocoa
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 - 1/2 tsp salt (to taste, obviously)
1/4 - 1/2 sugar/sweetener of choice
opt. chocolate chips

Peanut Butter Filling
1/2 cup Natural PB
1/2 cup icing suguar (icing sugar gives the reese's consistency)
1/4-1/2 tsp. salt (this also helps the reese illusion)

Method:
Make an emulsion using an immersion blender of the tofu, oil and water. Blend on high speed until everything is a thick smooth consistency. Mix the flour and other dry ingredients and then swiftly combine with the tofu emulsion.

To make the peanut butter filling, mix the ingredients until a uniform consistency is mixed. Roll it into long strips and slice it up into little bits and mix into the muffin batter. You could also make this ahead of time and freeze. In fact, I would recommend that approach. I will try this and update.

Bake @ 350F for 15-20 minutes, yields 12 plump muffins

]]> http://www.horslin.com/index.php?entry=entry110509-132351 2011-05-09T00:00:00Z 2011-05-09T00:00:00Z
1 block tofu (~500g)
1 tbsp butter/margarine/oil
3-5 tbsp Frank's hot sauce (or other vinegary style hot sauce)

Oven-roasting is nicer than frying and you can cut out lots of fat if you want. I've also found the tofu much chewier on the inside and crunchy on the outside when baked like this.

Slice a block of extra-firm tofu into 1cm (approx) slices and then slice each rectangle into a triangle. Arrange these on a lightly oiled baking sheet and bake at 200C/405F or thereabouts for 15-20 minutes.

While the tofu is baking, combine a tablespoon (or more, depending on taste) to a few tablespoons of Frank's red hot sauce. You can use butter if you're just serving vegetarians, or use vegan margarine. A bit of sunflower oil would also work if you're not into margarine. Or just franks, too.

The wings will get crispy on the bottom, so if you want that on both sides, you can turn the wings around 15 minutes and they will get crispy on the tops too.

This method of baking tofu also works really well for fajitas. One day when I get around to trying it I'll make some tofu jerky.]]> http://www.horslin.com/index.php?entry=entry110314-142757 2011-03-14T00:00:00Z 2011-03-14T00:00:00Z
260g silken tofu (half of a 520g pack)
1-2 cups almond or soy milk
0.25 cups oil
1.5 cups whole wheat flour (I used hard flour)
1 cup large flake oats
2 tsp baking powder
0.25 tsp baking soda
0.5 tsp salt
2 tablespoons sugar or maple syrup, add more if you want sweet muffins!
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1-2 apples, chopped into chunks

Combine all the liquid ingredients in a tall flask and blend with the immersion blender (or use a regular blender) until completely smooth... the use of silken tofu is essential to get the right texture.

Combine all the dry ingredients and mix. Pour in the thick tofu emulsion and mix thoroughly with the apples. You can also add raisins or nuts as well or instead. Any amount of nuts, seeds, and fruit would be delicious in these.

Fill up greased muffin tins 2/3 to top and bake for 15 minutes in a 215C/425F oven. ]]> http://www.horslin.com/index.php?entry=entry110306-140556 2011-03-06T00:00:00Z 2011-03-06T00:00:00Z closer-to-stock model than what I received at the shop... a man donated a bike that had frozen with water in the chainstay and it burst open. He didn't want to strip the components so he gave it to us. Someone else took the drivetrain and they had decided the frame was scrap, so I bought the fork and wheelset, bars, etc. I elected to patch the chainstay with a carbon-fibre overlay. This has held up to hauling my 250lbs of flesh and crap around for many klicks.

So, I've added many things to the bike since, and it now boasts drop bars, bar-ends, a deore RD, 8800 FD, a truvativ elita crank and BB, and a 12-32 (I think, might be 11-32) 9 speed cassette. The chain is just a basic SRAM model. I have an old blackburn rack on there, I think, or some other aluminum rack. It seems to have held up well enough but I plan to braze a few up out of stainless tubing. The bike has been blacked out as well, mostly. I haven't gone to the trouble of doing the bolts or anything like that.

Future plans for this bike include a carbon fork and disc brakes up front. I don't know if I will put a dynamo in it or not, I have another wheelset to build that includes a dynamo so I will try it on that bike before I commit to any more upgrades of this current bike... but the wheels are getting on in age, so this will occur in 2011! I want to start doing more long-distance rides soon, a 200km before April 1, and maybe a 300km before the year's end. Randonneuring is the fancy term for long-distance cycling in a non-competitive time limited fashion. It's nifty and esoteric and a lot of work, so who knows how this well go. I'm dropping the excess fat I gained being unemployed and lazy in 2010... so cheers to that.

Speaking of wheels, I have everything for building up my 5 speed wheelset and will be doing that this week. Hopefully it all goes well and I can get up and running with that crap... I have some cheap lights as well so I am hoping to have a very productive weekend. I might actually get onto brazing up a rack soon... perhaps next payday I will buy a tube bender and some stainless. I will borrow a camera for that, for sure. ]]> http://www.horslin.com/index.php?entry=entry110126-214216 2011-01-27T00:00:00Z 2011-01-27T00:00:00Z
90s bianchi campione del mundo
80s bianchi randonneur
70s motobecane that i butchered into a fixie
70s raleigh single speed w/ coaster brake
06 specialized sirrus

Of all those, I know for sure the Sirrus will stay... it's my 3 season commuter and touring bike (for now, an expedition rig is in my dreams)

I also have the following bikes in some form nearing completion:
70s peugeot mixte (was for me mum, but I think it's too large)
10 IRO phoenix IGH frame, but i might sell it
and a nice light easton MTB frame. It might be a chromed-out city bike/porteur one day... me and my diabolical schemes.

But anyway, it's certainly a modest collection and mostly made up of entry-level bikes, but I still like them all and desire nice things to happen to them. Ideally my next bout of unemployment will consist of me fixing them, but we'll see. I'd like to sell the Bianchis in the spring, and likely the IRO will sell then too.

I may turn the mixte frame into my winter commuter/all-rounder bike... it is in great shape though, so it'll first have to get a thorough waxing. I also just ordered a threadless BB for the motobecane, but I may just put that into the peugeot mixte and run that all winter since it has the horizontal dropouts and massive room for wide tires and fenders, as well as a long wheelbase for stability in winter and when loaded up with goodies. I want to fabricate my own chainguard and rack(s) for it... out of stainless steel of course. I will be brazing everything, since I don't have anything but a torch at my disposal. It will be fun.

I think I have been holding off on a lot of stuff because I lack a camera, and really, who the fuck wants to read about all this crap that never happens. Once I get my camera, either of the recent panasonic rugged cameras, I will hopefully get started on some of these projects... I will be acquiring a bit of shop space for my own personal use as well, so that will hopefully spur me on towards completing some of these things. That's why I haven't put up any vegetoberfest recipes yet.

I have learned how to build wheels too, so I will be building a few wheelsets in the next few months, for the motobecane I will build up an old normandy high-flange hubset to some rims I plan to polish to a shine. I will also be building a coaster-brake 700c wheel for a buddy, and after that I will finish by building the 5 speed drumbrake/dynamo wheelset for the winter bike. Hopefully by then it will be spring.]]> http://www.horslin.com/index.php?entry=entry101212-195428 2010-12-13T00:00:00Z 2010-12-13T00:00:00Z
Anyway, on to more important matters, namely cycling.

I have started a resource to which I hope I can compel some people to add their routes. I was frustrated by the lack of a clear map for the area and one that people can contribute to, instead of one designed by non-riders using traffic flow numbers instead of real world experience. Such things are extremely useful... I don't mean to disparage the efforts being made at such things... anyway. Here's the google map I've made so far:


View Waterloo Region Cycling Routes in a larger map

Colour-codes:
Blue lines: point-to-point routes
Purple Lines: routes/trails/paths/etc. I haven't tried but seem like good ones from looking at the map.
Green Lines: low-traffic streets with cycling lanes that I haven't add to any other routes
Red pin-points: dangerous crossings/intersections/etc
Green pin-points: great cycling infrastructure/point of interest
Blue pin-points: Bike shops

I try to pick routes that are safe, quick and enjoyable to ride. I've also only tried to put down routes I've used in the last while, or marked out roads that are good. The routes use roads and trails, some without bike lanes. The city of Kitchener has a cycling master plan but it's aim seems to be to connect all the infrastructure that was haphazardly constructed and left unfinished in spots. The report contains a detailed map of all the trails and bike lanes in town, but it is a cumbersome PDF file that is a pain to edit and takes a long time to load. Google maps is free and works.

This map is meant to get people to common destinations... semantics perhaps, but this "network" is mostly in existence and safe, whereas the "cycling master plan" is just that, a plan. It's also tangled up in the region-city battles that plague stuff like this.

If you'd like to contribute multiple routes, please comment below and I'll get in touch and add you as a collaborator. You can also comment below and I'll add your route.
]]> http://www.horslin.com/index.php?entry=entry101026-182050 2010-10-27T00:00:00Z 2010-10-27T00:00:00Z