Gearing up again

lots of things.. spread out a few things today to get ready for a possible trip next week. Im slowly replacing all that was stolen.. learning from my experience to upgrade as i see necessary.

yes all of these things go on my bike with me. They fit nicely into thier own little bags.

The Flea

I dont too often make product recomendations but this one is amazing. Blackburn has a light out called the Flea.. more like Super Flea! this light is rechargeable using magnetic diodes that conneect to a standard dry cell battery, of ANY size and charge based on the size of the battery.

The light lasts 3 hours on full strength and 6 hours on what appears to be half strength. The brightness is brighter than my Trek Ion 6 and this thing is 10 times lighter and about 1/10th the size. Freakin amazing light.. it is light, bright, and extremely green friendly considering you can use a rechargeable battery to charge it. I got one and definately recomend it to anyone, a GREAT light for the light weight commuter.

Project expedition monkey

This is my brothers new bike.. a new Surly Karate Monkey frame and fork were building it up as a touring bike.. it will soon be ready to hit the road. more pics to come!

Revolution

Pinellas Trail, on my way to work.. took a bit of a detour.. a few miles actually.. but it was a nice little side cut. I heart taking the long way.

Get Bent Together!

I will do a full report on the new shop here eventually... but I had to show this.. a tandem rebumbent. You just dont see things like this at other shops.. and as much as i used to complain about recumbents, they sure are fun to ride!

Good things from the garden

so.. spinich, peppers, and brocolli all got lost to weeds.. moving on.. the corn is growing nicely and starting to bud kernels, the tomatoes took a suprising turn and have really started to grow and the watermellow is kreeping accross the yard. Excellent!

A needle in a hay stack

a beauty in the city! I found a nice little patch of woods in pinellas county where i can set up camp. Its in the middle of "suburban" pinellas county and close enough to home and school that i could camp there on a week night. And its far enough out of view of prying eyes that I should have no real fear of getting caught, and no apparent trace of bums that I can tell. A beautiful patch of Floridian woods right here in town. Hopefully I can get far enough in that I can get away from the sound of cars.. just gotta watch out for coyotes. but they probobly wont bother me. Fun!

Trucker gets new bags

Ok so it had to happen.. i spent months mourning the loss of my arkel bags to someone who felt it was neccessary to smash out the window and take them out of my car. I had to get new bags.. and here they are. I purchased Axiom's Journey Series Panniers. They are nice bags.. i decided on these based on the knowledge I took from the old arkels.. I didnt like that the Arkels opened from the side, these open from the top. These also have a drawstring top with compression straps to control the movement of the load while on the bike. Another thing I really like about these is that every bag has bungee nets on top.. this is nice for drying wet clothes while riding.. this is a good feature for riding in Florida.. as it rains a lot, and its gross to pack sweaty clothes. oh and the map case on the bar bag is MASSIVE.

HA HA!

ha ha! great!

Tour of Central Florida Rail-Trails!

Ok so I didnt want to post this untill I was absolutely sure it was a go. November 7th through the 9th I will be leading a self supported, shop sponsored, bicycle trip through the rail-trails of central Florida. Bicycle Outfitters has graciously donated the time and means for me to spend 3 days and 2 nights on the bicycle leading a group of about 6 people. We will be camping primitively at JB Starkey Park and somewhere in the Withlacoochee State Forest. We will travel by route of the Pinellas Trail, the Suncoast Trail, and the Withlacoochee State Trail, as well as many other back roads and scenic highways. The trip will total over 220 miles with a guaranteed century on the first whole day of travel. If you are interested in going with us then I need to know as soon as possible because this trip will fill up quickly with only a few slots available. The trip will be $25, but that is only to cover some of the food we bring and some of the other provisions we will need to bring.
To go you will need either a road bike or touring bike, with a minimum of a rear rack and pannier bags. We will be hosting a bicycle camping 101 class at Bicycle Outfitters in the weeks leading up to the trip and those who are going on the trip should attend. If you have any questions email me at advocateforliving@yahoo.com, come visit us at the shop, or I will be at the Bicycle Bash on Oct 19th at Vinoy Park, St pete with more info.