A beginning

It may seem faint hearted to start a blog called 'Tales of a Four Season Cyclist' at the changeover from spring to summer. Actually I do ride all year round; if energy and interest are still there I'll post about winter riding once the snow flies.

To be honest my winter riding tends to be limited to a portion of my commute, grocery runs and other short but necessary trips. It's the rest of the year that calls me to longer rides.

So far this year I've just done 75k on the Toronto Ride For Heart and a 50k ride with the Toronto Trailblazers (torontotrailblazers.org).

My motivation for starting this blog now is the upcoming Great Waterfront Trail Adventure (waterfronttrail.org/gwta_web/) from Niagara On The Lake to the Quebec border. Armed with a digital camera and wifi enabled netbook I'm hoping to post a few entries during that 8 day, 730km supported ride so friends and family can see what I'm up to.

Right now I'm off to Bikeland, Barrie's best LBS, to pick up a stem for the old (what I call 'new') Raleigh roadbike I'll be taking on the GWTA. I bought this new in 1984; a nice gold Raleigh Carlton, and have never changed the bars. The bike fits me beautifully except the bars have always been on the narrow side at 39cm. I picked up a vintagey 42cm wide bar, but it uses the Italian 26.0mm mounting not the English 25.4mm (what the rational world calls "one inch"). Hence the new stem.

Morgan at Bikeland is my first choice for parts like this. Morgan's of a suitable vintage himself; has a sympathetic understanding of the aesthetics of older bikes as well as a depth of knowledge and experience about all things bikey that I rely on to keep me from making dodgey choices about bike components.