It's no secret that I'm most recently from Calgary so I am somewhat prone to keep track of what's going on back there. One of the most appealing features of Vancouver is the climate. While I certainly rode a bike year round in Calgary the weather wasn't teh most co-operative part of that adventure. And sure it rains in Vancouver but we're mostly made of water so what's a little more? Anyway, I'll look at the weather in Calgary from time to time in anticipation of being able to phone my friends back there to gloat about the two hour cross ride I'd just completed in the Endowment Lands as they are trying to figure out how to unfreeze their front door locks from the inside so they can simply get out of their houses. But so far this fall/winter the weather in Calgary has been unusually pleasant. I was there a week or so ago and the sun was out and the temps were on the plus side of zero, it was quite civil actually. All that changed in the last 24 hours. The weather graph above shows their weather for the last 36 hours or so. You'll see it has dropped steadily from about plus 2 to minus 23 Celcius and I shouldn't get so much satisfaction from this but that minus 23 at noon today? That's their high, apparently it's going to get colder tonight and that colder temperature we see tonight? Close to minus 27 or so? That's tomorrow's high.
I haven't ridden my bike much this fall. I meant to, we always mean to, but beyond commuting with the odd detour the miles have been pretty limited. Now that the weather in Calgary is doing what the weather in Calgary does I've been inspired to get the bike out again. The battery will be charged and the bike cleaned up and lubed and ready for action. Of course in the interested of full disclosure they are calling for a high of minus nine here tomorrow but that's still twenty degrees warmer than my former home.
Yeah, weather is something one talks about around the water cooler but we have one now so maybe that's inspired this blog. And I've recently put my money where my mouth is and "upgraded" my cross bike to five year old 9 speed components, well, the shifters at least are "vintage NOS" while the derailleur and cassette are current. And I've done nothing but smile as I grind up the steep ascents that seem to exist in abundance on the left coast of Canada. I should also mention that the solid and crisp clicks of the older technology nine speed STI levers is greatly appreciated and something I will certainly enjoy when I'm riding around tomorrow in about as cold a temperature as I've ever experienced in Vancouver.
There's not a hill in this province that I'm afraid of with a 34/34 tooth combo. I understand that the hardcore cyclocross riders get great satisfaction out of carrying their bikes on their shoulders whenever the hills get too steep to ride but I'm not a big fan of running without a bike on my shoulder so why would I make a tenuous activity even less appealing?
You'll see from the state of cleanliness that this combination has already been tested a couple of times and I'm much happier than I was with the first iteration of this bicycle. I anticipate that tomorrow, as I'm enjoying a relatively balmy minus 9 or so I will collect further evidence that the perfect bike is really more akin to having a fleet of six or so bikes and that my Dekerf cross bike is a key component of that collection. Stay tuned, the other five may rear their ugly but essential heads here over the next couple of weeks.
Oh yeah, here's that water cooler I was talking about.
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