Escape from boredom

Last Wednesday was my first bike ride not going to work. With my single speed bike I headed for Vestreng in +2, rain and occasionally strong headwinds. And when average speed is limited to about 20 km/h I was quite cold after 48 km. Got to shorter rides as well on Thursday and Friday, but with small changes in the weather it was not pleasant at all.

Yesterday I mounted my Thule rack, together with the summer tires, so now the car is ready for yet another cycling season.

Yesterday evening I mounted brand new SPD pedals (the old ones are on my commuter bike) and a new Selle Italia SLR bike saddle. Needed a new saddle since the old one soaked up water if it was raining hard, reason – to soft, who needs a soft saddle?

And today Espen and I enjoyed the nice weather and was out together for about two hours. Had a nice ride to Lillestrøm, via Skedsmokorset, Hellerudsletta and back home. Here we have a short brake nearby Hellerudsletta.

My commuter bike broke down about two weeks ago, so I bought a new chain. But, new chain and worn out sprockets are not a good combination. So after advice from Espen I decided to buy the Single Speed Conversion Kit. In that way I will reduce the need for maintenance and hopefully over time reduced cost as well 🙂 Tomorrow I have planned to try it out, hopefully doing 50 kilometers or so.

In addition to the kit I had to buy a new dropout since the internal threads in the old one was long gone. I also had to buy a new KMC 8 chain. The old one was a 9’er, and worn out in just a week because of the old sprockets, but normally you need no more than the kit to convert your bike.

Sexy driveline?

Notice that I use the tension seeker downwards, not upwards. It is recommended to use it upwards, but since I could not cut the KMC-chain just one link, but needed to cut two it would get to tight. Therefore downwards.

The fourth leg, now I have reached Storforshei, or just Heia as we justed to call it when I was a child. Heia is just 25 kilometers north of Mo i Rana where I grew up. At Heia you can among other things find the Artic Circle Raceway. So now I’ve done almost 1500 kilometers this year riding my bike to work.

When biking to work I am passing Middelalderparken after about 7 kilometers. There you can, among other things, find ruins of an old church and other buildings. And once a year the music festival Øyafestivalen is held there.

As I have mentioned earlier, to commute each day is hard for the equipment. Today my bike chain snapped when I was about to accelerate from the sidewalk out in the road. This happened down by Aker Brygge, luckily I must say since it is not a long walk to the subway. Not decided what to do now, I will create a single speed of the bike, but the gear shifters are still quite ok, so I guess a new chain will do the trick for now.

Nothing else to do than use the subway when things are like this

The third leg, I have reached Kvam which is to be found in Steinkjer municipality in Nord-Trøndelag county. I remember from when I was a child, that Kvam had a old diary with a very tall chimney. One of the landmarks on the veeeery looong journey from home to my great-grandparents living in Åsen. So this means that I have done more than 1000 kilometers on my bike so far this year, looking good.

On my way to work, when at Etterstad I am passing by the first apartment building that OBOS build back in 1931, Etterstad 1. Trivial knowledge which might be useful in rare occasions.

Yesterday was the best day so far this year when going to and from work. The sun was shining and temperature just below zero. First picture from the morning when I arrived at work

When going home, just before the Opera I had to stop and take a picture of a machine tearing down a building. Looking forward to see how it will look in a few days, and what will be there in a year? Btw: The boat on the picture has its own webpage http://www.msinnvik.no/

Just turning a bit to the left, the Opera.

A bit late, but now I have done another ten days, mostly delayed because of Anders being sick for a whole week. But now I’ve done yet another 360 kilometers. So now I would be passing Dovreskogen (Google Maps), where I could rest at Dovreskogen Gjestegård (Not much else there to mention here…). Been ten days without any incidents to report, no crashes or something like that. Have used my new phone which has GPS to confirm that the distance is pretty much 18 kilometers each way. Started using the speed sensor on my Polar 725X, but it is not accurate at all, so I was a bit afraid that the distance was much shorter for a while.

In my first post I mentioned Tveitablokkene, and this time I must mention a building which is not much to look at, but the name is quite funny. Located at Tvetenveien 30 you will find “Gresshoppa“, or “Grasshopper”. I know my friend Kent is well aware of the building, since Micromonsters have their shop there.

So now, 20 days biking to work this year, 720 kilometers.

After I had spent some hours editing my videoclips using Kino when all of a sudden Kino decided to lock itself, causing me to loose about 10 minutes of work I used the kill-command on Kino and went out skiing instead. About -7 today, and a clear sunny day, absolutely wonderful day for skiing. My second time this season, so I focused on doublepole and also diagonal without poles. I must say I was not aware of how hard diagonal is for my back when not using poles, good training!!

Was out for about 1 hour and 45 minutes, skiing across Nøklevatn where the picture is taken.

Last night we have had some snow here in Oslo, and combined with a bit of wind made it a bit of a struggle to ride my bike to work. For instance, downhill from Tveita I did not feel the urge for riding together with the cars, since it was pretty much snow and salt, almost like mud at the top of the hill. Under such conditions biking is like playing in the lottery, you’re never sure which direction the bike will choose for you. So instead I did ride on the sidewalk, but not an easy task that either since I had snow all up to the pedals. But as always, “speed is your friend”, so when having as much speed as I dared and doing my best to avoid one or two pedestrians I got myself all the way down to Helsfyr without falling of my bike.

Here you can get some tips on cycling in winter conditions. Also, I pretty much agree with the first guy in the video when it comes to equipment. When my chain and the gears are broken I will not buy new gears, but instead make it into a single speed. Less to be broken, easier to maintain.

[video:youtube:Drs6pD2rDMs]

Ok, the title being a bit misleading, I will not actually ride my bike from Lindesnes to Nordkapp, but to keep track of how much distance I have covered riding my bike back and forth from work I use that distance to compare with.

For now I have done ten days, about 360 kilometers, so now I’m passing by Drammen. What is there to say about Drammen? Anders and Eivind are from Drammen. Herodes Falsk, one of the members of Prima Vera is from Drammen, they also made a song about Drammen (…for jeg ble født i en jævla by, ja jeg snakker om Drammen…).

Another ambition is to write something about the things I see when cycling to work. So, the first thing worth mentioning which I pass by would be Tveitablokkene. Three big tower blocks housing no less than 819 apartments. Not the biggest cooperative in Norway, but I’m quite sure no other have so many apartments with only three buildings.

@Update: And as my best man Espen pointed out…he is born in Drammen…