Ahh Christmas..

Yes, it's almost here.
I don't really want to write too much today, but I do want to show you pictures!  Pictures of what I've been up to with cycling during these days leading up to Christmas.  All these pictures have been within the last few weeks when it hasn't been raining and I was able to ride my bikes.

I'll start off with a picture of Santa's Workshop.  Here hundreds of people line up to ride the Christmas sleigh and skate on the frozen pond.

Followed by a beautiful view from the mountains overlooking the city of Vancouver. 

-->A panoramic view from atop Grouse Mountain<--

My Singlespeed bike rides through Green Timbers in Surrey.

Some of my favourite locations for taking pictures in Downtown Eastside Vancouver.

Of course I have to throw in a picture of me riding my friend's Tallbike...

And LOL, a hilarious Christmas greeting e-card sent to me by a friend...

-->Click Here to view My Hilarious Christmas E-Card<--

Seasons Greetings to All!  And Have Yourselves a Wonderful and Joyous Holidays!

Grey Cup Meets Mountains - Help Find some Memory Cards

Ok, this will be my last posting regarding the BC Lions winning the Grey Cup.  I thought I would pass this along to help in finding some memory SD cards that were lost containing most of the footage of the movie they are trying to make.
It is an amazing video and I would love to see it completed.  Here is the Youtube clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTRyZ_yH7c0

Each November, the CFL awards the Grey Cup to the winners of the Championship game.

Every player of the winning team gets a day with the Cup.

December 5, 2011, James Yurichuk of the BC Lions got his day...

As a good Canadian kid, he did something special.

Then...

The pilot did something dumb.

On the eve December 5th, I lost 2 of the 3 small memory cards containing the best footage of our lives. 

Help complete the story. Help get the word out and let whoever found them know where they can return them...

They were 2, Blue, 16 GB SD Memory cards. The small square ones used in most digital cameras.

Thanks for your help!

greycupcards@gmail.com

@bradleyfriesen

Please help spread the word!

Ride of My Life: The Story of the Bicycle

This one hour documentary funded by the BBC is probably one of the best bicycle related documentary I have ever seen.  It follows the journey of Rob Penn, a writer who once rode around the world for three years pedaling 40,000 kilometers, in the quest to build his dream bike going from continent to continent picking up components for his bike build.  Along the way, he tells the story of the bicycle from its humble beginnings to where it is now.  

Rob Penn on his 40,000Km journey around the planet

Ride of My Life:  The Story of the Bicycle, can be seen on Youtube in its entirety here;

A better quality of the movie may be available for download on the internet and I would highly recommend it as the Youtube version is quite degraded.

So if you are a cyclist and simply love bicycles, this is a documentary that you can not miss.  If you are new to cycling, this is a great way to learn about the social history of the bicycle, one of mankind's greatest inventions.

Video Embedding

I have just been made aware that there are some of you who follow my blogs via email subscription that you do not see the videos that are embedded in my posts through email.  I guess this is how blogger.com works, and unfortunately, I do not have control over this.  So, to those who are reading my blogs in your email programs and think my blogs seem incomplete or simply don't make sense, click on the direct link of the posts and view them using a browser, there you will see all the embedded videos and the blogs won't look 'weird' anymore.
Happy reading!

Riding the Tallbike

I have something to admit to...  I am a dork.  A bike dork.  In the short period of time that I have been a 'born-again cyclist', I have collected and built 5 bicycles.  5 that I am willing to admit to that is.  I have bicycles ranging from full suspension XC bikes, to touring bikes and to a beautiful 65 year old vintage English roadster.  But having said that, I am truly not in the class of true Bicycle Dorks until I have acquired/built my very own Tallbike.  The 'dorkdom' is magnified compoundly with a tallbike!
Well, my friend has one and I am truly jealous.  I think my next bicycle project will be building my own tallbike this coming spring when it starts warming up.

I have never been on a bike ride where everyone has stared at us, honking and giving us thumbs ups and being cheered on by total strangers.  How cool is that?!

ps. This is a tallbike T-shirt that another friend of mine has.  He picked it up at The Gap in Calgary.  Now, we've searched through our local Old Navy and Gap stores here in the Greater Vancouver area and we could not find this shirt anywhere!  If you know of any places where we can pick this shirt up, or something similar, please leave me a note!

Cheers and ride on!