Urbanus Magnus

We arrived safely back home at around 11:30pm Toronto time Monday the 18th, after 2 stopovers (one in Frankfurt, the other in Washington, DC), and a lot of confusion in the Naples Int'l Airport. Certainly a bad experience with staff, which lead to us both nearly missing our flight, and also damage to our bicycles. But more on that will come with the Naples posting later. Internet from Rome and south of there had been extremely spotty, and expensive at times (5 euro per hour at a few of our hotels - and still slow by N. American standards), so we haven't yet posted about our visits from Siena onwards. Besides, making time for blog-writing was difficult, what with all the sights planned. For the next few days, I will be writing-up the log of the rest of the trip. So, expect Montalcino's write-up tomorrow, then that of Montepulciano on Friday, followed by posts for Orvieto, Viterbo, Rome, Pompeii, and Napoli and our returning flight in the next week-and-a-bit. After a G...

Note: we are staggering our posts as we have been finding the internet to be slow and spotty coverage. All our posts are behind a few days. June 4 was our first true riding day, where we were tested by the Italian hills and our fully loaded bicycles. The weather cooperated with us for the most part, but we did have to stop around 2pm for about 45 minutes to avoid a down-pour. We found refuge under the overhang of the roof of San Andrea, a tiny country church, about a third of the way between Florence and San Gimignano. We were certainly expecting hills - but I think we (*Ryan*) somewhat underestimated the actual magnitude of the climbs. Here are some stats for our Florence-San Gimignano trek: Total Distance: 60.5 km Average (Moving) Speed: 9.98 km/h Max Speed: 49.3 km/h (gotta love the ride down, after the long climb up!) Min Elevation: 81 m Max Elevation: 443 m Total Elevation Gain: 2087 m We found that our unlocked Galaxy Nexus phone was invaluable for gui...

On Friday we flew in to Florence, after a 7-hour flight from Toronto to Frankfurt, and then a short 2 hour commuter jet brought us into the Gallileo Gallilei airport of Florence. Understandably we were slighty worried about how well our bicycles fared in the flight - or if they even followed us to Italy in the cargo hold of the plane. However, everything went smoothly and our bicycles survived undamaged - likely due to our "leave them no chances to break something" approach to packing them. It took us a little over and hour and a half to unpack the bikes again and move all our equipment from the duffel bags to our panniers, and then off we went. But very slowly, due to the narrower italian roads and zippy cars scooting about haphazardly. Our babies - they are ok! All packed and loaded on the way from the airport to the hotel. Although initially scary and seemingly devoid of order, we have come to find that Florentine roads have polite and highly skil...

The Itinerary has been updated to include the next few weeks of detailed sights being seen and events for all our destinations up to Rome. See it here: Summer 2012 Italian Cycling Trip + Itinerary

In Italy, we hope to cut our costs down somewhat by cooking as many of our meals as possible. But, the availability of stove fuels is somewhat different that North America, meaning that choosing a stove is a little hard. White gas (camping fuel), and the standard EN417-threaded butane canisters so plentiful here are quite scant in most of Europe - Italy included. Across the pond, Campingaz' dominance in the market means that its own proprietary canisters are ubiquitous throughout much of the continent, to the chagrin of many tourists, who won't have much luck finding EN417 butane canisters for their stoves in all but the largest cities in Italy.* *Update: We have completed our tour of Italy, and in fact did not have too much difficulty locating the EN417-threaded canisters.  We purchased our refill at an odd little "Liquigas" shop in Siena, a chain which appears to be unique to Italy. There are more of these shops, and so our advice would be to start the search the...

*Watch for updates on  this page . The Italian cycling trip has changed quite significantly in the second rendition. Now, we will be avoiding the western oceanfront and heading through the heartland of Italy: Central Tuscany. The stops include  Firenze (Florence), where we'll be flying in, followed by cycling through the great Italian hill towns of San Gimignano,  Volterra, Siena, Montalcino, Montepulciano, Orvieto and Viterbo. From Viterbo, the rest of the inter-city transit will be done by train; we head to Rome through the Ferrovie Regionale (regional railway), then Pompei and Napoli (Naples). Some Sights: Pozzo di S. Patrizio - St. Patrick's Well Orvieto Underground Piazza della Cisterna Roman Theatre Of Volterra Rick Steves on Tuscan Hill Towns Map View Cycling Italy in a larger map Itinerary May:      31. Depart from Toronto, Flight to Firenze (Florence) June Arrive Firenze --> A few sights, then sleep ...

The planning continues, and now I've managed to figure out all the stops, the route and where we will camp on our journey from Florence to Rome, Naples, Pompeii and the Amalfi coast. The aeroplane has been booked - leaving May 31 from Toronto Pearson, to arrive June 1 in Florence. We will be returning almost 3 weeks later, flying out on June 18th with 2 layovers (Frankfurt, Germany, and Washington, D.C.) before we arrive back in Toronto. The Itinerary in Brief: 5/31 -  18:40 departure from Toronto 6/1 - 14:00 arrival in Florence! ----> Rest-up day. 6/2 - Touring Florence, seeing the sights. 6/3 - Florence to San Gimignano: 74km        - 8:00 departure by bike        - ETA 17:00        - 17:00 - 20:00; dinner + evening in town        - 21:00; Lodging - arrival @ Camping Baschetto di Piemma 6/4 - San Gimignano to Colleoli: 53km        - 8:00 -13:00; breakfast/tour/lunc...

From early June this year, for two weeks, I'll be in Europe. Mostly Tuscany, to be more specific - since my dad and I are planning to do little father-son bike trip in Italy this summer. Italy isn't quite the most cycling friendly nation out there, I will admit (the Netherlands, Germany or France would be much better choices), but the Mediterranean climate, Roman ruins and picturesque scenes wherever one goes have swayed us.  That, and I kinda want to say "Hi!" to the pope. Pisa's Leaning Tower. I bet you a nickel this is the image that appeared in your brain when you read "Italy." As a veteran map-reader (from my boy-scouting days), I have been assigned the somewhat-daunting task of planning the cycling route, and all of our destinations. With a guidebook or two, and tips from friends, I've got the basic event agenda structured. But, what is really difficult however is the route forming; Italian roads are notoriously narrow (no shoulders!) and...

Quite a few years ago, Surly introduced the then-revolutionary Karate Monkey frameset (they claim it was one of the first commercially-produced 29er frames). Now, Surly has taken the concept behind their utility bike, the Troll, and bumped it up from 26in wheels to 29in: The new Surly Ogre.   Credit: Surly Bikes Surly says that their new frame has geometry similar to the Karate Monkey (which, by following their numbers, it does), but with all the function of the Troll. What does this mean? Well, it has: - Front and rear Canti/Linear brake mounts - Disk brake tabs - Double dropout eyelets, both front and back (so you can mount fenders and racks all round!) - Specifically design for fender clearance (yay!) - Fits up to 29 x 2.5" tires, more that one should ever reasonably need - Full-housing cable mounts  - Surly-compatible trailer mount The bike seems well-equipped to be an all-rounder, off-road (or road) tourer, or nice singletrack companion.  The only quibble I...

Lets get to the picture first: I'm on the left; O'Malley is on the right. Pay no attention to the photo-bomber in the back.  Explanation: With the parts removed from my old blue GT Vantara frame, it was simply sitting around, and with a rusted chain stay that proved troublesomely flexible on the Peugeot UE-8 frame of my friend  (the "$33 Touring Bike"  ), we thus decided to swap all of his parts over the Vantara.  I am lending the GT frame to my pal (under the condition that he guard it well), and so was stuck with figuring out how the get the Peugeot frame home with him riding on the other bike frame. Quite quickly, this freak was born. First, the front wheel was removed from the Peugeot, and the rear chainstays (which, remember, were too  flexible) were bent to fit the front hub. The front wheel was slipped onto the back of the frame, and the fork was zip-tied through its eyelets to the other bike's rack. A bungee cord was added for good m...

I wanted to see how fast this bicycle would go when it had on more road-oriented tyres, so I pulled off the hulking CST Critters and pumped up my discount Nashbar buys - the now-discontinued "Transition" line of tyres. They are basic commuter/ touring tyres, with a 35mm tread. I picked them up after I had a terrible streak of annoying tire flats on crummy $5 rubber. These Nashbar models feature a layer of kevlar protection, just under the tread; it works - no flats to date, and these year-olds have been tried on >350kms of glass-covered city streets. I give the thumbs up to Nashbar for this one, but I have a sneaking suspicion these are re-branded Panaracer models (if one looks carefully, it has a  "Panasonic" hidden on it). The rear tire is the Nashbar, the front is a 23mm Hutchinson road offering... Anyway, they are a ton faster than any bulbous mountain tire could be, as anyone should expect. I'd say average rolling resistance for its width, due to t...

All is well on the bike front, and I've now made it up to the 200km mark. I know, not a lot of riding in three weeks, but I've been completing the final push of school into exams (I finished my Chemistry exam today, yay! Only physics left, which is tomorrow). The tires are wearing well enough, but the compound of the CST Critters is fairly soft, so even gravel skids have worn the rear tread down a *weensy bit*. Just enough so that the "herringbone" pattern imprinted on each of the knobs is barely visible. The Herringbone pattern is wearing away quickly... the skid spots are worse than the above picture. So far, here's what I'm liking: - Off road handling - On road handling! - Overall weight - Load Capability - Comfortable seat/steam/handlebar height and position - Top Tube length is good - Rolling resistance ( Speed!) - Gear range (it hasn't been changed from before ) After about 125km offroad (light trails, gravel, a bit of chip seal road...

Without further delay, I present to you the Origin 8 CX700-framed-all-rounder: Origin 8's Cx700 frame allows me to run 29er tyres, yet doesn't look out of place running skinny rubber. The specs: - Origin 8 CX700 Cyclocross/Touring/All-Rounder frame, 56 cm * - CST Critter 29 x 2.1" tyres * - Mountain Equipment Co-Op Alloy Seatpost (rebranded Kalloy Uno) - 27.0 mm * - Brooks B17 Standard, Honey - Nitto B-115 - 40cm/25.4 mm clamp - RSX 3x8 Brifters - Avenir adjustable threadless stem w/ Origin 8 Spacers* - FSA "The Hammer" 1 1/8 in Headset * - Shimano BB-UN26 Sq. Tpr. * - Alivio 22-32-42 Crank - Victor VP-196 Pedals w/toe clips (VP-565 Platforms shown in pictures) - SRAM 12-32 7-Speed Casette - Alivio F. Der, 31.8mm clamp  * - Alivio R. Der - KMC Z-Chain * - Wheels: Alivio hubs laced to 36h Araya PX-35 rims - Jagwire "Basics" Cables + Housings * - Tektro 720 Cantis         A "*" means bought new. All other parts are scav...

I had been looking at frames for a while, when I stumbled upon this: Credit where credit is due: Picture stolen from <www.team-bicycle.webpowered.com> That, my friends is the new Cx700 frame offered by Origin 8. From what I've heard, it is pretty awesome. Here are some of the highlights: - Triple Butted steel - ~5.6 lbs, frame +  fork - Canti/V-brakes or  Disks - 2.1 in tyres in 700c size - this is what I'd be willing to call a "29er"! - All the touring braze-ons you'd ever need Don't get me wrong - this is by no means an endorsement/promotion for Origin 8; I just happen to love the idea of a go-anywhere, do-everything frame. This is one of the first  frames I've seen that can be full touring/cyclocross/road or offroad with just a change of tyres, other than the Surly Karate Monkey (can be finiggled into "light touring" mode), the Salsa Fargo (an off-road tourer), or the Rawland Drakkar frameset (like a more off-road version of ...

Many thought it impossible; to construct a fully-fledged loaded-touring bike for under $500. I have gone to the "possimmpible" - the land beyond impossible, to a place where the possible and impossible meld and intertwine. Reality must then surely be warped, I can hear you all saying, if I was able to build up a touring rig for under $50 dollars!  It all comes down to the fact that many people in Canada, especially the now-ageing baby-boomers, want to get rid of   (*gasp!*)  their old bikes cluttering up their sheds/yards/garages/evil laboratories, and so can be had for free most of the time, sitting sadly by the roadside of many suburban residences. No, I did not lick out and find a nearly-complete touring bicycle that I used $35 dollars on to refurbish. But, I did the next best thing, which was to convert an old 70's Peugeot UE-8 frame and wheelset to touring quality! I must correct myself; for there are those Peugeot junkies here on the interwebs that are ...

The conversion of my tourer from its original MTB-style shifters/brakes and pursuit bars to drops has been underway for a while now. It's pretty-much been converted; the brakes are still a wee finicky and the derailleurs need to be precision-tuned. Out with the old.... This was my Christmas gift; a pair of NOS 8-speed RSX brifters, a Nitto B-115 Rando bar and some cross brakes. I'm not complaining - I was expecting  any  old drop bar, with some bar ends and some generic aero levers, so you can understand my elation! Of note: without a mount-on point for the barrel adjuster for the F. derailleur, I have had to "eye-ball" it, just simply adjusting the pull by loosing and tightening the cable bolt. It works OK, but I *might* need to find another solution.... However, nothing else major has come up on the drive train; the standard MTB parts seem to work fine with the brifters, even meshing well with the old 7-speed cassette in back. I also got a 13/15 cone wr...

School may have come to a close for this year - but it will soon rear its ugly head (on the 3rd of January - ugh!). There are only...  4 days left as I am writing this There are a few more highlights to go through on the 2010 review itinerary, this one being about cycling. What's not to like about it? I personally am very fond of the sport, recreation and leisure offered by the activity. Well, so far, I'm still fairly novice - I've only logged a little over 5500 km in my life - but that's not  too  bad a start. This year's cycling mileage is roughly 2000 km - almost half of my total. Why 'roughly'? My cyclometer died half-way through the year, resetting its data, and I don't ride with it all the time. Counting school commuting, I'm much closer to 2750 km. A milestone in itself, at least, one to note and beat in the coming year - once I manage find my cyclometer again (*sigh*). Another milestone: first long-haul tour, from Toronto to Kingston. O...

 How exactly does one go about kicking off a new blog? Well, I'm not sure exactly, so I'll just start with an introduction. I'm a highschool student in Toronto, and today I should be working on my homework, but as I have recently finished a 18-page long maths portfolio (for friday!), I feel like being lazy. And the weather isn't making me want to get it done, either: Raining - no biking today.   With the day miseable,  I should be spending time on academic purposes. However, with rain comes no motivation to finish - it is not as if I will be able to spend my time in ways I like. Perfect day to start a blog, non?  I enjoy the experience of getting to know my city better - since I've taken up cycling four years ago, I've become a lot more familiar with the Scarborough area (where I live!) as well as the more 'Toronto' part of Toronto. So, to elaborate, I've made my way down town by bike - I don't just stic...