From the Tour de Francis this weekend:

The background reminds me of the ski hills in the Canadian prairies when I was young(er) - the only lift was a rope tow.

Nice Black Lightning. I have a 1988 in like new condition(except an upgrade to STI's) but I've still got all of the original equipment so I could change it back. Awesome shot.

Well, on today's ride my inner child got the best of me and I wrote my name in the snow.

Every once in a while we get some fog.

[IMG]Tempe Town Lake by res1due, on Flickr[/IMG]

There's a couple more shots in the gallery if interested.

Loved the gallery. Next time I'm in Phoenix I have to try and find those wall murals. Awesome! Thanks.

Two of us rode mountain bikes with big knobby tires. Two of us rode cross bikes with studded road tires. All four of us enjoyed the ride at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois on Sunday, February 1, 2015.

While those living in SoCal have the luxury of boasting about beautiful weather, particularly during the winter, we north of the 49 can boast in our abundance of fresh water. We have so much that we can afford to spew it out from the top of our power poles.

I was ready to see if I was faster but none showed up. Amish territory in Western NC.

Man, that is some impressive head pressure to force water up that conduit. Its duct bank must be a good bit in higher elevation at the water's entry point to give it that much pressure. Somewhere is an electrical duct bank with a serious breach in its integrity and just waiting to blow when the water shorts things out, and throw a breaker in its line.

Bill

Actually there was/is a line coming out of the conduit. Hard to see but it's there. I phoned the power company and the guy who I talked to couldn't believe what I was telling him. Hopefully they'll check it out. Interesting however, a local resident was out for a walk when I stopped and she said, "it was like that last year too". What? And no one reported it or did anything about it?

Looks to be either 2400 volts or 7200 volts based on pole top insulator. The cable looks to be really small but that might just be a concentric neutral that is on top. Not sure what the local practice is in terms of how far they run the conduit (riser) after it goes underground. In these parts the riser just goes about 3' deep and the cable is direct buried beyond that point. It would really be interesting to know what in the heck is going on. Manholes and duct banks are very commonly filled with water. I'm wondering if there is a broken water line directly under the bottom of the conduit???

There's a gated community on the mountain side above this power pole. I'm guessing that the conduit travels a ways up the hill where the water is entering. This is the only way that I can figure there's enough water head pressure to push it to the top of the power pole. I don't know anything about electricity other than it's dangerous.

Not sure what it is, but I assure you it's NOT anything like a concentration camp building. lol The buildings built in Poland by Nazis were not as fancy or as tall as this one.

Won't be riding until things firm up a bit;

JPPE has it summed up well, I was just surprised when you posted the picture, I've put in a lot of duct banks, and service poles, for buidings and other structures and this one cause some safety bells to ring. Yeah, Joe, usually a little water in a manhole, or pull station, but that has to be a good bit of water. I don't doubt that the company was surprised, it ain't supposed to be this way. It there was any type of nick or scrape in the insulation or a bad splice (illegal anyway, in the conduit) things would stop with a "bang"

Anywho, hope you enjoyed your ride.

My friends are making fun of my crooked seat [edit] "tube" ... maybe I should create a poll?



It's a winter project ... my first single speed. Not quite finished yet.

A mild winter in Minnesota.

Here on the near west coast, our weather news people are saying it's the warmest winter since 1929.

I"m guessing an old mental institution circa "snake pit"

Bike path view this morning ...

It was a fabulous "winter" day yesterday, up here north of the 49. This is a little clip from the ride yesterday, I spared everyone the heavy breathing while riding up the mountain. Our "winter" is one of the reasons we live here. It's about as close to California as we can get without immigrating.