Keith, is there a possibility I could come down to cavern and throw a leg over one of the IROs you have there? I have to figure out what size I'm going to get in this group buy. I feel like a dick asking to just use your steeds for sizing, but I figure your gonna put it together and lace the wheels. Anyways I have wednesday off so I was wondering if I could come down and we could have a safety meeting along with a test. I'd need to try a 50 and 52 if you have 'em.

Road conditions through Gros Morne, which was 80% of the trip ( probably not what a lot of people would call a bike tour) were pretty good for the most part. Outside the park, road conditions were pretty good until you got further north, say around Port aux Choix. Still navigable but lots of frost damage in some areas. It's been about two years since I was there so things may well have changed a bit.

Lobster at the end of your ride.

Only if it's in season

i had a friend who rode from vancouver to toronto in about 3 weeks, but he had been a courier forever so his endurance was much higher than mine is... when i asked him what he did for food he was like, "cans of beans... with lime juice"

what's the Lime juice for? I can see the beans as being a great source of proteins and sits in the belly for awhile.

"flavour"

I think I suggested that Yigal ride from Vancouver to Kenora (or Winnipeg). I just think the Rockies are amazing to ride through. Perhaps because I was on the last leg (no pun intended) of my trip, but from Toronto to Halifax was nice, but not nearly the same as the Rockies. Plus, I like the challenge of riding up a mountain.

I grew up there, so I can vouch for much of that. The central part of the province would be pretty awful to drive through. The area around Corner Brook/Gros Morne is quite beautiful, as are some areas along the coast of the Avalon Peninsula (ie. around St. John's). The wind/rain/fog would likely make your life miserable. Keep in mind all of the canadian climate "best of" lists the province is in.. windiest.. least number of sunny days.. most foggy days.. Especially St. John's (where I grew up).. check this out: https://atlantic-web1.ns.ec.gc.ca/cli...147-1#champion

What did you do to train for the mountains? Not exactly much climbing around here. What sort of gearing did you use?

I always knew there was something odd about you. Now it all makes sense your from the Rock...

I rode up Yonge street by St. Claire!

No, you're right, I couldn't really train much. If I were to do it again (and I think I'm going to go to France to do some of the Tour climbs) I'll do more riding up the Hamilton 'mountain'.

Because I only have one leg, I needed the easiest gearing possible for the mountains. So I had a triple in the front (I'm not sure the teeth) and a 25 in teh back. I was often in that gearing going up the mountain.

It's weird because the mountains were the hardest part of the trip for me (the rest was a mental struggle, mountains were both mental and physical) but it was the best part because I did them. There's a sense of accomplishment riding up a mountain that you don't get riding in Sask.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that! I did some one-footed pedaling drills on my trainer last week. I was doing about 30s left, 30s both (rest), 30s right, 30s both (repeat). Let me just say I have no idea how you do it. hehehe. My legs were super stiff the next day, and that was just from about 10 minutes of doing that drill.

I wish I still had the climbing abilities I had when I was mountain biking a lot in Newfoundland. I don't think I could ride fixed in St. John's.. not without a totally ridiculous gear ratio and/or thunder thighs.

That's only one small part of it.. I'm an enigma wrapped in a puzzle I tells you.

One leg? Son of a........
I swear I will never ever complain about how hard a ride was EVER again.

Yeah man, I'm huffing and puffing at the top of bathurst and st. clair and you're climbing the rockies with one leg. If you didn't feel a sense of accomplishment from that I'd have to jump off a bridge!

As far as tents for the trip go, I'm not too hot on the idea of a hammock or bivy sack as I'd like some space to be able to spread out my stuff or sit out the rain for a day comfortably. Being able to sit up straight is a must-have for shelter in my books. Still we have some time to think it over. We are thinking of getting the Big Agnes Seedhouse 3-SL which is the lightest 3 person tent MEC makes. My only concern is sharing a tent with a guy for 2-3 months... ugh. I have read some reviews of that Bikamper tent and the concensus is its a really bad design. Not any lighter than a regular tent, harder to set up, hard to get in and out of, makes you need to take your front wheel off every time you pitch the tent, makes the tent get covered in bike grease, more susceptible to tearing, more expensive. Its pretty much a bad tent all round. It doesn't even cover the bike properly

I don't think we will be getting much in the way of MREs. I am hoping we will be able to stop at a bunch of cheap truck stops for all day breakfasts and calorie laden greasefests whenever we pass them during the day, and then have dinner of random canned stuff and pasta and fresh veggies or whatever else we can pick up at grocery stores or on the side of the road. Lunch will be the regular fodder and breakfast porridge, fruit and coffee. I think rather than MREs I'd just carry a few spare clif bars or something. 2 of those can pretty much replace a meal in a pinch, plus I can eat them on the road.

Not that I don't appreciate all the respect. But, I do have an artificial leg, and while it only does probably 25% of the actual work pedalling, it's not like I literally only use one leg.

Here's a creative question though:

I'm building my ss/fixie and I only have one leg. I need a name for the bike that I'll get cut out in vinyl and attach. I figure there has to be a good way to incorporate one leg/one gear. But creatively.

haha don't be so modest! "Yeah whatever, climbing Everest wasn't that hard, my shoes did most of the work anyways."

In re: to naming your bike: I found this totally random and hilarious site: https://www.999eyes.com/eye-live-oddi...-the-clown.htm

Please don't hate me.

For a while my nickname became Peggy. I asked why, and was told that it originally was Peg, and then it just morphed into Peggy.

Thankfully that's over!

So, the woman plans on taking me to Paris Roubaix this year.

O.
M.
F.
G.

*teen girl glee*

that be the girl you should marry!

I'm more than a half-decade in already, so my chances of escape are basically nil at this point.

Careful what you say, I was that far/a bit further when my dream hit reality...hard.

such bike nerdiness

how about being able to adjust your bar height and positioning without fussing with the headset?

How often do you adjust that though, after getting it where you like it?