Words on wheels!

still in Valencia!

2011-12-30T23:29:00.000+01:00

Just having all sorts of trouble uploading the pictures i take with the iPad to my picasa account. so I guess the photo frenzy will have to wait until I return to a real computer.

Arrival in Valencia

2011-12-24T14:56:00.001+01:00

made it in one piece! spent today exploring the Oceanograhic Museum. pictures to follow.

Copenhagen to Cornwall, day 4-7

2011-05-15T22:55:00.004+02:00

day 4 - Arrived at Dunkerque, France around mid-day and crossed over to Dover with little fanfare. "Holy crap" followed a frustrated climb out of the Dover port, followed less than an hour later with a variety of swearing issued at the world in general as I pushed my trike up a 14% grade hill on a gravel road- part of 'national cycle road' network in the UK. What the frell? Up-n-down for miles

Copenhagen to Cornwall, day 1-3

2011-05-11T22:04:00.002+02:00

You might be wondering what happened to day 1 and 2. Day 1 was spent traveling by night train so if something did happen, I would have slept through it. Day 2 was spent getting lost while trying to get out of Utrecht and Rotterdam. Day 3, however, was a little more exciting - I loudly cursed 90 of the 100km throughout the day due to bad cycle roads or bad design. Seriously people, stop using

New itinerary for Copenhagen-to-Cornwall, May 2011

2011-05-03T10:02:00.006+02:00

An update for my ever changing route. At this point I will leave Copenhagen on May 9th to take the City Night Line train to Utrecht, Netherlands. From there I will cycle thru Antwerp, Belgium, then along the coast to Dunkerque, France and cross the English Channel by ferry to Dover, UK. From Dover I will mostly follow a combination of main roads, regional cycle routes, and large sections of

2011 recumbent tour: Copenhagen-to-Land's End

2011-03-24T08:40:00.000+01:00

Finally I've decided on a destination and time-table for this year's tour. Starting on or about May 2, 2011, I will travel from Copenhagen, Denmark to Esbjerg and cross by ferry to Harwich, UK. From there I will cycle to Cornwall to attend the May 7 Cornish festival well as visit with Howard Curnow- local bard, frequent visitor to Europe, and spokeman/organizer for the Cornwall-to-Copenhagen

Trike Adventure! success continues

2010-10-12T09:16:00.000+02:00

Success with the first recumbent trike tour of Fall 2010 (3rd tour of the year)! Slowly, but surely, people are learning that recumbent trike touring is *far* more comfortable and enjoyable than the standard 'upright' bike! What are *you* waiting for? (blatant plug) http://trikeadventure.terapad.com

Short video about Copenhagen cycling

2010-06-24T13:48:00.004+02:00

Whoops!

2010-06-20T00:31:00.000+02:00

Real life kinda distracted me over the past month, so I am just realizing that I didn't finish writing about the May tour. I will collect my thoughts and some photos, and add another post...um...post-haste!

Cph-to-Wijk b. D. - Day 7/8

2010-05-10T03:05:00.000+02:00

(had a good time at the tour, despite losing the group a few times. currently underway again, heading back home. will fill in more details later). current stop: Utrecht! Distance: 45km for the tour in the region, 25km to Hotel in Utrecht.

Cph-to-Wijk b. D. - Day 5/6

2010-05-07T23:32:00.001+02:00

Day 5 - uneventful aside from seeing too many butts of cows and horses for my liking as I travelled through the German and Dutch country roads. Clouds and rain kept me from charging my phone via the solar charger, so I was very sparse on GPS usage. No nuns encoutered. Distance: 89km. Day 6 - Drizzle rain the whole day. Was able to recharge phone in a resturant around 3PM. More cow butts in

Cph-to-Wijk b. D. - Day 1/2/3/4

2010-05-04T09:30:00.004+02:00

(oddly, my last two posts never were sent from my mobile phone. so here is a quick summary until i find a real computer to update blog entries) Day 1, Sunday May 2, 2010 - Played 'chicken' with field mouse blocking the road. I lost. First night with camping hammock in Vordingborg - not bad at all. Woke up to the sounds of horny pigeons in the trees. No wayward nuns encountered. Barked at

Dutch TOT 2010 - Copenhagen-to-Wijk bij Duurstede Tour

2010-04-27T13:41:00.000+02:00

About a month ago I was invited to attend the first Dutch Trike Only Tour (TOT) in Wijk bij Duurstede, Netherlands, just south of Utrecht. The organizer was interested in adding my Anthrotech to the list of trikes that people can see during the weekend event. So I skipped this year's SPEZI tour (Copenhagen-to-Germersheim) at the end of April, and focused on final preparations to depart on May

Pixel with a problem!

2009-11-23T23:23:00.000+01:00

In the following video, Pixel was trying to take the cork into her cage - she was always wanting to stash them away somewhere. Maybe she was a closet wine connoisseur? At any rate, she was a bit perplexed that the bottle had to come along, but eventually lost interest when a noise spooked her. Pixel trying to steal a cork from digitalmouse on Vimeo.

Video about cycling in Copenhagen

2009-10-28T21:07:00.005+01:00

Here's a little something a group of students at the Copenhagen School of Design and Technology put together.From Daisy Reedtz, one of the students in the group: "The video is a school project with the theme 'passion'. We had to choose our own angle/approach to the theme and link it to a capital. We wanted to illustrate what made Copenhagen different from other capitals, and cykling was the

And if you act now, you get a lifetime supply of Turtle-wax...

2009-10-01T08:12:00.002+02:00

(recently arrived in my email inbox)from johned@mobilitypass.comto win@win.comdate Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 01:53subject Attn: Sir, Madam Attn: Sir, MadamThis is to inform you that Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Headquartered in Dhahran, has recently done an email selection vancation via curacao flight agencies onfurtuinately your email address appear to be

My ferret, Pixel, has passed away

2009-08-06T20:31:00.005+02:00

On July 28th, 2009 at around 8AM Denmark-time, my ferret Pixel, not wanting to wait for her sleepy owners to get out of bed and let her out of her room for the usual ritual of morning ham or chicken, took matters into her own paws.At around 8:30 a neighbor contacted us to report Pixel was on the ground outside the front entrance of the apartment block, not moving.She had fallen six floors to her

SPEZI 2009 photos

2009-05-07T15:40:00.003+02:00

Not everything is captioned, as it was more important to take photos instead of notes. You can always ask about a photo you see and I will try to answer.As last year, I split the photos into two groups:SPEZI 2009 Expohttp://picasaweb.google.com/jimm.pratt/SPEZI2009Expo#SPEZI 2009 Cycle tour- Germersheim to Copenhagenhttp://picasaweb.google.com/jimm.pratt/SPEZI2009CycleTourHome#Enjoy!

SPEZI 2009 - the journey home: Day 6 and 7

2009-05-02T13:08:00.006+02:00

After a very early rise, I hustled out through Bremen in the early morning and Hamburg in late afternoon, enjoying some of the better cycle paths in this part of the country (the rest just plain suck, truely). The constant headwind really aggravated me, so I gave in and jumped on the train from Hamburg to the ferry in Puttgarden.I arrived in Denmark just after 10pm. It had become cold and even

SPEZI 2009 - the journey home: Day 5

2009-05-02T12:29:00.004+02:00

And Jimm rested on the 5th day, and proclaimed it good.Visited several colleagues and friends, did a bit of washing, and went out to where my old Ultimate Frisbee team trains near the University of Oldenburg and found myself actually training and playing for a bit. It was good to get the legs muscles to do something other than spin in circles, although I will surely pay for it in the morning.Oh,

SPEZI 2009 - the journey home: Day 4

2009-04-29T18:26:00.004+02:00

Earlier on the trip home, I finally figured out the best 'push-pull' pedaling method that works for the kind of pedals I have (where my feet are strapped in), so I was happy to increase my spinning power, and as a result my average daily speed (17 km/h) along the Rheine, which includes the rare hill-climbs, descents, the periodic stoplight, road construction, and detours. Not too bad,

SPEZI 2009 - the journey home: Day 3

2009-04-28T20:43:00.004+02:00

Raining this morning, so I took a little extra time to re-pack the trike, and put on the rain pants and jacket. I eventually hit the road around 9:00am. Heading west and the north along the Rheine, I tried to follow the 'cycle wander way' but the dang sign - a blue square with a yellow cycle in the middle - kept moving around. Sometimes it was on the left, sometimes on the right, sometimes on

SPEZI 2009 - the journey home: Day 5.. but it is really Day 2?

2009-04-28T07:26:00.008+02:00

Greetings Programs!Yes I have been lax in posting, but then again I'm having sooo much fun on this tour so far that I don't want to stop every day just to post something. So 'officially', this is the second day of the return trip from Mannheim to Copenhagen.I arrived on Friday in Mannheim, and rode into Germersheim (and the SPEZI expo) on Saturday morning. All the usual suspects were there, as

Track the digitalmouse!

2009-04-22T01:56:00.002+02:00

I've installed MGMaps on my mobile phone today. With it, you should be able to see where I am during the SPEZI 2009 tour roughly every 2 hours or so, via http://www.gmap-track.com/user.php?user=digitalmouse. Where-ever my position is displayed, I should be within 20-25 km (about 12-15 miles) of that point along the route I'm following (see the SPEZI post above, or scroll down this page a bit).

Copenhagen: City of Cyclists

2009-04-21T23:10:00.004+02:00

Mikael over at http://copenhagenize.com recently finished his long-awaited video on - you guessed it - cycling in Denmark. From his website: "At long last. The music video I made for the City of Copenhagen is now finished. It's a promotional video aimed at highlighting how the bicycle is an integrated part of this city's urban fabric and the many ways that the citizens use the bicycle.I filmed

T-Minus 5 days!

2009-04-19T20:19:00.010+02:00

Friday, April 24th 2009, I'm hitting the road for another 1200 kilometer ride through Germany and Denmark.As with last year (see the April 2008 archive) I will attend the SPEZI special bikes show in Germersheim, Germany. But this time will be a bit different. I'll take the train down on Friday to arrive late Friday / early Saturday at my destination. After the show ends on Sunday, I'll hit the

Current spammer/phishing technique

2009-04-17T12:55:00.005+02:00

Over the last month or so, I've begun to receive emails like the following:Subject: Hi its me rita ,how are you today?2009/4/17 Miss Rita :Hi,i have accpted you as my gud friend,so reply and let us knw each other more ok am rita and u?Now, if Miss Rita was a 'gud friend', she would know how to spell 'gud'.Looking at the email headers (the bits that get sent along with the email so that it knows

Driving a cycle-taxi / pedi-cab in Copenhagen

2009-03-25T13:15:00.005+01:00

As a means of learning more of the city, meeting new people, staying fit, and making a little cash, I've begun driving a cycle-taxi. Yes, it is as heavy as it looks and riding into the wind feels like you have an open parachute behind you. In a week or two there will be an electric motor attached to help with the small hills and improve acceleration from a stopped position. I can carry up to

New member of the family!

2009-02-06T11:38:00.004+01:00

In this case, a near mint-condition Mac Color Classic!The old and the new: Mac Color Classic alongside a modern MacBook laptopI got this Mac for free via the local Copenhagen chapter of The Freecycle Network - http://www.freecycle.org/. Works great, and should be a fun winter/spring project to upgrade (raise the resolution to 640x480, add ethernet card, etc) and install Debian Linux on it.

OTrike ride out to Kongens Nytorv and back

2009-01-12T19:18:00.009+01:00

My partner left her mobile phone at home, so I agreed to bring it out to her and filmed the ride. Gave me an excuse to play with iMovie some more! :-D And here is the route:10/01/2009 Ride to Kongens Nytorv and backFind more Bike Rides in K�benhavn, Denmark

A funny thing happened on the way to the email box...

2009-01-09T17:08:00.008+01:00

from: john mathew date Fri, Dec 5, 2008 at 8:27 PMsubject CONTACT MATHEW PAULmailed-by gmail.com Hello my Dear,You may find it so difficult to remember me. Though, it has indeed been, a very long time. Personally, I am so delighted and privileged to contact you once again after all these years. It takes fate, courage and the fear of God to remember old friends and at the sametime, to

Winter ride through Copenhagen

2008-12-31T12:17:00.005+01:00

Through the creative use of cable-binders, I was able to mount my Gorilla-tripod to the OTrike. After a quick test in the parking garage, I set off for a short ride from my apartment to my work place on the other side of Copenhagen.With a bit of tinkering in iMovie08, I produced a simple video of the 30 minute ride, cutting out 4 minutes of video -the waiting between stoplights- and accompanied

I like to move it, move it.

2008-10-25T12:43:00.000+02:00

Each workday, during my 6 km route to the tech school where I teach HTML/CSS and basic programming skills, I join in a modern Danish version of the 'running of the bulls' - a mad dash from one side of the city to the other with hordes of other cyclists.As with the Spanish counterpart, the route has its share of excitement, danger, and humor. Cyclists talking on mobile phones, slow-moving cargo/

Jimm gets YouTubed riding an OTrike!

2008-08-03T12:45:00.003+02:00

A few months back I got to try out a new trike on the market, currently dubbed the O-trike, because 'Olympic trike' was thought to be some sort of rights infringement on the Olympic Games franchise.Andy Ng, who sells the O-trike in the U.S., came over to Denmark to visit the Leitra shop and brought the entry-level model, called the Bronze. Below are some videos he just published covering my test

Gravity, a 'blast' from the past, and recumbent cycling in Denmark.

2008-06-13T20:29:00.001+02:00

Finally had time to move the battery on my recumbent trike to a lower position on the frame in order to prevent a repeat of my canal-detour last April.The only reason why this was not done before that tour was because there was no secure place to put the battery where it was also easily accessible. After stripping the trike down for the summer, I had some extra aluminum tubing that I used to

SPEZI 2008 Tour - Day 7 and 8

2008-04-28T10:17:00.001+02:00

Camping out next to the Exhibition Hall entrance has it's good and bad points.My camping spot by the entrance to the hall.Good side: I got lots of attention. Bad side: I got lots of attention. Out of the 50+ people I chatted with about my LeitraTech, over half of them already knew about me either through the 3 forums I shared a link to this blog with, or by word-of-mouth. Several shook my hand

SPEZI 2008 Tour - Day 6

2008-04-28T10:16:00.000+02:00

Up before the sun, I hit the road on my last push towards my destination - a 200 km 'sprint' along the Rhein valley. I discovered that the well publicized 'Rhein Radweg' was meant for short, slow, scenic trips between towns along the river, and not for any serious fast touring. It is bumpy, tilted (leaning quite scarily towards the Rhein in some places), and often little more than gravel tracks

SPEZI 2008 Tour - Day 5

2008-04-28T10:15:00.001+02:00

Day 5 found me cranking away at a leisurely 23 km/h along the decent cycle paths leading out of Oldenburg. The plan was to make a long push towards Duisberg (253 km/157 miles), take a break/nap for a few hours, then head on towards Bonn - roughly another 200 km.Unfortunately, while heading towards my first rest stop, Cloppenburg (about 30 km), I ran the numbers through my head and quickly

SPEZI 2008 Tour - Day 4

2008-04-23T20:32:00.000+02:00

The day was spent repairing the side windows and replacing the missing glass front windscreen with a plexiglass. Hopefully it won't rain or I'll end up scratching it a lot using the wiper.Patched up cracks in the body with red duct-tape, and visited my favorite cycle shop in Oldenburg (Die Speiche) to have the complete external transmission replaced- new front crank, new 8-speed cassette in the

SPEZI 2008 Tour - Day 3 (canal splash)

2008-04-22T21:32:00.002+02:00

Crossed the Elbe river on the Glückstadt ferry and continued into the night until about 10pm. Feet sore, butt sore, and the trike is probably sore too from the pounding it took from several really bad cycle paths. Otherwise nothing exciting happened. April 22, 2008 - stage 3. Woke up at 5am, packed up my sleeping things (tent cover, sleeping pad and sleeping bag) and hit the road. Stopped for a

SPEZI 2008 Tour - Day 2

2008-04-21T10:42:00.000+02:00

10:40 AM, Monday, 21 April 2008So far so good! Resting a bit after a big salad and a tall glass of Applejuice in the tourist trap Plön - I'll leave it as an challenge for you to figure out where that is. :)The internal SRAM 3-speed drive is running without trouble but the trike's external gearing is starting to suffer. I had opted not to change out the eldery 8-speed cassette, and in retrospect

SPEZI 2008 Tour - Day 1

2008-04-20T04:58:00.002+02:00

Updated breakdown of each stage/day of the trip(see previous post for more details about the trip)Ugh...it's Sunday, 5:00AM, and through sleepy eyes I realize that this is the *big* day. Over 1,000 kilometers and six days of cycle-touring heaven and hell await me on the road to Germersheim.Time to pack up and go! Watch this blog for updates!

SPEZI 2008 Tour Planning

2008-04-05T09:45:00.004+02:00

Well, it's been decided: I'm cycling from Copenhagen, Denmark to Germersheim, Germany to attend the SPEZI 2008 'Special Bikes Show' for the April 26-27 weekend. I will be riding in the relative comfort of my 'LeitraTech' (Leitra fairing on an Anthrotech trike - see photo below). The route is about 1,130 KM (about 700 miles) one way. The cow icon below is a link to the proposed route. There

...and we're back!

2007-05-17T23:18:00.000+02:00

Ok, roughly one year is probably long enough between blog posts. :pAfter about 3,800km behind me on the Anthrotech trike, I've become even more convinced that this is the type of vehicle for me for the 'long term'. No point in getting a car, as a recent move to Denmark has me enjoying an even better cycle infrastructure than Germany has!Modification plans have changed as well. I will be

Whoa! Time flies when you are having fun.

2006-07-21T13:23:00.000+02:00

Everyday life has caused me to completely forget about the BikeBlog, but hopefully some future free time will change that. I've just recently purchased the vehicle of my dreams: an Anthrotech trike!In the photo to the right you'll see me on the trike, with the girlfriend's rented Spirit semi-recumbent in the forground. She has much better suspension, but I gain more stability in varying road

day two of Germany-England trip (belated posting)

2003-08-23T17:23:00.000+02:00

Monday, August 11 Travelled through Hardenburg, and on to Ommen, where I had a confrontation with a farm tractor (they share the bike roads between farmland) - I ended up yielding to the tractor and getting off the road and into some sand. When trying to get back on the road, I lost my balance and strained to keep the bike upright, unfortunately bending the rear wheel almost in half in the

day one of Germany-England trip (belated posting)

2003-08-23T16:15:00.000+02:00

Sunday, August 10 I depart Oldenburg, Germany heading west on route 401, then south onto route 70. Sun shining, a little wind--blah,blah same old travel conditions stuff. Separate two-lane bike road makes the ride fast without little towns to navigate through. Route 401 I discover that route 70 becomes "cars-only" about halfway to Meppen, and detour west to Haren, Germany - stayed west of

delayed blogging

2003-08-23T15:03:00.000+02:00

discovered that England does not support WAP-access everywhere, so I must make a collective log, and publish it when I get home to Germany... check back later!

Yawn Time to go!

2003-08-10T06:01:00.000+02:00

gah...6am! Am I insane? .. no no, don't answer that. Heading out to Rotterdam now - 400km to go!

Small change of plans for the Germany to UK trip

2003-08-09T20:29:00.000+02:00

Greetings folks! A sudden change in plans for my bike trip to England: I have to move my schedule ahead by a day or two for several reasons: Two days ago, I had to use about 80 Euro on bike repairs (read: new gear shifter, new tire, new tube, new cable, wheel aligned) that we not planned for. I also spent about 50 Euro on cake, ice cream, chips, and drinks for the 8 people who said they would