Carnival Weekend

Well, I had a good Carnival weekend. 4 days of no work, got some things done on the apartment, and 4 days of riding.

Everyday I went out and rode from about 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM. Lots of sun, lots of fun. I rode the Litespeed exclusively. I don't ride it as much as the Merlin. It took me a day of riding the Litespeed to get used to it again. It is a size larger than the Merlin (19" vs. 18") and has flat bars as opposed to risers, and it has a full compliment of gears; XT-9 speed (34-11) in the rear and 3 in the front vs. the Merlin's 18T ENO and 32T Black Spire up front.

The latest mod on the Litespeed is I swapped the stem. I had the generic 100 mm stem from the Merlin available because now its sporting a new 100 mm (105 degree) Thomson. The stem on the Litespeed was a 130 mm (0 degree) Zoom. I felt too stretched out with it and wanted to try a shorter set-up. I like the 100 mm length. Now I'll have to buy a second Thomson for the Litespeed.

Saturday, an electrician came and installed two new light fixtures; one in the living room and the other in the kitchen. They are killer looking! He also installed 5 dimmer switches, so now all out main lights are on dimmers which is a nice touch. I need to find brighter bulbs for the kitchen fixture. I didn't realize it, but the fixture is European so it is set up as a 220 V (60 Hz) application. Venezuela uses 110 V (60Hz) like the USA, so my kitchen lights are dim. I am thinking of ways to solve this problem, maybe the best will be to see if I can swap out bulbs. Either that or modification.

My wife is starting to understand my vision of the apartment. It is starting to look pretty swanky. I like it a lot!

The rest of the 4-day weekend was low key. Just lots of bike riding.

This coming weekend; more apartment stuff on Saturday, maybe Merlin riding on Sunday.
MM