It’s been a little over a month since my biking to work post, and thought I’d post an update for anyone who might be interested… (probably just me, but I’m writing this post anyway )

I picked up the bike (Scattante R-660) and have been trying to bike in twice a week over the past month. I haven’t quite hit that mark every week, but I’m still working on it.  My office mate also picked up a bike around the same time, and we’ve been meeting up on the Sammamish River Trail, and biking in to work from there.

I’ve been keeping track of my miles/times/etc, and the chart below is a summary of my commute rides so far:  (the milage is different, as I’ve been driving to different parts of the trail, and biking from there)

Date	Miles To	Miles From	Minutes To	Minutes From	Avg MPH To	Avg MPH From
7/25/2008	9.8	9.8	47	45
8/1/2008	9.8	9.8	45	38
8/7/2008	9.8	9.8		50
8/12/2008	9.8	9.8	50.33	47.5		12.3
8/14/2008	9.8	9.8	48.75	37.5	11.9	15.6
8/21/2008	13.8	13.8	61	48.3	13.5	17.1
8/27/2008	13.8	13.8	55.75	47.5	14.7	17.3

 

Here’s a couple pictures of my new commuting setup, mounted on top of my old commuting setup

The roof rack seems to be working pretty well so far.  It’s the first time I’ve used one, and I was a bit paranoid that the bike/rack might come loose and fall off. So even though it was raining a bit, I had the sunroof open, and was checking on it for the entire drive

I’ve been toying with the idea of riding my bike to work for quite a while now, but for a variety of reasons, have not actually done it yet.  The primary reasons are:

• Distance: ~20 miles each way
• Bike: heavy, slow mountain bike that’s a bit too small for road use
• Conditioning: I’m out of shape, and don’t have much endurance (this is also one of the top reasons that I SHOULD be doing this )

 

I biked this route a few times back when I was working at Microsoft, but on my heavy and slow mountain bike, the trip took way too long, and I was incredibly sore afterwards.

This time around, my plan is to start small, and work my way up to the full distance.  There are several Park & Ride lots along the trail, so I can drive part of the route, park, then bike the rest of the way…

After talking with some friends who know much more about biking than I do, it sounded like this type of ride (nearly 100% smooth bike trails with no hills or traffic) would be very doable, and much, much easier on a road bike.

So, after a bunch of research, test rides, and comparisons, I finally took the plunge and bought a road bike.  It’s a 2008 Scattante R-660.  While not a “name brand” bike (Scattante is the house brand for Performance bike shops), it was by far the best fit for me in the test rides, and also the best component package in my price range.  I’ll try to remember to post a review at some point after riding it on some longer rides. (I don’t actually have it yet, but I should be able to pick it up sometime this week as the shop is scheduled to build it later today) 

Aside from hopefully getting into shape, (and building up some more endurance to help keep up with my coworkers at our weekly soccer games) I also like the idea that I’ll be using less gas… both for the environmental benefits, as well as for the benefits to my wallet.  A full tank of gas in the Corrado is over $80 right now, so the fewer times I have to fill it up, the better!

2008 Scattante R-660

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The heater core blew up in the Sunbird yesterday while I was out getting a late lunch… (I got to ride home in a tow truck!, woohoo!) 

 

Soooo, it appears that it’s time to get the Corrado back on the road…

 

I got it fired up and running last night (new battery, topped off the fluids, put some air in the tires) and took it for a quick test drive around the block to make sure everything was working.  This morning on the way into work, I gave it a quick wash (mainly to be able to see out of the windshield!), passed the emmissions test, put on new plates/tabs and put it back on the insurance.

 

It hasn’t been driven in about a year, so I wasn’t sure what to expect on my drive into work today.  Fortunately, the trip went well, with no strange noises, smells, leaks, etc   Hopefully the return trip tonight will be the same!

 

 

I’m pretty excited, as this is waaay more fun to drive than the Sunbird…

 

Now I just need to start tackling the to-do list for the car that I’ve been putting off:

• Put all the interior trim panels back on (removed when I replaced the sunroof)
• Figure out why the spoiler isn’t going up/down any more (wiring/motor issue?)
• Find a used engine trim cover for the plug wires to snap into
• Add a battery cut-off switch to help with the small battery drain when the car is sitting for a while
• Look into doing the timing chains before the guides fail (Yikes!)
• etc…

I realize that I am waaay overdue for another post, so I figured I’d take this opportunity to let you know that my wife Janet has started a blog as well…

http://lookingforsunshine.wordpress.com/

The password for her ”protected” posts is the same as the one I’ve been using for mine. 

(Send me an email at: selmerakt _at_ hotmail.com if you need the password)

Ever since I got my Akai EWI a little while back, I’ve been looking for a suitable case and a stand that will hold it (so I don’t have to lay it on a table, or the ground when I’m not playing it.)  I’m not sure why, but for some reason, Akai decided not to make either of these, so anyone purchasing this instrument needs to get a bit creative to come up with something that will work.

After some searching, I discovered that the ProTec “Pro Pac” Soprano sax case (model 310) is a good fit for the EWI, and there are a number of players out there that are already using it. (unfortunately all the stores seem to have these on backorder right now, so it might be a while before I end up with one)

I also stumbled across a pretty creative stand design that another EWI player came up with (I think I found it in the Wind Controller Yahoo group) that uses a guitar stand, and a drink holder designed for a drum stand.

I went over to Bellevue American Music last week to get the parts, and had it assembled shortly after I got home… It was extremely easy/simple to put together, and works great!

This is the Gibraltar drum “cup holder” that the EWI rests in…

I specifically chose this guitar stand because of the additional “strap” that goes across the opening, and prevents the instrument from falling forward. (although it’s actually much more stable than I anticipated, and would probably be fine without this feature)

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I got a new toy a few weeks ago, but since we now have a baby around, I haven’t had a lot of time to play around with it yet.

It’s an “EWI 4000s” from Akai Professional.

What’s an “EWI” you ask? It stands for Electronic Wind Instrument, and is basically an electronic saxophone. The links below have some more info, and can explain it better than I can. 

• http://www.akaipro.com/prodEWI4000s.php 
• http://www.patchmanmusic.com/ewi4000s.html
• http://www.ewi-evi.com/4000s.htm

I took a stab at recording a “My Jesus I Love Thee” sax quartet that I happen to have music for, and have attached a link to the WMA file… MJILT_EWI_sax_quartet.wma

It’s definitely not perfect, as I was just playing around with it, but it was kinda fun being able to push a couple buttons to quickly change what key the instrument was playing in. This made it easy to cycle through the Alto, Tenor, Bari parts…All 4 parts used the same “patch” (sound) called “Tuba” I still need to play around more with the different sounds to see what other good ones there are…

(the “chirp” or “blip” type sounds are because my transition between notes on the touch sensitive keys needs some practice)

I’ll post some more clips down the road, as I get more comfortable playing it…

In the meantime, here’s a video of an EWI in use, that shows a bit more of it’s potential:

(all sounds/parts in the video, aside from the drums are from the EWI, and were performed live, into a looper pedal to layer the parts)

-aaron

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