the Arcticcat blog

Rollin

2008-06-12T14:06:00.000-07:00

First run on my Jamis. Update coming tomorrow.

Hot!

2008-06-10T02:49:00.000-07:00

Over the last weeks, we've had some amazing weather all over southern Norway. 3 weeks of sun later, I'm happy to experience some rain, though it will only last for a day or two. The dry weather has resulted in some huge fires, and the country has been like nothing you would expect to find at the same latitude as Greenland?!

This picture is taken from a national newspaper, dagbladet.no. This is the situation everywhere now, it seems, and there was even rationing of water in a period. Looks like we have some seriously good cycling weather ahead! You can get detailed weather info for 700 000 places in Norway on yr.no. Just in case you need it...

Flere norske artikler om brannen/More norwegian articles on this fire:

- Ser ikke brannen fra helikopteret

Skogbrann i Froland truer hytteområde

Brannen kan sees fra verdensrommet

And I decided to buy it...

2008-06-09T03:36:00.000-07:00

I couldn't help it, I had to have that bike. So now I'm the proud owner of a Jamis Xenith! I'm going to upload some pics from my first rides soon...

The value of Google Maps for cyclists

2008-06-08T02:40:00.000-07:00

I've run over a little feature on maps.google.com that has proven to be extremely valuable for me as a bicycle rider. Ok, you're planning to go for a spin, and the area is not 100% familiar to you, how do you know if you have chosen a downhill run, or if the day is going to get filled with uphills? The simple solution to this is a genius tool called Path-Profiler

What you see here is the profile-output of a relatively long route. And what can this tell me? If and where I will encounter hills! And I really love this app, because I can really plan my rides better if I know these factors. To be able to see where these hills actually appear, you can of course see the path on the map (I cannot embed a map into this blog, because for some reason, google maps does not allow this when using path profiler). A little tip is to click the "follow roads" button, which allows you to select fewer waypoints and still get an accurate output.

My new bike??

2008-06-07T14:33:00.000-07:00

This is my first post, and it will probably be readen by just a couple of people, but this blog has to start somewhere, so I'll just fire it up...

This spring, I've been looking for a nice, new bicycle, a road bike. Today I finally found what seems to be a real scoop. The Jamis Xenith Comp is a full-carbon bike with Shimano Ultegra drivetrain, and 105 handles and brakes. I've heard a lot about these two lines, and my general impression is that they are both of high quality, and that the Ultegra has some similarities to the more expensive lineups. Anyway, Jamis cycles have created a nice specialized model with a crankset that is suitable for hilly routes and big mountains, which happens to pop up everywhere in this country...

The price of this neat little beauty is 10000 NOK ($2000), which is just the amount of money i want to spend on a bike. As stated in this review, by bicycling.com, the frame gives a very "snappy" ride, and supposedly feels very light, though it weighs in at 8,4 kg, which isn't record-busting. I found a review from a "paper" bicycling-magazine too, which gives much of the same feedback, and it really didn't make me want it less.

As I've already said, this bike is not the standard Xenith Comp, but the only difference really is the crankset. It gives the possibility of lower gearing, but if I buy this bike (which it seems that I will), that part is probably going to be replaced. The area where i live is not really in the middle of the steepest cliffs and deepest fjords, so i don't know if it's needed. I so want this thing anyway...