What We've All Been Waiting For

$40,000. Forty. Thousand. Dollars. That's a four, with four zero's behind it, and a dollar sign in front of it! That's the retail value of our five Team bikes! It's crazy to think that something that rings the scales at a feathery 16 pounds, costs the same amount as a good used car, will be obsolete in less then two years AND doesn't even drive itself!

For the time being though, the Giant TCR Team Advance is among the most technologically advanced bikes on the market. The first mass-produced bike to feature the ISP - Integrated Seat Post design - a design feature that removes the seatpost and clamp entirely, and shaves a few ounces, increases stiffness AND efficiency. The carbon frame tubes are manipulated throughout the frame. The bottom bracket area is massive and chunky - fighting flex. The top tube is triangulated and arcs ever so slightly, the downtube flows from the head tube, contorting from an ovalized shape, to a more triangulated shape before snapping back to an oval, again increasing stiffness, but maintaining superb ride quality. No detail was left out; the handlebars are pure art - a mere 156 grams, and the seat? 135 grams of leather and carbon fibre. I can't wait to ride this thing!

On another note, the Glotman.Simpson crew got down to business last weekend, riding the dual mountains - Cypress and Seymour - after visiting Whye Cliff park. The controlled ride to Cypress broke out into a very concentrated tempo ride to the very top of the Hollyburn Cross-Country area, a nutcracker if you will. I'm glad I managed to stay with the lead pack, with the twins Mo and Chris taking charge of the pace. More of the same this weekend, unfortunately, the weather will be significantly different from the 16 degrees and sunny skies we rode in last week.

Changes In The Wind

After taking a few much deserved years away from bicycle racing, I have decided, no, coerced(!) into racing again. Not on any grand scale mind you, but to have fun, be somewhat more fit (I hope) and race a handful of provincial calendar events.

For some strange reason, sweeping changes have become commonplace in my life of late. Continuing with this trend, I have resigned from Trek-Red Truck Beer this past month, the very Team that supported me through my racing endeavors at the height of my (not so) formidable cycling career. Instead, I've opted to join a young, up-start Team lead by Schmidt. Backed primarily by Glotman.Simpson, Vancouver's leading engineering firm, co-owned by Geoff Glotman, a cycling aficionado and all around good-guy. Glotman.Simpson is a small squad by cycling standards, with only 5 close-knit, master-aged racing members. John Perkins Jr., an award winning west coast architect and key sponsor in the form of his design firm, Perkins & Company Architecture and Urban Design Inc., plays two roles; on top of his involvement as a Team sponsor, John is also an integral part of our Team, bringing a history of National-level alpine skiing, together with a handful of top finishes in BC road racing. Oh, he also owns a beautiful house in Whistler, which he opened for our first Team meeting. Hopefully, we'll have the pleasure to return to his very fine digs soon!

The full team, seen here, include (from L-R) the twins Maurice and Chris Worsfold (or is that Chris and Maurice?), me (duh!), John Perkins and our Team Chief, Dan Schmidt.

Highly doubtful that we'll set the racing world alight, but we are bound to have some good times in the saddle, and if we squeek in a top placing here and there, all the better!

When not racing and training with the Glotman.Simspon squad, I'll be riding as part of the WestSide Cycling Club, or WSC for short, which is quickly adopting the moniker of the "Pink Panther Posse" (among many others).

Another fine group of cycling nutbars, the WSC guys get together on a frequent basis to shoot the sh*t, ride bikes and drink copious amounts of coffee. All told, there's about 30 members of this fashion-savvy (!) Club, lead by the infamous Italian, Thomas Elezegui (I doubt that's how you spell his last name, but what the hell). Primary sponsors of the Club include Brian Hill's TNA clothing empire, and fellow gearhead, Dan Scholten and his Broadway Roofing business. The Club has FUN written all over it!

Out with the Old, In with the NEW!

Over the course of the past 30 some-odd days since my last posting, much has gone on. The frenzy of Christmas has come and gone, the ringing in of an entirely New Year, and now, back to the same old, daily grind.

But what of 2006? It was a year filled with many good memories; Our road trip from Vancouver to the Kootenays, through the magestic Rockies and on to Saskatchewan is one memory I won't soon forget. The rugged, snow capped Rocky Mountains are truly a sight no Canadian should go without. Getting a smidge of fitness and racing (and actually finishing) the first annual Giro di Burnaby was akin to my first Gastown experience - a heckuva lot of fun!

2006 also marks a significant transition in my life. Departing from Cycling BC was a step I had to take for many reasons, not least of which was to grow myself and my skills. Thanks to Thomas and his encouragement, I also enrolled in UBC's Real Estate Licencing Course. With 4 (of 19) assignments submitted to date, and a 90% average, I hope to take my licencing exam by mid-June. What happens next is anyone's guess, but even if I never sell a home, the knowledge and insight I have gain in the first two months alone are worth the price of admission.

Predictions for 2007? It's early days yet, being an optimist, you tend to put on rose-colored glasses and seek new opportunities wherever you go, and try not to let distant experience shape what the future may hold for you. An entirely new piece of real estate isn't too hard to imagine, though that decision rests largely on what the market is doing and what it has to offer. Further developments on the personal front are also very likely.

Sit back, get comfortable, and enjoy the ride, and Happy New Year To All!

Listen carefully, is that the sound of a bubble starting to deflate?

The first price 'correction' since 2001? Can it be? The once bullish analysts showing signs of retreat, offering whims of caution over their all-to-familiar mantra of "prices will never go down".

Detached house prices are down some 1.8%, while condo sales are forging the same path - south by 1.5%. While not a significant dip by any standards, it is the first sign of price relief since August, 2001. Encouragingly (for Allisa and I), the average condo price on the west side has tumbled over $40,000 since their September peaks.

Don't run off dreaming of mortgaging the kids for that Kerrisdale home just yet - November has been an off month which may have had an effect on prices - a spot of winter, power outages, snow, and now Christmas - has all but removed the thoughts of real estate sales off many peoples mind. The real figures will come in early spring, when the hangover of Christmas and New Years has worn off.

Stay tuned, these are exciting times!

So Good. So, So Good.

Every once in a long while, I stumble upon a book so inexplicably good that, for the life of me, I can’t put down regardless of what I'm doing, or where I am. Bill Bryson’s “A Short History Of Nearly Everything” is just such a book.

An absolute ‘must read’ for any person remotely interested in science and how we evolved to be who (and where) we are. It's a dazzling journey, an intellectual odyssey of a lifetime, as this book attempts to understand and explain everything that has transpired on our little blue planet; from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization. Or, as the author so elequantly puts it "...how we went from there being nothing at all to there being something, and then how a little of that something turned into us, and also what happened in between and since."

With each page turned, I find myself mesmerized, stealing time here and there just to read another passage; a mad rush to absorb all the astonishing wonder on offer between its covers. As one review succinctly put it, ‘It moves so fast that it’s science on a toboggan!’ I simply refer to it as mind-blowing and enlightening. Go on, have a read, my copy will be done – all 500 plus pages – barely a week after cracking its cover!

Batting 1000.

A very quick post before the weekend officially blankets us - I just received my marked exam. YEAH BABY, 100%!

So it's Back To School Then!

After more then a decade in the doldrums (not really), it's time to fire up the grey matter and get back to the hustle and bustle of school life. This time through correspondence and almost exclusively online, so no more - well, not for now anyway - late nights spent cramming at UBC's Woodward Library. Now its a fight against time, in that I have a year in which to complete the Real Estate Trading Services Licencing Course!

The plan? To have the course reading complete, all assignments submitted, AND enter the licencing exam by next summer, a little better then 6 months on. Can it be done? Surely. With an entire book filled with multiple choice ditties like:

Which of the following statements concerning disclosure statements in BC is FALSE?
1.) A disclosure statement must be provided by a developer to a buyer where an offer of sale or lease relates to a time share interest in a development unit.
2.) A disclosure statement must indicate that the purchaser has the right to rescind the purchase agreement by serving written notice of the rescission on the developer.
3.) A strata plan must be filed in the land title office or a building permit issued in relation to the strata lot before a strata lot may be offered for sale.
4.) One of the supporting documents which must accompany the disclosure statement is a certificate from a lawyer who is a member of the Law Society of BC confirming that a true copy of the disclosure statement will be delivered to the prospective purchaser or lessee.

Yawn! Add several written assignments to each chapter, and you will quickly understand my trepidation of sticking to my 6 month plan!

Will I have time to do everything I've planned for the coming year AND get my licence? That remains to be seen!

Oh, the answer by the way, is 4. But you already knew that.