Merry Christmas

A little holiday cheer with my most favourite Christmas song of all time. Enjoy.

Paved Bike Mag

I like magazines. I don't read books that often...actually very rarely, but magazines...there's something about the glossy, colourful pages and bright pictures that manages to hold my short attention span "just" long enough. So in a (not so) recent magazine purchasing binge, I discovered a new bike magazine.

Paved bike mag, which states on the cover "A brand new skinny tire magazine from the editors of Bike."  As you can guess, the focus is entirely on road biking.

Flipping through the mag, there are lots of pics, some quite amazing pictures, actually. The kind that you look at and appreciate in an arty kind of way, but also make you wanna run out the door and head out for a ride. (Then you realize you're biking through the flat farms around Ottawa instead of the Italian Dolomites).

Col du Glandon, France

After a long ride...

Italian Dolomites.

As well as having lots of pretty pictures to look at, there are also some good articles. For the most part, they are well written and captivating enough to keep me engaged until the end of the article. Topics covered include the Italian Dolomites, The Tour of Flanders, doping (enough already!!) and interviews with Steve Hed and Chris Carmichael among others. There are reviews of some sweet commuter bikes, but the P&A (parts and accessories) reviews were a little lacking, and that's usually my favourite section of any bike magazine...the eye candy that I want to spend my hard earned cash on.

Young Belgian entrepreneurs...that ain't no lemonade that they're selling.

Overall, I'd say that it was a good magazine, with decent mix of incredible pics and interesting articles. On a sidenote, I've never flipped through Rouleur or Embrocation magazines, but I imagine that Paved is going for a similar feel. Issue #2 should be out soon, and I'm curious to see what it has in store.

Another new magazine that I've yet to come across at my local magazine stands (which actually only consists of Chapter's and a tiny magazine shop next to my work) is Peloton magazine. Not much to say here, other than I hope that the magazine is better than their website, which is absolutely horrible...everything is very small, hard to navigate through and feels like it was thrown together with no real thought ...like a lot of Ottawa bike lanes.

I'll have more magazine reviews in the future...I'm currently making my way through Wend (more of a travel magazine) and Mountain Flyer, a mountain bike mag from the western U.S. of A.

'Tis the season

Wow! It's been 2 weeks since I last showed my face here. This is a brief post, just urging you to head to the LCBO and check the selection of seasonal beers and gift packs. The following is a sampling of some beers that I picked up, but haven't tried yet, so get out there and give them a go for yourself.

 Winter ales. Typically darker, stronger and a touch sweeter than conventional ales. I tried the St. Peter's winter ale last year, and found it went really well with, believe it or not, shortbread. The Great Lakes Brewery winter ale features hints of cinnamon, honey, ginger and orange peel, while the Samuel Smith winter welcome ale remains rather mysterious, as there isn't a lot of info on the web about it other than reviews on beer advocate.

 Innis and Gunn....'Nuff said. But in case you're wondering, there's a gift pack featuring the regular brew, plus a bottle of rum cask, winter ale and an Innis & Gunn glass. In the green box is the Highland Cask, aged in casks used for a 21 year old single malt scotch.

Southern Tier Imperial Choklat Stout; this heavy weight comes in with 9.5% alc.....proceed with caution! Harviestoun Ola Dubh special 12 reserve; similar to Innis & Gunn, it's matured in single malt scotch casks. There's also a special reserve 16 and a special reserve 30, which costs close to $20 for a 330ml bottle! Cannery Brewing Blackberry Porter (self-explanatory), coming out of Pentiction, BC.