May 14th, 2018:

	A couple of my regular readers have expressed concern that I 
haven't posted an update since last Tuesday.  All I can say is "Get used 
to it!" as it is now officially cycling season for yours truly!  :)

I had my folding bike Felix out for a ride on Saturday morning.  Our city 
(Winnipeg) has what we call the "Giveaway Weekend", where we're allowed to 
put unwanted household items (furniture, electronics, bicycles, etc) on 
the front curb for anyone to grab for free.  It's pretty popular, and it's 
not uncommon to see pickups, 5-ton trucks, and vans scouring the city for 
freebies.

Officially, Giveaway Weekend starts at 6am on Saturday and runs til dusk 
on Sunday, but people were putting stuff out on the curbs at 5pm on 
Friday... and other people were out collecting as well.

I'm a little pissed about that.  On our way home Friday, I spotted a few 
bicycle trailers (kid haulers) in the area, but our car was full of 
groceries and had no room.  I made a mental note of their locations and 
told Mrs. IPX that I'd grab them once we're unloaded.  Once we'd gotten 
home and unloaded the groceries, I drove back to each place, only to find 
every single trailer gone.

In the space of a half hour.

So, Saturday morning, I grabbed Felix and headed out at sunrise.  Rode 
around the area for an hour, keeping an eye out for anything remotely 
bike-related, but no go.  I got back home around 6 am and made myself a 
cup of Lavazza for breakfast.

I *really* put Felix through his paces for that hour on Saturday.  Took a 
few sharp corners at speed and laid him down, wiping out on one occasion 
when my pedal hit on the downstroke.  Totally mistimed my turn.  Of 
course, I can't really perform that stunt at the best of times, so I 
didn't feel any particular sense of shame...

Tomorrow will be my first bike commute of the year, and I'm taking Felix.  
Now that I have a feel for how he rides, I'm going to see if he can handle 
the 32km commute (16km each way)... and how long it'll take me.  My 
average time last year was 45 minutes each way on my 10-speed 
MTB-turned-commuter bike.  I'm anticipating an hour each way on 
single-speed Felix.

I'll publish my results here tomorrow!