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The first step in developing the "Clipless Glove" is determining which clipless system I'm going to use. Everything else will then be built around that. Here's what I've found and considered so far. Any suggestions or donated parts would be most welcome.

The Open Prosthetics Project has re-motivated me to work on a solution that allows my sister to ride a bicycle. I explain here.

Where have I been, you ask? Busy, very busy. Hopefully things will begin to slow down. I finally found the time last week to order the parts for my bike (new rings). They came in today and I got them installed only to discover that I had leaked brake fluid. D'oh! Seeing as I had the time (a real commodity these days) I went for a short ride around the pond out back anyway. It's been real wet this year and the mud was a real challenge, but it felt good to ride, even if it was only for a few short minutes with no downhill sections.

Figures, someone else has beaten me to another one of my farfetched ideas. Let me explain. I have been repairing my own bikes for years. I have never really needed to take my bike to the shop. However, I always wanted to do more. Wouldn't it be cool to build my own bike? Absolutely!! As I considered the possibilities I never really saw myself producing the run of the mill mountain bikes of today. Instead, I always saw myself custom designing chopper bikes. The 'Jesse James of bicycles', if you will. I've had in mind something along the lines of a cross between the old Schwinn Sting-Rays (minus the banana seat) and cruiser bikes. I can just picture myself tooling around town; sitting back, arms and legs outstretched... [fade to fuzzy dreamlike state]

I went on my first ride of the year yesterday - er we tried. The snow has slowly been melting over this past week and the grass has begun to show through in spots. My brother and I decided that the fire roads would be best as any off road trails would be too wet and/or snowy. Boy, was that an understatement! You see, when we got up to the end of the access road we found some 2 feet of snow up in the hills. As the snowmobiles had packed it down pretty good we figured we'd give it a shot. Well, 40+ degrees for 4 or 5 days in a row had softened the show just a little too much. We were able to go down hill easily enough (it was a little slow with all the resistance from the softer snow) but just sat still, spinning when trying to go up even the slightest incline. With my wider tires, and better balance ;) I was able to go about 20 feet before hitting a small knoll. My brother, on the other hand, got nowhere fast. We had to walk our bikes back up while snowmobilers whizzed by giving us strange looks. I then rode down the muddy access rode, wishing I had mudguards, while my brother followed in the truck, laughing. Sorry, no pics. I still need to buy a good camera.

On a positive note, we did determine that switching out our wheels for skis would be the ultimate ride. We have a certain friend, who's father often finds old discarded skis near the local ski resort. With a little rigging we should be set to go. I can't wait to try it.