Thursday, September 30, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Really ...TT bikes?
Generally I would say that I think the whole TT/Triathlon bike scene is well.....gay. But I must say, that looks like a hell of a lot of fun. Scott, you nailed it, that bike is hott.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
CBC News - Technology & Science - Rockies fossils yield 8 new species
Extraordinary New Discoveries of Localized Arthopods in Kootenay Park.
Oh I want nothing more than to be a part of all this. 8 years of school is unfortunately not in the cards :(
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Back to school: Day 1
Meems is in Grade 1 and Julian has moved to the middle school for Grade 4. What will this year bring? It brought snow this morning!
CBC News - Technology & Science - Electric car ends coast-to-coast trip
An engineering student from B.C. is claiming to be the first person to cross mainland Canada in an electric car.
Ricky Gu, 21, arrived in Halifax in his converted 1972 Volkswagen Beetle on Monday night.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/09/07/ns-electric-car-gu.html#ixzz0yquyK4kF
Monday, September 6, 2010
Sunday, September 5, 2010
LEGO party!
One of the last things we needed to do before summer holidays are over was to have a LEGO party. I have to admit, I still LOVE Lego and had a fantastic time.
This is Amelia's Ice Cream shop. The owners were very nice and gave us free ice cream and pancakes. Mmmm.
A Huge Bionicle Julian and a friend built last week.
Julian's driving cannon.
The Pigeon Assault Ship built by Julian.
My contribution was a WASP speeder.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Lake Louise to Jasper Road Trip
Here are a few pics from our LL to Jasper trip last month. Sorry for the delay. 11 of us ended up riding this great two day tour with 136 km of riding on Day 1 and 96 on Day 2. Next weekend we are planning a ride from Revelstoke to Nakusp to Kaslo. Pics will be available from that ride as well.
Michael leading us up the approach to the big climb of Day 1, Sunwapta Pass.
Will loading up the bikes at the end of our trip.
Cathy dropping us on the big climb.
The group about 12km from the finish. All quite cold and ready for pizza and beer by this point. A big 27km stage inflicted some mental damage as those hills just kept coming during the monsoon rains.
Chris leads out on stage 4 on the first day.
Luke shows that Pop Tart who's boss in our camp at the Columbia Icefields.
Cole looks cool as a cucumber after the big Sunwapta climb. He rode every km of that trip. He made his ski coach happy!
Cathy looks way too relaxed. We need bigger climbs on the next ride.
A short break before taking the last stage of Day 1 up Sunwapta Pass which is visible in the background. Me, Michael, Cole, Cathy, Luke, Chris and Will.
Golden Nordic Racers Represent!
Golden Skate Park
Julian hitting the wall.
and jumping his sisters bike after his 3rd tire blowout of the week.
Julian and Mimi's pink bike.
As always Meems is a great sister and lets J use her bike. She selected the scooter as her tool of choice.
Getting more comfortable in the park.
Family Visit
Pedestrian Bridge Tourist Photo
More family photos. Julie, Meems, Mike, Julian and Dana.
Our guests loving the bike rides around Golden on a perfect late summer evening. On our way to The Bistro for some great food.
Mike showing us his ever so contemporary white sock tuck into his chinos. Lookin' good.
My cousin Julie and her great boyfriend Mike came for a few days to hang with the Hudson's. We had a great time catching up on the past ten years of life and simply showing them our great little town. Of course, it involved riding bikes. It always pays to have a bunch of extra bikes hanging around and we set up Mike and Julie with a couple rides to tour around town on.Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Bugaboo Threadworks...A Nostalgic look into the past.
Holy Crap. A long time ago in a basement not so far away, Bugaboo Threadworks was born. It's early days were filled with industrial sewing repairs, screwing up zippers in peoples clothing and making cool bouldering stuff for me friends.
As the biz developed more and more people came to me to place orders for random things from compression sacks to throw bags to dog packs and duffel bags.
It took three years for me to actually assemble a list of items that I would make for people and when that happened the orders started rolling in. It seems as though there was a little market for custom made, hand sewn in the Koots products.
I had so much help from so many people to develop a line of cool and functional products. They offered assistance with shop space, photography, design and layout for our catalogue.
We tested tonnes of stuff and either watched it hold up to the rigors of abuse or saw if fall apart in a pile of cordura and stitching. It was fantastic. People rolled through the shop, hung out, played music, offered input and bought stuff.
I was contacted by the folks at Gripped Magazine, in their first year of publication I believe to send in some products for review. I put a haulbag, chalkbag and a 40L daypack in the mail and two months later saw my gear in an industry magazine. It was so unbelievably cool.
The haulbag I heard ended up in Yosemite with a bunch of dirtbags, with the chalkbag and pack staying in Ontario as cragging tools. I was so happy to see gear of mine across the country.
As things unfolded my attention turned mostly to custom lightweight climbing and ski packs. I never really made any money on them after the loads of hours I spent tweaking ideas and the designs but it sure did create inspiration within me like I had never felt before.
Eventually I got the point where orders were exceeding my capable delivery schedules and I needed to make the choice of go big or bust. At the time we were thinking of a family, buying a house and requiring a steady cash flow, something which BTW did not always consistently offer.
We chose to close the business while we were ahead. It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do.
I still get asked regularly if I can repair stuff or make random things for people. "Do you still have a machine?" is asked about four times a month and I unfortunately say no.
Bugaboo Threadworks offered flexibility, constant creativity and seat of your pants problem solving. It was exciting, and adventurous. Scary and exhilarating.
These days I seem like I live on cruise control. The creativity in my life seems lost, routine has created complacency.
I need a new vision, something that will excite me and instill passion as I once had.
There are ideas...but do I take the plunge and the financial risk? I want nothing more.
Cover art for the BTW 2002 catalogue.
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