Something To Think About

About a year ago I was cycling in Germany. It was an organised cyclingweekend, meant to keep in shape for the season to come. The weather was friendly, although a bit cold in the mornings, but temperatures were during the day comfortable enough to ride in cyclingshorts.
Our guide, having many years of cycling experience, told us that particarly these weatherconditions are the cause of many knee-problems racing cyclists suffer from. Because you think it's warm enough to ride in shorts, the knees are remaining too cold during the day which may cause rheumatic complaints in the years to come.
Keeping this in mind I actually bought a pair of knee-pieces, just to wear them while cycling in this time of the year when Spring just peeks around the corner.

Functional and Warm

During the winter this is my loyal companion when I'm cycling. Earlier this week it looked like Spring had finally arrived, but it seems that we still be having cold and wet conditions for the next two weeks.
So it's not yet time to stow the warm hats and gloves away. We have to be patient and sit this out. Well, it's not the end of the world.

Gloves

Cycling in winter demands good gloves. This weekend I bought a new pair. As you can see the padding should be sufficient enough for nice long touring.
My old pair of wintergloves didn't give much protection against the cold anymore. My wintergloves last about three seasons. I use them on my racing bike and trekking bike. It's important to take good notice that you have to look for windstoppers instead of, for instance, gloves that you use for skiing. Those get much too warm when cycling and gives you wet hands. That's not a nice feeling while cycling. That's why I always buy gloves with good protection against the wind. So my ride at cold days to, for instance, my work and back home will be much more fun than working on the office.
Come to think of it: cycling will allways be more fun than working.
Pendrawing made with my Visconti.

Wherever I Lay My Hat...

As cycling commuter it's important to have good clothing riding to and from your workingplace. There's a particular item I find most important: the hat. It prevents from sunburn during summer, a cold head in spring and fall and it keeps your glasses dry while cycling through the rain. Cotton hats are the best: not to warm in summer and not to cold in winter. Although I have another hat for extremely cold days, even with earprotection, I prefer cotton. The one I drew here is with me now for almost two years and although my wife says it needs to be replaced, I can't say goodbye: it almost became a part of me.

Multitool

I think that stainless steel is one of the most difficult surfaces to draw. For this drawing it took me a while (and several colorsketches) to make it look like stainless steel. It would have been easier to draw my Swiss knife. Perhaps a nice subject for another drawing.
Nevertheless multitools are very handy. When you're camping, hiking, cycling are even at home, sometimes you can make great use of them. I think the governement should give them for free!
Ink and watercolor, 4" x 6".

Holiday sketch

I'm not sure I made this drawing back in 1993 or 1995. In those two years I've held my holiday in France, bycicling in the Cevennes near the borders of the river Tarn. I don't even kept a record in which town I made the original sketch. The only thing I know it's the river Tarn and that we couldn't sleep there because of the noise the ducks made at night! It's about the only time I was glad to leave a campingsite.
During the day we never saw a duck (nor many people), but we made sure that the next campingsites during the trip were located far from a river or at least on the borders of a streaming river. So that when the noisy ducks show up at night, they quickly float by: "au revoir, monsieur Canard!"
Technique: pen and watercolor on Canson 300 grs.

Tour de France 2007

I spotted this guy in the background at this year's Tour de France.

True.