It's been almost a year and a half since I posted here. Life has gotten quite crazy here. Things are not what they once were, and they haven't gone like I had hoped. I'm not going to sharing any details here, but I wanted to get you updated o what is going on in the Slider-haus.
The last time I posted here was January 2025. So much has happened since then, so let's get started.
Back to Wyoming
The biggest news is that we are once again living in Wyoming. Things did not going like we had hoped in Wisconsin. The biggest bit was my job; it did not work out like I had hoped. With me back to searching for a job, and being unsuccessful, we just couldn't afford to live there.
I'm going to honest, I loved living in Wisconsin. It is a beautiful state and the area we lived in (suburb of Madison) had access to so many great resources. We had found a small Mexican market a few miles from our place, along with so many great local businesses, and an active social scene. In particular, I loved the green foliage and the bicycle culture there. A little tidbit, the Trek Bicycle headquarters and factory was a 12 mile drive from our place. Before we moved, I was able to attend one of their factory tours. As a long bicycle fan, it was so much fun!
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| Glacial Drumlin Bike Trail |
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| Touring the Trek Bicycle headquarters & factory. |
I'm now working for a local company here in Laramie. It is outside of my career field, but I've been working on maybe making my talents known to the company management and getting a position doing IT work for them. One area of IT that I've really been deep-diving into is cyber-security. The company I work for is a federal government contractor, so I've been learning about the requirements our government has for their business partners. It is quite fascinating to see what is necessary to become compliant. Keep your fingers crossed!
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| The ol' WyoLook '69 Bug is on hiatus at the moment. |
No progress on VWs at this moment
As of this writing. the VWs are on the back burner. With the move and trying to get reestablished here in Laramie, I just haven't had the resources to commit to getting her running and legal again. I really want to though, but we've got many other more pressing items that we need to focus on.
That being said, I'm excited about the time when I can get her running again. It's been about four years since I last drove her. The last time I drove her, I had to limp her home from our VW club meet. The club was going to do a cruise around Laramie since we had a bunch of buddies from Cheyenne, but leaving our meeting spot she started sputtering and would go any faster than about 15 mph. We weren't able to get her fixed, so I elected to drive her home. I suspect that the carb is gunked up or maybe the distributor isn't advancing. Right now I have the carb torn apart and plan to rebuild it. If that doesn't fix it, I will have to look at the ignition system.
Once I am able to start working on her again, I will definitely share what I find out.
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| My '98 Cannondale MultiSport 1000 during a rest stop on a ride last summer. |
Trying to move more to feel better
I started my commitment to moving more in Wisconsin and it's continuing here in Wyoming. I shared my bike exploration rides in Wisconsin, but I haven't shared what I've been doing here in Wyoming. Shortly after moving back, my brother and I were able to source a replacement wheel for the latest working bike in my stable, my '98 Cannondale MultiSport 1000. This is the bike that I got from him, with plans to use her for my multisport aspirations. Updates on that topic to follow.
With the last piece of the puzzle, I was able to get the MS1000 roadworthy. This last summer I probably rode her about a couple of hundred miles, doing small rides here in town. She still has some small issues I need to tend to, but otherwise she is working great. I was even able to ride on it when my eldest grandson and I went on our bike rides.
I'm loving her so much that I've already got some upgrades planned. I'd like to convert the front derailleur, brifters, and brake calipers to the same generation Ultegra as the rest of the parts. I also need to find replacement pads for the vintage Profile bolt-on aero-bars.
As the weather got colder, I had to put the bikes into hibernation. In lieu of bike rides, I've taken to either walks on the walking trails at the municipal parks, or doing hiking on the trails all over the Pilot Hill Recreation Area here in Laramie. It's been fun to explore the trails and making note of which trails I want to take a mountain bike on.
Speaking of mountain bikes, I hope this summer to get one of my mountain bikes restored and trail worthy. The first one is going to be one for my eldest grandson. My brother has located a 24" Cannondale Cujo that is indeed of some TLC. It's a multispeed bike (which he asked for last summer) and has disk brakes (something even I don't have!). My schedule has made the project a slow going, but I want him to be able to ride it on our neighborhood rides this coming summer.
With the Cujo safe and rideable, I'm going to focus on a mountain bike for me. My plan is to start with my '97 Klein Pulse Pro. This was my first ever mtn bike and it has sat for a long time. My plan is to do my normal bike restoration. I'll strip her down to the bare frame, give everything a good cleaning, repair/replace anything that is in need, and reassemble. Overall she is still in good shape, but the difficult part is going to be the suspension fork. I've got to accurately identify the model of fork, locate a rebuild kit for it, and then rebuild it. I've never rebuilt a suspension fork, so it is going to be a new challenge.
Well I'm going to wrap up this update for now. I will follow with news in the future. I hope you'll come back!
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