It‘s been a month since my first post here and let me tell you, a lot of things have changed bike-wise.

Finally, a few months after I bought the Kazane frame and after months of saving money

for parts, a friend of mine put all pieces together and the Kazane saw the light of day.

I have to admit that I kinda neglect my fixed-gear bike now and only use it for daily commuting,

but it is just so tempting to take the road bike and as you leave the city, you are in the nicest and most

beautiful countryside you can imagine. There are just so many places to go and so many different options

when you have gears around here, it would be a pity not to do it.

Besides a few other rides, I have been going up the „Schauinsland“ mountain about 10 times in the past

3 weeks – with it‘s elevation of 1,284 m (4213 ft) it is a nice but challenging climb – at least for me

as a rookie roadie.

As you reach the top, there are a few different ways to extend your ride or go down – this morning I

decided to cross over and descend into the „Münstertal“ valley. This turned out to be a great choice:

a road in great condition (at least the first half), great views and hardly any cars made this a lot of fun.

Leaving the valley, you come through the little town of „Staufen“, I especially liked the ruin of an old

castle situated on a little hill close by. Coming from the flat northern part of Germany, this gave me

„vacation feelings“ again, as riding my bike in this area usually does.

After all, this round had a lot to offer: a climb, a descent, some flat parts and a few little hills –

all this within about 60km.

The weather was amazing and it was great to do the ride before the heat of the afternoon.

Coming back to Freiburg I stopped at the market, just around the corner from my place,

I bought some fresh, locally grown fruit for breakfast, before I had to get dressed up for a friends wedding.

Since Jon & Stacey took their tandem with them to Europe for their honeymoon, I thought I should

post this picture of the couple:

My friends will not be traveling with this tandem, but they rode it to the ceremony – still pretty classy.