A Life, Built in Motion
Adventure isn’t something I save for someday.
It’s something I build into my life, one decision at a time.
MADCTY is about staying in motion—physically, creatively, and mentally. It grew out of a need to live more deliberately. To make things with my hands. To get outside more often. To choose effort over comfort and curiosity over routine. Some days that looks like training hard or chasing trails. Other days it means building, fixing, learning, and figuring things out as I go.
Movement changes how you see everything.
Over time, that mindset started shaping how I travel and how I design my life. Less rush. More intention. Fewer walls between work, rest, and play. Spaces that support experience instead of distracting from it. Projects that serve real use, not just ideas.
From Forums to AI: How I Finally Cracked My CB550 Charging Issue
If you’ve been following my café build, you know this 1974 Honda CB550 hasn’t exactly been a quick project. It’s been a journey of detours, head-scratching, and the occasional triumph when something actually works the way it should. In the past, when I’ve tackled big motorcycle jobs, my toolbox has always included forums, YouTube videos, and a healthy dose of guesswork. That’s how I learned to rebuild the top
Defying Convention, One Wall at a Time
Some adventures happen on mountain trails or river rapids. This one started with a house. On paper, it was simple: buy a home big enough for our blended family, update it, and settle in. In reality? Sticker shock, tight timelines, and the question that changes everything: do we trust ourselves enough to do this on our own? I’ve spent the last 20 years as an IT Director. My days
CB550 Café Build Update: Chasing Gremlins & Finding Flow
The CB550 build isn’t just about shiny parts and fresh paint—it’s about time in the garage, chasing down the gremlins hiding in the machine, celebrating small wins, and occasionally talking to robots for advice. Yes, really. The work is mostly done now. The bike is rolling, roaring, and looking sharper than ever. But if I’ve learned anything from this machine, it’s that the final 10% of a build is
Breaking Up with Sugar: 10 Days In
Sometimes change doesn’t come from chasing a goal-it comes from hitting a wall. For me, that wall was my skin. I’ve been wrestling with rosacea for a while now. Steroid creams, antifungal creams, antibiotics-some of it helps short-term, but the flare-ups always come back. At one point I thought: if my body is this unhappy on the outside, maybe it’s time to change what I’m putting inside. That thought
EUC Safety Gear at 50: Dressed for Crashes I Hope Don’t Happen**
Some people say 50 is the age to slow down. I say it’s the perfect age to balance on one wheel with enough body armour to make me look like a midlife action figure. Riding an EUC is freedom, but freedom doesn’t have to come with asphalt tattoos. Here’s the kit that keeps me rolling, and why each piece actually matters when you’re standing on a 65-pound gyroscope. Helmet
Flexibly Opportunistic Budgeting: How I Afford Adventures
“Adventure isn’t a luxury—it’s a prescription for health.” From the outside, it might look like I’ve got endless funds or zero restraint. Neither is true, although sometimes restraint can be an issue. What I try to practice is something I call flexibly opportunistic budgeting, a way of balancing patience, research, and opportunity so I can say yes to adventure without blowing up my financial responsibilities. Adventure is my self-care.
2024 Cafe build of 1974 Honda CB550
From Garage Sale Bargain to Custom Dream: My CB550 Journey Some projects find you when you least expect them. For me, it was a neighbour's garage sale around 2008 or 2009. I walked in looking for nothing, and rolled out with a motorcycle that would shape the next decade of my life: a Honda CB550 Four. The bike was older than me by a single year, stock, rough around
Pitching… um errrr Hanging your Hammock
For some reason after years of tenting my brain wants to call it pitching when you are setting up your sleeping quarters... It's been 2 years since I began to hammock camp when possible and I've had the joys of experiencing it a variety of locals from the Red Rock beauty of Sedona AZ, to the Jasper AB in the Majestic Rocky Mountains. Hammock camping is an increasingly popular
