Back from the Dead

Sierra Designs Halfmoon Tent

I bought this Sierra Designs Halfmoon tent around 1991.  It was my first kick ass lightweight backpacking tent.  I loved it a lot and we had many adventures together.  Then two unfortunate things happened:  1) I dumped a whole pot of turkey stew in it on one dismal evening when I decided I’d eat in my tent  2) a few years later I broke a few pole sections during a storm at a paragliding site in Utah.  Living in Western Canada having a tent that smells of turkey is not ideal.  Bears are a real problem and they like turkey stew!  The broken poles just pushed me over the edge and I gave the tent away to some friends who needed a small tent with the understanding they’d fix it and use it.

I was just pet sitting at my friends’ place and noticed they still had the tent and it wasn’t repaired.  Since they hadn’t used it in nearly 10 years I figured I’d ask for it back.  They didn’t mind and don’t plan on doing much camping in the future regardless.  I dropped by MEC and they very helpfully got me some replacement poles I could cut down to size.  Not only did the lady at the customer service counter go out of her way to find me the poles she felt bad they weren’t the exact length I needed and was willing to spend a whole bunch more time rooting around in their spares area looking for a better match.  So not only did they give me the poles for free this wasn’t even a tent MEC ever sold!  Great store!…=-)

Once I got home it was just a matter 15 mins of cutting and reassembling the poles until I had a tent again.  I’m not sure if a bear could still smell the turkey stew after a decade plus, but I do lots of camping in the SW US and Baja deserts were there are no large omnivores that are trying to eat me.  So this tent will get used there.  I may even leave it with some friends in LA so I have a tent when I fly in to town.

I must say that I am a tent snob and own 3 super sweet tents from Marmot and Big Agnes.  I was really surprised how well this nearly 20 year old tent has stood the test of time.  It’s light, strong and has lots of usable living space inside.  It’s showing a bit of wear and tear from some hard use, but nothing tragic.  I imagine that I could get another decade of moderate use out of this tent if I don’t do something silly again like pitch it on an unprotected ridge during a crazy windstorm.

It’s first mission will be to come with me to Baja.  My main tent down there will be a 4 person Big Agnes Big House 4. The Big House lives up to it’s name and provides an excellent stand up shelter for a long term camp like I’ll have in Baja for 8 weeks.  What it doesn’t do is setup easily or quickly so when I stop my truck at midnight and just want to roll into a tent with minimal hassle the Halfmoon will get the call as it sets up in a flash.  The Halfmoon will also give me a backup shelter in case the Big House gets damaged.  The last tent I broke was on my 2008 4 week trip to Baja so I’d like to prepared for that possibility.

MEC Bikes

MEC 1971 Bike

MEC has started selling bikes.  As Canada’s largest outdoor retail operation [similar, but much smaller than REI] MEC has a lot of muscle power getting products to Canadians.  At first glance the bikes they are offering seem like decent machines at reasonable prices. At the same time nothing much has jumped out at me as being particularly amazing.  Having said that I’m happy to see that more folks will be exposed to some decent bikes.  It can’t hurt.

Interestingly I spoke to the manager of a small high end bike shop a few blocks from MEC and they were optimistic that bike shoppers would be drawn to the area by MEC, but may end up buying nicer rides from shops like theirs.

I’m busy getting ready to head to Baja so I won’t have time to check these bikes out in more detail until early 2010.

Waterproof Camera Review

Canon D10

Damian was kind enough to post a link to a test of the current generation of waterproof point and shoot digital cameras – thanks!.  Check it out here.

Canon D10

Canon D10 Waterproof Camera

I am super excited that Canon has stepped into the waterproof point and shoot digital camera ring with their new D10.  I have been very pleased with all my previous Canon products and their customer service has been outstanding.  I bought one of their waterproof housings for an older Canon digital camera and it was very rugged and absolutely waterproof, but it was also really bulky and awkward to use.  As a result I ended up with the waterproof cameras from Olympus and Pentax that I’ve posted about recently.

I haven’t read much about the D10 yet so I don’t know what to expect.  Given the performance of the other waterproof cameras I’ve been using the bar has been set pretty low so far.  Hopefully this Canon will impress me.  I’m going to hold off buying a new waterproof camera until either my Olympus Stylus 850SW or my Pentax Optio W20 give up the ghost completely.  That may give Canon enough time to develop a 2nd generation waterproof camera and fix any bugs that inevitably turn up in a 1st generation product.

Pentax Optio W20

Pentaz Optio W20

I posted yesterday about my Olympus Stylus 850SW that wasn’t waterproof.  I thought I’d post briefly about my other waterproof point and shoot – my Pentax Optio W20.  You can read this detailed review to learn about its specs and features.  I’ve owned this camera for a number of years based on the recommendation of a kayak guide I met in Baja.  As you would expect the camera a water-sports professional likes was and is actually waterproof!  I have abused this camera far more than it deserves and it continues to work for me without complaint.  On the plus side the construction seems pretty bombproof and the camera is dead easy to use.  Ever since I got my Olypmus Stylus last Dec I’ve been loaning this camera to all my friends.  They haven’t been gentle with it and they haven’t had any issues with it – except one I’ll mention below.  Picture quality is not bad, but not great.  It’s worse than my Stylus 850SW, but not by a lot.  Where it does suffer is in comparison to my Canon S870IS.  Again as with my Stlus as long as it provides worry free waterproof performance and remains robust I can live with average picture quality.  After all I wouldn’t dare pull out my Canon point and shoot on a surfboard or in the pouring rain.

This camera has some issues though:

• Since there is no lens cover water drops or dirt can get onto the lens and unless you pay attention you can take a whole bunch of ruined photos without noticing the problem on the LCD screen.  This happened on a kayak trip in Baja where dried salt on the lens made 20-30 photos my friend took pretty much useless – she was seriously bummed.  Since I’m aware of the problem I regularly clean the lens and I haven’t had a problem myself.
• The camera body is very rounded which makes holding it one handed tough – especially when wet.  I like to grab my camera from my bike’s bar bag and shoot one handed while riding – this is virtually impossible with this camera.  I bought a silicone sleeve for it [$25cdn] that made it much easier to hold, but the sleeve made using the controls tough and eventually it ripped apart.
• The camera uses a non-standard USB cable so you have to bring a special cable with you when traveling which is a pain.  Canon uses a standard mini-USB which I can share amongst several USB devices on a trip – thanks Canon!
• The battery charger is much bulkier than my Canon chargers which is a pain when traveling. I can’t see any reason for this than poor design.

Pentax Optio W80

As a note the W20 is out of production, but Pentax has a new waterproof model the Optio W80, which appears to be a direct response to Olympus’ Stylus line of cameras.  The W80 looks to be more squared at the corners so I’m hoping it will be easier to hold.

Olympus Stylus 850SW

Olympus Stylus 850SW

I’ve been using an Olympus Stylus 850SW for much of my sports photography since I got it last Dec for my Baja trip.  For the most part it’s been a good camera for me.  It doesn’t take the best photos, but the fact it’s waterproof and shockproof make that a fair trade for not having worry about it when I’m out and about.

I took it to the SUP demo this weekend and had it in my pocket while in the water.  It took a dozen photos for me and then the LCD stopped working.  The camera still powered on, but there was no life on the screen.  I put the camera away and when I opened it the next day there was water in the battery/memory card compartment.  I took out both items and left the camera sit open on my desk.  I eventually got around to trying it again and the LCD was working again.

Doing some research it seems that I’m not the first person to have issues with the camera’s waterproofing.  I checked the seals and they were clean and secure so I think I’ve got a leak somewhere else.  Since the camera is still under warranty I’m going to send it off and hope I get service from Olympus that is as good as the service I’ve received from Canon. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

It would also be nice to get the camera back before I leave for Baja in November, but that seems unlikely.  I’ll settle for having a waterproof camera when I get back in Jan 2010.

As a note Olympus has replaced this model with a newer version that may perform better underwater.

RIP XRs…=-(

Schwalbe Marathon Dureme

Well I’m sad to report that Schwalbe seems poised to terminate the Marathon XR which has been a favourite tire of mine for a few years now.  I’ve got ‘em on my Surly LHT and my Surly Big Dummy.  I think I have a spare XR in 26″ and one in 700c so I’ll be good for a while longer given how hard wearing these tires are, but sooner or later I’ll wear out my last XR and it will be the end of an era.

On the positive side Schwalbe has three new touring tires in the Marathon line up which seem like they will be able to fill the shoes of the XR capably:

• Marathon Supreme: is a semi-slick touring tire for those paved road only rides where you want durability and puncture protection in a faster tire.
• Marathon Extreme: is a knobbier and lighter cousin of the XR that can handle dirt and gravel roads.
• Marathon Dureme: seems to be somewhere in the middle with more tread than the Supreme and less tread than the Extreme.  It’s supposed to be very long wearing.

We may be looking back in a couple years and not missing the XRs at all.  The new Schwalbe touring tires may be better and we’ll be happy they made the switch.  Of course it’s possibly we’ll be looking back wistfully at the XR wishing they still made it….only time will tell.  The thing the XR had going for it was a long history of working well for the hardcore bike tourist.  That’s a reputation Schwalbe’s new rubber will have to earn.

If you are a Schwalbe XR fan there is still stock of this tire at many vendors so grab some while you can.

Don’t blame the Scorchers!

I love these tires...=-)

I recently got what I thought was my first flat running Greenspeed Scorcher TRs on my Bike Friday Tikit. I’ve had them on my bike for two full riding seasons and this bike gets abused through all the typical debris that you’d find in any large downtown area.  I actually thought 1 flat in two seasons was a great record.

Well I finally got around to cleaning my Tikit and figured I better fix that flat.  Upon pulling the tube I discovered that the flat was on the inside of the tube where it had been rubbing on a bulging spoke nipple.  The nipple was covered by the rim tape, but I guess friction and two years of hard riding eventually took their toll.

So for the record my Scorchers are still flat free!  I love a perfect record…=-)

Rigida Tugsten-Cardbide Rims

Photo: SJSC

Two of the most common issues brought up when discussing the downsides of rim brakes are wearing out rims and wet weather performance.  Rigida has come out with a Tungsten Carbide treatment for their rims that seems to resolve both these issues.  Rims last many times longer than normal and wet weather braking is improved.  The downside is that you need to use brake pads specially made for these rims, but that’s no different than having to buy brand/model specific disc brake pads if you ran discs to resolve the same problems.

Interestingly they have a special Rohloff drilling to allow spokes to follow a more natural path when used with high flange hubs like the Rohloff.

Photo: SJSC

What SJSC says:

“Ultra hard wearing Carbide Super Sonic brake surface, allowing fantastic braking and wear characteristics. The carbide is projected at seven times the speed of sound on to the rim embedding it into the alloy. Unlike a ceramic surface it cannot flake away as it is part of the rim (not a layer). The only recommended brake blocks are Swisstop C.S.S. Blue V brake blocks.”

Quiet Disc Brakes

Photo: Velonews.com

From Leonard Zinn’s colum on Velonews.com:

“Swiss trains are always on time, and their brakes don’t squeal when they come into the station, thanks to a special spray technicians apply to their brake pads that smoothes the friction surface with sliding platelets of molybdenum and graphite. Swisstop is sending the stuff over to the USA in large containers and having it canned in Georgia in aerosol cans so you, too, can quiet your bike’s disc brakes.”

If it really works this new spray for disc brakes made by Swiss Stop could be a big hit.  I hate brake squeal and on some bikes nothing I’ve tried got rid of it [and yes I tried every trick in the book!] so I’d be happy to have a can of this in my bike tool box.

Rohloff Shifter on Thorn Accessory Bar Update

Rohloff Shifter mounted on a Thorn Accessory Bar

As I mentioned in my previous post I like the Titec H-bar a lot.  I have one on my Surly Big Dummy with a Rohloff shifter mounted next to a cut down Ergon Grip on the right side of the bar.  This works well, but I thought I would try something a bit different when mounting the Rohloff shifter on my Thorn Nomad S&S touring bike.  Thorn sells a small Accessory Bar that can be used to mount Rohloff shifters and/or other components that you don’t want on your main set of bars.  In fact on my Nomad I have two Accessory Bars mounted one above the other.  The lower one holds my Ortlieb handle bar bag and the upper one holds my Rohloff shifter.  By angling the Accessory Bar back and to the left the Rohloff shifter is relatively easy to get your hand to.  The result is a very clean Titec H-bar with loads of room for a variety of hand positions.

Top View

I’ve been trying the Rohloff shifter setup this way since spring.  My conclusion is that this setup works fine, but I don’t love it.  I don’t shift particularly frequently when I ride, but I still find taking my hand off the bars and shifting to be more effort than I like.  I also think in tough conditions [really bad road, downhill with full touring load] I’d have to just give up on shifting until things calmed down or risk a crash….not a great situation for an expedition touring bike!

Since I’m not embarking on a tour imminently there is no rush to sort this out, but eventually I’m going to setup this bike the same as the Big Dummy – with Ergon Grips and the Rohloff shifter mounted on the right side of the bars.

Titec H-Bar Update

Titec H-Bar on my Surly Pugsley

I’ve got 3 Titec H-bars in play at the moment.  My Thorn Nomad S&S, Surly Pugsley and Surly Big Dummy all sport H-bars.  My initial setup on the Big Dummy was with just some rubber grips and the rest of the bar bare.  This worked fine for shorter rides in town, but proved uncomfortable on longer rides – particularly long cold rough rides that beat up my hands.  So I replaced the rubber MTB grips with Ergon Grips [shown above on my Pugsley] and wrapped the rest of the bar with a double layer of cork tape.  I liked this so much when I got my Pugsley I did it up the same way.  The only downside to this setup is that the brake levers are a bit far from the Ergon Grips when riding technical terrain.  My Big Dummy doesn’t see this sort of action so I’ll leave it alone.  My Pugsley does see some technical riding [although not a ton] so I think my long term solution will be to replace the current levers with some that have adjustable reach and maybe lever arms that are a bit longer.  It hasn’t bothered me enough to do anything about it yet, but occasionally I want my hands at the ends of the bars for more leverage and my hand firmly on the brakes at the same time.  I do have some SLX hydraulic brakes that are looking for a home so maybe these will find their way onto my Pugsley.

Titec H-Bar on my Thorn Nomad S&S

When I built up my Thorn Nomad S&S touring bike I wanted to try a different Titec H-bar setup.  Reading Jeff Jones’ comments, the designer of the H-bar, he recommends you have a seamless transition from the grips to the rest of the bar.  The idea being your hands can move around as you ride finding the optimal position for any given moment.  That made sense and Jeff Jones is clearly a switched on guy when it comes to bikes so I decided to give it a shot by wrapping the whole bar in a double layer of cork tape. I’ve had my bar setup as shown in the photo above since the spring.  I have to agree that there is something to be said for not having a specific “grip” position and I have enjoyed moving my hands around the whole H-bar as I ride.  Having said that I don’t find the H-bar without Ergon Grips as comfortable as with them. I’ve been using my Nomad for shorter around the town rides since there are no big tours on my agenda at the moment.  For this use the double wrapped tape is excellent, but after about 2hrs of riding I start to wish I had my hands on some big flat Egron Grips.  This is another one of those projects I’ll eventually get around to and I’ll swap in some Ergons…no major rush though.

Nexus/Alfine Brifter!

Photo:www.bikecommuters.com

BikeCommuters.com is reviewing a new road bike by Dynamic Bicycles which features the cunning Nexus/Alfine brifter shown above….awesome!  So finally you can use one of these hubs and enjoy the brifter experience.  Between this shifter and the JTEK bar end shifter I reported about earlier the options for Shimano IGH setups has just increased dramatically.

It seems that at this early prototype stage Dynamic has not confirmed it will sell these components separately from their bikes, but given the potential demand I have to believe that will happen.

Read the BikeCommuters.com post here.

Update [from Austin on Two Wheels]:

“Well, good news if you want to convert your old road bike with horizontal dropouts or track bike to Shimano internally geared hubs. Dynamic sent us an e-mail this week letting us know they will be the U.S. distributor for the Versa shifters as well as the Versa cranksets. The shifters will retail for $229 and the cranksets will come in two versions, the VCS46-EX with external bottom bracket included ($139) and the VCS46-SQ for square tapered BB ($39). Both cranks come with a single 46T chain ring.

Beginning in mid June, you should be able to order these through your local bike shop. In the meantime, Dynamic is offering a limited number of shifters and cranksets directly to the public at the introductory price of $199 for the shifters, $109 for the crank with external BB, and $29 for the standard crank. Anyone wanting to order these directly for this limited time can call Dynamic at 1-800-935-9553 to place an order.”

My 2nd Selle Anatomica

Adjusting my new Selle Anatomica

Anna bought a Selle Anatomica Titanico saddle and after trying it for a while decided she preferred her old Brooks B-17 Champion Flyer.  Her rides tend to be on the shorter side around town and she didn’t find the SA was any more comfortable for this sort of use.  Being the good friend I am I bought it from her since I love my Selle Anatomica saddle.  I put it on my Bow Cycle 2-4 test bike as the stock saddle isn’t comfortable for 4hrs+ road rides.

The SA saddle on my BBC cross bike.

Dynohub vs. Battery

Solidlights 1203D works with a dynohub

I’ve owned the Solidlights 1203D LED dynohub headlight for a couple years now.  I bought it for riding brevets and it worked well for that.  However, since I was riding brevets on a recumbent and hate swapping stuff between bikes before a ride [too lazy] I didn’t use it much for casual use around town on my upright bikes.  Instead I used the battery powered Dinotte 200L-AA LED lights shown below.

My Dinotte lights work well enough and are so easy to swap between bikes [o-ring for mounting the light & velcro strap for batteries] that I don’t mind moving them around a bit.  On fresh batteries they last long enough that running time is not an issue for my in-town night riding.  One problem I have had many times is grabbing my bike and heading out only to find the batteries are dead or very low.  This happens because I don’t use the lights everyday and the Dinotte light draws some minimal amount of power even when off.  I have learned to unplug the power cable from the battery pack, but I don’t always remember to do this and it adds an extra step to getting ready to ride that is a bit of a pain.  I used the Dinottes last year as my main headlight and probably had a 75% success ratio for having enough power to meet my night riding needs.  That means that 1 out of 4 times I rode without a head light or it died mid-ride….=-(

This year my main urban night time bike has been my Bike Friday NWT.  Since my night rides usually end at someone’s house I don’t need the foldability of my Tikit and my NWT is equipped with the Solidlights 1203D dynohub powered headlight.  I can grab my NWT any time and know that my headlight will turn on automatically as soon as I start riding [I use it as a daytime running light as well] and between my two Planet Bike Superflash taillights one will always be flashing.  I didn’t realize how much hassle the battery lights were until I had the dynohub equipped NWT to compare to.

Of course there are downsides to the dynohub light:

• requires a dynohub front wheel
• requires longer wiring than a battery light
• more expensive [at least initially, but there are no batteries to buy/replace]
• more hassle to swap between bikes
• there is some extra drag from the dynohub

However, if you do a lot of night riding – particularly always on the same bike – the advantages of having as much lighting as you will need without thinking about it is well worth the disadvantages in my opinion.  If you only night ride occasionally and are always on a different bike it doesn’t make so much sense.

Since I have a fleet of bikes my strategy is to have one or two bikes dedicated to all weather day/night riding.  These bikes will have a dynohub & headlight so I will always have a bike ready to ride when I need it.  If I really want to ride one of my other bikes at night I’ll use a battery powered headlight and hopefully have some fully charged batteries available.

At the moment my only dynohub equipped bike is my Bike Friday NWT, but I have another dynohub wheel using a Shimano hub and a 26″ Velocity rim. I’ll most likely use it on my Thorn Nomad, but I’m pondering getting a second Solidlights headlight [the new XB2] so I won’t have to deal with swapping lights and I can use all my existing Solidlights cables & accessories.

Dinotte 200L-AA battery powered LED lights

MEC World Tour Panniers

MEC.ca World Tour Panniers

I was in the process of upgrading my GF’s MTB into something that fit her better, was more comfortable and had some useful cargo capacity when I started looking for panniers.  My initial thought was get some grocery panniers since they’d be simpler and really all she needed at this point since she doesn’t bike tour.  After poking around a bit I found that some decent Jandd grocery panniers cost as much as the MEC panniers shown above.  Being the eternal optimist I am I figured why not get these real touring bags?  They’d carry loads of groceries and if she wanted to tour she had some bags to start with.  Seemed like a cunning plan at the time.

MEC pannier mounting system - not my favourite...=-(

I bought them [$95CDN] and installed them on her bike.  They were a struggle to mount on the Filzer rack [also bought at MEC], but I got them on.  What was really unfortunate was I almost couldn’t get them back off the rack.  After battling the mounting hooks off I realized how stupid it was to buy touring panniers that didn’t work well and weren’t really designed for the task at hand.  So I returned them and bought some Jandd grocery panniers – they are simple, easy to use and go on and off in a snap.  If she is interested in trying bike touring at some point I’ll just get her a set of Ortliebs and life will be good!

Jandd Grocery Pannier

For what it’s worth the MEC World Tour Panniers seemed well made and are a great deal at $95CDN a set for rears.  Maybe if you don’t remove your panniers from your bike often the challenging mounting system wouldn’t be a problem.  You could even rationalize that it makes them a bit theft resistant!  Personally I’m going listen to the advice I’ve given loads of people – “buy Ortlieb”.

Filzer Rack from MEC

I generally like MEC products, but they need to redesign the way these bags mount.  The problem is that when you try and mount them seating the lower hook is finicky and it’s very hard to get the top hooks on securely.  The bigger problem is that once you get the top hooks on securely it is extremely tough to get them to disengage.  Compare that to the easy one handed mounting/dismounting of an Ortlieb pannier and you can appreciate my frustration.  This may be an issue with the combination of this specific rack and these bags, but the rack was purchased from MEC as well and seems pretty vanilla as racks go.  The mounting system of the Jandd panniers is not as slick as that used by Ortlieb, but it works well and is easy to use.

Installing Watchamacollars on a Big Dummy

Use a nickel to spread the lower portion of the clamp.

Check out the Xtracycle Blog for a useful tip on installing Watchamacolars on a Big Dummy.  Since the tubing of the Surly Big Dummy is larger than the Xtracycle sub-frame the lower portion of the Watchamacollars is a very tight fit.  By using a nickel to spread the lower part of the clamp you can get it on much easier.

Good tip!…=-)

DIY Watchamacollars

$4.20 V-rack clamps for your Big Dummy

If $39 for 2 Watchamacollar V-rack clamps is too rich for your bank account you can’t get the seatpost clamps pictured above for $4.20 each after discount.  They are slightly larger than the tubing on the Big Dummy so you’ll need to wrap the area you are clamping with some tape to get the right fit.  A reasonable compromise given the cost savings.

$19.50 V-rack clamps from Xtracycle

Watchamacollars in action:

Watchamacollars securing V-racks to an Xtracycle

Note that the Xtracycle Watchamacollars have a built in o-ring to keep water out of the Big Dummy/Xtracycle sub-frame.  So if you use the DIY clamps and live in a wet area you’ll want to use something like some inner tube to keep water out.

Urban Assault NWT

NWT getting down and dirty in the Big Smoke!

My NWT is a touring bike, but I only tour once in a while and have a few touring bikes to choose from so it has to serve multiple purposes.  I didn’t really have a clear vision of what the NWT would be when not on tour, but it has naturally become my choice for all urban assault missions that don’t require folding.  Of course if it has to fold my Tikit is the obvious choice.

What makes a good urban assualt bike?

• quick & nimble
• reliable = IGH
• tough
• all weather = fenders
• comfortable
• can carry stuff easily
• lights
• fun to ride
• easy to store transport if needed

My NWT meets all of the criteria above without breaking a sweat.  The 20″ wheels make darting around obstacles easy & fun while at the same time being strong so crashing through potholes isn’t an issue.  Since the NWT is built for touring it’s tough and reliable.  With a Shimano Nexus 8 IGH it’s also low maintenance.  With a dyno headlight, 2 LED tail lights and fenders it’s ready to ride day or night – rain or shine.  Front and rear racks mean I can carry a week’s worth of groceries or a month’s worth of recycling easily.  Bike Friday dialed the fit for me so well I find I’m grabbing the NWT a lot just because it feels so good to ride.  I love the drop bars, Brooks saddle, BMX pedals and Greenspeed Scorcher tires.  They all work together to make hopping on the NWT a pleasure.  As a bonus if I need to throw the NWT in a car trunk or hop on transit I can fold it in a minute or two.

I’ve been feeling extremely lazy when it comes to bike related projects lately so the full coverage fenders are still sitting in the corner waiting for some time to put them on.  The Bike Friday travel fenders work well enough it’s not a huge issue – although I am looking forward to the functionality and aesthetics of the SKS 20″ fenders I have ready to install.  I also think I’ll add an AirZound horn to help get my road rage on when motorists don’t drive like normal human beings!…=-)

Nick’s Randonee

Nick's REI Randonee frame built up...

I sold Nick a used REI Randonee frame last year.  It was the one Anna discarded when she move all the parts over to a Surly LHT.   Nick took some time to build up the bike and sent me this email:

“Hi Vik,

Thought you might like to see what became of all your stuff.

I am really happy how the bike turned out.  The frame seems to fit me well, although I am still tinkering with the sizing.  I use it exclusively for my daily commute (27kms each way) and the setup suits me well.  I especially like the Paul Thumbies you suggested.  With the Ultegra shifters on friction, shifting is very smooth.  The Truvativ crankset you gave me is also working well.  I did not splurge on anything else except the saddle.  You sold me on the Brooks as well. Break-in period doesn’t seem to be bad.  The sales guy thought it would eventually be ‘like a hammock’.  High expectations.  I like the Schwalbe tires too.  They perform well on the combination of trails, paths and roads I use.  All in all, a great setup.  Thanks for all your help.

I read you’re off  to Switzerland soon.  Huge biking nation.  I grew up there, in Basel.  I seem to recall you were born there?  Mother is Swiss?  Hope you enjoy it.

Cheers for now,

Nick”

Nick's comfy cockpit...

NWT Update

My NWT resting by Nose Creek in Calgary.

With the weather finally solidly dry and warm-ish I got the NWT out for a 15km bike ride to drop off a car in the NW part of Calgary and then ride back downtown.  The NWT folds up easily and makes throwing in the trunk a breeze.  This was my first longer ride with the new gearing, Greenspeed Scorcher tires and JTEK Nexus 8 bar end shifter.  I must say they all worked fabulously.  In fact it feels like a whole new bike – faster and easier to ride than previously. I could have used one more gear at the top end, but it wasn’t much of an issue and I want to keep this bike setup for loaded touring.

My final upgrade/modification will be to install some Planet Bike full coverage fenders this week.

What lock?

Rohloff Shifter + Titec H-bar + Ortlieb Bar Bag

A creative cockpit solution...

I like Titec H-bars, but two problems I’ve encountered are:

1. how to mount a handlebar bag and get easy access?
2. the Rohloff shifter doesn’t fit on the bar very well.

I’ve been trying come up with a solution for a while and finally put something together that looks like it may work.  Basically I’m using two Thorn Accessory Bars – one to move the Ortlieb bar bag out far enough to clear the front of the H-bar and the other to mount the Rohloff shifter.  I haven’t tried this setup out yet as I am waiting to get my lazy butt down to Bow Cycle and pick up some MTB brake levers.  I was going to use Ergon grips on this H-bar like on my Big Dummy, but instead I’ll try Jeff Jones’ suggestion and use a double wrap of cork bar tape all over the bar.  The benefit to using bar tape is that there is no single position to place you hands so you use the entire H-bar without being locked into one or two positions.  It’s a cheap experiment so I’ll give it a go.

Top View

By angling the accessory bar the Rohloff shifter is mounted on I was able to get lots of clearance between the H-bar and the accessory bar the Ortlieb bar bag is attached to.  As a bonus the angled shifter falls into my hand very easily – better than the previous perpendicular setup. I’m using the shifter on the left as another experiment.  I use my right hand lots to grab water bottles, eat and take pictures, but my left hand stays on the bars much more which is one of the reasons I suffered a nerve injury in the left hand last summer.  The idea is to give my left hand the job of shifting to get it off the bars regularly.

Side View

This configuration required that the Ortlieb bar bag be mounted to a long-ish accessory bar.  Having the bag levered out this far may cause some handling issues.  OTOH the H-bar is very wide giving me a lot of leverage so that extra control may counter act the bag’s position – hard to say at this point. I’ll just have to give it a try and see what I think.

Top-Side View

Surly Pugsley on Tour

My fat tire friend...

I posted some thoughts about using a Pugsley for touring on my Bow Cycle blog as well as a review of my Pugsley.  I started a thread over at Crazyguyonabike to discuss this idea and got the response below from Matt that I thought you might find interesting.

“Just saw this thread and thought I’d add a couple of comments, since I’ve logged 5000+ miles touring on a Pugsley. About 4300 of those were from Seattle to Mexico via the Trans Canada Trail and the Great Divide Route, mostly off the pavement. Prior to touring on the Puglsey, I toured several thousand miles around North America, Central America, and Eastern Europe on various other types of bikes, including a Greenspeed recumbent trike.

First, for off-pavement touring, the Endomorphs make for an extremely comfortable ride. I think on most unpaved surfaces, I can actually sustain a faster pace with less effort than any other bike I’ve ridden, since the tires just tend to float over loose gravel, potholes, washboard and the like without slowing down as much as skinnier tires would. And definitely more comfortable than any other bike I’ve ridden for day after day off the pavement. I’ve also found with the Endomorphs at 20-30 PSI the Pugsley isn’t really noticeably slower on the pavement than a normal bike with wide Marathon XRs or similar tires.

Also, you can use other tires besides the Endomorphs on the Large Marge rims. I’ve personally used Schwalbe Big Apples(26×2.35), Schwalbe SuperMotos (similar to the Big Apples, 26×2.35), and Schwalbe Marathon XRs (26×2.25). The bike looks a bit funny with those “skinny” tires mounted, but still rides well. Those tires do lower the bike a couple of inches, so you have to worry more about pedal strike on corners or in rough terrain, but that is the only real issue I’ve found other than the weird looks. So really, you don’t even need a separate set of 29er wheels, just a spare set of wide 26″ tires. I’d suspect in a pinch, you could probably use a standard 26×2.1″ mountain bike tire, though I’ve never actually tried it.

On the TCT+GDR trip, I carried a spare set of folding tires, and ended up using them for maybe about 500 miles or so total. If you’ll be on the pavement for a while and want to save some wear on the Endomorphs, just throw on the other set of tires. Oh, BTW, my Endomorphs were new at the beginning of the TCT+GDR trip, and pretty much bald and ready to be replaced by the time I hit Mexico.

Having the option of riding across sand, snow, loose gravel, and other surfaces that might be impossible to ride on a normal bike is also really nice and gives you more options when touring.

–Matt”

Rain Legs

Rain Legs unrolled ready to be put on.

I’ve tried many different waterproof cycling pants with varying levels of success.  The two major problems I’ve experienced are:

1) that any pant that is actually waterproof makes me so sweaty that I might as well have just let my pants/shorts get wet

2) getting rain pants on and off over your cycling shoes is a real pain in the butt. This means you wait too long to put them on hoping the rain won’t last and in the process get your pants/shorts wet.  It also means you leave them on too long when the rain stops or you just leave them on between showers getting hot ‘n sweaty in the process.

I got my Rain Legs in black so I could wear them to formal events.

So this year I’m going to try out a pair of Rain Legs.  These waterproof rain chaps go on and off in a few seconds without a lot of hassles which should solve one of my problems.  They don’t seal your legs in, but they do keep the parts of them [thighs and knees] that get the most wet dry while letting your legs breathe.  They also look like they’ll be great for cool mornings and chilly mountain descents – keeping me warmer without adding a lot of bulk to my gear.

The compromise of course is that they are not full pants and my legs are bound to get wet where they are not covered.

Time will tell if the Rain Legs end up being keepers or not.  I’ll report back this summer once they’ve seen some action.

A brief review of Rain Legs by Kent Peterson.

You can buy Rain Legs from Wallingford Bikes.

Rain Legs rolled up...they can be worn around your waist ready for quick deployment or tossed in a pannier.

Continental Ultra Race

At $43 it's half the price of the Schwalbe Ultremo.

So I scored a Continental Ultra Race tire in 23mm x 700c to replace the trashed Ultermo.  It’s about 50% of the cost.  Given that I have fenders, racks and lights on my bike I probably won’t notice any performance loss – time will tell I guess.  Hopefully this one will last more than a week!

Easy come easy go…

That's what $80 of tire damage looks like!..=-(

I was keen to try a Schwalbe Ultremo on my BBC 2-4 cross bike.  For ~250kms it was a nice tire….fast and relatively comfortable to ride.  Unfortunately on my way home from an Easter BBQ last night I must have run over some glass as the sidewall was completely ripped open…=-(  Luckily I had friends with me who could assist with some lighting [we were in the pitch dark in a park] and I had a $10 bill to use as a tire boot.  Although in the photo above you can see the inner tube has ripped through the $10 bill and is trying to explode on me – happily I got home without it doing so.

I can’t fault a racing tire for being cut open by debris.  It was made to go fast and it did that really well.  I’m going to see what else I can get at my LBS that might be a bit more affordable.  I can see that this might happen again and I am not as eager to drop $80 on a tire the second time around – especially since this really isn’t an uber high performance bike.

MEC sells 5.10 Impact Bike Shoes

5.10 Impact Low bike shoes I love.

Canadian cyclists rejoice…MEC is selling 5.10 Impact bike shoes in both the low and mid versions.  These shoes are tough, comfy and feature a Stealth rubber sole for uber traction.  I like them so much they are becoming a favourite for general use and have come through with flying colours during a grueling 8hr warehouse dance-fest…=-)

Combine these shoes with some aggressive BMX pedals and you have a solid connection to your bike that won’t fail you on even the most demanding downhill MTB trails.  For more casual use you’ll be able to jump off your bike and comfortably blend into the crowd and then be back on your bike in seconds.

5.10 Impact Mid bike shoes that Kurt loves.

Nothing says fast like…

Old Man Mountain Sherpa rear rack

One of the funniest comments I’ve rec’d recently about my bikes was from Hank W..”…nothing says fast like an OMM rack!…”  I can’t help myself….fenders and racks are essential in my world – even on a go-fast bike.  On this red machine’s maiden voyage we were riding along some wet sections and Kurt complained his butt was soaked.  I looked at him smugly and said “…that’s what fenders are for!…”  My next project is to make front and rear mudflaps from a milk jug.  I’m drinking tea like crazy so I can get an empty milk jug to work with!…..=-)

I love how easy these racks are to mount.

So I think I am up to 8 OMM racks…just two away from having an official Old Man Mountain rack problem.

Bowness Bike Company 2-4

My new very red BBC 2-4...=-)

I’m going to be doing a longish term test of a BBC 2-4 cross bike this season.  I’ll be posting details over on my Bow Cycle Blog for those who are interested in such things.

Epic Designs Framebag First Impressions

My Pugsley framed...

I’ve been envious of all the great products that Eric at Epic Designs makes for the winter ultra-racing crowd.  Since the only thing ultra about me is my laziness I can’t really justify the need for his stuff on that basis, but even us slugs have to carry stuff.  I was using a small, but effective frame bag from MEC which is great for the essentials, but has limited space and no organizational options.  So I took the plunge and ordered a frame bag for my Pugsley from Eric.

The bag is custom sized to fit my 18″ Pugsley frame.  It is made up of 2 main compartments split vertically to keep gear separate.  The larger upper compartment has a bunch of internal dividers and organizing pockets as well as a small external pocket on the left side. The bag is wedge shaped when viewed from the saddle with the narrow bit near the seat tube and the wide bit near the head tube.  This gives you maximum volume without interfering with your pedaling.

On top of the frame bag is a smaller bag called “the gas tank”.  It’s not attached to the frame bag so you can use it alone or use the frame bag without it.  With an easy to operate double zipper you can get at a camera, food, map, etc… on the fly.

These bags are so “feature rich”  I’m discovering cool new pockets or design elements every time I look at them.  Clearly they are a labour of love.  The fabric used is very robust as are the zippers – if Eric reads this maybe he can comment on the materials used.  The fabric & zippers are waterproof, but the seams are not sealed.  This keeps the insides dry in snow, but for prolonged rain you’d either have to seal the seams yourself or put your stuff into ziplocks.  Based on how well Eric’s products hold up under race conditions I doubt I’ll be wearing anything out.

A quick look at the Epic Designs site shows that really your imagination is the limit as Eric will do full custom bags to meet your needs – whatever they might be.

I’ll report back in a few months once I have had the opportunity to use these bags a while.