iPd Cameron

Oh hey guys!

25c at 95psi is not particularly ideal for rocky dirt paths but still nice to hit a little dirt on the way to work.

The front is a Light & Motion Urban 400. It's impressive. The light itself is super small considering the output. Lithium Ion battery and recharges with a USB cord. Really impressed with it so far and 400 lumens is more than enough for night riding in the city. I also like that is has little yellow LEDs on each side to boost side visibility. I mounted the front down mid-fork blade and like how the light casts from lower than the handlebars. It does cast a shadow though from the wheel but your eyes get used to that quick. The rear is a Planet Bike light. Night riding is definitely a lot of fun when you can see properly! I haven't done much night time trail riding but I'm sure it's a blast as long as you have enough light. Makes such a difference in confidence riding fast after dark too. I don't feel like stuff "sneaks" up on me like it can feel like with a dimmer light.

Now that the clocks changed and I get to commute home in the dark the nice bright lighting will make it much nicer:

Found some dirt on the commute: View from this morning on a different part of the commute:

Now with more leaves.

After not having a fender'd bike setup last winter I cobbled together a "new" rain bike to fall/winter commuting. I had pretty much everything to build this one up already in the garage. The frame is a Trek Soho S I bought new to use as a commuter bike 8 or 9 years ago. I've had it set up in many variations over the years but it's just been sitting as a frameset from a hook in the garage for the last year or two. It's not the lightest or fastest, but is serving it's purpose dutifully.

Vittoria Open Corsa SC II are great -- 300tpi. Super smooth, light, etc. and in my experience not overly flat prone. Sadly they don't make them anymore BUT the new version, the Corsa G+ are supposed to be even better. All the same lightness, smoothness, 300tpi but now with Graphene which is supposed to make them very flat resistant. I've got a set waiting to replace the Corsa SC II's on my All City when they wear out. Speaking of the All-City here's a blurry pic from today's lunch break:

Esther Short Park in Vancouver.

Oh, and one of the Mr. Pink from Sunday:

After not having any of my bikes set up for rain riding last fall/winter I figured I better fix that for this year. I've had this bike set up in about 5 different variations over the last 8 or 9 years but it'd just been hanging as a frameset in the garage for the last year or so. I had pretty much everything laying around already to put it together as a fendered rain bike and put it together this weekend. Managed to juuuuust barely squeeze some 28s under the fenders. I set it up 48x18 so about 71 gear inches. Excellent ratio for around town but we'll see how my knees feel after some longer uphills...

Tell me about it! There's a rotating list of bikes in my head I'd like to build. Lately I've been having the urge to see if I can put together a super light bike. I mean, my Geekhouse is really light but it's a track bike so that's like cheating. Maybe a Litespeed w/ Dura Ace or something. I've seen plenty of "recipes" out there to hit those kinda low weight numbers without getting too crazy with components.

Another of the blue bike:

Well, I personally like steel for a few reasons. One is the feel. I like the feel of a steel bike -- smooth and not harsh. Given, I've only ridden a handful of aluminum and CF bikes and am no expert on every modern bike. In my time in the saddle on them I found them to feel a little harsh and jarring over imperfect road surfaces. No big deal for shorter rides but leads to fatigue over longer rides for me. I'm by no means against those bikes and would LOVE to build up a Spooky or Argonaut but overall for the kind of riding I do and overall big picture steel makes the most sense for me. Yeah, the All City Mr. Pink complete spec'd from them isn't a lightweight. Building it up yourself with some select components can lighten it up a lot though. Just the frame is I think 4-ish pounds but the fork is a couple. On my latest Mr. Pink I opted to run an ENVE fork instead of the stock steel one. Just that dropped a lot of weight. That option kinda blows your budget though... My previous Mr. Pink I put a couple thousand miles on though with the stock steel fork and it still wan't that heavy. In the bigger scheme of things, I don't worry that much about a pound or two. There are other things that have a larger impact on ride quality that I'd prefer to put my money towards vs. spending more on shedding a bit of weight. Nice wheels for example. It's all a personal preference thing of course. I'd encourage you to find a shop around you that has demo bikes you can try out. Test out a few steel bikes, test out some aluminum and carbon fiber too. Don't worry as much about every detail and try to focus on how each one feels and how the overall riding experience of each.

Adding to the above... I personally really like steel bikes. Modern steel tubing used in modern steel bikes is good. For good production steel, I'd tell you to get an All-City. Ritchey would be a good option too, but those are more expensive. I'll echo above too and tell you to go with bigger tires. 25 is good, but 28 is even cushier. I really like 28 because it's noticeably smoother but not tooooo big so it looks weird or anything. Do you have any inclination to build your own bike up? If so, you could build a pretty killer bike for $1500 budget. You could pick up an All-City Mr. Pink frameset for like $800 full retail, but I'd bet you could find it a bit cheaper than that. Because of Brexit you can get Shimano groupsets even cheaper from the UK dealers. Ribble has 11 speed 105 groupsets for $327: http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/shimano-105-5800-black-11-speed-double-groupset/ Velomine is crazy cheap for wheelsets too. This would match the kit above perfectly: http://www.velomine.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=235_357&products_id=2111 Add a saddle/seatpost/stem/bars/tires and you've got a really nice modern steel road bike within your $1500 budget.

Speaking of great deals... Ribble, etc. is even more attractive price wise now that the GBP is taking a dump. For example, same as above, but $68.99 for a pair: http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/continental-gp4000s-ii-twinpack-continental/

Dude, egg wheels make you way faster -- kinda like an oval chainring For some reason when I do vertical pics from a distance with my iPhone is distorts like that. Same thing here:

Work being so close to the Columbia River has it's perks for lunch rides:

Re-worked my Cielo a bit:

40 some wet miles through the forest yesterday with my wife -- I think I washed a pound of gunk and pine needles out of the bikes when we got home. In comparison, the dry 7 mile commute into work on the Geekhouse this morning felt super light and quick: