Review: 2014 Kona Sutra

Again the usual applies with my product reviews. I am not being paid by Kona to write this. I am not a professional reviewer. I am writing my own opinions, the good and the bad, about products that I purchase with my own money. It is worth noting at this point that I have taken a job at a local bike shop which sells Konas. It is also worth noting that I have been a Kona fan for a very long time. The goal here is not to write a piece of "fanfic" designed the sell Konas. Feel free to take it that way if you must, but if you are familiar with my reviews, you know that I mention what I do not like about something even if the something is a thing that I like.

The purpose for me buying a Kona Sutra, a touring bike, was two fold. Firstly, my wife and I are interested in doing some bicycle camping. She already owns an Optima Orca recumbent touring bicycle, and she loves to camp. I love to ride bikes. She does not mind cycling, and I will admit, under duress, that I don't mind camping as long as I get my not ugly sleep. So it only makes sense to put the two things together. Enter the Sutra. Also, we are moving house in about a month, and my ride to the bike shop will increase from five km each way to about 27 km each way. Therefore, a better long distance commuter bike is needed. As a nice bonus, I will be able to ride instead of drive to my other job with ease where we are moving to. Again, enter the Sutra.

With all that in mind, let's explore the bike.

Here is what Kona says about the bicycle on their webpage:

"Our classic touring bike receives a facelift for 2014. We’ve taken our massively successful Rove frame and blended it with the styling and class of our Sutra from years past. The bike features solid front and rear Blackburn racks, as well as bar end shifters for simplicity. The oversized 44mm headtube gives a more precise ride while the steel tubing keeps things plush and smooth. Our new drop bar, the Wet Bar, features flared drops and a short reach to keep things comfortable during long descents." Source URL

Looking around the shop, I can definitely say that yes, this is a Rove in touring dress. Basically, if you were to take the current Rove, strip it of all of its parts, and take last year's Sutra, and strip it of all of its parts and then install all of those parts onto the Rove frame, you would have the 2014 Sutra.

This is not a bad thing.

My "road" bicycles for the last decade or so have been Kona cyclocross bikes, and I like the way that they feel on pavement and gravel/sand. The current Sutra has a very planted feel that I have come to associate with Kona cyclocross bicycles. But there are some significant differences in the feel of the machines.

The cyclocross bikes, while they share a geometry similar to the Sutra, are definitely racier. My Jake the Snake is a much faster bike with a more aggressive layout. The Sutra feels very sedate. A tall stack of spacers lift the stem and help keep the riding position relaxed. The Sutra's handling could best be described as lazy in comparison to the Jake the Snake. This is a very good thing for touring where the goal is to ride all day in comfort with a loaded bicycle as opposed to riding for several hours quickly, in a more aggressive stance. Also, darty handling is not a good thing when there is a heavy load on the bicycle.

The Sutra is made of steel. It has been a very long time since I have owned a steel bicycle and after riding the Sutra, I am reminded why steel is a good material for bicycle building. The ride is very supple but the bike does not flex in a noticeable way. Steel advocates will tell you that steel is the only material to make a bicycle out of. Clearly, this is a load of what cows leave behind, but steel is very good when used for certain applications. For a ride it all day bicycle, one intended to be loaded down, steel works very well indeed. The frame is comfortable.

Protecting the steel from corrosion is a matte finish which is semi transparent and tinted a sort of sand brown colour. It is possible to see through it and see different colours on the steel itself. As well, where the welds and brazing was done, the colour of the brazing material shows through. This is an aesthetic affection which fairly screams "look at me, I am steel!", but it is one which I like. It does nothing to help with the bicycle's performance, but does look nice. Not everyone will agree with that, but I like it. Time will tell if the finish is durable or not. It looks nice though.

The frame is festooned with nice touches. Braze on mounts for three waterbottles are included. This is a good feature for a touring bike - two are for water, and the third for a sig bottle filled with fuel for a camp stove. If you use a small camping wood stove and have no need of stove fuel, a tool kit put into a waterbottle would fit quite nicely into the lower bottle cage. Cables are routed on the down tube through brazed on cable guides. The rear brake cable is fully encased in a housing, while the shifter cables are less fully covered - barrel adjusters for the shifters are on the cable guides near the head tube. Rack and fender mounts are part of the frame. Kona made a mistake here in my opinion. The fenders and rack share a mount. I prefer them not to. Fenders and racks are easier to set up and adjust when they have their own dedicated eyelets to bolt to. That said, what is there works, but I wish that Kona had tweaked the Rove frame a little more to add the extra mounting points. Also missing are brazeons for extra spokes (like those found on the Surly Long Haul Trucker). How much this matters is a personal thing since it is possible to affix extra spokes to other spots on the bike. The head tube on this bike is oversized but not tapered. This makes it nice and stiff, and allows for an internal headset. It looks a little odd mind you, but it works. The brakes are disks and the mounts, on both the forks and the rear triangle, were perfectly aligned and did not need to be refaced or shimmed in any way. Nice touch.

The stock components are very good. Here is the list from the Kona website:

Frame Material	Kona Cromoly
Sizes	47, 49, 53, 56, 59, 61cm (mine is the 56cm one)
Rear Shock	n/a
Fork	Kona Project Two Touring
Crankarms	Shimano Deore
Chainrings	26/36/48t
B/B	Shimano BB51
Pedals	n/a (I put some Shimano SPD pedals on mine)
Chain	KMC HG53
Freewheel	Shimano Deore 11-32t 9 spd
Chainguide	n/a
F/D	Shimano Deore
R/D	Shimano LX Treking (Shimano SLX in Canada)
Shifters	Shimano BarCon
Brake Calipers	Hayes CX Expert (mechanical not hydraulic)
Front Brake Rotor	Hayes L Series 160mm
Rear Brake Rotor	Hayes L Series 160mm
Brake Levers	Tektro RL340
Headset	TH 848
Handlebar	Kona Deluxe Road Bar (actually the Kona Wet Bar - a flared thing which is quite nice)
Stem	Kona XC/Road
Seatpost	Kona Double Clamp w/Offset
Seat Clamp	Kona Clamp (wish it was a bolt and not a quick release)
Grips	Kona Cork Tape
Saddle	WTB Rocket V Comp
Front Hub	Shimano Deore (comes with an allen key clamp)
Rear Hub	Shimano Deore (comes with a traditional quick release)
Spokes	Sandvik Stainless 14g
Rims	Freedom Ryder 21
Front Tire	Continental Contact 700x32C
Rear Tire	Continental Contact 700x32C
Paint Color	Matt Raw Steel w/Sand Tint
Extras	Pannier Racks, Fenders (The racks are Blackburn units and the fenders are full coverage units with mudflaps)

Source

Bolded print is added by me.

The bike is well kitted out with good solid reliable gear. That said, I made some changes right off the hop.

The first thing to go was the saddle. Stock is the Kona branded WTB Rocket V Comp saddle which is found on other Kona bikes. It is a very comfortable saddle which I have used before. However, it is not something that I feel like sitting on all day. So, out came my Brooks B17 Narrow saddle. I have the chocolate brown one and it looks absolutely gorgeous when mated to the colour of the Sutra. I find double clamp seatposts to be a bit of a pain to set up as small adjustments made mid ride are kind of annoying to do compared with a single bolt seatpost. That said, once it is dialed in, there is no problem. A future change will see Brooks leather bar tape replace the stock Kona tape the bike comes with. Of course, the Brooks tape will match the saddle. Previously, I have had leather wrapped bars and really like how well they wear and how nice they look.

Seeing as how the racks are Blackburn, I grabbed some Blackburn waterbottle cages and an old Blackburn pump I had and put them on. The tail light I installed is a Blackburn Mars 3.0 unit which comes with a mount designed specifically for a Blackburn rack. One might think this was a plan on their part to sell lights. Well, it worked. This light has five rear facing LEDs and two side facing ones and is pretty bright. It will go nicely with my Fly6 camera/light combination when it shows up in the mail sometime in June.

I have replaced the quick release skewers with ones which use allen keys. In fact, the ones I am using are pinned and need a special allen key to open. While this won't stop a determined thief, it will slow one down or prompt them to move on. I wish that Kona had used a more traditional seat post clamp as my pinned seat clamp bolt will not fit with the QR clamp that comes with the bike. It will need to be swapped out in order to fix this problem.

An oversized bar bell and a Garmin GPS mount complete the initial modifications. At some point I want to source a nice sprung brass gong for the bike. They look cool, and are really loud and are my personal choice for waking up iPod zombies.

That about covers it for how it is kitted out, so how does it ride?

Due to it being a bit of a heavy pig, it takes a bit to get going. However, once it is rolling, it moves along quite nicely.

The riding position is very upright. This is due to a combination of frame geometry, a huge stack of spacers under the stem, and an absolutely marvellous handlebar. The bar is very flat across the top, has a shallow drop, and is flared outwards. This makes it very comfortable to use. It reminds me a lot of the Salsa woodchipper handlebar that comes on my friend's old Surly Crosscheck. Those seeking a relaxed fit and ride should be happy about this. If you are seeking a more traditional bar, you may wish to swap this one out. The relative upright riding position mates well with the Brooks saddle I added. The bike is very comfortable to perch upon and ride, even in "street" clothing.

The riding position encourages me to take my time and focus more on what is going on around me. I find on a bike with a more aggressive stance, I tend to push a lot harder than I do when riding this one. While I do focus on my surroundings when pushing hard, a lot of my thought processes go into various mental exercises designed to help me increase my speed or maintain a steady high output. This bike encourages me to amble. Not a bad trait in a touring bike where speed is not of the essence but enjoying the more sedate pace of a wander, vs a race (real or imagined), is the goal. Interestingly, a quick glance at my gps unit indicates that while me speed is lower than it would be on my cyclocross bike, it is not as low as the relaxed feeling the bicycle imbues would suggest.

The geometry and widely spaced gearing make for a different approach to tackling hills. Often, when on a race based bicycle, I spin up the hills at a high cadence out of the saddle. It is a quick and energy intensive way to climb, but one I really enjoy. With the Sutra, I find I drop a few gears as I ride up hills and stay seated. It is a more "dum de dum" approach to climbing vs a "grrrr hill be eaten" approach, if you take my meaning.

Bumps are nicely sorted out by the smooth rolling quick and nimble Continental touring tires. Lately, I have become a big fan of German tire manufacturers. Both Schwalbe and Continental make superior bicycle tires and I have yet to go wrong with any tire I have had over the years from either brand. In my opinion, Kona made a good choice by sourcing these tires for this bike. The steel frame also aids in bump suppression.

The stock drive train is simple and competent. Bar end shifters are a great idea for a touring bicycle. The front derailleur is shifted by friction. This makes it endlessly featherable and there is zero drive train noise coming from the front of the bike. Shimano, be a dear and give us a brifter for front derailleurs which gives this level of flexibility. I miss it and love this hearkening back to the "old days". The rear shifter is indexed, works perfectly, and can be made into a friction shifter should the need arise (like a bent derailleur out in the middle of nowhere on a tour).

There is a learning curve with these shifters if all you have used is brifter style indexed road levers. I grew up using down tube friction shifters from Campagnolo, so it only took me about 30 seconds to get the front derailleur dialed in. What took a bit was reaching to the end of the bar for the shifter. It does not feel natural after using brifters for the last decade or so. Adapt or change them out I suppose. Some people will really dislike the bar end shifters. I have read in other reviews of this bicycle and similar bicycles some complaints about them. However, I would suggest considering the following: brifters can break if the bike falls over, especially if the bike is loaded down and heavy, and cost a lot to repair or replace; and including bar end shifters instead of brifters helps keep the cost of the bicycle.

The brakes work well. I like using disk brakes and have no issues with mechanical ones. The brakes on my truck like commuter bike are cheap Avid BB5 brakes which work very well despite all of the abuse I heap upon them. This bike has Hayes CX Expert brakes which seem to be doing fine so far. While mechanical disk brakes are not as nice to use as hydraulic ones, they do work better than rim brakes, particularly when it is wet outside. They are also easier to maintain in the field. Remember, it is important to run new disk brakes in properly or they will not work well. About ten stops from near 30kmph at the threshold of skidding will seat them. Do the fronts and rears separately. After doing this, you should feel a marked improvement in the brakes ability to haul the bicycle down from speed. During the initial break in period, the brakes kept performing better and better.

The rotors on the bicycle are 160mm ones. The larger 160mm rotors (vs 140mm ones used on some other Kona bicycles) will give more stopping power when the bicycle is loaded for touring. While heavier than cantilever brakes, the more precise and powerful stopping power they offer is worth the minor weight penalty, especially when roads are wet. As an added bonus, if the brakes are dragged a bit on a steep descent when the bike is loaded, heat build up will not cause a tube to potentially fail.

Some pictures and a few things worthy of note follow.

Detail of the front brake rotor, calliper, and rack mount. With a little bending, the included fenders fit fine. One of my gripes about the frame is clearly shown here - the rack and fenders share a mount. I would prefer them not to. Looking at how crowded things are here, it is easy to see why Kona chose to use an allen key bolt for a quick release instead of a typical qr skewer. Look carefully at the one I changed the bike over to - this one is pinned making a conventional allen key useless for wheel removal. One of the things I like about the brakes is how solid the callipers are compared to others I have used.

Detail of the rear brake and rack mount. Again with the shared mounts. Kudos though to Kona for putting the calliper on the inside of the rear triangle vs the outside. This increases the options for racks and reduces cost for fenders. Look through to the seat stay in the background. Kona included a pin for hanging the chain on when the rear wheel is removed - a nice touch which will help keep the drivetrain clean should the need arise to perform maintenance road side.

Being a steel bicycle, the bottom bracket is not massive and oversized. The encased cable is for the rear brake, while the other two are for the derailleurs. I added some spacers on the underside water bottle bolts so a bottle cage installed there in the future will clear the cables. They are on the bicycle now so I don't lose them :)  The dirt splash gives a good idea how much the fenders cover. Your feet might get a little damp, but not too likely. Top of the line SKS fenders with mudflaps will drop significantly lower and help prevent dirt from hitting you or the drive train.

Of note here is the space around the fender mount. There is a lot of clearance for the 700x32c tires, and a gap still remains between the fender and the underside of the fork. Much larger tires will fit should the need arise with fenders, and even larger without. The headset is internal. Note the brass from the brazeons showing through the tinted finish which is, I think, a lovely lovely colour. I put some tire patches between the cable housing and the head tube to prevent wear to the frame's finish.

Shimano SLX derailleur. The cassette has a wide range of gears which should make climbing steep hills under load fairly easy. There is a fairly long 10% grade on my new commuter route I will be travelling with the bicycle loaded down once we move in May which I will report back on after I ride it a bit.

This year's Shimano Deore crank is a pretty thing. Very beefy and strong.

Shimano Deore hubs - 36 hole - are at the core of the heavily built wheels. My friend at work is a terrific wheel builder and he tensioned it up for me nicely. I suggest having new wheels be looked at before the bicycle is ridden by someone who knows what they are doing to ensure they are true and tensioned correctly.

The rear. Nice and compact. The rack has multiple mounting points for various things. I am not 100% sure what the slotted mount is sticking out the back of the rack, but I think it is for running a strap through to further secure panniers or perhaps something stacked on top of the rack and panniers.

Nice and simple. This is the rear shifter. It can be switched from indexed to friction shift by twisting the switch on the inside of the shifter.

How the cockpit is laid out at this time. GPS on the stem, and bell on the bar. Future updates will include hardware to mount a handlebar bag and a light (removable). Note the huge stack of spacers underneath the stem. My Jake the Snake stem pretty much sits on the top of the headset.

The brake levers. These Tektro levers are quite comfortable actually. I was pleased to see that they bulked them up a bit compared to the way that they used to be. It is possible to see the flare of the handlebar I was talking about above in this picture. I would like you to use your imagination and pretend that the tape is a rich chocolate brown leather. That is what will be swapped in sometime this summer.

This is how I prefer to carry my pump. At some point, I would like to replace this one with a slick brass plated one and redo the bottle cages in a brass colour. It would look great on the bike with it the colour it is.

The Blackburn Mars 3.0 tail light. It is a seriously bright unit which fits perfectly on the rack.

My Chocolate Brown Brooks B17 Narrow saddle. I love this one on this bicycle. It is a perfect match.

That is it for now.

I have been riding long enough to be certain that my initial impressions about the way the bicycle handles will remain consistent as I use the bicycle more. Should this not be true, I will do an update post and tack it to the bottom of the review.

Cheers and good riding!

Brooks B-17 Narrow : let's give them something to smug about

Yet another useful bike part review from me, a useful bike part user (as opposed to useful bike part sales person). The usual caveats apply:

• I am not employed by Brooks
• I bought this with my own money
• I ride bikes for fun, fitness, and transport
• I feel free to say what I like and what I don't like about something
• I don't care what anyone else thinks (that is a good thing in a review...)

With that in mind, here is what I think of the Brooks B-17 Narrow bicycle saddle.

Like always, I like to start my bike part reviews with a bit of history explaining why I am using the bike part in question. Currently, I have six bicycles in my collection. Two of them are old approaching vintage race bikes which do not really get ridden. One is my old hard tail mountain bike which gets some use. One is my old cyclocross bicycle which has been reborn, well after the fad was over, as a single speed (that is ok, I was riding a cyclocross bike on gravel and around the city long before the cyclocross bike fad started, so it cancels out...). One is my brand new cyclocross bicycle. And one is my inexpensive mountain bike commuter bike.

While I do like pretty bicycles, I tend to prefer my equipment to be very practical and not to cost the earth. This is particularly so for my commuter bicycles. They end up getting ridden by me more than all of my other bicycles combined, and cost the least amount of money by a fairly large margin. This is because I do a lot of riding around the city where I am going to be locking the bicycle up outside. I refuse to feed thieves, so I won't leave expensive bicycles locked up outside. This means that my commuter bicycles tend to be low end mountain bikes or hybrids. The current one is a mountain bike. All I ask from a commuter bike is that it be inexpensive, comfortable, reliable, and relatively unattractive to a thief.

Sadly, all mountain bikes tend to come with narrow racing saddles. I actually like this since I have an iron ass and don't mind a real (tm) bicycle seat on all my bicycles. However, for commuting, the cut of the cheap (and expensive for that matter) racing saddles brings the crotch of street clothing into conflict with the top of the seat post.

Take note of the exposed part of the front of the seat post / seat rail on this archive photograph of my current commuter bicycle:

While it may be hard to see from this picture, the inner thigh area of a pair of normal "street clothing" pants will rub on the top of the seat post where it clamps to the seat rail. This results in excessive wear on the pants and the potential for pants failure *grin*. While really only embarrassing and not a big deal, it is a design flaw for the use I am putting the bicycle to. I would rather not wear out my clothing faster than I have to given a choice.

So what, you might ask, does this have to do with anything?

Well, it started me on a search for a bicycle seat which would cover that part of the seat post and reduce wear on the clothing. The cost did not matter too much since I would more than make up for it in clothing that lasted longer (my job requires me to have decent clothing - not perfect, but decent - and I figured it would not take long to pay for a new seat if my clothing lasted longer. I wanted something not racy, but nice.

The search ended with a Brooks B-17 saddle.

Now, I have to explain a bit of my bias here. I am anti-smug. I know I just made those who know me well laugh and blow coffee out of their nose, but I really am anti-smug. I don't care about buying my lock them and leave them bicycles based on their aesthetic merit. I love gorgeous lug work on a frame, but really don't care for a lock it and leave it bike. The smug attitudes I see in various bike forums and blogs where the prevailing attitude is "but of course the bicycle has a Brooks saddle and gorgeous lug work, could there be any other kind?!?" makes me want to vomit a little.

And yet, I bought a Brooks saddle.

But I did not buy it for reasons to do with smug.

I bought it to cover the top of the seat post where it joins the seat rails.

That's it.

So here is what I think of it.

It came in a lovely cardboard box with a thick paper sleeve on it. Jolly good show and all that. Included in the package was some Brooks propaganda printed up like an old style newspaper, and the saddle with its packaging.

It really was very well presented.

Two thinks sort of bop you on the nose when opening the saddle. The first is the smell of the thing. This is real leather and has that smell that is usually only found in the better class of Jaguars. Yummy. The second is how hard the saddle is. Brooks says that it is one of their stiffer saddles and I find that easy to believe. The leather is thick enough and stiff enough to serve quite well, if shaped differently of course, as leather armor. Yummy again, although it did raise some concern in my mind about comfort.

As can be seen by the above picture, the saddle comes with a wrench for adjusting the saddle tension. Over time, the saddle will sag, and the tensioning nut in the nose of the saddle can be tightened should this become a problem. Do not tension a wet saddle as the leather could tear.

Brooks sells a saddle treatment called proofide. Buy it. Just do it. Do not use saddle soap or other leather treatments as it could cause the leather to over soften and collapse.

Before using the saddle, put a thick layer of proofide on the underside of the saddle and just leave it. I used a Q-tip to get underneath all the bits and pieces on the underside of the saddle. This helps to soften it a bit, and will protect it somewhat from the elements. The saddle will soak it up. Lightly coat the top of the saddle and allow the proofide to dry. Once it does, buff the saddle to a shine.

Once I did this, I noticed something. The deep brown leather I picked for the colour took on a real glow. The saddle started to almost, er, come alive. It became apparent that the fit and finish of the saddle was top notch. The Brooks badge on the back was a nice touch. The lugs for hanging a saddle bag from the seat are a part of the saddle frame itself. I could feel a bit of smug threatening to overtake me. I quashed it.

Once on the bicycle, and adjusted up, I went for a ride. A good set up tip would be to set the saddle parallel with the ground and then tip the nose up a bit. When I say a bit, I mean a little bit. This makes for a more comfortable ride. Failing to do that results in sliding forward too much on the saddle. Bring some tools on your first outing if you get one of these so you can muck about with it and get it just right.

Here is the saddle set up just wrong. While the stock post on the bicycle is offset to the rear, it is not offset enough. The perfectly parallel parts of the seat rails are fairly short and since I am mounting it on a slightly too small for me mountain bike, I could not slide the seat back far enough on the rails for comfort. If I did, I would have to clamp on the tapering part of the rails just a bit which would cause the seat to work loose in about three minutes. Annoying, but I think unavoidable. Bear this in mind though if you buy one. You MIGHT have to do what I did to solve it. Oh, and isn't this a lovely colour of brown?

Here is the seat set up just right. Notice that it took a new seat post for me to get it just right. Hint - a new seat post on a bike like this costs almost nothing. Just be aware that you might need one depending on the bicycle you are using. However, it was worth it because I discovered something about this seat that I will explain below. Take note how the clamp area is completely covered by the "skirt" of leather on the side of the seat. This is why I bought it. The creeping smug which I will hold off with a cricket bat came later...

What I discovered when the seat was set up just right is that damn it if the smug ones were not correct. This seat, even not broken in yet, is very very comfortable. Very much so. It makes me look forward to when the leather moulds itself to my butt and fits even better! Incidentally, when using one of these, you want your seat bones to be forward of the line of rivets holding the rear of the saddle to the frame. When I was last measured on an assometer, my sit bones came to about 143mm apart give or take. The B-17 Narrow is 151mm wide but fits really well because of the give in the materials. If your seat bones are wider than mine, you would be advised to go with the standard B-17 instead.

This picture shows the adjustment bolt at the front of the saddle. DO NOT USE IT MUCH as turning it too far will ruin the saddle. The front rivets shown here gave rise to that traditional expression in bike racing "on the rivet" describing the posture on a saddle of someone giving all that they had in a time trial. For the first time, this can be a literal thing for me...

On the subject of maintenance, here are a few things to keep in mind. Don't store a bicycle with a leather saddle in a damp or overly dry place (as much as possible) as this can cause the leather to fail. This is true of all leather products and should not be news. Every three months or so, apply some proofide to the saddle to keep it from cracking. If it is left outside in the rain or snow, use some sort of rain cover for the seat.

What do you know? Brooks sells rain covers!

The rain cover pictured above fits (go figure) and does not cost much. I paid about $16 for mine.

Here are a couple of pictures of the bike in its current configuration with the saddle mounted:

My verdict:

As much as I hate to admit it, the smug ones have a point. This is a very well made saddle. It is comfortable. It costs less and is more suited for what I am using it for than many other options (I paid $116 for mine). It is (in theory) more durable than any other bicycle seat I have ever owned. I tend to ruin seats somehow - my wife says I have a kung-fu ass... - but people have reported getting decades of use out of these saddles. Time will tell. The saddle smells nice, looks nice, feels nice. I promises to be less hard on my street clothing.

I only ask one thing of you. If you buy one, buy it for any of the above reasons and leave the smug at the door.

Continental Top Contact Winter II

 Tire Test: Continental Top Contact Winter II

Time for another tire review. As before, I am not a professional reviewer, I just ride bikes and use stuff. I pay for what I use myself with my own money, blah blah etc etc etc.

The tire this time around is a lovely little winter tire called the Continental Top Contact Winter II. Readers of this mighty blog of mine know that I am a big fan of the right tire for the job, but in case you are new here, here is a bit of history for you.

When I started riding a bicycle as a car, and decided to ride all year round, I got through my first winter with a set of burned out mud type cyclo-cross tires on my bike. I was using a Kona Dew with 700c wheels. The tires were great actually, and did a good job. I forget what they were though - something from Nokian I think (heck, I doubt I even have the name right even in my guess!).

The following winter, I used a set of Schwalbe CX Pro tires in the winter. They sucked. Complete crap. While very good in mud and on gravel (what they were made for to be fair), on snow and ice, they sucked. No other word for it. Two bad falls in six hours put me off of them in the winter for life.

I swapped them out for Schwalbe Marathon Winter tires, with studs. Loved those, even if they did have a tendency to toss studs out at the drop of a hat.

A bicycle swap saw me go from 700c to 26in tires. Enter a need for new winter tires. This time around, I did not mess about and went with Schwalbe Ice Spiker HS 333 tires. They were fantastic. Huge amount of grip in the snow. Very good on ice. But, they had some serious drawbacks. The rubber wore a lot since I ride on asphalt a lot. Also, the things are very heavy, and buzz like mad. But if you ride over hard packed snow all winter, they are well worth it.

This put me in search of a good winter tire which did not have studs, but would still give vastly improved grip in the snow.

Enter the Continental Top Contact Winter II.

Here is the company link for the tire for those who care about such things: http://www.conti-online.com/www/bicycle_de_en/themes/city/winter/topContactWinter_en.html

I went with the 26x1.9 tire size.

The first thing I noted was that the tire rolled much better than a studded tire. Gee, ya think? It was almost as fast as a slick, but not quite. Due to the soft rubber compound - supple until -25C - the tire has a lot of drag compared to summer spec tires with similar tread patterns. Pump it up to its maximum tire pressure, and it rolls along quite nicely. Other than feeling a bit squishy, it is hard to tell the tire is not "ordinary".

Like all winter tires, best grip is had in snow when the tire pressure is lowered and the tire is allowed to squash out a bit. Remember - get narrow tires for winter as they sink into the snow and bite the surface underneath. This is good unless you are "fat biking".

The winter specific rubber compound tires, like this one, are great in cold weather as they offer better grip on bare asphalt than a summer tire will, even if the tread patterns are identical. That right there makes these tires worth buying. The rubber does not freeze into hard blocks with little flex and reduced traction.

The tire pattern is quite bizarre for one used to aggressive tread in slippery conditions like I am. It is very shallow, and is basically a pattern of sipes designed to "grip" to ice and snow. Think Bridgestone Blizzak for example, or Spiderman's fingerprints. Whatever the case, it works.

The tire actually will retain some semblance of control even when black ice is hit. Don't think it is a studded tire though - the ice spikers currently sitting in the basement out perform the Continentals on the bike right now on ice by such a large margin that they are not even close to being in the same league. You MUST take more care on ice if you are coming from studs to this tire. Otherwise, they, and the ground, will bite you on the ass.

That said, the difference from a summer tire is remarkable. I was able to do limited steering and braking on black ice and did not feel as if the bike was about to slide out from under me.  Sudden moves are a bad idea though. And the bike will "float" a bit without a doubt, but if you keep your eyes up, relax, and let the bike float, it is not much worse than floating a mountain bike over liquid clay. Doable, but take care.

What about snow?

It is actually not too bad. The above picture shows what the tire looks like when rolling through a bit of snow. It packs up a bunch, but grips really really well. The tread pattern just plain works. I could brake hard, steer (some slip, but not bad) and accelerate just fine in the snow today. Today, we had a layer of black ice with about one to two cm of snow on top. Not much, to be sure, but potentially very slippery due to the ice underneath it. The tires were just fine. I was quite impressed when I pulled away from a stop on a steepish hill with snow and ice on it and the bike just went about climbing it. There was no slip at all from the back end and steering on this surface was fine. I was running tire pressures a bit below optimal for dry roads, which definitely helped.

Once I got more comfortable with the grip levels, I deliberately tried to upset them. Jerking the handlebar side to side at low speeds in the snow did not result in much if any real slip. Works for me. I know that they will skid, but the skid appears likely to be very controllable. Should be good.

One thing to note is how much water they hold in the sipes. You will leave a long track behind you after running through a puddle. It is this heavy duty siping coupled with the soft rubber that gives it its grip. While they hold a lot of water, they don't kick up as much snow as the knobby tires do. The mud flaps on the fenders did accumulate some build up, but not a lot. Very little to nothing got on my feet either. This is due in part to my fenders - I use Planet Bike Cascadia ATB fenders from MEC which really help keep the slop off of me. But the tendency of the tires to not throw a lot of snow helped as well.

I reserve judgement on their flat resistance since I only have about 100km on my set right now. They claim some protection from flats, but I don't expect protection on the level of a Schwalbe Marathon commuter tire. We shall see :)

This serves as a preliminary run down of the tire. So far, other than being a bit sketchy on ice, they are wonderful. A good friend of mine, who runs two bikes in the winter - one with studs, and one with these tires - reported that he only needed his studded tire bike five times last winter. His bike with these tires did it for him for the rest of the season.

Good deal if you ask me.

Update 1:

More snow riding has been done so I figured that an update was in order.

My earlier initial observations about the tires being good in the snow turned out to be correct. In general, I just ignore the tires and let them do their thing. Tires that just vanish and do their part are a pure win. They slip a bit, but do not dramatically skid out or cause concern. They remind me of the old Continental Cross Country tires that I had on my mountain bike over a decade ago. Those tires would grip like mad while slipping at the same time. It was a strange feeling - basically, they would skid out but in a very controlled manner which made "floating" the bike easy. They could be pushed very hard since the point of adhesion loss was so progressive. These snow tires do a similar thing.

Deepen the snow a bit though and they start to fall apart. They do not like deep snow very much and the bicycle will get a bit squirmy. It does not make the bicycle significantly unstable, but it is important to note. Rough unplowed paths are also a bit of a problem with these tires since they lack the tread to really bite into such surfaces. The machine will bounce around a bit. It won't dump a rider that is used to off road riding, but the tires are not as good as my studded Schwalbes are in similar circumstances.

When riding through slush and water on the road, the bicycle handled flawlessly. An incredible amount of water gets tossed up by the tires in such circumstances. It is very important that proper full fenders be used or the rider WILL get soaked.

Try to avoid hitting rock hard "pancakes" of ice on the road. The kinds of ice that are mixed in with slush and almost invisible. The bike will bounce off of them and get a bit skittish. Studded tires are better for that. So, avoid deep slush after an ice storm unless you are sure that the slush is all slush. Of course, these conditions are fairly rare.

My over all conclusion from initial observations remains the same. The tires are a good deal and work very well in urban environments. Don't trail ride them.

garmin edge 200 review

Again, the usual qualifiers: I am not a product reviewer, but rather a user of products; I am not being paid by Garmin or anyone else to review this product; I paid for it myself with my own money; etc, etc, etc.

What in the world prompted me to buy this you might ask?!?

Ok. I am the first the admit it. I am a geek.

I like numbers and have been, for well over a year now, anally recording every single km ridden on my bikes in a spreadsheet and have been content doing so. With my new bike on order (due to hit the road late April) and being faced with the prospect of buying yet another cycling computer to track the numbers for that bike, I did a bit of digging into some non-traditional approaches as to what to use to track my km and other data.

Benefits of a GPS system (for me)

There is no set up. Simply attach the unit to the bike, stick it in your pocket, what ever you want, and go. If you swap tyres around like I tend to do, there is no (relatively) tedious set up like there is with conventional magnetic ticker counter bike computers.

Data is therefore consistent between different bicycles and tyre sizes. Any error in the reading of the speed and distance will at least be a constant error regardless of any variation in the bicycles or tyres used.

Disadvantages of a GPS system (for me)

Battery life is not what I am used to. Usually, I get several years out of a battery on my bike computer but the GPS systems need more charging. All this means is that I have to remember to do it. But, since I am disciplined to charge my cell phone and tablet every night, what is another device? No big deal. Just remember to do it is all or that next ride might be dataless. Something which only matters if you care, which you do or why bother with a GPS device?

Errors. Yep, there are errors with a GPS system. Venture into a tunnel? Bye Bye signal. Trees? Can do it too apparently. As long as this is not a huge deal, it is, well, not a huge deal. Depends on the person and what they are using the data for.

How I am using the device / Mounting the device

My intention is to use this device as my speedometer for all of my bikes except the off road bike. That bike spends a lot to most of its time under heavy forest cover and is also voted most likely to crash and crash hard. This means that mounting a GPS unit to it is not something I am interested in doing.

Garmin is nice in that they ship the device with two mounts, and enough thick stretchy elastics to choke a goat so an owner of this GPS can immediately set up two bicycles with the unit without having to move the mounts around. Extra bits can be ordered if so desired. Also, the elastics are long enough, and varied enough, that they can accommodate stem or handlebar mounting. This is a nice touch and something that Garmin should be praised for.

Garmin, Sram, and a few other companies also make mounts to put the device (all of the "edge" GPS units from Garmin use the same mounting system - set it in the mount sideways, twist, click, and it is mounted) out in front of the handle bar stem without using much handlebar real estate. Ever see those speedometers riders in the Tour de France use sticking low and out front of the stem? These brackets will mount the device like that. I am going for the Sram bracket as the Garmin one is crazy expensive ($65 here in CDN dollars vs $25 for the Sram) for what amounts to basically the same thing.

At the end of the day, this GPS will replace several different bike computers. No more magnets, cords, zip ties. All gone. The bikes will look a lot cleaner and will be easier to wash up when they get filthy.

In use

When the device is first turned on, the screen is broken into four sections. Clockwise from the upper left, they read as follows:

1. Courses - a list of preset (by you) courses that you can follow. This is not a feature that I have explored and wonder, now, if it is something I will use. Time will tell if I will use it. If I do, I will report back and say what I think. For now? No comment.
2. Ride - press this when you want to go on a ride. It will geolocate you via satellites, and you are off.
3. Settings - does what you think it does. You can set how you want distance counted, your weight, height, etc etc. Useful if you want the calorie counter to be as close as possible.
4. History - this allows you to browse previous rides stored on the device. 

Each section has a little arrow pointing to the button on the side nearest to it and each function is selected by the button. The screen is not a touch screen.

Press the ride button, and the device attempts to find your location. You now have two options, "back" and "start". Press start and the device starts to track what you are doing.

Once a ride is "started", the screen reads like this from top to bottom:

1. Current speed. This is in a smallish font compared to what I am used to. Even the smaller speedometers I have use bigger numbers for the speedometer than this Garmin unit does. That said, I no longer notice now that I am used to seeing it. Next to the current speed, on the left of the numbers, is the little +/- symbol to tell you if you are over or above the current average speed.
2.  Distance. The font is the same size as the Current Speed function.
3. Time. This is the elapsed time since the ride was started. If the auto pause feature is selected from the settings menu, the timer will pause when no motion is detected. The lowest of the four lines of text on the device will display how long you were paused for. The device will sound an alert if no motion is detected, and again when motion resumes.
4. The last data item is variable. It has Average Speed (default), Ascent (done by GPS tracking not barometric pressure so it is not so accurate - more on that later), Calories (a guess since this device does not support heart rate monitors or any other external add ons), 

Once a ride is done, pressing the upper right button takes you to some options. Again, upper left in clockwise rotation they are as follows:

1. Back to start -  an rtfm moment for me - not a function I have used.
2. Resume - restarts the ride again. This is a nice feature. When riding to work, I pause the ride, work all day, and restart it for the trip home. I end up with three "times" this way - moving time, elapsed riding time, and total time since the ride was first started. I can see when I left the house and when I got home that way. Depending on how long the day was, this can be a depressingly large number (heh).
3. Save - stores the ride in the device's history.
4. Discard - dumps the ride from the memory.

The first ride out, the device seemed to be confused a bit in its display of speed. My speed was constant, but the unit reported wildly - over 5kmph - different speeds. I was under a very light tree cover. The unit has not done that again, either at the same spot or even under broad highway overpasses. I am marking this down as a hiccup and am not going to worry about it.

A couple of things I like about the device have to do with how rugged it is. For one, it is rated for operation down to -20 Celsius. That is very handy for someone who commutes all winter in our moderate Southern Ontario winters. Should I need to use it ever when it is really cold, under the jacket it will go in an inside pocket. It should still work there as my cell phone GPSs have done when under coats in the winter.  The device is also rated quite highly for waterproofing. It has a IPX7 rating which translates to 30 minutes under water up to 1m deep. Good enough for rain and snow... and nice when coming inside from the cold.

The best is saved for last

And here it is: http://connect.garmin.com/ 

When you buy a Garmin device like this, you get a free account on Garmin Connect. With this, you can post routes in your area for the public to see, compare stats with your friends using Garmin devices, form groups to track data (clubs etc).

I use it to track my stats. Check the site out - there are sample screen shots of the various features there for you to look at.

One nice thing about it is this. Remember I said that the Edge 200 uses the GPS satellites to track elevation? Garmin Connect auto corrects any errors based on the breadcrumb trail the device passes over to the site. Their maps have accurate elevations, and their software fixes any errors in this regard so that the profiles it draws are accurate.

Final word for now

Would I recommend this product? Yes.

Schwable Ice Spiker update

I was out with the bicycle with the Schwalbe Ice Spikers on it this afternoon and got caught in some freezing rain. I stayed out long enough for the ice build up on the helmet and bike to be noticeable. The traction on wet shiny roads with some ice was as I had expected it would be - perfect. It was no different than if it was just normal rain.

So far, several hundred km into the tires, I have not lost any studs (or rather, I lost three of them due to getting caught in a rut made between the concrete curb and the asphalt but was able to pick up the studs and reinstall them). There is no visible wear on the tires or studs yet despite being driven mostly on asphalt.

I did get out in some snow with them. That slippery wet stuff that builds on the roads in minutes and sends cars sliding in all directions unless drivers are very careful. Again, the bike handled it as if it was bare pavement. Acceleration was without slip, stopping was easy and stable, and steering better than expected. It is the steering that is tricky. Care needs to be taken compared to dry pavement (master of the obvious here) but the margin of error is much higher than it would be with standard off road knobbies. My biggest concern in snow like that is other traffic. A bicycle equipped with Ice Spikers is more stable and handles better than a car with snow tires in such conditions.

The studs on the center blocks have settled in very very well and are not protruding as far as they were before (it is not wear I am seeing but a settling in of the studs - they tend to settle in splayed to the side since they do not get pressed in straight due to the curvature of the tire.)

Verdict so far? Astonishing grip in the snow and ice.

Schwalbe Ice Spiker HS 333

Tire Test: Schwalbe Ice Spiker HS 333

Why bother with studded tires?

For me, the answer is very very simple. They hurt less. Two years ago, I started winter riding. I have been a cyclist in one form or another for over three decades, but have never really been that comfortable riding in the winter. This had nothing to do with falling, or traffic, but had everything to do with liking my bikes too much to expose them to winter's salt and other madness.

Two years ago I finally bought a cheap but still good to ride commuter bike which, since it was not a piece of sporting equipment, and was being used in place of my car, was more or less disposable.

The first winter I rode I did not use studs and had no problems at all. We had a cold winter, with a fair bit to a lot of snow for Southern Ontario. I ran all winter on worn out cyclocross tires which ended the winter being completely shot. I never fell once or even really came close. We had only one day with any real ice.

The second winter I rode, being last winter, was an anomaly. We had almost no snow. Temperatures rose and sank above and below freezing all winter long. Flowers budded in February and did not die out. While there was no snow, there were many mornings I woke up to roads and MUPs that had been "flash frozen." Ice was everywhere. Two crashes on my left side in six hours saw me to the shop for a set of studded tires.

I used a set of Schwalbe Marathon winter tires and loved them.

This year though, I needed new tires as I switched early this fall to a disk brake equipped mountain bike for my commuter instead of a rim braked hybrid. It was the best thing I could have done. My cheap, but effective, mtn bike is a lot more fun to ride.

Why the Ice Spikers?

It is simple really, the 26 inch Marathons I had ordered were on back order and the shop was running down on Ice Spiker stock so I bought a pair rather than be caught out with no winter tires.

Some basic stats

These are not light tires.  The Schwalbe web page lists them as being 995g each. That is not light, especially considering that this is all rotation weight. However, speeds are lower anyhow in the winter, so this is not as big a deal as you might think. I look at them as work out aids.

Each tire has 304 studs in them. That is a lot, and contributes significantly to the weight. Each stud is tungsten-carbide with a galvanized steel base. Schwalbe sells kits to "restud" the tires should any work their way out.

They also recommend riding at least 40km on them with gentle accelerations and brakings to seat the studs. I can report that the studs did seat very nicely after the initial run in period and do not look as likely to work their way out as the ones in the Marathons I used last winter did.

The size I am using is 26 x 2.1, which is fairly beefy. Thankfully, my bike has room for fenders and tires this big so there is no issue with fit. Some people (myself included) prefer a narrower tire in the winter as they sink deeply into the snow and bite better into the surface below. That said, I don't think these will be an issue size wise (more on this to follow).

Installation

They were very very easy to install. Some tires are a very tight fit, but I have found that every Schwalbe tire I have owned has been easy to install.

A word of caution. The studs are sharp. If you are not careful, you might get a minor scratch from them. Just a word to the wise :)

What do they look like?

Never without a camera, I naturally took a few pictures while out this morning playing in the snow so I could share with you a few images of the tires.

As you can see, the tread blocks are widely spaced, and most of them have a stud in the middle. The rubber compound is a winter tire compound similar to what automotive tires have which stays supple when cold. The tread pattern sheds snow very easily. They did not pack up or toss too much water or snow onto me or the bike which is nice.

Just a shot of the bike in some snow. We did not get a lot of snow last night, but it was enough to form some initial impressions of the tires.

Another picture of the tire mounted on the bike

Initial riding impressions

The first thing you will notice after mounting them and putting the wheels back on the bike is that they will scratch the daylights out of your floor. Consider yourself warned. My floor where the bikes go is painted concrete, so I am not too worried about it. A quick coat of paint will fix it for me. But if the floor was tile or wood, I would strongly suggest a rubber runner mat from door to storage unless you don't care about the flooring.

These tires are very very loud. I thought the Marathons I used last year were loud, but these are very loud. People notice and hear you coming.

This is a good thing...

The sound is like a cross between  the hum of standard aggressive mtn bike tires and a high pitched metallic clacking. Makes a lot of noise on asphalt, anyways.

On limestone chip MUPs, the sound is more muted, and on snow it vanishes.

These tires drag significantly. Due to the weight, and studs, my speed has dropped about four to five kmph for equivalent effort. This is not a surprise, but is worth noting. I am not bothered by this though as I don't generally want to go as fast on an icy MUP vs a dry one, so this is a non-issue. Seeing as these tires are so aggressive, I may end up finding some single track and running that on the commuter bike a bit to confirm my suspicions that they would be superb in such settings.

Handling on dry asphalt is squirmy until the studs seat. I noticed the bike seemed to hook up more after about 30km. Either that, or I just got used to them, which is entirely possible. But they are NOT as grippy on asphalt as a standard tire. But who would expect them to be?

On frozen slush though, they are marvelous. The front of the bike rarely wants to wander and take its own line when rolling over rutted frozen slush, and that is with the tire pressure at 60psi. For ice, and deep snow, it is suggested to lower the pressure. I usually lower it to about 30psi if the going gets bad. When it gets bad, once winter really starts, I will report back on how they do in such circumstances.

In snow, you might be forgiven if you asked, "What snow?" The bike went where pointed, no drama, no slipping, no sliding. It just went. I managed to find some spots with untouched 10cm snow depth over soggy wet grass and used that as a test bed (it was a running trail so I was not messing up anyone's lawn...). The bike hunkered down and plowed through the snow like it wasn't there.

Traction was about perfect.

Cornering takes more finesse though. I tend to not lean the bike as much as I would normally, and tend to exert more downwards force on the "outer" handlebar (left side when turning right) to keep things nice and tucked in. I can see the bike potentially skittering all over the place if I enter a corner a bit hot on asphalt. However, on snow, I can see them biting in and just turning. In that way, they are the opposite of a normal mtn bike tire.

I will add more to this post as the winter progresses.

Light and Motion Stella 300

Here it comes, one of my mini reviews.

Recently, I bought myself a new bike light, the Light and Motion Stella 300.

The box comes with the light with its built in mounting harness and cord, a battery, a bracket for the battery, a charger, a helmet mount, and a Light and Motion sticker.

Physically, the light is very small and is fashioned out of a single piece of machined aluminum with a glass lens. There are "heat sink" veins cut into the housing to dissipate heat. This is needed as the single super bright LED does throw off a bit of heat. If I cover the light with my cycling gloved hand to avoid blinding another trail user, my glove comes away warm. One nice thing though, the glass so far has not gotten very wet in the rain as water does not stick around very long on it.

The Stella 300 mounted on the handlebar.

The back half of the light, as you can see, houses the on/off/mode switch and is made of a very tough plastic. The switch is rubber, with an LED in it which glows green when the battery charge is good and blinks when it is starting to go. The light appears well sealed against the elements.

The power cable comes out of the back of the light and is not removable. It is also insanely long which has prompted my to coil it up and secure it with zip ties. If I was using it on my helmet, I would like it since the battery could easily slip into a jersey pocket with room to spare. It is long enough that when the light is mounted on the handlebars, the cord can reach the rear panniers.

Mounting the light to the bike is very easy. Simply set the light on the bar and hold it in position, and wrap the rubber strap around the bar and hook it to the provided tab on the underside of the plastic housing. It stretches, and the rubber holds it in position. I was initially concerned about the longevity of this mechanism, but a friend of mine who has been using the no longer made Stella 150 with the same mounting style for a couple of years reports no problems with his, despite being used in all weather and all temperatures. It is very tough. The battery mounts the same way - I attach it to the stem of the commuter bike, and the top tube of my cyclocross bike. The light swivels a little from side to side allowing for slight adjustments to compensate for handlebar curving. This is a nice touch. Once set up, the light does not move or jiggle around at all.

The Stella 300 mounted, turned on, with its nice new scratches.

As you can see from the above picture, the light does not take up a lot of handlebar room.

So how is it in use? 

In a word, it is excellent.

It is not without fault though, and there is something I feel needs to be mentioned before I go on. There is a fairly large blind spot where not much light reaches right in front of the wheel which takes some getting used to. This blind spot contributed to a nasty crash I had on the way to work about five weeks ago. The rest of the fault for the crash was all me - being tired, and a mental blank moment did not help me much.  Since then, I have used the light a lot and have found that blind spot (unlit area) to be much less of an issue now that I have adapted to it. It is caused by the light reflector in the light aiming the beam very far forward. Little to none lands directly in front of the bike. All of my previous lights did, and I did not twig to this fast enough and landed hard when I missed seeing an obstacle. The real piss off, besides cracking my knee a good solid whack with a curb and the bike handlebar, was that the light got all scratched up. And this was the first time I had used it!!!

A design flaw or simply a different design? I am thinking a different design compared to what I was used to. In other words, once accounted for, this is a non issue for commuter use. That said, be aware that it is there. Now that I am aware of it, I have not been caught out by this again.

The switch is a bit stiff as well and I find I need to grip the light to switch intensities of the beam in order to  prevent the aiming of the light from being knocked out of line. I don't mind this though as other switch designs might not be as water tight.

The light has a "race" function which is very handy. Normally, to turn on the light, just press the button. The light cycles through the following settings: 300, 150, 75, (lumens all) and a bright blinky. However, if you turn on the light by holding the button for just over one second, you get the lowest and highest settings with the rest missing. Very handy for MUP usage. Press and hold the switch for two seconds to turn it off.

Burn times are very good for a light this bright. The company promises 2.75 hours at 300, 5.5 hours at 150, and 11 hours at 75lum and 100 hours on flash. I see no reason to doubt this as I have noticed run times similar to these figures. The battery takes about five hours to charge and is a lithium ion two cell unit which does not weigh much. I cannot feel the weight when the whole unit is mounted to the handlebars.

What does the light output look like?

Well, like this:

light from the Stella 300 at 300lum

I did not mess with this picture in LR4 or Photoshop. This is right out of the camera.

The light this unit throws is good enough for commuting. As you can see, objects in the distance are easy to see, and people will certainly see you coming. Reflective stuff light stop signs, killer suicide gates over trails with reflective tape on them, etc are visible up to three or four blocks away. Side views of buses and EMS vehicles are kind of hilarious actually.

I find that it is most effective when there is no other light around, but even when there are other interfering light sources, other trail users - including ipod zombies dressed in black and bike ninjas with no light or reflectors - are easy to see. People are easily able to tell when they are being over taken which helps reduce startle. This is a nice feature.

I had one pedestrian comment about how bright it was. I agreed. She did appreciate it though when I mentioned how much easier it made it for me to see her and other people and slow down in time to avoid near misses which are all too common when people cannot see each other well.

Thus far, I have not over ridden the light, but I could imagine it would be easy to do if I unwound the bike a bit. At normal commuting speeds with lots of ambient light, or on rail trails with no other light, it is very effective at speeds up to around 30kmph.

I would not use it off road on single track as an only light source. I would use a very bright multi LED unit (two "wide angle" LEDs and two distant ones with at least four times the output would be nice) with the Stella 300 on the helmet for directional use.

So far, I have not used it on the helmet. I may run it that way for a bit with my "look at me!!!" blinky on the bars and see how it goes.

That's it for now. If I have more observations I will add them at a later time in another post.

Jacket Test: Nine 1 One NGT.BC.006 ANSI CLASS II DUTY JACKET

I got this jacket in a round about way via a friend who ordered one for himself intending to use it as a cycling jacket. It was too small for him, but fit me perfectly and rather than send it back, he sold it to me.

Keep in mind that I am not a professional reviewer and am merely expressing my opinion based on what I have observed. As a rule, I try to be balanced and fair when discussing a product and will only report what I have noticed about it for the use that I put it to. In this case, I will refrain from comment on the jacket's effectiveness as an EMS jacket since I have no clue what the requirements of such a garment would be for that use.

So, here goes.

This is one heck of a jacket. I use it as a general wear jacket when being seen is important and when I want to be out of the wind. The fit is very good for cycling and is cut in such a way that it won't ride up even when down in the dropouts on a cross or road bike. There is enough flex in the jacket that moving about is very easy to do (on that note, keep in mind that the sizing is very precise and that if you a burly individual, you will want bigger than a large - I am size 34 around the waste (and shrinking) and a large does me well). I find that I am warm walking about in bitter fall winds and that there is very little to no wind leaking through the sealed zippers.

Tire Test: Schwalbe CX Pro cyclocross tires

First off, I am not a tire tester. I just ride bikes.

Most of my riding is done on my Kona Jake the Snake cyclocross bike and most of that riding is done on rail trails. This is what forms my "test bed" for trying out various bike kit.

The rail trail I ride on is comprised of gravel, stone, lime dust chip, and slimy clay. During the fall season, a layer of wet decomposing leaves covers the trail and can make traction interesting as any minor inconsistencies in the trail are covered up and when wet they can be slippery. There are no hills to speak of - just gradual inclines which often take several km to cross. The trail is ideally suited for knobby cyclocross tires although regular hybrid tires (700x30-38c tire size) suitable for commuting also work well.

During the summer months, I was using a set of inexpensive commuter tires which quickly disintegrated on the gravel. They offered OK low rolling resistance, but were a little sketchy when the ground was wet. Due to a dumb move on my part involving a drill and my bike rack (don't ask...) I had to replace the rear tire. I opted to put the original tires the bike came with back on the bike until I got around to getting some better rubber. Once they wore down, I opted for the Schwalbes.