stratford photo essay

From yesterday's walk in the frost fog.

mission managed

Got out with the camera this morning.

It was frosty, overcast, and damp, the kind of morning that produces some of the best diffuse light and a natural monochromatic scene.

Coffee and good times...

... as well as sweets ...

... rounded out the day.

beer store open

Funny, the other day I got a chance to try out my new snow tires in the white stuff. Bicycle snow tires, as my loyal follower knows.

A new job location for part of my job takes me outside the city limits to the next small town over. It is not far away from home - a measly eight or so km - but there is a one km stretch of the ride to work that is not very nice to ride on. Previously, I mentioned that some kind people, more local to where I work out of town, had mentioned that there was a nice trail (a piece of the Trans Canada Trail in fact) which connected the town to the city and would allow me to avoid this nasty stretch of roadway. They warned me that snow might be a factor for some of the winter since the trail is not winter maintained. They said that it is passable though because so many people use it.

er, drift anyone? and this from about 5cm of snow? three days after it fell and a lot melted?

It is very very possible that my rides to and from work might be a lot of fun. Or, at the very least, interesting...

Shortly after I took this picture, the snow all melted.

However, today, not so. Winter came back for what is promising to be a brief visit.

winter dropping by

winter dropping by

By Sunday, it is supposed to be not sunny, but rather cloudy, warm, and raining. Sigh.

That said it is early yet, and the mild flirtations we are having with winter are just enough to make getting around more fun and less humdrum.

What it is not early for though is some shopping for the upcoming holidays. I visited one of my favourite homes away from home today and took a look in the back store room while my vehicle was getting worked on and found something cool in amongst the stacks and stacks of boxes.

lookie what I found!

The above picture is a hint as to what SOMEONE at my house is getting this year.

Hint.
Hint.

That ought to make her happy, no?

it is starting to be time

I miss taking pictures.

I need to go someplace.

I think, this weekend, I will marry these thoughts with action, take my camera, and just go somewhere and make some pictures.

It has been too long.

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.

snow!

Ok, colour me thrilled.

The snow has arrived.

I admit it.

I used to hate snow.

A lot.

But then I made a discovery.

It is very easy to marry my favourite pass time to the winter white stuff.

To enjoy winter, all you have to do is what kids do: find something you like to do outside, and then go do it. It took me years to rediscover this simple truth.

Stay tuned for an upcoming review of the Schwalbe Ice Spiker HS 333 winter tires.

What fun!

not much

Not much to say today other than this.

I thought you might like to see this.

Yesterday's Sunset

I do love how Fujifilm cameras render colour.

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.