pre-season preview

Well, not exactly, but due to a wonderful day, my wife and I took a walk at the turn around spot for one of my favourite routes. The wind was bitter, snow was everywhere, but the sun is starting to have some staying power and is melting snow anyplace it touches.

This ride I mentioned above sees me leave from North Waterloo heading towards South Kitchener via my good friend's house. We make our way down past Conestoga College, across Highway 401 on a footbridge, and through the hamlet of Blair into South Galt (Cambridge). From there, we take a ride down a rail trail to Paris, Ontario. Locals to me will know the trail - it is one of the more beautiful ones around the area.

Total kilometers, my door to Paris, are around 54km. We ride it as an out and back giving us (well me unless my friend comes by my place and then home again) an easy 108km. There is not a lot of climbing on this ride but for a few sharp spiky hills where we drop in and out of the Grand River valley. Mostly, it is a low to no car spin fest, with the option to add some seriously steep nasty climbs in and out of Paris if that is desired. Roads down that way are truly marvelous if road riding is something you are interested in. There are some very nice roads, both paved and gravel, with steep gradients which I intend to ride more this year while down that way.

Here are some pictures of the town taken today. It is a lovely place.

Mid picture here is the cafe we usually stop at and grab a snack or shake. It is called the Brown Dog Cafe and Frittery (they make excellent apple fritters). The shake I usually get has two scoops of vanilla ice-cream, a double shot of espresso, a banana, some chocolate sauce, and is topped off with whipped cream. Holy banana pants does that get you going. It usually fills the energy deficit caused by riding there and gets me home without an issue. I should eat something real though but the shake is sooooo good. It is called the "Brown Dog Shake" if memory serves.

The climb out. We drop down this, and climb out again after visiting the downtown. It does not look like much, and really it isn't, but it spikes a bit part way up the hill and steepens up on the right fork you can see mid picture. This is not the steep climb that I mentioned above. That one is on the other side of the town and is very hard to capture as a picture. Let's just say that I can sprint up this one flat out and not get winded, while the other one sees me grinding at a walking pace risking muscle cramps. It is much more evil. This is the margarine of evil.

The Grand River. We pass by the Grand several times - follow it actually - on this ride. Come spring time, this will be a very nice spot to sit and watch the river flow by. Today though? Cold and windy it was. If you drive a Toyota Corolla and live in North America, there is a good chance it was taken over that rail bridge. Exit along the track picture right and you will end up at the Cambridge Toyota plant (TMMC).

There you go, a bad photograph of the sign for the Brown Dog Cafe. Go there. It is worth it.

Exit picture right and you will be on the start of the evil climb. Basically, it scales that cliff you see mid picture right. The road in front of you bends to the left, and then spikes up a bit while bending to the right. If you want the easy way up, keep following to the right and it loops around back a bit and follows a gentle arch up to the top of the cliff. That is the way the trucks take when they grind up the hill. Want to cause some pain? Head left instead of taking the bypass. You will reach "Main Street." Turn right. Enjoy. It climbs fairly sharply for about 2/3 of the way up and then gets very very steep for the last third. That is the spot that can induce leg cramps in people who do not live in areas with a lot of climbing. For me, it is nasty. For someone used to constant non stop up and down, it would not be that bad. But, this is all relative isn't it?

Final shot today. This is the rail trail as it enters Paris. 21 km down it is Cambridge. Before we use it again, that snow has to be gone, and the trail has to harden up again. That usually does not take long since this is an old rail bed and has been seriously compacted. Even spring melt off does not soften it up much. I anticipate riding it by mid-April if all goes well. If not, soon after.

girl you're amazing

The above was posted today by RANTWICK, a blogger friend of mine. Thanks man, that made my day.

Happy Valentine's day everyone.

Why Chris Hadfield, The Barenaked Ladies, and the Wexford Gleeks simply rock

One of the niftiest things I have seen in a long time.

This is one of the reasons I really like Chris Hadfield.

http://music.cbc.ca/concerts/Chris-Hadfield-and-Barenaked-Ladies-ISS-Is-Somebody-Singing-2013-02-05

I would have embedded the player, but Blogger won't let me since it is not from YouTube. Follow the link, it is worth it.

The first Grand Tour of the year is coming. I love this promo.

***

I have been doing a lot of different (for me) training this winter on the bike. Instead of doing a whole lot of nothing - something that happened a lot in the past - or just riding outside when I can, I am trying to ride in to work several times a week, and am riding on a borrowed trainer in the basement for around about an hour each evening.

What makes this workable for me is YouTube.

I park the bike and trainer in front of the computer monitor, turn up the speakers a little bit, and watch while spinning away.

Slowly, I am working my way through the various stage races and classics from the 2012 season in Europe, all thanks to kind folks who upload things from ITV4 and EuroSport.

Wonderful stuff. Very inspiring.

I wonder if I will fly by my bandwidth limits for February?

creative brick wall

It has finally happened.

Truthfully, it happened sometime last summer, but it has taken me until now to acknowledge it.

I have hit a creative brick wall. Full tilt. Hard.

Time was, I would not leave the house without a camera with me. I would always find something interesting to see in the everyday. I would "see" things that others would question, would not "get". And I was ok with this (still am) but the problem is that I have, for whatever reason, stopped seeing things.

Or, to be more accurate, I have stopped caring about seeing things, or at least have stopped caring about recording what I am seeing and displaying it in a meaningful way. Make sense?

I am struggling with why I bother to take photographs. Who am I taking the pictures for? Me? My friends? My family? The public at large? I don't know.

I have tried the "social thing" on flickr and other sites and came to the conclusion that I just don't like social networking enough to make my pictures popular. Truthfully, I just don't care enough about people pleasing to bother with a lot of meaningless tripe to garner attention.

I feel as if I have taken every picture around where I live that I can take. It is funny. When I am out walking or riding about, I see something and think, "That would make a nice picture. Wait. I have that exact picture in this exact light at home on my hard drive. I took it last May. Or whenever." And then I don't take the picture.

Picture taking has been for me a social thing as well. I love taking pictures with people. However, the overwhelming majority of my friends who are interested in photography are simply, and legitimately, too busy with life to have time to use their cameras. They have disengaged from the hobby, at least to some extent. And when we do manage to get together, I often won't take any pictures worth looking at if I even take any pictures at all. I always have a great time though, so I doubt that this is the cause of my picture taking blahs. And truly, it is the people in such circumstances not the photography which matter anyway.

I am honest enough with myself to know that I am a bit (ok, more than a bit) of a gear head. My two hobbies, cycling and photography, both rotate around gear to some extent and I genuinely enjoy working with fine gear. This is not a beg for new gear since my cameras are not holding me back either technically or creatively in any way. They will only be an impediment to creativity when they stop working.

What is missing, I think, is purpose. Why bother has sunk in rather deeply.

I have to find that groove again. That track. That drive to take what I see around me and show it to the world and say, "See? This is what I saw today!" I need to get excited about the creative process and about breathing life and light into the mundane.

there are a lot of angry people out there so let's not join them

Via various wanderings around the Internet while home sick today, I came up with the following observation:

There are a lot of angry people out there.

Now this is not news to anyone who has had a social interaction in the past decade or so, but it is worth the mention I think.

Much is being said in the media about the "war on cars" etc being led by the pro bicycle movement. Every time there is any mention of creating more bicycle infrastructure, a suggestion that motorists need to share the road with cyclists ,etc, the vitriol in the comments sections of whatever news media outlet publishes such stories reads like a litany of death threats towards cyclists by irate motorists, and Social Darwinism, taking the form of "if you swim with the sharks you will get eaten" type of comments, at its worst. Makes me feel great knowing I am sharing a road with sociopaths. Weeeeeee...

Cyclists don't help themselves though as they knife through traffic, cut people off, and often times act like asses themselves, pissing off the people in cars through irresponsible behaviours seemingly designed to "prove" the negative stereotype of the urban cyclist right, and giving "justification" to the screw loose crowd to risk some innocent person's life in a dangerous game of tit for tat. To them I say thanks for nothing.

Which leads me back to my original observation. There are a lot of angry people out there.

This past year, I have had several motorists deliberately take runs at me in their cars in order to "teach me a lesson" and get me out of their way (in all cases, I was not in their way - I am very careful not to be that ass I mentioned above) for having the nerve to take the lane in order to make a left, avoid a car door, or whatever. All of which, by the way, I am allowed to do - no, supposed to do - according to the Highway Traffic Act of Ontario.

This has prompted me to want to get one of the nice new GoPro cameras. The one with the adjustable focal length so that I can mimic the field of view the naked eye has so that it will be easy to prove how close a person in a car got to cancelling my stamp. So when (notice I said when not if) a person does this again, I will have video for the police.

I have not done so though, as I do not wish to become angry. I am working hard at not being angry, at avoiding situations where this might happen, and why go hunting for reasons to become so? I don't want to litter this blog with videos that show what we all know to be true: There are a lot of angry people out there.

I don't want to be one of them.

That said, as I was watching someone on YouTube have an angry bike ride through downtown Toronto this morning, yelling at other road users who broke the law, who got too close - legitimately too close I might add - that a lot of what I was seeing was actually good. Many people were giving this cyclist a lot of room. They were not cutting him/her off. They were doing what they should be doing. So too were most - as in almost all including the one making the video - of the cyclists that were visible.

So if most of the interactions are good, most of the road users no matter what the mode of transport are behaving themselves and managing to get along, why live in paranoid angry fear?

I don't see the point myself.

Yes, a cyclist has to be cautious. Yes, there are risks. I know all the arguments. But that does not mean that it is worth living in fear.

So I do want the GoPro camera with the adjustable focal length. Littering the blog with good news stories of interactions between road users, high speed "bombs" down single track, and the such would I hope help, for my two readers anyways (heh), inject a little optimism into what I am trying to do here.

And should someone be an ass, I would still have the video for the police.

I just would not fixate on it. I would not waste my time and yours with more pointless negativity designed to give justification for more sociopathic behaviour on the part of motorists and cyclists alike.

Because in a civil society, or in one that pretends to be civil like the one we live in now, we simply don't need any more of that negative crap. We need instead a realization that the other is simply a person. They are not a label.

And the sooner we collectively get that message, the sooner we will live in a civilization that is actually civil.

one rainy evening, imagination soared

One rainy evening...

Rain is my kryptonite. I do not enjoy riding in it. The cold and damp seem to seep through more than the coldest winter day (coldest here defined as -25 Celcius). Rain in the winter is the worst since temperatures fluxuate so much and so rapidly that hypothermia is a real danger if the weather catches you out.

The rainy evening in question starts with a rainy afternoon.

I met with a good friend of mine for a coffee before wandering off to the LBS to pick up my commuter bike which was in for a repair. My friend, a fellow cyclist, does not like using his trainer and since I do not own one, agreed to lend me his for the duration of the winter.

One rainy evening, I set up the cross bike in front of the computer and rode a piece of the 2011 Paris Roubaix spring classic. For forty-five minutes, I rode with the best.

One rainy evening, imagination soared, and my legs woke up from their commuter induced slumber.

cornering a cyclocross bike

Not my video, but a good one.

Once in a while, I like to share something that I stumble across on YouTube because once in a while, something really resonates with where I am right now. And this video resonates.

I have been biking for a long time (over three decades) and love riding in the dirt and fast on the road. Well, fast for me :)

If I have a failing in my dirt riding, it is in looking down too much. I have a hard time trusting my peripheral vision. I have known for years that where you look is where you go, but at times, I forget that. When I don't forget, things go much better.

New to me on this video though is the notion of the weight shift hard over the back wheel inducing an over steer power drift under control. The idea, if I remember rightly, is to unload the front end, load the back end by shifting your weight backwards, and let the bike slide a bit while pedalling evenly at a high cadence. Maintain a constant torque output and a chunk of speed. The ass end of the bike might slide out a bit, but in theory it is easier to control and more speed should be maintained.

Well, this morning, while out mucking around on my commuter mtn bike equipped with studs on a very twisty paved but snow covered lane way, I tried it. I maintained more speed that I normally would through a curve, forced the eyes up to where I wanted the bike to go, did a subtle weight shift backwards, maintained high cadence and torque pedaling, and guess what? The front tracked beautifully, the back obligingly stepped out, and I powered out of the corner on the snow significantly faster than I would have otherwise and felt totally in control. I also applied a bit of downward pressure on the outboard (in this case left as I was turning right) end of the handlebar which helped plant the front a bit.

It felt like an all wheel drive car drifting - slight under steer, relatively a lot of over steer, and way more speed.

I will have to try it in the dirt come spring on the mtn bike and the new cross bike.

What fun!

2013 Kona Jake the Snake

Photo Credit: konaworld.com

All I will say so far is that it is hanging on a hook at my LBS awaiting me to come over with the rest of the money for it. I was not planning the upgrade right now, but since Kona is out of stock and the store isn't, my plan for an April/May purchase went out the window. I came very close to getting caught out like that last time I went to buy a 'cross bike, and don't want it to happen this time.

Thankfully, my LBS likes me and is willing to hold it for me.

The bike is lighter, stiffer, and on the surface at least much nicer than my current Jake the Snake (a 2005) model which is wearing out and getting tired.

I am looking forward to spring now more than I was before if that is at all possible.

After I ride it a bit, I will indicate what I really like about it, and what I think might need work.

In the mean time, it is ORANGE!!!  *big grin*

videos worth watching

YouTube thought I would like to see this. YouTube was right.

The biggest thing I picked up from it, besides a big grin from how well filmed it was (mostly - the transitions between the same scene in different seasons, while well done, got a little old) and a big appreciation for the incredible skill the riders in the video showed was this: keep your eyes where you want to be. Despite my many many years of riding in the dirt, the one trap I keep falling into is looking low. This video really makes it obvious what a huge mistake that is.

Personal riding goal for the year? Look up, look longer, look farther.

95 to 115

One thing I do a lot of when I am commuting by bicycle is think.

Lately, I have been thinking about the nature of cycling, how people use their bikes, what they use for bikes, why they ride bikes, things like that.

Some I know use them purely as transport. They ride upright bikes, often with racks and fenders. Simple and practical bikes. The kind that might be left locked up outside and largely be ignored by someone passing by while the owner is in a coffee shop enjoying a warm beverage. The kind that get used to commute to school, to work, to get groceries. Ones that take to having a trailer attached. Get left in the rain. Not expensive Dutch bikes, but these fit this category well. I refer to inexpensive, almost cheap, lock them and leave them bikes. Plod along bikes, the kind that do not get ridden fast (although they could) because their very nature suggests a slower more relaxed pace.


Some I know ride them in the dirt. They use cyclo cross bikes, mountain bikes. Bikes with knobby tires, with slick tires, with big hit suspensions, hard tail back ends. Bikes with exotic suspensions, bikes with none. Bikes with xtr rim brakes which stop you so fast you get nose bleeds, bikes with huge diameter disks. All sorts of tire sizes, all sorts of tire types. They go fast, very very fast, in the dirt. They come alive when they leave the asphalt and pavement of the city. Lumbering and truck like when out of their element, they possess a soul transformed by the place they are meant to be.


Some I know ride the roads and ride them hard. Race bikes, some steel, some titanium, some carbon fiber, some aluminium. All share common features - hard, thin, skinny tires that roll fast over pavement, and skitter then on gravel. Low drop outs. Low weight. High speed. High control. Low center of gravity, and cornering prowess. Touring bikes, loaded, filled with things, go slow but go far. Explore what is over the horizon.


Some I know ride the urban scene. Trials bikes, fixies, odd ball cruisers. Hipster been seen bikes. Making a statement. Part of the urban landscape. Battered, bruised, well loved. Often old, sometimes new. 

It is their use that defines them, and their use that defines how they are often ridden.

And it is that which made me think.

I am a cyclist. 

I ride for transport, in the dirt, on the roads, and to some extent in the urban scene. 

But I don't fit in any box that anyone might try and put me into.

What I do, no matter what I ride, and for what purpose, is 95 to 115.

And it is in that wonderful pedal cadence that I float away and fly, dancing on two wheels. Regardless of the bike, or the purpose for which I ride.

adobe lightroom 4.3

I have been a fan of Lightroom for a number of years now and consider it to be if not the best then certainly one of the best programs for sorting and editing photographs.

Lightroom 4 is something special. I has breathed new life into my old camera by giving me almost a stop more in both the lights and darks. The difference in processing is quite something. I am not going to spend a lot of time talking about this here - much has been written elsewhere and all I would be doing at this point is repeating what should be obvious to anyone who is following the subject even remotely.

However, LR4.3 is pretty nifty, and that is worth mentioning. I am not 100% sure what fixes they did with the software, but I have noticed a big improvement in the tones I am seeing from my pictures.

Here is a shot from the Fuji X10 (processed from a DNG made from the Fuji Raw Format.)

This picture is nothing special really as a picture. I used the onboard flash as a fill flash and just took it. There was no "purpose" to the photograph beyond seeing how fast the new memory card zipped along. What I noticed is that after minimal processing, none of the blacks are blocked up, and none of the highlights are blown. The colour and tone look better than what I was getting before, even with earlier versions of LR4 (never mind 3 or 2).

Here are a couple of shots from my Olympus E-3 and 50-200mm swd lens (processed from DNG files made from Olympus Raw Format.)

Just a shot because I was bored while waiting for a friend to finish his photograph. This is my Golf. What is worthy of note is that the in camera jpeg preview showed the sky blown out totally since the camera metered off of the shadowed side of my black car. Once in LR4.3, the sky appeared with no processing. After minimal processing, detail came out in the sky and in the shadows under the car. The only blocked blacks are a little bit in the holes in the rims near the brakes and a tiny bit in the rear wheel well. None of the highlights were blown. Again, the tones are very progressive to my way of looking at it.

To me, this one is just delicious. Yes, I got the exposure right, but the tones LR4.3 were able to bring out strike me as better than what I was getting before.

Time for a direct comparison I think.

Here is an older photograph, processed with an older version of Lightroom. I believe it was Lighroom 2 seeing as it was taken in the fall of 2009 and I did not ever have Lightroom 1. Both pictures were denoised slightly using Nik Define 2.0

Processed in LR2 - note, the lights picture right are totally blown out. The shadows are also a bit too deep.

Processed in LR4.3 - note, nothing is clipped or blocked up and the shadows could withstand more lightening without degrading the picture, particularly around the wing. Look at the picture large (click on it) to see what I mean. As an aside, this picture is noisier than the above one, but I did nothing to reduce it except for a slight bump in LR4 unlike with the original where I used Nik Define 2 since it holds up well when viewed at a normal distance.

Here is a more challenging example of the differences between the older versions of Lightroom and LR4.3.

Processed in LR3. The blacks in the original Raw were completely blocked up on the island, stump, and lower right hand corner. Processing to the point seen here largely fixed that up.

This is the exact same file processed in LR4.3. The blocking is gone, and so much more appeared - both detail and colour - than could be attained with LR3.

So, is the jump to LR4 worth it if you are sitting on the fence?

In a word, yes.

cycling end of year wrap up and new goals

I did not make my goals for the year with my bicycle but still managed to have a terrific year with my two wheeled machines. In 2011, I rode 8345km on all of my bicycles combined. For 2012, I managed a total of 7938km split evenly between commuting/around town riding and faster road and rail trail riding. My goal was to exceed the km ridden in 2011 during the 2012 year.

While the mileage for the two years was similar, the way 2012 panned out compared to 2011 was quite different. During the 2011 calender year, my job saw me working in the same city that I live in. I was able to commute all winter and through until the end of spring. This resulted in about 30km for every day that I rode to work - free km if you will. Steady constant cycling all year round brought me to my best year yet in terms of mileage. During 2012, my work assignment was in the next city over, and riding in the winter to that city is problematic at best, and dangerous at worst due to lousy roads, and unploughed (but existing at least) bicycle infrastructure. This meant that most of my mileage during 2012 was compressed into the warmer months of the year with only a little around town riding through the winter months. Even though the total km ridden did not match what I rode in 2011, my 2012 season saw me faster and more powerful on the bicycle and finally approaching the levels of fitness I had back (way back) when I was 29 or so due to the kind of riding I did. Happily, I managed to get fit enough that I could largely ignore the wind - it still slowed me down of course, but it was not the torture that it has been in years past.

So what of 2013?

Work sees me back in the city again, at the same location I was at two years ago. This means I can commute every day again and gain a free 30km per day. The commuter bike is heavy, with studded tires during the winter, and takes a lot of effort of move quickly. The intention is to do what I did last time. I will use the ride into work as a relaxing clear the cobwebs of sleep out of my mind warm up to the day, and use the ride home as a sweaty heart pounding as fast as I can workout. Hammer hard enough, and I will get some decent winter rides in and keep my conditioning up. Combined with all of my running around town for social reasons and shopping, things should be looking pretty good come spring time.

Once the warmer weather arrives in the spring and the roads clear of snow, ice, and road salt, I will add to the commuting several road rides a week. I also hope to get out on the mountain bike once a week as well since my off road skills are fading away to nothing through lack of use.

Essentially, the idea is to combine the best of 2011 with the best of 2012. I am fortunate that I am in a situation where I can do this without impacting the thing that matters most to me: my family.

My daughter is getting older, and is interested in cycling as well. She got her first adult bike for Christmas, and is looking forward to riding with us come spring time. My wife is recovering from some health concerns and is looking forward to getting her bike legs back. We honeymooned at a mountain bike resort a long time ago, and both really miss riding with each other. Our riding together has been hit and miss for a long time. This year looks promising for many family outings along local, and some not so local,  rail trails together. I am really looking forward to this.

So here is hoping that it works out as planned. May your year be good for you, and full of the things that make you happy. There are other things coming up for our household that I won't mention in this blog that make 2013 look like a fantastic year, and I hope that the same is true for you.

at the lbs

So, I go into the local bike store (LBS) this morning with the bike with the fouled up brake on it and the guy behind the desk says, and I quote, "Uh oh, what did you do?"

I go through the story (see yesterday's post).

He invites me to take it down to the basement to the mechanic I know. We are old riding buddies, and have known each other for about 20 years.

He sees me coming and says, and I quote, "Oh no..."

____

It is nice to be so predictable.

I think.

____

As an aside, the SanDisk Extreme SDHC UHS-1 card is howling fast in my Fuji X-10. Much more so than the Lexar Platinum 2 card I was using before. I think it is approximately twice as fast. Write times are almost instantaneous.

frankenfenders two - a five minute fix

Before I get into describing how I built up the rear fender of my commuter mountain bike, I would like to complain about something. If you don't want to read that bit, skip to the pictures.

Ok, I admit it. I am a klutz.

No, really, I am.

I have a positive talent for messing up mechanical projects. I am not scared to try adjusting or making things, but more often than not, I mess things up. Some people can, when handed a device or machine, figure them out and seemingly like magic, make them work properly. I figure out how to foul them up beyond belief. My favourite mechanic at the LBS sees me coming and often greets me with a "What did you do this time?!?" and a look of fear and trepidation on his face. Sigh.

With that in mind, consider what happened tonight. I rejigged my rear fender to create more clearance for snow, and managed to mess up the rear brake caliper to the point where I think it may need replacing. While putting the rear wheel back on the bike after working on the rear fender, I nudged the tab on the dead brake pad (the non-moving one) with the brake disk and pushed the pad out of alignment. It was stuck inside the caliper. The only way I could see to get it out was to remove the back plate adjuster part of the caliper and reseat the brake pad. I have seen this done before and it works. But. You knew there had to be a but, didn't you. But, I forgot to clean the threads of the adjuster plate and it jammed. Seeing as I have been riding in the snow and salt and grit of winter this was predictable but I failed to clue into this until it was well and truly too late. I tried, very carefully, to remove it, but the wrench slipped and I stripped out the Allen key hole in the middle of the adjuster leaving it stuck in the wrong position. So now I have a rear brake which works, but is wildly out of adjustment. If the mechanic at my favourite LBS can get it out, and if that part is replaceable, I might be looking at a cheap fix. I suspect though that I am looking at a new rear caliper.

Grrrrr.

I had taken some pictures for tonight's blog entry on my Fuji X-10. This camera uses an SD card (I hate those things and much prefer CF cards - this was true even before tonight's story). I caught the edge of the card on the edge of the card reader and managed to foul up the plastic dividers between the broad flat pins on the card. I no longer trust the card, and should get a new one. It took nail clippers to trim off the plastic bits to get it into the reader so that I could retrieve the pictures.

Grrrrr again.

I am not touching anything breakable again tonight. Like chairs.

Anyway, on with the frankenfender.

The rear frankenfender on my bicycle is made up of three parts. The lowest part is a scrap of skinny mountain bike whip fender that I had left over from another bizarre fender build from a few years ago. It is not really needed except that I like to keep as much crud out of the front derailleur as possible. 

This is the top of the small fender bit I use as a shield to protect, at least somewhat, the front derailleur. It is mounted by a screw in the threaded hole in the cross brace between the chain stays.

This shows how the fender bit is attached to the frame. It also gives some idea of the (limited) protection the fender offers the front derailleur.

Next up is a standard cheap sks fender. It is one of those ones which clamps onto the seat tube with a cheap flexy "claw" (see the above picture) and mounts to the brace between the seat stays with a bolt and a bracket on the fender. What I did was remove the bracket entirely and use zip ties to mount the fender to the brace and bike rack.

Close up of the criss-crossed zip ties holding the fender in place. There is an indent in the fender which is lined up with the seat stay brace which gives almost 1cm more clearance between the fender and tire once the normal mounting bracket is removed.

Underside of the criss-crossed zip ties. This looks like it will catch some snow, and it will, but it won't catch much snow and the added clearance is worth it.

This zip tie keeps the fender from flopping all over the place. The thing is very securely mounted, and the fender is well protected, so the likelihood of the zip ties breaking is very low.

The final part of the frankenfender is a rear deflector shield which I use to both end off the fender and to make a deck on my rack.

As you can see, there is huge clearance here for the wheel. This part was unchanged in tonight's rejig of the fender. I can testify that it does a great job of keeping crud off of me. I am not sure about people behind me, but I don't get anything on my clothes. I had to trim it a bit as the length, while good for blocking wheel spray, was such that heavy bumps bounced it into the tire where it would jam and pick. To fix that, I trimmed off a chunk and refixed the trimmed bit with zip ties (I love zip ties) to the bike which ended up both stiffening and shortening the fender part.

Here is what the whole thing looks like "live" on the trail. This picture is the older version of the set up, but shows how it looks when all covered in snow. The only difference between this and the current version is the amount of clearance for the forward two bits of fender.

The snowy front part - it looks the same now but for the added clearance. This does show why the refit was needed though - powder snow like this is fine, but the wheel would almost jam up with continued riding through slush which freezes to ice on the bike.

The rear part of the fender. It is clear to see how I added the hacked off bit back to the bike, and how much clearance there is for snow. Buildup is a non issue for the rear of the fender.

And lastly, the whole thing with both frankenfenders in the snow.

That's it for tonight.

on making frankenfenders - a five minute fix

Usually, I end up putting frankenfenders on my bicycles when I decide to use a fender. You see, the problem I have is that often I am attempting to attach a fender to a bike that is not really made for fenders (or, at least, is not made for fenders and a rack at the same time - like my Kona Jake the Snake) or does not have enough room for proper fenders and studded tires (like my Kona Dew City).

Sometimes, though, the frankenfender job is needed because the fenders I picked do not do the job as well as I would like.

The front fender which currently sits on my commuter mountain bike is a good fender. It is wide enough to cover the full width of a Schwalbe Ice Spiker 2.1 tire and, when combined with the splash guard on the down tube, keeps most of the crud thrown up by the tire off of me. Only a tiny bit gets on my boots. I don't mind this as I deliberately opted for a fender that fits with huge space between the tire and fender so some slop is expected.

The problem I had with it was that the front of the fender did not stick out anywhere near far enough to deflect spray tossed forward by the tire. It was flying quite high in front of the bicycle, and I was riding into it.

So, I needed to extend the fender enough to prevent spray.

Here is what I came up with.

Side View showing the two bolts attaching an old scrap of fender to the one mounted on the bicycle. It is clear to see how big the studded tires are from this picture, as well as the generous amount of clearance I have allowed for snow etc to build up. On previous bikes, I have had so little wiggle room that the tires ended up rubbing on snow build up. This will not be an issue with this bicycle.

Detail of the underside of the fender showing a front view of the new fender bit. I used an old used bit of fender that I happened to have lying around the workroom left over from another frankenfender project. This is why I never throw out any scrap of plastic fender that I end up with. You just never know when it will be useful.

Angled view of the new fender attachment. A significant amount of length has been added to the front fender. I trimmed back the leading edges of the fender to make them less blunt and to make it look a bit less of a hack.

Many would not like the aesthetics of this five minute fix of the bicycle, which is something I understand.

I, however, like the Mad Max look for my commuter bicycles. They get left outside while I am shopping, out for coffee, getting groceries, and sometimes at work. I don't want a bicycle that costs a fortune to do this, and don't want a bike that looks flashy even if it is inexpensive. The kind of mods I do make the bike distinctive looking, and "mine", without adding to the desirability factor all that much.

Some would argue that removing the suspension fork and adding a rack and fenders forever removes the cool from the bike.

To that I say good.

looking to the stars

enjoying the sights

My nephew enjoying his new telescope. He loves the sky, and loves stars.

Now, he can look at them properly.

Good on you kid. Keep exploring this wonderful place we live in.

it's the end of the world as we know it but I feel fine

Seeing as the world ended today, it seemed somehow appropriate that I happened upon a spot where old things go to, well, for lack of a better way to put it, die.

I am planning a return trip when I have more time.

here comes the sun

That song always makes me smile.

So does my little sweetie. The best thing about being a parent is being smiled at - nothing tops it.

a happy gearhead

Having two hobbies which to a certain extent revolve around gear can place a person in a mindset where the point of it all can be lost in a pursuit, real or imagined, of the next best thing.

The truth is, there is no next best thing.

It has taken me a while, but I get that now more than ever.

I am truly satisfied with what I use to create pictures, and what I use to ride around the part of the world I live in.

And all that has changed is how I approach what I am trying to do through my hobbies.

taken while out with a coffee with a friend

the most wonderful time of the year? perhaps

somehow, this cannot be right

divine light 1

divine light 2

The cameras work the way I want them to. I am satisfied.

This contentment with the way things are has not made me stop yearning for new bicycles though. And really, what will ever stop that from happening?

Nothing. Part of the love I have for cycling stems from a definite love of the bicycle itself. And the more bikes that enter my life, the happier I am. To me, they are more than a machine for transport and more than a machine for exercise. To me, they are an expression of something, I don't know, bigger than a sum of their parts.

It is so bad that I get excited about new tires. Really.

My wife often jokes with me about what would I do with all the bicycles I dream about if I had them.

I don't understand the question.

But the satisfaction with the way things are does make it a lot easier to simply enjoy every minute I get to spend with my bicycles and makes it easier to focus on the part of this hobby that truly matters.

Riding.