13-JAN-2011
Day 14: almost late!
Day 14: almost late!
In my time zone, it is still today, and not tomorrow. Yet.
The bike is all kitted up with lights and fenders and all that and is ready to roll tomorrow for work. It is supposed to be not snowing at last check, but is supposed to be about -12 Celsius. Brrrrr.
I will let you know in an edit after tomorrow if a) I manage to ride in to work and not cave and take the car, and b) how cold that really feels when it is still darkish out.
Until then...
Edit: A bit redundant now, but I did ride in today, and did have a terrific time on the machine, and did not mind the cold in the dawn's early light one bit.
Good stuff all around.
12-JAN-2011
Day 13: Yellow the best colour
Day 13: Yellow, the best colour there is
Well, clearly other colours are great, but yellow has a special spot in the heart of cyclists the world over. It is the colour of Mavic, a superb French bicycle parts manufacturer. It is the colour of the newsprint that the sponsor of the first Tour de France used to print the news on which spawned the much treasured yellow jersey which the race leader wears.
All in all, a superior colour.
I was very excited when I got these wheels about ten years ago. I very much wanted the Mavic Cross Max wheel set but it was so very expensive. In retrospect, this set has done me well. I have used them hard and have done nothing to them for maintenance. They still run as smoothly as the day I got them (I don't submerge my hubs or ride this bike in the winter which helps their longevity a lot). They have been touched up for truing about twice I think in all the years I have had them.
I would, and will within the next year or so, buy another set of Mavic wheels of this caliber in a heartbeat. The next set is for the cyclocross bike.
About the picture: Another off camera flash photo with the flash picture right and above. I have taken to using a scrap of old dirty plywood as a background for now because at least the colour is "warmish" and uncluttered. Eventually, I shall get something a bit nicer to look at (or to ignore more effectively) for my indoor shots.
11-JAN-2011
Day12: not so inspired tonight
Day 12: not so inspired tonight
Has to happen sometimes!
Anyhow, here is the front of the off road bike. This is a nice collection of older parts that continue to do well and not let me down. Over the years, I have replaced all the bearings on the bike with components with sealed cartridge units which thus far, have not had to have any maintenance done on the at all. Some bits should get attention (and will later this winter) but most of them are just fine. Nothing, and mean nothing, beats the Chris King headset that I have on this bike. It simply is the best I have ever used and I would highly recommend them to anyone who wants a top notch headset.
I am looking forward to trying out the tires on this bike in the dirt and mud this spring (after the trails dry down a bunch). They are brand new Continental 1.9 Edge tires and should be much better on the often slick clay dirt we get around here than the Maxxis Larson TTs I used to use (the Maxxis tires were very very good, just not so good on moisture slicked trails.)
All for now, until tomorrow...
10-JAN-2011
Day 11: Shimano XTR
Day 11: Shimano XTR Rapid Rise Rear Derailleur
I was having an uninspired night tonight photowise. You see, I have this massive project coming due at work for the end of the month and I am trying to pick away at it during the evenings. I also want to keep on track with this photo project.
With that in mind, I decided that there are at least three more rear derailleurs in the house that I have not photographed yet and decided to see what I could do with the one on the mountain bike.
This particular derailleur has been to the wars and back. If you have read my earlier posts, you know I had an encounter on a lonely road (hah!) with a husky. Note some of the deep gouges in this bit of kit; they are from that encounter.
It has been crashed on hard. On a log. Bent into the spokes in fact. Thankfully, the hanger gave up its life so that the frame and derailleur might live. Good hanger.
Through all that, it remains the best functioning derailleur I have ever used bar none. It never misses a shift, and is as responsive as the day I got the bike 12.5 years ago.
The design of this one is a bit different than other XTR derailleurs in that it is a "rapid rise" one. I don't think the design idea caught on if I remember rightly. The shifting is exactly backwards to standard Shimano derailleurs and I seem to recall that this caused shock and consternation amongst riders when it was introduced. It made no difference to me since I was coming to this from an ancient machine with thumb shifters.
Anyways, two rear derailleurs down, two to go!
Photo notes: there really aren't any tonight. This was a pretty straight up shot lit by off camera flash and ambient lighting in the workshop. The only challenge was finding a bit of wood to use as a background since the area behind the bike is totally cluttered and will remain so - I don't really have a good indoor shooting space for this kind of thing so have to come up with crazy things to make it work. One of these days, I will head to a fabric store and get a couple of yards of dense black cloth. No wait! We have some landscaping fabric!!! (and now you know what tomorrow might bring...)
Until then...
09-JAN-2011
Day 10: snapped
Day 10: snapped
Yep, I snapped.
I could not help myself. I got out on the new bike today and loved every single bit of it. The day was clear and bright with a stiff wind out of the north west (I think). Air temperatures were about -8 Celsius, and wind chills were near to -15 or so. It was perfect cycling weather.
I have discovered something useful for riding this particular bike in the snow. Due to its upright riding position, normal street clothing is actually comfortable to ride in. I wore long underwear - some nice warm comfy polar fleece stuff - and jeans, a pair of Bogs winter boots, and my usual parka. Under my helmet, I wore a thin wool hat. I did not go fast, and almost boiled alive in that outfit. This is a good thing! It means that winter commuting will not be a hideous experience in freezing my caboose off!
Now granted, it was not that cold out. And it was not snowing. And the sun was out. But still, I think I can do it. I likely won't get as much in this winter as I would like as financial reality states that buying two proper studded snow tires (they go for about $100 cdn or more here) will not happen until it is too late to enjoy them. They would be needed if the going got actually rough.
My wife and family are right though about one thing: riding all year is what I bought this bike for so I might as well do it and learn to enjoy the foul weather when it happens. Cold does not bother me as much as rain does. The real test of my bike commuting zeal will not be cold temperatures, or even snow (my off road skills are good enough that given fair traction, I likely won't fall) but rather rain. I really do not like riding in the rain much. Especially rain when it is +3 C or so. That is not fun. At all. Not even a little bit.
Regarding the bike, I have already made one change to it which really helped today and that was to ditch the plastic pedals it came with and replace them with some higher end Kona pedals with sealed cartridge bearings. They are the Kona Jackshit pedals from a couple of years ago. They came in two models that year - the good ones I got (with sealed bearings and removable metal studs to prevent foot slip - bonus in snow!!!) and a less expensive set with fixed studs and loose bearings. They are absolutely wonderful when cycling with non-dedicated for biking shoes or boots. Also, I have had to adjust the seat. I am so used to a stretched out racing bike frame geometry that after about 20km on this upright bike, I found myself desperate to stretch out in the cockpit a bit. So, I slid the seat back as far as the rails will safely allow. Just sitting on it in the basement tells me that was the right thing to do. Much better.
The bike rides like a dream. Think of it as an old CCM three speed from the 1970s with an Aluminum frame, and loads of gears. It is very upright. The handling is not twitchy - I had read reports that people found the steering twitchy. They should try my off road race bike if they want twitchy. This bike felt totally stable.
The stock Kenda tires handled the slop and snow very well considering they are in no way made for such things. I suspect that mid year this year I will replace them with some Schwalbe Marathon tires or something like that. While pricey (50 bucks each), those are supposed to be very good.
The drive train is low end Shimano. As such, it works just fine but has all the finesse of a dump truck. Being used to Shimano 105 road stuff and XTR off road stuff, I have to point out the dump truck like shifting. However, no shifts were missed, it went into gear with a clunk every single time, and really, what more can one expect from a bike costing $399 retail? I am very pleased with the shifting.
Brakes are strong and positive. The invention of the V-brake has done a lot for the ability of low end bikes to stop. This bike has a set of techtro V-brakes that will do just fine thank you. They are not no-name junk like comes on some bikes which deforms when you look at it sideways.
Oh yes, the seat. It is pretty comfy. It is by no means a plush lazy-boy like seat, but it is also not a rock hard racing saddle. It has a nice "soft spot" in the middle which my personal bits appreciate. It is one of the Kona house brand seats.
That is about it for now for initial impressions. I will report more later after I ride it for a bit more.
Regarding this photo: I seem to be a moron. I found a nice way to carry the camera on the bike safely (a heavily padded small camera bag I own just happens to perfectly - like it was made for it perfectly - fit in the bottom of the pannier bag if I take the E-3 and 14-54 lens). However, I forgot to ditch iso 1600 and did not notice until later. So naturally, when the light is perfect for a wonderfully exposed iso 100 shot, I shoot it at iso 1600. Sigh.
By the way, parking the car next to the smart car when I took this was a deliberate attempt at a joke. It was windy enough though that my friend and I could not tell who the joke was on though...
08-JAN-2011
Day 9: just about snapped
Day 9: just about snapped
The weather is not too bad today. We are sitting at about -5 Celsius, and the brand new bike just about got taken out in the weather and ridden for the first time. I don't know how much longer I will be able to resist the urge to take off and ride it. My wife says I am silly - she says "this is what you bought it for" with the this being all weather riding. I just have it hammered into my head that "salt = bad" so very deeply I guess. I will have to overcome that:) Odds are, I will snap one day soon and just do it.
There is an interesting bit of hobby mix in my man cave here. Lots of photo gear, and lots of bike gear. There is even beer off camera to the left! Now how much more man cave can you get than that?
Anyway, all for now. Very soon I hope to do some outdoor stuff with the bikes in tow. Until then...
07-JAN-2011
Day 8: Introducing...
Day 8: Introducing...
Today I got my new wheels.
I picked up a Kona Dew City today to use as a daily rider and commuter. Loaded with the fenders, lock, rack, and pannier bags, it is going to be a bit of a bear compared to a similarly equipped cyclocross bike, but it should still go well. The gearing is such that I should be able to just about climb up the side of a building, and the riding position is a very traffic friendly upright.
Even though the bike is not costly, I do not have the heart (and nor can I afford the studded tires right now) to stick the machine in the salt of a Southern Ontario winter. Once things clear off in late March, I will be using it for any and all (mostly) in city things that I would use a car solo for.
I figure this should net me about five to ten thousand fewer km on the car per annum. I have a speedometer installed on the bike which should tell me how much the savings will be over the next cycling season. I will at some point calculate how much gas I would have burned to cover the distance that my bike will cover. I am guessing that before summer, the bike will have paid for itself.
The benefits to my fitness should be huge as well. Considering that where I work now is approximately a 30km round trip by the way I like to take when riding to work, and adding in distances to friend's houses and local shops and coffee houses, I figure realistically that the bike might see almost 50km a day and sometimes significantly more. Most of that would be short hop stuff, but 3-400km a week is not out of the question and that is not counting recreational rides on the other bikes. Whew, that might hurt at first!
Oh yes, and a shameless plug for the store I bought it at:
McPhail's Cycle and Sport in Waterloo, Ontario. They bent over backwards to help me get what I wanted for this bike at a good price. If you are in the area and in the market for a Kona, Specialized, or Gary Fisher bike, you could do far worse than to drop by their store and have a look around. I usually get my stuff from them and am going to be a "frequent flier" there this winter as certain elements of my bicycle fleet are in need of some help.
06-JAN-2011
Day 7: Time Machine
Day 7: Time Machine
This is a bit of my Kona Jake the Snake Cyclocross bike.
I have a thing about Cylcocross bikes. They are a wonderful blend of off road toughness and on road speed. My good friend has a Surly Crosscheck and the two of us spend an inordinate amount of time riding rail trails around Southern Ontario during the summer months. We literally put 1000s of km a year on doing this.
Prior to discovering how good this bike is at handling rough stuff, I used the Cross bike solely as a road bike. I found it worked really well for this, even if I did tend to run out of gears upon occasion.
I did not realize how good it is at off road until the day I encountered some heavy construction on my commute route home. At the time, I was commuting from Kitchener to a little community 29.98km away in the countryside. We have since moved back into the city. It was a wonderful ride which took me about one hour exactly on the way in and 1:20 on the way home (due in large part to prevailing winds). Anyhow, the main road leading back to home was under construction and was closed. Just before it opened, I decided to enjoy the brand new asphalt and take that way home. I don't think I was actually on my way home from work on this day since I am pretty sure the bike was not loaded, but the road I refer to figured significantly on my commute route. I encountered only one ripped up bit of road and that necessitated me riding the bike up and over some packed dirt and onto and through a bit of gravel. I was using 700x23c slicks at the time. The bike magically transformed from a competent road bike to a very stiff and lively off road bike just by changing terrain. It was wonderful. I have not gotten brave enough to do some serious off road riding with it, but find it very comfortable to ride at speed, as if on a road bike, on rough double track trails.
I want to mention today the pedals. They are TIME mountain bike ones, and look a bit peculiar on the Cyclocross bike to be honest. I love them because the platform is big enough to support my feet without inducing hot spots on the balls of my feet and the cleat allows for enough float that my knees do not ever feel any pain. They are simply wonderful. I should really order another set for my Specialized.
On the subject of the picture: This was not exactly the shot I had in mind for today, but it does come close. It is TOO DARK! I need some more lights for this to work properly. I also need a dark drop cloth to go behind my subject since cloning out all the little peg holes in the board behind my bench is getting a bit tedious :) I would have done some retakes of this, but sadly, my flash batteries died leaving me with this - the best of the shots to that point.
Cheers.
05-JAN-2011
Day 6: M is for Marinoni
Day 6: M is for Marinoni
This is the last I am going to take of the old bike for a little while. I wanted to end this mini set with a bit of a story about what the future holds for this old bike of mine.
What you are looking at is the decal for the letter M in Marinoni located on the down tube. The bike has aged well from what I can see, but the paint has faded and the decals have started to peel away from the paint. This bike was built and finished long before clear coats were used on bikes, and after a time, the decal work starts to peel and crack.
I have been cleaning each area on the bike as I take each photo, but that was impossible to do with this piece for obvious reasons. The decal work is simply too delicate.
So what of the future?
The intention is to slowly tear down the bike until there is nothing left but a naked frame. This should make for some interesting photos along the way. If it turns out that the frame is still good, I intend to sand it down to the bare metal and repaint it the same colour of red that you see in the photo. I might add the white highlights - there is a white bar going around the seat tube and the head tube is white - but am undecided on that.
I would let the paint harden and cure for the better part of a year, and then rebuild the bike slowly and carefully.
I would never ride it as it was ridden in the past - it is retired now. The rear triangle has developed a bit of flex in it and the bike does not fit me as well as it used to. I would, however, love to take a bike like this out to patio cafes and drink cappuccinos and all that. It is a bike "like that" now.
Until next time.
04-JAN-2011
Day 5: the view from here
Day 5: The view from here
Check
this link to see how I set this one up.
Called the view from here because when I stood up on the pedals, stretched, and looked down, this is what I saw.
I loved these brakes. Sleek and graceful looking, I remember them as being the best I had used up to that time. They had some strange compound - not rubber - for brake shoes which grabbed on really hard and did a good job even when wet. Keep in mind that this was 1983 and what we take for granted now in wet weather stopping did not exist the same way then. Those shoes are still mounted to the brakes today and have not broken down. They do not hold a candle to the xtr mountain bike brakes on my Specialized S-Works bike (no rim break I have ever used comes close to those to be honest.)
The brake levers were and still are among the best I have ever used of any kind as far as ergonomics is concerned. Modolo simply knows that they are about when it comes to that kind of industrial design.
How I took this one was, for me, an interesting experiment.
I got the idea for the shot while at work (*smile*). I wanted to take it with the bike hanging up and to simulate the effect of looking down on the brake from the handlebar while riding. I knew that I wanted to light it from the side but wanted to do my best to even out the light so that one side was not too dark and the other not too light.
To do this, I shot through an umbrella into a reflective umbrella with the bike between the two. This had the net effect of lighting the one side fairly well with extra light bounced back onto the darker side of the picture. I then did some very careful processing to try and balance the light as much as I could. Again, I had to be very careful not to use too much light and risk clipping. Eventually, I will be getting some static lights which will enable me to light it consistently and from all sides. In the mean time though, this seems to have worked ok.
It took several test shots with the flash as various strengths to get a picture with only two or three very small areas of blown highlights and enough light on the dark side to be processable.
03-JAN-2011
Day 4: Nuovo Record
Day 4: Nuovo Record
This bit was my pride and joy on this old machine - a Campagnolo Nuovo Record rear derailleur. This particular derailleur sits one step below the top in the line-up of the day.
I still have the box it came in.
Other things of note in this particular photo are the freewheel - an old Regina one (so is the chain - that chain is not the lightest thing in the world, but it is strong and the original that I got on the bike 27 or so years ago as far as I can remember.)
Note the drop outs - the frame builder chose to use Campagolo ones.
The rear hub is also a Campagnolo Record hub.
For the curious, the bicycle is not made in Italy.
But more on that later.
To discuss the photo now:
I am really pleased with how this one came out and processed up.
Using the lessons from yesterday's shoot, I started with the flash one full stop underexposed. This helped to reduce blown highlights to almost nothing. My flash was again mounted remotely and behind a shoot through umbrella. It was nearer the front of the bike and about half a metre from the rear derailleur. Other light was that mixed hodgepodge of ambient light that I mentioned in a previous post.
I had the camera mounted on the tripod and tipped to align things the way that I wanted them. Space is very cramped down there, so I had the rear leg of the tripod on a shelf that I had to clear out in order to make room. The bike is actually sitting on the workbench with the front wheel off the end against the wall and resting on top of an old collapsible baby playpen. I shot using manual focus, and live view - getting my face to the viewfinder in the space I have there would have been a good trick. This is about the only time I use liveview as usually, I find it too slow. Here that does not matter. I am, though, thankful that Olympus chose to use a "flippy" screen on the E-3 camera as this made composing the picture and focusing the camera very easy.
In post processing on Lightroom 3, I had a very small patch of blown highlight to deal with (it recovered it well thank you) and a small amount of cropping. Otherwise, all I did was brighten it a bit, lift the shadows a bit, and tinker a bit with sharpening.
Like I said, I am pleased with this one.
As an aside, the next few photos will focus on this old machine as I only just got it back from storage at a friend's house. I am cleaning and photographing one bit per night. It is a slow process, but one I am greatly enjoying. It is like getting reacquainted with an old friend.
02-JAN-2011
Day 3: Campagnolo Record
Day 3: Campagnolo Record
If I remember rightly, this is a Campagnolo Super Record hub. (*Edit - my dad was thinking it was one kick below Super Record when I asked him, but neither of us is totally positive - it does not matter though really*)
It is hard to know where to start with this one.
I grew up on road bikes (well, sort of - I grew up eating food, sleeping, etc like everyone else but I spent a lot of time riding road bikes...)
I don't want to spend a lot of time talking about my specific bike that I had as I intend to save that for a later post and picture but instead, I want to talk about what this hub and that name meant to me personally 27 years ago or so when I got it.
Growing up as I did in the 1970s and 1980s and being interested in cycling as I was, the name Campagnolo was synonymous with perfection. Call me a snob. I won't deny it. Not when it came to bike parts.
Imagine being a fan of the Ferrari and being a teenager and discovering to your great delight that if you saved your money from your poorly paid part time job long enough that you could afford a Ferrari automobile.
That is precisely how I felt when I opened the box on my Campagnolo bike parts. THIS was the stuff that Bernard Hinault rode in the Tour de France. This was the best of the best. And I bought it with my own money that I saved for a very long time. I was a happy 14 year old (or was I 15? Maybe my parents can chime in here!)
I managed to build up a bike which had all Italian parts on it but for the seat.
The thing about this hub is that when it was lubricated right, and adjusted right, it would spin with one good flick of the wheel on the bike for well over half an hour. It was and is like silk. Every time (and I mean every time) my father and I got caught in the rain while cycling, we rebuilt the hubs, bottom bracket, and head set on our bikes. On top of that, I recall two total rebuilds a year. The bearings in this hub are original, and there is nothing to keep dirt out but a pressed in dust cap. Incidentally, my sealed modern hubs do not spin as beautifully as these old Campy ones do (the seals to keep dirt and water out induce drag.) It took my dad about 20 years of heavy use to wear out one cone on his hubs because of this treatment.
On the photo:
This was a pain to do right! It is lit above and left by a florescent tube and in general by soft lightbulbs (one tungsten and two of the energy saver compact florescents.) There is also a strobe off camera above and right. The trick was to dial down the flash power significantly and shoot the picture a bit dark in order to not blow the highlights - if the exposure was 100% where I wanted it, I blew two patches of the hub beyond repair. I then brought the exposure up a bit and adjusted the levels slightly in lightroom.
