Blinky Loop

I've been commuting to work by bicycle, as I've mentioned quite a bit recently. However, with all of the rain we've been recieving -- showers today, followed by heavy rain -- I've grown tired of hauling my backpack in. Invariably, even though it is a good pack and I've treated the outside, some water makes it's way in. So what to do? Some people swear by panniers, I swear at them. I don't like the way they make my bike sluggish. I have to drive to town on Sundays and Wednesdays so I take two changes of clothes in to work on Sunday, swap them out on Wednesday and ride home with my pack on Friday. Not a bad system.

Why am I telling you this? Because I used to carry my tools, patch kit, pump and spare tube in my pack. Again, I don't like hanging things off of my bike. Since I no longer carry a pack, I put my cell phone, wallet and keys in my jersey pockets along with a change of gloves and arm warmers, should I need them. My tools, patch kit and spare tube now go in my seat pack -- Fi'zi:k's Saddle Pa:k -- which is just big enough. So what do I do about the pump? I use a Crank Bro's Power Pump that is tiny, but not small enough for my pack. I'd rather not put it in my jersey pockets and I don't have a mounting bracket for it.

Fi'zi:k's Saddle Pa:k has a loop for a tail light. I don't use this feature because I've lost lights this way, and I use DiNotte's taillight which doesn't have a clip. Until now, I've not had a use for that loop and it has been neglected. Now, I use it to hold my pump. The Power Pump slips in nicely, and with a quick velcro strap it's not going anywhere.
Now, I don't worry about having the right gear with me, as it's all in -- or on -- my seat pack.

On another note...

Jon has need of your help. He is buying a Cannondale Synapse but can't decide on the color. Click here and leave a comment with your vote.

Disc Brakes and Fenders

As I mentioned last week, my new commuter/cyclocross bike is equipped with disc brakes. Well, here in Oregon, western Oregon to be more precise, we've seen a bit of rain. Actually we've seen enough rain that some people are considering building an Ark. Suffice it to say, my rides have been wet. All of them.

This is why I didn't look at any bikes without discs as a commuter. However, disc brakes create there own unique difficulties. With this much wetness going on, full fenders are a must. Normally, the fender stays run in a straight line from the mount near the dropouts to the fenders. This works on the drive side of the bike, but not on the brake side. On the brake side, I had to get creative.

The front:

As you can see, I mounted the stays to the upper caliper mounting bolt. I then bent the stays out around the caliper so there is no interference.

The rear:
I was able to use the fender mounts out back, but still had to massage the stays a bit to clear the caliper.

In the end, I got the fenders mounted securely and out of the way of the brakes. Now, I can stop on a dime no matter the weather and can keep the road spray off.

Trek did a better job of brake placement on the new Lemond Poprad Disc. The put the rear caliper on the chainstay, rather than the seatstay.

Lemond:
(photo curtesy of RBR forums.)

Commuter

I try and commute by bike almost every day. I ride to work on the road, off road, and somewhere in between. My old commuter bike, a '91 Fisher Sphinx, has many, many, many miles on it. Last year alone I put over 3000 on it. Well, the drivetrain was original, even the chain. I lamented the shape that the chain was in here. Needless to say, I was riding on borrowed time.

Last November I bit the bullet and ordered a new bike. I decided the that a cyclocross bike was right for me, combo of on and off road, and I didn't need another road bike. 'Cross bikes generally have enough clearence for fenders and fatter tires and I was looking for something else... disc brakes. I've run discs on my mountain bike for years and wouldn't go back to rim brakes for anything. I wanted the all weather stopping that discs provide since I ride in all types of weather.

Enter the Cannondale Cyclocross Disc bike. It has enough clearence for some decent sized tires with fenders, it is plenty light and it has disc brakes.

After nearly 3 months of waiting, the bike arrived!

The brown santa is on time:
Good things come in BIG boxes:
Inside the box:
Get it out, get it out!
On the stand:

One of the first things I did was remove the compact double crankset -- 50/36 -- in order to put on a mountain crankset, Race Face Deus XC -- 44/32/22 -- so that I could have low enough gearing for kid hauling duty.

Getting there:
One of the cool things about the paint is that the silver isn't paint but, rather, clearcoat over the metal.
And it's a good thing it's cool, too, since Cannondale was only offering this bike in this color scheme.

More pics of the semi-final build to come.

It's DONE

And now, for something entirely different, I rode to work today and didn't get rained on!!!

In other news... The light review is DONE! You can see it in all it's glory here. Every light had merit, and the price spread was really big -- the cheapest was the Eos at $40, the most expensive was the Triple Shot at $320. The biggest surprise, I think, was to see how big of a difference the optics made. A perfect example of this was the single 1W category. The Eos, see below, is actually a pretty good beam for such low power.
The Nite Hawk Emitter, on the other hand, has improved optics, even though the light source is the same -- again, see below.
This gives the Nite Hawk a brighter spot and helps project the beam farther.

Bottom line, you have to see the beams to know what kind of light you'll be getting; you can't just look at the specs.

Rain, More Rain and Delays

If you live on the wet... er... west coast you know that we've been getting some rain. Man, is that an understatement. We've been getting soaked. No rain gear made can withstand this kind of weather. I've decided that wet is ok... if you are warm. Sure my coworkers don't like the smell of my gloves and socks on the back of my monitor, but hey, it gets them dry!

I know that last week I promised to have the light review up and running today. It's not. It has taken on a life of it's own in my attempt to provide all the information possible and the lenght, number of images, tables and graphs has given my web guy a headache. He's getting it sorted, but between my demands, his family damands and those of his paying job -- sheesh, like they have a right to ask anything of him -- well... the review won't be up until tomorrow night. So, unless you are on the wet... west, I mean west coast it'll be late for you, so check GearReview.com, or here, on Thursday morning.

As a teaser, here's the specs of all the lights:
Until Thursday, try and stay dry!

Oops

I miscalculated the voltages on the lights that I have posted here. They will be correct in the review, which is still scheduled to go live on Tuesday. The difference is minor, but I thought I should fess up.

And now, for something new

This week I received a big box of goodies from the good folks at BikeMine. They included a little bit of everything, so look for these reviews in the future.

Downhill tires:

Nothing like a set of 2.5 inch meats to make my normal tires look wimpy, especially since I've been spending quite a bit of time on road and 'cross tires. These are the Lobo Mas Loco and they come in folding and wire bead and even a UST model.
I also received some urban assault tires, the Tattoo, also from Geax. These are 2.35 inch tires and are grippy!
Finally, in the mountain bike arena, we have the Limar 960. Like other high end helmets, this one uses carbon fiber to reinforce the structure of the helmet.

Back on the road front, we received a set of Rubino Pros -- no image of those, yet -- and Continental's Home Trainer tire.
I've been running these for the last few trainer sessions and the biggest difference is that they are quiet! I am able to get in a trainer ride at night without waking up the wife and kid now. Very nice. They are available in both 26" and 700c sizes.

Finally, since I can't seem to write about on here without mentioning something light related, look for the LED shootout on Tuesday, January 17th. And hop on over to ElektroLumens and check out their flashlight. Sure it's a ton of money, but it's as bright as a HID using LEDs.

Burn, baby Burn

I've set up my data aquisition system to log the light output of the various LED lights to get an accurate burn time. I'm using the DATAQ DI-194RS -- it was cheap! -- and a high output photovoltaic cell -- that isn't cheap, but I'm borrowing it. The lights are ~47 inches from the solar cell and I have a fan blowing air across them to keep them cool. I do the burn times at night so I have minimal light from other sources. The software logs the data directly into MS Excel.

Whew. Now that the technical part is done, let me tease you with some of the results.

NOTE: The voltages listed on the vertical axis can only be used to compare with other lights in this review. The output from the photovoltaic cell has not been amplified in any way. Also, the cell is less than 1/4 of an inch to a side. This means that the voltage output does not correlate to total light output, only the intensity of the brightest spot.

First off, the CygoLite Hi Flux 200:
This light started to drop off around 100 minutes. However, the light level stayed rather high and the next morning, the LED was still putting out enough light to walk by.

Next up, the Vega, by Light and Motion:
What is interesting here, is that the spot isn't as bright as the Cygo Lite 1W, even though the Vega puts out more light overall. Also, the light got a little brighter as time went on, until the elextronics powered the light to a lower level. Finally, the light turned itself off around 175 minutes.

Finally, until the review is live, the CatEye Triple Shot:
The Triple Shot's output spiked right before the electronics cut the power. Like the Cygo Lite, the Triple Shot was still on the following morning, with enough light to walk by, 9 hours after it was turned on.

Happy Feet

Boy, my feet are happy. Really. Why? I received some socks from Gordini yesterday and am wearing them now. They are made of a natural and synthetic mix called Lavawool. According to Gordini -- I'd link direct, but they decided they needed to be on the Flash bandwagon -- the material has the warmth of wool, with the comfort of fleece. It uses the wool for insulation, and the synthetic material to wick moisture. Very nice. I'd show you a pic, but no one wants to see my feet.

Edit:

The socks are the Lavacross and are a do anything crew sock. They retail for $13.

Light Update

I'm tired and it's late, so this will be brief. But I do have a teaser for you! The rain gods were smiling on me tonight, so I was able to take pictures of the lights shining on a deserted stretch of road. The camera was set to an F-stop of 16, with the shutter held open for 30 seconds.

Now the teaser. Have you ever seen a tail light that you could ride by? Now you have. I give you, the 'nets first look at the light cast by the DiNotte tail light.

The reflectors are 50 feet apart, and the first one is 50 feet from the light. If a car hits you while you are using one of these bad boys, the driver has to be blind.

I did set up my data acquisition system for logging the burn times, so I hope to have graphs from that soon too.

Fusion Comp

My review of the Hutchinson Fusion Comp tires is live. Check it out. The short version is that the tires stick really well and feel very lively. The weight is pretty good at 210 grams.
I didn't experience any flats, but they are wearing rather quickly. Not an everyday tire, but a good choice for criterium races.