This was the first year that I've been a serious bike commmuter. Moved last October from an apartment literally 30 seconds walk from work to a house that's at 6-7 mile ride depending on route. Takes me 20-40 minutes depending on traffic and weather and whether I feel like getting a little sweaty. Parking at work is paid and I didn't, and there's no street parking nearby, so I've biked nearly every day throughout the year (Boston area). It's been a good chance to try some stuff out and see what works for me and what doesn't.
*Bikes:* I've let my stable get distressingly (to my wife, at least) large, ironically by trying to find one bike to do it all. Trucker Deluxe, Elephant National Forest Explorer, Hillborne (now sold), Rawland Drakkar (assembled and yet unused), Pugsley - these bikes are not so different from one another that I can justify keeping them all. And, I've found the time that I'd spend taking off fenders, swapping to knobby mountain tires on the Elephant, I'd rather spend doing something else. So that bike mostly had Hetres until I ripped a hole in the sidewall, now they have Soma B-lines. It sees light trail duty, but mostly stays on the road. Furthermore, I don't seem to be the kind of person who, having put a rack on a bike, can take it off. So my bikes get progressively heavier the longer I own them, as I adorn them with things to make them useful; but now the Elephant is basically duplicating what the Trucker does for me, which is carry a heavy fat load without regard for speed. And while it's heretical to say this here, I put together a carbon fiber cross frame with road friendly parts and geometry and no provisions for racks and fenders and I love it. I don't race, but I do like to go out with a friend who's a good bit faster than me and push myself. This bike encourages that, and forces me to think lean. It is a bike for a purpose and it does it well. *Geometry:* They Elephant is a 650b bike with low (40mm) trail. Everything else has 55 mm or more. Going from low trail to the Pugsley with it's 70 degree head tube angle or whatever and giant tires can be startling, and vice versa. In general, I like the handling of my Elephant, and that it holds a line well well climbing (slowly, is how I do it). I don't feel terribly unstable on fast decents, but I don't race and I don't like to descend terribly fast. I prefer a front load for most casual riding and the Elephant handles that well. Depending on how it's loaded I can ride no handed at 12-15 MPH and have no problem with shimmy. I don't ride no handed any faster than that. *Fenders: * I've tried Hammered Honjos, Longboards, VO zeppelins, and now Cascadia ATB 26" fenders. I don't have a super preferences among these types. Metal looks nice. Plastic is fine. That they keep most of the wet off me is all that I ask and they all mostly do. I do like that the Cascadias can fit 26x2.1 knobby tires (Smart Sams) with adequate clearance. *Tires:* Most of the year I rode Hetres (regular, not EL). I had maybe five flats in ~1500 miles. 2 of those, on one ride, were caused by a tiny piece of glass stuck in the tire that I couldn't find until I got home and into the light. One was rim tape slipping out of the way and the tube getting sucked into the hole. There was a snake bite, I think. And then at the end, a hole in the sidewall. I've moved to b-lines, maybe 300 miles, no flats so far; much smaller than the Hetres (haven't measured, but they mess up the fender line). I like the ride quality of both tires very much. The trucker I spec'd with 26x2.15 Mondials. These feel totally indestructable and like they would be stable on most terrains. They laugh at poor quality pavement. They are heavy and slow and I took them off because they were overkill for the commute. I replaced them with 26x2.1 Smart Sams, which I used for a three day mixed terrain loaded tour, for which they were a fine choice. A little noisy but not terrible at all on pavement, not the best and most grippy but not terrible at all off road. I have a set of 26x2.0 supremes waiting. *Pedals:* After I test road the Hunq at the BBH shop, I immediately went home and ordered a few sets of the VP thin gripsters. I love those pedals. I've been riding most of the year with mountain clipless pedals. Depending on bike, I've had SPD mountain, Speedplay Frog, and Crankbrothers Eggbeaters. All fine; I like the float of the Frogs the best. But, I don't have a place to keep clothes at work, so I'm often bringing stuff back and forth. Throw in a stop at the gym, and you could be talking work clothes, bike clothes, gym clothes, and shoes for each? That's crazy! I tried Dromarti Sportivo shoes, but even with mountain clips they're noisy to walk on on a tiled floor, and they are way to narrow for my feet. So lately, I've been trying out various forms of flat pedals. I have the MKS Lambdas on the Pugsley and a pair of Five Ten Dirtbags that works well. But the drillings have all fallen out and they get pretty slippery when wet. I prefer the lower profile of the VP pedals as well. For riding to work, I've recently discovered MKS urban platform pedals, which look a lot like White Industries urban pedals, or the Lyotard Marcel Berthet. But much cheaper. I coupled these with VO half clips. It took me about a day, but I find them totally easy to get into and they work very well, even with my least grippy work shoes (which tend to slip when mashing, even with grippy drilled pedals). I say this as someone who is not particularly coordinated or facile, and was frightened of toe clips because of this. The Eldi pedal wrench that Riv sells makes all of this possible with a minimum of cursing. *Lights: * I splurged on my first dyno hub, a SON28 for the Elephant. I wish I had done this sooner. I had been a (putting it gently) fair weather commuter living in Ann Arbor; having to worry about whether I had charged my lights or replaced my batteries was enough to discourage me from even trying, four days out of five. Now, I don't worry anymore. The go fast bike has the cygolite metro, and that's fine for my purposes (I rarely ride it at night). *Saddles:* Have tried B17, Selle Anatomica Titanico X, Rivet Independence and liked them all immediately. I have both Randi Jo Fab and Aardvark saddle covers and they both work fine (better than just stretchy material which seems to always fall off when I shift my weight. Didn't like Berthoud's Aravis, and I had very briefly a Fizik Arione which might be the least comfortable thing I have ever sat on in my life. *Racks: * Elephant has Nitto Campee with removable low riders. Works well, supports my Berthoud handlebar bag fine and can hold panniers like you'd expect. The low rider mounts bow outwards, and so the bike does not fit easily into a bike rack. Trucker has Tubus Logo rear and Duo front and they work great. I have the PDW takeout basket as well, but it doesn't play nice with the Trucker's Moustache handlebars. Can make it work with a Nitto lampholder but still pretty tight and not worth the effort for me. I miss having a Wald front basket, which I had on the Hillborne and liked (I guess I don't miss it enough to take the Berthoud off the Elephant and put a Wald basket there, though). *Bags:* I am amazed by what you can put into a Berthoud 28 front bag. A full days work clothes, for instance (I am not small, and neither are my clothes). A few groceries. It is a very good bag. I have Ortlieb Classic front and back roller panniers in brown or tan or whatever they call it. They do what they ought to. I have the Large Saddlesack and that's also been great, and I just acquired a Medium one as well, which I expect to be equally great. Archival Clothing's Musette is also very good. I could put keys, camera, wallet, U-lock and even a smaller camera in there and be fine. Wouldn't want to travel more than 15-20 miles with that though. *Clothes:* Last winter taught me a lot about biking in cold weather. For maximum warmth, I used a base layer, long sleeve jersey (Road Holland), wool pullover (Ibex), wooly warm vest, and Endura jacket, hi vis vest. I have warm bib tights from Pearl Izumi and Craft, both fine down to about 30 degrees. Colder, and I'd feel it but never did find a solution. For gloves this year I've been using standard wool gloves with riv's summer gloves over them. For seriously cold weather I have some winter mittens from black diamond. Footwear, this year I splurged on a pair of 45nrth Wolvhammer boots. They are intense, possibly overkill for my purposes but I'm looking forward to trying them. Last year, even on the coldest days (like, down to 10-15 degrees F), I could get by with plastic bags, two layers of socks (outer wooly warm or similar), sandals, and splats. But I wouldn't recommend it for anything longer than 30 minutes. Wearing cycling shoes did not seem to make a serious improvement on this setup. Headgear was a problem; I had an Ibex balaclava that worked ok. We'll see for this year, but I'm really liking my possum wool cap right now. I might combine that with a neck gaiter for most of my winter riding. For most summer cycling, I wore a Road Holland short sleeve jersey and either ibex or Musa shorts. I got a pair of Rapha winter cycling pants on close out last year. They're cut like dress pants but made out of fleece lined, stretchy snow pants material. Noisy and not particularly breathable indoors. Never wore them but may give them a whirl this year. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. 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