Fitting the new LifeLine Disc Rack was a breeze. The only tricky part was that the rear stay connectors needed bending to accommodate the angle of the bolts on the frame. To do this I screwed in one of the bolts fully then twisted the rack until it was flat. I then fitted the second bolt. The rack achieves the required clearance for the disc brakes by using the supplied extra long mounting bolts. One of these was very close to the small cog on the rear cassette but it misses by a hairs breadth. It might be worth hacking off the end of the bolt for peace of mind.
I did my second commute to Richmond yesterday, this time without the hideously heavy backpack and it was great. The bike is still surprising me by its speed and agility, especially once it gets rolling. I absolutely smoked a single-speeder on the Upper Richmond Road. He overtook me just after the traffic lights. I switched to the small front ring and then ramped up into top gear. Within seconds I left the red-faced manically spinning cyclist at a stand-still. A true scalping.
Today Adam, Jo and Theo stayed with us for the weekend. On Saturday Adam and I started work sanding down the bannisters in preparation for another application of white undercoat. After finishing to be honest it didn’t look much different to before :-(. The next step is to fill the little dings and scratches before the final sanding down and white satin coat.
Theo was doing his commando thing in the lounge and pulling very funny faces which made us all laugh. Jake was a little out-of sorts and kept snatching the toys from Theo. Does this bode well for our new arrival I ask myself?
On Sunday before our delicious lunch of homemade steak and ale pie we took the boys to Hilly Fields for a play. Jake cycled there although he only likes to cycle on the flat. Uphill is a no-no. Downhill is also a no-no.
I decided to take the Dew on my commute today. I decided that Richmond would be a good bet as the bike racks there are less crowded so therefore I am less likely to get the paint scratched. Ooh I’m so precious about my new baby. I’m sure it won’t last long ;-).
Again I am delighted at how sprightly the Dew is. I have been practising riding using the drops which is fairly comfortable but after a while the old ‘crown jewels’ start to ache a little. I shall experiment with sliding the seat back a bit. I have readjusted the bars so that they point down a bit more. This makes riding the drops much better because the hand falls naturally into the straight part of the bars ends as opposed to the slightly curvy end.
I rode with my backpack this morning for the first time in ages. Within minutes my shoulders were aching and after a couple of miles my back was dripping with sweat. I forgot how horrible it is to ride with a backpack :-(. All is not lost because Wiggle, while typing this blog entry, have delivered my disc specific rack that I ordered on Friday. Woo hoo. I will fit it tonight.
I haven’t written about my boy in what seems like an age. Recently he has been poorly. He caught a cold shortly after starting school then acquired a rather fruity cough. That was two weeks ago. Last week I had to pick him up early from school because he kept having coughing fits. Amy took him to the doctor who, surprise surprise, said he was fine. Last week he fell asleep on the train after school and once he got home vomited profusely in his bed. A day later, a few more vomits and lots of washing he was as right as rain. The cough is better now, before he was waking in the early hours such were the ferocity of his hacking fits.
Today Amy and I attended his first parents evening. I think Jake was a little worried about this because he kept saying that he wanted to go with us. However, all was okay. Jake has fitted in well with his classmates. He is quiet and well-behaved. Works well on tasks but sometimes has a problem listening(selective hearing anyone!). Overall he is doing brilliantly. My little star :-). We saw some of his artwork in the classroom. He had painted a red bus and had drawn a spiders web in preparation for Halloween.
I must mention before I go an amusing incident while reading Jake’s bedtime stories. Jake started to yawn then said “Daddy my yawn is not coming, why is it not coming?” This escalated and he got quite upset because he couldn’t finish his yawn. I told him that the yawn will come and not to worry about it and yes, it did come and then he was happy with the result :-). I’ve just yawned while writing about yawning. Must be time for bed. I have Ghost Town from Lovefilm to watch. Not sure how far we’ll get into it as it is now 10:30pm. Night night.
I’ve had the new bike for a few days now but until today I haven’t really had the chance to ride it properly. Today I took it for spin along The Waterlink Way.
When powering out of the saddle the Dew Drop feels incredibly tight, compact and solid, much more so than my faithful Ridgeback Velocity. It is a twitchy beast though due to the drops I think. I have lost my cycle computer so couldn’t compare speeds but it feels fast and rolls along very smoothly. You do feel every bump and wrinkle though which could be down to the highly pumped tyres. My old Ridgeback and this one are aluminium so the shock absorbing qualities should be similar. In fact the Dew should not be as harsh because the forks are steel and therefore should soak up a little road buzz.
As far as tweaks are concerned all I’ve had to do is set the seat height because it was initially way too high and adjust the handlebars to make riding on the hoods more comfortable.
It will take a while to get used to a road bike again. The last time I rode a bike with drops was back in the late 80’s when my daily transport was a bright red Raleigh Ace. Back then bikes were made from steel and the gears were on the down tube. I do miss the double action brakes so that you could brake while riding the flats.
In normal traffic the safest option is to ride on the hoods where the brakes and gears are accessible. This can compromise your field of view. In that respect a hybrids’ flat bar is much better. I suppose though it will be a case of learning to ride a different way and once I get used to it there will not be an issue. I do like getting into the tucked in position on the drops. You instantly pick up speed but I am not sure if that position would be comfortably for long.
The Avid BB7 Road disc brakes are superb and offer excellent stopping power, far superior to the old v brakes on my other steed. I had a go at adjusting the rear disc brake and it is quite straightforward. You just need to make sure that the gap between the disc and pad on the inner side is twice the distance as the outer side. This is easily dialled in using adjuster wheels.
My only issue is the fitting of mudguards. The rear shouldn’t be a problem but the front will involve some bending of the struts because the only available fixing is halfway up the fork.
I will be ordering a nice disc specific rack. I really wanted to go for the Tubus Disco but it is quite pricey so will opt for the LifeLine disc rack which is a fifth of the price and for day-to-day commuting should be fine.
I’ve bought a new bike for my commute. I had been intending to wait until next year. I had my eye on a Kona Sutra.
Last week a saw that Wiggle were having a 10th anniversary sale. I had a look and stumbled upon another Kona, namely the Kona Dew Drop. The Kona Dew is billed as a ‘fast commuter’ and the Dew Drop is the version with drop bars. Dew drop , geddit?
It has a similar geometry to the Sutra and also the commuter friendly disc brakes. Where it differs is that the Sutra is steel and the Drop is lighter aluminimum. There are other differences of course. The general components are better which is to be expected as the Sutra is a few hundred pounds more expensive.
The Drop also doesn’t come with a rack and mudguards, although I did a little research and discovered that they can be fitted contrary to the Q&A on the Wiggle website.
The original sale price on the Wiggle website was £470. I thought “that’s cheap” but not cheap enough to warrant the purchase. A week later the price has dropped to £412 which is a massive 35% off the list price. Of course I snapped it up. I am now waiting eagerly for the postman to stagger up the road carrying a bicycle shaped package for my delectation.
Last Thursday we both took Jake to school. On the way we met with Ben and Charlotte and took the train together. After Jake was safely ensconced in the class room we all toddled off to the great hall for the Harvest Festival. The chairs were arranged in a circle which was great because we all had a good view of everything.
Soon after proceedings we saw our little boy come in with a group of his classmates. He looked so grown up sitting on the floor. He saw us immediately and gave a grin.
The festival was great. We had singing and dancing and then Jake and his friends each had a gift to take to the festival table. He looked very proud with his big bar of Aero :-).
I am looking forward to the nativity play. Better stock up on the old hankies.
I was reading Puff The Magic Dragon to Jake this evening. When I got to the bit were Little Jackie Paper came no more I looked over at Jake and he had tears in his eyes. I asked him what was wrong and he said it was because Puff was sad.
This is the first time little Jake has shown empathy in this way. What a beautiful little boy! He was okay though because in this version Little Jackie Paper comes back after he has grown up and his daughter becomes friends with Puff.
I took Jake out on the bike at the weekend. I don’t mean my hybrid,I mean his little fluorescent green number. He actually suggested going for a ride so I think he may have been riding one of the bikes at school. We walked over to Hilly Fields and then took a spin down the hill towards the Bowling Green.
Within no time he was whizzing along. I was very impressed. He quickly learnt how to brake and steer properly.
The second first is that Jake has got head lice. He was itching his head while we were having a drink in the Lewisham Centre. I had a look and found one of the bugs. Later on that evening I was applying a treatment to his hair and scalp. Jake didn’t seem fazed at all. I plucked one of the lice and showed it to him and he was very interested.
Amy’s first night away was full of drama. Trudi phoned up saying that Laurie had eaten some flu pills and could I look after Gabriel while they went to the hospital. When I told Jake he was extremely excited. They both were as good as gold and went to bed nicely after reading a couple of stories; ‘Colour me magic’ and ‘Toby’.
I spoke to Trudi in the morning. They found one of the pills in his nappy. Happily Laurie is fine :-).
During a random surfing session I came across some tilt shift photos. I know that in photography tilt shift lenses are used to produce images with a very shallow depth of field. These images were photos of models, or so I thought. They looked very intricate and extremely well made.
Upon further investigation I found that they were normal photographs that had been processed to make them look like models. I found an online tilt shift maker site and had a go myself.
The primary consideration when making a tilt shift image is of course the photograph. Buildings work well especially when taken from a height or a distance. Details rather than vast vistas are good and having people to provide a sense of scale enhances the effect. So I had a go. The images below are ordered by quality of the tilt shift effect. The photo of the Lake Palace in Udaipur came out really well even though I thought it wouldn’t work.
