CamelBak Relay Review

It's no secret, I a fan of quite a few of CamelBak's products. Not all, but quite a few. A little while ago I was lucky enough to receive a CamelBak Relay to test out. The Relay is Camelbak's first venture into the home water filtration market and it's about time. I only have my Brita to compare it to and there isn't much of a fight here. The Relay is a vast improvement over my Brita.

The first improvement I noticed is the speed. With the Brita, you fill the reservoir and wait for 7 minutes for the water to filter. This doesn't seem like a big deal but if you have to do it over and over those 7 minutes add up. The Relay filters the water as fast as you can fill it. It also filters the water again when you pour it into your glass which can't be bad.

Perhaps the best improvement over the Brita is there's no black shit in my glass! The only downside I've seen so far is the filters are more expensive but the last twice as long so it evens out.

In closing, this image pretty much sums up my first impressions of the Camelbak Relay.

Bottom line: Highly Recommended. 
Buy It If you use any another pitcher water filter product.
Don't Buy Them If you already have one.

Junk En Las Trunk

A friend sent me a link to Half Moon Cycling today. I am impressed on many levels; the first of which being that there is an ass printed right where your ass should go, that's just good common sense. Also, any logo that looks like boobs is a good one in my book. The flaw I see with this product is that anyone with a pair of bib shorts and a some scissors can make their own ass bibs in a matter of minutes. Having said that, these have moved to the top of my "Shit I Must Have" list.

A Big Box O' Bike Porn

Usually when a man gives another man a box full of magazines it goes something like this. Last week a good friend moved out of town, and before he left he dropped of a box of bike porn he didn't want to pack up. There were an abundance of Bicycle Times and Dirt Rags along with some other random bike porn crap. I've always liked Dirt Rag and Bicycle Times I just never got psyched enough to pull the trigger. This past week I've read a one of each every day and I think I've gotten myself sufficiently psyched. I'm diggin' the articles and reviews, even though they're over a year old . The problem with reading last years magazines comes when you see a t-shirt that you absolutely must have, you learn quickly that you're not alone and everyone else had to have the shirt when they saw it... last year.

Maybe by subscribing I can avert this kind of painful catastrophe in the future.

Xtracycle: The Longer Haul Trucker

As previously stated, I have been slacking. Here is my attempt to catch up.

For a long time now, I've been wanting a sport utility bike of some kind. I think this has to do with the amount of kids I have. When the first one was born the idea crept in that it might be nice to have one some day. By the time number two arrived I was in a state of full on man/gear lust. At first I thought I might just spring for a bike trailer and the I could tow the kids to school and go to work in one trip. The problem with this is that I park my bike in my cube and it would suck to have to negotiate a trailer through the office every day. I definitely wanted an SUB.

Being a Surly fan I considered a Big Dummy, but I am a cheap scrounging bastard so the consideration was fleeting. The logical step was to put an Xtracycle on the LHT(yeah you know me), but that too had a stiff price tag (cheap scrounging bastard*).

I decided to use the vast social media empire I built over the years to my advantage. On February 21st I tweeted "anyone in DC want to sell me their Xtracycle?". At the time I thought this was one of the douchier things I've done, which it was, but it worked!
Soon I had a shinny used Xtracycle Free Radical with bags waiting to be installed. I had to purchase another chain and tandem length shifter and brake cables for the extended rear. I also had to do things like measure the elevator at my office to make sure this SUB would make the trip I wouldn't be hiking a 7 foot bike up the office stairwell.

The install went smoothly with no troubles. I had heard of LHT owners complaining that the Xtracycle didn't fit well because of the LHT's longer chainstay but I didn't run into this problem.

The Xtracycle and the Long Haul Trucker seem work pretty well together; the LHT is strong and is already geared for hauling heavy loads. The Xtracycle design is impressively simple, it's easy to install and has a cult following that documents tons of mods and DIY projects.

Now it's time to get my DIY on.

Monday! Thou yeasty milk-livered haggard!

Problem Solvers and Problems Solved

Anyone who has had an LHT (yeah you know me) for a while or run the Shimano UN54 bottom bracket can feel my pain here. It's simple and it's stupid, the aforementioned bottom bracket uses a non-drive side ring made of plastic...  sigh. Plastic that cracks over time and starts to make a clicking pinging sound. I don't really care why Shimano did this, I can only speculate that it's because they don't love me and want to hurt me.

Thankfully someone at Problem Solvers does love me and made a replica of the plastic crap for crap, (above right) out of loving metal that would never hurt me (above left).

I proceeded to remove the bottom bracket from my daughters drying rack (seen above) and attempted to replace it with another UN54, this time using the Up Cup from Problem Solvers. The problem was that I couldn't get the drive side of the BB to come loose. I couldn't get any leverage because my Park BB-22 tool was too shallow or something, whenever I muscled down on it the BB tool would slip out. The one time I managed to get leverage, I had all my weight on it and the BB still wouldn't budge. I needed another type of problem solver. I presented my problem to Sam over at Silver Cycles. He showed me the trick to solving my leverage problem by holding the BB tool to the frame with an extra large washer and a crank bolt. It may look obvious, but it was new to me.

Knowledge is leverage.

It put up a strong fight but after several rounds the BB finally broke free. Water had gotten into the BB housing and rusted the threads to the frame. It was at that point that I remembered buying a can of Frame Saver last year. It seems the purchase alone wasn't enough to save my frame. I headed home and applied a healthy portion of Frame Saver before installing the new bottom bracket.

Cheers to Sam and Silver Cycles for once again solving my problem.

A Touch Of Evil! -or- The Packaged Package

Got a package from the fart knockers over at Evil Cycling today. 

I excitedly opened the package and confirmed that it was indeed the jersey I ordered and not a pile of entrails or steaming poo, or any other type of pile for that matter. 

Why the rubber gloves you ask? The buttholes at Evil Cycling have a strict handling policy which they detail here, here, and here... and to rule out any confusion regarding their intentions, they said this and finally drove the point home here.

After unpacking the jersey it was off to the patented Cycle Jerk Centrifuge where any particles or wiffs of sackage will be removed before it's ready to wear.

I think it's rather fetching, brings out the black in my eyes.

Review: My First Week In Merino Wool

Last month I swore off synthetic jerseys for good and made the switch to merino wool. Now the act of swearing something off seems to imply that the line has been drawn in the sand, the switch has been made, and said behavior would end the very moment the swearing took place. The problem with this particular swearing off is that merino wool is kind of expensive.

It's taken me a month but I finally purchased a couple of wool jerseys and so far I am very happy. Both jerseys were purchased on eBay where I avoided the sometimes ridiculous cost of super fancy wool. The first is a short sleeved retro jersey by Sombrio which includes a shifty looking dirtbag with every purchase.

The second is the Bodyfit260 by Icebreaker; a company well known for their quality wool performance wear and a penchant for creepy pseudo-bestiality in their marketing campaigns.

"Our fine clothing is made from the pubic hair of freaky man/sheep centaur things we find wandering around middle earth, I mean New Zealand"

It's been too warm to really give them the proper going over. I did wear the long sleeve Icebreaker all last week where the temperature ranged form 45° to 70°. In the mornings I had to wear my vest to block the wind as that seems to be the only thing merino wool can't do. The wool regulates temperature extremely well. I was warm at 45° and warm, not roasting at 70°.

The 260 weight wool is not ideal at 70° but it's doable and I can't say that for a thicker synthetic. For additional versatility I got the short sleeved lighter weight Sombrio jersey. On warmer fall days I can wear it combined with my wool arm warmers if they're needed.

As a bike commuter this flexibility is priceless, (almost). This time of year I usually have to stuff my bag with additional jerseys and arm/knee warmers to combat the temperature fluctuation. With the wool at least I can leave the extra jersey and arm warmers at home.

The best part is, after a week of commuting in the same jersey it didn't smell... really. Merino wool has broken The Great Stink Cycle! This makes me, my co-workers and most importantly my wife very happy.

I am pretty pleased with merino wool and excited about adding it to my commuting arsenal. 

he he...  arse...

New Blog Series: Will It Compost?

Most of you have probably seen the "Will It Blend?" website that made the rounds a while back. The idea was to see if the latest must have personal electronics equipment could be taken out by a blender. The answer was always yes, yes a blender can destroy an: ipod, cellphone, game system... whatever. I thought it was pretty stupid at the time but a variation of the idea might be pretty cool. Recently I purchased a set of Ergon GP1 grips (which I love),  and noticed the substantial "green" engineering effort that went into the packaging and I had my variation.

Will It Compost? 

The idea is to put packaging that is supposedly "green" to the test by subjecting said packaging to a month in my worm composting bin. Then I'll be able to judge weather the companies claims of eco-friendliness are legit or full of compost. If my worms don't eat it, it ain't green. At the same time I will be getting an education on green packaging, as I don't know much about it. 

And just to clarify, I'm not going to put recyclable plastics or any other petroleum based product in the bin, unless the product claims to be biodegradable.

So Ergon, think your packaging is sustainable? Let's find out.
As you can see in the photo below, Ergon uses soy ink and 100% recycled paper. There is also some glue holding the cardboard tube to the rest of the package. 

Step 1. Cut a hole in a box...  Soak the packaging.

Step 2. Shred the packaging to make it easier for the worms to work with.

Step 3. Throw it in the bin!

Tik-Tok Tik-Tok... (fast forward a month or so...)

DING! We have our results.

The worms ate almost all of the packaging. They went through all of the pressed cardboard material leaving only a ring of glue mentioned above and the thin "waxy" outer layer that made up what the main graphic was printed on. One cool thing about worms is that they leave behind only what they don't like. A good example is this Starbucks cup I threw in there a while back.

The worms are about halfway done with it. They eat the paper leaving behind thin layer of wax that made the cup waterproof.

I'm pretty happy with these results. Most companies would put a product like this in clear plastic, which even if it does make it to the recycling bin uses more oil and more energy to make it into yet another piece of plastic.

In this case (for most of this package), I represent the end of the line, converting a useful product, paper, into an even more useful byproduct, fertilizer for my winter greens and eventually food on my plate.

In conclusion I think Ergon did a great job with their grip packaging. The only improvement would be if they  could find a way to print the graphic directly onto the cardboard and use less glue.

Please comment with any "Will It Compost?" requests.

Happy Mondaying

Tail Light Back Pack Hack

So I have a theory about the cyclical nature of lost gear and cycling. The idea is that the gear you loose on the trail has a way of coming back around to you in a new form. Example: if you loose a tail light you will eventually find another tail light or a pair of cycling glasses if you ride enough. This theory came about after loosing one too many tail lights and finding a few.

Last night in hopes to break the cycle I made an enhancement to my Deuter AC Lite 25 back pack that should stop the tail light from falling off.

I punched two grommets through the fabric of the back pack and ran a zip tie through and around the clip of my tail light. I tightened the zip tie as much as I could and now the light isn't going anywhere. The grommets are through the top flap of the pack so there are no holes in the main compartment.

I got the grommet kit from Home Depot. The kit is made for tarps and vinyl but easily worked on the heavy canvas of my pack. Included in the kit was a hole punch which was useless on fabric so I just cut a very small X with and exacto knife and punched the grommet through.

I got the idea for this from a blog I read last year but for the life of me I can't remember which one.

Say "Back Pack Hack" out loud, right now.

Tuesday, I wish I could quit you...

SKS Fender and Continental Contact Tire Lessons

A little while ago I put SKS P45 fenders on my new LHT (yeah you know me) and was happy about it. After some time has passed and I've put a few hundred miles on them I realize that the P45s are just too narrow. My bike and legs still get filthy after a wet ride. Don't get me wrong I love the fenders, I just wish I had gotten the next size wider. Another problem on that front is that when riding on dirt, the stock Continental Contact tires spew dirt and dust everywhere. By the end of a 55 mile ride I looked like a character out of Mad Max and my fenderless buddy riding a mountain bike was all clean. The only explanation I can come up with is that the tires pinch up dirt in the grooves as the contact the ground and toss it back against the bike. Has anyone else come across these issues?

Beer And Berts

First off I think everyone should know that we are in the second day of the Inaugural DC Beer Week. That means we're already a day behind and have some catching up to do. This sounds like a pretty sweet event with tons of participating local bars and breweries. Any excuse is a good one people.

Next up is how ahead of the curve I am. I recently procured an Ibert for my one year old and am pleased to announce that Tori Spelling and I have one more thing in common. We both have fetching blond hair, both of us starred on hit 90's television shows that happened to be produced by our fathers, and now we both rock the Ibert. I took the little one out for a few rides over the weekend and I am working on a product review.

Happy Monday everyone... Happy Monday Tori Spelling.

Vacation Lessons: Breaking And Entering

I have returned from a much needed beach vacation. There were many lessons to be learned from this, the first real vacation with my daughter. How to pack a weeks worth of baby paraphernalia into a 2 door hatchback. How to remove a hook from an angry stingray without getting the Steve Irwin treatment (RIP). The most important lesson I learned on this trip was to use caution when packing up a Yakima Skybox 16. For some reason after packing it up for the drive home, the locks on both sides of the box broke and I couldn't get the thing open. I called REI where I purchased it and pleaded my case. At first they wanted me to bring it into the store so they could check it out. I told the manager this was no good because I had baby gear in the box that I need right away. His solution was to go ahead and get into the box by any means necessary and bring in what was left of the box for an exchange. This was intriguing. I get to break the box open? Tee Hee!

With visions of circular saws, guns, crow bars, and small explosive devices dancing through my head, I hurried to the basement to choose my weapons. This is what I came up with.

After a few attempts with the mini crow-bar I realized the folks at Yakima wouldn't have designed this to be easily thwarted by a crow-bar. Next up was the Dremel Tool with cutting wheel.

The Yakima Skybox proved no match for the 14 year old Dremel. A few quick cuts around the top hinge rivets was all it took.

Now it's off to REI to get another one.

While at the beach we rented bike for the week so there was a lot of beach biking going on.

Single F*cking Speed.

Yesterday, on my first commute ride in over a week I was confronted with something wonderful, a 5 bike stack up waiting for the light to cross Connecticut.

Oh traffic light, let my people go...

The last and second most important lesson I learned while at the beach was that New Belgium's Skinny Dip summer brew is ding darn delicious!

Vacation's over, time to ride twice a day again. Freakin' Sweet...

UPDATE:

----------------------------------------------

After taking the Skybox to REI they hooked me up with a brand new Skybox 18. That's right 2 more cubic feet of storage space.

Thanks REI of Rockville.

Product Review: SKS Fenders

I picked up some SKS P45 fenders from Silver Cycles (LBS) for the LHT yesterday and I must say they are a pretty good solution. I researched several of the higher end, fancy pants fenders and figured I would try these first. They are cheap enough that I can always upgrade if I didn't like them. I also didn't want to mess around with drilling, measuring, and getting leather washers and the whole thing.

The biggest competition for the SKS are the Planet Bike fenders. I had these on the Cross Check and I liked them too. They are durable and the price is right but overall I am liking the SKS a lot more. The installation was easier than the Planet Bike fenders and took a lot less time.

I like the multi layer chromo plastic. The stripes gives some depth to the LHT. Time will tell if it can hold up to a beating.

I really like the Secu-Clips. The idea is that when a stick gets caught up in the fender the fender arms will pull out of the clip rather than the fender shattering or causing a wreck. Another use I found last night was that you can simply pull them out to put the bike on a fork mounted roof rack. When I put the LHT up on the rack the fender was hitting the tray blocking the fork frown lowering down to the fork mount. After popping out the arms from the clips there was no problem. Afterward I just popped them back into place and was ready to go.

During the installation of the front fender I realized that the black plastic tabs (guides) that hold the arm in place didn't allow for adjustment I took a knife and cut the plastic halfway up the arm. This kept the plastic on the ends of the arms keeping them safe from poking or snagging (and they look good). I know I could have just removed them but I'm lazy. I had no problem with the rear tabs, the fit was perfect.

The only other issue I had was that the directions provided were pretty vague and didn't specify which bolts went where. It's not rocket science though, I got through it.

Other than that that installation was very smooth. Over all the Planet Bike and the SKS fenders offer a great solution for an inexpensive easy to use fender. That said, having worked with both recently I would recommend the SKS.

This photo makes me very happy. An LHT in every kitchen!

Have a kick ass weekend.

UPDATE:
Adding a mudflap DIY

Surly You Can't Be Serious...

I am officially in it for the long haul. My new Surly Long Haul Trucker arrived yesterday and I couldn't be happier. It has been a long journey to get to this point, having scrounged, saved, purchased, and sold a Cross Check that was too small. Enough about the past though, check it out!

I threw the rack and the Brooks Saddle on yesterday and I love how the honey color works with the green paint. I have big plans for tricking the LHT out which started with an early birthday gift from the brother man.

A vintage Swiss military issue cycling bag from WWII. The leather and waxed canvas are in pretty good condition for being over 60 years old. All I need now is a mount for my 60 year old Swiss K31 and this thing would be ready for a land assault (or a really interesting commute).

Silver SKS fenders, cotton bar tape, (or leather if I can afford it), and a brass bell from Velo-Orange are the immediate necessities. Who knows what else I'll "need" in the future. Please comment if you have any suggestions or fowl things to say about the stock parts.

Ok people, as you know the swap meet is tomorrow. It is your duty as part of the cycling community to foster local events such as this. If that doesn't guilt you into participating show up to peruse all the gems that I will be unloading! Wheelsets, cranks, bottom brackets, tires, bars, frames, shocks, saddles, pedals etc.

This will be a good swap meet dammit!