Cameras, and Click Stands, and Rain. Oh my!

So I would first like to say that I have failed to live up to my word. I have not continued posting educational, beginner information. I will someday, I just don't know when I'll get the drive to do it. If you do want/need to know something bike wise, shoot me an email and I'll do my best to help.

Moving on.

Cameras.

As some of you have noticed I dug an old Canon AL-1 SLR out of my fathers closet which was "broken" but actually works fine. I have been using this in an attempt to take some nice high quality pics.

Never having been into photography or owning anything more than a old 110mm camera when I was a kid, and a crappy samsung point and shoot as an undergrad, I was surprised. I had a lot to learn about pictures. The film camera from 1982 being one of Canon's early attempts at "auto-focus" simply lit up 3 lights in the view finder to tell you which way to turn the focus ring and if it was in focus. Everything was manual. So over the past month I've been learning how to take a good picture, or at least how to try and take one. And I was satisfied.

Then a visit with the family and young cousins, my girlfriend Alanna's convocation from university, cabin party with friends, and bike excursions, all led to me spending $60+ just in development and digital scanning of my pictures. In one month! It just so happens the day that I start considering going digital (even though 75% of my income is dedicated to touring equipment) an old acquaintance puts her camera gear up for sale. So I got a good deal on this.





-Nikon D50
-AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6G ED (Auto-focus is broken, only works in manual)
-AF Nikkor 50mm 1:1.8D (Mint)
-Charger and an extra battery
-Camera bag with cleaning supplies, all caps for lenses and body, usb/video cables
for $250.

Not bad eh? I would like a zoom with auto-focus but what can you do. Because the D50 has an auto-focus built into the camera body I can use the older AF style lenses from the 90's and can still use auto-focus. So hoping to come across some used Nikon lenses or a film camera with a cheap zoom going for cheap. For now though, no more paying for digital pictures! I'm very happy with the camera, and the quality of pictures it is able to take. Spent last night perusing the manual and learning the functions. I have no shortage of advice from several of my friends who are very into photography. Notably, Willam, Matt, Jonathan, and Marek who is pictured below and recently purchased a Canon 5D Mark 2, a very nice and expensive camera!


Click Stand

On the 18th of May I recieved the answer to my kickstand dilemma, The Click-Stand Max. Here are some pictures of it in action on my commute today.



I gotta say, I love it. It is secure, light, and best of all it doesn't threaten my frame integrity like some other clamp on kickstands would. It takes a couple of seconds to set up, but who cares. It doesn't bother me at all. When I prop it up, and slip on the brake band, I know my bike is secured. The front wheel will also probably turn a little, especially if there is weight on it. Nothing a toe-strap around the downtube couldn't fix if you really wanted to. It's great for taking pics of your bike, or just not laying it against something possibly scratching the paint, or laying it down in the dirt. I highly recommend it. However I bought their side mounting bracket as well and it mysteriously developed a crack down the middle of it a couple of days after mounting it. I'm going to email them and see if I can get a refund for it as I have just been sticking it in my pannier anyway.


Rain

UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. The weather here has been absolute garbage. It's 2.72 degrees Celsius right now. Midnight, in the beginning of June. Everywhere else in the country has been enjoying 20-30 degree temperature while it has been pissing rain for the past two months pretty well non stop and we are lucky if we get above 10 degrees. Despite this I have still been commuting by bike at least two days a week. I'm hoping to do so more as the weather improves (if ever), and as well do more recreational riding on the weekends. I've recently rode on a path where the old railway tracks were in NL and that is an awesome gravel track. Will have to ride that more often. Will have pics when I get my last roll of film developed.

That's it for now. The Giant FCR 2 is finally leaving me tomorrow for a new owner. Hopefully he treats her well and I will not suffer from sellers remorse. The sale means more touring gear to be bought soon. Will keep you posted!

1000 Words

This is me.



This is my commute (the good part).









This is my office with a free photography lesson I didn't ask for from my friend William.


This is my parents house.


This is a weekend group ride I help organize.


This is my girl.


This is my rainy city.



And last but not least, this is Sprocket.


So I really like that camera, especially with the 50mm lens. The lenses need to be cleaned as you can probably see in some of the pictures, but I think most of the photos I took turned out pretty good (imho, good enough for me anyway). These aren't all of them, but a good fraction. Have to get some more film now.

Tomorrow I will be taking my Giant FCR 2 out to Harold's bike shop. I'm going to true the wheels, clean up the derailleurs and cassette, and probably replace the chain. Then it is going up on the market. The money from that bike will help me pay for a significant amount of the equipment I need for my travels this summer as well as my planned Cross Canada Bike trip in the summer of 2011. Otherwise it will sit in my parents shed for most of this summer as I will be mostly riding my Surly LHT around, and then all of next year due to my journey. If I want another road bike in 2 years time, I'll worry about it then. It was a good bike, and I enjoyed it thoroughly, but I just really don't see a reason for keeping it right now.

Oh by the way, I've commuted around 150km this week. Not a bad start to the summer.

PS: This coming week I am going to attempt to start making more "educational" entries for the beginners as I had originally planned. "Talk the Talk" will finally continue with a second installment on the drive train.

Bicycle Zen

This is just a quick post that really could resist.

I had an excellent bike commute this morning. It was just perfect. It had been raining all night but come 9am this morning it was sunny and 12 degrees with 88% humidity. The little bit of spray escaping the fenders, and the humid warmth, and the tail wind just maid for an absolutely glorious ride. My 18km commute only took 45 minutes, over a third of which is on a slight incline.

My Brooks B17 is still amazingly comfortable, It barely feels like I'm riding a bike.

The Arkel GT-54's are great. I use one for commuting, they just hold all stuff I need for the day so well and are so easy to mount and unmount.

My Surly Racks are living up to the challenges. I had my Pletscher 2-legged kickstand in a box strapped to the front rack.

The Surly Long Haul Trucker, with those Surly Racks, Arkel Panniers, and my trusty Brooks B17 are the best combination of purchases I've ever made.

I'm in bicycle heaven.
Now if I could only sustain this feeling for 8 hours or so to get me through the work day!

PS: I have a roll of film in to be developed from my Canon AL-1 film SLR, should get it back along with digital copies on Friday. Will post up some pretty (hopefully) pictures of my bike and commute then!

Crappy weather update

So the weather here in St. Johns turned foul on Monday of last week and it's been raining ever since. Even had a bit of snow thrown in there for good measure. Today we had a bit of a break in the early evening with some sun peaking through and a pause in the rain. So I decided to take some pics of my new Arkel GT-54 panniers, and also take my beater around the yard for a quick spin to see how it fit with the new stem and seat post.

But first I should talk about what happened last week. I had that group ride to Outer Cove on Sunday, my first ride on the Brooks B17 saddle. I feared the worst upon mounting the saddle, but strangely it felt alright. The whole 20km group ride I was more comfortable than I have ever been on any other saddle. I had to adjust the tilt upwards a little more, but I never felt any discomfort what-so-ever until 10km-ish into my ride home. I was blown away. SO I guess I must have a "Brooks Arse" as they call it. Looking forward to molding my but print more when the sun is back out.

On to more recent matters.
I've started working in the bike shop part time. Last Saturday I found myself with nothing to do and Harold, my LBS, had no one to work for him on what he suspected was going to be a busy day. So I worked. And again this Saturday! I haven't been doing any major repairs or tune ups myself, but I've been doing some minor stuff and cleaning up the bikes too. It's a great way to learn bike repair and make a couple of extra bucks on Saturday mornings. The employee discounts don't hurt either!

Speaking of discounts, I got my new Arkel GT-54 Panniers!


Just seeing her with bags on front and back, looking like she's ready to take on the world is getting me all excited for my vacation this summer not to mention my trip from Vancouver to St. Johns next summer! I'll probably try to do a review of the GT-54's once I actually use them.

After I put my Brooks on my Surly LHT, I noticed I had a few parts lying around. So I took the stock saddle from the LHT and some platform pedals I had lying around and put them on my Orange Beater bike that I resurrected this winter. I hadn't ridden it since replacing the seat post and getting a longer quill stem for it. I took it for a spin around the yard, and with the longer stem and the decent amount of seat back that the post has, it's not a bad fit!

I was going to race this puppy in the Alley Cat Race hosted by Ordinary Spokes in downtown St. Johns tomorrow. It is not your typical race. It is like a treasure hunt through all the nooks and alleys of downtown. You get a list of clues to checkpoints and an hour to plan your route. The one who gets the checkpoints and to the end the fastest wins, be it through alleys, sidewalks, or down flights of stairs. I was going to take this as I wanted to get crazy and not beat up my Surly. But it is calling for rain and snow tomorrow evening, the race is still a go I just don't want to get pneumonia.

There was no group ride yesterday due to weather, but hopefully we catch a break this coming Sunday (doubt it). And I'll try to remember to bring a camera this week.

Speaking of cameras, here is a little something off topic for the camera junkies. My dad has an old 1982 Canon AL-1 film SLR sitting in his closet with a 50mm fast lens and a 300mm telephoto lens (I think that's what it's called).

I know nothing about cameras, and I don't have the urge to start learning. All I know is it would be nice to have something that takes decent photos. The little experience I've had with my friends DSLR and his fast lens showed me that I love how the pics come out, and even looking through the viewfinder I can tell this setup will give similar effect. The camera is supposedly not working. The story goes that it started making red streaks appear on the pictures, and then they just stopped coming out all together. It has sat in the closet untouched since then. I took it to a camera shop and after a thorough inspection by the owner it seems to be in perfect working condition. But just in case I shot a test roll on all the different shutter and aperture settings with the fast lens. I get the negatives tomorrow, so I guess we'll see how it turns out.

If they turn out good, I will probably use this camera for my day trips and for any nice pics I want to take. For any quick and dirty pics I want to take, I will just borrow my sisters Canon point and shoot. My old samsung digital camera sucks the big one and is almost unusable.

Anyway! That's it for now. Hopefully I'll get out and do some more riding soon on the Surly and maybe even the Beater! When I do I'll be sure to get some pics.

Oh, btw. The more I think about it, the more I'm thinking about selling my Giant FCR2. :o

Later!