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!

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!

The Dreaded First Post

Where to begin. The ideal thing is to catch your, the readers, attention right off the bat. Anecdotes or a catchy quote would do the trick. To do this I'll use a story about one of the baddest mothers of all time. During a public meeting involving The Man, Winston Churchill, a woman stood up and accused him of being drunk, which he often was. His reply was "Madam I may be drunk, but in the morning I shall be sober and you shall still be ugly." Drunk as he was, he helped win the war and was just generally an O.G. From this I take it that any sentence that begins with "I may be drunk..." no matter how creative could not compare to that of the one mentioned by Winston Churchill, and that has nothing to do with this blog, bikes, or anything at all really, but now you are paying attention.

As of April of 2009 I was a long time barely casual rider of sub $200 "mountain" bikes from places like Crappy Tire. Used for such things as for riding short distances back and forth to work and school. Constantly not having a comfortable, enjoyable ride I decided that it was about time for me to look into purchasing a higher end road oriented bicycle from an LBS (Local Bike Shop). Not knowing anything about bicycles I hurried for the inter-tubes to do my research and as I had never ridden a bike with turned down style road bars, I decided that a Hybrid street bike was the ticket. After some looking around there were some good options locally from Specialized and Trek, with the Sirius and the FX series respectively. These were offered from Canary Cycles here in St. Johns, Newfoundland, who I have dealt with before for minor repairs and tune ups on my old junker, good service. But the ones that caught my eye were the FCR series from Giant, which are dealt here by a small bike shop tucked away called Earle Industries owned and operated by Harold Earle. From what I could tell by looking at the components on the shimano and other respective websites (which are a nightmare for beginners) the Giant FCR 2 seemed to have slightly superior components for a better cost. After much debating, selling my entire DVD collection, convincing my father that you could actually spend $900 on a bike and getting him to chip in as a University graduation present, I picked up the Giant FCR 2 from Harold.















It's now late August. A couple of years ago I biked from my parents house to university on an old junker and thought I was going to die. It was around 16km. Now after buying a rack, panniers, pump, seat bag, tool kit, water bottles, bike computers, and biking the top right portion of the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland almost in its entirety plus commuting every day (~1000km so far I estimate) I have learned a lot, but still have a lot to learn. In less than two days my girlfriend and I (who purchased a FCR3 and is slowly but surely getting into the sport with me) are leaving to bike/camp 347 km in 10 days with two sets of rear panniers and a fully loaded trailer. In the next couple of posts I will document my preparation for the trip, and then when I get back on September 7th I will post video blogs from the trip as well. In the coming months I will have flash back postings about experiences and things I've larned over the past couple of months, as well as the plans to get a proper touring bike over the winter. Hopefully a Surly Long Haul Trucker. I hope others will read this and think, "Hey cycling 50km in a couple of hours really doesn't sound that bad!" and go pick up a bike from Harold or some other LBS. Or someone else who will just learn some little thing, that I had to learn the hard way. Or some others who are experienced cyclists, or who've never ridden a bike just get an occasional laugh. See you next time.