Biking in a Big City

Looking back at all the gear reviews I did in the past year, there are a couple of bike related items that I can recommend to anyone.

First up: cargo slings by Carsick Designs.

These bags replaced the ones that came with my Haul a Day that had more or less worn out after about a year of service. They are much better built, are wider, and carry more stuff. Also, you can get them in a variety of colours. The safety orange ones I got were a custom order for a slight upcharge. Despite the weakness of the Canadian dollar, these bags are worth the extra cost.

Raincapes: I’ve blogged about the advantages of raincapes before. This year, Cleverhood came out with a budget option called the Cleverlite that is still sewn in the US. My review compares it to a couple of other options.

BTW if you are in Toronto, the Cleverlite is sold at the Spacing Store, alongside its fancier but more expensive sibling.

If the made in North America factor is not important to you, then I can also recommend the raincapes by Impac that are sold thru the Bike Doctor in Vancouver.

As I’ve noted before, one thing that you can do with any raincape is to find a way to fasten the centre of the front hem to the vicinity of the centre of your bars. This keeps in draped properly, even if you aren’t using the thumbloops (for example where you are signalling a turn). I sewed a patch of velcro to the cape

and I have a loop of double sided Velcro strap on my bars so that the cape is fixed like so:

Wool balaclavas: This is somewhat of a holdover from previous years. However, I got a new one this year that has a four piece design that allows it to be used variously as a balaclava or a neck gaiter. If you are interested in the details you can read this breathless description from Outlier. Mine was from Trew, but I see that it has disappeared from their website. The construction also lets me pull it down under my chin with less tension than a regular single opening design.

Since the TREW is no more for the moment, a good alternative is the one from Wind River. Also note the Safe Zone mirror on my helmet: the only mirror that is adjustable on the fly.

Charlene Seat Pack from Porcelain Rocket.  I added this to my Tikit so that I could stow a toolkit and still leave plenty of space for a light rain jacket and snacks, or even a baguette. It is very well constructed, and much lighter than an old Carradice seat pack that it replaced. Note that MEC has started to carry this line. Also note that although these are not sewn in Calgary anymore, they are still made in North America.

Proviz Reflect 360+ Cycling Jacket.  Retroreflective fabric all over.  Enough said.

The jacket, together with front and rear dynamo lighting and my Torch T2 helmet keeps me plenty visible at night.

Here is my favourites list from 2015.

We’ve gotten two storms worth of snow in the last three days, and it’s been fun being out and about with my winter bike: a Louis Garneau  Sub Zero. It came with Kenda Klondike studded tires, which are a bit narrower and knobbier than the Schwalbe Winter Marathons on my previous winter bike, and they’ve been fine in a variety of snowy conditions.

The only additions that I’ve made to the bike are a rear rack, a Japanese kickstand, and Handlebar Bootie pogies that are now sold under the Metal Tiger brand.  The pogies add an easy 10C to the temperature rating of my gloves, and they cut the wind besides.

Also, I swapped out the galvanized chain (that rusted solid after two seasons) with a stainless chain.

I don’t ride this bike nearly as much as my other bikes (since I only ride it during the winter, but I’ve managed just enough so that I’m under $2 per ride).

The only other things I’m going to add are mudflaps to keep my feet drier on those days where there is a lot of snow melt in the bike lanes. Perhaps Buddy Flaps, which have done really well on the pink bike.

It’s also really important to be highly visible, especially during near whiteout conditions. I’m a big fan of my Torch T2 helmet, and my Proviz Reflect 360+ jacket. I also use a Safe Zone mirror, which is the only helmet mirror that can adjust on the fly. For those folks in Toronto, you can check out the mirror at Hoopdriver Cycles or Urbane Cyclist.

Ride on, and ride safe!

and keep in mind that the next World Winter Bike to Work Day is February 10 2017.

One of the earliest kickstarter projects that I backed was for an American made high intensity bike light. The campaign ended in Oct 2012, with a projected delivery date of January 2013. However, the delivery was repeatedly delayed, and in the end I did not get anything for my initial $161 US pledge. However, just a couple of months ago I received an email that the original vendor was starting to sell a second generation version of the light. The only compensation for original backers was a discounted price. I took the chance of throwing good money after bad, and after payment of an additional $67.50 I received the light in short order.

Inside the box, the light with integral mount and two batteries.

The light looks solid, although there is a bit of the homemade feel to it.

We’ll see how long this plug attachment lasts.

The light weighs 255g with the mount.

Here it is mounted. If you use the appropriate amount of silcone wrap, it stays in position pretty well.

The mount is part of the light, so when you take it off the bike, all that is left is the silicone wrap.

Here is the beam pattern.

Compare this with a Planet Bike Blaze 2W.

Or the Ixon IQ Premium.

The last time I compared several headlamps, the brightest one was the PDW Lars Rover 650. The beam pattern is circular, and I’ve set a shutter speed and aperture so that just the central hotspot is visible.

Now the Oculus at the same camera settings, on the brightest of five settings.

By eye, the brightness of the Lars Rover 650 at its highest setting (nominally 650 Lumens) is between the 2nd and 3rd brightness levels for the Oculus. As another comparison, the Oculus on the second lowest level is about equivalent to my Lumotec Eyc dynamo light.

The beam pattern of the Oculus doesn’t have the sharp horizontal cutoff of the german lights. It looks like five overlapping tightly focused beams. The upper two look like longer distance spotlights, and the lower row of three fills in at closer distances. It is a very effective beam pattern.

In summary, the Oculus puts out an impressive amount of light. Somewhat surprisingly for a light that was originally designed four years ago, the performance/cost ratio still appears to be higher than other comparable lights, such as those from Light and Motion. (The retail price of this 1500 lumen light is $150 US.)

However, the long term durability of the light is unknown as you are essentially buying a light from a home builder.

If you are one of the original Kickstarter backers, there’s not much to be said. Kickstarter gives no guarantee that the items promised are actually delivered. Given that at least some of the backers got their lights, I wouldn’t put this campaign on the level of the cooler, or the Pebble watch. If you never got a light, you can contact Barry, and you’ll be given the same options as I had.

On a somewhat related note, I went over to Hoopdriver Cycles and I saw that Knog is now selling the retail version of their Oi bike bell. The small bell in particular is both louder and more sustained than the ones I got from Kickstarter. I guess than we Kickstarter backers are a bit out of luck on this campaign as well.

So it snowed a bit overnight, so just out of reflex, I switched over to the winter beater.

This past spring, after a couple of winters, the galvanized chain that was supplied with the bike had more or less rusted into a solid piece, and so this past winter I swapped it out for a stainless chain.  Pulling the Sub Zero out of the garage, I see that the chain is doing just fine.

And off I go. It turns out that the balaclva was total overkill for this morning.

Going in was slow, slow, slow. People were passing me on the Bloor bike lanes!  Was it that I was just getting older?  No, as it turns out, my rear drum brake was dragging the whole time. I loosened up the cable, and dropped by Urbane for a shot of cable lube, and all was fine on the way back home.

BTW, if you want a pair of the handlebar booties you can see in the first picture, then Urbane does sell them. Here’s a picture of a pair on one of the shiny bikes in their showroom.

It’s getting dark and slippery out there. It looks like next week will be even more fun.

Ride safe everyone!