Rust Never Sleeps

Anniebikes made a post about rust, here, in a gracefully aging Peugeot. Timely is as timely does, because I've just been experiencing equipment corrosion. First off, Ocean Shores is not a friendly climate when it comes to corrosion; being a narrow Peninsula that is surrounded by salt water. From here, a salt air environment is almost ideal for galvanic corrosion. This spring, I've experienced several corrosion failures. The first one was a Seiko clock that stopped working. Now, I'll have to see if there's any way to restart it so that it can show the correct time more than twice a day. It's a sentimental thing, since we can always ask Google what time it is.

Next, I noticed that all my bike chains stiffened up over the winter while we were celebrating the Holidays down in Texas. That was readily remedied by relubing the offending chains. A couple of my bike lights also stopped working. One of those (a Cateye), is now permanently dead since I'd forgotten how to open it up properly in order to change batteries.

Finally, I discovered that my Performance Bikes trunk bag zippers all froze up during the winter. It took the better part of an hour to get them working again. This is the first time I've experienced frozen bag zippers. Afterwards, I checked my Arkel and Ortlieb bag zippers and they seem to be OK. I'm not sure if Performance simply uses inferior zippers, or what the actual story is. Perhaps Performance simply used aluminum instead of steel to save weight...

Standards - Be Ignored

Might Topeak Have put Holes in to Help the Poor Cyclist?

For a brief, shining moment, I thought that Topeak would let me install legally required equipment without an undue amount of fiddling. Alas, it turned out not to be so. As my loyal reader knows, I've figured out how to install a SAE reflector on a Topeak rear rack. That post is shown here.

Last week, I got ANOTHER Topeak rack. This one was going to go on one of the other bikes. I picked Topeak because their stuff works together. I particularly like the way their bags slide into their racks interchangeably, without needing to use velcro to finish things. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean it works with stuff MOST people consider standard fitment. Like legally required stuff.

Close, but no CEE GAR!

This week, my brand new Topeak rack included a cheesy, plastic mount for a rear light/reflector. Looking at it, it looked as if it'd work with my SAE Standard reflector. Sadly, Topeak did not make it more than close enough to get me briefly excited. In other news, you can see how the rack pretty much obscures the CPSC-required reflector that Trek put on the bike. The photo below shows this, as well as just how much reflector I'm getting for those dark mornings. For the time being, I suspect the adhesive on the back of the SAE reflector will work pretty well, though a plastic Topeak piece probably isn't as good to keep it stuck as the painted metal of the rack. We shall see.

If you Use the Mounts Trek Provides, You Cover Up the Reflector Trek Provides

It looks as if Ace Hardware and tin snips will still be required for a permanent solution. I guess I'm glad I documented that solution earlier and that I've already got a tie cut to precisely the proper shape!

Bad Apple or Bad Arkel?

At First Glance, Arkel "Map Cover" Looks Delightfully Obsolete

For quite a while now, I’ve had an Arkel “Large” Handlebar bag. Similarly, for quite a while, I’ve had an Apple iPad. Specifically, it’s an iPad2. A couple of days ago, it occurred to me that the somewhat obsolescent iPad might fit into the otherwise obsolescent map container on the Arkel bag. Well, as you can see from the photos, the two simply will NOT go together. An iPad Mini would fit into the Arkel, but even the newer iPad Air is just too big. I guess that if I want a bike-mounted navigation module, I’d have to stick with an iPad Mini size. Not that I really have felt a burning need for something of that sort. For music, even a “phablet” phone is plenty small enough to fit inside the waterproof container.

My first inclination was to debit Apple as making their iPad just a bit too big. BAD Apple. However, further investigation revealed that the iPad is smaller than a standard piece of letter paper. What’s more, even letter paper is a little too wide to fit into the Arkel map container without folding.

Perhaps the oddball size of the Arkel container is a Canadian thing.* Their metric fetish might mean they avoid standard size letter paper. Perhaps Apple should have made sure their iPad fit inside an Arkel Handlebar Bag transparent holder. Either way, I’m now in discussions with my favorite daughters about an iPad2 versus iPad Mini swap that’d be more handy for carriage to the nearby library than for any GPS navigation use. Still a bike with an integrated GPS seems oddly attractive…

Nope, a Full-Size iPad is Won't Fit in "Landscape" Orientation - Though it is Close Enough that Somebody Could Have Adapted

Nope, A Full-Size iPad Won't Fit in "Portrait" Orientation

*Yesterday, at our Jaguar Club concours d'elegance, I said to one of our Canadian entrants, "Can you tell me something about Canada?" When he answered affirmatively, soon he assured me that Canadians used the same size letter paper as we Southern Imperialists and not some frenchified size or even a UK size. It is good to hear the the Canadians DO follow sanity beyond how they spell "tire" (NOT tyre). Informed that Arkel is based in Quebec, he allowed that all bets might be off since THOSE people could be assumed to do all manner of odd things.

Purse Problems

Purse Stitching is Coming Off - On the Left Side

Since 2009, I have occasionally posted snippets about my purse. Over the years, I have picked up three of them, plus a stylish shoulder bag that I use less than I imagined. I guess I remain, at heart, a weight weenie. Still, I love my purses.

My primary purse, shown above, is getting a bit tired. As you can see, along the left edge, the stitching is coming astray. My personal theory is that one must be cautious when loading these things not to overload the stitches by adding "a couple of more essential items." Far better to simply bite the bullet and use the "shoulder bag." In truth, overloading is the bane of any purse; used by cyclists or motorists of either sex.

My dear wife boosted my morale. When I grilled her about her own purses, she allowed as how a year or two was "about it." Mine has been used daily for about two years now. Unlike hers, mine goes out in the rain, sun, or even an occasional "postal mix."

I think trying to restitch the nylon webbing will be frustrating at best, and probably futile. Duct tape might delay the inevitable, at a real cost to the purse style. I do not imagine Topeak will want to replace it under warranty since it was "lightly" (and I believe that) used before I got it. Any suggestions? Remember that, fundamentally I'm a "ridiculously cheap" engineer. "Buy another" is the default, since the Topeak MTX rear rack system kicks butt on anything else, except the rack clearance is not quite enough to use a Topeak trunk bag in combination with Arkel panniers.

For reference, this is a "Topeak MTX Trunkbag EX." Unlike the one in the link, mine has a handle up on top. I also have the "EXP" version which is less convenient, but will carry more. The really cool aspect of the Topeak is the "slide and click" track that beats anything I have seen from anyone else, including Ortlieb. And yes, while I have never mentioned it before, I HAVE got one Ortlieb item in my inventory.

Son of Bag Boy

I've flirted with trading my purse for a shoulder bag. I posted about it here. In another sense, I've sold already sold out to the bag brigade. I've become "son of bag boy." It's something that many cyclists might want to consider.

My v2 commute had "world class" shower facilities. I'd roll the bike in the back door, down the hall, and then get my stuff out of my locker and take a shower in a lockable private room big enough to bring my bike in. Now, there's no locker and no bench to put stuff on. Simply a tile floor and a shower, with an unsecured janitor's closet nearby.

Still, where there's a will there's a way and it has been warm enough this summer to buck up my will. The notion occurred to me that a moderately sized dry bag would work well to keep my towel, soap and clean clothes overnight in the closet, and would also work to hold my shorts and electronic goodies while I showered, rather than simply dumping stuff on the floor.

Before long, I concluded that a dry bag made for boaters would keep stuff dry for the shower, with the added bonus that it could keep stuff dry if I had to ride home in an unexpected downpour. Since the bag would be left in an unsecured janitor closet, low cost was an important factor, along with the water resistance and reasonable durability (plastic shopping bags really aren't very waterproof and certainly aren't durable).

I noticed that REI carries many such bags, as do places such as Cabelas. As it turned out, the sporting goods store near my house had just the ticket, for about the same as such a bag costs on eBay.

10 Liter Bag is Big Enough to Carry the Day's Clothes, a Towel, and Soap
It Can Also be Taken IN the Shower if Necessary
The Strap Will Serve to Keep the Bag Hung from a Shower Rod

BY THE WAY, I'm told that these bags will not keep stuff dry for too long if you submerge them in a lake for any extended period. I believe they will, however, keep things dry for any likely cycling event. Tub, basket, or inside a bag, this puppy will keep the contents pretty dry. Even in Texas rain. Who'd have thunk it. Boating stuff for my bike commute!

ONE LAST THING: I suspect that cycling bags suffer from inflated claims about capacity. My Arkel bag claims it'll hold 23 liters. However, I do NOT think I could get 2 of these 10 liter bags into it.

Man Purse or Bag Boy

Steve Goes Purseless for a Day

I've been using a purse for quite some time. Me being a man, that'd make it a "man purse." I actually wrote about it here.

Still, my purses are not ideal. The smaller one, shown below, claims to carry 8 liters. That'd be a lot if we were talking engine displacement - my Jaguars run between 4 and 4.2 liters displacement, but it isn't a lot when we're carrying stuff to work. Eight liters is enough to carry a shirt, pants, a few spare bike items, and lunch. That's about it. A bigger one carries 16.6 liters with 2 flop-down panniers. Unfortunately, the panniers limit it as a purse. Looking at purses other than Topeak, none are really both larger and more convenient.

So I resolved to consider giving up my purse for a shoulder bag. Partly influenced by Chandra, I looked real hard at the Arkel line. I queried Andy of Carbon Trace about his choice of their "Metropolitan." What clinched the deal was their sale on that same bag, making it only very pricey instead of ridiculously expensive. The bag carries a claimed 23 liters. That is three times what my small purse carries. A shoulder bag started to look very stylish. That was last November.

Well, being one to not rush into things, I tried my bag for the first time today. It easily took a couple of shirts, a pair of pants, a bath towel and coat hanger, along with body wash and the usual other items I carry in my purse. Bag boy.

Still, I'm feeling a certain fondness for the purse. I really don't want to lug all that stuff around every day - my v3 shower has no lockers and I'm somewhat inclined to simply get a dry bag and keep the stuff at work somewhere. We shall have to see. The bag lets me bring a lot more in one trip. Combined with my larger trunk bag, I could bring over 30 liters in one trip, making the purse more than adequate for most commutes.

I'll try various combinations. It may be that the "laundry schlepper" becomes the shoulder bag combined with a trunk bag and that a dry bag works to keep the wallet and phone secure while I shower.

My Purse Pretty Much Gets Filled Up Between Clothes, a Small Towel, and a Few Spare Bike Bits

The Purse in its Traveling Position

Drive – Or NON DRIVE?

Panniers at REI

Commuting is getting more utilitarian, with the acquisition of some supplemental carrying capacity. Specifically, I have finally broken down and am acquiring a pannier, specifics of which will be revealed in due course. The question is: “drive or non drive?”



Many Choices are Out There





The very sparse traditional “conventional wisdom” I’ve found holds that you should locate a single pannier bag on the left-hand side of the bike when riding in countries where people drive on the right side of the road. The logic appears to be that the load causes the rider to lean to the right, which is away from traffic (towards gutter bunnies?). Personally, this seems like a pretty weak and minor consideration (and I have NO INTENTION of suddenly starting riding in a manner that would encourage my motorists to get so cozy), but there really OUGHT to be some sort of logical rationale. Personally, I can see logic between locating a single bag on either the drive OR the non drive side of the bike. In favor of the non drive side, one has virtually eliminated any possibility of grease or other chain splatter from involving the pannier bag. In favor of the drive side, on the other hand, one need not remove the bag when lying the bike down with the drive side up. If one is the sort of person that likes to lug a kickstand around, it would also seem to be a more stable platform with the bag on the drive side.

Absent any solid advice from my reader, I plan to mount the bag on the non-drive side and, on the relatively uncommon situations where I have to lay my kickstandless bike down for some reason, to remove the bag beforehand.

But Which Side of the Bike Does "Just One" Go?

What’s in YOUR Purse?

Steve's Purse, Complete with Rear Light and Stylish Shoulder Strap

This week, I realized I’ve started carrying a purse. I didn’t do it on purpose. It just happened. Some purses are made by Vera Bradley or Louis Vuitton. Mine was made by Topeak. Realization dawned when I went in to Starbucks on Tuesday and left Buddy outside. I unclipped my purse from the back and dug through it for my wallet. Then I dug out the cell phone and my glasses so I could look at a few blogs before the last leg home. Wednesday morning, on the radio, they talked about a survey of what women carry in their purses. Sunblock may not exactly be the same as makeup, but they are at least generically related.

Here’s what I carry in my purse:

• AAA batteries
• Badge
• Cell phone
• Coffee syrup and Cheese sticks
• Extra Planet Bike rear light (they’re small and light)
• Glasses
• Gloves, if I’m not wearing them
• Keys
• Lunch
• Plastic bags to keep stuff dry (if rain may start)
• Seasonal clothing items during colder seasons
• Spare tube, minitool, pump, tire irons, and patch kit
• Sunblock
• Sunglasses, if I’m not wearing them
• Wallet
• Whatever else needs carrying

Men's Purses Tend to Have Different Contents Than Women's Ones

How did all this happen? Well, as it turns out, I rode enough miles during August that I was getting a bit sore. This resulted in me departing from my norm and wearing cycling shorts. Yes, despite my usual practice of wearing real clothes for my commute, I DO own some specialized items intended for cycling. Well, there aren’t a lot of places to keep “stuff” in cycling shorts. Even if you wear a cycling jersey and a SPI Belt, it turns out you are well down on storage space compared to a good set of cargo shorts. So I use my Topeak purse.

Once you HAVE the purse, it simply makes sense to carry everything in it, including the SPI Belt.

After rereading this post, I decided to get into a ruthless weight savings mode. This morning, I left the extra Planet Bike light at home. Two rear lights and a rear reflector ought to be enough. Iron discipline...

Showing the Purse in Travel Mode Gives me an Excuse to Show the Gratuitous Shot of Buddy Again!

Back to Back Panniers

Timbuk2 Bulitt Pannier

Some of you may know that I've developed an unhealthy interest in panniers. Receiving sage advice, I've concluded that a robust, reliable, and simple means of attaching the pannier to the rack is an area of great interest. Conveniently enough, bike school was located very near our local REI, and even more conveniently, I had an REI rebate check burning a hole in my pocket - and REI has a good variety of panniers. Less conveniently, I was a bit low on other funds, but it doesn't cost anything to look and do research. So I did. Most times, you see photos of the outside of panniers. But here are a comparison of a number of the inside that will make you love the pannier for the way it stays on the bike - or not. First up was the Timbuk2 Bulitt Pannier, shown above. It had some real serious looking steel hooks. They looked, however, like they'd start working out of the fabric if ever the pannier was overloaded. At $75 per pannier "on sale" (remember, this is an REI sale), they seemed a bit spendy, considering the suspicious looking hooks and the lack of other gew gaws.

Next up, was a stylish looking pannier; the Detours Grassy Pannier. That looked like it might work for a sunny day on the right kind of bike and the right kind of rider, but none of those three describe the way I'd use such an article. Besides looking silly on my Tricross, can you imagine getting that grass clean after running through a mud hole? Also "on sale," this article cost $60 for a pannier. That seemed steep for a straw bag.

Detours Toocan Grassy Pannier

Proving that style costs money, as well as that Detours knows more about panniers than their first candidate let on was the fourth bag, a Detours Toto Pannier, costing a mere $45 per bag even without claiming a "sale." Besides not using grass to encourage a mud buildup, the latches looked a lot more businesslike than those on the Toocan.

Detours Toto Pannier

Fourth on the rack to catch my eye was an Ortlieb Classic Backroller Pannier pair. I shall have to go back and revisit Ham's photos to compare the latch design with the ones he thought were lousy. This Ortlieb appeared to have a different configuration of latch. These puppies look well built and I know that Rantwick has been pleased with his, or at least he was until he went all tubby on us. He claims that the tub only gets used in the winter, but Ortliebs seem expensive for the one-day long Ontario summer. These particular Ortliebs didn't even make a pretense of being on sale at $165 for a pair of panniers. Still, that's only $7.50 more than the Timbuk2 bag on a unit basis. REI had 22 reviews of this bag on their site, with only one bad review. The problem with that bag was a clip that broke repeatedly, as Ham reported.

Ortlieb Backroller Red/Black Panniers

Which brought us to the last bag I remembered to take a photo of, the REI House Brand Novara Commuter Pannier. At $84.50, it seemed the most rugged of the lot, but it was also the most expensive. The "buzz yellow/carbon" is something I think I'd have a hard time learning to love. Still, carbon panniers - they MUST be light, eh?

Novara Commuter Pannier in "Buzz Yellow/Carbon"

Oh, I did see one other bag. It looked and felt a lot like the charcoal ones and I don't recall the brand. The price? $50 for a pair. Hmm, what's the catch? They aren't on the REI website, either.