New Errand Bike

I've recently downsized a bit, and I retired my full suspension mountain bike.  I simply didn't ride it enough.  Some of the parts from that bike have made it onto my other bikes, including a recent revision of my errand bike.

I took it out for a test ride today and was quite pleased with how it turned out.  It rides nicely and is very comfortable, mostly due to the tall front end.  It handled the snow and ice without a problem.

I'm sure in the summer it'll end up with some smoother tires, but for now I'm liking the 29x2.1 knobbies.

Thanksgiving

I was able to get out for a short ride on the fat bike before yesterday's Thanksgiving festivities...

It was a gorgeous winter day - blue skies, light winds, cold temps, a couple inches of fresh snow, and a setting moon made it an almost perfect morning to be out.

Earlier in the week I had finished getting the P.M.P. ready for winter by installing the front rack and changing the drivetrain set-up.  The front rack is nice to have in case I get too hot and have to take a layer off... since it's up front I can keep an eye on it and not worry about a jacket or other piece of clothing falling off and getting lost during a ride.

The fat bike now has a 2x4 drivetrain with Suntour XC Pro shifters.  It worked well and I think this might be the best result from my drivetrain experiments.  There is a little derailleur adjustment needed, and I need a bit more room on my handlebars, but those should be easy fixes.  The cassette consists of the first 4 cogs of a dismantled SRAM 7 speed cassette.

Spacers were used to put the cassette as far out as possible to maximize tire/chain clearance.  Even in the granny and smallest cog there is plenty of clearance between the chain and the tire.

One thing I need is more bar space... I had a couple accidental shifts from bumping the shifter.  You can see here that the shifters need to be moved further inward.  I'll either install a wider handlebar or I'll ditch the bar-ends and move the grips out.  Or maybe both.

As I mentioned it was a beautiful morning to be out riding.  I couldn't have asked for a better day...

Here are some more non-bike pics from my ride...

I'm very thankful for such a gorgeous morning, the time to get out and enjoy it, a fun bike to ride, and for living in such a great city.  I hope you also had a very happy Thanksgiving.

First Snow of the Season...

Woke up this morning to 5 or 6 inches of wet, slushy snow... all of a sudden it feels like winter.

The fat bike was still in summer mode, but after a quick change of tires and fork, I was out trudging through the sloppy stuff. It was just a quick ride around the 'hood, but nonetheless it was fun to be out again.  It was my first snow ride of the season, but it was also the first time I had really ridden since I broke my hand back in August.  To say I'm out of shape is a major understatement.

The snow was heavy and wet, which made for some tough going... especially where foot and car traffic had already left tracks. But sticking to the open grass areas gave me fresh tracks and was significantly easier riding.

In my rush to get riding as soon as possible I didn't change my gearing from summer mode.  In hindsight it would have been a good idea, and worth the time, to change the rear cog.  Normally I would switch the 13T for a 18T once the snow flies.  That said, I've been thinking about trying a 2x4 drivetrain set-up this season... more on that later.

I believe this was also my first ride with a Larry up front (I bought it earlier this year).  The Larry seemed to grip a bit better than the Endo up front, although today's conditions made it tough to truly test it.  

Hopefully this early snowstorm is a sign of things to come...

Think snow.

More Polo...

Some polo pics from Halloween: