Tag: ventura

Fenders On the Roadeo

There was a break in the weather we have been having on the coast, fog and mist, but rain is coming.  Yesterday I hit the LBS and they had 45m wide Planet Bike fenders that would fit my Roadeo, kind of a shocker that anybody sells fenders here in SoCal, let alone wide ones.  I wanted to get these to fit with my 33.333 wide Jack Brown tires, but that was not going to happen so I relented and swapped the 29mm Roughy Toughy tires onto the bike.

These went on super easy compared to both SKS and metal fenders I have put on in the past.  The only modification required was bending the mounting tab in the front to clear the headset and filing the slot for the brake bridge a little deeper to improve tire clearance.

The limiting factors for clearance on this bike are the brake selection and the placement of the rear brake bridge.  I went with the Shimano 57mm reach calipers for the improved stopping power of other brakes at this price point.  I would love to have a set of the new Paul Racer M brakes, but they are out of budget for this year.  That being said, I was still able to get a 45mm fender into the caliper with minimal fender squeeze.  There is plenty of room for the 29mm tires.  The shape of the brake caliper below the mounting bolt is where the space constraints start.  The Shimano caliper is very meaty in this area and eats up almost 4mm of space.  When this combines with the fixed arc of a plastic fender you lose tire clearance quick. 

End of the story, they work and I will be out in the weather next week.  Enjoying the sunshine for a day, and hoping it will last

Quikchainger In the Wild

It was only a matter of time now that I bragged on the Quikchinger the other day.  Today was the first day back on the bike after pushing the short version of the flu out the door.  The Quikchainger just makes things so much easier, and it was pretty simple to figure out what caused the flat as I had rolled up to the stop sign.

Brrr..

It has been the start of our cold weather this week, and some adjustments are still being made in the layering system.  I love my Patagonia Houdini that my wife bought me for my birthday this year.  It is the perfect super lightweight shell for knocking the edge off of the wind chill.  The whole thing zips into its own pocket and ends up about the size of my fist, it weighs next to nothing and is almost always by or on my bike.  The downside, as evidenced by this panda portrait on my way up into the hills, the thing is a parachute.  The drawcord system keeps it pretty tight around the face, but looking at this picture I know why it felt like I had a parachute on, not just a side effect of the 43deg chill.  I have been keeping the hood rolled up into a little ball in the back, but this morning my ears were freezing.  The newest version has the hood zip into the collar, but in true patagonia fashion is now being offered in shades of dirt, not the best for playing in traffic.

parachute

I will continue to love and wear this jacket, but wear something warmer around my ears on mornings like this.  I am curios if others have found a better cycling specific wind jacket that is super lightweight as well?