My Father-in-law has been riding his bike more and more recently. Mostly for fun and exercise, but with the addition of the Acorn bag, the utility aspect really came home in the last couple of weeks. It is amazing what even a small bag can add for those who have never carried more than a spare tube. The bike is a Univega Alpina comp in fantastic condition with a great Suntour XC Comp / Ritchey Logic build that is still going strong 20 years now. The original knobby tire was still on front. This weekend I was able to put on a set of Schwalbe Big Apples and reset the cockpit a little with an Albatross bar.
The smile was instant as he took it for a test ride around the block. It is really cool to get someone so stoked. There is a bit more it will need like bearing repack, maybe some new brake shoes, but all in all the bike is in great shape and ready to go.
Sunday ride to the market, windy, cloudy, cold air coming back and the strawberries are gone.
But they are fantastic while they last.
Looking forward to a new week, ride your bike.
Another sweet Sunday ride to market in the Bag(s)
Third trip this week with the Roadeo loaded, Every ride I love this bike more and more.
I am so glad not to be living an a place that freezes and stays frozen for months.
Watching the sun come up over the strawberry fields, the smell of fresh food all through your ride is fantastic.
And on the way home, the siren song to the north
Some of you may remember my love of riding for wild or semi wild foods from my Walnut Ride. Time to enjoy the dry weather and the morning chill, and ride for the pomegranates I had seen a few weeks ago. No laws were broken and the trees are on public easement. Living in an area surrounded by agriculture it would be all to easy to just grab fruit from the end row of the farms and orchards, but that would kind of defeat the point, and I am pretty sure it is stealing. These particular trees are on the fence line of land grabbed by the water district when they built the Casitas damn. Many ranchers and homeowners lost land to eminent domain with this one, and there are quite a bit of interesting things tucked into the corners of this area without having to jump the fences lined with "No Trespassing" signs. This morning it was a truncated version of a favorite loop to get the quarry and make it home in time for baby duty. Having fresh fruit keeps you out of trouble when you are a little late.
I am looking forward to daylight savings time coming to an end, a little more morning light for a bit.
I have been enjoying photography as a hobby for as long as I can remember, always using it as a component of other passions. To keep the camera with me on my rides is just natural, an extension to share my experiences with others. As the budget increased so did the quality and size of the gear. My Canon kit fit OK in a top loading zoom case, and I hauled it around despite the size and weight. Around the time I was shopping for a suitable chest harness rig for the trails the Micro 4/3 formatwas gaining momentum and I gave way to the siren song. I started with the GF1 body and 14-45mm zoom kit and there was no turning back.
The new kit was less than half the physical size of my old kit while retaining most of the lens flexibility and capture quality of my older cameras. The Micro 4/3 format cuts the height and width ratio of the standard DSLR style sensor in half and gets rid of the prism. Thereby allowing the whole package, body and optics, to become smaller. This camera has every thing I like about my point and shoots with the power and flexibility of my prosumer DSLR and allows me to capture RAW files. With the addition of a 20mm prime lens and a couple of simple cases:
Tamrac Aero Zoom 20
Tamrac Lens Case Medium - MX5375
LowePro 1M
I am able to easily carry part of or the entire kit in my Acorn handlebar bag. Most of the time the top of both bags are open allowing quick access to the camera while in motion or stopped. When rain threatens, the security of the camera being double bagged has never let me down.
The proof is in the results when I get home from a back road ride in the country and have been able to capture images like this:
The smile was instant as he took it for a test ride around the block. It is really cool to get someone so stoked. There is a bit more it will need like bearing repack, maybe some new brake shoes, but all in all the bike is in great shape and ready to go.
