Review Lone Peak Grocery Pannier GP-850

More than a year ago I reviewed the Nashbar Grocer Bag Pannier. It is a nice bag for $9. Where it could be improved would be if you could somehow secure the bag from billowing out under load, had some sort of closure and was made of a little bit better material. But hey it was $9.

I have been using a Lone Peak saddlebag on my road bike for years. It still looks brand new. It is well though out with reflective material on the back, and waterproof material on the bottom.

I have been doing most of my grocery shopping on the bike lately so I decided it was time to get a nicer grocery bag pannier. For $30 Lone Peak makes the GP-850 Grocery Bag Pannier.

It pretty much addressed every short coming of the Nashbar pannier. First it is made out of tough cordura. Then it has a clip on the outside to hold the bag flat when empty, also the same clip can keep the bag from billowing out from the weight of a full grocery bag.

Then it has a draw string to keep things from falling out of the bag.
It is a little taller than the Nashbar bag. Also where the Nashbar bag uses cardboard for rigidity, this bag uses plastic.
The attachment system is much nicer too, it uses hooks that you can click shut.
And lastly look at that serious bungee and hook closure.
It's well worth the $30. I got mine form Lickbike.com which shipped a little slow and did not provide me with any shipping info until I called. But to their credit they were incredibly nice and gave me the tracking number when I called. I'd buy from Lickbike again.

Check out Lonepeak here: www.lonepeakpacks.com

Evans City Ride

Yesterday we did the Evans City ride from PGH via North Park. It ended up being 75 miles. It got pretty hot out by the end. Luckily there is a quik-e-mart every two miles.

Pretty cool ride. Although if I do it again, I will drive to North Park and ride from there. The route we took back in to town was a little too busy for me.

Review: Jandd Standard Rear Rack

So I have been using the Blackburn Metro Rack for a while now on my commuter. I have been using carrying my Ortlieb Office Bag on it daily, then I used it on the DC to PGH ride with two ortliebs on it and also to run errands and get grocery's with grocery panniers.

Back in college I had a Bianchi Touring bike set up for cross that I commuted on daily. The whole time I had it, it had a Jandd Standard Rack on it. In my effort to make that bike again I picked up a new Jandd Standard Rack. Also the metro rack had been getting a lot of play in it when loaded up with groceries. I think the metro rack was rated to 20pds, where this one is 40.

It is a bit bigger than the Blackburn. A bit longer and a bit wider. It has wider rails/tubes than the metro as well. And more importantly it has wider spaced supports which makes the rack more stable and keeps your panniers from bouncing around, not a problem with the ortliebs, but the grocery panniers are more stable this way.

Just a note, the rack hardware came in this little bag, I will totally reuse this bag.

Here you go, on the bike, the rack is super sturdy and it lets you move the panniers back further. The blackburn rack would not allow you to mount the panniers towards the rear of the rack because of the way the support tubing was welded on.

This is the old bike from college that I spoke about earlier. Oddly enough this has no rack on it... I think I had just taken it off for a cross race I did that weekend.

Ride Report: Cheat Mountain Challenge

I rode the Cheat Mountain Challenge this weekend with my wife and two friends. We did 78 miles. Oddly enough you have the choice for signing up for either the metric century or the century. But the metric is 78 miles... It is an amazing ride so I was psyched it was a little longer.

It was on a Saturday this year, which meant a late post work departure and dark drive out to Snowshoe Mountain West Virginia. Actually in the Mini Cooper with the rally lights, it was a super fun drive.

It was a cold foggy start.

Actually it was cold and foggy until about 2 hours in.

But after that the skies cleared and it was a beautiful day.

The aid stations were amazing, the nicest people in the world man them. Good food, pb & j for calories and tasty potato chips for sodium.

The ride ends with a killer 7 mile climb to the top of Snowshoe. But this year, unlike last year they had the finish line in the middle of the mountain village which made for an exciting finish. I sprinted it out with some dude, it was rad.

Also one of the coolest things that they do is give you a pass to use the showers at the pool, which is great since I had a 4 hour drive home.

If you have the chance to do this ride, don't pass it up.

-Joe

Review: Rav-X Lumi X2 LED Lights

These are yet another player in the Knog Tadpole arena of small elastic secured bike lights. The Rav-X Lumi X2 lights are pretty darn bright, they have two bright LEDs each, powered by two CR2032 batteries and will work in steady or blink mode.


They are brighter than the Tadpoles I have, they area also more difficult turn on and off which is good, since the knog tadpoles had been known to accidentally turn on while riding, or worse turn on while in your camelbak and drain the batteries.

I do find it funny that the packaging says "uses economical CR2032 batteries"... these batteries are anything but economical. At RadioShack they are $4.99 each! And each light takes two, its just cheaper to buy new lights then to replace the batteries. I guess you could buy them online, in bulk, pay for shipping and somehow come out cheaper....

Regardless, they are very nice lights, I'd have to say I like them more than the knogs.

As this pic shows it uses a small elastic band to go around the bars/post/tube/ and then clips on the top of the light.

A nice thing about thise little elastic band over the integrated rubber body of the knog lights, is that these fit more easily in to a seat bag so you can leave them on your bike just in case you need them...





You can see the designers at Rav-X really thought these things out and included a concave rubber pad on the bottom so it sits nicer on a round tube, one other thing nicer than the knog lights.

Soon to be Review: Chain-L No 5.

I purchased a Jandd rack off of ebay, it came with a little freebie. A bottle of Chain L No. 5.

How cool! I'll check it out this week.
It says it is designed for using over the thin grease that comes on a new chain. I'll put a new chain on the commuter and test it out. It also says you can thoroughly clean your chain and apply it then.

-Joe

Review: Paul Touring Brakes

Wow these brakes rock!

I replaced the cane creek canti's that came on the Castro Valley commuter with these Paul Touring Cantis. As you can see from this pic, these things did not hold up well to the PGH rain and road salt. It's a tough life for the commuter brakes.


Now the Paul's take a bit of time to set up, really no more time than any other canti. It's just been a while since I set up canti's.


They include Koolstop pads, but admittedly I like cartidge style pads more. When I wear these pads out I will have to mess with toe in all over again. Well at least I honed those skills back in the early days of mtn bikes :) I will replace them with cartridge pads when the time comes. Not a big deal...

Speaking of set up, you have to adjust spring tension with a 15mm wrench and a 5mm allen key. Its actually really easy to set up, probably less than 1 minute per wheel.

You might notice this looks just like the IRD Cafam, that I had on my old cross bike. Those brakes were great but I sold them along with that old frame. These actually feel a bit more solid than the Cafams, and with better modulation. That said, the cafams are 2/3rds the cost.

At this point I have no trouble recommending these brakes. They are very powerful, but have tons of modulation. They are not just on or off, you can really control the brakes. I even was able to pull an endo with a pannier on the back...

You can check them out at Paul's Site. Lickbike.com had then on sale for $74/pair.

Cool Tool: Topeak 8/10mm Ratcheting Wrench

I have not used this tool in years, really since V-Brakes brought an end to 8mm nuts on canti's and 10mm nuts on straddle cables.

But sometime at the shop in the 90s I picked up this tool, its made by Topeak it has both 8 and 10mm ratcheting box wrenches.

I had not used it recently, but when I was putting on a set of Paul's Touring Brakes it really shined, regaining its former glory.

As a note, it is much smaller than the "gear wrenches" that are currently available at places like Sears.

DC Riding

I was in DC again for work a few days this week. I did my usual custis ride. It is a beautiful trail, you head down by the Potomac, and across from the monuments. In the evening it is really crowded. By at 6:30 in the morning you have it to yourself...

People take a whole lot of chances passing, frankly they are downright dangerous.

Anyhow I took this cool pic when my lens was fogged up.

Review: Velo Orange Two Leg Stand

I have a Park Tool PCS-10 stand down in the basement bike lab. But I wanted to be able to tinker on the bike in the garage or at the trail head. Velo Orange had this stand on their web site, which is made by Pyramid. It is quite handy to have, It lifts the rear wheel off the ground so you can work on your gears, clean your chain, or just hold the bike up while you hit it with the hose.

This weekend I used it to repack my headset, put on my Velo Orange Bell, switch our my rear rack and install a set of Paul Touring Brakes. I have to say it is really handy, not a replacement for a full size stand, but if you have limited space or limited wrenching needs this would be perfect. I am happy I own it.

VO says it can fit in the top drawer of your toolbox, not my toolbox... maybe someone else's gigantic toolbox though...

Available over at Velo Orange for $15

Review: Park Chain Tool CT-3

If you have not yet purchased the Park Tools CT-3 go out and do it now. There is no finer chain tool in existence. I had the pleasure of using one for years when I was wrenching professionally. As a home mechanic now I was using the park mini chain brute, which is nice, but it is small enough where it can slip slightly and bend a pin, or start going in on a weird angle.

The CT-3 is a full size shop quality tool that will work perfectly and forever. It has a replaceable pins in case you bend one, will work with any chain out now even 10 speed. Seriously this is worth owning.

Do yourself the favor and pick one up.

Review: Park Chain Wear Indicator CC-3

The Park Chain Checker CC-3 is a neat little tool that can save you some cash. The tool is fairly cheap at less than $10. The point of the tool is to measure chain stretch so you replace your chain before it stretches too much and you end up prematurely wearing out your cassette or all your hard earned cash on a new pricey 10 speed chain...

It works pretty simply, you drop it in the chain, one side is for 0.75% stretch and the other is for 1.0% stretch, if the tool fits in between the links, it has stretched. I dig it, it can save you some cash. I picked mine up at my local REI.

Review: Cannondale Rack Pod PX

Last year around this time I was at REI and they had this $89 rack trunk bag thing from Cannondale on sale for $20. It is made by Knog, which I am a fan of. It attaches to the rack with velco straps. and has some D-Rings on the back and a strap to attach blinky lights. Also it hs reflective material all over the trim on the bag.
It can fit the essentials. I can drop in a light jacket, wallet, cell, snack, a pair of Speeplay's that I was returning...


The bag has two HUGE sidepockets that fold up in to the sides of the bags. These things are cavernous! They have a hook on the bottom to connect to your rack,

And the bag has a built in rain cover stashed in a front pocket.

Overall it is totally worth the $20 I paid. If you see one on sale get it.

On these hot muggy summer days when I might commute around to the store to run some errands this pack is nice. A courier bag can get hot and sweaty, and a big set of ortliebs is just too much, this is the perfect choice. Plus with those big side pockets you can cram a ton of stuff in if you need too.

drops

In the winter I put on a Velo Orange Milano Bars so I could use mountain bike levers when I was wearing big winter mitts on my commute. Well its clearly summer now and I wanted to go back to drops.

When I switched out the drop bars I just ran all new cables and housing, so the switch back was really quick since I left the old cables on the drops.

Riding with road bars changes the feel of the bike, you are tempted to go much faster, and that's cool.

Speedplay Frogs

My wife uses Speedplay Frogs, she is an ultra runner and likes the float.

I put a new set of pedals on her specialized dolce and they cracked on the first ride.

What are these things made out of bakelite?

Anyhow I took a quick run up to Pro Bikes, where they warrantied them and I upgraded to the stainless models for $30 difference.

I have never used them, but my wife sure likes them.