Thursday, April 22, 2010

Bags, tree, Barb, great bike


Some random bikey stuff.

Here are my three main bags. If I'm not riding a bike with a rack then I'll take one of these.

From the left:
Banjo Bag: cheap. Light weight. Comfy. I use this more than any other bag at the moment. It's the right size and I'm really happy with how nice it feels. It's not waterproof. I got it for $20 on close out at 2 Wheel Transit.

Liza's Timbuktu. I bought this for Liza from Beth H a few years ago. It's nice size for going out at night (dare I say man purse?). Fits a U-lock and a sweater. It doesn't have a wrap-around chest strap thing, so I don't use it for commuting, but it's great for tooling around.

The Chrome bag. I bought this from a friend of mine who owns a shop in Olympia. It's a great bag. Very comfy for heavy and big loads. Super water proof. And with the buckle, you look like a tough guy. I actually don't like the buckle; it's unnecessarily heavy and clunky when you set it down (say, on a glass top counter or table).

This bag is an REI "Flash" from a couple years ago. I added the reflective strips. Mike, the shoe cobbler, did a really good job of adding pockets to the outside. They're perfect for holding snacks or a water bottle. I fixed up this bag specifically for the Midnight Century. I use it for long rides off road, almost exclusively in the summer. It also holds a water bladder, so that's handy.

So that's the bag part of the post.


Check out that tree. Am I getting older and wiser, or are the flowering cherry trees prettier than ever this year? Man alive.


This is Barb. Running a Bicycle Advisory Board meeting while changing a flat. If she had a third hand she'd be tweeting.


Great bike. In the box up front is about 20 pounds of bike crud for the P2P shop. In the Ortlieb: lunch, rain gear, u-lock, other assorted daily crap. Riding it through the rainy wet streets down to work with that load was a joy. It helps that the commute to work is nearly all down hill, so it's nearly always a joy.

Mr Copus is building me a 650b version of this machine. AKA, The Gifford. I must have a badass bike that takes the Hetre tires. And I'm excited for the Paris-Motos too.

But I'll always dig this bike. It's just so damn reliable and able and humble.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm waiting for Louis Vuitton to come out with a line of bike bags.

Why get a manpurse when you can have the f'n real thing?

rory said...

is your gifford going to have a rohloff?

John Speare said...

Rory: no. I like derailleurs.

SRTC Staff said...

I used to think Barb needs a helper monkey, but now I'm convinced she just needs a tail of her own. Think of the damage she could do then; changing tires, tweeting, and drinking coffee all at the same time. That has the makings of one mad PR machine.

Anonymous said...

At one time in their evolutionary past, bicyclists had tails.

How else to explain down tube shifters.

Michael said...

It's not a man purse, it's a man bag.

Barb Chamberlain said...

Thank you, John, for kindly not mentioning how freakin' LONG it took me to change that tire. The bead was really tight and I had a hard time stuffing the new tube in. But I made it.

Of course you realize you've given me the opportunity to tweet about this after the fact.... while I drink coffee. And cure cancer. (I'm serious--just installed the World Community Grid that uses your computer's untapped processing time to run stats for researchers, like SETI@home only for health research. Check it out! http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org)

@BarbChamberlain

Anonymous said...

I prefer backpacks for large loads, but I have a small TibBuk2 and it works great smaller, day trippy stuff. Mine came with an attachable cross strap though, so you can get a more tight fit than just the shoulder strap.

meade said...

man bag...its a beer bag....