I know the title of this post suggests that this post is going to be about various sorts of glues, gases, pills, herbs and beverages that I may or may not be using to get high. As it is, I am on nothing. Sorry. But since Monday the weather has thrown me a bit of a velo-cock block and forced me to the Stankment and the trainer, so I figured I would waste your time talking about some things that I am digging right now, both on and off the bike.
It’s not a review, I’m just sayin’.
As you can tell from the Soiled Chamois file photo above, the first things I am high on are the WTB Nano 40c tires that are currently on the Jake (The Snake). I had put them on last summer, rode them once and put the Jake away for the season because my positioning on the CX bike REALLY aggravated my lower back which I hurt in the late spring and went on to bother me ALL summer… fall… and most of the early winter.
With my back feeling better [enough], I threw the tires back on this spring and have been diggin’ them. I run them with tubes at about 50 PSI, and they have been great on the dirt roads thus far. They’ve handled the Michigan mud, pot holes, wash boards, freshly laid dirt and gravel damn well. Since it’s early spring there isn’t too much sand to contend with right now, so I can’t comment on that, but at this point they’ve earned their spot on my CX gravel dirt road bike for the foreseeable future.
If I have ONE little, tiny nitpick: how they roll on pavement. Actually, they roll fast enough and without all that much rolling resistance (for tires with 50 PSI in them) but that same center ridges that allows for quick rolling can also add the super SLIGHTEST of a wobble on smooth pavement. There were a couple of times on smooth pavement that I had to double-check to see if I might have slow leak, a wobble in my rear wheel or a tire that wasn’t seated properly. I can of course easily overlook this because in Isabella County we have a about 10 miles total of smooth pavement. Most of the paved roads look like this:
In a perfect world I would have tubeless CX rims and be running the TCS version and be rolling worry free of flats, but right now that’s not in the budget. If you ride a lot of gravel or dirt roads and like the added cush of 40c, these are worth it.
Note: I bought and paid for the Nanos myself. Just thought I would share my thoughts on them.
Film: Old is New Again
Photo of a film camera taken with an iPhone. I’m sure there’s some irony in there somewhere.
A few months ago I took a few steps back in the technology department and started jacking around with a Holga 135 film camera. That’s been pretty fun and has got me interested in shooting more film again, something I haven’t done in over ten years. I like the idea of a point and shoot camera and had read some good things about the “vintage” Olympus [mju:] II 35mm camera. Then I saw some of the shots and a write-up about the camera on asometimesphotographer.com and set about trying to track one down.
I ended up finding one on eBay for just a smidge over what I was willing to pay. The camera is used but in near mint condition and I am looking forward to jacking around with it over the coming summer of riding and modest tri-state traveling.
Sort of sad that so many places have stopped developing film in store. I think we are down to two places from like seven about a year ago. I am a pretty huge fan of digital photography, so I am not retro-grouch, I just like creative options.
Drenge (This is sort of a review)
I recently got turned on to the band Drenge via a recent NME review and I have to say I am high, high, HIGHHHH on this album. Actually I am high on the new album Undertow AND 2013’s self-titled album. Both albums are just fantastic; however I do like Undertow a bit better because it seems to lose nearly all of the bluesy White Stripes/Black Keys influence that the first album may or may not have had in spots and finds the band focusing more on the British, garage rock, post-punk sound that I love. I seriously have not been this stoked on an album since Filthy Boy’s Smile That Won’t Go Down and that was two freaking years ago.
Here are a couple of songs to check out: We Can Do What We Want from the new album Undertow and Face Like a Skull from the first album.
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With this post of nonsense complete, I can look ahead to tomorrow and renewed hopes of getting out for ride. I have a feeling the dirt roads are going to be a mud bog, so it will probably be pavement heavy. No worries, as long as wheels are turning things will be pretty OK.
Later.