I recently replaced a pair of Shimano M163 mountain bike shoes. So I thought I’d get to giving them a really, really, really long term review. I’ve ridden them more than 9000 km. They’re my daily commute shoes as well as getting a good workout on in the mountains. Yeah, yeah, they’ve been reviewed a…
Category: Commuting
919 km of absolute black ovalness
I’ve been running an absoluteBLACK oval chainring on my mountain bikes since late May 2016. Winter hit, and PhD deadlines hit, and I really haven’t been out on the big bike enough to give you a great impression. My first ride impressions on that chainring still stand – except I’ve adjusted my timing for technical…
[Bikes – fun] = commuting? Nope, not here…
This morning I went for a pretty fun commute to work – up Mt Stromlo on the road, down on the trails, over to dairy farmers hill via pine forest and dirt roads, up the road, across through the cork oaks to the bike path, then a lap and a half of Black Mountain. Made…
Oval rings, wider bars
Two weeks on the road, with chain factory grease still going hard. So I recently gave my daily driver a big birthday – including an absoluteBLACK oval chainring and wider bars. Chainring Two weeks in, I think the oval thing has well and truly stuck. I didn’t notice a huge difference – likely because I’ve…
Happy birthday, Fuego del Fuego!
My Fuji Altamira CX 1.3 is just about 9 000 km old now. 8 700 officially on strava, and quite a few off the books – so not precisely 9000, but very nearly or maybe more. So it’s time for a big birthday service! And a look at what 9 000 km of commuting and…
My chainring isn’t round anymore!
I recently added an oval chainring from absoluteBLACK to my mountain bike. After a few rides on it now, these are my impressions. First of all, the thing looks quite incredible, and it is insanely light! For something which replaces the chainring and spider on my X01 cranks, I wondered if this piece of CNC…
My bikes and why I ride them part 1: the commuterbeast
This bike is my replacement car. I use it nearly every day, and ride from home to work and back again – with some tweaks on the side because I can. It’s a 2015 model Fuji Altamira CX 1.3, quite the ostentatious beast – which I described here. My ‘road bike’ before this was a…