eMcK's blog

Most of the bikes I own are quite understated aesthetically. Which makes my affection for the District a bit of an oddity to me.

Seriously, look at all that orange. I love it, but I feel like I should be all grouchy about it.

Hiding under that natty pants guard is a Gates Caron Belt Drive. The future of commuter bicycle drivetrains? Too soon to tell, but the lack of mess and maintance is nothing to complain about.

I’m a curious person by nature, and when the little box enclosing the Melon Slice showed up on the Bicycle Times doorstep I was interested to see what was inside. I’ve had little to no saddle time on folders, other than a short fling in Indianapolis aboard the Dahon Mu Uno from BT #2. To remedy that I built up the 20” wheeled Slice and took it home.

After a few failed attempts at an end of the first year blog, I decided my level of holiday spirit was not sufficient to do justice to a "hey we made it through our 1st year" blog posting. So instead I'll talk about a bike, because grumpy or not, I can always write about bikes.

Electra has a new line of bikes for 2010. Ticino joins the family with seven men's models and five women's models, from the basic singlespeed Ticino 1 to the top-of-the-line Ticino 20D with a Shimano 105 grouppo. All models are equipped with fenders, and while the Ticino's seatube angle is very relaxed, it is not as laidback as the "foot-forward" geometry found on the rest of the Electra line-up.

Once again Interbike is nigh. The entire staff of Dirt Rag and Bicycle Times will be headed out west to the desert to cover the show from a multitude of angles. Expect social media posts, blog entries on both web sites, photo galleries and even video!

So what do I expect to be hot this year? I’ll break it down for you.