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.
On any given day the outside rack and/or basement of Bicycle Times HQ will have an assortment of commuters. for the most part they are all of similar ilk, cyclocross-y type mounts with drop bars and fenders. Karen talked about her maltreated Mountain Cycle Stumptown a few weeks ago, and Karl posted up info about his LeMond Proprad last week. Following their lead, I present my Steelwool Tweed.
I reviewed this bike in Dirt Rag #138, and liked enough to buy it from the fine fellows at Steelwool. Having a parts with enough bits to build up at least two full 700c drop bar bikes, I elected to send the build kit back across the border to Canada, keeping the frame and fork.
A closer shot of the Tweed in winter mode:
Taking advantage of the eccentric bottom bracket, I'm set up fixed for the winter 42x16. Personally I like brakes, so up front I've got a Avid BB7 disc brake. Fenders of course, and a Princeton Tec tail light and Cygolight TridenX headlight keep me safe during the inevitable dark rides home.
So many reason to like this set up. A weekly spritz of chain lube and a few strokes of the floor pump keeps things rolling. The single cable is sealed off from precipitation and road spray and the disc brake provides reliable and predictable stopping in the wet and cold. The full fenders keep me and the bike clean and dry, and there is plenty of room for my studded tires should things get really dicy on the road.
Check out the Tweed at Steelwool's website.
I'm feeling better now. A good bike will do that for you. Time to wrap this up to finish loading kids and dogs into the car and head off the see relatives for the holidays. Hope you all get some time with loved ones over the next few weeks. Thanks for reading!
Comments
Hi, I'd love to know what fender and tire combinations you're running. Have the same bike and have had difficulty getting fenders to work with Schwalbe Marathons.
What size Marathons? I've had up to 32mm with fenders (Planet Bike Cascadia). Anything much over 35 wll proably have a hard time fitting inther with fenders.
I've had a 45mm up front with no fender, nothing over a 32 in the back although there seems to be room for more..
Yep,had plenty of time to see the loved ones...when the snow hit 12 days ago,I was stranded at my parent's for a couple days,then came and picked up the wifey/kids for a full 9 days of family fun. Just got our electric and water back on tonight (HOORAY!!!).
Anyhoo,I enjoyed the original piece on the bike,and it was kool to see a "how it sits now" type update here :) Good read!
Wishing you the happiest of New Year's!
Interesting coincidence on the types of mounts that the staff is ridiing to work.
In the past I have used my cyclocross-y mount in CX racing; this year, sadly, that was not the case. But I did rack up plenty of miles of the non-competitive sort on my Poprad.