Urbanus Magnus

All is well on the bike front, and I've now made it up to the 200km mark. I know, not a lot of riding in three weeks, but I've been completing the final push of school into exams (I finished my Chemistry exam today, yay! Only physics left, which is tomorrow). The tires are wearing well enough, but the compound of the CST Critters is fairly soft, so even gravel skids have worn the rear tread down a *weensy bit*. Just enough so that the "herringbone" pattern imprinted on each of the knobs is barely visible. The Herringbone pattern is wearing away quickly... the skid spots are worse than the above picture. So far, here's what I'm liking: - Off road handling - On road handling! - Overall weight - Load Capability - Comfortable seat/steam/handlebar height and position - Top Tube length is good - Rolling resistance ( Speed!) - Gear range (it hasn't been changed from before ) After about 125km offroad (light trails, gravel, a bit of chip seal road...

It has been quite the while since last post. School has been busy, so I offer no apologies. What I do offer is my take on the now "outdated" 7-speed drivetrain. That is, 7 in the rear, as I am an avid lover of double/ triple (especially triple!) cranksets for any mult-purpose machine - they help a lot for loads and/or hills. What with 8, 9 and 10 speeds all commonly available from Campy, SRAM and amongst the ubiquitous Shimano offerings, I hear many call 7 speed dead. I say, far from it! Its still here, baby, as strong as ever! Actually, probably even more so, although in low-level groupsets available like Tourney. Why do I like this drivetrain so much? Not all for the performance, for sure, or I'd be rocking a 10 speed Dura-Ace'd bike, but rather I feel that 7 speed has a good balance of availability, low pricepoint, durability, and yes, performance in there too: Advantages I see: -7 speed freewheels can be retro-fitted to an ol' ten speed (provided a washe...

For any of those who don't know, the Sport Check in the Scarborough Town Centre is going out of business... and so they are having a closeout sale. No, this is not a promotion for the store - I simply saw a 7 speed wide-range cassette on sale at that store for 30% off, dropping the price to $15. Knowing that my bicycle's gearing is a bit high for fully loaded touring up big hills (I'm not super strong, either), I took the opportunity and bought the SRAM 12-32 gear cluster to customize my ride. Unboxing  I didn't have what one would call a "high" low gear before this upgrade - with 700c wheels, an 11-28t cluster in back and a 22-32-42t front crankset allowed for a lowest gear of  21.5 in, and a high of 104 in. I almost never used that high a gear, bust still had some trouble up hills with that low gear (especially on tour/ with load). The new 12-32 casette drops a little high-end, in return for a greater low-end; a gear of 18.8 in to 95.6 in. Strangely eno...