Schwalbe Marathon Racer

This spring I’ve had the opportunity to try out a pair of Schwalbe Marathon Racer tires (thanks to Ryan from Bicycle Smile and Schwalbe) and I LOVE them. This is the first set of Schwalbes I’ve owned. I tend to be a creature of habit – finding something that works and using the same product relentlessly until they stop making them or the product fails me. My usual tire of choice failed me last summer so I was willing to try something new. Sooooo wishing I’d tired these earlier!


The ones I have are of the folding bead, 700x30 variety. I do like folding tires. I’m not sure why. I’m generally not a weight weenie, but I do like tires that don’t make me feel like I’m driving a tank. I do notice that I can get going easier with lighter tires. These do not make me feel like I’m driving a tank at all.


The nearly complete lack of tread (I’m sure the grooves of the tire “tread” are just there for show to convince people who only know car tires, and are therefore afraid of slicks, that they will not slip out in the rain) also helps with the completely non-tank-like feeling by providing some really low rolling resistance.


If installing the first one had been as troublesome as the second I may have given up right then and there! Luckily the first one went on like a dream – seriously I’ve never had a folding tire straight out of the box go onto a wheel with so little effort! The second one… well... I’ll chalk that up to a cold early spring out in my chilly (unheated) garage – by the time I got to the second one both my hands and the tire were getting pretty cold and putting it one was… well… a bit more challenging.


I’ve been riding these since early spring and it’s been an odd spring here in Saskatoon. We’ve had a lot of late snowfalls (a few after I took off the winter tire and installed these). Not enough for there to be a buil up of snow or great sheets of ice like we have in the middle of the winter – but slippery enough for a few extra fender benders around the city for a day or two. We’ve also had a whole lot of rain! I have had no issues with tires slipping out or anything.


I have these on my get-a-round city bike, which I regularly haul a bike train made up of a trailer bike and a trailer with a kid on/in each – plus all the gear we need for wherever we’re going and/or picking up groceries on the way home. That’s a lot of weight to get going and a lot of momentum pushing when trying to slow down, but I have never had anything but solid contact with the road on these tires.


There’s also been an unusually large amount of gravel, rubbish and glass on the roads this spring – especially the glass. I’ve flatted tires on all my other bikes (at least once) – even both the trailer bike and trailer I tow behind my get-a-round bike! No problems with the Schwalbes so far.


Another nice little touch that I really dig – considering it’s my get-a-round city bike that I tow the kids around on – are the reflective strips that run all the way around the sidewalls. They REALLY light up – even when they’re as dirty as mine!! Not so awesome if you’re robbing convenience stores at night and using you’re bike as a getaway vehicle, but pretty sweet if you WANT to be SEEN at night!

Minnehaha Canvas Utility Pannier

Along with the Minnehaha Medium Saddle Bag reviewed last month (which rocked!) I also had the opportunity to try out a pair of Minnehaha Canvas Utility Panniers.


These, like the saddlebag, are stylish lookin’ canvas and leather bicycle panniers. They sport a pair of hefty metal hooks to attach the pannier to the top of your rack and an equally sturdy metal D-ring on an adjustable leather/bungee combo strap to hook on the bottom. It has a beefy leather strap (no pun intended) wrapping over the top of the flap, with a sturdy steel buckle on another beefy strap coming up from the bottom to fasten down the hatch and secure your load. I really love that there are no zippers, plastic buckles or Velcro on these – all of which eventually fail through wear and/or breakage. The metal hooks are considerably heftier than ones I’ve had on other bags that eventually got beaten and bent out of shape after years of use. These seem like they might last longer.


A lot of the same initial impressions and apprehensions I had about the saddle bag applied here too. I dug that they are made out of natural materials that I could theoretically compost after its service life. Well… MOSTLY natural – there are big high-density polyethylene panels in the back and on the bottom to prevent sagging. I was concerned about waterproofness, and, despite the hefty straps and buckles, I was a bit concerned about the long-term durability of the canvas. The waterproofness was proved to be not so big of an issue. When soaked with water the fibres in the canvas expand and the contents of the bag stay more or less dry. Depending on how much stuff you had in it I could see water getting in the top of the bag, but if one were expecting a serious downpour they could always line the pannier with a plastic bag. As for the long-term durability… well, only time will tell…

Now, I have to admit I’m not currently much of a pannier guy for everyday use. Panniers are great for touring and if you’re commuting to a job where you’re going to stay all day and not have to carry it around for any length of time. That is so not me. I more or less “work” out of the house and when I am going out, which is fairly regularly, I generally have to take a great deal of stuff and when I get to where I’m going I have to carry around whatever I’ve got with me – sometimes for hours. So these panniers didn’t really work out for me. Even if I could cram all the crap I generally cart around with me into the two of them, it would be a pain carrying them around for extended periods off the bike. So this may have coloured my overall impression of them.

Amanda helped me out with the testing of these as she DOES commute daily by bike to her job and always uses panniers.


One thing the bag really did have going for it – that none of panniers I’ve previously owned had – was a pair of solid d-rings on either side of the top back that a shoulder strap could be attached to. So if one were a bit more of a minimalist than me (or didn’t have to carry crap for two kids in addition to what one has to carry for themselves… like me), and could carry most of their necessities for a single day in just one pannier, they could quite easily carry the pannier around as a rather elegant looking shoulder bag. Well… a lot more elegant than most of the panniers I’ve owned.


At first they looked a bit smallish to me, but that was probably just comparing them to my absurdly HUGE messenger bag and some of the deluxe “world tour” panniers with piles of external pockets we have. These actually hold a surprising amount of stuff. A single one could easily carry a binder or sketchbook, magazine and notebook, a lunch, a water bottle, a small tool kit and assorted tubes, a u-lock, a jacket and a tire pump….


When I used them for hauling some groceries I stuffed a 10kg (22lbs) bag of flour in one and eight 1L tetra-packs of juice with a handful of other sundry items and room to spare in the other.


As mentioned there are no external pockets and there is a single internal pocket for a wallet, keys and pens or similar smaller items. That’s fine if you’re not going to be going into the bag regularly or you’re good at “action packing” – keeping most frequently needed items where they’re most accessible. If you love lots of pockets to organize all your stuff, you’re out of luck.

To paraphrase Henry Ford – You can have any colour you like, as long as it’s black. Great if you’re ninja, not so great if you want to be seen. Black’s not my personal favourite, it gets warm in the sun and shows dirt and if you have a big fluffy dog that sheds a lot of long white hairs (like we did until very recently…) they will be forever covered in them!? But it does give it an… I don’t know… refined look…?

Further to the visibility issue – if you’re concerned about such things – there are no big reflective strips or panels sewn onto the bag. They did come with a pair of tag-like reflective strips on a loop of bungee material that could be looped through the d-ring on the side of the bag. They are utterly useless, seemed like a bit of an afterthought, and I wondered why they bothered to include them anyway. I suppose if someone was concerned they could add some other sort of reflective material or attach some solid reflectors.

The shape of the bag left something to be desired. Most other bags I’ve had tended to taper a bit more at the bottom – on at least one side – to allow for foot clearance. Both my partner Amanda and I had foot clearance issues with these bags. Amanda is small and commutes on a rather small framed mountain bike and even with the panniers as far back as they could go she was still having to adjust her footing to not have her heel striking the bags. I get around on a large-ish touring bike with a long wheelbase and fairly long chain stays and even I had clearance issues. If I did move them as far back as possible it wasn’t so bad, but in that position they still had occasional clearance issues when packed full of odd shaped things and they couldn’t be put in that position when I had my son’s trailer bike hooked up and it interfered with the hitch/post attachment. Minnehaha suggests that a variable height rack may solve some of these issues, but I would think that would just raise your center of gravity and potentially make your bike slightly less stable.


A lot of more “modern” panniers have some sort of quick-release locking mechanism that, rather than just hooking over the top of the racks tubing, also has something that locks them into place from below. These do not. If you’ve ever been loaded up and hit a bump or pot-hole at high speed and had your panniers eject off your bike in traffic… well you get to appreciate those sorts of things. These ones never came off, but I wouldn’t recommend any such non-locking pannier for extreme off-road use… (or even excessively bump on road use at speed!)

Also almost all other panniers I’ve used had some sort of lateral compression/cinching straps to help stabilize your load. I quite missed these – especially on one trip with a pannier that was half filled with a heavy load that shifted about constantly. Something like this may have also helped with the foot clearance/heel-striking issue…?

I really wanted to love these bags. They look great. They seem simple and durable – not much can go wrong with them. The lack of pockets, high tech materials and a lot of the other “bells and whistles” found on other panniers just add to their elegance (they DON’T scream “STEAL ME, I’M EXPENSIVE!”). But they just didn’t work out for us as an everyday utility pannier.

I do still want to try touring with these. I’m hoping to get out for some short tours this summer with the family and I think they might work pretty good on a front rack.

This review was originally written for Bicycle Smile

Minnehaha Seat Bag

Last year I got back to doing some distance cycling. At least once a week I’d do a ~100 km trip. I had the idea that I’d like to do some longer rides too – a century or some longer randonées. For longer rides I thought I might want to carry just a bit more stuff than I could carry in my regular seat bag. A pannier wasn’t an option because the bike I use has no braze-ons for a rack. The short version of a story - with the potential to get way too long very fast – is that a long search ensued and the solution to my kit-carrying woes was provided by Minnehaha Bags.



The Minnehaha Medium Saddle Bag is a very functional and stylish lookin’ leather and canvas traditional bicycle saddlebag. It has a beefy leather strap (no pun intended) with a sturdy steel buckle to loop through the rails of your saddle and a second shorter strap with buckle to loop around your seat post to stabilize it.


Strap through the saddles rails


Strap around the seatpost

I’ve only managed one test ride with it – even though I’ve had it since February (Sorry Minnehaha! Curse You Saskatchewan Weather!) – and already I’m in love with it. It’s not about to see everyday use. I probably won’t even use it for shorter (less than 100Km) trips into the countryside. Not that it couldn’t be used for everyday use, I just happen to prefer a shoulder messenger-type bag to carry my everyday gear about, and for shorter rides I just don’t need to carry that much stuff… But from now on this is definitely my bag of choice for any longer expeditions short of a full-on camping/touring trip!! I’ll probably even use it as an extra bag on any camping touring trips!

Here’s what I managed to pack into the luxurious 10L of cargo carrying capacity – just to give you an idea of what you might be able to cram into one:


Camera
Keys
Wallet
Wool Vest
Windbreaker
3x Cliff Bar (Cool Mint Chocolate)
Small First Aid Kit
Extra Water Bottle (700mL)
Spare Tire
4x Spare tubes
Tire levers
8/10mm wrench
15mm Wrench
Multi-Allen Key Tool
Small Multi-tip screw driver
Chain-Breaker
Couple Extra Links of Chain
Tire Levers
Small Note Pad

(Uh, yeah... I guess I kind of took that whole Boy Scout "Be Prepared" motto to heart...)


All loaded up!

Even with all this stuff I didn’t exactly have to cram it all in. I could easily have stuffed in another half-dozen or so Clif Bars or tubes if I ever really thought I’d need them!? Also, if all that wasn’t awesome enough, there are four D-rings on the top of the outer lid to which I could lash on my jacket (or other things), which would free up more space inside for some PB&J sandwiches… or whatever!

One of my main concerns was moisture. The leather was dealt with by the liberal application of Proofhide (Brooks Saddle’s leather conditioner/preservation stuff). The canvas is untreated and I wondered why they had not made it with waxed or oiled canvas or some similarly treated material? When I think of untreated cotton and water I think of wet t-shirt contests (c’mon, like you don’t…) and the old phrase “cotton kills” – the furthest thing from waterproof, takes forever to dry once wet, and just not a material one seriously considers for serious outdoor use. I should have known better…

Well, for one, this is far from t-shirt material! I did a little research into the treating and waterproofing of canvas. While I found a nice recipe for treating canvas involving soy bean oil and turpentine that I might try out, many sources indicated that cotton canvas WAS waterproof. Once it gets wet the fibres swell up and, in theory, won't let water through. I have to say I was still somewhat suspicious. Although, when I thought about it, I did have a canvas tent when I was young and stayed relatively dry in it through some pretty fierce storms. I seem to recall it had a much tighter weave to it.

On the morning of my first trial ride, I got up to grey skies. At first I was a bit bummed (who wants their first ride of the season to be in the rain), but then I realized this might be a perfect opportunity to see how well it does in the rain (there really is a silver lining to every cloud…)! Well as it turned out I managed to dodge all the rain falling about the land and arrived home bone dry, only to have it start pouring rain a couple minutes after I arrived. So I dumped out all my gear and loaded it up with a couple of towels and hung the bag out in my yard in the pouring rain – just to see…



Well it POURED rain for over and hour! I checked the bag as I was heading out for the afternoon, the lid was soaked but the flaps underneath and the towels within were still completely dry! The rain was tapering off but I left the bag out in the yard in hoping it might rain some more. It didn’t. When I returned in the early evening the bag had completely dried out!

I thought afterwards for a more “realistic” test I could have set up a water sprinkler underneath it as well to simulate spray from a tire… Ah, well..

Minnehaha suggests using Nikwax to treat the canvas. I think I’m going to leave it as is for now, but I might try out the soybean/turpentine recipe at some point…

One of my other concerns is the quality of materials and craftsmanship. The bag is quite soft to the touch and I somehow associate soft with not-so-durable. I bought a pair of canvas sneakers last fall and they are already shredded. The bag was also made in China and I generally associate stuff made overseas with lesser quality materials and poor craftsmanship. The bag seems sturdy enough, but then, so did my shoes. These are just hunches based on personal prejudices, only time and use will really tell. I was wrong about the waterproofness… So, hopefully I will enjoy watching the leather darken and the canvas fade over years of dutiful service.

On they subject of durability though I do have to note that there are no zippers or Velcro on this bag. These are the things that always wear out and fail on all other bags I have owned, leaving them essentially useless and fit to be tossed in the trash. A buckle is pretty low tech and not much can go wrong with it other than getting bent under load. The ones on this bag seem pretty darn sturdy. I imagine they could very likely be cut off and reused on a another bag when the rest of this bag reaches the end of its service life and is cast into the compost bin (another reason why natural materials rock!)

One thing I did notice while riding – and this may be due to how much stuff I had in it and the geometry and set up of my bike – but the back of my legs touched the bag with every pedal stroke. It didn’t impede my pedaling in anyway, nor did I find it annoying, I was just very aware that it was there, and I imagine that might have the potential to bug some people.

Also, again due to the bike I was using and its particular angles and set up there wasn’t a lot of tire clearance. This wasn’t an issue until about half way through my test ride when I got to some moderately steep climbs and had to get out of the saddle. The bag rocked back and forth with each pedal stroke which, being heavily loaded, threw me a bit off balance and caused a couple wobbles. Once I got used to it (three pedal strokes later), it wasn’t a big deal. However, due to the lack of tire clearance, the bag sometimes rubbed against the tire as it rocked back and forth. Not terribly annoying, but it did get the bag a bit dirty. If this carried on for too long, or repeatedly, it might create some wear issues. On a touring or similar bike with fenders and/or a rack this wouldn’t even be an issue.


Tire clearance

Overall this bag rocks my world and I am looking forward to some long rides this summer with everything I could possibly ever need carried neatly out of the way on the back of my saddle in my sweet Minnehaha Saddle bag! The only thing that could have made it better was if it was a handlebar bag – for easier access to stuff while on the bike… Maybe Minnehaha will make one of those someday!

(This review was originally written for Bicycle Smile. Thanks to Ryan at Bicycle Smile and Minnehaha Bags for the opportunity to try out their bags!)

Tim’s Cycling Cap Mk. I

So I was sitting around one day and I thought to myself – “I’m going to try making my OWN damn cycling cap! How hard can they be?” I got out a needle and some thread and some wool material I had picked up at a thrift store ages ago (originally intended for shorts – but that’s still way beyond my sewing expertise). I made a simple four-panel pattern. Cut out the material. Sewed it all together by hand. Here are the results:

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Looks not bad here… the brim is more like a ball cap and won’t really stand up cycling-dork-style…


Here’s the big problem – for some angles it looks a little like a squarish farmer hat or something…


Works okay under the helmet…. Rear facing, at least…

I have modified the pattern slightly to make it slightly less boxy and made the brim a little more traditional looking. Now if only I could find the time to sew it up.

Maybe I should try using a machine sometime… How hard can they be to figure out…?

Walz Wool Cycling Caps

Way back in August of last year I mentioned I had ordered a pair of Walz Caps. I had also promised a review when they arrived. Well they arrived… months ago… I’d like to tell you that this review is long overdue because I wanted to do a long-term “product test”… In reality it’s more because I’m lazy – but because of that laziness you do in fact benefit from the experience of a longer-term trial period.

I like wearing cycling caps. I generally have little hair and so caps, I think, help absorb sweat and keep it from rolling into my eyes and also should a bug fly into my helmet there that little bit of fabric to separate us – especially if it’s a stinging-type insect! I will not wear ball caps – I think they look stupid under helmets and that whole stiff-brim-getting-pushed-into-your-forehead thing if you land on your face… well kind of negates the whole purpose of wearing the helmet, huh? I have worn beanies and bandanas, but I do like having a neater looking cap with a brim when I get off the bike and take my helmet off.

I first heard about Walz Caps in a Dirt Rag review of the new Surly Caps. I had originally intended to try and track one of these down – I’m not sure if it mentioned Walz in the review - somewhere on the surly website I discovered they were made by Walz. The Surly caps turned out to be a bit tougher to get a hold of whereas I could order direct from Walz and have a choice of many colours (the Surly one was black).

I ordered two caps, both wool.


A Tan one (which is still available)


…and a herringbone pattern one which doesn’t seem to be available.


Cool thing about them – you can have them personalized! (I have enough stuff that says “Surly” on it – why pay for one more things to advertise for them when I can advertise for ME!?)

I have to say I LOVE these caps! I have pretty much LIVED in them since they arrived – except for a a month or so where I simply had to wear a toque or have my ears fall off!

How have they held up?


All of these pictures were taken a week or so ago after a good solid six months or so of use and abuse – look pretty much the same as when I got them – can’t say the same for any of the cotton caps I’ve owned in the past. By now they’d be showind definite signs of wear and by the end of the summer be holed and coming apart – no sign of such wear on Walz Wool caps!


There is a certain simple elegance to them that makes even a dork like me look suave and debonair. I’m just not that interested in paying money to be a walking advertisement for some euro racing team of multi-million dollar parts company (there was a pink campagnolo cycling cap at the Bike Doctor a while back – but it was twenty five freaking dollars for a cotton, screen printed cap – for twenty-five bucks I get the honour of advetising for them… No thanks - attention makers and distributors of Campagnolo – or any other cool bicycle products for that matter – if you want to sent me a cap of yours to wear I will gladly wear it and advertise for you… when my Walz caps are in the wash…).


Downside #1 These, like pretty much every cycling cap I’ve ever worn, have brims at pretty steep angles. I find that when wearing these under a helmet it obscures just a bit too much of my vision for me to be comfortable. Keep in mind I generally ride road bikes and like to be on the drops – maybe on a mountain bike this wouldn’t be as much of an issue. Not that it’s really an issue anyway. I do ride like this from time to time anyway. come to think of it I don't think I'd ever want them changed really - just thought I'd mention it in case anyone out there is annoyed by this standard sort of cycling cap geometry. I'm only very mildly... I don't know... irritated? ...from time to time...?


Generally I wear the hat with the brim facing back. Here’s one of the things that rocks this cap – most other cycling caps have some sort of card or plastic stiffener in the brim these do not. Other caps I’ve had when worn in this position have interfered with the straps of the helmet or dug into the back of the neck… This also makes it easier to stuff in a pocket – should you ever decide to take it off your head.

Downside #2- another minor (very minor) issue I have with them is that one size doesn’t really “fit all”. In fact one size doesn’t necessarily even fit the same!? The two hats fit slightly differently – if you take a really close look at the first two pictures (click on them for that bigger up-closey look). Look at where they sit in relation to my ear – the herringbone hat sits a little higher on my head and feels just a little bit more like a beanie than the tan one which fits a bit lower and snugger. Both fit well enough that I wear them both – but I tend to wear the tan one a LOT more, just because I like the fit just a bit better.

I should point out that I have a pretty damn big head – other hats that I wear are generally 59-60cm or 7 ½ - 7 ¾ depending on the maker and style. So if you have a big damn head you’re probably okay (unless you have a truly ENORMOUS head worthy of a bison). 

Amanda is the opposite, however. She has a wee little head and has often worn children’s hats. The Walz caps do not fit her. Maybe if she tied a knot in them somewhere…? But really how many people have heads as freakishly small as hers…

There was a wee bit of shrinkage when I’ve washed them but after a wear or two they’ve more or less stretched back into place.

Another advantage of the wool caps I’ve noticed over the cotton caps is this: cotton caps seem to get stained with sweat. You sweat in them, gunk and dust sticks to the moistened cotton and is maybe absorbed right into it? I’ve found that with cotton caps I’ve had in the past I have to launder them very regularly (at least once a week or even every couple of days) if you don’t want them to be permanently stained. Maybe this is just because I am a big hairy sweaty beast. I am loath to admit how little I’ve actually washed my Walz caps – but so far no sign of staining from sweat!

Overall and excellent product for a very reasonable price – considering it’s hand made (and exceptionally WELL made...) in the U.S.A. of long-wearing, quality materials.