Friday News And Views

Videos To Waste Away Your Friday By: Okay, today I am going to feature a couple of things that tickled my fancy recently in the form of videos. The first is from a U.K. persona, Ed Oxley, better known on the "inner-web-o-sphere" as "Great Rock". He is a mountain bike guide and skills instructor, and generally all-around good egg, from what I know of him. And.........he has a rockin' beard!


Edventure from Whitenosugar Productions on Vimeo.


Well, recently the video above made the rounds and it is really representative of his humor and shows what you can do to just have fun and "adventure by bike". Check it out. (Note: There may be  a foul word in here, but with that dialect, I have a hard time knowing if I've been offended or not. On the whole this is harmless. I would definitely let my kids watch it, for instance.)

Next up we have this sent to me by T.I. Vet "Dr. Giggles". It is one of those electro-vox-animated deals that you see a lot of, but the subject matter, (concerning cyclist's propensity for odd, pain related activities and for excessive spending on gear), really hits close to home. I found myself laughing, despite myself, at a few points. A bit long at 7-plus minutes, and definitely Not Safe For Work due to language.

 

The "no-name" "Neck Romancer", er..whatever!

A Bit On The Surly Black...er Necro...er....Whatever! Black Pugs!

In what can only be termed as "ludicrous", a recent paint scheme naming frenzy surrounding the innocent looking fat-bike in the image here has occurred.

First shown as the "Black Ops Pugsley", this bike was basically a "murdered out" Pugs with a twist on the typical parts spec. Okay. No big deal, right?

Well, a certain "importer" has used "Black Ops" as a branding name and, (we're guessing), because of that, made Surly change the name. Surly then chose "Necromancer" as the designation for this special Pugs. Well, the "dark" nature of this name brought howls of disapproval from the peanut gallery, and apparently, to assuage them, Surly made yet another change to the name. Now called the "Neck Romancer", it has gotten to the point of being ridiculous and has gone waaay too far. How about we just call it the "Black Pugs" and be done with this madness?

Besides all of that nonsense, the bike itself seems pretty cool. It feels shorter and more nimble than a Mukluk, but doesn't weigh much different, and they both are great bikes. This is a pretty rare bird right now. The "Black Pugs" is tough to come by due to high demand. We were lucky to score this one for a customer at the shop where I work. 

At the 450L/High setting

 Update On The Lezyne Super Drive: Well, I got out on the bike the other evening with the Lezyne Super Drive attached to the Snow Dog. Here are my initial thoughts...

This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine!  Uh.......'scuse me! Well, you might find yerself singin' the same tune when/if you try the Super Drive. It is a commuter's dream light, I think. Bright, yes, but that beam pattern! Look at how it floods and throws light down the trail in my, (not so great, I know), shot here. Very even, not much of a hot spot at all, and no halo/ring effect from the lens. The light color is also really good.

Of course, that is on High. What about the other settings? Well, Medium/300lumens is just as impressive and boots the run time up a bit. Only when dropping off to the 150 lumen setting do you see a dramatic dip in visibility, but honestly, I could ride gravel in the country as fast as I dared to go in the day for the entire 4.5 hours of run time available on Low setting. 150 lumens is really quite enough for that sort of riding.

Again, it is the quality of the beam pattern and throw that get me excited about this light. I'll give it some more runs before offering a final opinion, but this thing is really impressing me so far.