Product Reviews

I’ve been using my Forte Single Speed Conversion Kit (www.performancebike.com) for about 9 months now. It is still in reasonably good shape and functions. I can’t say that I’m extremely satisfied with it though. Here are my reasons:

1. The tolerance between the bolt and and the tensioner arm is loose and doesn’t get better with use. Therefore the pulley sits on the chain at an odd angle.
2. There is a cage around the pulley to keep the chain from coming off of the pulley. The axle bolt for the pulley comes loose frequently and alloys the cage to rotate and hit the chain. You have to stop and tighten the axle bolt. Sucks!
3. I thought that since I was going single speed in the back there’s no use for a front derailleur so I removed mine — mistake. Without the front derailleur, curb hops and off-roading sometimes sends my chain to the bottom bracket or my pedal spindle.
4. If your hub body is anything other than steel, the kit is not a good idea. You only put one cog on the back and the cog’s interface with the hub body is very small. Thus, with my aluminum hub body, the cog ate half-way through the hub-body splines — not good if your attached to your hub (mine is 12 years old with roughly 10,000 miles on it). I had to put on an old cassette to spread the load.
5. The spring tension isn’t great or adjustable. So, if your chain happens to be a bit on the long side and taking one more link out makes it too short, your chain may just skip over your cog.

It’s great to be free of a derailleur and all of its problems but the conversion kit needs some design iterations.

Overall Rating: 2 Broken Down Cars

Of all the biking products I have been enamored by and ultimately purchased few stand out.  I think as a road bike enthusiast I have become a shopaholic when it comes to biking.  Normally, I hate shopping, however I do like to research things - sometimes over analyze.  I can literally spend days researching and drooling over some gadget just to be disappointed.  The product I would like to recommend is my riding shorts.  Last year I participated in the annual MS150 ride and I had to dress out in my company’s logos.  So, I followed the links to their websites and reluctantly purchased a team uniform.  One of my riding buddies said you are gonna love the shorts.  All I was thinking is I could stand to have a new pair and the price was very good.  They arrived and I quickly unwrapped and tried on.  I could tell they felt well and was anxious to wear on a ride.  Then Saturday came and away I went decked out in my new shorts and shirt.  When I finished the first ride wearing the shorts the words of my buddy ring in my mind, “you are gonna love the shorts.”  He was right.  They are the best shorts I have.  They are by no means the most expensive, just the best.  I would highly recommend if you are in the market for riding shorts.  You can order from their website and they offer team uniforms if you are interested.  Their website is:  http://champ-sys.com/.  To quote them, “The first time you ride in our stretch 4-Way Pad — you will immediately feel the difference!”

I’m getting old.  I’m only 34 years old, but there are times I feel really old.  Those times often come after a nice long ride.  I’ve been putting in a lot of miles lately and my legs are not the only body part that has been affected.  My lower back gets quite achy…especially with a well laden Camelback.

I tried to alleviate my back issues with additional core exercises at the gym and integrating more stretching into my long rides.  These actions have helped somewhat, but not completely. 

One of my friends who regularly completes multi-day bikepacking trips introduced me to the Wingnut hydration pack.  The concept is simple.  The pack sits much lower on your back to reduce the weight that your lower back must support.  In fact, it sits so low that much of the weight is supported by your hips which are directly supported by your saddle.

It took me a little while to finally decide to make the purchase.  The pack is not exactly cheap at $105 directly from their website.  Additionally, this price does not include a bladder.  My nagging back pain forced me to finally take the plunge and order the Hyper 2.5. 

Wingnut does have dealers located across the US.  Unfortunately, the closest LBS that carries them is about 4 hours away, so I had no option but to order online.  (As a side note, I have since learned that my favorite LBS, Hammerhead Bikes, will soon become a Wingnut dealer.) 

The online ordering system is not ideal.  Like I said, I placed my order on 1/1/09.  On 1/21/09, I received an email that my order had shipped.  The online ordering for Wingnut is handled through Google checkout.  I have no idea if the delay in shipping my pack was due to a delay in Wingnut receiving the order or if it just took Wingnut a long time to ship my order.  Either way, a 3 week lag time from ordering to shipment seems excessive.

After receiving the pack, I took some time to inspect it.  First, the material and constructions seems to be very high quality.  It appears to be very durable and the zippers are waterproof and operate smoothly. 

The main part of the pack consists of two large, square pockets.  The pocket that comes in contact with your back is meant for your bladder.  It has a hole on either side for the bladder tube to come out of.  The other pocket is meant for ’stuff’ and is very large.  There is plenty of room for multiple layers of clothing.  I was able to stuff a windbreaker, tights, a thick long sleeve jersey, a thin long sleeve jersey, two smallish light batteries, and a medium sized tupperware container with no problem.  It did not bulge awkwardly against my back or sit unevenly while riding.

In addition to the two large pockets, the Wingnut has spacious ’side wing’ pockets.  On each side of the pack, there is a zippered pocket and a mesh pocket with a drawstring.  This is one of the best features of the Wingnut.  These pockets are easily accessible while the pack remains firmly attached to your body.  It is quite easy to reach back and adjust an iPod or pull out a Cliffbar without stopping and taking off the pack.  The mesh pockets are a great place to stuff empty Gu/Cliffbar wrappers.  They are also a convenient place to stick arm warmers or gloves if you pull them off while riding.

The downside to these pockets is there are no sub-pockets, meaning there are not pockets within the pockets.  Everything in the pocket is just left to float around.  To some very organized folks, I am sure this is a big deal.  To me, it is a minor annoyance. 

Over the past month, I have been able to use this pack numerous times on some relatively long rides as well as my regular commute.

The pack does what it is designed to do very well.  It took a couple of rides to get the pack adjusted correctly, but once I did, I can confidently say that it has significantly helped my back pain.  I used to ride with as little equipment in my Camelback as possible.  With the Wingnut, the weight is so unnoticeable that I stick whatever I *might* need into my pack.  I’ve done many rides with a bladder full of water, my usual trailside repair equipment, and a pack full of layers in case it cooled off suddenly (which it often does in the evenings around here).  No problem whatsoever.  It does not seem to matter if I have an empty pack versus a full pack, it feels nice and comfortable on my back.

The pack is also very secure.  It does not move around much while riding.  While going down steep ledges with my Camelback, it used to slide up and bonk my in the back of my head.  Not so with the Wingnut.  It barely moves while venturing over very rough and blunt terrain.  It would, however, benefit from some loops to to hold excess straps down.

While I rave about how comfortable the pack is, there are several downsides other than the sub-pockets mentioned previously.

The biggest problem is the lack of bladder that adequately fits the square opening.  Every bladder I can find online is long and tubular.  The ideal bladder for the Wingnut would be square.  I currently use my Camelback 100 oz bladder filled about 3/4 full with the top folded over.  This works alright, but it does not fully utilize the space provided for water.  During summer when our Texas heat is hitting triple digits, I’m really going to want to be able to use all of that space for water. 

I contacted Wingnut via email about this problem and received a response very quickly.  They stated that their bladder supplier recently went out of business and they are currently looking for solutions.  One of the solutions that they are looking at is to produce bladders themselves, however, they will not be available soon.

One idea that has piqued my curiosity is using two 50 oz bladders side-by-side.  With this remedy, I could have one bladder of water and one bladder of gatorade easily available while riding.  I may test this out when it gets warmer.

Another problem is that I like cold water…even in the middle of winter.  The problem is that there is very little insulation between your back and the bladder.  This can make for a cold ride if you put ice in your water.  I imagine when summer rolls around, my ice will melt very quickly and leave me with warm water. 

The side wings take a little getting use to.  Occasionally while on the trail, I’ll catch a wing on a tree while going around a switchback.  I don’t think this happens any more often than when I used to catch my Camelback while going under a low branch.  Besides, the convenience of the side pockets more than make up for this issue in my opinion.

Overall, I think this product is a great idea.  Implementation could stand to improve though.  If a square bladder becomes available, I’d have no problem recommending this pack to anyone.  The lack of sub-pockets and bladder insulation are easily negated by the comfort and convenience.

Oh yeah…one more potentially bad observation…my wife says that the pack makes my butt look big.

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I doubt Hutchinson still offers the G1 version of the Python but if they do buy it. Buy several.

I bought my first and only Python about 5 years ago. Then I was racing the sport division in my local race and logging quite a few miles at the local MTB park. Most of the other guys who rode a lot also used the Pythons, both on the front and back. While I don’t typically go for fads, so many of the other riders bragged about the tire that I decided to give it a try. Since I like to rotate tires from front to back, I put the Python on the front and moved the old green Continental to the back. I’ve never removed the tire from the front wheel since I put it on. When riding the Python, I feel like my front tire has claws. This thing sticks to everything. Yet, the rolling resistance seems minimal - at least a whole lot better than a lot of tires I’ve tried. Plus, the high profile of the Python absorbs the little hard, bone jarring scrabble and bumps seen off- or on-road. As for durability the tire has been great. I have ridden it for almost a year on the streets of Memphis (about 3 grand in miles) and the tire still has plenty of life. (I try to use front and rear brakes almost equally during bike commuting.) In fact, this past week a car pulled right up to the edge of the road while I was on the side walk and I locked up the back wheel and hit the front brake hard but the Python held firm beneath me. It has also protected me from the abundant road cacti in Mempis - only 1 flat so far.

It’s hard to find a better tire than the Python. I hope the G2 version is as good as what I have.

I give the Python a 5 Broken Down Car Ratting.

Likes: Excellent grip, excellent durability, good protection against road cacti, low rolling resistance
Dislikes: None
Best Uses: Street, off-road, mild to moderate mud

I read Bicycling and Velonews all of the time, cover to cover I also used to have a description of Mountain Bike Action as well. Not any more. Although I loved the mag, I didn’t keep the subscription up; it must have gotten lost in the mix.

I love all of my cycling mag subscriptions. Even though I don’t like the paper generated by these mags, I can’t help but to renew every year, often in two year intervals. However, I can’t help but think that there is no possible way for these mags to write an honest product review. Just think, Bicycling magazine bashing the newest version of the Trek Madone…. Really? Bash your advertising dollars? No. Never. Even if the reviewer had legitimate complaints about the performance or quality of the bike, would the editor really let those complaints make press. That’s a rhetorical question.

I’ve been thinking about this lately because I’ve been reviewing products on this blog. So, while reading the latest issue of Bicycling I looked for negatively focused comments. I saw few. The only real bashing, more like a soft scolding, was of a Performance Bike offered single speed. I expected this however, since most of the cycling industry has disliked direct-to-consumer online retail of bike related items for some time now. For good reason. It is a service-related industry and local bike shops are necessary for helping you out aftermarket — something the online industry is not very helpful with.

So what’s my message. You’re not going to get an honest product review from a magazine. You need to question heavy users of products you’re interested. Like what I review on this blog. There are many, many places to find these reviews — most easily found on the internet. Just make sure your reviewer does not have a vested interest in the review.