Celebrate! It's finally springtime!

Today is the first day of spring, or second day or something, well yesterday was the equinox

so all that winter stuff is behind us now and I am looking forward to a great year.

I am simply not accepting any more of this.

I thought it would be fair to take another look at some of the new toys I added during the winter and provide a second opinion.   The  VO Zeste Canti Brakes I added to the Hunq have been more than excellent.

The way they flop wide open is a great advantage since I have two wheel sets for this bike.

The additional barrel adjuster on the straddle wire is just as great as expected.  It provides a little extra adjustment I need to switch between two different rim widths.  The stopping power is great compared to the Tektro I was using and the pads are surprisingly effective.  I expect to replace them with Matthauser but haven't been disappointed at all.

The new shoes I bought for the Hunq are really the bomb!  I went with them because they seem about the perfect size and tread for an upcoming series of trips which will involve both paved and unpaved surfaces.

  Schwalbe Big Ben is the name, I bought the 50-622 nominal size which officially would be a 29er on a 700c rim.  There is a problem in today's world,  the rim is 27mm wide which I think would classify it as a 700d (if that ever existed) and the tire actually measures 46mm when inflated to 50 psi.  So it doesn't really count as a 29er anymore and I will just have to settle for a 28 4/5er or 29 minus er and we can start tricking people into thinking it matters. 'Cause of course anybody selling top line bikes these days will tell you it does.

These tires are really great, they roll unexpectedly fast.  They don't seem to have too much in contact with the asphalt, but have enough tread to dig into dirt and gravel roads for a very stable, quick ride.

The Selle Anatomica saddle I bought while they were on sale has proven to be a really good purchase.  I replaced the very well broken in Brooks b-67 and haven't missed the springs.  The weight loss is noticeable (partly because I removed the double kickstand also) and the saddle is comfortable.  It seems to shed water well, needed initial adjustment of the saddle tension, but the tension has held up well since.

I have taken advantage of the additional setback the rails provide and needed to switch  to a VO Seat post.  I could not get the Kalloy single bolt post to stay in position with the additional leverage.  The combination of the rails and additional setback from the the VO post provides another couple of cm for my long torso to stretch out and I really like that.  It will take a couple of long, hot days in this saddle to know if the cutout will provide any additional comfort, but I think it probably will.

Now, with some reasonable upgrades to the Hunq, I am anticipating a good year on the road, as soon as the temperatures cooperate.

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