I have been using an inexpensive no name backpack to carry the necessary baggage (work clothes but not shoes, cycling clothes for trip home, tools and spare tube) for the ride to work for the last couple of years, and it has done the job.

However, I start riding the recycled single speed to work and that did not have mounts for drinks bottle. One of the reason I bought that specific noname backpack was it could also be used as a hydration pack. So I tried to use it as a hydration pack, and it did not work for me. The tubing was in the wrong spot, the provided bladder pack was difficult to use, the mouthpiece leaked and my CamelBak 1.5l bladders did not fit the pack.

Then purely by accident I saw the Crumpler Yee Ross on the Crumpler web site, a Crumpler backpack that can be used as a hydration pack. So I went to my local Crumpler store, check it out and walked away after purchasing last year’s model (more on that later).

A few days later it was pressed into service as a hydration pack with a CamelBak 1.5l bladder and it performed exceptional well, the routing put the mouth piece in the right spot and the CamelBak 1.5l bladder did it’s job providing me hydration. It was also far more comfortable to ride in than the noname backpack. The weight was well distributed, the shoulder straps where in the right spot for me and did not dig in.

I started using the Yee Ross as a regular backpack for all my other commutes and I am completely sold on it. The comfort factor has it.

Pros

• Comfortable, even with a moderate load.
• Works as a hydration pack with a variety of bladders.
• It is a Crumpler it will be durable.

Cons

• Smaller than most backpacks, need to pack carefully.
• Tight squeeze sliding a MacBook Pro in, not a problem with the Acer Aspire One though.
• It is a Crumpler ;-)

There is a difference between last year’s model which is made from thicker more durable material, has a waterproof pocket and wider belt straps than this year’s model which comes in more funky colours. So if you want one and I recommend last year’s model for durability and practically I would head into your local crumpler store now. I have owned mine for 8 weeks and I would highly recommend it.

This is my infamous bag that has been reported to the local Crumpler store on more than one occasion, because I had the audacity to stencil my blog URL on it, to clearly identify as mine.

Three years ago, I bought a Crumpler bag on the recommendation of a couple of friends, to protect my then laptop, an ancient and battered Ti Powerbook from my daily adventures. I had used at least four other bags, but none had the durability, protection or usefulness offered by the Part and Parcel. The fact it was a full blown courier bag, that I could use while cycling really swung it for me.

Shortly after purchasing the Part and Parcel, I was heading to Web Directions 06, so to clearly identify my bag from the other crumpler loving geeks at the conference. I created a stencil and using a small foam roller and acrylic paint put my blog URL on the top flap. I did not even get to the first workshop on the first day, without seeing an identical bag. I sat down to breakfast at a nearby cafe and at the next table was an identical bag sans URL.

Over the three years, I have used the bag with a number of different laptops, including the current MacBook Pro. The Part and Parcel must be doing a good job, because the MacBook Pro is far less battered than Ti Powerbook was at the same stage of it’s life.

The bag has been used on an almost daily basis to take a laptop to work. Except when I am riding most or all of the way in. I started using the Part and Parcel to carry clothes (a change of clothes for work, no shoes and cycling clothes for the return trip) and emergency tools for my 90 minute plus, 42km commute into work. The problem was after an hour or so, I would start losing sensation in my left shoulder, which had the bag slung over. This is the shoulder that has suffered a couple of major fractures and nerve damage in the past dozen years, so it should not be the same for you.

I bought an inexpensive backpack for the long cycling commute and continue to use the Part and Parcel for everything else, including the regular ride to the station with laptop.

I have used the Part and Parcel for a lot more than lugging a laptop, it has been used to carry a variety of objects various distances by foot and by bike and it does the job well.

Pros

• Durable
• Practical
• Looks good

Cons

• Not that comfortable after an hour with moderate load.
• Too popular.
• Brand fanatics

Conclusion

I am very happy with the Part and Parcel, it is a practical and durable courier bag that doubles as a laptop bag. And yes I would recommend it to anybody who needs a laptop bag and particularly anybody who cycles.

If you have wandered across my flickr stream lately you might of noticed a couple of photos of my latest bicycle. So here is the story behind it. I regularly commute the 2.5km to and from the train station each day. Until recently on self destructing cheap chinese hybrid, that is in desperate need of replacement. So when the latest bulk rubbish collection occurred in our suburb, I decided to see if I could find a suitable replacement. Unfortunately I spent the weekend clearing our shed of 10 years worth of junk to have a good look locally.

A few days later, on the way home in the bus (it was raining heavily), I spotted a suitable candidate in a neighbouring suburb. It was a steel framed road bike, I was hoping for a steel framed mountain bike, but it just lying there, looking for a new home. So in the half light of dusk and in pouring rain I grabbed that bike and what looked like the remains of another heavily abused road bike that was lying underneath it for spares.

One closer inspection, the first bike I spotted was a 25 year old taiwanese road bike, from a time when the taiwanese went for quantity not quality. While the frame was in decent condition, in addition to a destroyed set of front wheel bearings which put the bike of the road many years ago. all the no name components (wheels, brakes, cranks, stem etc.) as well as being poor quality and heavy, they where badly rusted and unusable.

The abused bike was a japanese entry level racer of similar vintage. The frame was badly corroded by rust and damaged by a previous owner aggressively fitting a kickstand. The components including Araya rims, Sunigo cranks and chain ring, Cherry cable pull breaks, SR stem and Shimano shifters and gears where is suprisingly good condition and while the steel components, the bars, rims and cranks had surface corrosion, a single treatment of rust convertor fixed that.

So I spent $60 of new tubes, tyres, chain and brake cables (well $85 if you include tyre liners). Stripped two bikes down, cleaned the components, cleaned and repacked the bearings. The rebuilt one bike out of the parts, using the heavy but serviceable taiwanese frame, the japanese components, a seat I had taken off my mountain bike a couple of years ago, a set of pedals I was going to put on my mountain bike and after a few hours later I had a new commuter which is fun to ride.

Why another bike when you have 3?

Was the question Angie asked. I already have a good road bike bike and a good mountain bike, but neither are really suited for the commute. A dual suspension mountain bike with soft rubber is best suited to hammering singletrack and clambering over obstacles not a couple of kms over bitumen, with a little dirt and some kerb hopping thrown in, neither is my road bike. Plus I don’t like the idea of abandon either at the train station, even though most days I get a bike locker.

So that leaves the hybrid. Well the hybrid is just a cheap piece of mass produced rubbish, bought a few years ago from a discount store when I did not know better. It got me back into cycling, but that is it’s only virtue, built to the cheapest possible price, poor quality control and components. It is failing terribly, both wheel are buckled, the gears are interesting challenge, it needs to go to the bulk rubbish collection.

Why recycled not new?

Why not, I wanted a bike to commute to the train station, I could get what I needed by recycling someone else’s trash. Instead of buying a cheap bike from a discount store for a few dollars more. I wanted something reliable and durable, my experience with cheap new bikes is they are anything but reliable and durable.

If I wanted something new that was reliable, durable and suited to the job in hand, I would need to spend more and make the purchase from a specialist bike store. However, after spending a few hundred dollars on a bike would I feel happy leaving it at the train station, probably not.

Why singlespeed?

Back to reliability and durability, I just want to be able to grab the bike and ride to the train station each morning with minimum maintenance. I am sure I would of got the six speed Shimano Deore rear derailer working again. However, with my road and mountain bikes the rear derailer needs regular maintenance to perform at it’s peak. Without proper maintenance, worn or poor quality parts it is annoying to apply extra force to the pedals and the bike to shift a gear or two, like what happens now with my hybrid.

Also the commute is relatively flat, both my house and the train station are at the top of hills, but neither inclines are steep. The current gearing of 40/17 is more than required. I have used 40/15 without a problem, but the chain does not run true and I not ready to step up to 52/20. But for the commute one gear is enough.

All the cool kids have fixies

Why did I not I go for the simplicity of fixed gear (pedals directly driving the rear wheel, so if you stop pedalling the rear wheel stops turning). Two reasons, the parts I had made a singlespeed and I have had interesting experiences pedalling around corners, as the motorcyclist in me leans heavily and pedals have dug into the ground. This is not something I wish to repeat, particularly as the way home involves a long downhill straight (which I have be known to break the local speed limit on my roadie), a roundabout with a 270 degree turn and a short uphill section, which I try to hit at maximum possible speed.

Advice for others

Recycling an old bike is relatively easy, it does require some specialist tools, but if you are buying your parts from your local bike shop, they will usually help you out. The labour is the easy part, picking the right bike to recycle is the challenge and requires the luck.

And I will back on the scrounge next year, looking for a decent steel frame preferably in a large size and any other quality components that fall my way.

Final word, one other thing to add to your shopping list, new brake pads, 25 year old brake pads do not stop as you as you hoped.

Leaving the library on a Friday evening, there are always a few people using the free wifi outside the building, as the library closes at 5:30pm on Friday.

I walked through the main part of the station on Friday, I need to go past all the other platforms to get to my train.

While waiting for my train, a train on northern line arrived and the crowd descended on it. The train on the northern line takes a lot more passengers than the southern line at the moment.

I got stopped by a security guard at this stage. asking why I was taking photographs. He was not concerned about security issues, but the privacy of the passengers. I explained I wanted a photo of how crowded the northern line was and that my camera was not likely to take photos that could clearly identify people. I demonstrated that by showing him, the photos I had taken.

By comparison, my carriage was almost empty. I was going to demonstrate that with a photograph with a beautiful sunset over the Swan River, but all I got was the reflection off the window. So here is photograph taken a stop earlier. Photos taken, laptop on and headphones on.

Off the train and time to retrieve my bike from the locker. The flash on the Dopod 838Pro is not that effective, so here is a photo taken earlier in the day.

The first part of the ride home is 800m decline down a wide well light road. This photo does not show this interesting obstacles I faced that night, which include two large piles of organic fertiliser on the road’s edge. Each pile was roughly 2m high and 4m in diameter and had a very strong odour. The final obstacle was a burst reticulation pipe, shooting water 4m into the air and covering most the road. So I made an radical detour the wrong way around a roundabout.

The next 600m is a long a crushed limestone track through bushland, that little LED light, gives off enough light to navigate the track at 20kmh, any faster and it gets very interesting.

The next part of the journey, is to hop a couple of curbs to cross this dual carriageway, 100m along a cycle path, 300m uphill along an unlit road, hop a couple more curbs then I am home.

42.28km or 26.3 miles is the distance from home to work and I covered it in 1 hour 37 minutes and 28 seconds. The trip home was far less impressive, but that might have something to do with the 30kmh (20mph) headwinds and hamstring I strained at the end of the ride in. Still I made it home and are ready to commute again next week

Supported by: home fitness equipment

What I would like is any advice/recommendations/suggestions on:

• Anything that will help a first timer survive SXSWi;
• Accommodation for SXSWi that is still available;
• Best way to do the road trip, fly to LAX or SF and drive to Austin stopping on the way to ride, do the reverse, or fly to Austin and do a loop from there;
• Place I should ride (see below for my riding ability);
• Anything else, good bike shop is Austin, a pay as go mobile provider, etc.

I am not concerned about distances in the US. The nearest city to Perth is over a 1000 miles away and that is Adelaide, civilization is another 500 miles further on. My last US visit involved an 8000 mile road trip from SF, to Seattle, Cleveland and back to SF, via most of the national parks in between. I thought about LAX/SF to Austin and then return, but that may take more time than I have and still be enjoyable, also I have to worry keeping a car in Austin. Though if it is the best option I can always make a little extra time available.

My limited riding ability

• I avoid riding the real technical stuff, two broken collarbones in the past few years have definitely stop that.
• Amongst the guys I ride with, I am usually the slowest and most conservative.
• So I am looking for rides that will wow me with scenery, make me work and not terrify me.
• I know I can ride for 3 or 4 hours at a reasonable pace, backup and do it again the next day but not a third time.
• Climbing, is not one of my strong points, I do not get much practice, the biggest hills here are less than 1000 feet above sea level and are a good distance from my place.
• Weather, more concerned about the cold weather. In February/March here the temperatures hit 100F regularly, and I have been known to do the commute 25 miles home in 85F heat and that is a good day, bad days are 75F and 20MPH headwinds.

So advice, suggestions, recommendations. Am I crazy? Anybody want to join me for part of the trip?

One of the picturesque scenes from Sunday morning, where the Munda Biddi trail crosses Icy Creek

Well I survived the weekend in, with barely a scratch, other than a couple of close encounters with the thorns on blackberry bushes that were overhanging the trail in a couple of places and a grazed knee with the silliest of get offs. Approaching a fire road there was a shallow ditch to take the rain run off, I assumed I have enough momentum to roll through the ditch without a problem, wrong. If had less momentum the bike would of stopped dead. Instead I had the right amount of momentum, for the front wheel to stop in the ditch and the rest of the bike with me attached to keep moving forward. I don’t know what exactly happened but instead of going over the bars and landing on my face or worse on one of my bad shoulders, I landed on my knees with the bike hitting me in the back. No injuries except a grazed knee and bruised ego, not that most of the people I was riding with haven’t seen me do stupid things before, but there was a bunch of young downhillers about to push their bikes up the trail I had just come down.

Overall it was an interesting weekend, early Saturday afternoon was spent exploring trails in the Lane Poole Reserve, unfortunately most of the trails we found were built by downhillers, requiring you to carry your bike uphill and requiring a certain lack of sanity to ride down at speed. After a quick swim and a snack it was time for an 18km twilight ride. Everyone expected the ride to last a couple of hours and the last hour would be using lights. After it took more that two hours to cover the first 6 kms of steep ascents and steep descents that was often beyond my riding ability. Luckily we then reached the alternative route back to camp, 10 kms along the Munda Biddi trail (A cycling trail that runs 332 kms from Mundaring to Collie and will be extended to reach Albany, the quality of the trail varies a little, but it is equivalent to firetrail). It was an interesting ride back to camp on the Munda Biddi as the batteries on most peoples lights ran out of power, picking your line using somebody else’s light and hoping you spot the potholes and rocky outcrops. The advantage of riding a full suspension bike was how well it soaked up the hits from the potholes and rocky outcrops you did not see or could not to avoid.

Sunday morning, and nobody got out of bed for an early morning ride, so I did a little exploring, the Munda Biddi trail on the other side of our camp and a trail along the Murray river, neither were challenging rides, but it was the scenery that mattered. After breakfast, we broke camp and most of headed to Turner Hill XC track. Other than one long hill climb which was beyond me after a weekend of cycling, it was the type of circuit I like riding, lots of sweeping singletrack, a couple of descents to scare me and couple of climbs to make me work.

Got back home and found out somebody deliberately lit a couple of fires in Dwellinup, which caused major damage. I can not understand why somebody would deliberately start a fire that damages such natural beauty and put at risk the lives of the volunteer firefighters who give up their time to fight such fires

Get in the door, put the kettle on, get out of the sweaty cycling clothes. Fill a saucepan with the boiling water from the kettle, bring it to the boil and throw in the pasta I found in the pantry. Meanwhile dice some spanish onion and combine it with some crushed garlic, dried chilli, olive oil, balsamic vingear, a few olives, some shaved parmensan cheese add the pasta and eat.

I am glad I had that cook in three minute pasta sitting in the pantry it was not the same quaility as my usual pasta, but after an exhausting ride, 3 minutes was long enough wait for food, 12 minutes was out of the question.

Yes I was knackered.

Tagged: cycling

So this morning my bright idea was to commute to work, hey it is only 43.5km each way. Most of it on good quaility cyclepaths with a couple of diversions (caused by roadworks) on busy roads and a nasty climb (for me) at the end. With the aid of a mild tailwind, I managed it under 90 minutes, 4 minutes faster than my previous best and after a shower I am feeling good, I definitely did not expect that way after not riding for five weeks.

Still it is another five weeks or so before I can take my MTB (mountain bike) out again. So I will try and improve my overall level of fitness, if I can survive the ride home.

Tagged: cycling