[Barracuda]

Good points, I avoid the graduated filters and such in Lightroom, but figure since the HSL sliders effect the entire image, as long as they are within reasonable limits, ie: not completely color popped, I should be safe. I think I reduced the main saturation slider about 20 and upped the blue by about 20-30 to bring the blue back to where it was originally but suppress the rest of the hues a little. The green trees and red bricks of the background were swallowing the “blue curves thing” a little more than I wanted. The lighting was not my friend yesterday, but I was short on time and couldn’t wait around for a break in the cloud cover – which I’m fairly sure would not have come anyways, it started raining around 7pm last night and hasn’t stopped since (currently 9:30a). A quick look out the window here at the office shows what may be a break in the rain/clouds on the horizon though.

[Barracuda]

As a photo for this contest, I like the Buick. The head-on shot of the ’57 doesn’t accent the curves of the body near as well as the Buick’s closer angled view.

[Barracuda]

I always associate Jack’s with the show Fraiser which my wife and I routinely watch old episodes of. We’ve got the whole series on DVD (wife picked them up on the cheap off eBay if I recall)

While not the all that sharp, this one is one of my favorites just for the facial expression:

[Barracuda]

So the weather held off just long enough for me to run by my target location this afternoon. Have a hand full of possibles now which I now get to select from. Wanted to get some feed back on this one:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-ZVhrVVwkUME/T2fAXl7PGqI/AAAAAAAAFmw/yXV1iEJ2U5M/s800/IMG_1903-2.jpg

Make sure the color levels seemed within acceptable limits. Pumped up the blue a little while bringing the rest of the channels down some to make the structure pop a bit more, but I don’t think it quite approaches questionable levels myself. I also have a B&W variation on this one as well I’ve been working on.

Then there’s a few variations on this idea: https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-hUqf3SYTgvY/T2fCXvz2uUI/AAAAAAAAFm4/hp_YVGT4qsQ/s800/IMG_1929-1.jpg

Feedback, before or after the contest, is most welcome. 🙂

[Barracuda]

Sure looks like it to me too. I’m not exactly a walking encyclopedia of dog breeds and looks, but I can’t think of another breed that would express that typical corgi face and color.

[Barracuda]

I really wanted to get out and do some new shots for this, but appears the weather isn’t going to cooperate unless the rain moves out sooner than expected tomorrow. I have a few ideas I can probably get done, else its to the archives for this one.

[Barracuda]

Obviously stand-over is important, but with the compact geometry of newer bikes that’s almost a given these days. Generally you want the saddle hight set to where when you have your heal on the pedal your leg is fully extended, that way when the ball of your foot is on the pedal your leg has the right amount of bend in it (not over extended, not loosing power). When your hands are on the hoods, your upper arms should be more or less parallel with the fork blades. An easier test, when your hands are on the hoods, the front hub should be hidden by the handlebars. Reach fit can be adjusted some with a stem change which is fairly cheap to swap out.

[Barracuda]

Men were riding “road bikes” on non-paved roads over mountains back when cycling was a rougher, meaner sport than football. A few crazy old timers apparently are fed up with how easy cycling has become and starting up rides that hearken back to a different time. That and cyclocross racing has starting to become a bigger part of cycling in a lot of the country too.

So, you get a bike yet? Last I heard from you, you were looking at that Trek Pilot.

I led my club’s “Distance Builder – Lite” group that I have been riding with for a while now. Previous ride leader stepped down to spend more time at his girl’s volleyball games on the weekend, so I’ve been leading it the last few weeks. A windy 46 miles, legs felt like a combination of rubber and lead most of the day.

[Barracuda]

Got quite the unexpected result on this shot:

Holga pinhole lens on my XSi, 6sec exposure generally in the direction of full afternoon sunlight. Can’t decide if it’s cool enough to enter.

[Barracuda]

Somehow I’ve gotten myself talked into going to Montana this September to do a 2-day, 110mi ride on dirt roads, on a road bike. Hoping going with a 32mm width tire will be enough to even out the right a little.

On another note, told my wife I had to buy the XSi so I would have a good camera to take photos of the new bike when I got it. Somehow that seemed to be a reasonable explanation for the purchase. That and getting it for 40% off original retail price didn’t hurt either.

[Barracuda]

And just because I like to show it off, even in it’s naked state, here’s my new custom Kirk Frameworks.

Paint should be going on next week or so, ETA to my door step should be about the end of the month. I put down the deposit on it the first week of April last year, 11.5mo wait time give or take a few weeks. The best blend of modern steels and traditional looks that I could find. It may not be as light or as fast as a Cannondale Evo, but I don’t race and don’t care. This is the ultimate bike in my opinion for the the riding I do.

[Barracuda]

The limiting factor on the Trek is going to be that frame geometry is not going to allow you to position the handlebars with much drop to the saddle height. Starting out, this may not be too much of a bad thing for you, but the expense of extensively modifying the setup on your 7.2 is only going to make it worse for what it was intended for, but not quite as good as an entry level road bike. I recently did a drop-bar conversion on an old schwinn hybrid, but that frame started out closer to a road bike than the FX7.2 and I still ran into unforeseen complications.

Here’s my recommendation, in the short term I would get some bar-ends for your handlebars to give you a slightly more extended and second hand position, and some skinnier tires.

You should be able to mount something like this:
on your bars, which may help on the climbs and other situations where the flat bar isn’t all that great.

Trek’s specs state that the 7.2 comes with 35mm width tires, fantastic for a lot of situations except going fast on tarmac. I’d say find some decent quality tires in the 28mm width range. Not as modern narrow as a road bike’s tires, but should cut the rolling resistance down considerably while still maintaining some multi-surface ability. The Continental Ultra Sport comes in both a 25mm and 28mm and would be a good option and a reasonable price. I think with those two modifications, you’ll have a bike that should be able to keep up with a moderate riding group riding back roads, at least till you decide if a full road bike is worth the cost.

If you do decide on a road bike, try to look for something with at least Tiagra level shifters, 105/Ultraga being a better option. Don’t hesitate to look into used bikes in your area but ONLY if you first understand what size road bike you need. I made the mistake of jumping straight into the old used market and ended up with a bike far too big for me. A lightly used road bike with 9 or 10sp Shimano 105 or even Ultegra can be found easily and be a better value for your money than a brand new entry-level with Sora/Tiagra at best. Not sure if you have a Performance Bike in your area, but they also often have insane deals on new bikes.

[Barracuda]

Use the self-timer – it’s not like you’re going to need split-second timing on the shutter release!

Trying to shoot indoors last night was requiring 2min or so exposures, though that kind of defeats the usefulness of the pinhole’s infinite depth of field I know. It’s cloudy/cold/windy and soon to be rainy as well here this weekend, so it’s either indoors or next week some time before I get to experiment further. That and I won the eBay auction for the remote release 2 days after I purchased the Holga lens, the lens came from Hong Kong and got here faster than the remote which is coming from somewhere in the states. 😡

[Barracuda]

Alright, I’ll take a stab at this, and try to keep it short if possible.

Your Trek 7.2FX is a good bike if you do not plan on any of the following: riding farther than about 20mi at a time, faster than 15mph avg, over significant hills.

Your Trek 7.2FX is a great bike for: general recreation riding up to around 20-25mi (I know those who have ridden far worse far further), want to be able to take the occasional non-paved trail, great for multi-use paths, riding around the nieghborhood in the evenings, etc.

Skinny tires, lighter weight wheels (and over all bike), geometry of the bike, multiple hand positions offered by drop-bar handlebars, all make true road bikes easier and better when riding faster and further. You are lower on the bike so the wind resistance is lower, skinny tires offer less rolling resistance, the lower position also allows you to put more power into the pedals that the more up-right position of the hybrid.

To get speed and better “comfort” for long rides you trade off some things on a road bike. They are not as stable at low speeds, not as good on non-paved surfaces, the skinny tires pumped to high pressure transmit more of the roads bumps to your body, the more bent over position makes it harder to see around you when on city streets, etc.

Frame materials, tires, fine tuning of position and fit can minimalize some of the road bike trade offs while giving most of the benefits. I am about to take delivery of a (rather expensive) custom steel bike that is, in theory, one of the best combinations of ride comfort, speed, ride quality, etc – for the type of riding that I do most. If you tell me what type of riding you do now, or more importantly, what sort of riding you want to be able to do I can better suggest what sort of bike would be best – which very well could be your current one.

[Barracuda]

My Holga pin-hole lens for the DSLR arrived today. Looking forward to playing with it more when my remote shutter release finally arrives.

[Author]

Posts