Photo Friday

Holga eh? Sure why not.  While I whine about the thousands of pictures I still have to go through from last year, I didn’t go through any this week.  I’d love to say I was all wrapped up in some incredible new endeavour, but honestly I’d have to say it was more due to laziness.

 

Anyhow, can’t go wrong with a picture of bike now can you?  Not sure why but I love bike pictures, probably should move to Copenhagen or Amsterdam, but until then I’ll just drool over my pictures.  Taken with my Holga on some type of colour film, quite likely Kodak VC160.

L’Eroica Italian Retro Bike Race

Originally started in 1997 to help save Italy’s “strada blanche” roads (white gravel), the L’Eroica bike race is a return to the old days of cycling.  Riders who compete must do so on bikes from 1987 or before, woollen jerseys are a must, and of course leather caps and shoes.  There’s no support cars, and the race food is more akin to an Italian feast than a bike race.

 

Riders can compete in distances ranging from 38 to 202km.  Anyone finishing the longest distance in under 12 hours gets a prize (it’s just that tough).  Over 3000 people compete in these races each October, the majority from Italy, but interest is growing round the world each year.

 

via Guardian

Photo of the week

This week’s photo is from my “abandoned bicycles” series.  It’s really quite sad to see all the once lovely bikes that have been left chained up, never to be ridden again.  These bikes are all over Paris, and every few weeks the city crews go by with a pickup truck and cut them free, hauling them away to the dump.  Some are bent, some are missing wheels, but all of them were once a great ride.  Taken with my Agfa Optima on BW film.  Added a slight vignette in PS3.

Freitag Dexter Messenger Bag Review

With our upcoming trip to Paris I was in need of a daddy diaper bag.  I wanted something that would serve the purpose (carrying diapers) yet look cool and last me for years to come. I’ve always wanted a Freitag, so this seemed like a perfect opportunity.

What’s a Freitag you ask? Freitag is a company in Switzerland founded by Markus and Daniel Freitag that makes various bags out of recycled vinyl truck tarps. While they started with messenger bags, they have more recently expanded into a variety of bag styles and even most recently, iPad sleeves.

The bags are cut out of vinyl truck tarps, and the trim is made from inner tubes. All the straps are made from actual seat belts!  While this all sounds like a real mess of a bag, they are extremely well made and look great too.  They even have something called F-Cut that allows you to pick the exact part of the truck tarp to cut your bag from.  These tarps range in a wide variety of colours and designs, while also making all the bags unique and individual.

I bought my bag from Shed as I didn’t have time to wait for a custom bag from Switzerland.  I chose the Dexter model which is a mid size messenger bag that holds the diaper caddy as well as my Xpan camera.  It could also hold my recently acquired Macbook Pro and a few magazines instead of the diaper/camera combo.  I had figured the bag would have one big compartment but it actually has a few little compartments with places to hold pencils, a notebook, even a cell phone.  It’s incredibly well made and I can see it holding up to a lot of abuse.

As with all great companies, Freitag is a bit quirky.  The box that the bag comes in is designed to look like a tv. It even has instructions of how to punch out parts of the box so that you can wear the box over your head and pretend to be live on the airwaves…

I’ve had the bag now for a few weeks and it’s really impressed me. It holds just enough stuff that I don’t collect extra unwanted junk, and if it were any bigger I think I’d find it to heavy on my shoulder with the unpadded strap.  I should mention that it does have a waist strap which is awesome to keep it out of the way when cycling.  While the vinyl makes the bag durable and waterproof, it does get hot cycling with a piece of vinyl on your back….

Bicycle Sidecars!

Holy awesome Batman!  So on the weekend I was walking down the street when on the corner I saw an old mountain bike with a home-made sidecar attached.  It looked like an old kids metal bed frame with a wheel that was attached to the back of this bike.  The guy had it overflowing with all kinds of stuff, but it set me thinking, boy do I ever want, I mean, NEED a sidecar for my bike.

Checkout the link for some truly awesome bicycle sidecars.