It's coming up to my Kona Smoke's 4th birthday so I thought I'd take a few updated pics. Since my last post with her (it's a "her", though I can't commit to a name) way back on page 86 (and when I first picked her up brand new on page 49) we've shared four years, six cities, a handful of brake pad replacements and no idea how many kilometres. Happy Birthday!





Some minor cosmetic and comfort changes over the years:



Still have the Dollar Store 9-LED headlights and Victoria Police "This could be a Bait Bike" sticker, and added on a pair of "Dapper Dan" leather ergonomic handlebar grips from Portland Design Works (available at MEC). Comfy, though with the Grip Shift I should've gotten the short version (which exist - but not at MEC when I was shopping, unfortunately). These full-size versions make the handlebar wider at either end by about 2-3cm, which makes cutting between cars in traffic a bit dodgy, but does yield a bit of extra room to play with for hand placement - nothing as useful as drops or a mustache, but the ergo shape is comfy on my ~23km commute.





After years of admiring everyone else, I sprung for a Brooks B17 saddle last week. Right now it is a b---h - I find I keep sliding forward on the smooth leather and driving the wedge into my perineum, so I'm pushing against the handlebar to keep my sits bones on the right spot. I hear that over time the leather will soften and shape to my sits bones - won't be a moment too soon when that finally happens.



Those occasions where I end up driving in my car, I find I'm blinded when coming up behind cyclists with blinkies on their seatposts, backpacks or helmets - the lights end up right at eye level and it gets pretty annoying. I noticed the bixi shared bikes in Montreal mount them lower towards the rear axle, which keeps the bike visible yet not blinding cars from behind, so I did the same with my MEC blinkies.

Also threw on a Esge double kickstand - my old regular Greenfield one was totally adequate, but when I found a double stand in stock whilst browsing an LBS on holidays (Power in Motion, Calgary) it was totally an impulse buy. As you can see the off-the-shelf 320mm length makes you perch either your front or rear tire about 15cm off the ground - will have to chop that down sometime. But when I get around to putting on proper front and rear racks and hauling more weight with the bike, hopefully having the double will make loading all the more stable and safe.

For now, keeping the heavy cargo on my back, and the lighter stuff on that seatpost rack, eg: