Days in the mid60s is fine, but mid30s overnight is what hurts. @10:30am it's finally 50 degrees

That's roughly the situation in North Texas right now. My preferred weather, really. Now I just wish I had time to freaking ride a bike. Shooting for a ride into work tomorrow.

[QUOTE=Yeah, I'm a big fan of older, manual focus/aperture lenses, which is why I want to pick up the a7II - with adapters, you can use a ton of lenses, it has great MF features like focus peaking and it has image stabilization built in to the body. *sigh*[/QUOTE]

My new Pentax K-3 has focus peaking, shake reduction, plus a host of legacy lenses that don't need adapters (unless you go with the old screw-on lenses). Now that it's been superseded by the Pentax K-3II it can be had for a good price as well. Can't give you a final verdict as I'm still trying to get up to speed with it (a major upgrade from my K-r), but have had good results so far. You might want to check it out.

~http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps8w1jroch.jpg

~http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/a...psnhosppdq.jpg

So because I can't keep myself away, I threw up a couple of items for trade on a local FB group. We'll see if anyone has any frames stashed away I can use.

Excellent light on the Jay, highlighting those tail colors. Nuthatch too. Good shots!

Feel better.

Nice work!

Yeah, I know what they make some nice cameras, but I like full frame too much, hence the Sony (though rumor has it that Canon may have a FF mirrorless around the corner, too).

When it comes to drip, I really don't care - if I'm drinking drip, I'm in emergency mode, anyway. Espresso, though? Nah, it needs to be done right. I appreciate and cycle through a variety of beans/roasts, but they have to be fresh and produce espresso, as opposed to the spurts of brown water that the push-button baristas at Starbucks produce*.

*although the Starbucks shops that I visited in Seattle (including SB #1) did seem to take pride in their product.

Downtube shifters and dick breaks - don't see that everyday.

http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/021...g?v=1421187926

I hope to never see dick breaks first-hand.

I'm riding NTX nights now. Weekends when I can, but 7-8pm for me. And it's pretty damn cold right now (45 deg about then, which is cold for me).

I was really worried about bugs and night riding but it's not as bad as I thought it would be. I go on local MUP loops 15-25 miles... and they are deserted. I'm just dealing with mud lately. Give me cold any day, but I want nothing to do with mud any more.

Not for the squeamish: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penile_fracture

Thanks WhyFi - Pentax will also have a full frame camera early in 2016 and they are introducing new ff lenses to go with the old ones built for their 35mm cameras. I prefer the compactness of APS-C, especially when shooting telephoto - my 300mm lens and teleconverter are already as much as I want to carry.

Off on a trip soon, and hope to bring back some raptor pics.

iirc this bike "won" the oregon outback this year

I knew a guy named Dick Hertz. Maybe his broke?

Probably a stupid question, but is that an event in Oregon Outback? I did Cycle Oregon in 2012. That year's route went through some of what people were calling the Oregon Outback.

See, that's my fault for not specifying that I didn't need to see them second- or third-hand, either.

its just the name of a route, which subsequently got turned into an "event", which subsequently got ruined by people who dont know how to practice Leave No Trace camping ethics

Oregon Bikepacking ? Oregon Outback

People ruin everything. Same thing happened/is happening with the Tour Divide. It's supposed to be fully self supported, but all of a sudden in the last few years, everybody wants to help riders out, so they end up offering stuff the riders aren't really supposed to take advantage of.

For the most part, the serious front runners don't get mixed up in it, but it creates this massive, massive gray area in their wake.

I sure do like the Sony stuff. Was a Minolta owner ever since the '70s. Their marketing scheme baffles me though. Almost nothing in the big box stores. Not that what you want would be there anyway, but they just aren't pushing for name recognition like C and N do. I understand that Minolta then Konica-Minolta were always playing catch-up, but I would think that Sony would have the clout to vault right to the top of the DSLR market. What gives with the low profile?

to be fair, the "tour divide" has a looser set of rules, and unplanned help like that is fine; "trail magic". you still cant have visitors of friends and family or help another racer. there are multiple stops along the route known for their hospitality specifically for divide racers

the "great divide race" is only the US section, and is shrouded in more mystery and is very strict in the rules. absolutely no help is allowed from anyone outside of buying things from stores along the way. there is no spot tracking page for the fans

i am worried though with the quickly growing popularity of bikepacking in general. a lot of "fixiebro" types going out into the woods with no prior experience or respect for nature and are just doing it because its "in". multiple portions in oregon are now closed completely to bikes and camping because people simply dont know how to take a **** in the woods without making a mess. if that trend continues the best type of cycling (IMHO) is in grave danger.

Just made a season 1 X Files reference in the http://www.bikeforums.net/general-cy...ng-season.html thread. Wondering if anyone will catch it.

I used to keep up with the threads on bikepacking.net when the TD was going on. They had a very specific problem with all the added attention and people wanting to leave food, water, etc. along the trail for riders. Basically a strategically placed piece of trail magic. Trail magic is more like "My tire got cut, but I ran across a local guy riding on the trail who gave me his tire" sort of thing, rather than spot watchers camping along the route for their favorite riders and trying to give them stuff.

I hear you on the increased popularity of bikepacking. In general, lots of folks don't understand LNT and really haven't understood it for years. It's kind of a catch 22. You want people to get involved outdoors and see that it's important and that camping and cycling have benefits, but you also want to keep out the morons, which is practically everyone. :lol:

Neat. Co started in Bly and went to Silver Lake the first day, but it was all on road. There was nothing between the two towns, if you can call them towns. The rest stops were on U.S.F.S. land as there was nothing commercial on route.

I saw close to a dozen GDMBR participants last year when I rode a paved portion of the route (Polaris, MT to Wise River, MT). The front runner had already reached Antelope Wells, NM. Still, I could never do what they were doing.