On bikes and cameras

I’m sure I’ve mentioned it here and there throughout the pages of this blog but I recently finished up building my Rivendell Appaloosa, a bucket list bike for me that I’ve been eyeing for years and finally pulled the trigger on. As Riv puts it, the Appaloosa “…is as good an all-around bike as we make. It’s 100 percent perfect for 90 percent of the riding you’re likely to do, and 90 percent perfect for the other ten percent.” I wanted to build what I’ve taken to calling a “country rambler” kind of bicycle, something that is at home on long ambling adventures through the countryside, through fire roads and even random singletrack connectors as well as just daily workhorse/commuter bike duty.

I’ve been riding it all over for the last month or so since I finished it but mostly restricted to pavement-bound adventures. Tuesday morning I finally got a chance to get up early and get it out on one of my favorite little 25ish mile routes that loops around some beautiful wetlands with rolling forested hills in the background. Classic NW Montana countryside stuff, y’know? I am elated to report that it was wonderful. I was actually surprised to find that this bike with thinner tires felt smoother to ride on some of the washboarded sections of these gravel roads than my old Surly with much chunkier tires. Something about the quality of light steel and the longer wheelbase maybe? Either way it makes for a great riding bike that is shockingly good on terrain it has no business being that good on. I also enjoyed that it doesn’t feel like the kind of bike that pushes you to ride it faster than necessary. You can ride it fast if you want, and it feels great at speed, but it doesn’t feel like it urges you to do so the way you might feel on a racy carbon gravel bike or something. It feels perfectly happy trundling along at a human pace taking in the scenery. In other words, I nailed the build on the nose and I’m so stoked about it.

On the camera front I decided to sling the Leica over my shoulder with the TTA 28/5.6 stuck to the front as my camera of choice for the ride. I haven’t been shooting much of anything recently, or even really for the last several months, as you may have noticed from the general lack of output showing up on blog posts here. Mostly I just haven’t been interested in making photos. I’ve been interested in doing other stuff, building bikes, etc.. Going on a long rambling bike ride with a camera and just snapping photos of whatever got my attention was fun though, so that was nice to get back in to. I still don’t like shooting the Leica that much anymore and especially shooting a 28 on the .68 viewfinder of the M262 is pretty annoying. Leica’s response to shooting 28mm on that camera seems to basically have been “Best of luck!” It kinda works with an external viewfinder but the whole process is clunky and I’d rather just shoot an SLR with an old school OVF.

I browse eBay every now and then for an EF mount 28/2.8 or even the faster 28/1.8 but I always have a hard time convincing myself to part with the funds to order one. They’re not expensive by any stretch of the imagination. The 28/2.8 usually goes for a little over $100. Maybe some day. The focal length is fun, which I remembered shooting it on the Leica even if it wasn’t my favorite camera format to shoot it on. That’s about it for this blog post. The Rivendell Appaloosa is a rad bike and it turned out better than I could have hoped, and riding with a camera shooting some 28mm was a good time too. So, until next time, that’s it from me.