[Eric & Laurel sent us these photos of their winter bikes. —ed.]

It’s spring here in Edmonton Alberta, but that means a 10 degrees below freezing in the morning, and 10 above in the afternoon. Melting snow means solid ice at 6am, deep puddles at 4 pm. Also means the winter beater bike is still in use, with spike tires.

The wife has a Miele outfitted with spike tires, and one functional front chainring as the deirailleurs freeze up. She was looking to put an internal hub on it, but carbon forks ruled out that.

The Brodie Section 8 is both a cargo hauler and a commuter bike for the winter. I do a paper route in the early morning, then remove the trailer for a 7 mile commute to my main job after that. I need the weatherproof nexus internal hub and the drum brakes. The handle bar mitts are essential for keeping the hands warm, and protecting the brake levers and shifters.

We live in Edmonton Alberta, across the river from downtown Edmonton. The photos are taken on the bike path in front of our high-rise.

—Eric

[David sent us this photo of his Surly LHT. —ed.]

Surly Long Haul Trucker: Brooks B67 seat, Nitto Albatross handlebars and Tubus Cargo rack posing on the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia. This setup makes the LHT a very nice commuter bike but the drop bar that comes with the LHT would be better for touring because a drop bar has more hand positions and is more aerodynamic. The white tape on the rims is 3M Scotchlite reflective tape.

This bike was purchased at the Fairfield Bicycle Shop in Victoria, British Columbia. I wrote a blurb at CrazyGuyonaBike about the bridge where the picture was taken.

—David

A little over a year ago I wrote one of our “Stuff We Like” articles about cable-actuated (aka “mechanical”) disc brakes. In a nutshell, I said that while I prefer the aesthetics of traditional brakes, I enjoy mechanical discs for their performance advantages. Here’s an excerpt:

Now that I’ve been running mechanical discs on my daily commuter for about a month, I thought I’d point out again how much I like these brakes. They’re powerful, easy to set-up, weather-resistant, and clean as a whistle in the wet. Following are a few of their advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages

• Powerful
• Easy to set-up
• Rim-friendly
• Not affected by out-of-true rims or broken spokes
• Weather-resistant performance
• Boat loads of tire/fender clearance

Disadvantages

• Require a beefy fork
• Front wheel must be dished
• Require disc-specific frame mounts
• Rotors can be fragile
• Can interfere with rack and fender mounts

Hydraulic discs provide even better performance than mechanical discs due to the elimination of cable drag and housing compression. From a pure performance standpoint, they really can’t be beat. That said, working on hydraulic discs can be a challenge. A relatively simple thing like swapping out handlebars can get fairly involved when you’re looking at changing the length of hydraulic lines and bleeding brake systems. For me, the simplicity of cable-actuated discs outweighs the performance advantage of hydraulic discs.

I’m running Avid BB5′s on both my grocery getter and commuter (Civia Loring, Civia Bryant). While I prefer the BB7 caliper for its ease of set-up (the BB5 only has one pad adjustment knob, whereas the BB7 has two; one for each pad), the performance of these brakes has been flawless and on par with my best rim brakes. Now that I’ve gotten the hang of it, setting-up these brakes is at least as easy as setting-up calipers and V-brakes, and I find them easier to set-up than cantilevers.

Mechanical discs aren’t necessarily for everyone, and they’re certainly not a good aesthetic match for old school bikes, but they offer a number of advantages and make a lot of sense on modern commuters and cargo haulers.

Grand Prize Winner – Horst Hammerschmidt

Adventure Cycling →

[Kanishka sent us these photos and write-up about his Swift folder. —ed.]

This is my 2010 Swift Folder by Peter Reich/Design Mobility. Retailed, spec’d out by bfold/David Lam for Peter.

Components and Accessories:

• Alfine 8
• Civia Loring Bars
• X-Seat (American distributor of Spongy Wonder)
• Marathon Racers (used to be Marathon Pluses for a long time, probably switch to Kojak’s soon)
• A few special quick releases
• Ergon Grips (should probably switch to cork or just taping the whole bar)
• Gear inches: 2nd – 38 gear-inches, 7th – 83 gear-inches
• Klickfix extender with handlebar adapter mounted on front
• Klickfix Freepack sport backpack
• Carradice SQR on back
• Carradice Super C saddlebag – amazing

I bike to school somedays (grad student), 6 miles one way. Most days I put my bike on the front of a local bus both ways, or one way and ride the other way. Year ’round. Some days I take the long distance train that runs along my route (have to fold for that), but it’s a very quick trip (8 mins train, 15 mins bus, 40 mins bike). It’s between Dover and Durham, to the University of New Hampshire. I usually carry groceries home once a week. Often I just take my bike for a short 1/2 mile ride to a local coffee shop.

I also frequently visit my parents in Hartford, CT. This usually involves the folded bike on a train then bus, or bus then bus, connecting in Boston. If I switch between train and bus, I have to bike across downtown Boston to connect to the other leg of the trip. Then I do some short biking around Hartford when I’m home.

By far the most useful is when I take the bike folded on a train into Boston and hang out there for the day/night. I use it to get around to my various favorite hangouts in Cambridge and Jamaica Plain. In the summers, I usually get together with a friend and do an overnight credit card tour in the area of 50-60 miles.

I like to call my configuration “the grad student” because you can carry books (lots of them), laptop, food, dishes (because you are poor and can’t eat out), and groceries. As well as travel easily on public transit (again because you are poor and shouldn’t own a car, also because you need the time to do school work instead of actively driving on long distance trips).

This December I might switch bikes if I can talk Bike Friday into welding a Dahon-style plate into the front of a 20″ folder. I also only really need 3 gears, so I’ll probably switch to an i-Motion 3. Maybe disc brakes in front. And if I come across a huge burst in income, a belt drive. I’m kind of looking for a cross between a Long Haul Trucker, a Civia, a Swift folder, and a Brompton.

—Kanishka