Just another photo of tikit

Just a photo of tikit

Convenience of a folding bicycle

If you ask me what is it so great about folding bicycles as compared to normal bicycles, here it is:

In fact, two of such bicycles can be folded and stored within the boot of a mid-size sedan (not even MPV or SUV), one on each side of the boot.

What I practically do is to store my bicycle and also squeeze in my son's 14-inch kid bicycle, and we can go to a park to ride our bicycles. This is done without installing any bicycle rack at the back of my car.

Gear Inches

Most people would have the presumption that riding on a bicycle with smaller wheels equates to a "slower" riding experience as compared to one with larger wheels - with the same number of strides when pedaling, the distance travelled on a bicycle with smaller wheels would be less than that on a bicycle that has larger wheels.

This is not entirely true. A bicycle with a smaller 20-inch wheel size may not necessary be slower (or will travel less distance) than a bicycle that has a 26-inch wheel. Wheel size is certainly one of the important factors for cadence, but not the only factor.

What could be the other factor? The answer is gear inches.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gear_inches, gear inches can be expressed in terms of the following equation:

where

gi = gear inches

dwd = drive wheel diameter

fct = number of front chainring teeth

rct = number of rear cassette teeth

As you can see from the equation, the gear inches (gi) can be increased by using any one or all of the below:

1. using a rear cassette with lower teeth count (or decrease rct)
2. using a front chain ring with higher teeth count (or increase fct)
3. using a larger drive wheel (or increase dwd)

The modifications done to my Bike Friday tikit are item (2) and (3) and these make its "vital statistics" to become as follows:

1. the rear cassette has between 11 to 28 teeth (stock, unmodified)
2. the front chain ring has 60 teeth (upgraded from the previous 52 teeth)
3. the drive wheel is 18 inches (upgraded from the previous 16 inches)

My highest gear inch is therefore 18*60/11 = 98.2 and my lowest gear inch is therefore 18*60/28 = 38.6, which is pretty decent and comparable to a fast Tern Verge X20 or Tern Link P9, both having 20-inch wheels. I will have a tougher time climbing up steep slopes when riding at the lowest gear inches though, which I do not anticipate as a reality anyway.

Depending on the material cost that you need to incur, you may opt to use different combination of the above method to modify your gear inches.

MKS Promenade Ezy Pedals

I am using the MKS Promenade Ezy pedals on my Bike Friday tikit and I am loving it! These pedals can be dismantled and kept separately, making the folded bike look more compact. There is however a small issue which is the yellow plastic rings (shown here in the images) that are supposed to prevent the pedals from being dislodged/released accidentally. My bike is primarily black in color and having yellow rings is somewhat a mismatch.

What I have done is simply to remove the rings altogether and I did not have to worry about the pedals getting dislodged when riding (after 3 trips by now); the quick release design is "smart" enough to prevent the normal riding action from dislodging the pedals.

The rings are as shown here

A video showing how the quick release works (you will also appreciate how the yellow rings keep the quick release in check):

Bike Friday tikit

Have been wanting to blog about my Bike Friday tikit ever since I bought it from MyBikeShop in early Mar 2013. Here is a picture of it (click to enlarge) and below is the list of modifications that have been done to it.

1. Upgraded from the stock 16-inch rims with Schwalbe Marathon tyres to the 18-inch WheelSport Magic 355 rims with Schwalbe Kojak tyres.

2. Replaced the stock handle bar (plain old cylindrical) with the ergonomic Biologic - Arx™ Grips with T-Tool as well as replaced the grip shifter with the SRAM trigger-shifter.

3. Zixtro pouch under the bike saddle. (Can be used to keep accessories, including the bike pedals mentioned below) Note that Model-T tikit does not come with a saddle by default, so I got a simple one separately.

4. Upgraded the chain-ring from the stock 53T to the Vuelta 60T, together with a somewhat ugly chain-ring guard (chain-ring guard for 60T is pretty hard to find, so cannnot complain - according to the folks at MyBikeShop)

5. The MKS EZY bike pedal can be dismantled via quick release and then kept inside the saddle pouch - so cool! Bike pedals that are folded are like sore-thumbs sticking out of the folded bike. Having bike pedals that can be dismantled is definitely advantageous. Note that Model-T tikit does not ship with bike pedals by default.

6. Model-T tikit does not come with a kick-stand by default, as such I got a plain and simple one.

Dear Ayken

Holding and looking at you does not let me forget my troubles.
Instead, in quite a profound way,
I would wishfully think, of becoming a better daddy, by overcoming all the troubles that I have,
At work or in life, each and every day.

The serenity in your breath, while you are in your dreams, is all that matters
Before I go to sleep.

It is no longer the same, where I could simply turn in to bed,
right after a day of work fatigue.

The extra night duties that your mummy had to voluntarily do (she is more kan-jiong whenever you cry, you see?)
The hours she had to deliberate on the brand of your drinking cup.
Worst of all, she never had to compromise her choice by discussing every little thing with another man (a.k.a. your daddy) in her life.
You had better be nice to her when you grow up!

Each and every day, you surprise me with the new things you learnt.
Sometimes I feel ashamed of not achieving anything useful that day.
But you are the source of my joy, my inspiration and hope.
There is nothing in this world that is too hard to cope!

May you be truly happy when you grow up.
When you date your first girlfriend, scored your life goals and have children of your own.
With such astounding speed that you are growing up,
I am starting to dread the day when I can no longer be there with you.

It is not going to be long before you grow to your teens,
Mushy gestures would then become a no-no for you!
And so I want to start appreciating you now,
by piggy-backing, hugging and kissing you whenever the chance is due.

Nikon D90

(picture credit: Nikon)

Bought the Nikon D90 which is a great upgrade over the old D80. Some others even forego the D300 to use the cheaper D90. Personally for me, the advantages of the upgade (in order of importance): CMOS sensor Large LCD Live View Video

Vibration Reduction (VR)

Vibration Reduction (VR) is an important technology developed by Nikon for its lenses to somewhat counteract for camera shake when a photographer takes a picture. It is analogous to anti-shake in compact cameras that we see in the market.

Naming the technology differently, Sony has its super steady-shot built into its alpha series dSLR and not in the lenses. There is certainly room for debate whether anti-shake should be built into the lens or into the camera body.

See here for an introduction to vibration reduction by Nikon.

dSLR part 4

gotten two more addition to my lens collection.


the nikkor 105mm f/2.8 vr micro suitable for shooting macro.


the bright nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens suitable for shooting portraits.

circle of life

my sister-in-law delivered a baby boy on wednesday. he is the first grandchild in both families and everyone was particularly overjoyed.

his name is Kedric and heard that the chinese name will be 萧恩豪。

this blog entry will enable his name to be searchable in the Internet, heh.

the "walkaround" lens

took the d80 and the 18-200mm lens out for a shoot during the chinese new year at sentosa flower festival. see them here.

think i must improve more on the depth of field and the exposure.

dSLR part 3

new addition: the 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 vibration reduction (VR) lens!

the wide range of focal lengths is touted as flexible enough for anyone to use it for 90% of situations.

dSLR part 2

got myself a new spare battery and an external flash over the weekend.

dSLR

finally got my first dSLR earlier this year, after getting my performance bonus and had extra cash to spend, heh.

i have always found the photos taken with dSLR rather captivating and always had the thought: how nice if i were the one taking those kind of pictures?

i got myself the nikon d80 that came with a 18-135mm lense, a tripod and a camera bag. the set of equipment set me back by almost two thousand dollars. before making the plunge, i was contemplating between the nikon d80 and the nikon d40x. i couldn't decide between the two and went down to one of the retailers wanting to check things out. the decision became apparent as soon as i tried to hold both dSLRs: the d40x was too small for my right hand's grip! since this will be a long term investment, it made sense to me that i should get one that is comfortable to hold and operate.

before buying the camera, had borrowed a few books from national library for reading up and to understand various principles such as aperture, shutter speed, white balance, exposure etc. after getting the camera, i went on to buy this book that was written for d80 owners for them to quickly get started on learning to operate the machine. trust me: operating a dSLR is more complicated than driving a car, if you are planning to fully exploit the dSLR's potential, that is! but if you want to use it as a point-and-shoot camera, it is also possible, but that would defeat the purpose of getting a dSLR in the first place. it is indeed quite overwhelming to have to bear in mind the principles of photography and at the same time get myself familiar with operating the d80, but hey, didn't we all come through that phase just like the driving lessons? :)

fundamentally, i think the reason why pictures taken with dSLRs are better than the point-and-shoot camera is due to the better lens for each type of scene that a photographer could use, as well as the larger image sensors, where all other conditions (eg. exposure, aperture, shuter speed) being equal. shall see what kind of pictures i can manage to capture as compared to my previous casio exilim z30!