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UPDATE: I gave this camera back to my friend for display. While it could be fixed, a $120 repair isn’t practical for a sub-$50 camera.

Cool little camera a friend gave me. The shutter has an issue though. It doesn’t fire until halfway through the next sweep of the winder. And the top plate is a little loose.

It’s got a really cool way of locking the aperture and f stop together at the same EV.

I never dug into “Exposure Value” before. I knew they existed, since I’ve had nice light meters, but the interrelatedness of shutter speed and aperture worked fine.

EV makes sense as a way to express the amount of light available and how to capture it. The EV scale starts at EV 0, being ISO 100 film, f 1.0 aperture, at 1 second shutter speed. I wish that was EV 1, since that’s a lot of ones. It’s a logarithmic scale since shutter speed and aperture both halve the light at each stop.

I’ve ridden a fixed gear for many years and the slow churn of this guy’s legs easing up through the crosswalk, then weaving across and onto the sidewalk (construction) caused a double-take.

I could be wrong but I think that old bike is fixed, and the colored rear tire gives “30 years old in 2001” vibes.

That’s a hard 55.

UPDATE: About 150 people came out for the ride, I led it, and some deputized citizens ran sweep and kept things on track. I want you to think about stepping in and making something happen when you see a need. The Tuesday before the ride, we couldn’t find anything local for the synchronized nationwide Alex Pretti rides, so we made digital posters, I figured out a ride, gave some thought to what we’d do different if it was 4 people, 40 people, or 400 people and got comfortable with how each scenario would be a success.

Sid printed physical posters and we showed up at Volo/Rollup beforehand with zip ties to attach the posters to our bikes. At the square, when it was about ten minutes to roll out, I stood up and described the route, Sid stood up and explained we were looking for a long single file procession, not a big bunch, and then we rode out. My favorite part of the early ride was 150 riders snaking through Julliard park, and people were still rolling in as I exited the park.

A young activist asked if he could say a few words at the Howarth Park halfway point re-gather, and of course I said yes. That was a nice bit, and gave everyone some focus. We rode out, I deferred to a pair of women who knew which side streets off Montgomery didn’t dead-end, and they led us through the Memorial Hospital drop off circle, and then back downtown.

People dispersed, and some of us went to Russian River for pizza and beer or NA options.

So don’t be afraid. It’s up to us, but hey… what if it all goes perfectly?

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Alex Pretti Memorial Ride for the Minneapolis nurse murdered by ICE.

Old Courthoise Square – Santa Rosa CA – 11:00 am

We will ride from the Square to Howarth Park and back, visiting Juilliard Park, Doyle Park. Howarth Park, and Memorial Hospital (Alex was a nurse).

We will primarily be on streets with bike lanes, and neighborhood streets.

Ride is about six miles, or you can turn back at Doyle Park for a 3 mile loop.

There’s a rummage/art/music sale at Shady Oak after, or you could meet up with us and catch the SMART to the SF ride at the Ferry Building

Every bike in the concours.

5: Brifters! My first ever brake lever shifting bike. Maybe my second ever even riding one. I thought they were genius when they came out, I was just too poor and riding fixed all the time.

4: 1×12 drivetrain. Ratio upgrade kit for 10sp SRAM shifters is pretty cool. I needed the shop to make the internal swap.

3: Left lever controlling the dropper post. Awesome. 1000% awesome. 200mm OneUp silver dropper is pretty and pretty similar in feel to 190 and 175.

2: 180mm cranks. I usually ride 175s, but I got these beautiful XTR square tapers at the museum swap meet, along with some other cool stuff like the XTR skewers (from Jeremy Sycip’s booth). If everyone is cutting down to 165s, that’s my cue to go the other way. Maaaybe there’s a little more pedal strike stacking up the smaller tires (48s) with the longer cranks and the 80mm BB drop.

1: This killer new Fitz Porcorosso!

This is a fancier modernized version of the 2019 Fitz Supermoto (seriously thought that bike would be on the blog here oops). That bike was pushing the limits of downtube length, and fork offset with the straight blade forks, Tubing makers have stepped up and made butted tubes longer for modern geometries, and I relaxed into letting John do curved blades.

I also relented on internal dropper routing. I think it’s stupid (longer cables, heavier housing, holes in your bike), but external dropper choices are limited to one PNW 31.6 175mm. Once you (I) relent on the internal routing for the dropper, you’re sending a cable down the downtube. Once you can’t run everything under the top tube like a proper Bontrager setup, then you’re open to running MOST cables down the down tube. And running full housing, and treating it like a decorative border instead of hiding it. Another difference from the Supermoto.

Geometry is longer, less “front load low trail” and more “bikepackery.” When John built the Supermoto, I was like “I don’t want zits all over my bike, I don’t do that bikepacking stuff.” So then I immediately started doing bikepacking stuff with it. This bike has All The Zits, including frame bag mounts. There’s like $500 worth of extra mounting points. So far no dedicated frame bag.

And… fancy!! The Supermoto was purposely purposeful, but the Porcorosso might need to replace my Frances as the prettiest bike imaginable without being overwrought. Curved top tube, polished stay eyes, stainless Fitz gusset, stainless dropouts, fancy Illusion Cherry sparkly paint. Curved fork. People like those.

PS: I like those Ortlieb snap-on bags, too. REI had a big sale, and they worked out.

Sayonara 2025.

Fun couple hours riding up out of Fairfax and down into Sleepy Hollow. Gorgeous day, and I didn’t injure myself!

I always love the Gestalt Haus jackalope sausage, but the M&G burger was really calling me. Next time.

Nicassshhio Reservoir was beautiful, and The Mighty Kia is always fun over D Street into Petaluma.

Oh yeah, I started my day taking a cat to the vet. Here he is interested in the toy, but not fooled by the toy.

Laser eye surgery! My eyes (cataract growth) got dramatically worse over the last 6 months and I had one eye laser-surged this morning.

Three eye drops 4 times a day is a lot.

Walking around all day without glasses seems super normal, even after wearing them since the 5th grade.

I have been shooting cameras and guns with my left eye for years since my right eye was so trash, but the nurse assured me I’m right-eye dominant. I practiced using my right eye with my cameras and no glasses, and it seems pretty game changing and maybe I’ll be a good shot again, too.

One day (and 6 hours) update: I can read my phone AND see across the street. This morning, 24 hours after surgery I thought “Maybe they put in the wrong lens??” Close vision wasn’t there, and I wasn’t getting the halos around everything I was promised. Now the close focus is pretty good. Left eye sees small type clearly three inches closer to my face than the right eye with the new lens, but won’t work for things at arms length.

Getting my anemia fixed.

I broke my wrist right before New Year and spent some time in the hospital for surgery intake, and they did a bunch of blood tests. The results show up in your phone app in about 20 minutes!

Turns out my iron levels and hematocrit were abysmal. Like “no wonder I suck at bicycles” bad.

Kaiser had said, “oh your iron is a little low we might look at that in a year or two” United said, “dood you’re anemic here’s what we will do.” And then they did it.

1. Check me for internal bleeding. “Bloods gotta be going somewhere.” Ick. This is an involved, unpleasant process. Double ick. Turns out I have Barrett’s Syndrome.
2. Take a pill every morning, and come back in three years to get scoped again.
3. Take iron, but not too much, since it can “irritate the stomach.” I’m pretty sure this means “make you bleed internally which defeats the whole point.” I won’t go into why I think this is the case.

So if you feel weak and asthmatic riding bikes and your poops are often almost black… talk to a doctor about anemia!

Quad Lock phone mounts for bike and car.

I have a terrible sense of direction and it takes me repeated visits to understand the spatial relations of a place. So I tend to go places I already know. Having a phone/map mount where I can see it and follow the map is a huge help for me to get around and try new routes.

I use it more in the car than on the bike, but I hope to change that in 2026.

Overall, Quad Lock is good, it needs a dedicated case, and I like the ring back thing because it aids in holding the phone easily and securely.

The only downside is that it smooths out the movement of the phone on the bike so I don’t get “steps” in my activity app.

Paying retail money for new and stylish clothes

Ornot hooded trail shirts. And other Ornot shirts.

I think the purple and stone Ornots look good on me, and they dry fast after riding. The striped Gaultier look is nice but I reach for it least.

Kuhl riding shirts (but don’t ride in it because you’ll look all sweaty after), and Kuhl pants (every pair has a slightly different fabric).

These things are all spendy at about $100 shipped and I’m told you can feed a hungry family for a week for that money, but I’ve spent most of my life thrifting clothes so I now amortize new clothes over the rest of my life.

Also, fancy jackets this year, but I got them on deep clearance. Old habits die hard.

Upright bars. I’ve been riding flared dirt drops for decades, but swapped in Velo Orange Tourist bars to recover from my broken wrist.

I like them! I like that silver Ritchey Force stem, too.

I also tried-and-liked the Grant Petersen DIY wool grips. they feel great, look great, and wear well. They’re finished with used Velox tape for when I get up on the lever mount for climbing.