incendentals

Some of the minor but important players in the building of the Chester.



Holy awesomeness. Old school Time ATAC composite pedals. If I could find like 5 more pairs, I would buy them all. ATACs are my favorite all time pedal - they work through everything, completely rebuildable, and they have just enough float with a very exact entry and release movement. The old ones like these are better than most of the new ones, they have a better "feel" to them. This is one pedal that I'll never have to worry about.



Bontrager Race Lite composite bottle cage on the left, will have two of these, need to keep hydrated. I find that these are probably the best bottle cages out there. The are light, cheap, look OK, but most importantly, they hold the bottle in through the roughest roads/trails, and give up the bottle when you need it. I have these cages on every bike I own, and completely trust them.

On the right is the Portland Design Works Radbot 1000. A super cool 1 watt bulb and reflector. Although I would love to have a longer burn time (more than 30 hours), the brightness and interesting blinking pattern make it a winner. I picked this for this build instead of the PDW Danger Zone because of the reflector, cheesy, but hopefully a little safer. I'll be putting on some reflective tape to the frame and fenders, so this will help also.



Fenders. Another piece of equipment that finds its way onto almost every bike of mine. And SKS fenders are the most promanate of the models. Why? The front fender has two fancy clips that allow for the fender stays to disconnect when a rock or stick gets sucked up by the front wheel. This disconnect doesn't let that object to stop the front wheel turning, sending you up and over the bars. It breaks away, and you can still control the bike. On horizonal dropouts, like on single speed or fixie, you can also use them on the back fender, giving you good visual lines and coverage on the back, but pop off the fender if you need to switch out a flat. The model I'm using is the P45, for 28-37mm wide tires.

That is about it, hopefully I'll have pictures of the frame soon, and I'll post a little about the lamest of all parts - my repair kit later this week.