Shifting to the spring

The spring equinox was yesterday, and yes, it has felt like spring lately. On Sunday evening I listened to some birds at my home yard that can't be heard in winter. The daytime temperature has been above zero over a week. The snow is melting.

A gravel road on my commute on Monday, March 19th:





The spring is earlier than last year. Even the sand has been already sweeped away from some of the bicycle roads in Paimio:



The shifting of seasons can be hard for gravel roads sometimes:



More signs of the spring:







Last week I was sick with a nasty flu, but it didn't prevent me to play with my camera:







On Friday I really needed to get outside, and did a short walk in Kimito Island.



















The sunset was nice:

















The album links: Google+ and Picasa (with some extra photos).

And finally some news. My first writing at Fat-bike.com was published on Monday. In the three-part series I take a look of fatbiking in Finland.

'Erätulilla' TV series started on YLE TV2 on Friday March 16th. The fatbiking story is featured in the next part that will be aired on Friday March 23. There is already a short trailer at YLE Areena, check it out! Unfortunately YLE Areena works only in Finland, but those who knows how to play with free proxies can see it. And the video at their program page should actually work overseas.

Fat Fender Project Part 3

It's sunday, and the seven day drying time is over. Time to make the mounting hardware and put all together.











The front fender with the mounting hardware, 316 g.



The rear fender:



Two screws and bolts missed from that one, the real weight is 478 g.

After plenty of drilling, bending, riveting and screwing, MK2 is ready:





















Pretty time consuming project after all, but I hope it's worth it. The paint won't probably last very well as I didn't grind the surface of aluminum plate before painting. There are already a couple of scratches. If the fenders look too bad after the winter, I will probably do a new set of fenders and powder coat them.

There is not a lot of room in the chainstays of 2011 9:Zero:7 frame, so on slush and heavy snow conditions the rear fender could be clogged, but this shouldn't be an issue when doing regular commuting.

The fenders appear very firm, thanks to many attachment points. The MK1 was a little flimsy and noisy, so it's interesting to see if these are more silent.

Fat Fender Project Part 2

My Fat Fender Project has progressed well. Last week the local plater did narrower fenders for me:

The new ones are slightly longer for even better protection. Not much difference in weights, the rear fender is a little lighter now:

Today I had time to paint them. I purchased spray paints from a local miscellaneous store. The paints are manufactured by Maston, which happens to be a Finnish company, and the paints are the COLORmix series. For good results I chose a primer paint, the actual color paint (red!) and a glossy lacquer.

First the primer:

Then the red color and the lacquer:

At home in better environment:

Looks pretty good, doesn't they? The weights after painting: 204g / 319g.

Now I let them dry properly and I will make the hardware next week and then install them.