Sunset from the Midi
I started this review with three videos. I think it is important enough to get a look at the technology that even the Polartec videos are worth a second look.
Don Bowie's comments mirror my own experience with the Westcomb Apoc and NeoShell..
It has taken me a while to get enough experience with the NeoShell to think I could write a worth while review. I was leery because I had hunted down this jacket and begged for it from Polartec. Actually it was a tour through Wetscomb's gear at the OR show in Jan. that turned me on to NeoShell. Gabriel Cote had nothing but good things ot say about NeoShell and was excited to be using it in his cutting edge garments. I had used the original prototype Goretex garments back in 1976 from Sierra Designs and Lowe so I really did wonder just how much of a "missing link" the new NeoShell would be. 35 years of technology should be an improvement right?
I am pretty easy to please when it comes to shell garments these days. I have almost totally given up on Goretex because in typical use I wanted something more breathable than hard shells offered. Easy to please because I so seldom use a hard shell now..
When the wind is blowing and it is -20C and the sun is out a layer of down and a good wind shell pretty much does the trick. The shell is not required to do much. A lot of my skiing and climbing in the Alps were in those kind of conditions, cold and windy.
So I knew NeoShell was wind proof. Most shell materials are to one level or another. But how many stretch? NoeShell does. One of the things I really look for on any review is how much I notice what I am trying to review. Good boots? If I never notice the boot I am wearingthey are likelyGREAT boots! Ice tools or other climbing gear? If they do what is required and I never notice a lack of performance it is likely an exceptional bit of kit. If they allow me to do some thing new...then I know I have a winner.
A hard shell that stretches!Mind you NeoShell doesn't stretch a lot but it does enough so that the garment never binds while wearingit.But I also noticed I never had a moisture build up. Not when skiing/climbing and working hard. Even in conditions I thought I might or would normally. I also noticed NeoShell had to be the warmest single layer water proof shell I had ever used. But just fleeting thoughts as I wasn't making side by side comparisons to any GTX products. Just my observationsat that moment.
I had to wait till I got home to the Cascades to check out the rest of the story. Rain...inches of rain have been typical this spring. So now I know the NeoShell is water proof and it still stretches. It obvious breaths well but just how well was the question. My Goretex stuff breathes too.
The most impressive test forme sounds like the most simple. Right at freezing all day between 4000' and7000' and not a cloud in the sky. You could almost wear a sweater to ski in but you would be chilled on the ski lift or on the ridge tops if you weren't working hard.A sweater and a wind proof vest were almost ideal.
Same place typically a Gortex shell would have been too warm for me and worse yet sweaty and wet.
Just for fun I stripped to a tech short sleeved T shirt and added the Neo Shell over it. I figured we would soon see just how warm, wind proof and breathable NeoShell really was.
To my surprise I stayed warmer ( remember I originally thought NeoShell was exceptionally warm) all the way up and all the way down in the Apoca NeoShell than in my sweater and vest combo. And even more impressive I stayed dry..actually drier than the sweater/vest combo with no noticeable moisture build up on my back duringthe long runs down the hill.
Obviously no great insights here. But may be that is the point. NeoShell offers a water proofhard shell that breathes extremely well, and stretches. What is not to like? The Apoc has become my only shell jacket. It is that good. When I do notice something while using the Apoc it I'll get back to you.
I have not used all the current water proof and breathable materials available.But I have used a few of them. The new generation of stretchable, waterproof and breathable garments might well bethe"missing link". The Apoc with NeoShell is the most versatileoutdoor garmentI currently own or have used. Thatsurprised me.
My priority now is to see how a pair of NeoShell pants work out. Pants generally need to stretch a good bit more than a jacket. Maybe I won't notice it.
I would definitely describe Vienna as a "cycling city" in term of its infrastructure. There is a good network of bike lanes, a bike share programme, many cyclists on the streets, and a decent system in place for integrating cycling with public transportation. All the more frustrating to be here bicycle-free! For a number of reasons, it was not practicable to either bring my own bicycle here or to rent one. I will express my Bike Rental Lament in a separate post. But for now, I give you a few images of night time Vienna - on foot.
For the purposes of sight seeing and tourism, this is not the best time to be in Vienna, as it is in between seasons. Scenic Autumn has ended, while the Weihnachten (Christmas) exuberance has not yet begun in earnest (On the photo above you can see that they've installed the holiday lights, but have not yet turned them on). Lucky for me, this matters not a bit, as I am working all day almost every single day that I am here. But don't feel too bad; I have been living in Vienna on and off for the past two years, and have already done all the sight seeing possible.
In some parts of the city center, the famous Viennese Christmas markets have already been set up. Those are the little lit-up tents you see in the foreground of the church.
Inside one of the tents. The Christmas markets sell everything from traditional foods and handmade toys, to Christmas decor, leather goods, and clothing.
Here is a stand with sausages and Glühwein (mulled wine).
A vintage roadster graces the cover of a detective novel.
For those with a fetish for fine gloves and tights (you know who I speak of, ladies!), being in Vienna around this time is especially difficult: lots of fine products by local designers are on offer. Thankfully, the high price of these prevented me from buying them - even if I did try to justify it to myself as a "cycling expense". No no no.
A traditional Viennese café: marble, dark wood, red velvet upholstery, dim lighting, waiters in crisp black and white, tiny silver trays, sugar cubes in crystal bowls, the works! If you have a chance to visit Vienna, plopping yourself down in one of these after a day of walking (or cycling) around the city, is a real treat.
I leave you now with an image of a Vienna Citybike station. Not many takers at 5:00 am!
Daryl and Diana arrived last night, and we have enjoyed spending time with them today. We played a bit of pickleball, some of us went out on the boat and Nathan and Austin tried to make some money for us.
Karen and Tom hosted some poker fun. Tracy and Jim joined in the fun too. Tom had a great streak of luck from what I hear. Nathan came in second and Austin came in third. I think Jim might have been there for the food.
I would have went for the food! Well, really I would have went for the company. I didn't go though because Diana and I were walking around the campground in order to take some pictures.
It was a good day!
All the walking I've been doing lately on account of the weather has made me pay even closer attention to my surroundings than I do while cycling. Everything looks different in the snow - elegant and magical. The thin patch of woods near my house has turned into a majestic white forest worthy of a 19th century Scandinavian painting. It's as if the sky was squeezed straight out of a tube of cerulean blue and the austere vertical strokes of the trees were applied with a pallet knife. It's not my style, but I am certain this scene has been painted many times. It's archetypal.
Upon emerging from the pristine wonderland, I came face to face with this. Literally: It was located at face level, and in my willingness to submerge myself so fully in my daydream, I nearly walked into it.
The city is using excavators to facilitate snow removal, as the plows alone are not enough. The effect is interesting, making the neighbourhood look like an igloo construction zone. In order to clear the center of the roads, the excavator dumps more and more snow to the sides - creating monstrous, densely packed snowbanks that line the streets like the walls of some arctic city-state.
Walking on the sidewalk is a surreal experience. You are essentially in a tunnel - with buildings on one side, igloo wall on the other. Along some stretches, the snowbanks are taller than the average human height, so as a pedestrian I can only see the sidewalk in front of me and not the road to the side of me. 
It is not uncommon to encounter bicycles "buried alive." There were actually three separate bicycles inside this snowbank.
Less common is the sight of a bicycle being ridden - but it happens, especially on the heavily salted main roads. Note how the yellow crosswalk sign, its reflection in the puddle, and the golden light of the setting sun play off the colours in the cyclist's knitted hat - all of it especially noticeable against the white, snowy backdrop. Somehow, everything seems to be reminding me of a painting these days. Certainly this person and his hat deserve to be painted.
It's been over a month and a half now without the car. We signed up for zipcar through the Co-Habitant's work, but have not used it yet. And ironically, the blizzards are making it easier to do without: With the roads as bad as they are, we wouldn't have been traveling to any photoshoots up North anyway, and so we don't feel as if not having our car is keeping us from accomplishing anything. We'll get the car fixed as it gets closer to Spring. But for now, it's been remarkably easy to just forget about that thing and for us both to get around entirely on foot and bike. And with so many snow days, I am rediscovering walking - which I appreciate for making me stop, look around, and see my neighborhood in a new light.
I was in the Ride Studio Cafe the other day, when a woman came in to buy a cycling cap. She was already wearing a cap - one that looked to be from the early '80s, faded yellow with "world champion" rainbow stripes. She looked around the shop and tried on several of the caps they sell, but seemed restless and her eyes kept wandering over to me. I was wearing a white cap with rainbow stripes, very much like her own only newer. Before she even approached me, I could sense that she was attracted to my cap. I thought that she was going to ask me where I bought it. Instead she asked if she could have it, buying me a Rapha hat as a replacement.
I was reading the Rivendell blog today, where Grant Petersen revealed a "mystery bike" that has been in the works for some time. It looks like this. And aside from the obvious oddities, it is endowed with an unusually long top tube for its size: a 62.5cm top tube on a 54.3cm frame. Apropos this geometry, Rivendell notes that the bicycle is"basically a flat-to-rolling land bike that, by virtue of it’s superlong top tube ...locks you into a sweeepyback bar." In other words, it would be difficult to set this bike up with drop bars due to the excessively long reach that would create.
I had three lenses with me in the camera bag yesterday, so I thought it would be neat to illustrate how different lenses affect the way a bicycle looks in pictures. Here are three photos of my mixte standing in the same position, taken with (left to right:) an 85mm lens, a 50mm lens, and a 35mm lens, using identical camera settings. Notice any differences?
Here is a closer look at the picture taken with the 85mm lens. First off, notice the relationship of the bicycle to the trees: In this picture the bike looks like it is positioned in between the trees. There are hardly any trees in the frame itself and if I wanted to I could crop them out all together, making the bike an isolated object in the midst of snow and sand. There is also not a great deal of background information in the space above the bike: a few stairs, but that is all. Furthermore, the things in the background are kind of blurry in comparison to how sharp the bicycle itself looks. And finally, take a look at the size of the bicycle's wheels. The bike is slightly turned toward the camera and the front wheel is closer to me than the rear. But despite this, the front wheel does not look much larger than the rear; the bicycle looks proportional. The 85mm lens is considered a "portrait lens" precisely because it creates these effects: It isolates the subject from the clutter of surrounding objects and reduces unflattering foreshortening effects in the subject's face and body.
Now the same scene, but taken with a 50mm lens. Notice how much more background information is visible in this picture. And it's impossible to crop out, because all that extra stuff is directly behind the bike, rather than around it. The same trees that were spread out to the right and left in the previous picture, now overlap with the bike's wheels and can't be cropped out. More stuff in the space above the bike is visible as well - now we see not just the stairs, but a winding path. And the background scenery is in sharper focus than in the previous picture. It's a nice composition as far as narrative goes (we get more of a sense of the bicycle being in the woods), but a portrait or product photographer would tell you that the background is starting to compete with the subject of the photo. One of the trees looks like it's growing out of the pannier, and the winding path draws the eye away from the forms of the bike itself.
And same scene once again, but with a 35mm lens. The entire patch of woods and the street behind it have now been wrangled into the shot. The background scenery is just as sharp as the bicycle itself, and there's so much of it, that the scene looks altogether cluttered. Also, notice that the front wheel of the bicycle looks considerably larger than the rear, as a result of being closer to the camera. Foreshortening effects are pretty strong with this lens: If I were photographing a person's face, their nose would appear exaggeratedly large in comparison to their eyes for the same reason as the mixte's wheels look to be different sizes.
There is much more to be said about differences between these lenses, and in fact I haven't given a proper introduction to camera lenses at all - but that would take ages and it's nothing you can't find in an online reference. Hopefully, these pictures illustrate the way in which lenses play a role in bicycle photography, and why sometimes it seems like you just can't compose the shot you want with your camera. For those of you who use digital SLRs with interchangeable lenses, which do you prefer to use for bicycle photos?
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