My father and stepmother lived in a building next to the World Financial Center, just down the street from the towers. The elevators used to roar with the wind created by the vortex seen here. Luckily they moved out long before Sept. 11th; I took this on a visit around 1990.
On black.
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Bokehlicious. The Pentax FA 50/1.4 has always been famed for it's out of focus rendering. Here's one reason why.
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So far, it's been a fun ride. The goal was absolute reliability in any weather, as it tends to rain a lot here in Portland and I don't have time to be adjusting things these days. The Sutra frameset, with it's faults, ended up being about the best non-custom fit I could find. If I had my choice I probably would have used a Rocky Mountain Sherpa, but that would mean parting out the rest of the bike, paying $1000 or so more up front, and not having adjustable dropouts which help so much with the speedhub. The Cotic Roadrat was another interesting idea, but I'm not sure how well it would handle loaded touring. Routing the fender stays was interesting -- I had to bend them by hand around the disc brakes and even so they just barely work. Cable routing was a challenge as well, as you can see in some of the other pictures. But for the most part, things came together pretty well.
As for riding impressions, well, it's solid, fairly heavy (I'm guessing ~30 lbs), and very very stable. The brakes are just incredible in the wet: strong, silent, and fade-free. The dynohub/light combo is fantastic as well, with the auto-light-sensor doing its thing behind the scenes with no thought from me and putting out plenty of light. Many of the parts (seat, cranks, skewers, rack, etc) I've had for a while now so they just feel normal. The speedhub is taking some getting used to. I love the range, and the simplicity, but I don't love the 7-8 shift, and I really dislike the grinding in the lower range. I'm told this will get better, and I hope it will, but at the end up the day there's really no competition.
Let me know if you have any questions. For now, this will be my "daily rider" to and from work, and maybe some day (when Lucas is a bit older) I'll get to test out its loaded touring capabilities.
Finally, thanks goes out to Dean at Clever Cycles for sourcing many of the parts, including the big red thing on the rear.
Just a quick parts list for those interested in such things:
* 2006 (NOS) 54cm Kona Sutra frameset
* Rohloff disc QR Speedhub (OEM2) with Monkey Bone, HubBub and shifter
* Schmidt disc Dynohub
* Mavic A719 rims (32h) with brass nipples, DT 14/16/14 spokes
* Pitlock skewers and ahead cap
* Schwalbe Marathon Supreme 700x32cm tires
* Avid BB7 mechanical disc brakes
* Chris King 1 1/8" NoThreadSet
* Cane Creek SCR-5 brake levers
* Salsa short & shallow 44cm bars
* 100mm Ritchey Adjustable stem
* Brooks B-17 ti saddle, leather handlebar tape
* Thomson Elite seatpost
* Tubus Cargo rear rack
* SKS fenders (hand to bend the stays)
* B&M Lumotec IQ Fly Senso Plus (whew!) front light, D Toplight XS Plus rear light
* Phil Wood ti BB with steel cups
* Shimano XTR M900 (1st generation) cranks w/44 tooth Salsa chainring and guard
* SRAM PC68 chain
* Shimano A-530 SPD/flat pedals
* Incredibell
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