Living not next to school
When I moved to Reutlingen(small town in southwestern Germany near Stuttgart), I had a choice of living in the dorms or finding my own place to live somewhere in town. I chose the somewhere in town option. I have been reflecting on the results of my choice for the last month or so. I ended up finding a cool apartment with two Germans right in the middle of downtown near all sorts of stores and restaurants. It's great because I get to ride my bike every day to school, and it gave me an excuse to buy new bike stuff. I love new gear.
My latest purchase was an Ortlieb office bag to carry my school stuff up the hill to school. I was going to use my backpack, but it doesn't work under my rain cape, because the waist strap won't reach around my body and backpack. Since the rainy/winter season is going to be starting soon, I thought I needed some kind of waterproof office type pannier. So far I've been pretty happy with the Ortlieb, but the mounting hardware was definitely designed more for a Tubus rack than for my Nitto rack. The positioning of the vertical rods of the Nitto rack makes it so that in order for the lower hook of the pannier to catch, the pannier needs to be either so far forward that my heel is almost grazing it, or so far back that it affects the handling of the bike excessively. I've been much of a Carradice person for the last couple of years, with a full set of Super C panniers, several saddlebags, and a rain cape, but since I'm in Germany now, I figured I would try the local product, even though the Carradice Bike Bureau looked appetizing for about the same price. Actually I guess I'm sort of a bag collector(accumulator would probably be a more accurate term). I also have a set of Berthoud panniers, a large Berthoud handlebar bag, and at least 3 messenger bags, along with a set of Ortlieb panniers that I also bought here in Germany. Geez, that sounds a little excessive when I list it all out. Maybe I'll thin the herd a little bit down the line.
When I came to Germany I brought 2 bikes with me on the plane. That was something, packing my 66cm Atlantis and my 62cm Steamroller in one large box with rack, fenders, bags, and extra tires/tubes/tools. But that's a story for another post. Thanks for reading Nathan!
My latest purchase was an Ortlieb office bag to carry my school stuff up the hill to school. I was going to use my backpack, but it doesn't work under my rain cape, because the waist strap won't reach around my body and backpack. Since the rainy/winter season is going to be starting soon, I thought I needed some kind of waterproof office type pannier. So far I've been pretty happy with the Ortlieb, but the mounting hardware was definitely designed more for a Tubus rack than for my Nitto rack. The positioning of the vertical rods of the Nitto rack makes it so that in order for the lower hook of the pannier to catch, the pannier needs to be either so far forward that my heel is almost grazing it, or so far back that it affects the handling of the bike excessively. I've been much of a Carradice person for the last couple of years, with a full set of Super C panniers, several saddlebags, and a rain cape, but since I'm in Germany now, I figured I would try the local product, even though the Carradice Bike Bureau looked appetizing for about the same price. Actually I guess I'm sort of a bag collector(accumulator would probably be a more accurate term). I also have a set of Berthoud panniers, a large Berthoud handlebar bag, and at least 3 messenger bags, along with a set of Ortlieb panniers that I also bought here in Germany. Geez, that sounds a little excessive when I list it all out. Maybe I'll thin the herd a little bit down the line.
When I came to Germany I brought 2 bikes with me on the plane. That was something, packing my 66cm Atlantis and my 62cm Steamroller in one large box with rack, fenders, bags, and extra tires/tubes/tools. But that's a story for another post. Thanks for reading Nathan!
posted by Fahrräder at 11:44 AM
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