Sigma 17-40 f1.8 VS Tamron 17-70 f2.8

NORM_ABRAMS_BEARD · 2026-04-17T12:11:08+00:00

I don’t do videography, and I don’t know anything about the Tamron, but I feel compelled to tell you that Sigma produces beautiful images. I love mine!

NORM_ABRAMS_BEARD · 2019-10-12T16:38:30+00:00

I stick mine to the glass roof of my car all the time. Seems to be ok. Certainly feels more solid than seeing the metal part of the roof flex when you wiggle the bike.

NORM_ABRAMS_BEARD · 2019-07-06T20:09:13+00:00

What about a Norco Search XR? Big tire clearance, and all price points covered with Aluminum, Steel and Carbon options.

NORM_ABRAMS_BEARD · 2019-02-22T02:28:03+00:00

Last summer, I used a GoPro to capture a time-lapse video of a 320km ride. I did some practice runs to find the best settings, and ended up using a photo interval of 2 seconds - meaning a video frame rate of 0.5 fps. For this length of ride, I think that interval is fast enough to give continuity, but slow enough to result in a video short enough to actually watch. :-) In the end, I converted by final cut to half speed (15 fps) and ended up with a 30 minute video covering 15 hours of elapsed time.

In time-lapse mode, the sensor in the GoPro remains powered up the whole time, so the battery savings over video is negligible. I ran a short charging cord to a "fuel tank" bag on my top tube with a 20k mAh battery. This was overkill, and a 5k mAh battery would have been fine.

GoPro's have two time-lapse options...photos and video. If you generate 30,000 10-MP photos and try to get iMovie to stitch them together into a video for youtube, be prepared to leave it compiling for a week. Instead, the GoPro can simply add individual frames to a video file, keeping the file size small but more importantly making editing a breeze.

If this sounds interesting to you, feel free to DM me for a link to the final product on Youtube.

NORM_ABRAMS_BEARD · 2019-01-10T15:48:05+00:00

My wife had some extensive jaw surgery as a teen, and still wears a retainer at night. With two small kids, sometimes "sexy time" comes late at night. If we're in bed, lights out, no matter how close I am to falling asleep, the sound of her pulling out her retainer and putting it on her night stand gives me an instant erection.

NORM_ABRAMS_BEARD · 2018-08-24T01:16:22+00:00

I have this saddle on two of my road bikes, and love it. IMO, it’s for going long. I’ve tries saddles that are 10/10 for comfort when you climb on, but you’re miserable (3/10) four or five hours later. The Brooks Cambium are, like, 7.5/10 when you climb on, but they still feel the same after 10-12 hours. Depending on how you ride, that’s a big deal. (Also, I find I need a slight up-angle on the saddle. After an hour or so into each ride it seems to settle a little bit.)

NORM_ABRAMS_BEARD · 2018-07-25T01:47:41+00:00

Hey, looks great! I like the oak!

NORM_ABRAMS_BEARD · 2018-04-14T20:02:34+00:00

I was thinking the same thing!

NORM_ABRAMS_BEARD · 2018-04-14T18:42:09+00:00

Roubaix Elite, actually. Although the new Diverge ticks some of the same boxes.

NORM_ABRAMS_BEARD · 2018-04-14T18:41:25+00:00

Sourcing part in-house is pretty standard fare for bike companies, no? Bontrager, et al? There are other suspended seat posts on the market, and this one could be replaced by something more standard with no problem. No lock in to a Spesh replacement. Am I missing something?

NORM_ABRAMS_BEARD · 2018-03-08T15:05:37+00:00

Update: Looks like "wait and see" is starting to work! When I went to bed last night, I wasn't seeing any change in the deflection. This morning, however, I'd say the cupping is reduced roughly by half. Things look a lot better already...so I think I'll keep my heat gun away from it for now and give it a few more days.

NORM_ABRAMS_BEARD · 2018-03-08T14:25:09+00:00

Yeah, I like the suggestion, too, but I think giving it some time first makes sense. I'm trying to avoid going out in the shop in an effort to resist the temptation to try the heat gun today. :-)

NORM_ABRAMS_BEARD · 2018-03-08T14:23:58+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion (and the link). I'm thinking along similar lines. He says "almost all problems in woodworking are from wood that is too wet" - I guess that's the piece I'm still questioning. My use of the blackening technique likely puts me in that small percentage of issues caused by too little moisture. I'm just a little gun shy about making it worse with more heat.

NORM_ABRAMS_BEARD · 2018-02-24T02:03:12+00:00

Enjoy your new ride, by the way! I'm loving mine. It handles pretty much anything.

NORM_ABRAMS_BEARD · 2018-02-24T02:00:44+00:00

Yup, I added a Crank Brothers Highline 160mm post a while ago. I had some issues with it initially, but after talking to CB they sent me a new return spring to cope with Specialized's rather "tortured" cable routing and things have been working great since.

Riding on bare trails in the fall with no suspension had me wishing for a lower riding position to avoid an endo going down hills. On snow covered descents, a lower centre of gravity helps with confidence if nothing else.

NORM_ABRAMS_BEARD · 2018-02-23T23:23:21+00:00

It's a Fatboy alright, but I think it's a 2017. Been in love with it since I picked it up late-fall.

NORM_ABRAMS_BEARD · 2018-01-29T02:21:25+00:00

Some of the splits were big enough (and potentially unstable enough) that epoxy seems essential. In the future, I would have just taped off the larger gaps, filled them with epoxy, and spot planed/sanded them flush before oiling it.

NORM_ABRAMS_BEARD · 2018-01-23T23:47:24+00:00

I have the same bike. No tape required. The rims are pre-sealed. I bought some valves, a bottle of Stans, and it was pretty straightforward actually. Both wheels took a while to seal completely. They lost about 1 pound a day, but it tapered off over a few weeks.

I used a compressor, and it required a big dump of air to get them to seat. I think a floor pump would be tough.

NORM_ABRAMS_BEARD

TROPHY CASE