Big Bad Log

Great, it froze -4 degrees C last night so the mud and muck in the forest has been rendered in a more solid state. It was still freezing lightly when I left around 11am and a strong easterly wind made me happy to be able to ride in the forest. Or - at least - most of the time, since I was doing my Meerdael perimeter ride and every now and then this meant riding very close to the forests' edge, with as a result that the wind could reach me. I was riding it in the reverse direction today, starting out along the Heverleebos perimeter and moving on towards the Kouterbos and finishing off with the Meerdaelbos sections. The forest floor was frozen and I made good progress. It took me a while to adapt to the -1 degree temperature but after 15 minutes or so I was settling in. Stopping from time to time to take a picture I could feel the forest floor become softer and softer while the temps slowly rose over 0 degrees. This was a ride were I would have enjoyed the Moots YBB even more than the Litespeed, but the Moots was still at Filip Sport - waiting for a postmount to IS disc adapter that must surely be coming from the moon or something. I mean,when I need a Hope adapter, I can just order it and its at my place 2 or 3 days later. Why it takes more than 3 weeks for a dealer to take delivery of the same piece is beyond me and all reason.
So I rode the Litespeed, which is of course a bit harsher due to the lack of suspension in the back.

Even then the mud was still too viscous to splatter on my bike. For the next days the temperatures will remain below zero during the day as well. Great ! Lets just hope that the wind settles a bit because the chill factor is more influential than the temperature these days.

On another note Took delivery of my Lumicycle LEDSYSTEM 3 lighthead today. It looks very smart and offers an amazing 850 lumen light output in the highest stand with its 3 LED lights. I plugged it into my NiMH battery - I have been using a Lumicycle HID Halide for 6 years now and after setting the LED system into NIMH mode I could make myself familiar with it. It has 4 power modes and one SOS mode . Switching between them is done by toggling the switch either upwards or down. Powering down is achieved by holding the toggle down for more than one second. I'm looking forward to ride out with this light. Its a 6 degree spot unit (Lumicycle also offers a 13 degree 'flood' lighthead which is unsuited for commuting because of its blinding white wide beam.
Some pictures of the unit.

Here is an idea of the light output at the different settings. I made these with the D2X and a 28-70 f2.8 lens set at f3.5. I stopped it down afterwards in Nikon Editor to have the same intensity of background sky. This might not be optimal but it gives an idea of the beam color and intensity. The different intensity stages are: Commute - Low - High and Boost. I also included a comparison shot of the 40W HID Halide (which has a 13 degree beam as compared to the LedSystem3 6 degree beam.
As you can see the Halide has a cooler lightcolor, I find the LedSystem3 light color more natural.

Ride Stats : 33.5K and 365/354 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 1h59mins

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