Sunday, July 18, 2010

July DSR - Unofficial Lenexa Midnight Bike Ride alternative

I opted for a smaller group this time, as you can tell. Almost half of the people who had initially said "Yes" to the ride bailed out yesterday (for completely legitimate reasons), leaving eight intrepid souls to take the ride. I'm bad with names, so I can't remember Drew's guests names, but there was also Badger, Darius, Eric, Ben and myself.


Eric was rocking his brand new Surly LHT, which he's just picked up. I'm jealous. More and more of my serious commuting friends have some kind of nice steel touring bike.

I met Ben on the bus last year. He normally rides the whole way (College and Quivira-ish to Downtown) but had gotten a flat and retreated to the B bus, which I happened to be riding. It wasn't even my normal route. He brought this fixed gear bike out for the ride. I noticed that it wasn't just painted white, but it's almost completely covered in reflective material:


Outside the cave entrance.


Ben, Eric and I hit IHOP afterward, then parted ways. It was a really late night.

Also: Substation with a half-moon over it.


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5 comments:

  1. roroweJuly 18, 2010 7:52 PM

    Midnight rides sound like a lot of fun (especially if you get IHOP afterwards!).
    Awesome pictures, btw!

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  2. ApertomeJuly 19, 2010 1:04 PM

    Looks like a blast! I am impressed with your photos, too. Night shots are hard.

    FWIW, I love my LHT but I'm starting to think it's really overkill for my needs. It's not going anywhere, though! Besides, I intend to do somoe more camping and possibly longer trips sometime.

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  3. NoahJuly 19, 2010 1:12 PM

    The shot of the reflect-o-fixie and the shots of the substation are composites. The reflect-o-fixie is one flash photo completely turned up, then only the white bits superimposed onto the regular (kind of long) exposure of the bike. I think I adjusted levels on the original as well.

    The Substation shots are both HDR with seven shots bracketed at f2/3. The one of the moon up close was much further worked-over manually using one of the bracketed shots to bring out the moon's detail. Looking at it now, even in its shrunken 500px-wide state, I can tell it was photoshopped, but I still like the look.

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  4. Warren TJuly 19, 2010 3:19 PM

    I was bummed that I couldn't make it this year. We'd just gotten back from vacation and my youngest had spent the previous night in the ER. I was home monitoring the pain meds...

    It was truly a blast last year.

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  5. ChrisJuly 19, 2010 3:38 PM

    Always a good time to hit the roads at this time of night. It was especially cool in the caves compared to the tropical conditions above ground.

    Nice to meet and see old friends!

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