I ride my bike to work whenever possible. It makes good use of my time & at this time of year, it lets me ride during daylight. On top of that I really enjoy starting & ending my day with some time on the bike, those usually are pretty good days. My typical routine is to pick out my clothes for the office, shoes & everything else, get dressed in cycling clothes, make a little breakfast to take to work, & load up my back pack with all that & my office materials, then it is off to work!
For the last 4 years I have been using one of those Rudy Project back packs they sell for a very friendly price. A nice basic back pack that has seen better days, not the least symptom being that the plastic backing has disintegrated into many tiny particles that swish around like sand between the two layers of fabric making the back of the pack. It was to my pleasure when I was presented the opportunity to review a backpack, the Banjo Brothers Large Commuter Bag.
Here is a photo of it in my typical loading routine in the morning.
The first thing I found a little peculiar, only because I have never used a bag like this, is the closure of the bag which is best described to be like the brown bag my mom used to send with me for grade school lunch. Only this time, that set up is one better because if my brown lunch bag were to get wet, chances were pretty good my ham sandwich would get soggy- not with this bag. 
The light colored liner is water proof & removable. The closure is by folding the open top over, like the brown bag and snapping the clip, as shown below. On the outer face of the bag is a zippered pocket, a velcro’d pouch, and three pen slots as well as a large side pocket that will easily fit a newspaper folded in half.
Pictured below is what it looks like with the outer water proof flap down and closed. The outer layer is a durable nylon with two nifty reflective stripes. It also has a loop for a rear facing blinking light- which is a very nice touch. Many evenings my ride home requires a blinking light, so both of these features are handy.
The waterproof qualities were utilized today. With sensitive contents in my bag, if it is raining when I leave the office, I am normally scrounging around looking for a plastic bag to put all my valuables. Below is the wet bag.
This was the case today, but voila! Everything is dry! No dodgy bag needed. Now my laptop will fear not the rainy day & will be ready for the next podcast!
The rest of the bag details are sturdy construction that looks to wear well, closures to snug everything up & shrink the bag if needed, adjustable, padded & comfortable straps & 2,000 cubic inches of capacity. The capacity is such that I will likely not exceed it barring the need to carry concrete block samples… for whatever reason.
One thing I noticed, due to the square nature of the top closure, when glancing over the shoulder to check for traffic, the corner of the pack is visible. This is not a huge deal & can be mitigated with strap adjustment, but something that needs to be accounted for. The bag retails for around $90, has a large capacity & high quality construction. All in all a nice bag that has proven to be flexible, serviceable & waterproof.
For more information, see Banjo Brothers
For all of you good little boys and girls down in Whoville we offer the perfect Christmas gift. These 2 Johns t-shirts come in 3 styles: brown men’s ringer, light blue men’s, or women’s aqua (women’s cut w/cap sleeves). They are 100% cotton American Apparel, Fine Jersey style. Price: $18 each, includes shipping to US addresses. $25 each if they are going anywhere else (Australia, Brazil, the UK, Japan, etc.) To purchase, please use the Paypal “donate” button on this blog. You will make a Paypal payment to purchase where you can use any credit card or your own Paypal account. Please make sure you give me your shipping address, size, style, and colour choice. Sorry, our products page is currently busted (hint, hint Curtis…). We’ve got a very good stock of blue men’s, but limited quantities of the ringers and women’s. A HUGE thank you to The Rasta Roadie (click here to see his work) for taking these pictures.
TESTED: Kenda Small Block Eight, clinchers with tubes
CONDITIONS: Muddy to dry, off road and pavement
SIZE: 700×35
MSRP: $39.99
WEBSITE: Kenda www.kendausa.com
RATING: Surprised. Not a hula popper.
SB 8’s, the Hula Popper of tires?
Sometimes I think that fishing lure manufactures and designers are trying to catch the fisherman rather than the fish. When I see a lure that looks like a fish I usually impulse buy, use it without much success, then it sits in the bottom of my tackle box – $7 wasted. The Kenda Small Block Eights are entirely the opposite. On looks alone, I would’ve never purchased a pair of these. They did not “hook” me when I saw them. However, after riding them for three weeks I am sold.
Ben at Kenda was kind enough to send a few pairs of cx clinchers my way. My first reaction after opening the box and inspecting the SB 8’s was, “oh, grass tires.” The small waffle tread (small blocks) is more aggressive than a file tread, but less so than a “mud” tire. I mounted them to a pair of Ksyrium Elite’s and off I went.
Twice per week for the next three weeks I rode with Mikey out to the Gun Club venue (OVCX.com race #9), did some laps, then rode home. The ride out and back is on a bike path. Mikey’s vintage Michelin Muds (and his sarcastic yammering) drowned out the minimal tread on pavement noise. At 35 psi, they were cushy on road. The Gun Club course has gravel, grass, sand, mud, and hardpack. Over the three weeks, we rode on a completely dry course, wet/muddy/rainy, plus everything in between. I thought that Mikey would kill me in the mud with his bright green French beast of a tire. He didn’t. The SB 8’s gave me decent traction, a fat ride, and plenty of sidewall grip. 
The profile of the tire is round and tread goes far down onto the sidewall. I did turf it once when the front wheel washed out on a fast, muddy downhill to uphill turn. Mikey may have crashed too had he been going as fast as I was. I did have some rear wheel spin when seated and climbing on wet muddy grass, but this was the only time.
CONCLUSIONS
This is a tire that can take you through 75% of what you throw at it. These and pair of mudder tires would get you through a season. The tires I tested were 700×35’s, however, the width measures the same as Mikey’s 700×32 Michelins. Unless you want a narrower tire, go with the 35’s.
John K’s thought on the Small Block Eights 700cx32:
I try to be objective about things. I think some brands represent quality & some do not. We have talked Quality ad nauseum on the podcast, I could talk about it even more, that’s how much I care about it. We’ve talked about how you know it when you see it, it is easy to see, hard to define… something else that is hard, is to allow something to break out of prejudices previously held. As much as I tried, I didn’t want to be clouded by my earlier experiences of Kenda tires. From my bike shop experience, I remember these are the tires normally found on entry level hybrids & mountain bikes that aren’t meant to see the trail. They had wire beads, lots of weight & generally were the low dollar replacement tire for someone that just wanted something to roll on, not something that someone who fancies themselves a fancy pants connoiseur would put on their fancy carbon fiber, feathery light, space age material cyclocross bike- oh the thought of such things! Really?
OK, so my first experience maybe upheld my prejudices. After unfolding them from their plastic merchandizing placard, I tried putting them on my aged Campagnolo Protons. I have had these wheels for about 7 years & have mounted & removed most brands of tires from them- I have expectations that certain brands will be harder to mount than others- but never have I had a tire as difficult as these. So tight are these tires on that rim that once the bead of the first side was over the lip of the rim, it made a solid *thwap!* as the bead held tight to the bed of the rim where the eyelets reside. Next step, insert the tube & now the second bead goes on, just as tight. Whew! glad that is over. As I said, I expect some rubber with these wheels to be tight- these are the tightest.
Next up, on the bike. I race on my tubulars, so was using these as my week day training wheels. Most training rides for me consist of riding the road to a nearby park or greenway where there is a mix of grass, hard pack dirt, gravel and some loose trails.
My first & last impressions are how well these tires roll. I mean, really nicely, low resistance, even at 30 psi & cushy to boot. In the conditions I have been usig them, I have not lacked grip or traction. Because of the typical application for these, I have started going to a higher pressure, around 40 psi, since there is so much smooth riding down to the area where I train. Even with that, these tires are a comfy ride. Maybe the cause is the height of rubber for each tightly spaced block that allows some of the edge to be taken off the bumps? I am not sure, but I have been very pleasantly surpsied.
Admittedly, cyclcocross in North Carolina has been dry, hard packed & grass, I have yet to experience the mud fest that are typical in other parts of the country, here. Most of what I hear about these tires is lack of traction in the mud, but I have yet to really experience that with these tires in my limited mud use. My application of these tires has been limited to small areas of mud followed by fast hard packed areas, so the tread quickly cleaned itself and behaved as it had in every other condition- very well.
Aside from the tire mounting to the Campy rims, these tires did something that is difficult to do, change my mind about the equipment I would consider. So impressed with the ride of these tires, I will consider running them with the Stan’s No- Tube set up on fast dry courses. When compared to other tires I have used in the same conditions, Vittorias, Ritcheys, Michelins & Tufos these stack up very favorbly due to their ease of rolling & comfort with little downside.
When cross was a discipline dominated by make shift, dodgy, 23#, retrofitted, Rub Goldberg fabricated road & touring bikes- I would have said this would be a good tire. In today’s world of specialty, carbon fiber frames, forks, brakes & wheels… I would still say this is a tire worth consideration, especially in drier applications.
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What do you dream about? Is it this Redline BMX frame? We get asked this among other things in our best podcast ever! The Two Johns both strike out in their picks of the podium of the Men’s World Championship Road Race in Mendrisio this past weekend & we applaud Cadel’s attack. Radio Free Europe? John G reads an email from Slice about the proposed radio ban, provides education on their use & has his own proposal for how the conerns of radio free racing could be addressed. Local News is short this week, largely consisting of news of an upcoming cross clinic at the Cincinnati Cross races by Molly Cameron & Joachin Parbo & John K goes for a soul ride on the mtb. Our product review segment has us talking about Forze GPS, products that address a different aspect of athlete’s nutrition. Look for a written review of the product soon on the blog. Thankfully, we get some static on our static, Alva asks about the greatest story ever told, when do you become a true roadie?, John G leaves when asked about which mtb a listener should get & do you dream of BMX bikes? & J-Hole provide us with a feedback segment unlike one we have had in a long time.
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It is that time of year, the bike attention starts to wonder… and you start taking on other projects. It seems like every year there is some random bike project I take on in the fall, goofy single speed, major parts swap on bikes etc… this year the Schwinn Twinn was the project. Awesome is the word, oh & rickety. There’s a reason drum brakes have been replaced by disk brakes. This bike is quite a thrill to ride. Fast. Down a hill or around a turn.
The other thing people start doing at this time of year is talk cyclocross. There has been light chatter on the podcast, a slow build, but this edition it is full on cross as John G is turning into Fun Run Johng in preparation. First, we welcome you to the latest edition of the Two Johns Podcast. We talk rider transfers for the coming year, Team BMC stepping up with Hinacpie signings among others, John G says ‘good on ya’ from Peletonia & John K attends US Road Race Championship in Greenville. Listener feedback includes our favorites DERF and what’s all part of his podium fantasy, Fun Run gets around, size matters when talking about stem length? spray on numbers instead of crumpling, alumni jersey- ok to wear? & we save the listener feedback of the week winner from the haggis breathed Velo-Scots & so much more to enjoy in this, our best podcast ever!!!
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