The new Shimano 9-speed 105 front derailleur is simple and clean - and I removed the lettering. The TA crankset is fitted onto the wonderful Shimano bottom bracket set which came on the bike with the BioPace triple crankset. At 123 mm long, the axle should be fine for a third chainring, but is also fine for these cranks with only double rings too... in fact a great chainline! Since this photo, I changed the smaller chainring to 32 teeth. Still shifts fine, but that reduced the lowest gear just a bit. For longer rides through steeper mountain passes or carrying loaded panniers I would probably change rings again - to make this a triple crankset, with a 26 or 27 tooth inner ring. You might also notice the small crank-to-chainring bolts & nuts are definitely NOT from TA... they are pure vintage Stronglight. I always preferred their sensible use of hex-nuts which were far easier to hold securely with a simple 9 mm wrench. The bolts have smaller (7 mm.) hex-heads too. Either TA's hex-key (Allen wrench) fittings or their slotted nuts were always annoying. The allen fittings inevitably rounded out and the slotted nuts never seemed to fit any tools at all - even those made for the purpose by TA ! Simple hex heads mated to the correct sized metric spanners are pretty hard to damage. I've found MANY old TA chainring sets which were nearly impossible to disassemble because of the old (often damaged or corroded) nuts and bolts. The typical TA nuts in the outer circle (connecting the chainrings) accept a standard 5 mm. hex-key. I am always EXTREMELY careful whenever loosening or tightening them. It seems few people take the time to be so excessively cautious. Most used nuts found on older chainring sets are found in quite damaged condition. DSCF1430a

The only complaint I read about the Flashpoint tripods from Adorama is the inconvenience of needing a 5/32" allen wrench to attach the quick disconnect plate to the camera. You might be able to attach the plate and forget about it, but this is not always the best solution. Not wanting to get stuck in the field without my allen wrench, I cut off ?" from the long arm, ground a flat surface on two sides, drilled a hole, and attached it to my split-ring keyring. The key ring provides plenty of leverage for tightening and loosening the quick disconnet plate mounting screw. Camera: Nikon D200 Exposure: 0.25 sec (1/4) Lens: Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 Macro Aperture: f/8.0 Focal Length: 60 mm Exposure: +0.70 (adjustment in CS4) ISO Speed: 100 Tripod: Of course! ? second .