Thursday, June 24, 2010

I'm outta here

Going to Crested Butte for 5 or 6 days. Back on Thursday. Won't be answering emails/phone calls until then. You've been warned!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

One day to ride?

Our imminent trip to Crested Butte inspired a conversation with my pals Chris and Rusty (over beers): if you had one day to live, what ride would you do? Feel free to post your favorites, I'd love to hear about them!

I'm not planning on dying anytime too soon, but here were some of my choices (only including rides I've actually done here, I'm sure there are trails all over the world that I'd love but have never seen):

-Reno/Flag/Bear/Deadman loop off Cement Creek in Crested Butte. Buffest singletrack on earth, perfect distance, mile for mile the best XC ride in CB.

-Quemazon/Guaje Ridge loop in Los Alamos, my hometown. My first ride with clipless pedals, too many years ago.

-Raven's Ridge/Winsor in Santa Fe. Climb to 12k feet, descend singletrack all the way back to town. Starts and ends near some fantastic Mexican food - if only they could teleport Nellie's there I could ride it every day...and gain 50 pounds in a year.

-Mrazek trail to Phil's area (or Mrazek out-back) in Bend. I am mystified why this trail isn't more popular - climb up, then turn around and do a _12 mile_ descent! Then go drink at Deschutes...

-San Juan trail (San Juan Capistrano). The best singletrack in the OC, baby! Buff, smooth, and super duper fun. Laugh at the silly people on 8" travel bikes as you climb up, too.

-Bachelor street trails in Northampton, MA. Our only ride here ended in a massive hike-a-bike epic, thanks to Hassan "Magellan" Ibrahim of the desert folk. But the trails were pretty darn sweet (even though I whined a lot about the roots). It doesn't hurt that Hassan has a deck and alcohol with which to erase the memory of the pain.

-Indian Creek loop. Contains what might be my favorite 2 miles of singletrack in Colorado, and it's just remote and uncrowded enough to feel epic - even though it's really not.

-Couple of poach/illegal rides in Boulder that I won't mention here. Everything I like locally is quasi-illegal or a full-on poach. C'est la vie.

Few shots of Troy's taper-steerer frame

The headset looks (IMO) totally fine without any rings brazed on at the transitions, so that's awesome. And the headtube (again, I have no taste) looks just fine with the 38/32mm down and toptubes.

She's a bit of a tank at 5.25#, but she's built for some punishment, so that's ok.

For those who are curious, I didn't have a 31.6 seatpost (this frame takes a Joplin) around to clamp the frame in the stand, so I used one of my adjustable reamers. That's what you see sticking out of the seat tube.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Special deal on a lightweight FS frame

A while ago, I had Sherwood at Ventana make me a run of very nice lightweight 29er rear ends (you can find out more here) They're about 250-300 grams lighter (depending on the exact rocker and bearing setup) than the standard rear end, and great for smaller riders (I'd recommend under 160 pounds) and shorter (3 or 4") travel.

In any case, I ended up with one extra, and I don't currently have a project waiting for it, so special deal of the day is this - order an FS frame with this rear end, and I'll toss in a free Fox F29 fork in the configuration of your choice - that's a $500 value (or more like $800 if you're paying retail)!

Too fat to make it work, and not willing to crash diet for the next few months? That's ok, if you send me a deposit in the next 2 weeks, I'll sell you a Fox fork with a non-weightweenie FS frame for just $350 - a nice $150 off.

Questions? Drop me a line.

In other news, I'll be in Crested Butte for Eszter and Chris's wedding starting on Saturday and staying though Wednesday or so. Limited email/phone answering will happen. You've been warned!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Words of Wisdom - from Miguel

So I feel bad about my whining on Friday, especially after this email from Miguel:

Walt!

you should enjoy the World Cup! Don't root for the US! you should root for upstart Chile, back after a 12 year layoff winning its first game in 40 years. You can root for all of the underdogs that have put in this year, even New Zealand tied Italy. Dont worry about the bad calls, this is passion at its best - even Brazil had a double yellow that was a poor call against one of its best players. Go protest in the streets like they would in Chile when a bad call takes place, take off work, blow your horn! Remember that this is all part of the song and dance - thats why win or lose they will carnaval in Sao Paulo.. Chile where there are hundreds of thousands homeless from the earthquake are in full fiesta mode. and you amigo should feel the same - forget the medal count that they shove down your throat during every olympics, forget always being the best: the US had the best comeback of this world cup and that is something to truly celebrate.


Well said, my friend. If I could take back my whining, I would. People whose homes fell apart in Chile's earthquake are partying in the streets, and I'm whining about a bad call - time for some perspective. Go Chile!

Later this week: a post about bikes! And just for being so patient with me, here's a bike picture stolen from Millertime.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Foul!??

I'm not watching any more of the World Cup. I'm no truck-driving Sean Hannity fan America #1 kinda guy, but the minute 86 goal was a goal. No question whatsoever. We wuz robbed.

The constant blown calls (and I'm certainly not alluding to some kind of conspiracy, the refs have blown calls both for and against teams I like) and FIFA's idiotic explanation that the "human element" makes the sport more exciting (yeah, incompetence is always exciting...) have soured me on futbol, at least this year. No more for me. Maybe in 2014 I'll give them another chance.

Your Friday Silliness: Badass of the Week

Just check it out. You'll be glad you did. Real Ultimate Power meets Beowulf?

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Early baby shower present

A friend of mine is very, very pregnant at this point, but she's a tough cookie and still riding her bike to and from work (12 miles!) Unfortunately, she was less and less comfortable (and didn't feel safe with her crappy/broken threaded headset and v-brake on the front).

Solution? Take some new-to-her parts from the stuff Tony recently gave me (thanks, man!) and build her a nice solid fork with a disc mount (and a LOOONG steerer!) We'll get it powdercoated when the baby comes and she's not riding for a while.

She writes:
Hi Walt,
Thanks so much for the beautiful new fork and cranks and other bits you may have donated for my commuter bike. We didn't cut the steerer and it is perfect! Pretty sure I will be able to keep riding in comfort for the rest of the summer now. Thanks so much again, and hope you guys are having some fun.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Thoughts on the new Paragon direct mount derailleur mounts

This is probably mostly going to be of interest to builders, but some of you major geeks might also appreciate it.

So long story short, direct mount front derailleurs rule for a lot of reasons. I won't go into it again here, but you can read my incoherent ramblings here, and here, and here. Suffice to say they rock.

I've been fabricating my own mounts (click here for a photo) but making them is pretty time-consuming and annoying. So when I saw that Paragon was making direct mounts (for $6 or something), I ordered a few to see how they'd work.

I'm moderately happy with them. The good points, first:
-They're cheap
-They're built to Paragon's usual nice finish standards

Now, the gripes. There are several.
-The "1 1/8 miter" mounts that I ordered aren't mitered for 1 1/8" tubes. Weirdly enough, they don't seem to be mitered for 1" either, or any other normal size. I'd say they're about 1 1/16" miter. That sucks, because I don't usually want to spend a bunch of time filing or milling a part that's supposed to be plug/play. Lame.
-They're way heavy. 38g before choppage (I'll explain in a second). My homestyle mounts are almost 20g lighter. Now, 20g isn't the end of the world, but there's just too much material on these mounts, IMO. This is probably because Paragon isn't interested in making 2-part stuff that requires any welding as an intermediate step. More's the pity - a piece of plate PLUS a small piece of tubing is really the best solution here, IMO.

The weight issue is partly solved by cutting off the (unnecessary) rear portion of the mount - this brings the weight down to about 25g - still heavier than the Walt-made model, but more reasonable. See the initial photo for a before/after comparison of the mounts.

The mitering issue I assume will be solved by Paragon doing it right on the next batch. In the meantime, for many of y'all builders out there, this is still a worthwhile item, just be aware that you'll need to do some mitering work, and also that it's not idea for very offset or curved seat tubes - this is best for plain-jane setups, really.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

An Open Letter to Chris Mueller

Edit: If you'd like to help out (or just express your support) you can email the Red Lion at: info@redlionrestaurant.com

For background, please read the DC article here.

An Open Letter to Chris Mueller -

Chris -

As a Boulder resident of more than a decade, I've both eaten at your restaurant (which is great) and ridden my bike past on Canyon drive on my way to various destinations. I've always wished I could ride or hike the old road through your property to the top of Flagstaff mountain - what a fantastic route!

So here's my proposal:
-Open your section of the road to the (nonmotorized) public in perpetuity.
-Offer Boulder County an easement to allow the Creek Path to be extended to your restaurant.

In exchange, I'll pay $1000 worth of the cost of a new (better designed) bridge. I am willing to bet we can easily find another 49 individuals (not to mention local businesses) to contribute. You'll get a free bridge AND a steady stream of couples and families able to access your restaurant without ever getting into a car, by making a short and scenic ride up the Boulder canyon bike path. Hikers and bike riders returning from the top of Flagstaff would probably love a cold beer, too.

This is a great opportunity for both you and the community. Let's not let it go to waste!

-Walt Wehner, owner
Waltworks Custom Bicycles

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Tony's Frankenmonster

This bike has a lot going on, and it took *way* longer than either Tony or I expected, so we ended up rattlecanning it a nice blue instead of waiting the 2-3 weeks for a powdercoat. We'll take it back apart at some point and get that done, but for now, this is what he's riding.

This is the first (assembled) bike I've done with the new 44mm head tubes and humorously enough, we didn't get in the tapered steerer fork in time - so it's actually using a normal 1 1/8" inset headset with the Marzocchi that I bought a while ago to try out (that Tony is going to "test" for me...)

Anyway, it finally came together, after 8 months (you can read about the process here and here), numerous design changes, and at least $1000 worth of new tubing and cutting tools. Here's what Tony had to say so far:

Holy crap. I just got back from riding around my neighborhood like a 10 year old with his first bmx bike. Jumped off every curb and slammed over every rocky median. Woo and hoo. Can't wait to get this thing out on a real trail.

Oh yeah and the cable routing needs work and the rear shifting is wack but the front is spot on.

This is the first bike I've owned on which a 1 finger stoppie in the rain doesn't seem suicidal. You might want a 68 headangle on yours. Depending on how much uphill riding you do.

Still work to wheelie, but waaaaay easier than any 29er i've ridden.

It pedals better than I expected, but I do think a revalve is in the cards for the shock... definitely a marshmallow.

I'll report back once I have the gears working and everything tweaked just so.

Thanks for your time and tell Sarah thanks for letting you stay late at work!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Returning a favor...

Jeff is an ER doc (as well as the brains behind Alchemist) and he helped me out the other day with some gnarly metal that got in my eye - so in exchange, I built him this (prototype) bike mower.

It works pretty well, but the gearing (22x14 fixed) is way too high - I'm thinking you'd want more like 1:1 or even lower. Pretty fun idea, though, even if it's not too practical for steep hillsides or tight areas (though with the fixie, it's easy to back up). I think we can make it into the Daily Camera with this, so we gotta plaster some Alchemist and WW stickers all over the place.

I apologize for not wearing my helmet (in fact, I did almost crash at one point...)

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Nausea inducing POV mountain biking from Eric!

Check it out here.

For some reason watching any kind of POV video like this makes me flash back to playing Doom all night in the mid-90s. And the soundtrack is totally appropriate.

The dog is obviously not observing the IMBA rules of the trail.

I will go on the record here as well: I am jealous of Pisgah.

Friday, June 04, 2010

Sneak Peek: New T-shirts


Thanks to Jeff at Alchemist for the preliminary design work. We hope to have these in a couple of months (Minh, Chris, you've both got one coming when they're done, thanks for your patience!)

These will be purchased directly from Alchemist, not from me, except for folks who are having a frame/fork/bike shipped to them, in which case the shirt will ship from me. Info on pricing and availability when it's available.

I hope to be back to a regular building schedule starting on Monday. The experiences of the week have been very sad, but also uplifting in many ways, and I can't thank everyone enough for the kind words/emails, food, and favors (Nick, Rusty, you guys rock).

Have a great weekend, everyone. Go for a ride, hug someone you love, drink a toast to someone who isn't here anymore.