Thanks to Troy for the photos. Looks like it's a fun bike - I'm jealous!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Troy's taper-steerer all mountain HT, together at last
Thanks to Troy for the photos. Looks like it's a fun bike - I'm jealous!
8" of hail?
I'm glad I wasn't in Nederland last night (Tony, you made the right call!) - they got 8 inches of HAIL (edit: article now claims a foot). Feldman and I were riding through knee-deep puddles with piles of hail on top on our ride this morning.
Luckily S-Side was in great shape due to the rain, so we had a blast. Hopefully I'll have some crappy pictures from Feld's cameraphone to post at some point.
Luckily S-Side was in great shape due to the rain, so we had a blast. Hopefully I'll have some crappy pictures from Feld's cameraphone to post at some point.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Random discombobulation
This post has no theme. None. You've been warned.
-First up, for all the framebuilders (amateur or pro) out there - I'm offering a service for those folks who don't want to spend big $ on lots of tooling for the new 44mm headtube standard. See details here.
-Rode the lower loop at Marshall Mesa (made famous by Paco during his Velonews 29er test) in 11:55 during 94 degree heat yesterday. I was pretty happy with that, given that I haven't been riding enough, all the gates were closed, and that I was carrying a 15 pound camelbak. But when I got home, my entire upper body was starting to flush - I had to jump in a cold shower to avoid heatstroke. Maybe I should have actually drunk some of the water in that camelbak...doh.
-Got an unexpected (sort of) compliment from a customer who stopped by to have me add a disc tab to his old Kona. He said "I thought you were older". When pressed, he claimed he formed this impression based on my blog entries. Do I really write like a grumpy 65 year old? I don't think so, but I guess maybe unless you use texting talk all the time, U R old thz daz.
-First up, for all the framebuilders (amateur or pro) out there - I'm offering a service for those folks who don't want to spend big $ on lots of tooling for the new 44mm headtube standard. See details here.
-Rode the lower loop at Marshall Mesa (made famous by Paco during his Velonews 29er test) in 11:55 during 94 degree heat yesterday. I was pretty happy with that, given that I haven't been riding enough, all the gates were closed, and that I was carrying a 15 pound camelbak. But when I got home, my entire upper body was starting to flush - I had to jump in a cold shower to avoid heatstroke. Maybe I should have actually drunk some of the water in that camelbak...doh.
-Got an unexpected (sort of) compliment from a customer who stopped by to have me add a disc tab to his old Kona. He said "I thought you were older". When pressed, he claimed he formed this impression based on my blog entries. Do I really write like a grumpy 65 year old? I don't think so, but I guess maybe unless you use texting talk all the time, U R old thz daz.
Monday, July 26, 2010
T-shirts are ready to go!
The new shirts from Alchemist are officially for sale. Huge thanks to Jeff for getting the ball rolling on these - it was literally only a month or two from random chitchat to finished shirts. Amazing. And he somehow has time to work in the ER and raise two kids as well. Click here for the men's version...
or here for the women's...
or just check out all the other cool shirts. Comfy organic cotton, baby!
Friday, July 23, 2010
Minh's bike
Just a few nice bike pictures on a mellow Friday morning (yes, I went to yoga and now I'm so relaxed I just want to go back to sleep). Not much to say about this - it's non suspension corrected 'cause Minh's hardcore like that. Blue. Good stuff.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
HTFU, or Two Elk Ate My Homework
A sendoff for Mr. Chris Jung in the mountains. The ride started right with pouring rain and a visit to some random shop in Frisco for the Lat40 map (none of us had done it). We opened a map to see if the trail was shown, and *immediately* the clerk ran over to ask "are you going to buy that?"
Then, when he heard we were riding 2 Elk, his response was "I hope you don't get hurt".
Classy.
29 miles, 3k feet up and down, and a blast. Have fun in AK, Jung!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
No pictures/shop update/boring
My brother and sister were in town for the last 3 days, so nothing really got done. I am *still* not ready to do a followup post on my new SS, and since I haven't had time to build a fork for it (and my camera batteries are dead anyway) there's not much more to say right now anyway.
Apologies to the folks who are getting very slow email responses. I have been trying desperately to stay on top of ordering parts, but it seems like the distributors have all conspired to screw up orders simultaneously (with some occasional help from me ordering the wrong stuff).
In short, I've been running around like a chicken with no head. Hopefully things will calm down here this week and I'll have time to do a fun blog post or two, as well as get some freakin work done.
Apologies to the folks who are getting very slow email responses. I have been trying desperately to stay on top of ordering parts, but it seems like the distributors have all conspired to screw up orders simultaneously (with some occasional help from me ordering the wrong stuff).
In short, I've been running around like a chicken with no head. Hopefully things will calm down here this week and I'll have time to do a fun blog post or two, as well as get some freakin work done.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Bored?
I should be working, but instead I spent one point five minutes watching Chris's silly self-filmed bike video. Man, that kid can climb fast!
Followup new-frame post coming soon, I promise.
Followup new-frame post coming soon, I promise.
Monday, July 12, 2010
In which Chris leaves his bottom bracket in for, like, 5 years.
No problem! All we need is some liquid wrench and a _4 foot_ cheater. And maybe a hammer (we didn't end up using it).
Sunday, July 11, 2010
A new bike - finally
My personal bike (essentially resurrected from the dead/pulled out of the trash, which doesn't fit me) is becoming an embarrassment. Hence, I've been spending the weekend building myself a new frame. I've incorporated some interesting features (well, interesting to me, anyway) so I thought I'd do a quick post.
A quick warning: if you don't know what terms like "steering trail" and "front center" mean, this isn't going to make tons of sense, necessarily. So go google up some bike geometry terminology and come back.
Here's the basic rundown:
-70 degree head tube, 74 degree seat tube (offset from the BB shell for rear tire clearance). I'll use a setback post with this bike, most likely a Thomson layback. Trail is at 90mm with a 44mm rake fork, so pretty far on the high side. But that's what I like - stable and predictable. Twitchy bikes are not for me.
-68mm BB drop/11.9 or 12" BB height, depending on tires. I like my BBs low, and I'm not a big pedal-strike complainer. This is quite a bit lower than I would normally build for a customer planning to run 175 cranks.
-20.5" seat tube, 6" head tube, 23.4" effective toptube. Why such a weird combo of attributes? Well, I'm 5'11" tall with a ~36.5" inseam (with my shoes on). That means my BB to saddle measurement is 81cm - and to get the bars anywhere near saddle height, I either need a huge stack of spacers (ugly), a giant riser stem (fugly) or a long head tube. I chose the long head tube here. Standover is pretty high at about 32", but that's not an issue for me. And I need the short-ish toptube to keep the front-center reasonably short with the slack head angle. Also, that way I can run a 90 or 100mm stem comfortably.
-Black cat swinger dropouts (more thoughts about them in another post, once I've had some time to ride them) with 415mm (about 16.5") effective chainstays. Yes, I've apparently joined the short-stay mafia. And yes, the tire clearance is fine. With the wheel slammed forward all the way, there's reasonable clearance for a 2.3, and with it pulled back a few mm to tension the chain, I think pretty much any tire on the market would work fine. I may very well pull the dropouts way back and run something closer to 440mm chainstays, but this gives me the option of going super short just for fun.
-I'll probably add a direct mount front derailleur mount (it's pretty low profile) and I'm using dropouts with a hanger, so if my knees give out, I can put some derailleurs on. Of course, that's what I did on my last SS frame, and I never actually used the hanger, so we'll see.
This frame was inspired by conversations with my CB friend Matt (who is far and away the best technical rider I know) about how he wants a 29er version of his favorite frame - the trusty Chameleon. It's a VERY close replica of that geometry, tweaked to fit me better and for our local trails (ie, the steering geometry and wheelbase are very similar, but the BB is lower and I've made the frame really tall to accomodate my long legs).
I *should* have it assembled enough to ride later today, if all goes well. Perhaps more pictures then.
A quick warning: if you don't know what terms like "steering trail" and "front center" mean, this isn't going to make tons of sense, necessarily. So go google up some bike geometry terminology and come back.
Here's the basic rundown:
-70 degree head tube, 74 degree seat tube (offset from the BB shell for rear tire clearance). I'll use a setback post with this bike, most likely a Thomson layback. Trail is at 90mm with a 44mm rake fork, so pretty far on the high side. But that's what I like - stable and predictable. Twitchy bikes are not for me. -68mm BB drop/11.9 or 12" BB height, depending on tires. I like my BBs low, and I'm not a big pedal-strike complainer. This is quite a bit lower than I would normally build for a customer planning to run 175 cranks.
-20.5" seat tube, 6" head tube, 23.4" effective toptube. Why such a weird combo of attributes? Well, I'm 5'11" tall with a ~36.5" inseam (with my shoes on). That means my BB to saddle measurement is 81cm - and to get the bars anywhere near saddle height, I either need a huge stack of spacers (ugly), a giant riser stem (fugly) or a long head tube. I chose the long head tube here. Standover is pretty high at about 32", but that's not an issue for me. And I need the short-ish toptube to keep the front-center reasonably short with the slack head angle. Also, that way I can run a 90 or 100mm stem comfortably.
-Black cat swinger dropouts (more thoughts about them in another post, once I've had some time to ride them) with 415mm (about 16.5") effective chainstays. Yes, I've apparently joined the short-stay mafia. And yes, the tire clearance is fine. With the wheel slammed forward all the way, there's reasonable clearance for a 2.3, and with it pulled back a few mm to tension the chain, I think pretty much any tire on the market would work fine. I may very well pull the dropouts way back and run something closer to 440mm chainstays, but this gives me the option of going super short just for fun. -I'll probably add a direct mount front derailleur mount (it's pretty low profile) and I'm using dropouts with a hanger, so if my knees give out, I can put some derailleurs on. Of course, that's what I did on my last SS frame, and I never actually used the hanger, so we'll see.
This frame was inspired by conversations with my CB friend Matt (who is far and away the best technical rider I know) about how he wants a 29er version of his favorite frame - the trusty Chameleon. It's a VERY close replica of that geometry, tweaked to fit me better and for our local trails (ie, the steering geometry and wheelbase are very similar, but the BB is lower and I've made the frame really tall to accomodate my long legs).
I *should* have it assembled enough to ride later today, if all goes well. Perhaps more pictures then.
Friday, July 09, 2010
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Thursday (!!!) Recipe
You thought I forgot about the recipes. You thought I'd just talk about bikes.
You thought wrong.
Thursday.
Recipe.
Supa-Spicy Fried Rice
Mix up the following in a food processor or blender:
-1/2c sesame oil
-3 tbsp agave nectar or honey
-3 tbsp soy sauce
-2 tbsp rice vinegar
-1 tsp ground ginger
-1/4c chopped onion
-One lime worth of lime juice, plus as much zest as you can zest off it before you squeeze it.
-1 clove of garlic. Or 2. Or 5.
-2 tbsp Mae Ploy brand green curry paste
-1 tsp amchor powder (or just more lime juice)
Set that aside.
Now take 3 or 4 cups of cooked rice (oh, yeah, you should cook some rice...) and mix in:
-1 egg, beaten
-Finely chopped green onions, to taste
-Whatever other veggies you like
Fry that over high, high heat with a little vegetable oil until the egg is all cooked. You may want to cook the veggies beforehand, depending on what you've got, but it's pretty much all good either way.
Dump your sauce on your rice/veggies, mix up, and gobble.
You thought wrong.
Thursday.
Recipe.
Supa-Spicy Fried Rice
Mix up the following in a food processor or blender:
-1/2c sesame oil
-3 tbsp agave nectar or honey
-3 tbsp soy sauce
-2 tbsp rice vinegar
-1 tsp ground ginger
-1/4c chopped onion
-One lime worth of lime juice, plus as much zest as you can zest off it before you squeeze it.
-1 clove of garlic. Or 2. Or 5.
-2 tbsp Mae Ploy brand green curry paste
-1 tsp amchor powder (or just more lime juice)
Set that aside.
Now take 3 or 4 cups of cooked rice (oh, yeah, you should cook some rice...) and mix in:
-1 egg, beaten
-Finely chopped green onions, to taste
-Whatever other veggies you like
Fry that over high, high heat with a little vegetable oil until the egg is all cooked. You may want to cook the veggies beforehand, depending on what you've got, but it's pretty much all good either way.
Dump your sauce on your rice/veggies, mix up, and gobble.
Wednesday poll!
Your poll:How well does the pictured bike fit Walt?
1) Awesome!
2) Looks a little too small. Maybe. Kinda.
3) Good God, what the heck is happening here?!?
Before you judge me too harshly, know that this frame is only mine because DHL ran it over 4 years ago and I had to build a replacement for the customer. Then for some reason I decided I'd ride it...
Yes, I desperately need a new bike. Now that my tapering steerer 120mm Reba fork is finally on the way, maybe I'll actually build it!
Monday, July 05, 2010
Random Stuff for Sale
Between me ordering the wrong things and folks deciding they'd changed their minds, here's some stuff I need to sell off. All prices include shipping in the lower 48. Email me if you have any questions. Thanks!
-Garmin ForeRunner 305 GPS watch/heart rate monitor. This is used (for about 2 months), but includes all it's original packaging and is in perfect shape. Sarah wanted it for running, but the wrist unit (it's a watch) is WAY too big and bulky to fit on her tiny wrist. It's so uncomfortable that she got a different HRM and isn't using this one anymore. Includes the HRM strap and charging stuff, as well as some sort of software. Make me an offer!
-Easton Monkeylite SL 31.8 bar. Carbon goodness, new in the package. $100.
-Easton EC90 300mmx27.2 seatpost. No setback. Brand new. Supa-light. $100.
-Raceface 5-arm compact bashguard. Got an old-school crank and need to bash some rocks and logs? You're in luck. $5.
-Cane Creek C2 1" threadless headset. Sold to Chauncey.
-Prototype WTB Kodiak DH 29er tires. GONE to PisgasProductions
-Garmin ForeRunner 305 GPS watch/heart rate monitor. This is used (for about 2 months), but includes all it's original packaging and is in perfect shape. Sarah wanted it for running, but the wrist unit (it's a watch) is WAY too big and bulky to fit on her tiny wrist. It's so uncomfortable that she got a different HRM and isn't using this one anymore. Includes the HRM strap and charging stuff, as well as some sort of software. Make me an offer!
-Easton Monkeylite SL 31.8 bar. Carbon goodness, new in the package. $100.
-Easton EC90 300mmx27.2 seatpost. No setback. Brand new. Supa-light. $100.
-Raceface 5-arm compact bashguard. Got an old-school crank and need to bash some rocks and logs? You're in luck. $5.
-Cane Creek C2 1" threadless headset. Sold to Chauncey.
-Prototype WTB Kodiak DH 29er tires. GONE to PisgasProductions
Friday, July 02, 2010
New toys
Todd over at Black Cat needed some 44mm head tube stock, I needed something fresh and new...synchronicity, baby!I haven't built anything with these yet, but I'm pretty impressed. Weight is right in line with the Paragons (the "SL" paragons are about 15g lighter, the standard models are 25g heavier, so for all practical purposes, the weight is a wash), there's a lot of adjustment, should be a bit easier to work with than the Paragons, and I kinda like the look as well.
For those who are interested, these are available on any frame for an extra $150. So the price is right in line with the Paragons as well.
Hopefully this will be the kick in the pants I need to actually build myself a new singlespeed. We'll see...
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Back!
As usual, I did not take any pictures. You can see some of what we did at Gooneyriders, though. Congratulations to Chris and Eszter, and best of luck on all your adventures in Crested Butte!
The hit list:
-Colorado Trail at Cottonwood Pass
-Upper/Upper Upper/Tony's/sit around in town/Snodgrass/back to Upper and Tony's (Wedding ride!)
-Reno/Flag/Bear/Deadman
-Deer Creek
-Gunsight
-CO Trail off Tiger road in Breck
Anyway, I'm back to work, and I think I'm even caught up on email.
The hit list:
-Colorado Trail at Cottonwood Pass
-Upper/Upper Upper/Tony's/sit around in town/Snodgrass/back to Upper and Tony's (Wedding ride!)
-Reno/Flag/Bear/Deadman
-Deer Creek
-Gunsight
-CO Trail off Tiger road in Breck
Anyway, I'm back to work, and I think I'm even caught up on email.
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