Chainguide research leads to confusion

Wow, chainguides are EXPENSIVE! Here is the one E-13 am eyeballing:

The E-13 DRS Chain Retention System has been the leading dual ring compatible system since its introduction in 2001. Its simple to adjust and maintain flip-flop roller design gives unparalleled performance and reliability on the trail. This system is perfectly matched with the new breed of long travel trail and bike park complete bikes FEATURES
Adjustable Abrasion modified slider
Silent running Flip Flop roller technology
Legendary Supercharger bashguard

Awesome system right? I didn’t expect this and all the other comparable set-ups to be $150 though! Jeez.

I’m not opposed to removing the big ring from the ‘Goose at all. I almost NEVER use it. I do want to kep my granny though, because outside of the skatepark I use it a ton. The big clear bashgaurd is part of the system, even though I never plan to actually use it to bash or grind anthing.

So where is the confusion? Well, I sort of have BMX bike fever. I can’t buy anything for a long lon time so I have a while to mull it over, but the more I look at the Dan’s Comp catalog, the more I want an Eastern Element:

What a saweeeet ride! There are a couple of guys at the park who have these and they are soooo much more wicked when you see them in real life. The reason I am confused is that since the chain guide is so expensive for the MTB, maye I shoulod just shoot for getting the BMX, and reset my trail bike back up for…trail riding. I’l have way more options for trics at the park if I get a proper BMX, and believe it or not, I am already sort of missing trail riding.

I duno, I’ll work it out as soom as the great money fairy in the sky dumps a bucketload of gold pieces on me. For now I have to make due with what I have. I’ll never be ale to larn 360’s on the MTB without the chain guide though.

Didja hear about the 100k Schwinn Stingray?

You can read about it and watch the vid HERE.

“Tom Mault of Hampton says the red Schwinn Sting-Ray that he bought for $350 on Tuesday has fetched offers as high as $100,000 from fans and collectors on the Internet.”

“Collectors decoded the serial number and determined that the bike was manufactured May 17, 1963 — one of the earliest Sting-Rays known to exist. May 1963 was the first month that the odd-looking bikes were produced.

Bike collectors from London to Japan “flipped out,” Mault says. By 6 p.m. Thursday, his online posting had been viewed almost 1,900 times, and people had offered him between $2,000 and $100,000 for the bike.

The catch, he says: It’s not for sale”

update for a change

I can barely move I am so sore from riding the skatepark. Riding there is almost no pedaling, and all pushing, pulling and pumping. Also, a lot of the puling and pushing aren’t sustained efforts, they are extremely quick microbursts like pulling up to jump, or kicking the bike out sideways to land a particular way. I haven’t had to do any of that for a zilion years so those muscles are all hatin it right now.

Heres a sick pik I grabbed from the session yesterday:

Holy crap this guy was shredding so hard! I have to start taking a pen down there so I can get peoples names when I get good pics of them.

I’m able to drop in on the small bowl now. When I say drop in I mean ride parallel to the coping and then hop into the transition. We used to call this riding in back on my day…dropping in was something diferent, but nobody drops in the old way any more because 8ft wide 1/4 pipes are a thing of the past now. Learning to drop in has opened up a wealth of new lines for me. My next big hurdle will be to drop in on the bigger more vertical bowl.

I’m also going to have to make some gear changes. Today I bent a tooth on my big ring because I cracked it on a corner of one of the hips. It still shifts fine, built now I am keeping the chain on the big ring so that if I smack it again it will hit the chain not the sprocket. As son as I can I’ll be converting to a 2X9 hopefully with a bashbaurd and a chain tensioner, because every time I try a disaster, the chain comes off when I hit the deck. I also have my seat angled upward now like te BMX guys because it allows me to get further behind the back of it…tuck in for a little more control.

The park is way to chaotic for me to ride in the evenings. Seriously, there are a zillin people there, and a lot of little kids, so I just hang back and watch. I keep running into the same guys in the mornings when I go.

Also, when I get there in the mornings, I spend a little time picking up trash because I feel like it gives me good park karma.

Critical Mass called a Bike Gang by CNN

Here is a screenshot from the current CNN website front page. The i-Report that was submitted regarding Critical Mass being broken up by the APD made it to the front page, but CNN has sensationalized it by calling the Mass a BIKE GANG.Second from bottom in photo…

SERIOUSLY? CNN, you are fired.

someone alert the hipsters…

Transition Bikes has teamed up with Pabst Blue Ribbon beer to offer a very special limited edition frame. “We believe your bike is a reflection of who you are and our riding culture which is why we encourage custom painting, let customers choose their own decals and customize their build options. Doing a limited edition PBR BottleRocket was just another step in offering our customers a unique bike that is a reflection of their own personal style, says Kevin Menard owner of Transition Bikes”.

“Pabst has a long history of being the unofficial beer of cycling and our number one choice for post ride refreshment so it seemed like the perfect fit, says Menard”. The PBR BottleRocket features a new technology in painting and decals with a new heat transfer decal that is seamlessly placed over welds, gussets and CNC’d parts. “ We went with a design that makes it look like someone slapped PBR beer labels all over the frame. Every frame is totally unique as all the decals are hand cut and placed to make every frame look different, says Menard”. Transition Bikes will be doing a one time limited run of these frames so once they are gone they will be a part of mountain bike history. Contact your local Transition Dealer for more information.

more pics HERE

S O L I D !

this is what happened

At 5:15 this morning, I was still awake, because I had a plan to take my mountain bike down to the new skatepark and carve some lines before the crowd scene arrived. I actually left a little too early and had to cue for a while because the sun didn’t come up til about 20 mins after I arrived. It was still half dark when I rode into the park.

The first thing I did was pick up a bunch of trash. The kids left the place wrecked which really bothers me. There were a coupld of 1 gallon water jugs, 2 McDonalds bags, a bunch of extra large plastic soda cups with the lids and straws still attachd, and a buttload of empty cigarette packs. I cleaned it all up except for the cigarette packs. I have sort of a cigarette phobia because when I was a little kid, my neighbor used to find cigarette butts hat had exploded on the sidewalk after it rained and chase me trying to touch me with them. I guess thats an isue for me and my therapist though…

Finally I rolled into the skating surface. Wow. Carving around on the mountain bike is aaaay differen than on a 20″er. I kind of dig it! My strategy was to take it waaaaaay easy, because I do not want to kill myself. Before long though, I was trying a few things. First off I wanted to jump up onto the flat rom the steepest part of the transition. The part of the bowl I was riding does not go to vert, but it gets pretty close. The walls for the most part are about 4.5-5ft tall, with a few hips, a few parts that are just slantd, not curved, and one 8′ wide extension that goes closer to vert and is basically a quarter pipe. The first time I tried to pop out onto the flat I kind of suprised myself, because I didn’t really think it was going to work. I expected to dab. But I didn’t. I did get the back end of the bike up a little too high, but I compensated for that the from that point on.By the time I left I was getting a little bit of air out of the steep sections…enough that when I start to be able to hit them with serious speed I WIL try to do a 360.

I continued to carve around, and at a certain point I was riding up onto the quarter pipe section and decided…what the hell, I am going to try an aerial. So when I got about 3/4 of the way up the thing I pulled back on the bars and the rest of the motion just folowed through naturally! Holy crap I was stoked. So I continued to hit that wall a bunch more, and I swear at least once or twice I held my approach until the front wheel went just past the coping. I dunno if it is the park, or the fact that I am doing this with suspension, or divine intervention, but doing those little aerials feels so much nicer than it ever has before. I think by the end of the summer I should be able to gt 1-2 ft over the top, which is plenty of air to start trying som variations. If I don’t kill myself. After a while I noticed my heart was going really fast, and it wasn’t because I was pedaling a lot…I hardly pedaled at all. It was racing because I was a little scared I guess. So I decided not to push it, and wind down the session.

The one other thing I started to do was progressively approach riding into the bowls stepest part from the flat area. I’ll probably nail that soon enough. I used to be able to drop in sideways on a quarter pipe on my BMX, so rolling in with the larger whels shouldn’t be too tough. The larget whels are really making a difference in feel. I drop the seat prety low so I can yuck back behind  if I need to.

Overall it was pretty freakin wicked.

Duncan Creek Skatepark

Okay so I think I have found a way to beat my biking burnout. Today  ventured over to the brand spanking new Duncan Creek Park skate area, which is like 3 miles from my hut. I took the trip over to see if anyone was riding bikes there, because the Rules and Regulations online say NO BIKES. They also say that in order to skate you have to wear knee+elbow pads, wrist gaurds, and a helmet.

When I got there I saw every single one of these rules being broken. It was a typical public park session, with everything from shirtless underage cigarette smoking teens to little kids on razor scooters. There were a couple of hottie Jawns hanging out Bettying as well, for which I give the place bonus points.

Yes there were a couple of bikes there too! So I think I am going to take a break from the regular trail riding that I have been doing and dive in to hitting the park for a while. I mean, I love to jump, and I just got a clunker GT BMX bike that I can thrash with reckless abandon. I only hope I don’t end up in the hospital.

My plan is to go waaaaay early in the mornings before anyone is there, so I can re-acclimate myself to this style of riding. I’m going to take the mtn bike AND the bmx bike. Once I get a feel for some good lines and don’t sketch out I’ll maybe hang when the place starts to fill up a bit…

don’t know

I’m off the pace. Well, let’s be honest, I am never really ON the pace, but what I mean is, I seem to have gotten burned out on biking for a hot sec, so I am doing some other things at the moment, which accounts for the lack of posts. Maybe it’s the oppressive heat, or maybe it’s just that technically I between quarters in school, so it’s sort of -vacation- time, I dunno. Maybe I just need a break from thinkiong about biking all the time.

Anyway, I just wantes to let you know I’m not dead.

Are you riding?

Like Helltrack from the movie RAD! only real

A view of the starting gate and ramp at the BMX track, Beijing Olympic Games 2008.

My latest new toy

Yes, that is a flask cage. Yes, that is a flask inside the flask cage. Yes, said flask and flask cage are mounted to my mountain bike.

Joseph Ahearne, based out of Portland, Oregon, makes killer hand made frames and racks. I can’t afford his frames (there is an 18 month waiting list at the moment), and I have no use for his racks (although they are pretty sweet), but I could afford is custom flask cage and Ahearne Cycles flask. It makes me look at least 5x more of a bad ass than I am in reality.