opinions…we all have them

Now that they are building -fixed gear freestyle- specific frame&fork sets, it seems like the stupid trend of running a 26″ wheel on the front of your 700c bike so you can do bar spins is on the decline. Thank goodness, that was a really horrible look even if it was practical for a moment.

Glad to see technology catching up with market demand

Consul / Tweed

A Few Upgrades

A lot of bikey blogs are written by people with real incomes who host a stable of four figure rides. I’m not one of those people. But that does not stop me from loving my bikes as much as the high dollar crew, and upgrades are always excting. One of my fave bikes is affectionately known as Ye Olde GT Talera. It is long and slow, but it shifts like a dream compared to my much higher priced MTB. The rims are like 2 inches wide. It just oozes practicality as opposed to high tech. On Saturday, I made a few upgrades.

The Talera has purple stickers so I have ben adding purple accents. Let me tell you, purple parts are not as easy to come by as you might think. My good buddy Skip at Cycle Sonic up in the Philly area scrounged around and came up with some purple cable housing for me. It wasn’t much, but after some investigation, it looked like there would be enoughfor the whole front end! Only the short section near the rear derailleur would have to stay black. No biggie. I headed over to Addictive Cycles to pick up some cable crimps, a few inner wires, and cable housing ends, then jammed back to the hut to get started.

The before pic:

It was freezing cold out so I brought the bike inside the house to do the repair. Laid out my tools on a kids colored TV tray just like all the pro mechanics do:

The install went amazingly smooth, which is true to form for the Talera. Everything is easy with this bike, which is one of the many reasons I love it.

The After pic:

I dunno, you can’t really tell so much with this particular pic, but the new cables set off the front end of the bike nicely. Most people will totally overlook a detail like this, but heads will know that someone put some love into her. There is no way GT was going to send this thing out stack with purps on the front end.

Next up was installing my new Cateye Mity 8 computer. The Mity 8 is basically the same thing as the Enduro 8, but it is supposed to have a lighter mount and wire set-up, optimized for the road bike crowd. It did seem pretty light, but I really question whether CatEye actually has to make a completely separate model…I’m sure the weight savings was like 20 grams or something. The computer install went very smooth, once again, typical for Ye Olde. Took it outside for  a quick run to check the gear adjustment which was spot on even without having a bike stand to do a preliminary spin through. Once again, typical Talera behavior.  Honestly I wouldn’t be suprised if this bike could fix itself.

The new flight deck is making me happy:

So, even though the weather was crappy and I didn’t get to ride, I still got to spend some quality time with one of my favorite two wheeled friends. I’ll be happy I took the time to make these upgrades once the weather gets nice and I can log some miles.

Little Mulberry Park micro adventure

Headed over to Little Mulberry Park, Dacula Georgia on friday since I have been meaning to check it out. It is the closest park to my hut that has multi-use trails so I figured it was about time to see what it was all about.For some reason I decided to take my busted Mountain bike.

The main trail is a paved loop around a lake 2.2 miles which I will put to good use for quick exercise rides. I was halfway around the loop when I came to the first intersection, and I was feeling kind of good so I took the turn instead of staying on the loop around the lake. Of course this put me on the “carriage trail” which was pretty much straight up for like a mile. I was still pretty stoked since I made it all the way up with no dabs, despite my busted ass bike cracking and popping and trying to jump cogs the whole way up. On the way up I passed this little jammy:

Since the first turn I took ended up being kind of fun I took the next one with put me on the “east meadow trail”. I stayed on this until the next intersection, and continued on to the “west meadow trail”.

Eventually I came to a kiosk so I could figure out where I was.  Took a quick look at the map and decided I was going to take a short cut back to the “carriage trail”.  This is where things started to go a little wrong. When I got to the path that I had chosen for my shortcut, it had a “No Bikes Allowed” sign. It was an unpaved path. Since it wasn’t crowded I decided that the “No Bikes” rule didn’t apply to me and took the trail anyway, thinking I would be on it for less than half a mile before I was back on the paved trail. It was a really fun wicked descent! I was doing some jumps and holding on for dear life at certain points, and I was SO glad I had brought the mountain bike.

I kept pushing on until looking for the next path I was supposed to take, which never seemed to materialize. Eventually I was at the very bottom of a tall valley and very lost. When I say lost I mean, I was never more tha 2 miles away from civilization, but I was totally unclear on how to get back to paths I was “allowed” to take a bike on. The path I had ben riding on suddenly went straight up to I hoofed it all the way to the top…it was way too steep to ride up.

ON the way up I kept passing these interesting stacked stone formations:

Later I found some info that said no one knows how the stacked stones got there or who put them there. There are over a hundred of the formations around the park at all different elevation levels.

After that burly climb I finally came to the top where there was a paved trail that linked to a neighborhood, but that wasn’t where I was trying to go. There was a kiosk, so I was sort of able to tell where I was, and took off on the way I thought I should go. 2 minutes  and another wicked dangerous descent later I was right back at the vase of the hill I had just walked up! DAMN!!

Sooooo, I hoofed it back up the hill and this time went in the OTHER direction once I got to the top. This actually worked, and I got back to a paved trail, but I basically got right back to the kiosk I had been at when I developed my little -shortcut- plan.

This time I decided to stay on paths I knew were paved and bikes were allowed on, and eventually made it back to the original loop around the lake I had started on. On the way back to the main loop, I broke a spoke on the cog side of my rear wheel…can you believe that shit?

Once I got back to the main loop I rode around it two more times just to get the mileage up, but I was definitely feeling the pain from making that hike up the unpaved path twice. I feel like overall it was a pretty good ride as far as getting some exercise, but it was also one of the most fun rides I have had in a while because it had a little bit of adventure to it.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE STATS AND MAP ON TRAILGURU

Schwinn Varsity vintage advert

pump and ‘pute

Found a great deal on a CatEye Mity 8 computer via Performance.

I have never ordered from Performance before. I never did receive a tracking number for my order, and an email to c-serv took them two days to respond. They did send the computer, but it was sent via US mail, which means if it gets lost in the mail I have no tracking record etc etc. I expected more out of a big outfit like Performance  but should have known better given that they are the Wal-Mart of bicycle shops. I know it didn’t cost the $6.99 they charged me for shipping either. I just sent a package of comparable weight to fucking Korea for less than that! Anyway, even with all the sketch factor of the whole mess that I didn’t like I still ended up getting a pretty good deal.

Also, I caved in and bought an Avenir Air Source Sport pump.

I’ve been wanting a pump for a while now but I just couldn’t justify laying out the loot for one of the expensive ones. The Avenir seems like it will work pretty well as long as I don’t mistreat it. Believe me, I have mistreated some pumps in my time, and I know how easy it is to destroy one. The trick is not to RUSH. Take your time. It’ll preserve the life of your pump TRUST ME. The only thing I don’t like about it is that it is pretty short. The Blackburn it was sitting next to at Dick’s Sporting Goods was at least 3 inches taller. Not that big a deal I ’spose.  I’ll have to use it 40 times for it to pay for itself, since I have been tossing $.50 in the air pump/vacuum combo device at the local Shell station to get air the last few years.

Looks like a rainy weekend…

Forsyth Big Creek

Friday the weather was unusually great for January in Georgia, so I headed out to a trail I had not yet ridden, which my boss told me about. It is the Forsyth section of the Big Creek paved/board multi-use trail, which has a length of 6.8miles. Eventually this trail will connect with the more southernly section of Big Creek trail, which I have not ridden, but have seen when riding Big Crek mountain bike trails. When the whole trail system connects it is going to be absolutely wicked.

The Forsyth section trailhead I started at is just off McFarland Rd / and 400, east of the exit about half a mile. There are no signs, just a gravel parking lot. The trail is about 1/2 paved and 1/2 elevated board walk with two road crossings and several bridges. There are no climbs but the grade does change enough to keep you pedalling most of the way in both directions.

I loved this path so much I did it twice in a row out and back, which came up to about 27.5miles. This path is going to be absolutely stunning when spring comes. One thing I did notice though, was that there seemed to be a lot of path newbies who did not know to keep to the right when they heard a bike bell.

In other news, I had considered getting a KNOG N.E.R.D bike computer, but now I am rethinking that strategy due to seeing some negative reviews going around.

statistics

Last year I kept pretty good stats of a pretty bad year of riding. I did pretty much NO mountain biking at all. In fact, I didn’t really ride much at all until the last quarter of the year.

Today I finally started my 2010 stats spreadsheet. Also,I have ben looking at getting a Knog computer…they are only $55 with shipping at Bike Island. Bike Island is the jam for mail order. I mean, you should really be supporting your LBS but if you have to order, hit the island. The one thing that is kind of weird is that you HAVE to pay via PayPal. But the upside is shipping is included in the price you see in their catalog. That kind of rules. Right now thay also have a sweet deal on a decent looking “Jury”  fixed gear frame. Yes, I am thinking about getting one…

Rode the heavily frozen Suwanee Greenway today…slipped and slid around a bunch which was totally RAD!

bike shop stop

Stopped by Adventure Cycles today since they are located adjacent to the Publix I frequently haunt. Just browsed around dreaming. Man sone of the low end Specialized bikes are butt ugly these days. Kind of fell in love with both the Redline single speed twenty niners though. Hard to not head to the bank and push the button on one of those bad boys…

While I was leaving I saw this rad vintage Fuji in the used bike rack for $250

Wow that thing is in excellent condition. Hope it finds a good appreciative home.

A little more about 2010 Tour De Georgia Cancelation

The AJC reports on the 2010 Tour De Georgia Cancelation here.

They get into the actual dollar figures a little. They also call the Tour De France “The World Series of bike racing” which made me want to punch them in the face. If anything, the World Series is the Tour De France of baseball, not the other way around, but both analogies are pretty asinine.

Let’s hope that the TDG can find a main sponsor for 2011.  I would hate to see the race die out for good.