Measures grade/slope of the current climb you are on and measures altitude gain, which I am thinking is a cumulative figure for how much you climbed over the course of a ride. I am assuming if you are going downhill it shows a negative grade or something. Kinda want to take a closer look at this jammy jam…you can check it out here>>http://www.cateye.com/en/product_detail/604
I haven’t rode my mountain bike (on a trail) since spring/early summer…once Duncan Creek opened I abandoned the trails for all park action, and then actually broke the rear section of the Otero frame. I had it repaired, and the furthest I have rode it was from the shop door to the car in the shop parking lot. I had put the stock tires back on it earlier this year because they seemed better for park riding. Today I decided to pit the trail tires back on it and try to get it ready for some actual off road action. The new rear triangle is a different color than the first one since they use an 08 as a replacement
It had some issues. Of course I didn’t realize I needed to true the rear wheel until I had already put the trail tire on, pumped it up and installed it back on the bike. No worries though…I was just stoked there were no broken spokes. I thrashed the hell out of this thing at the skatepark.
After I got everything back together (switched all 4 tires from Ye Old Talera to Ye Aging Otero) I noticed that the new rear section has an annoying amount of slop in one of the connection points, most likely the one near the bottom bracket. Its tightened up, but it still has slack. I’m thinking this might be because when they installed the new rear end, they used the old bushing. Lame. There isn’t really a lot I can do about it short of buying a new bushing. Not gona happen. The slack is only there when the bike is unweighted, so I don’t see it as a real problem, just an annoyance because I’ll always know it isn’t -exactly- right.
Also, the front derailleur cage is rubbing on the teeth of the big ring, which indicates to me that it has slipped downwards on the seat tube. Not a big deal, but I didn’t want to mess with that today. I’m actually considering taking the big ring off altogether, so before I do a lot of adjusting for no reason I am going to further investigate that strategy.
The stable:
It’s pissing down rain outside. Tumbling Creek is going to be a full on mudfest even if it cleared up right now. At least I did something bikey today. I’ve ben concentrating on building skills for this potential job so I have been chained to the computer for the last few weeks blah blah blah blah blah….
Shimano has issued a recall on some Dura Ace wheels. You probably don’t have them, but if you want to check and make sure, you can go here to see the specs and pics.
Apparently they are causing flats.
In other news, I’m mad that I can’t afford Dura-Ace anything.
I saw this on some artwork at the SOPO Cogtail party.
Saw this little gem also (black bike, middle of pic):
A single speed, probably fixed gear, pursuit bars, suspension forks, parallelogram/spring suspension seatpost. Interesting stuff.
Last night, Graham and I hustled over to Doo Gallery to catch a screening of Macaframa. Well, we tried to hustle. The flow got interrupted about halfway there by way of me flatting.
We walked to the nearest street light and got to work. The piece of glass was still sticking out of my tire, so the first time around I didn’t even pul the tire all the way of the rim. I just removed it far enough to access the cut. We used a Park Tool glueless patch. We could still catch up with the peleton, we don’t need no stupid support car! Popped the wheel back on, repacked the bag, and as soon as there was no traffic we could HEAR the tube still leaking.
So, off comes the wheel AGAIN. This time I dug deeper into the regions of my bookbag, and retrieved a patch kit that uses glue. Took the tube all the way out this time. Since I had dug into the deep regions, I had found my C02 pump that doubles as a shorty hand pump, so we were able to give the tube some air and make sure we found all the holes. There were about 4 little punctures all within a quarter inch of one another. So we picked the biggest patch and did the install. Got it all pumped up and re-installed, and once again, when traffic died down, we could hear the air escaping.
UGH. Oh well, we were halfway there so we decided to walk the rest of the way and bank on one of the bikey people having a spare tube.
about a mile of 2 later we finally reached the Doo Gallery. The 10pm showing had already started so we made our way in and soaked up some of the free beer. It was a pretty good turnout, the main gallery space filled up with folks to check out the film. As is par for the course when you get drinking bikey people and fixed gear footage together, the crowd was very vocal. Macaframa was pretty good. Of course there was lots of awesome tricks footage, but there was also a ton of folks just riding long straight and fast. If you are a non-fixed rider, you would probably find these portions very boring…but to me there was something kind of neat about those guys having such long extended runs at HIGH speed thru city traffic. I think the film makers were trying to capture something about the whole -zen of fixed gear- or something with those long portions of folks just pedaling..I dnno. Maybe they just wanted to build suspense so when someone did a trick it had much more impact. Overall it was worth going, 50% for the movie and 50% to kick it with the bikey people.
Sure enough, Graham asked someone for a tube, who asked someone for a tube, and a good samaritan hooked me up. May your rides be all downhill with no cars in your way good sir.
We actually milled about and stuck it through with like 5 other people for the second showing. I was hoping since the crowd was so thin that I would be a lock for winning the No-Brakes shirt raffle, but since so many people had left they didn’t do a second drawing. I only missed winning by one number the first time.
Made it home without flatting
From Baltimore, my next destination was Philadelphia to sync up with my old buddy Skip for a little while. I haven’t seen him since his wedding probably like 15 years ago, but we were roommates and co-workers at Golden Ring Bicycle so we have deep roots. I almost thought something was wrong with the GPS when it took me off the highway so early, but eventually I got to the Cycle-Sonic shop.
Skip didn’t really know for sure whether or not I was coming, so he was pretty suprised when I came rolling in. Great to see my old buddy. He used to have some looong hair, but at some point I guess he decided to go the other direction
The shop was pretty wicked! They had the standard line-up of adult bikes from Trek, Giant and Gary Fisher, but they had a really nice selection of BMX bikes.
Primo, MirraCo, Haro, and Fit from what I can remember, but am pretty sure Skip said they sold Eastern as well. They had a nicely stocked selection of BMX components also including these wicked rasta color pedals:
I would love to have those matched up with the Chris King rasta headset.
We chit chatted and caught up on lost time. Lots of bike geek talk. While I was there, he got a call from the Fuji/SE rep, and actually asked if he could send me down to their distro hub down the road, which I believe is called Advanced Sports Inc, for a tour, which would have made great blog fodder, but I passed. I did get to see the newest catalog of offerings from SE, and they are amping up their track bike line quite a bit. They are also continuing to reissue the old loop tail bmx remakes, and this years PK Ripper has a knock off Elina Lightning Bolt seat with a beer opener built in.
One of the coolest things at the shop was this Integral Bel Air done up to look like a Hollywood Mike Miranda Hutch.
They even tried to get the graphics right, but they are a little different than the original Hutch stickers
A great homage to a great bike. I wonder if anyone who bought these actually rides them or if they are just sort of museum pieces?
While I was there I asked Skip to pump up my tires for me, and we threw on the Animal Hamilton pedals I had been wanting to grab at Shop Gentei in Baltimore. I opted for the full clear instead of the smoke clear.
They feel SOOO much better than the tiny rat traps I had on there previously, plus they look freakin awesome.
All too soon I had to say my goodbyes. Cycle Sonic is a great shop, and it was awesome to see Skip after so many years, but I still had to drive to NY so I had to get on the road. Big Ups Skip and thanks for the hook up on the Hamiltons!
Before I split, I actually broke down my bike to put in the back seat and removed the trunk rack from my car. I -never- have to parallel park in Georgia, so I didn’t want to go trying to squeeze into a space with my bike hanging off the back when I got to Brooklyn. I think not having the boke back there made my gas mileage a little better also.
Onward to NY!
Check out this monstrosity spotted at Eurobike 08:
WTF? I guess this is the integrated version of running a bottle cage behind the saddle like the triathalon folks do. But seriously…this has to be one of the most butt ugly things I have ever seen. If I ever saw someone riding with one of these I would probably fall off my bike from laughing so hard. No wait…if I saw someone riding with this and they didn’t have a bottle wedged down in it, I would try as hard as I could to catch up to them, grab a hold of that thing, and use it as a handle to slingshot past.
Selle Italia, maybe you didn’t get the memo…cupholders are for gas sucking overpriced box shaped SUVs.
IN OTHER NEWS, I learned feeble grinds on a small box today at Duncan Creek. I am going super slow when I do them, and this particular box is not very high, but I did slide far enough to call it a proper grind. I’m pretty freakin excited about that.
I totally love this bike:
Its an entry called “My First Boardtracker” in the RatRodBikes Build off, which I heard about by way of mystic negro/kranky. How about the matching machined pattern on the rim sidewalls, chaingaurd, and frame mounted number plate?! The kicker though, is the giant downtube mounted suicide shifter which looks to be hooked up to a 3speed coaster hub. This thing looks like it is going a zillion miles an hour even while its standing still. I would love to have this at a Critcal Mass.
