Sunday, February 21, 2010

Afternoon in the Shed

Gina's on a ladies afternoon/night out at a show down in Boston so I of course headed straight to the shed for some project time. I have a few things going right now and its been a while since I've spent some time tinkering. So I grabbed my little space heater, a homebrew, and set up shop!


Bikes, Skis, Homemade Beer, Win

I recently bought some 'dirt drop' bars for my old commuter bike in an attempt to turn it into a more viable off road/touring machine. Dirt drops are a little bit more swept and have less actual drop than road bars. The drops bars I had on previously were old school road bars and didn't really work that well with the geometry of the frame. Worked fine for commuting but I would like to take this bike more places now. I went with the Midge by On One. Dirt drops are surprisingly hard to find, even online. I ended up going with the Midge because its one of the first bars of its kind and it takes bar end shifters (something that a lot of the other bars don't, which I find odd).

I think this new setup is going to work pretty well...I haven't had a chance to really get a feel for the cockpit yet because I still need to get a new saddle but the various hand positions all feel like they will be pretty solid and useful just standing over the bike. I think this bike will turn into a solid/fun back up trail bike.


Tomac would be proud. Drops on dirt, no suspension.

I also decided to get back into actually tuning/taking care of my skis again. I was always on top of things back when I bashed gates and even through college but since I have just bought cheap skis, beat the crap out of them and moved on...wasn't really worth the time. But I like working in the shop and I spend a lot of time maintaining my bikes, might as well suck it up and show my boards the same love. So I stopped into Home Depot and outfitted myself somewhat ghetto and brought out some of my old tuning gear.

Bought a standard 10in bastard file, 1in spring clamp and a simple corner brace for a file guide for edging along with a whetstone for deburring. Granted, at the current time I am just polishing a turd with my current skis, they are basically beyond repair in the big picture but I have a big riding weekend coming up so why not throw whatever edge I can get on there and give em a hot wax?

Then I took quite possibly the funniest / most intense self portrait with a timer I have ever taken. Somehow it framed up in a very dramatic fashion and the look on my face is classic, so intent. It's almost as if I'm sharpening the edges just with my gaze. Enjoy.


2 comments:

  1. oh boy where do i begin...

    1. that bike looks sick...dirt drops seen like and awesome idea and im also surprised that they are so hard to find...there might be a few hipster-cross stores in boston that carry stuff like that

    2.i just noticed you are brewing stout...totally amped for that

    3.tuning picture is the best picture ever...you could be tuning for the herminator...within the past few weeks i actually did the same thing and re-stocked my tuning supplies and set up a table for the first time since college...its definitely a good thing..especially when we have a dry season and you're not just hammering rocks, logs and pow in the NE woods

    4.i just noticed that in that painting i pulled a nostradamus and predicted HGK catching on fire (not that it was difficult to predict a greezzy sleeze hole with a meth/wonton kitchen catching on fire at some point when it is owned by derelicts) but still...

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  2. ahah if dustin also predicted gigantic happy nightmare bunnies, we are all fucked.
    that is a good picture. you tune with mind control. well done.

    thank you for giving me "10 inch bastard file"

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