Single Speed Cyclocross Build

I built a bike!

I feel like its been awhile since that has happened, and it took place mostly in Manarea v2.5 AKA the refurbished basement shop.  I've done hodge-podge work in the basement the last few winters but it was always a hack of a setup and it was primarily just to avoid the really cold days in the shed.

It was always on the to-do list to rework things in the basement, it was pretty gross down there.  I just wasn't sure how far I wanted to take the project.  In an ideal world I would have dug a bit deeper and graded everything and poured cement. But 'aint nobody got time for that so it turned into ripping out the old moisture barrier doing a bit of digging and raking to grade the dirt floor out and then laying down a much better/thicker moisture barrier.

I inherited a work bench from the demo project of Tony's garage, hung some bike hooks and BOOM.  Cold weather hibernation shop is a go!

Ok to the build.  This time of year Nashbar move out their model year generic frames at next to nothing ($79 to be exact).  They have gotten me with this three times now.  The blue chromoly MTB frame that was a monster cross for a time and is now Jake's go to whip.  The green frame which was my light touring / commuter for several years and now the red frame, a steel CX bike.

My commuter wasn't getting ridden this year really at all, due mostly to my wrist / stiff joints in the morning issues I've been dealing with.  That may not always be the case but that bike was always way over built for what it was doing 90% of the time and I really only used it on a touring ride one time.  Which was awesome but I have just never gotten around to doing that kind of riding and I think its unlikely I ever really would.

Now that I'm racing cross (and will probably continue to) I felt like I would get a lot more use out of a SS cross bike now plus I can always still commute on it here and there and get a good workout.  And at $79 for the frame and being able to swap almost all parts over this build ended up costing me maybe $130.

look at how awesome it is!

I pretty pleased with how it all came together.  All the leftover available components all matched completely.  White/red/black saddle, white stem, black fork, black bar tape...it was meant to be.  I had some left over cx tires that I had bought on clearance a long time ago and then never used because I got a deal on Clemente's through Chainline.  They get reduced in volume really bad on these old road rims though.  Eventually these will need some new wheels but this is more of a beater bike and will probably get 'new' parts as they trickle down from my 'better' bikes.

Only extra parts I had to buy were the handlebars (wanted something wider than I had for better SS torque), A better cable hanger for the front brake (the one I had been using on my commuter was a joke) and a chain ring.

I agonized a bit over gearing.  I have a very intimate knowledge of SS gearing for MTB but how certain gears translate to CX courses was a bit of a mystery.  I actually shift quite a bit at times on my geared bike.  I  did some research but there are too many body types and preferences when it comes to SS to get a good across the board recommendation.  I usually take what I read online and subtract a few gear inches (I'm a spinner) and go from there.

I settled on getting about the biggest ring I could find for a 104BCD crank that would create good ratios with all of the MTB sized cogs I already had.  Settled on 42-19 for my go-to race gear for now.  Most recommendations fell in the 55-65 gear inches range and 42-19 comes in at 59.7 (for reference I rode 44.4 inches for MTB).  This might end up being a bit steep for me depending on the course but I think its the best place to start.  It also allows me to easily step up to a 20 if I need to or down to 16 for commuting on the road.

I'm using the DMR STS tensioner I had been using on the party bike.  That build has gone into hibernation for a bit until it can inherit some better parts and I find the time to improve the braking.  This should work for now but I might eventually get a better tensioner and some sort of chain watcher for up front.  I'll have to see how it works once I can start riding it.

Now I can double up at CX races I have to drive farther to.  Race my category and SS so I'm not driving 2hrs to race for just 45mins.  Will probably also make a great winter training bike that I can either mount on my actual trainer or put the fenders on get ridiculous out on the snowy roads in the spring.

Who wants to buy a nashbar touring frame, real cheap?

Hall Hall Hauler

I'm just now realizing this has been a really light year on posts...like almost half the usual.  How did this happen?  I'm gonna blame my wrist and recommit myself for a better 2014.  Also trying to decide if I should do more with this thang.  Now that I'm directing NEMBA Racing I'm thinking about maybe sharing more of the trials and tribulations of that or maybe getting into more in depth gear reviews maybe?  Who knows, hopefully I'll put my money where my mouth is.

But for now A PROJECT BIKE!  It's been for-EEEVER since I've done a restoration build. Maybe I should get back into dumpster diving as well?  Although I've heard most dumps aren't really cool with just anybody crawling around in their metal piles anymore.  LAME.

Before.

Ok. Back story. This ones got a good one. Many moons ago while still slinging cable in the telecom game I stumbled upon this ride resting on its kickstand in the middle of a large attic space in Samuel Reed Hall Hall at PSU.  Seemed like it was in decent shape and at the time I was worried it possibly belonged to one of the Res Life staffers in the building so I left it be.  Then less moons ago I was back in the attic assisting with the re-purposing of the campus webcam and low and behold it was still just sitting there.  Res Life staff rolls over pretty frequently so I was fairly certain that at this point it was not owned by anyone still around.  I wasn't in a place to take it right then so I left it and made a deal with the Telecom guys to let me know next time they were headed up there and I would tag along and snag it.

That time came not all that long after that day and of course we get there and its gone.  I had missed my opportunity...or had I? Yes I had. At least for awhile. On the way out we noticed that it had been moved down into the lobby of the building. I was ok with taking an obviously abandoned bike from an attic but I wasn't comfortable with taking it from the lobby when best guess is one of the current Res Life staff at the time had gone up there and found it and decided it was sweet and took it down to try and revive it.

There it sat for probably months? and every now and then the guys in Telecom would swing through and tell me that it was still just siting there.  Hall Hall was actually up for renovation and being repurposed for academic space and in its final days as a Res Hall the Telecom guys were over there going over specs with contractors and finally got the bike and the RD in the same room at the same time.  RD finally confirmed that no one was laying claim to it and BOOM...mine.

Now that we've got that out of the way lets get to some deets.  What we have here is your standard issue Columbia 3 speed straight out of Westfield, MA.  If I had to guess probably from the 60's right before the 10 speed boom in the 70's.  It wasn't in horrible shape but the front brake was broken and the rear hub had basically been reduced to a singlespeed thanks to years of gummed up grease.  I was hoping to just swap out the broken brake and front wheel with stuff from the parts bin, maybe some new/used rubber and some new cables.

Unfortunately I didn't have any brakes that were going to work which kind of derailed the whole project, you can get away with just one brake if its the front one but I didn't want to only have a rear brake.  It occurred to me that I had plenty of old V-brakes so I started scouring the interwebs for an old 1in threaded fork for 26in wheels that had canti studs and found a brand new one on ebay for about $40.  Seemed like a reasonable investment into this ride so I went for it.

posting this to make shop owners cringe.

wicked grips. dyude. guy.

Trimmed the fork to fit and it installed real nice.  Put some new levers and grips on and now it just needs some new cables and the rear wheel true'd up.  Also thinking about trying to install a huge wire basket that I have but I'm not sure if its going to fit yet.

Almost After.

Should hopefully have this thing completed soon and I'll post an official after pic once its ready to shred.

A2Z Components 68mm Post Adapter

Ok. So now I will finally shed some light on the utter ridiculousness that has become of my partybike build.  This started off as a pretty ridiculous idea and then due to a slight oversight on my part it went to ludicrous speed.

I was already required to do some weird adapting in order to get disc brakes mounted in the rear.  I found a pretty sweet period correct Manitou fork in great shape, titanium springs etc. on eBay and was able to snag it.  I was pretty pumped at how things were coming together and then I got the fork, installed it on the bike and then went to mount the brakes on the post mounts...

Disc brake standards have bounced around a bit, and suffered from some experimentation.  Especially back in the late 90's early 00's.  I knew there was some weirdness back then but I had forgotten about Manitou's random decision to make 68mm post mounts for a few years instead of the now standard 74mm that all brake calipers are machined to.  Go to mount the brake...6mm off. #sadtrombone

MORE ADAPTERS!

After a bit of internet'ing I found an adapter to get from the asinine 68mm to 51mm IS and go figure it was machine by the same folks who made the rear adapter I was using.  Long story short they were actually out of stock so the folks I ordered it from apparently had the same adapter made by A2Z components and shipped that one instead.

I was on my own with this adapter, no real instructions or description about its intended setup and things got a bit crazy pretty fast.  I don't have any calipers that mount directly to 51mm IS so I had to bolt an adapter to the adapter.  I'm not sure this is necessarily intended to be used this way.  If it was it would have been nice for them to machine in a bit more clearance in a few spots because stuff got REAL tight.  So tight that I had to get really weird.  Dremel tool weird.

We don't need no stinking clearance!

So in order for me to get the bottom bolt through to mount my second adapter to the 68mm post adapter I had to (in no particular order):

- Find a bolt to mount the 68mm adapter to the fork with the lowest profile head I could find.  The head on the standard brake mounting hardware was too big and would not let the second adapter sit low enough.  Luckily I found one at the local hardware store that bought me 1-2mm.

- Add an extra washer to the caliper mounting bolt on that side.  The standard bolt threads through the adapter just a hare so adding the washer makes the bolt not stick out and bought me another 1mm or so.

- It was still just a bit off so I had to literally Dremel metal off the 51mm IS adapter until it would sit low enough to allow that second bolt to thread through without cross threading.

- I then had to find another special bolt that was shorter so that it wouldn't stick through too far and hit the rotor on the other side.

It took a lot of troubleshooting but it all technically "fits" and feels solid (for the most part).  This setup requires you to increase the rotor size to make up the room added by the adapter.  So I had to purchase a 180mm rotor as well.  I now wish they made a 182 or 183mm rotor.

I would feel a tad better if this was grabbing just a bit more of this rotor.  But I don't weigh that much and its a 180mm rotor so braking power should be fine right?....RIGHT?!

I might try and mess with some more of those washers to see if I can get some better spacing but the shed was so hot and I had already poured so much time (and sweat) into this that as soon as I rode it around the yard and got it to successfully stop me I called it good for now.

I'll be honest, the sound of this brake 'working' is horrible.  Hard to explain in print but I'm sure anyone who rides probably knows what a horrible disc brake sounds like.  While it does stop me (on flat ground in my yard) I'm sure that the first thing going through my head at speed on an actual trail will be "I wonder if I'm about to die."  Initial testing will have to be done gingerly.

But thats it.  You could ride this thing.  You might not survive but you can ride it, go forward and then 'stop'...maybe.  Partybike doesn't really care about details like that, its mostly about the party.

Rock 'N Roll

B&S Brake Adapter

The partybike is back in the stand well on its way to v3.0! I figured I would break the build into a few posts so I could focus on a bit of the weird that is going on this time around.  But before we get into specifics I suppose I'll cover the thought process behind v3.

There was nothing wrong with v2, in fact the 69er version of the party bike worked much better than I could have imagined.  After taking my lashing at the Pinnacle (and dealing with some chronic joint issues this season) I was forced to meditate a bit on what I'm doing to myself.  I ping-ponged back and forth a bit on what I thought I should do moving forward but eventually landed on using my fast/light/rigid bike for my 'important' races which I have now decided are the longer format races I've been doing lately and that I needed a friendlier bike to race the slightly more brutal EFTA courses.

Thats where v3 comes in.  If I was going to race the partybike it was going to need to be a bit more 'normal'.  The 69er worked better than I thought it would but it was still pretty weird to sit on and kind of ridiculous to climb.  So I decided if I was going to race it I wanted to find an adapter to convert the old Trek 22mm direct mount to the more standard IS so I could run disc brakes, I would need disc ready wheels and a decent 26er fork.

The adapter was going to be the tricky part but after a bunch of research I settled on the B&S Brake Adapter.  This thing isn't exactly mainstream, feels more like something a hobbyist made for their own purposes and then a few friends liked the idea and wanted one as well and it gained enough steam after that that maybe they did some sort of limited run of them.

It seems solidly machined, definitely has some heft to it (weight weenies beware).  But I would imagine you'd want this to be solid with the types of braking forces it will be dealing with.

speed holes!

I went with this adapter because many of the other options would have you mounting the brake between the chain and seat stays and many of them required you to do some weird stuff like using a front brake caliper on the rear as well as using a slightly bigger rotor to make up that difference.  Some people also claimed that certain frames just don't have enough room for that to work at all.

This design extends beyond the seat stay and has you mounting the brake where most modern frames have them situated.  They don't guarantee that this works with all frames either but based on pics online I thought I had a pretty good chance.

I wonder why this 22mm design didn't last? Its so conveniently located and easy to work with...

It doesn't come with mounting hardware but I have been wrenching long enough that I have amassed all kinds of extra/spare stuff and I ended up having some bolts that were pretty much perfect.  It took a little bit of time to get things all lined up.  Clearances are a bit tight but it all came together.

I still need to get myself some real hardware for mounting the brake itself.  Right now I am just using some presta valve nuts that ended up being the exact size of brake bolts, go figure.  That was good enough to get things situated and prove that it would work.  I'll hit the hardware store tomorrow for something more substantial.  I'm very interested to get it cabled up to see how solid it feels.  I don't want to jinx it but I think its going to work just fine.

Slapped the rear end all back together and scoured the parts bin to see if I could re-gear a bit bigger.  32x18 was just a tad small for me in general on a 26in bike, more like a climbing gear but the easy change to 32x16  is a little tall for me to stay on top of.  I think I'm at my best/most efficient somewhere in the 48-49 gear inches range.  Unfortunately with the parts I had I couldn't land there with any 'normal' gear configs.  But I did have a 38t ring and my 20t cog that I use for the Pinnacle laying around which gets me just a hair over 49 gear inches.  And it looks kinda funny, which is good.

I'll cover some of my other new parts in the follow up post when I finish the build hopefully later this week.  New fork should arrive by Wednesday I believe.  Good chance I could be racing this at Moody next weekend.

Spot Brand Rocker SS for 2013

Well I made another of my classic fast moving purchases today.  I have a solid history of having gear presented to me by the Universe at surprising deals that always seems to work out pretty well for me.  I don't question it I just roll with it.

A few days ago I was made aware of some sale items over at bike29.com.  I noticed the Rocker SS frame at a pretty good markdown and got intrigued.  I've always been aware of Spot's stuff and part of that awareness was that they are usually well outta my price range...except now it wasn't really.  All of a sudden it seemed like the big question mark that was "What am I gonna be riding next year?" seemed pretty obvious.  Lots a things about this deal/opportunity were making sense to me.  George at bike29 is going through a bit of a transition period right now and this felt like a good opportunity to try and help out a local merchant who has been great for the industry locally...I mean he put on SSUSA2012, dudes legit.  Spot's are handbuilt 'braincrafted' in Golden, CO and are pretty renowned for quality stuff.  They are at the forefront of the SS belt drive movement (which I am not sold on yet, but I like the idea of being ready for it when I am).  I was unable to find any griping about major con's in any review I could find anywhere.

Bing. Bam. Boom. Don't overthink it, just take advantage of what is served up.  So the trigger has been pulled.  I'll be moving my parts over to a new Pearl White Rocker SS come 2013.

I still need to make a fork decision but I'm leaning towards going all in and building this up real svelte with a Niner carbon fork in the Vanna White colorway.  Should be able to get one through Eric at Chainline but I've got months to decide on that.

I love the dropout design on this frame that allows for the belt install.  Just makes the most sense to me and seems to be the strongest, most durable way to get that done.  Splits at the dropout itself and the sliding bolts hold the whole thing together.

Also liking what I'm reading about the ride feel of the 853 tubing Spot uses and it sounds like its pretty easy to build up pretty light for a steel frame.  This also allows me to keep the Redline in rotation a bit and use it for my SS Cross build idea.  I'm thinking cross tires on an old 29er wheelset with some dirt drops...DUN for almost no $$.  Here is some sweet marketing material for your viewing pleasure:

I'm feeling pretty good about this...can't wait to start messing with builds/projects if there is some downtime this winter.  Bikes!

URT Full Suspension Single Speed cont.

It's time to get back to the roots of this blog.  Mike has called me out a few times for Manarea going the way of just being a bike racing blog.  It's true, I have strayed a bit from my shed project days and I haven't homebrewed once this entire year.  But as we barrel into Fall I'm gonna try and revive the Manarea a bit.  I've got a Whiskey Rye Ale on deck and Project bikes to work on!  And oh what a project this one has been/will be.

My full suspension single speed has been an ongoing project for awhile now.  Actually got my proof of concept almost a year ago.  I rode it at the Turkey Burner to great effect...turned lots of heads rolling around the parking lot.  I even raced the damn thing.  That race however showed definitively that if I wanted to continue riding it I was gonna have to show it some TLC.

But why stop with just some TLC when you can get completely franken-ridiculous with the thing?  THAT'S the Manarea way...creating cycling abominations since 2007.  And this project is getting downright evil genius.  You're going to have to listen to this on loop while you read the rest of this post:

This had been laying dormant for quite some time until one fateful day when Jomo texted me to tell me he was mailing my old Bomber fork back from CO.  I had let him have/use/borrow it sometime back after I had bought my Redline.  Initially I had no idea what I was going to do with it but but then it became so obvious.  Whats better than a full suspension single speed from the 90's?  That's correct! A 69er full suspension single speed from the 90's! What could go wrong?!

old shock

new shock!

It looks surprisingly normal/badass right?  It's still a big question mark at this point.  I had enough parts laying around to get it to this point but there is still some work to do.  The geometry got pretty screwy but the Thompson layback actually helped quite a bit and I feel normal-ish on the bike.  It is obviously going to climb like crap but I bet it will descend like butter and hopefully ride ok enough on the flats to be workable.  I think it would work a bit better with riser bars but I'm fresh out at the moment, I think my last pair of Hellbents got sold with my first Monocog.

Also needs a BB5/7 on the front.  I thought I had one but I forgot that they were the short pull road versions I used on the monster cross when I had the dirt drops and road brake levers on it.  And last and most importantly it really needs a new rear shock.  But I might have a line on one...(Help me Obi-phil Manseau you're my only hope)

If this all comes together and the ride quality is not complete crap this will probably be the most ridiculous thing I've pulled off to date.  Stay tuned...

"That's a lot of frame"

AND a spicy meat-a-ball!  Got the Y11 all stripped down and cleaned up last night and daaaaayyyyyyuuuum is it looking good.

mike you will appreciate or hate that I took these pics with HDR, no epic landscape but doesn't that Trek just pop?!

Upon closer inspection everything is indeed in great shape.  No hidden cracks, dings or other show stoppers.  Even the old Judy fork is actually still working quite well and I stripped the decals so unless you look close you might think its a SID race.  And really all that matters when you are riding a bike is that people THINK you are on really expensive weight weenie parts.

After cleaning it up and giving it some thought I have my plan at least for version 1.0 and based on what I've come up with I think it removes the eventual need for a 2.0, I think the end product will actually be pretty awesome and hopefully very rideable.  I will be retiring the Redline for the season and stealing a few parts that are due for replacement anyway.  The cranks/BB/pedals will come over (with a newer/used chainring I found in the shed).  That BB is pretty whupped but will work just fine for this ride.  I'm also stealing the stem because I want to use the old aluminum flat bars from the Redline from before my carbon upgrade and I need the oversize clamp diameter.  I would just use the bars it came with but Naro, in true mid/late 90's form, rode his bars incredibly narrow (PUN INTENDED).

For some reason the rear canti studs and brakes were missing when I got the bike but luckily when you work on bikes long enough you amass tons of random tidbits that you keep in a bin.  Including a few sets of canti studs and heaps of old V-brakes.  Only real thing left was some sort of tensioner.  Designs have evolved quite a bit from when I first converted and I had to do some tech vs. cost balancing.

I was very intrigued by the Yess ETR/V but the price point was just a tad too high and it actually seems a bit overbuilt for what I really need.  But that vid demonstrating how it works with actual current full suspension designs is pretty impressive.  I wanted to stay away from any spring actuated stuff because those never seem to hold up and almost always end in zipties.  So I went with one of the simpler designs that I could find at a pretty reasonable price somewhat locally.

 DMR STS (Simple Tension Seeker)

Slap it on, dial it in and then tighten it down.  Changing rear flats will not be enjoyable but I really don't flat that often (knock on internet wood).  Should have it in about a week and then the bike will be ready to ride for anything I get in before the real snow starts to fly.  Showing up at the Turkey Burner on this thing could be real funny and if/when I do the winter race at Fort Rock this could actually be a good implement for that.  Gina wants to call it 'HoneyBee', thoughts?

Old URT Full Suspension Single Speed

I really hope I'm starting a trend here.  Well 'starting' probably isn't the right word but definitely facilitating on a regional scale at the very least.  Full suspension single speed is nothing new but it is being pondered much more heavily lately at least as far as I can tell from my own blog reading and seeing the various new tensioner designs that are coming out.

I was of course drawn to the concept because its in that limbo area of not ideal, why would you build that, doesn't that defeat the purpose, dude are you nuts?!  It's been in the back of my mind for awhile and lately I've been getting the itch for an off season fun build project.  Two years ago was the goofy 96er monster cross which morphed into my now very functional touring bike last year.  So now in a normal cycle I am back to 'goofy'.  A few weeks ago the FS singlespeed idea popped back into my head so I started poking around for ideas.

I stumbled across some folks pondering the use of old URT (Unified Rear Triangle) bikes from the mid 90's or so.  URT was one of the earlier rear suspension designs that has since been completely abandoned for the most part.  Most contemporary designs are far superior with far more pro's and way less con's than URT.  URT has one huge pro for this application however.  URT bikes were sometimes also called 'floating drivetrain' because the bottom bracket was part of the suspension swing arm and would pivot along with everything else.

This keeps the distance between the cranks and the rear hub intact even when the suspension is doing its thing.  No chain lengthening or shortening = SS friendly.  So now I have a concept I like and is definitely a bit goofy now I just have to find a bike...

Queue memory banks and I have a flashback to poking around in the attic space above Naro's parents garage a few years ago looking for bike parts (how appropriate) and coming across a relic from years past that I thought was quite hilarious at the time.  You guessed it, that relic was an old Trek Y11, one of the finest URT frames of it's time.  A quick call to Naro along the lines of "is that thing gonna just sit up there for the rest of time?....if so can I frankenbike that thing and get it back SHREDDING?"...we work a quick barter deal and TA-DA!!!

It is in surprisingly awesome shape considering it is probably pushing 15 years or so.  I'm still trying to decide how much $$ I actually want pour into this thing.  I'm thinking more along the lines of giving this thing some hand me down parts and maybe a few fresh parts here and there.  It would be nice to find some of the old purple/green/pink/ridiculous anodized parts from the mid/late 90's but finding stuff like that will probably be a lot of work.  Maybe it makes sense to whip up a "version 1.0" just to see how it rides and then pimp out a version 2.0 later.

Soylent Green

This bike is people

Made it a tiny bit farther with this build as well.  Got the rim tape needed to get my old road wheelset back in action as well as some Kenda Kwick's that Shaun bequeathed to me when they didn't fit on his Langster about 400 years ago.  They've been hanging in the shed waiting ever since....until now.

I also have a new front derailleur on order as well as the fork.  Went with the Surly Cross Check, decently cheap and I like Surly's rep for robustness and I have never had an issue with anything else Surly in the past.  Once those parts arrive, hopefully over Holiday break, I can have this ride all set and cabled (except for brakes).  I am really interested to see how the fit works out.  I think I am going to have to do some experimenting with the front end to see what feels the best...or who knows maybe my guess that it would be better to have this frame be a bit smaller was right and it will be perfect.  I did manage to guess on a perfect chainline when building Blue up SS, maybe I'm developing that unteachable bike wrench 'touch'.

I am still trying to decide what kind of canti brakes I'm going to go with.  I don't have much experience with canti's and I don't want to shell out too much $$ but at the same time I want something that will be manageable.  I have heard canti's can be a nightmare to get adjusted just right.  Gonna put my wrenching 'touch' to the test.

**UPDATE**

My latest parts order arrived yesterday so I was able to get a little more done on this ride.  Got the front end all fitted and installed as well as cabled up the derailleurs.  All it needs now are some brakes...that I still need to purchase, and it will be 100%.

So tonight I installed the new Surly fork, as well as the old cockpit setup from the monster cross.  Luckily I guessed right with the sizing of the frame and the old stem gave me a perfect riding position with just the one spacer with the cable stop for the canti brakes.  I was able to set the crown race on the new fork following some internet wisdom.  A legit crown race setting tool can run you $30-60 and for some reason I just don't feel like spending that much for that particular tool.  I have spent that much on bike tools that I don't use very often but this particular tool is basically a pipe you hit with a hammer...I'm not paying $60 for that.  Instead I bought a 10ft section of 1.5in PVC for $4 and cut off a 16in piece and hit it with a hammer.  Bingo. God bless the internet.

I ran into a very slight issue with the front derailleur.  I have come to realize that I really hate derailleurs...using them, installing them, cabling them, trying to buy the right one.  Top swing? Bottom pull? High clamp? Low Clamp?  My issue was created because I thought low clamp front derailleurs were only needed for new fangled FS frames that don't have a lot of room to mount the FD due to the linkage for the suspension.  And I have read that high clamp are 'better' due to better leverage, durability, etc.  So I thought high clamp should be good right? sure! trigger pulled.  Turns out not so much.

Ended up having to mount the FD just above the bottom cage bolt on the seat tube in order to get the thing positioned right.  Hilariously I found a cage that could still be mounted as long as I used a slightly longer bolt on the bottom.  Does it look stupid?  You betcha.  Does it work?  Yup.  Moving on.

I probably won't rock the three bottle cages all the time I just wanted to see it loaded to capacity.  It's just like the monster...but way more svelte.  Going to make it a bit easier to commute more consistently I'm sure as well as more efficient to take longer rides around the house.  It's also nice to have a legit tourer that if I actually bought racks for could really go to task.  I might even be able to do some cross races for fun on this bad boy.  We'll see, I still really don't feel like getting into the whole USA cycling thing and buying more licenses to race.

**UPDATE**

Just need some bar tape and I am riding Soylent Green!  And if I hadn't goofed while pulling the front brake cable back a bit to trim the housing I would be able to ride it now but I accidentally pulled it completely out of the housing and couldn't get it back in without removing the bar tape (and ruining it, never buying that kind of tape again...adhesive on it SUCKED) and removing the housing to thread it back in.

I had some issues with the brakes but not the issues I was anticipating.  I figured getting the canti's properly dialed was going to be a huge pain in the ass.  Surprisingly once all was said and done that was the easiest...although I probably just got a bit lucky.  The worst part was getting the damn things cabled and figuring out the right way to get the cable hangers set up properly.  The high rise stem in the front created a tight fit with the headset hanger.  But I got that one cabled decent after getting physical with it.  The hanger in the rear was another story.  I was trying all kinds of hilarious jerry rigging to get it just right and it was just not happening.  Turns out I was using the wrong ferrule cable stop.  I really lucked out and found the right one in my 'parts jug' (when I went to look for it it was sitting right on top, I didn't even have to dump it out).  Once I was using the correct part it actually cabled up relatively easily, go figure.  More lessons learned and another bike to the stable.

I kinda like the way the black of the raw bars looks with this ride so I may just end up getting black bar tape.  Not usually my style but I plan on riding this bike in all kinds of crap so black is probably the prudent choice.

Frozen Shed Session

Gina had a NH Humane Society Holiday party tonight so I figured I would freeze my ass of in the shed and get started on yet another massive parts swap / build as well as do a bit of maintenance on the good 'ole nothin but troubles.

I'm not sure why I continue to bother with those skis.  Edges are burred to complete worthlessness but I suppose every little bit helps...cant get any worse I guess.  They will hopefully be phased out a bit soon anyway.  Once everything fills in and those damn bindings I got a deal on actually ship I will have some fresh fatties to break down to nothingness.

The real action of the evening came with my latest parts swap and bike birth / rebirth.  I can't seem to build a bike and just leave it.  At least some of my bikes anyway.  I was very pleased with my monster cross bike, I thought it was a good build and it performed well at the NH100 last year but when it came down to it it was just too damn heavy.  Sure technically it could do anything / go anywhere but it required so much more energy to do it that it just wasn't really working for me.  I want to commute more next year and my commute is not an easy route and if I want to really get into it a bit more I will need something a bit lighter and more suited to that task, plus a light tourer might allow me to more easily dabble in cross next year? hmmmm

Soooo I scored yet another cheapo Nashbar frame (touring variety this time around) and I am cannibalizing most of the parts from the monster for use with the light tourer and using spare parts to turn the monster into a burly winter SS since my old ice bike has since devolved into parts.  Seemed a decent compromise and the additional investment needed to make it happen is going to come in very low so it made sense.

 so much for the monster

I felt bad stripping the monster down, but I am excited about the two bikes that will emerge from this process.  I had hoped to make it a bit farther this evening but my hands were starting to get pretty cold and working with cold metal tools/frames wasn't helping.  I ran into a few incompatibilities and parts that I thought I had but didn't so I had to table a few things until later.  I should be able to get the burly winter SS back online with just a few more headset spacers.  I thought I had more than I did and I came up about 10mm or so short.  Once I get the spacers I can get the fork mounted again, finish the cockpit and I'll be good to go.

 as far as I could get tonight

Drive train is finished at least.  Running 32-20.  And yes Shine, the zipties are back.  I'll be running my old Thomson stem from the Kona as well as those carbon bars.  Should end up looking pretty sweet and working pretty well as both a decent winter bike and a poor weather / loaner / backup SS.

I also started throwing parts on to the touring frame.  Cranks, pedals, derailleur, seat post, saddle, headset.  Some from the monster some from the parts bin.  Unfortunately the front derailleur from the monster has a clamp diameter that is too small for this frame so I'll have to get a new one.  I still need to buy a fork at some point as well as some rim tape for the wheelset I plan on using.  I am a little worried that I should have bought the 58cm frame but hopefully I can make the 56cm work.  I always felt a bit stretched out on the monster so I thought I would try sizing down but looking at it on the stand it looks small.  Fingers crossed.

I love me some cheap builds

Once I get the parts needed I will start separate posts for each of these builds as I complete them.  Gonna have to figure out new names for each...

"Somebody get me a Monster..."

Famous words, only to be spoken north of the border.

In usual context that quote is referring to an energy drink but in this case it is referring to a bike.  A 'monster cross bike'.  This term has come about recently and usually refers to a bike running the bigger 29er mtb wheels but built up more like a cross bike with drops, etc.  Some manufacturers even offer some stock monster cross bikes, Salsa is one and I think there are a few others as well but they escape me at the moment.

Mine isn't a 29er unfortunately but its still pretty sweet.  This has been a long time coming and I have mentioned this project a few times and the bike itself has made it into a few tweets in various stages of completion.  A lot of the parts on this bike have lived a long and varied life but I am particularly pumped with this version of things, I think this could be really fun to ride.

Ta-Da!

My favorite part about this bike is the fact that most parts on it would fall under the category: "no name".  Its just a big steel nameless behemoth that can go anywhere it wants for as long as you can stand.  Lets see, interesting tid bits...On One Midge bars for the 'dirt drops'.  I spent a lot of time researching the various options here and ended up with the Midge mostly because it was one of the few that took bar end shifters, which I find weird because just about every monster cross build I have seen has bar end shifters.  The disc brakes are the Avid BB5 Road.  Basically the same thing as a normal BB5 but a short pull version that is compatible with road brake levers.

wrapped the shifter cables under the bar tape to keep the front end a bit more tidy cable wise

I'm going to be riding this monster for the NH100 this year, should be interesting to see how it effects my time.  I bet I'll ride it quite a bit faster, this thing is fully geared which will be nice in certain spots on that course.  I can change up my hand positions a bit with the drops.  No suspension though...

In other news I went a bit more manly with my SS and shrunk my cog down to 19 teeth the other day.  Went  with a Surly.  Usually a good bet.

 Things were starting to get too easy and I can't let that happen...

Took it out for a spin this morning.  My feelings are mixed at this point.  Which is basically what I expected, try riding your favorite trail system except ride everything in one gear bigger...it will kinda suck first time around.  Initially I felt much slower, my acceleration was non existent, didn't feel very 'peppy' on the bike.  I almost felt like I was lumbering a bit more, my cadence was much lower which typically doesn't suit me.  I have always been a spinner over a masher.  BUT come to look at the ride data afterward and I put up a similar average speed on a similar route at this time last year running 32-20.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/33337903

So overall the speed is still there it just feels completely different.  I feel like I am strong enough for the 19 but I will have to make some modifications to my riding until my legs get the force they need to turn that gear at the cadence I am used to.  Just going to have to rely on momentum even more for a bit and try and smooth out my riding.  The roots were still a bit slick this morning so there was a lot of slow and start out of corners and getting the 19 going again was wearing on me a bit.  But I'm not discouraged, I will get there it'll just take some time.  Good idea to change things out 1 week before my first race?  Time will tell...

Its funny to think that when I started my foray into single speed riding the most I could muster on my converted 26in bike was a 32-22.  Which when you get into gear inches is more like a 32-24(ish) on a 29er.  What I am running now would roughly equate to a 32-17 on a 26in bike and when I had first converted my bike I had set it up in the 'recommended' 2-1 ratio of 32-16 and I remember test riding it in Plymouth and thinking to myself there is never any way I could ever ride this for any length of time, way too hard.  If things go to plan the 32-19 will be my new 'butter gear', ride anything, anywhere, anytime.  Never would have thought it possible a few years ago.

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.

Winter Cycling / Projects

Ah mid November. That lovely time of year when its just warm enough to rain...but not by much. Probably the worst weather on Earth. I have still been able to eek out some time on the trails and my plan right now is to ride as much as I can until the Turkey Burner on the 28th and then 'officially' swap over to the ski season / riding the trainer indoors.

My mind has already started to look ahead to possible upgrades and projects that I can do to some of my bikes and other ways that I can keep with cycling through the winter months. I want to try and keep with my resolution from last year, to ride trails at least once every month of the year. And this winter I have even bigger plans.

I have hatched a plan to ride a bike to some new trails that probably haven't been ridden much to date. How do I know this? Because they are on islands in the middle of Squam Lake.

Riding on water? You can forget epic, this winter is going to be BIBLICAL.

I also have some big plans for my commuter bike. Idea is to swap out the traditional drop bars for a more contemporary MTB inspired flared drop bar. A' la the On One Midge Bar:
and to upgrade to some cheap disc brakes. The ultimate goal being a bike that I can still roll to work in comfort on but also be able to shred some trails with confidence and a bit more off road stability. One reason this came to mind was a goal to ride my bike from home down to Franklin, NH...ride some loops at the Falls and then ride back home. Probably about a 40-50 mile adventure or so. Plus I think upgrading to disc brakes may open up the option of changing the bike to a 29er at some point in the future but that will be a more advanced project and require more parts to be bought and measurements to be taken, so that might be pushed out depending on funds, time, etc.

Probably also upgrade some parts on the SS, but thats all just maintenance stuff.

Also be on the lookout for an expansion in content this winter. I will be buying a new cheap digital camera here at some point and I want to try and start bringing it to the mountain this winter to document some of my time spent doing the other sport I love.

Fingers crossed for another season like this...