Anything Interesting Happen?

Yes, I'm back to blogging bikes.

There was awhile there when life, health, marriage and stuff happened. Stuff. It Happens. I was actually not riding for a couple of years. Got back on the bike last summer and then bike theft. A couple were recovered, one of them fatally wounded. Missing, was my mountain bike, the Beast.



Yeah, I know, old technology, but this was my most ridden bike. It was rugged and fast and fun. I love riding in the woods. Also, the Florida sun will kill me. I can acclimate to the heat, but not the sun.

I Finally have a replacement, of sorts. Being of meager bike budget I shopped hard for a good used bike locally but without result. The search widened. It became apparent that newer things like disk brakes and bigger wheels were not only good things, but the way to go. I looked for something respectable and modern and resorted to eBay and PinkBike. Finally found something new, in a box from a regular retailer (all those things are unusual for me) that was a solid step above entry level at a very entry-level price and went with it. Review and upgrade stories to follow.

The fatally wounded bike was my Redline Conquest. I had bought the frameset used from John Verheul who had flogged the thing as a professional racer for years. Then I raced it (as a clumsy amateur) and rode it and beat it up for years. Then it was rode like you stole it by someone who actually stole it.  It died of a cracked head tube. Being the way I am, I was tempted to just put a hose clamp on it so it wouldn't collapse suddenly and keep riding. But, saving my life and already dubious dentition, was Jordan, the proprietor ofVélo Champ Cycle Sport, who pulled a somewhat used and shop-worn Charge Filter frameset out of a back room and made me one heck of a deal. More about that bike and its build-up in a future post.

So, yeah. I'm riding again and playing with and working on bikes and actually have stuff to write about these days so I'm reviving this dumb bike blog.

Thank you for coming by.

New Project - Raleigh Sports

Picked up a Raleigh Sports in Lawn Ornament condition. I might have (maybe should have) held out for one in better shape. But I rarely see these at all and I've got no compunctions about making a project of it, so I jumped. I had one of these back when they were new. At the time I would've much prefered a race bike and I sorta punished it for it. I nonetheless rode it fast and far and had a tremendous amount of fun on it. So I guess it balances out - I rode one of these into the ground, and now I'll resurrect one.

The good news is it looks like the paint stays - on the frame, certainly, that will polish up nicely. The fenders and chain guard are a bit rough. Even those responded to a quick preliminary scrub in a way that makes me think they'll achieve the condition known as "patina." So probably won't get repainted. We'll see. Nothing is frozen and all bolts turn.

I've already started pulling parts and cleaning and de-rusting them as they come off. The handlebars and brake levers came out nicely. There's a crack in the bezel of the three speed shifter that someone had glued and the glue has yellowed (browned) and it ain't perfect but it'll work. Even that horribly rusted lamp mount looks okay with the rust removed. The headset isn't notchy and the drivetrain all turns and shifts.

The worst part is the rims - these are nasty, still relatively true but badly rusted.. I don't know how they'll turn out. The good news there is that Sun makes aluminum rims in this size in their CR-18 model. That's a damn fine rim and not expensive. It wouldn't bother me a bit to upgrade the wheels. Or anything else for that matter.

This is not going to be a restoration more of a repair and refurbishment. And like any bike I'll own it'll be for riding not looking at. So pulling a few pounds off and getting it to ride and work even better than new are all good things. Parts most in danger of replacement are the rims, seat post, stem, handlebar and brakes.

The seatpost in part because it's made to go with the springer saddle that's on it and the leather is simply gone. Damn shame because the frame is still in surprisingly good condition. Those guys at Brooks knew how to lay on the chrome. If I find someone who puts new hide on old saddle frames we've got a deal to make.

The rest of those possible changes would be for downweighting, style, fit and function. The brakes move smoothly enough and will probably work fine. But they are stamped steel and a bit ugly. The crank is safe, it's heavy and clunky, but it's got Herons on it and Herons are good. Besides the accumulated grease and oil protected it from rusting. I don't recall ever removing a cottered crank and I've got some trepidation about that. It will have to happen to service the bottom bracket.

Of course you all can look forward to voluminous updates as this project proceeds.

Not Beautiful but Badass

Allow me to introduce you to the Beast. This is the wilderness escape vehicle. I love riding in the woods, It's out of the sun and moving along quickly I have a cooling breeze all the way Throughout the summer there ain't enough SPF for my German-Irish ancestry to stay out in the Florida sun. Singletrack is the answer. To the extent that I ever do stop and smell the flowers that is where they are. This is the bike for that Florida woodland singletrack.

I can't say for sure just what GT frame this is. I believe it's a late 90s Backwoods, but that's only a guess. The fork of course is a late 90s Girvin Crosslink, relatively little travel but well damped and more stable under my 200+ pounds than some rigid forks. Oh, and probably as light as any Clydesdale rated suspension fork ever built, then or now.

Contrary to expectations we do have some very serious trails here in Florida, no long climbs or descents but what there are run straight down, around and out of things like mining quarries. I don't have that where I ride regularly and this bike is a bit long and has limited travel for that sort of thing. But it does get me through when I do meet the stuff. Mostly, it is a winding, rooted, loose surface world I ride in. Oh, and occasional patches of soft, white, sugar sand ranging from 10 to 200 yards long. I can plow through some sand.

The drivetrain is mostly Shimano 8s LX; shifters, ders, rear hub, brakes, with Truvativ FireX cranks and rings. Someone really needs to talk to them about their branding. "Truvativ" sounds like some erstwhile Eastern Bloc knock-off manufacturer from the Cold War days. Yeah, that's a rollamajig or thingie or whatever the technical term is. It really does improve shifting and helps keep the rear cable housing out of the way. That's how old this bike is, downtube cabling with all the hassles that has off road. With the Rollagadget I can keep the housing real short and tied out of the way.

The aftermarket derailleur hanger is the result of trying to re-use a Shimano chain pin. Apparently there's a reason they insist on that replacement pin. This foolishness destroyed the hanger and the Deore der.

Yes, there's no small chainring. Soon there may be no large one either. The poise angle of sand being what it is, there is nothing so steep that I need the small ring that has enough traction for any human to ride in that low a gear. None of our hills here are long enough to need it either.

Here's the back end view, with a good look at the tractor like tire on back. It's the WTB Velociraptor set. Which aside from the fierce sounding name is a now traditional paddle wheel back, arrow pattern front. Most of my riding is on a loose mix of sand and leaf litter and this works well. The other pattern that works is the wide rounded tire with lots of smaller nubs, the Continental Vertical is the premier example. I'll probably go with those or something much like for the next set.

Front wheel is American Classic hub with a Velocity Aeroheat rim. Great rim, okay hub. Oh, the paint. There isn't any. No anodize either, just raw aluminum. The previous owner had defaced the clear coat in the process of removing the decals that told everyone that it wasn't the Zaskar that he was trying to represent it as. No I didn't pay Zaskar money. In fact it was barely "old GT with defaced decals" money. Actually the price paid was "this is what you get for telling lies and damaging a cool old bike frame" money, $15.

Here's another view of the rear quarter being inspected by geese. They did not attack.

This bike has been attacked on two occasions by armadillos. Apparently they are extraordinarily stupid creatures who when startled are as likely to bolt in the direction of the thing that alarmed them as away. Both times they were browsing about six feet away from the trail and then shot straight across the trail into me. Both times they bounced off the back of the front tire, under the bottom bracket and out the other side before being run over by the back tire. I am not entirely sure this was not the same armadillo both times - they sorta all look the same. Both immediately went back to digging for grubs or whatever they're scraping after. Two important lessons; the sound of an aluminum chainring scraping over the back of an armadillo will ring in your ears and make your teeth hurt for days. You will beg to hear nails on a blackboard and sand in a bottle cap. The other is that armadillos are tough enough to survive being so incomprehensibly stupid. A veterinarian who does a lot of wildlife work assures me that I was in more danger than these stupid animals.

So now we've reached the point where I wonder if this bike is "vintage" yet or just old. I am curious to see what new technology has to offer. As light as that fork is, the overall bike is still 28 pounds total and that isn't exactly a featherweight. Not too bad for something that can haul me over logs and rocks, but some time in the next year I'll have to see if I shouldn't be riding a bike from the current century.

Meet "Fetch" the Workhorse

Meet one of the world's great bikes. Fetch is a 1987 Gary Fisher HooKooEKoo, a sweet assemblage of True Temper AT tubes joined in a geometry that is fast and comfortable on all surfaces. These old rigid bikes were never intended for huge hits and big jumps but they opened up the forests and trails to cyclists in a way nothing else had before. I've ridden this one on all but the most extreme trails around and it handled itself better than I could.

The standard kit was Shimano Deore; cantilever brake up front, U-brake under the chainstay bridge, four-finger levers, and thumbshifters that are selectable for friction or six-speed indexing. Biopace chainrings in 48, 38, 28 feel just like any normal crank and are well suited to a wide range of riding environments. Mostly this bike lives in the middle ring.

Right now she's set up with fenders and a rack. The Kenda K-Rad tires are smooth and fast for road riding and not so bad off road. I never got the point of running skinny tires on an MTB for the road, why? Rolling resistance is the least thing holding you back and the fat tire is the great advantage of these frames. Enjoy it.

Right now I'm riding in friction mode with a 7s cassette on the back. The original rear wheel has developed a pretty serious case of the spokesies. About every hundred miles or so another one breaks. So there's a replacement wheel while I decide whether to build up with the original hub or just lace up a modern LX hub I've got waiting to go to work and put that on there. I don't need the extra gears, but they exist and I'm happy to use them when I can.

In present dress with that crap, heavy rack she weighs 31 pounds. Great fun bike, good for just about anything you'd want a bike for.

A Bike I Ride

All these posts about a bike I'm not riding are annoying me. Here, let's talk about a bike that isn't broke, has all its parts and a nice finish.

Just your basic singlespeed 'cross bike. Or, a comfort bike with delusions if my riding style is how it is judged. IRO offered a group buy for the Bikeforums.com cyclocross crowd. This got me a pretty darn decent steel frameset for a pretty darn decent price. Once I had the frame, I found a great sale on Bontrager Satellite carbon fiber forks, so picked one of those up. Even better, I was able to sell the original fork to recover most of the upgrade cost.

The wheelset is one I'd picked up on ebay ages ago when I was running 8s Shimano for 'cross. It's a 1988 Dura/Ace hubset with Matrix Iso C rims. Not the lightest things in the world, but very rugged and not all that heavy. These are pretty good, except when compared to my tubular wheelsets.

Tektro Drop V levers and mini V brakes do the stopping and a Sugino crank with an all-terrain friendly 39 x 18 gear set do the going. All of this works well and smoothly and requires absolutely no attention or worry on my part. All together this bike weighs 21.5 pounds and rides sweet and smooth on all surfaces including cobbles .

Yes, I got the fork with the bungs for a front lowrider rack. Why? In case it ever becomes necessary to lace up an internal geared hub and go touring on it. This bike is about options and possibilities. I can race SS on it, add racks for toting things, and having the long distance travel potential just makes it the ultimate. For now, it's the fun and fitness bike. Rides around the neighborhood or through the woods are it's main activities, though it's done a few short commutes as well.