Blog#4: Little Shop of Horrors: New build, fleet update and shenanigans.

Hey everyone hope your coping in all this madness! Bikes help. Yessir.  Perhaps that is partially evidenced in the huge Spring bike sales explosion as well as the empty stores. 

HAPPENINGS: After last weeks HOP group ride I was a little clapped out. Turns out it takes glycogen to turn big tires at big speeds. Bigtime. That resulting smile though.... I didn't ride much after especially since I had my youngest kid's bday party to get ready for (i.e. a big cleanup round). Speaking of kids my oldest (7) has been riding up a storm since getting the trainers off last Spring. He quickly caught the trail bug and although Dad's been quite proud, the pressure has been on to get him into the right/best/decent bike. At this point he's on his third! Sounds crazy but good kids bikes in used condition are not easy to find and so I can't resist a "SCORE" when the come a long and a score came along in the form of Trek 24" wheeled mtb from a local thrift store for $30 including tax! It was totally out of tune and has a terrible spray bomb paint job but it's still of some caliber of quality that those things matter not. After getting it dialed in he was in love! It's a 3x7 but I want to convert it to at least a 1x10. The hardest part of doing this will be lacing a hub that has a Shimano cassette style freehub as the old one only works with the old school style screw on gear sets and they only go up to 8 or 9 gears. More on that later. 

This week I have been working every day so I opted for the Thursday night Beaver Island Brewery Slow Roll. Nothing crazy but just what the doctor would recommend with the amount of physical labor I am putting out (I'm a Marmite tester btw.)

NPLUS NEWS: I bought more bikes! I was perusing Marketplace when I came across a listing for a bunch of bikes. The seller had bought approximately 500 hundred bikes! He would fix them up and sell them but was planning on moving and had to move out what was left after several years. I bought a few completes, frames and some parts. 

After a long long time of wanting waiting and hunting I gots me a suspension fork! To be specific a XC MTB suspension fork! Given my appreciation for trail and similar craziness I knew I would need a fork however suspension forks are a world all there own. There were things to be learned but in the end it came down to price and weight and after riding fly weight carbon forks on everything I wasn't too keen on spending lots of money or hanging 4+lbs on the front of a bike. The compromise and good deal came in the form of a used, 120mm, 15mm thru axle, tapered, Magura TS8 air fork found on Market Place. On the negative side being from around 2012 it is a bit on the old side but on the positive end it weighs about 3.5lbs, was just rebuilt and cost $100! That brings my Giant build to about $500! More later!

I was already in eXsTaCy....(insert seal clapping).

A couple things to note: Because it was thru axle I had to borrow the wheel from my carbon hardtail and given the weight savings of the old Mavic Crossmax/Racing Ralph combo this offered a bit of a weight savings to help offset the extra weight of the fork. I also had to borrow a rotor from my fat bike as it is made for a 180mm rotor. 

Beast Mode Extreme!

Weight wise I think the bike weighs about 24lbsish with the carbon fork. I would guess the Magura puts it up to about 27lbsish. 

NUTS AND BOLTS: Out of the ashes of that pile of bikes I just bought came a couple of Schwinn Trailways Hybrids: A complete bike and one missing the wheels and seat/seat post. I rode the complete around a bit and wow! What a cruiser! That one will be hanging around as it works will for my wife. I think these bikes sold at places like Target for a couple hundred dollars.

Cadillac comfort....with the exception of the seat.

I was looking at the other less equipped bike on my stand and I got to thinking....hmmm that's got a 700c wheel....and some pretty good clearance in the rear stays....and I have a wheelset for it....hmmm bet I could build that thing for nothing....a new budget baller build was on! 

The start...of something capable? Cheap for sure!

I started off with the wheels. A few years ago I was at a garage sale and came across a set of 29er wheels. They are a combo disc and rim brake, allow hub and rim, 19mm inner rim, 36h, QR set. Nothing special as they were found on decent department store bikes like Nishiki but certainly not total garbage.. Despite being covered in dirt and missing the axles they were free! SCORE!

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I'm on my way home when I notice a driveway with items strewn all about. I thought it was the beginning of a garage sale that I could get the jump on. In all that stuff my eagle bike eye noted a bike laying on the ground. I spun the car around to find a 26er Nishiki (de ja vu) dual suspension mtb. It was in shambles but had lots of good stuff on it...and it was free! Turned out it was a rental and the landlord was clearing it out!

The YUCKSUSHI! There's probable a decent bike under there...but that's for someone else to discover.

It also turned out that it had the same type of wheels-same hubs and hoops, etc) as the 29er wheels just in a 26" size. I swapped the still good loose ball bearing axles to the hubs to make yet another 29er wheelset! For free! I can recall the transition from rim brake to disc and to tubeless and while some used to lament the use of a rim brake hoop on a disc brake bike what makes this set cool now is that it will work for both a rim brake bike and a disc brake bike! I can swap this set between the Schwinn and my Giant! They aren't tubeless but hey whatevs?! 

All was not well wheel wise though and after finally making them spin I found out that they were pretty out of true with the front one being pretty bad. I don't have a truing stand so I did my best to true them up on the bike using the rim brakes. (Quick tip: for disc bikes I put a zip tie around the frame, cut the end and line it up with the rim. This allows me to true and check for true on my disc brake wheels). So far the plan is rim brakes but I miiiiiiiight be able to convert it to disc. More on that later.

A quick mock up reveals probably less than desirable frame geo! But I don't know any better! And it looks cool!

Crime Scene: I swear this space is never like this.

Once the wheels were a go tires came next in the form of a set of Specialized Fastracks, 29x2.0, courtesy of my carbon 29er. They were the tires it came with and I swapped them for the Racing Ralphs I got in my big Marketplace tire deal. I used tubes, had to buy one and was a bit agast at the increase in price! Ouch!

Anyway on to control set up I mocked it up with drops but I need some bits to make that happen so in the mean time I decided to go with flats. I have thought of using the same setup as my Giant but for now I want to go mainstream. 

For the drivetrain I want to go 2x. It would be cheaper and have the potential for more efficiency and range with closer ratios!!! On top of that I have 2x stuff laying around. I also initially decided to go with a 10 speed cassette but as of right now that isn't playing fair with my SRAM shifter.

Well that's about all for now...I think I might try to get out a blog every Friday but subscribe anyway. Thanks for reading!