Death by a thousand cuts...wood cuts that is. It's like this, either you have the money to pay someone to do the work for you and it costs a fortune or you don't and you pay in time. Rant over. Now on to the next.
LIFE SHITE: Painterly Effects. I thoroughly abused my right hand. Sorry Mr. Miyagi but after all that up and down technique I'm getting my ass kicked by a house. Btw, Cobra Kai is a badass name for a dojo.
I also got the parts for my POS, cheapo, garage sale, the lady lied to me, drone. I installed them and it still doesn't fly. Cool. It's funny, when I try to fly it it all the of the blades, except the one I'm trying to fix have great power and pull. It's so close to getting off the ground. It's like an analogy for my life! Ha!
Typography 102: The latest greatest sans serif font: Dust Bowl light. I'm the Dingbat.
How uplifting.
WEATHER REPORT: Warmer this week but I still found myself cranking the hot up to 11 and dialing the cold down in the shower. Not all the leaves are brown, (nor are the skies completely gray) but soon they will be gold, red and something in between. And then gone...to the compost site. A prelude to the most brilliant near death experience the Midwest has to offer.
THE RIDE: I got nothin! Well almost nothin. I did get a ride in last weekend but with painting riding was almost impossible. I probably could have done something but there is an ebb and flow to the go getter in me. And right now it's ebbing. The morning is for sleep. Thursday night's group ride pulled a no show... Womp.
I do though have my sights set on the weeks to come. I should be done with the house this week. After that, as always, I will still have a heap of crap to do but of a priority level and proximity (i.e. around the house) that will be less than that of painting a house for someone else.
N+HOLY SHAMOLe GUACAMOLe: In N+ news I solved one of two tubeless troubles with sealant. The front tire on the Giant somehow became unhappy. I gave it a squirt and the next day found, as Specialized deems some of their tires, "tuBliss." The rear tire on the fat has also been unhappy but did not respond to my stimulus plan. I don't know what the problem is but what may be suspect is the stem. Stems are kind of spendy....but round here old 23c roadie tubes were plentiful and basically useless. And so stemmed a stem harvest. Which, given a scissors, works...with one exception; Some stems don't have a removable valve core. The stem on the rear of the fat is such and that makes it difficult to add sealant. And I think the stem is where I am having the problem. More on that later.
I couldn't help but add a bike to the herd. Pickins are slim and Praying Mantis that I be, I missed a couple of deals this week by fractions of an hour or two but I did manage to score this Raleigh C-40 hybrid for $50. With the need for build material and knowing it is a good bike at the core I decided not to fart around and sent the sellers jugular a message: I'll take it. It may seem like a high price but upon receiving the bike the seller confessed to many many many inquires after mine. Like 20+. Hmmm....
Nice big triangle, quill, 27ish seat tube...this is probably more Rivendell than the Puch. The Puch, though, has vintage in spades.
Massive clearance! Not sure what the bottom bracket width (most likely mtb-73mm) but either way clearance makes the wheel and the world go round.
Anyway here is the plan for this bike in three words: Update, customize, sell. I want to update the drivetrain to at least a 2x9 (not sure if I will do drops or flats). It also has massive tire clearance so a bigger tire is in order as well as better brakes. I want to give the frame a custom paint job. The other week I found a deceased Monarch butterfly and saved it. I was looking at that beautiful butterfly today and thought it might make for a cool scheme and theme for this bike. Since Raleigh originated out of the UK I would call it the Monarch. For the design and application I would magnify and hand paint the patterns found on the wings of the butterfly on the front of the bike and the back would be a solid color.
NUTS AND BOLTS: Traction on Puchy Bear! I FINALLY got the 9 spd shifter and time to work on the Puke! The results though are tantalizing! I started off in the rear....ahem and made space to accommodate the much better and wayyyyyy lighter Mavic wheelset. It was only with this wheel set that I could run a 9 speed or higher cassette. I threw on some tires but mainly for mock up as well as to check for absolute clearance and she's got room! I think a 2.2/2.35 tire will work but I want some relatively decent speeds to be achievable so I will probably look for an all terrain tire closer to the 2" mark.
I've lost 3lbs so far on the grouchy diet! Down from 33 to 30 with the wheel change!
It's in!!!
Oh dear sweet gummy bear how I love thee...til you get old and dried out and do things like this.
BITD (a Wednesday) Ballin:"Pinch flat resistant!"
Mutant ProFlex elastomer suspension jizz. Good luck mopping that up.
My thinking as of late is that if you are using a 9 spd or bigger cassette then 3x is kind of overkill. I would rather go 2x and maybe swap the remaining outer ring depending on the application. However...you can, in place of the big ring, install a rock ring or even grind down a beat up big ring for a bash guard.
Check out the spiffy new pads!
"What's your clearance Clarence?" How about a 2.4!
A 2.1 with clearance to spare.
In the "Lack of Clearance" department: I love the double bolt brake levers but they don't play nice with the shifter!
How to set your master link: Step 1: Set the master link up over the chainstay.
Step 2: As the Beastie Boys once proudly proclaimed, "Kick it!" (For extra oomph rock the socks and sandals like "yeah brah.")
Drink beer.
The Sunrace 9 speed shifter is a very nicely made piece for about $27 shipped!
About a pound of weight right there....jk. Suntour meets Sunrace. Actually Suntour is now Sunrace.
This is where things get interesting.... The Suntour derailleur will actually span the entire cassette! But... as of right now it isn't shifting properly. I may try it on the friction setting but for one reason or another it's not shifting right. This may present a bit of a hurdle to over come as the frame itself doesn't have a mount for the derailleur. The derailleur has the mount. This was and still is a cheaper way to make a bike. The problem though may be that there isn't a 9 speed compatible derailleur available with this kind of mount. Thankfully though I can seperate the derailleur from it's mount. Not out of the water yet but there is hope that I can make this all work.
I'LL SHOW YOU MINE: This week I feature the evil twin to last weeks bike: The Raleigh Alyeska!
I bought this bike about 20 years ago at a furniture consignment store for $40. It was in the same state as the Technium SS featured in BLOG#8 (man is he all about the Raleighs or what!). A total shambles. The friend that built that possibly built the mint Alyeska was with and despite it's poor condition made not of it's inherent quality. So I bought it.
Mr. Nice: Last weeks featured bike.
Mr. Not So Nice: It didn't look quite like this when I bought it!
After purchasing it I went about converting it from a drop bar to a hybrid. I don't know if it was a conscious decision but I was really after a do it all bike back then! I did a few things I wouldn't today though such as cutting the ends of the shift levers off to make them cable stops and cutting up the original bars to cobble together make shift aero bars (how I still have my front teeth I don't know).
All in all I rode the tar out of it! So much so that I broke the rear derailleur and folded the front forks! As you will see in the pics below it's pretty beat up! The rear triangle and derailleur hanger is out of alignment. Interestingly though the bike came with 650b wheels (which I still have) but will accommodate a 700c wheel (pictured) with a little brake pad adjustment. I don't ride it much anymore partly because it's a bit too small but it's one of those bikes that managed to stay with me and the precursor and impetus for the riding I do now. I even had two wheelsets for it. I nicknamed it and the bikes that followed in it's image, "The Goat" Evo I. Long live the Goat!
"Back in my day we didn't have 8000mm wide bars son! We used bar ends...and we liked it!" They were actually really great for torqueing up hills with narrower bars.
Thankfully not "drillium:" Vintage CODA mtb bars. Too bad I partially drilled into them to make stop points for the awful, homemade "death" aero bars I made out of the original drops...What were you thinking?!
Replacement fork for the original that didn't survive a two foot drop?!
The nice one came from a shop about 60 miles from where I live. The one a couple thousand.
It did have the original derailleur on it when I bought it but it went to pot. A tiny local lake bike shop threw up this Tourney for $20.
Mmmmm.....canteeees!
Bad...BAD on you for cutting those original shift levers!
Giving you the bird: Go fighting peacocks! Or shall I say turkeys here in Merica?
The bad Gripshift era. Don't carry a bad association to the new Gripsifter shifters as they are far better than those from years ago. Apparently their comeback is due in part to XC racing. I do not like under bar thumb shifters. I will talk more about why later but they are not for me. Brifter, thumb or Grip.
8 speed cluster with a 7 speed shifter...
Thanks for reading!
Next week:
I'll SHOW YOU MINE! (And it's weird lookin).
"Dude where's my tire?"
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