Blog#8: Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing sealant! But I did sell a bike!
SINCE I AM POSTING THIS TODAY, MONDAY SUBSTITUTE LAST WEEK FOR THIS WEEK.
When it comes to getting things done I am usually overly optimistic and unrealistic about what I can accomplish in terms of time and money despite life trying it's best to continually bitch slap and smack me back into reality.
43ish years in you'd think I would learn.
This week was a bit "pear shaped" as I was plagued with time suck projects. But hey, life could be way worse! I mean it's not like we're going through a global pandemic or something!
THE RIDE: As usual, with the constraints of life not much riding happened this week. Quality not quantity? The local brewery ride is done for the season but there are a couple of other area rides that will be going on for the next couple months. Those rides though are mainly group road rides and right now the idea of that type of ride just doesn't float my boat. Lately I'm more about getting rad than going fast and thankfully a weekly group trail ride may be on the regular until the snow flies.
The first of these rides happened this week at one of our trails that is located by a prison. Aptly named "Jail Trail," JT for short, the trail in total is about 4-5 miles and was carved out in the nineties.
As there were several others riding fat bikes I too was going to ride mine. But instead of the running the massive 4.8 Maxxis Minions on 80mm wide Mule Fut rims I would elect to use my Summer trail set of wheels. Much smaller, this set consists of 4.0 Jumbo Jims on 50mm wide Surly Rabbit Hole rims. This is the first set of wheels I have ever built and they are very good in the trails! They really transform the bike. I also use them in the Winter at times to get a break from the more capable yet lumbering bigger tires.
Unfortunately, because of one of the aforementioned time suck projects I didn't have the time to set it up. Not that a wheel swap takes much time but I was right up against the clock that day so it was ride what is ready or don't ride at all. Oh and it is making an awful, grating ticking noise when I pedal....and the shifting sucks...and I will be riding it for it for like six months...
I elected to rock the Schwinn. I could have taken the Giant but I wanted to see how the Schwinn would do with a thorough shake down test and given the rooty nature of JT will provide a pretty good one at that. I also wanted to test out that crazy low 34x22, .67 gear ratio as well as it's ability to get me to the trail and back. At the trail the bike performed admirably with but one exception: OH SNAP! went the chain! I was dug in climbing a small but steep, looping technical hill called "Skid Row" when my chain went kaflooey! Thankfully I was sitting down because if this happens while standing up it can result in a hard slam and good war wound. I was even more lucky since the chain in question was used one that won out because it was stretched the least. A prison break? (I couldn't resist).
A new chain (and clutched derailleur) are in this bikes future.
When it happened we were at the back part of the trail and it was a long walk back to the head. I did have a multi tool with a chain breaker but two problems occurred while trying to fix the chain. The first problem was that the pins in some of the newer chains are fairly snug and the chain breaker on my multi doesn't have much to hang on to. I had the bike upside down and was initially trying to fix the chain on the bike but it wasn't until I pulled the chain completely off and kind of gathered it up in my hand that I was able to remove the broken link.
The other problem was way worse: MOSQUITOS!!!
And after putting a good sweat on they were all about me . When it comes to mosquitos I have a kind of Calvin Klein "Obsession" or Rhianna, "Reb'l Fluer" scent (or white trash smell really) that native MN mosquitos go bonkers for. With a stinging fury I got the chain fixed and rode several more miles of trail then home but I was (sort of) cautious about putting a lot of pressure on it as they aren't meant to spliced back together and there is a good chance it will come apart at the splice.
Some other quick notes on the Schwinn:
I don't know the geo on the Trailway and given the reach and stack it has to have some 29er/mtb DNA in there and with the 2.0 Specialized Fast Traks it's relatively speedy and trail ready but because of drop bars the harsher the trail gets the bigger the beat down gets and the next day I had some "hangover hangover" as in I could feel it in my upper back. Bigger tires would maybe remedy this by providing more cush but the Schwinn can't fit bigger tires and in my opinion even if it could this would be overkill as yes it would be better for trail but slower on road. Even so it's a great bike in the trails!
N+?: In N+YOU HAVE A PROBLEM NEWS (it's a passion not an obsession) a few cuckoos flew the roost! The first I will talk about is this Coast to Coast Gold Coaster II. The bike had been sitting in a machine shed on a relatives farm for who knows many umpteen years (it was there before he got there and he doesn't farm) in a very disheveled condition when on one of my many trips I decided to treat it like a stray and take it home with me. After some good time with it it was semi rideable! I basically just threw a bunch of elbow grease at it as well as a used front wheel since the original was tacoed. At 40-50lbs he weight of this old gold goody Grandpas bike is comparable to a Walmart fat bike but it had pretty much all of it's original parts in tact (and a really cool Dodgers sticker on the rear fender).
NUTS AND BOLTS: One such time suck project came in the form of a Gary Fisher Tarpon 24" (wheel) mtb. I do do work for other people and this bike came to me awful condition. It needed tuning but was really horribly dirty. I think it had a bad case of "overlube" where the owner thinks it's best to not only oil the chain but all the gears and derailleurs and sprays all those bits making them only attractive to dirt and grime. I probably had 6-8 hours into getting it right side up! The worst part about the work was that one of the brake arms had the wrong spring. I went to my parts bin and found a match but it was for the wrong side. I went back to the spring that was on bike and began to modify it. Bending it with two pliers I was next to done with it when ZING!!! It popped off and flew to who no where!?!??! I heard what sounded like the Price is Right Plinko game on the back wall of my garage but after close to an hour of searching NOTHING! GRRRRRR!!! I parted the sea looking for the dang thing! Nothing! Ghandi!
My garage is essentially the ether. If you drop something or if something flies away it's gone rarely if ever and most times never to be found again. Even if you feel hit your foot or see it hit the ground it will immediately go through a worm to to some other region of the Universe. It's a phenomenon and I know I am not alone. Crazy but not alone!
Back to the parts bin.
Try to bend another spring resulted in a break. UGH!
I finally find success modifying yet another spring but that means I now have a pair of brake arms missing a spring. I pretty much chased my tail this week on this and other similar situations. I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing sealant! (Stans is the best btw).
I persevered and got the bike done. Peace, love and sappiness!
SHOW ME YOURS OR I'LL SHOW YOU MINE: In this new feature I will feature one of your bikes or one of mine! To kick things off I am going to start off with this gutter trash, $0 SS! This bike was found by a friend minus it's wheels kicked to the curb down the street from his house. He didn't know what to do with it so he asked me if I was interested in it? OF COURSE! I need more bikes!!!
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