Friday, November 30, 2007

I heart M571

Is it just me, or is the LX M571 front derailleur the best thing Shimano has ever made? Consider, if you will:
#1: It works really well. I'm not a big gearie, but I'd put this derailleur up against anything out there. I mean, if you're cranking 20rpm up a climb and try to shift, of course it's not going to work. But neither will your $100 XTR front derailleur, which brings me to...
#2: It's cheap. Even when it was new, I don't think these sold for much over $20.
#3: It's light. I don't really care much about this, but the best you'll do with even a really high end offering is break even with these suckers. They're somewhere around 130 grams soaking wet. Which is something they can get without gumming up and requiring replacement...
#4: You can't impress anyone with it. Is there anything more hateful than someone showing up on a ride just to deliberately point out to everyone their newest high-dollar gimmick part, just like they did last week, and the week before? The kind of person who will drag the subject of their new part and its perceived benefits into ANY conversation? The LX M571 will only draw howls of derision if you attempt to draw attention to it. This is a good thing. Better yet, it's greyish hue will fool the casual observer into thinking it's XTR.

As an aside, I once saw a Huffy equipped with several XTR bits, which either means someone has a great sense of humor, or that they had the worst case of small-part upgraditis I've ever seen. My friends Feldman, Jake, and Ned were in a college van driving to Moab at one time and, upon seeing a cheap Haro with a similar problem, made a sign to hold up in the window when passing the unfortunate vehicle that was carrying the bike that read "XTR on a Haro?" Anyway, back to my obsessive front derailleur list:

(Author's note: if you read the comments, you'll see that I sort of amalgamated an experience I had and a story that was told to me in the original version of this little anecdote. Does this mean I'm getting senile, or just less honest in my old age? You be the judge.)

#5: The omniscient giant brain that runs Shimano knew about 29ers when this derailleur was introduced, in about 1848. At least that's what it seems like to me. Maybe I'm getting old. Exhibit A:


That's a 29er wheel with a 2.25" Kenda Nevegal. A big meaty tire. And the 29er in question here has 430mm chainstays, yet there's plenty of room for the clamp, cage, and even the cable, thanks to the side-mounted arm. Sweet! Admittedly, this frame has some custom tweaks to get more tire clearance with the short stays that help quite a bit, but even without 'em, the M571 would work. I use this derailleur (I've got a little stash) on almost every geared 29er I build, assuming I can talk the owner of the frame into using such a low-pedigree part.

And yes, for those of you who must know, I wrote this because it's 15 degrees outside right now, and about 5 degrees warmer in the shop, and I want to go get smashed instead of huddling over the welder on my Friday night, but I'm waiting for Sarah to call me to meet up at Efrain's. Don't expect this kind of obsessive crap from me every night.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Ian's new bike

I don't usually post a lot of pictures of bikes I'm building here, just because a lot of them are pretty similar - you can't tell much about the wonderful subtle stuff I did with the geometry from a picture, and most of them are intended for similar purposes - go shred some singletrack in (fill in the name of your state). Neat bikes, for sure, but not really that interesting to read or write about.

This one is different. Ian (a Boulder local) asked me to build him something pretty unique. The goals were, in no particular order:
-Use 26" wheels (for strength reasons and to avoid toe rub) but be capable of clearing 29" ones. With 26" (and 1.5" slick tires) wheels, the bike has a 10.8" bottom bracket height - nice and low and stable for carrying loads. On the other hand, with small 29" tires or big CX tires, the BB height rises to around 12", great for riding trails.
-Rack/fender/H20 mounts all over the place to allow using a wide variety of racks and other add-ons. The canti bosses are for mounting an Old Man Mountain rack, though they could be used for brakes in a pinch as well.
-Drop bars with a combined mountain/road drivetrain for touring.
-Ultra beefy tubes for carrying loads and handling rough terrain.

I don't even have the tires, saddle, fenders, or racks mounted (not to mention cables and housing) and this beast has to be getting close to 30 pounds. Normally that's not something I'd be proud of, but in this case, the goal is to make sure the bike will keep going no matter what (probably with 80# of gear on the racks), not to save a few grams.

In any case, something unusual for me that was fun to build. I'll post a picture of the bike when it's finished up later this week.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

L-O-S-E!

Ok, this will be the shortest and least interesting post of all time, but why is it that nobody online can spell "lose" correctly? "Loose" is what you say about things that aren't tight, guys. If you lose something, hopefully you'll find it again. Jeez.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Indiana trip report, part 1


Ok, so as some of you know, I spent the last week in Indiana to visit my aunt/uncle, grandmother, and a scad of cousins (pictured is Maia, age 5, and already an expert beautician) of all ages. Some thoughts from the trip:
-People who live in rural Indiana can't ride bikes to commute. The roads are shoulderless, narrow, and full of blind curves, and the drivers are not inclined to go slow. We saw a grand total of one cyclist the entire time, and he looked terrified.

-My uncle (pictured feeding popsicles to his spoiled dog) is a genius. He's spent the last 35 years building race cars (mostly Indy cars, but lots of other stuff as well - sprint cars, formula 1 and 2, you name it) and he's invented a ton of cool stuff. He was one of the first people in racing to use carbon fiber extensively (in the early 1980s), he invented all kinds of safety features for race cars that are used to this day, and he's built a ton of cool devices that allow realistic off-track testing and simulation, which can give a driver a huge advantage. Bottom line: if you can build a car that will go 200+ mph, and win races, from scratch (no joke, he can build everything but the engine and tires in his shop), you are a stud. I'm in awe.I got a lot of great ideas for bike building from touring his shop, and I'm going to put some into practice soon, I think.
-I really hate TV, and cigarettes. Why is it that so many houses have a TV on at ALL TIMES? Having not grown up with a TV, I don't have the ability to carry on an intelligent conversation or concentrate when there's one on in my view. Dealing with TV (or secondhand smoke) isn't really a skill I want to develop, either.

-Having a cat around who likes to sleep on your head is funny for one night, but gets old quick. Pictured is Mr. Steak (his actual name) battling with Phoebe.
-I hate flying, and the new stop at Stapleton makes the Boulder-airport bus a joke - it must take almost an hour and a half to cover something like 30 miles as the crow flies. Terrible. It's hardly worth it, especially given than it costs $10. Next time I'll ride my freakin' bike there, assuming there's somewhere to lock it up.

Final shot of Granny, my sister, and yours truly.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Hell's Belles rocks


I was out very, very late last night hanging out with a bunch of over-the-hill rockers listening to Hell's Belles. All female AC/DC cover/tribute band. They rocked. A lot. Highly recommended, if you get a chance to go see them.

I do find it a little odd that you can make a living imitating another band, though. I mean, first of all, where do you get the idea to start a project like that? I don't think most wannabe musicians start a band with the goal of playing covers of other people's music. Then again, as Sarah pointed out to me, the vast majority of professional musicians (studio musicians, classical musicians, etc) never play anything but music written by other people. I suppose you could start a band, and do one or two AC/DC covers as part of a set, and get such a positive response that you'd learn some more, and more, until eventually that's all you play.

The second thing I wonder about is whether or not being in a band like that would make you start to hate AC/DC. I think I'd get pretty darn sick of playing the same stuff over and over (could be worse, though, I suppose, if you were an 80's-night DJ at a club or something...) I'm guessing they make pretty decent money, though, given that the Fox was pretty close to filled up (there must have been a solid 500+ people) and tix were $16 or something. That's what, $8000? Figure the club takes half, and you spend another 25% on overhead and travel, and you're at $2k for a 2 hour night of work, split among 5 band members. Then again, I don't know squat about the economics of being on tour with a band. $200/hour sounds like a nice wage to me, but they might make a lot less. They did try to sell some t-shirts and CDs (who in their right mind would buy a CD of AC/DC covers, especially when the whole point of the band is to sound *exactly* the same as AC/DC?) so maybe they make a few more bucks there.

In other news, I'm off to Indiana for Thanksgiving all of the coming week. No work will get done, though I'll probably be checking email erratically. Don't bother trying to call if you need to get ahold of me, I probably won't have my phone out there. My uncle Ronnie is a former IRL chief mechanic, and he has some cool stuff like a WIND TUNNEL in his shop, so I'm going to take the camera and try to get some pictures of the neat machines.

Monday, November 12, 2007

The face of bike racing...


Yeah, yeah, the season is over unless you're one of those weirdos who like to pick up their bike and run with it, but Dave H sent me this photo and I pretty much had to post it.

Got *another* Ned ride in this Sunday, which has to be an all-time record. Nov. 11, 11K feet, Colorado, riding buffed-out dry singletrack. Hell, I was riding in short sleeves most of the time! I'm actually not sure this crazy warm weather is a good thing in the long run, and I'm getting kinda burnt out on riding, but it sure was fun to be up in the high country. NationalChamp, Millertime, and Redcoat took me on a new trail that connects to another trail I like, so that was cool, and then I (as usual) managed to crash and tear up my knee pretty good at the very bitter end of the ride. And of course, I was wearing Sarah's leg warmers, because I was too lazy to look for mine when I rolled out. Smooth, now there's a bloody hole in the right one.

Not sure how I always manage to do that, but I've got a nice hunk of flesh missing from my knee, in the exact same spot that I ALWAYS crash on. It's getting pretty gross, even when it's healed up, because I literally tear it up half a dozen times a year. I'll probably have a hideous looking scar when I'm 70.

Skibike update: I've decided to do a conversion of my DH bike, on the advice of, well, everyone. Apparently hardtail ski bikes are for nutjobs who want to break their tailbones, which doesn't really discourage me that much, but the DH bike is just sitting there looking lonely, and just making some dummy axles and mounting skis should be easier than building something from the ground up. Feldy even has volunteered some snowblades for this idiocy, so when I hurt myself trying to ride it, I'll still have that $80 or so in my pocket for the percocet prescription.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Miguel's new ride; snow bikes rule!


Ok, so I know I need pictures on these posts or nobody will read them. I really like my new system of using old disc rotors to brace the disc mount - it's a nice way to re-use some metal instead of recycling it or throwing it away, it looks neat (at least in my opinion) and it's even a TINY bit lighter than using a piece of tubing (ok, ok, by like 2 grams, big deal). I did a good job matching this one up with the same path that the actual rotor on the bike takes, cool.

Switching gears a little, I've always wanted to build myself a snow bike - not the kind you'd ride in the Iditabike (ie, with actual pedals and wheels), but the kind you'd take to the top of a big hill and slide/ride down. The kind the Beatles rode in Hard Days Night (I think...) I thought that they weren't allowed on the chairlifts at any of the resorts around here, though, so I never got around to it. But now I found this yesterday: Lenz Sport Skibike video. Freakin' sweet, AND THEY LET YOU ON THE LIFT! I'm guessing Devin and his friends are at Keystone or A-Basin there. Regardless, that means Vail Resorts (cough, evil! cough) will let them on...

I don't really see the need for full suspension, myself - I used to ski a lot, and my legs seemed to do just fine for suspension. The front suspension, sure - your arms and hands are going to get pretty thrashed after awhile.

In any case, partially due to the fact that I haven't heard any particularly encouraging news about the belt drives from Spot, the Waltworks snow bike is taking over as stupid/weird project du jour. Right now, I'm at the thinking stage, but don't worry, I'll charge right ahead into the building-without-carefully-thinking-first stage soon. I've gotta find some crappy twintip mini skis first, then I'll start messing around seriously. Stay tuned, loyal readers!

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Pretty bike...


Luis has this to say: "El Mucaro (Taino language) = Owl, bird of the night, they are dwellers of the night with excellent nocturnal vision, with the presumed ability to see into the supernatural. They are the zoomorphic equivalent to a deceased human or ghostly spirit. Time to get her dirty!"

Monday, November 05, 2007

An interesting article on classical music

Check it out here: New Republic article on classical music.

I know, I know, you're here to read about bikes. But as I'm a huge classical music fan myself, I struggle with this question a lot, especially when I'm listening to the increasingly pathetic pledge drives for the local classical station in Denver. I thought this was a really interesting take on where music is going in modern culture.

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Don't Forget to VOTE!

If you live in Boulder, that is. I've stolen this from the BMA website. Keep in mind, the deadline for ballots to be received is Nov. 6:

Vote YES on County 1A and 1B
BMA City Council Endorsements

We did the homework. We made hard choices. We spent at least 150 cumulative hours figuring this out. If you want a discussion about how we arrived at these selections, please contact President Mike Barrow at mtnbikemike@gmail.com. We are happy to talk about it.
Adam Massey
Ken Wilson
Crystal Gray
Susan Osborne
Lisa Morzel
Macon Cowles
Angelique Espinoza
If you are a registered voter in the City of Boulder, we encourage you to look closely at these candidates, and if you like them, support them by voting for them!
County 1A and 1B - both of thes tax extensions directly benefit cycling directly. One only has to remember the two million dollars Boulder County paid for the Olsen property and it's only purpose was to connect the dots and make the Picture Rock Trail a reality to realize support for Open Space is warranted. Left Hand Canyon Drive, James Canyon Road, Nelson Road, 75th Street, and so many more road widening projects have been made possible by the transportation tax. The St Vrain Greenway, the UP railroad to Erie, and the Boulder Feeder Canal are projects that need this tax to continue.