Rigors First Tap

Thursday I got off the farm, out of the cave and over to the 200 for some work with the Sharpmeister. gRantpa was able to sneak out for a bit and bossed us around, harangued us, and generally spouted obscenities at us as he frequently likes to do.

You sank my battleship!

Chillin' on the porch

The highlight of Thursdays with Sharpie (soon to be a best selling book and Oscar winning movie) is the urban rides to pick up the Vivster at school. Rolling back with her in her chariot shooting glances and chattering away. I get a kick out of the cars driving by taking double takes like they just can't believe a kid is actually in the trailer, generally followed up with a huge grin.


After a full morning and afternoon filled with progress on the project, we were able to skirt out by 7pm to sneak a pint or two of Yazoo's Firefly ale with the crew out at the tap room. A new bike build just isn't complete until its ripped some urban with friends and leaned in a bike pile at the brewery. Props out to Hannah (er, I mean bad Hannah bad! - right Joe?) for riding from Joelton to the tap room on the Fish!

Build Complete

Papa Ted's favorite Brewery Gal: Beth and her new Kitten Sippy.

Oh, and Dichie: For those little bolts (Not to be confused with Will Bolt) on the sliders:


I'm a born and raised Sears guy. 5/16th Craftsman nut driver is the go to tool choice.

When Armageddon comes, only cockroaches and Craftsmen tools will survive.

Big Scroll Photo Ketchup

With the arrival of the Rigormootis and all the activity this past weekend, I missed out on posting all the adventures from the last weekend of March. Though the weather was similar to the first weekend of April - 70 degrees and sunny followed by tornado laden storms then 30 degree temps.

Props to Meanjoe for his SS class win out a the Chickasaw Classic. He was a dangling third most the race but put forth a solid attack and held off two strong contenders (Troy Tucker and Notorious Adam D) for his first 'W' of the season.

Meanjoe crossing the line. photo cred Big Poppy

Saturday started off horsing around at Percy:

H. and The Gov'na cross country. photo cred: krs-1

No wonder she destroys me on technical downhills

Weston showed up having toted his papa around the hills. When you don't give in...

He give you the boot to the head!

The Amazing Stanley Wills - I hope to be like him when I grow up!

Smith County Mafia Member Eric (seemed to have added a few cogs this year)

Ever wonder what a roadie on grass looks like? Here's one version.

Adam on his final lap

krs-1 finishing up a cold muddy race

Harpeth Hank out rippin'it up on his 650b Serotta timax

Once again, the Great Fondoadie!!!

IMBA/SORBA Trail Care Crew Day

Standing Tall: New Moots mini silo at Lock 4

In between the freakish rain storms and tornadic weather fronts greeting middle TN lately, a nice sunny weekend finally graced us. The weather left most of the trails too wet to ride, but not too wet to work. The IMBA trail care crew of Collins and Kelly were in town for an advanced trail building / work day. About 15 volunteers showed up to work and learn. It was a fun crew, lots of 70's & 80's theme song challenges, trivia, and trail side comedy keeping everyone entertained while working and learning.

Glamor shots: IMBA Kelly and IMBA Collins

Before embarking on a big workday, make sure to eat a big breakfast.
H. made this one for me for our 6monthiverary.

Pre-work socializing

Darryl: safety chat and work day details.
Like how to avoid the Snow White and the John Henry techniques.

Slip Slidin' Away: A victim of the recent storms

On the menu for the day was getting the new re-route benched in and the old, eroding and falling into the river trail closed up. Several water holding and drainage issue spots were attended too as well.

Cutting the bench

Eddie and the Bench Boys

Collins demonstrating how to achieve a bench with a 5% grade

Sam, Aaron, and Carolyn working on the exit transition

Collins checking the finished work.

While working on the exit transition we noticed an area of trail that was quickly falling off into the lake. We took steps to re-route the drainage water coming off the steep slopes and armored up the gap with 3' of rock.

Sam P. leading the armoring.

It's like caveman tetris

Finished.

The drain shunt.

Since the trail at Lock 4 was still a muddy mess in spots, the SORBA planned group ride was moved to our local wonder trail Montgomery Bell. The weather was calling for 70 degrees then strong storms by the afternoon with chance of snow on Monday (wtf?). Since I'd not gotten a chance to really test out the Mootsupial on dirt, several of us met out at varying times to get some extra time in the saddle. Shortly after 10am I met up with the 8Ball (Enforcer) and the Clarksville 29'er crew for a quick lap before heading back to the trail head to hook up with Eastbound Jeffy and OldGreg. T.roy showed up, which was a great surprise, as it's been too long since I've gotten to ride on the trails with one of my old trail riding 'teachers'.

Back into the woods for a few hours until it was time to meet up with those showing up for the SORBA group rides. The weather had been sunny and hot, but now the clouds were rolling in and the temps dropping. A few of us dropped back into the trail for a short fast loop to kill some time while the others were still getting ready to ride.

Back out shortly before 2PM and the groups were quickly divided up hoping to beat the impending storm. Only 3 opting to ride with me ("opting" or "forced" big poppy?) Big Poppy, OldGreg, and Lefty "Take me to the Goat Path" Scott. We meandered through the myriad trails and crossed paths with several from the other groups, though never feeling a bottleneck or over crowded. As we rode the back yellow sections, you'd think there weren't any others out on the trail despite the completely packed parking lot. It was a good ride, we didn't just hammer away but worked on and talked about high speed cornering, not braking in the turns, momentum, and climbing techniques.

As luck would have it, the storms missed us allowing all to enjoy several hours of riding before topping it off with some local White Bluff Mexican cuisine at El Monte (now able to serve beer). The work and play weekends are fun, we really should work to get one a month for all the local trails. They're good for not only building trail, but for building community.

Nosy Neighbors

Hi, we're here for Hannah, is she home?

While making lunch today, the neighbors decided to drop by unannounced. Rather than knock they decided to just peer in the window and make silly noises. I think they said they're from Candandia.


Yesterday H. and I were able to escape for a 30+ mile spin in the highlands. H. said she got "thadded", implying I got her out for a "short" spin that turned into a multi-hour hillfest.... pfff whatever.

hey mr, nice chainline

Good news: The crank held together (so far). The sliders held tight, even on the steepest of local pitches (even that one krs), and the frame soaked up the grassy field chatter nicely when cyclocrossing the fields around the greenway (the fat knobby tires helped too). The real noticeable difference of the Rigormootis over my previous 2 mtb frames is the stiffness when climbing. I'm attributing it to the monostay design, though the beefy stays probably help some too. I've had 2 other frames (one carbon and one aluminum) that had a monostay design and both were my favorite climbing/sprinting bikes, they felt like every crank was transferred directly to forward progress. The Rigor has the same feeling. It definitely lives up to its name.

Another line of strong storm producing weather fronts are beating up on middle Tennessee today. Be careful out there.

Mmmm, Crow Burgers

FlutterMootis? H. bought me stickers

Tuesday I zipped down to MOAB for the boys to check out my '08 Stylo crank. There were 10mm of spindle showing on the drive side between the bearing and the crank arm when it was all put together. My previous '05 made one sat flush. Fearing it'd lead to more crank woes like a previous set, I wanted master Ivory to check my unhandy work.

In the houses of the holy

After messing with the setup and trying different bb configs, a call to SRAM asking WTF was made. They said it was supposed to have 12mm exposed non-drive side spindle and that the nds race would stop the spindle where needed. 68mm BB requires 1 spacer per side and that it was "normal" for the extra spindle to show drive side. mmm okay (I really need to be more trusting eh? ). So Ivory snugged it all back up and I was back in business just in time for the rain. Woot!

Back Alley Shake Down

So, now to the part about eating crow. Some of the guys are heading to dirt at differing times today. The only dry local trail is about a 2 hour round trip for me. Not trusting the SRAM phone voice, I'm leery of a long drive just to experience the life of Dicky. I've got plenty of highland hills and some off road testing grounds around home, so H. and I are going to head out after lunch for a spin. Not wanting to spin 35x19 on the road, I decided to put my smallest available cog on. Thanks to pPeter that would be 17t, not 16.

A choice was to be made.

Oregano or Canardia?

Canardia wins!

So, remember my rants about the silly little bazillion bolts and tools required of the new improved way? Above you can see that I have inserted the newly re-cogged 17t wheel into the existing 19t setup and have loosened the keeper bolts that like to loosen in that particular setup. Notice how far the bolts stick out in the forward position.

The position was chosen so I can run 35x19, 35x18, 35x17 or 34x19, 34x18, 34x17 without needing to break the chain and add/remove a link. The sliders allow for it just as my old faithful horizonal track ends on the 1x1 did. (Note: the elusive 35x16 still untested)

Ok, so maybe they are better

Well, swapping the gear and re-tensioning the chain was pretty simple. Above you can see the bolt marks illustrating the difference from 19t to 17t. The silly bolts that gave troubles before, now seat in better with less wiggle n jiggle. Perhaps just shorter bolts to use when forward would resolve the wiggling loose? Anyway, I'm feeling much happier with the sliders. The Moots brake guides allow for ease of pulling brake line through to move the disc side slider, no need to fuss with zip ties. Clean and easy.

The other exciting thing is I can finally hook my bob trailer up to my singlespeed without needing to order special bolts. The accompanying quick release skewer will now work without the cargo weight moving the axle as with the old horizontals. BIG bonus. H. is stoked as now she can load the trailer up with the recycling so I can haul it off and out of the way. Yay?

In other news, the White Lightning TT and XC is April 18th and 19th. There is also a SORBA/DSG workday on April 18th. Decisions decisions. I want to support both causes as both Steve Wilson/WoodNWave and Clay/DSG/SORBA do a lot for our little neck of the woods. In any event, I'd like to ride to and from whichever event. The bob trailer is just begging for an excursion. Any interest?