Bike Anatomy Week Day II

The second installment of my participation on the Great Blogcott of Aught Nine. (Aught Niner's day two).


The Moots slider drop outs. A curvy cowled drop beautifully double pass welded to round tubes of 3/2.5 titanium which keeps the flex out of the rear no matter where the slider is located. No creaking, no slipping. These used to be a hideous design in my eyes, but after a month of use and swapping from a 17t cog for pave and a 19t cog for trails, I've come to covet them in their ease and curved sexiness.

Bike Anatomy 101 Week

Can I play too? I've decided to throw my Walz Cap into the mix and participate in a Picture Post Week (akin to a Shark Week or Bond Week) during the Great Blogcott of Aught Nine.


First up the sexy Moots monostay, my new favorite piece of bike anatomy.

Thankfully they don't cost fifteen g's

Saw some sweet cranks from the Hive on Bike Rumor's site tonight. $300 for the SS crank, bb, and tool. 30mm bb spindle, pretty slick design, and 666g total weight.

Engineered and designed for durability, reliability, and lightweight, this crankset is based on the same technology used in WWII tank drivetrains.

Sign me up. (Squish, can I borrow have $300?)

Here's a new rear D for little rear D if'n he ran the clickies. Matches his headset and 8 spokes.

Fuzzy's Elephant

Another SORBA/DSG work day in the books. This time the trail was drier than the murky wet March work days. A smaller crew of workers were present, but a much larger group of pre-riders out and about.

I'd forgotten how fun this trail is, it's easy to recall the painful parts, but I'd forgotten the rocky, twisty, back country feel this trail offers up. The new sections really enhance the flow of the trail. Especially the downhill re-route before the power line climb up to Moore's Hill. You can really pick up some speed on that downhill now. That could be a great spectator/Nascar crash site during the race.


I got in 2 and a half laps before stopping to chow down some beer and pizza. As dusk came (before the rain) I headed out for a few repeats of Lucy's Loop, one of which with The Hannah just as darkness set in and the trail disappeared.

The added 7mm to the fork, whether placebo effect or actual, really improved the handling of the bike. Still surgically precise through the woods, the high speed technical descending stability was improved. I think 445mm might be the magic length for the new fork when the jar fills up. My only hope is that I feel as good come DSG as I did riding Saturday, because the bike feels great.

Pump Track Jim - wizard with a pile of dirt and a skid steerer

Tryon trying it out

Look! Into the turn it's The Assman!

My pre-ride partner David "Badass" Reed giving it a go

View of the table top before the West bank turn

Scuba Steve and his Lynskey. Check out the Yazoo Walz Cap (I swear they'll sell those things to just anybody)

Dirt jump/pump track crew taking a breather

Some of the volunteers enjoying the pizza and beer at the end of the day

Lucy trying to escape the lens, too slow Lucy!

Taking in the view with a cold Yazoo

DSG is May 9th. This year will feature a 20" bike night time trial, dirt jumps (complete with a starting ramp), pump track, races within the race, Misfit Psycles Dance Party and Dicky piñata bash, chance to win a Moots frame, and much much more. Hope to see you there.

Stackineering

Running old parts sometimes bites you in the arse. I've been running a Vicious Cycles rigid fork I bought off of Ivory (my go to bike part dealer) when my old Bomber died and the 1x1 fork just wasn't cuttin' it for me. It's been a solid great riding fork for me going on 2 years now. It's 438mm and worked great on my old Litespeed and Surly 1x1. It fits well on the new Moots Rigormootis, but since the frame was designed around a 470.5 mm a/c 100mm fork, it's a tad on the steep side in the current setup.

I run a 2.1 rear and a 2.35 front, so that helps keep the hta slack, but I was still missing about 7mm of a/c length. Enter bike numbers geek OldGreg. OldGreg sent me a link via chat to Ventana's site and their 7mm King base plate. Designed to add fork / down tube clearance for the ever increasing stack height of the new suspension fork designs, but I think it'll work well to give me the front lift I need on my very limited budget.

Art Bell at work

I swung by Eastside Cycles (the closest shop to my new locale and a great place to just hang out) and Dan swapped out the base plates for me. His "you'd better take this up the hill and back down the alley to see if it holds together" comment followed with "don't worry we'll be out in a few minutes to check on ya" didn't help me try to keep from my over-worrying. He knows where my buttons are.

The few short test rides have the bike riding like a bike. Perfect! 7mm is probably pretty minimal to notice, but the bike does feel a tad less front end biased now. Yard tests have it still feeling like a bike. SORBA/DSG are hosting another trail work weekend down at the Cotton Mill Preserve. I can't wait to get down and run it through the paces on the course of pain.


Why add a tall base plate and not buy a new fork? Well, I don't have the money for one, yet. I've been squirreling away all my spare change in the electronic change jar the EMIL got me a while back. Some told me to grab a taller 29'er fork, but I worry the added height will slacken the hta and combined with the longer rake the bike would be floppy. But I'm not an engineer. So I emailed a professional. He advised me on what I should do. So Walt, if you actually read this, I'm up to $189.19 now despite what the photo shows.

alms for the fork

POLOOTS

Rigorpootis? RigorPolootis?

Life is just too short for slow computers and busy schedules. The blog updates were put off until life settled to where I could spend an hour wasting away in front of the blogger editor. For those requiring daily updates, go visit Dicky he could use the inflated stats to re-inflate his ego. Apparently tax day made his 29" head shrink back near 26".

I don't recall much of Monday as it was mostly spent in front of a computer for long hours elbow deep in database quagmires and back end coding explorations. Much of Tuesday was similar except I was able to sneak out in the afternoon for a windy and cold 30 mile hill ride with the 8Ball on his swanky new singlespeeded Cross-Check. Love the whir of a White Industries freewheel. Tuesday night rekindled the Eastside Polo games. 6 players showed up in the cool night and started play as a few friends showed up to watch and a few more players made it over.

Since I'm down to a single mountain bike, the Rigormootis got called in. Despite still tinkering with fork length, the Rigor handled the court adeptly. Telepathic steering just as my old polo bike had, which means not only does the Rigormootis rock on the road, gravel, and trail, it also rules the polo court. My worn out shoes and cleats however, proved to be a comical relief for a few of the other players, given their propensity to come unclipped at the least opportune moment and leave me one legged drilling during the action.

T.roy and Me enjoying the pre-game banter and smack talk

OldGreg took this, it looks posed, but I was in motion, honest.

H working the back court.

H taking it down to score town

The celebratory beverage break between games

Wednesday brought about more play time out on the trails. It turned into a ti party with one steel framed party crasher, though his bumper sticker collection allowed him to sneak in past the bouncers.

As seen on the Mongootis' truck

The crew waiting on krs-1 and his fancy schmancy MootoX Slider YBB with matching Moots stem, bar, and seatpost. (lucky)

OldGreg, KRS-1, Eastbound Jeffy, Mongoose, and I met up for several hours of Monkey Bell - the only dry local trail we are blessed with so far this winter/early spring. We all have a busy season starting in less than 2 weeks ranging from 12 hours to hundies to twohundies. The month of May with it's events every weekend will truly be the Month of MAYhem (get it right Dicky, August != May). Gravel was an option, but time and wanting to get as much off road time in as possible, the bell won out favor and new routes were trudged on old familiar trails keeping it fresh. The goat path backwards has to be one of my new favorites out there. Actually, riding the esses and roller coaster backwards is fun too.

2 cogs, 2 socks

In between one of the rides, Jeffy and KRS-1 decided to do some Mootsprints in the parking lot. Eastbound Jeffy sporting the rigid forked Mooto-X Slider dinglespeed (he road +/-20miles to the trail) and 32x19 vs KRS-1 and his plush DT swiss forked Mooto-X Slider YBB and 32x20.

Eastbound Jeffy preparing for battle.

KRS-1 probably talking smack.

And their off!

KRS-1 by a few inches. Best of 3 would have KRS-1 taking the title, this time.

OldGreg probably eschewing why his Quiring 29'er is way better than my 26" wheeled Moots. I could have ordered a 29'er Moots, but then who would you all have to kick around, huh? Besides I like my serial number.

Wednesday night had the first of the open member SORBA board meetings. Several people showed up and lots of good information was given out on both ends. Several new trail opportunities are being looked into and several members are doing a great job of taking initiatives to help get things done. Exciting things hopefully will come to fruition with everyone's hard work and enthusiasm. Thanks to REI for lending out their spiffy new media room and to all who showed up to join in.

This weekend is the last of the SORBA/DSG work days before the race. If you missed out last time, get in for this go around. Saturday and Sunday at 9 at the Cotton Mill Preserve. Bring a bike to ride afterwards since the course will be open for pre-riding if the weather allows. I'm bringing the lights this time in hopes for some night laps. I just tweaked the a/c length on the Rigor +7mm and can't wait to test it out on the goodness that is the DSG course.

I Sold You Toads

Another weekend, another severe weather storm complete with tornados. Murfreesboro got hit again. So far all the friends and loved ones that we've been able to contact have been accounted. Thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by the 3 installment of strong storms.