Tied One (or three) On

Moots Night Presented By DSG was a hoot. If you made it out, thanks for coming, if you didn't maybe next time. Here are some snap shots from early in the night. I'm off to pack for tomorrow's trip. Enjoy.

Hi Jeanie!

Fresh of the plane, it's Proud Papa gRant "the Bulldog" Castle.

Mr. Moots?

Mootsman!!

59 Tons and What Do You Get...

Walz Bunyan

... in this case, lunch, dinner, several Yuenglings, nerve damage to the left hand, swollen fingers, and lots of fatigue.

After a full weekend of trail work, I came home to days of barn work. Gravel work to be specific. My hands are absolutely wrecked, but the barn looks pretty sweet. 37 tons of 3/4" rock laid down 4" thick (some deeper spots) to level out the pad, then 22 tons of crush and run on top.


Hannah and H. traded turns with the skid steerer, which did the scooping and most of the hauling, but it was all wheel barrel loads and hand shoveling to fill the stalls and level the hallway. It was a lot of shoulder/back breaking work but well worth it in the long run (or so I'm telling myself). Luckily I can always count on Slumlord Joe for some beer thirty carb reloading.


H. and I started re-hanging the stall doors today but ran out of screws/lags for the last two as the old ones were just not up to another trip into the walnut boards.


Tonight it's TOOTs for MOOTS at the Tap Room, don't forget. I think OldGreg and I are going to ride the ti bikes in, which is good news as I've been cranky not getting to ride my bike any lately. Tomorrow I'm off to South Carolina for a SORBA Board of Directors meeting. Not sure what to expect, but hoping it'll be a grand time. We'll be camping and I'm told there are some sweet trails nearby, even ones that'll be ridable if the predicted rain comes to fruition.

Ti One On Thursday (TOOTs for MOOTS?)

Also, this just in (devil is in the details (comments)). Misfit Psycles' DSG Dance Party is going to be 80's themed (when punk was punk). Apparently inspired by the old school styling of my current temporary ride rebuild and their recent RAD (hey Clay, do we have time to build the "Cru Jones HellTrack"?) inspired Nummers arrival. How many jelly "Crush the Corporation" bracelets can you fit on your wrists? Parachute knickers and spd air jordan's encouraged. Don't forget your Swiftwick leg-warmers.

DSG/SORBA Weekend (aka A Night at the Barn)

Paul Bunyan? John Henry? Nope, just two-hand hammerer Clay

Clay and SORBA (MidTn) hosted back to back workdays this past Saturday and Sunday at the Cotton Mill Preserve (home of DSG). A crew of 20-ish showed up and were divided into groups and sent out to the areas on the trail needing work. Some trimmed privet, some cleared the trail tread of the heavy leaf coverage, and others got to cut new sections of trail.

The canine crew working on the Lucy's Loop re-route.

We were able to get a surprising amount of work completed within about 4.5 hours. Clay had some local barbecue brought in for lunch while the crew members rested and exchanged stories. Afterwards some of the crew headed home, a few (including Clay) headed back into the woods to finish off a new trail section, while the remainder of us suited up and enjoyed a backwards loop of the DSG course before the temps dropped and the rain moved in.

Sunday was a smaller group in size, but we still managed to complete myriad projects, including building a bridge over a ravine on a newly constructed trail, re-routing a power line descent, cutting out dead fall, clearing stubs, and cutting back more privet. Another loop of the trails post work was enjoyed by a few, followed up with pizza, gyros, and stage 8 of the Tour of California at Raphael's.

Doug's digs rock.

Darryl and Hunter survey the lean of the bridge before planking begins.

SORBA MidTn President Kelly giving a helping foot.

OldGreg thinks pointing is working.

OldGreg, master of the drill

SORBA MidTN Secretary Tryon, Monster, and others working on the new downhill

The Shenanigans:


So the above covers the work and some of the fun, but armed with a warhead of Dos Perros, a fifth of Prichard's Double Barrel Bourbon, a flask of Sweet Lucy, and a stack of pizzas the evening is bound to offer some belly laughs. It was pretty adult and tame until Officer Shrek's eye for the details noticed a small skirmish between Jeffy and Big Poppy. The outcome was a small, patch-able rip to Poppy's jeans. Not knowing his own freakish strength, Officer Shrek lifted a finger to help Jeffy's cause, the result being Poppy's pants requiring more than a patch and the left leg ripped up to the crotch.

e-tape to the rescue. Big Poppy and his pants

Not letting the slight against him go unanswered, Poppy set upon Jeffy's shirt pocket, tearing it a little. No worries Poppy, Officer Shrek is in the house. Letting down the same finger, Jeffy's shirt was soon missing 1/4 of it.

my favorite shirt!

One button wonder shirt at the end of the night.

Kelly mending the 'rip' (or is that instigating?)

If you couldn't make this weekend's festivities, fear not, the fun doesn't stop there. Come out to the Yazoo Tap Room this Thursday:

DSG at Tap Room 2/26

Ti One On happy hour at the Yazoo Tap Room on Thursday February 26 from 6-8. Come hang out with your old friends, meet a few new ones and enjoy a cold Yazoo - The first one is on DSG! This will be your chance to make your donations to SORBA/IMBA and get a crack at taking home a real Ti beauty. You can also register for DSG if you already haven't. We'll have random drawings for cool schwag and darn tootin' good time.

Measuring Up: It's Beginning To And Back Again

I managed to get the Litespeed built up, transforming it from daily commuter/gravel grinder to Black (& white ti) Death spreading mountain bike mode. The rear wheel is my faithful, but overly neglected, White Industries Eccentric Eno hub mated to one of their 18tooth trials Eno freewheel laced to a rhyno-lite rim. The wheel still spins forever despite noticeable play and gritty grinding in the bearings from years of abuse. Someday I'll press new bearings in. Maybe.

Reflecting on the re-build:

This is my first ever SS wheel and freewheel from '05. It has tens of thousands of miles on it. 3 ORAMMS, 2 cross series champ trophies, several Yazoo Alley Cats, gobs of SouthernX grit, hours of bike polo, and more rainy rides than I can remember. If I had a semi-approval seal, or a Neumeyer Scale of my own, WhiteInd would be in my top 3 most trusted bike part manufacturer. People often gripe about their price for freewheels, but I say they are worth every copper coin and still cheaper and longer lasting than most cassettes people put on their bikes. Plus the added benefit of no ACS claw-like knocking.

The repaired frame (can't wait for my double pass welds) is also my first SS dating back to '05, which is when I really started to try my hand at racing and discovered, after a long year of travel and races, that I liked long, arduous, epic endurance races and the simplicity of singlespeeding better than gadgets, shifty bits, short laps, and suspension.

Upgrades to this re-building include my wonderfully compliant Vicious Cycles fork and Avid BB7 disc brake. The single digit 7 is still employed in the rear due to the lack of disc brake mounts on the frame, but they still do a good job of slowing me down.

Racing the ti frame at SouthernX after racing on steel for so long really had me missing some of the qualities this old frame had to offer. It'll be a fun month of riding while I anxiously await this frame to fail* and the new ti ride's arrival.

(*: it's just what I do)

I know ya'll are diggin' the dope black and white motif. It's just coincidence though.

For OldGreg and others that know me, yes I stepped up the measuring to include my recently added $0.79 plastic protractor. I marked and measured 5 separate times, then took the average, which was pretty easy as the results came out the same.

result of a/c going from 413mm to 438mm = 1degree

Tomorrow morning the wupples and I are off to Fayetteville (home of DSG where you can buy tickets for a chance to win a Moots) for a weekend of SORBA led trail work, camping, and hopefully riding. (chance of rain Sat but the forecast changed to rain from 2pm-6pm ish @ 40% vs all day at 60%). If you're in the area come on out. I bought some Yazoo Brew last night to help quench the thirst and wash down the barbecue. Poster with details below.

Road Trip!

My parents came down South for the weekend and we headed out for a short road trip.

No, not that kind:

Insiders note: Papa Ted is a Fireman. The Hil(l)ary's are not.

This kind:

Moments before the oft occurring middle finger gesticulation

sinister shenanigans lurk behind the glass

Plans were semi-prepared Thursday night at the Yazoo Tap Room. A nefarious little affair surrounded by beer and bearded people.



So, what type of things do Firemen and mountain bikers do on vacation? Tour distilleries and breweries of course! First stop, pick up some Dickel. It's going to be a long weekend.


Once you've arrived at the destination town, it's always good to seek out local distilleries that may not always be 'on the map' or legit.

mmm.... gnomeshine!

Next step, sample the local cuisine. It's best to do this where they happen to brew local beer too. Helps add to the ambiance and if the food sucks, maybe the beer won't.


The Terminal BrewHouse. Good food. Decent beer. I had their stout, the others had their hefe. They also hand out over-sized cards for numbers. I think dad's charm came across fairly accurately to the hostess, as witnessed by the given card.

The Joker

One place we found by accident (they were waiting for us to return from the Incline Railroad) was the Blacksmith's Bistro & Bar. Very good food, cool vibe, and good beer and wine selections. Definitely worth of stop if you're ever in Chattanooga's St. Elmo area.

Other important things going on:

I'd be remiss not to point out the recent begging and pleading resonating from further East. Please help send Dicky to the Breck Epic Stage race. Vote for Dicko! Trust me, you don't want to read his wrath if he loses. It'll be daily mope stories and how we all suck for not helping him win. It'll be worse than crumbling corporations. Yup, the blame will befall us. He's one of 'those' kind. It's never his fault, always your fault.

Please, do all you can to send whiny britches to Breck.

Things Keep Falling Apart

Bitten by the snake again. This time Snake Bottom trail out at Monkey Bell. Out enjoying a varied mixing of little ridden trails at the Bell Monday with the Enforcer (aka 8Ball), I crested a root pile and clipped a pedal on the down stroke (damn low Surly BB) and a weird metallic pop resonated up from the frame. A quick glance downward showed the down tube vibrating, but everything seemed to still be holding together. (side note: I peeled off all the paint around the "crack" to see how bad it was, turns out only the paint was cracked, the down tube is just buckled so I chanced riding it until the Moots arrives). I started to pedal off and that's when I noticed the source of the noise, the left crank arm.

Building of the SurlSpeed

4 hard years on this crank had me feeling like it was only a matter of time anyway, but I was betting on the pedal end to fail. Oh well, at least I wasn't 100's of miles away or in the middle of some lethal rocky descent (Farlow). The bike had been riding kind of funny anyway so I took it as a sign that I just need to stop riding the bike. Back home in the bike lab I started compiling parts. Hopefully the SurlSpeed will keep me rolling until the Moots shows up. I'm also banking on my 3 deaths being over: 1. rear hub 2. buckled frame 3. broken crank.


The SurlSpeed should be fun for a while. It'll be rocking the mullet, all business up front and party in the back, an eccentric eno hub (looks like WhiteInd's came up with a better disc mount for the eccentric too), and old square taper cranks and BB. I'm hoping to have it all together in time for the SORBA work weekend at the Cotton Mill Preserve this weekend as well as the FATS rides for the SORBA main meeting the following weekend.



The bike lab has been busy with other projects too. Primarily the mounting and testing of the first of 3 Misfit Psycles bar options. First up the FU-Bar. Initial thoughts on the bar are that it feels very close in hand position to the h-bar but is much easier to use trigger shifters and brake levers on. It also feels wider than it is. It's replacing an Easton Monkey Bar (carbon) and the weight difference (in hand) seems negligible. Seeing the crack in the Monkey Bar when pulling off the grips however, ads a huge advantage to the Misfit Psycles bar in the piece of mind category.