Yes, Virginia, 27-inch wheels are still available

I don't think I have to tell you who this Craigslist ad is coming from if you are a regular reader of Cycle Snack, but if you need a reminder then please watch the following YouTube vid (I love watching these commercials):



As usual his marketing tactics are always a pleasure to read:

Nefarious forces in the bicycle industry will tell you that new 27-inch wheels are extinct. They want you to throw away your great ole' steel road bike, and buy an overpriced, shoddy new aluminum or carbon shitter.

I have over 100 brand new 27-inch wheels in stock. (list below)

These old bikes can be restored, or converted to single speed, inexpensively. I can convert for you with a new rear wheel, new chain, and single-speed freewheel for $60.

For another $60 you can get a new bottom bracket AND a new crankset.

Go to your local bike shop and ask for a single-speed or fixed-gear conversion on your old bike. If they try to upsell you to a new bike, than walk your ass out the door.

The bike manufacturers are doing a horrible job these days, producing overpriced junk. The Shimano monopoly produces flimsy, finicky derailleurs and shifters, which never work correctly.

ONWARD, TO THE PAST !! Go Single Speed !

Some good deals that's for sure but he'll get you in shipping if you are not local. I have been tempted to buy a wheelset but to make it worth while you really need to buy a couple of them. Kind of like ordering something from NYC bikes: if it's a small item like a fork, they'll charge you $8 to ship (to CT atleast) and it's $40 for a large item like a wheelset or frame.

Ride Report: demi Monster Cross

Took the dMC (demi Monster Cross) out for a test ride midday Sunday. Hoping it would warm up a little with the sun out but the winds kept the temperature in the upper 20s. There was a pair of knobbiess preceding me but they looked like the same pattern - I didn't look to closely but I think they were Frank's.

Even though hunting season is now over I still Oranged up because as I have found this is my best cold weather riding jacket, besides my Army PT jacket. This was an opportunity to try out my new Giro Hex that I have been wanting for the past year. In fact it's the 2007 styled helmet because the 2008s didn't have this color pattern. Maybe it's the old soldier in me but when ever I see olive green or woodland camouflage I get excited.

Anyway, the new helmet is really nice! The Giro Hex replaced the Giro MX (click for closeup or just look at my profile picture), which I wear in cold weather because it's really hot. It was a little hard to do an actual comparison on this due to the cold and the fact that I was wearing an ear band so you will have to wait for that post.

Basically, I did my bread and butter ride which is a 6 mile loop that consists of a little hard ball road, dirt road, fire road, and single track. The 32:22 gearing was like spin class on the roads and I knew that going in. Once on the fire road, the gearing, in combination with the snow was a welcomed relief. The additional resistance that the snow and underlying ice gave made this gearing perfect.

Riding with the drop bars off road was an entirely new experience. With so many hand positions, it was a challenge figuring out which was best for the situation. For example, climbing: If I am down in the drops like I would be on a road climb my but is way up in the air. This puts all my weight in the front of the bike and even though I don't think the snow really mattered (but there could have been some influence) I spun out very quickly while climbing.

I also tried it in the brake position. That is where your hands are in the front of the drops or in the arch of the bars that start the drops and you can grab the brake levers. Again, I felt as if I was too far forward. I also tried holding onto the hoods and holding at the flat or highest part on the bars near the stem. With the hoods on an angle I felt kind of awkward but this position I thought gave me the best weight distribution.

At the tops of the bars, I felt I had no climbing leverage and I also felt vulnerable that I couldn't put a finger on a brake lever. Got me thinking that I might add a pair of cross levers here. I think I have to do a few more rides to figure out what works best and obviously need to wait for the snow to melt.

As you can see in this gratuitous bike porn shot that my seat is angled too far downwards. My friend Mark, who runs a blog about 29ers, 69ers, and various other mtb freakjuice topics but stopped posting but needs to start again if he hopes to sell any bikes (hint, hint), pointed it out to me yesterday. So that is one change I am going to make and while I am at it I am going to push the seat as far forwards as it will go. I think I need to be more centered on the frame so that if I am down in the drops I can push my butt back to keep my center of gravit centered on the frame.

The other thing I noticed is that I still feel hunched foward in the cockpit. I bet if I were rocking an actual 29er fork my AC height would be better and I wouldn't need to try to find a way to raise the bars. In the interim I am going to cannibalize the profile comfort stem that I put on my daughter's bike - she doesn't need it anymore because I am moving her up to 24 inch wheels anyway - which has 3 inch rise at a 135 degree angle.

The only other adjustment at this point is the rear brakes. They were not tight enough out of the gate. Other than the climbing issues and a new set bars requiring a new style of riding, it was a fun ride. Of course the 69er concept really held it's own in the technical sections of the Gussy Trail. I didn't do the big Up-and-Over before the climb to the Three Sisters Roller but I did do the one that Frank built. Actually, you have no choice on the Up-and-Over That Frank Built unless you want to dismount and walk over it. As I mentioned before, the gearing was perfect for the conditions but I am going to race this bike then I am going to probably need a bigger ratio, like 32:19 or 32:18.

I noticed post ride I didn't feel like I was beat to a pulp after riding rigid. I guess that makes me a real man now! I will make the modifications that I can do right now and give it another try in the coming weeks. I still need to take the 'Horse back out and see if the gearing issues are resolved. I guess that is one of the issues of having a big stable all the fillies want a turn.

Demi Monster Cross

Click here for more Monster Cross bikes at Cycle Snack.

After last Wednesday's walk of shame I finally got around to putting the 'Horse back together. The second tube suffered a snake bite, indeed, and I spent Saturday morning rummaging around the garage looking for a new tube. Found one and repaired the two from the ill fated ride. Cleaned the bike up, put it all together and took it down the drive way for a little spin in my jammies (the only way to do bike maintenance on Saturday morning) to see if the gearing was still a problem but I couldn't tell. Guess I will have to get it out on the trail and see how it works.

(The Cycle Snack Bike Kitchen)

Later in the day I started working on the Fetish Fixation to transform it back into a mountain bike. I wanted to turn it back into a 69er (26 inch wheel in the rear and 29 inch wheel in the front, thus 2-6 and 2-9, or 69er) and see what it's like riding a mountain bike with drop bars. It seems that the connotation of a Cyclocross bike is any bike with no suspension (compared to bike with, e.g. my Qball) and drop bars that is ridden off road. I have been wanting to build a monster cross, which is 29er bike with a rigid fork and drop bars, that a 69er would be a demi Monster Cross.

I was using the Fixation as a fixed gear commuter and it was great in the summer and fall when we had very little percipitation but moving into the winter and eventually spring if I am going to commute, I need something with finders. I put fenders on the 'Goose already and I intend to use them on the Bridgestone when I finally build that up to a fixed gear commuter. Converting the Fixation back to off road use meant primarily changing the drive train with lower gears for off road use.

One thing that had been nagging me was the rear brake. A bike that has a front disc brake and rear linear pull/cantilever brake is called a mullet. To maintain the black and white motif on the bike, I put on these white Tektro center pull brakes that gave me that black and white accent that I was looking for, along with a white brake cable and white fork.

However, for the last year I really haven't been able to adjust them to where I would be comfortable having to rely on them in an emergency situation. I figured as I was riding mostly fixed gear on the this bike they weren't all that necessary and not to mention you really need just one brake anyway and that is front brake. When braking, you just have to remember to keep your arms stiff and your weight to the rear of the bike unless you want to pull a superman and go flying over the bars.

It turns out that the right brake arm spring was broken. Guess that is why I could never get them to work for the past year. I put on the Avid Single Digits and they work really nice, although they are a pain to adjust but I guess that is why Santa brought me a fourth hand tool to make these adjustments easier.

I really wanted to ride with a 20t but that cog is on the Q Ball so I opted, initially, for an 18t. It was weird because with that size cog and the amount of chain I had I couldn't get the Surly Tugnut to sit properly. I had to ensure that I had enough chain to use my 20t TomiCog. So I went with a different chain tensioner, one that I was not entirely comfortable with.

In case you are wondering what a TomiCog is, it's a gear that uses the Disc Brake mount to mount fixed gear cog (seen below). 20t, or 20 teeth, is good cog for single speeding in New England and in fact that is what I am running on the Q Ball right now.

As I mentioned earlier, I wasn't satisfied with that chain tensioner so the following morning I added another link to the chain and went with a 22t cog for the freewheel. Afterall, since I was going to be riding in snow later that day the added resistance would make it pushing an 18t extremely difficult. In the picture below you can just make out the tip of the Surly Tugnut. What's so special about a Tugnut, it has a built in bottle opener and that can be extremely handy after a hard ride.

I don't recall where I read this but when you are setting up a cross country mountain bike you want to ensure that rear tire width is thinner than your front tire. I believe it has something to do with the contact patch of the rear tire being minimized so that your power is maximized and at the same time your front tire is wider and the contact patch is larger in order to facilitate better control and handling of the bike.

I decided to try out the tires that I got with the Bridgestone which are Specialized Hardrock 26 x 1.95s and with the exception of one knobby being broken off these tires are in fantastic shape. In fact they are much more knobbier than my Kenda Kerates, I figured it would be a great combination with a 29x2.1 Motoraptor upfront. Again, a narrower, ultra grippy rear tire combined with a fatter tire upfront.

Voila! The Demi Monster Cross. For now, I am halfway towards building a monster cross. The bike weighs 25 lbs and feels pretty good. Check back on Tuesday for the ride report.

Click here for more Monster Cross bikes at Cycle Snack.

Q Balls of a different color

The Q Ball still comes in stock black but the good folks over at the Bicycle Escape appear to be offering a custom paint job on the beloved Q Ball. Check out the Flickr page for more Q Balls. Now this baby is awesome, although it's too small for me:

Checkout this Yeti styled Monster Cross Q Ball from Calgone, a fellow blogger and Q Ball Owner.

I think if I were to ever repaint my Qball I would have to do it in red to match the red motive I already have going on. It might look something like this perhaps:

Here is what it might look if it were orange:
And like any true mad scientist, let's mix the colors and see what you get:

Another spin of the cog

Wasn't able to ride today so I thought I would reflect on 2008 and set some sights on some 2009 goals.

2008 was a tumultuous year for me. I really wanted to start racing on the Q Ball but a first quarter layoff at work put the brakes on those plans. It was a big let down and actually quite depressing but I bounced back quickly, found a new position, and picked up where I left off, sort of. Rather than racing, I got into fixed gear bikes and single speed conversions.

I acquired quite a few classic & vintage bikes this year through various means which basically led to my single speed conversion hobby. The aquisitions included:

1. Cannondale SR-300 thru FreeCycle, sold on Craigslist for $100
   
2. Bianchi Classica found on the side of the road after it wouldn't sell for $10 at a tag sale, sold on Craigslist for $400
   
3. 1975 Raleigh Super Course MKII for a six pack of Bass Ale - still building
   
4. Another Mongoose, this one a Switchback for $20 from Craigslist, now the family bike
   
5. Early '70s Peugot UO-8 from the town dump that I traded for two seat posts
6. A Diamondback 20" wheeled bike for my daughter, at a tag sale for $8, her first bike with gears
7. Another Tag Sale Freebie, A Columbia Woman's bike, that I gave to a neighbor (she's a doc) that helped us out in a pinch
8. My oldest mountain bike and dump refugee, a 1984 Nishiki Cascade, that I am slowly rebuilding into a fixed geared, single bike
9. Another salvage from the breakers is a Bridgestone MB-5 which will be my next fixed gear commuter.
10. Last but not least are two bikes, also refugees from the town dump, that include a 24" Full Suspension bike and a hard tail. Both of which need to be cleaned up but will give to my daughter and wife respectively.
    

2008 also saw some changes to the blog. I went legitimate with an official URL and a new name. I built a legitimate trail in a nearby state forest, which took a lot of my time. I got out a lot to ride but it was mostly in conjunction with the new trail so my overall trail mileage count for year was down compared to last year however I had double the commuting miles and half of those were riding fixed gear!

What's in store for 2009? I am going to race! Not trying to prove anything and I won't be quitting my day day job but I need a new challenge and I think that is going to be racing. Probably just hit those mountain bike races that are in CT, might try one or two NY that are nearby but just want to keep it local.

As for bikes, I hope to commute by bike more, especially now that I have the 'Goose set up with fenders.

Just finished putting on some Planet Bike ATB fenders on the 'Goose which really make this bike look nice. I have another set that I am going to put on the Bridgestone once I get the gearing figured out.


As far new acquisitions for 2009 I am first going to rebuild the Fetish Fixation into an All Mountain Hardtail, 1x9, and sell it. I am then going to buy a Kona Unit 2-9 and use that to replace the 'Goose commuter as a Monster Cross/Commuter and maybe try to pick up an Orange Surly 1x1 or fulfill my dream of finally owning a Pugsley!

Also planning on devoting more time to more collective trail efforts now that the Gussy Trail is almost complete. I would like to try to get a trail into Lower Paugussett State Forest at some point.

Lastly, besides trying to ride more with my kids, I hope to get more involved with some local charitable organizations to get more bikes into kids hands. I made a good start by getting involved with the Wheels for Kids program in Danbury and hope to participate more with that. I might also see about trying to set up a similar program in my town if that will work, or trying somewhere else.

Happy New Year and Happy Trails!