Housekeeping, Part II (Electric Boogaloo)

 Yep, I stole the idea for that title from you, George.  It’s difficult not to do it when talking about sequels.

Anyway, after taking care of most of my bikes last week, I realized that I hadn’t really been taking care of my bike area.  Over the years, I’ve accumulated tons of spare parts that will probably never find a home on anything I own.  I’ve managed to build a few complete bikes that went the hell away, but there were still tons of things that I will most likely never use.

Like this pile of 26 inch tires, roadie wheels, and assorted shitty drivetrain stuff.

Or a rear shock that I still have for some reason:

How about a brand new 26 inch tire that I won at a race last year?

A pile of POS 26 inch suspension forks?

I even found a (used only once) mitre saw buried in there.

Okay, that wasn’t bike-related, but the pile of bike shit I had covered it up.

I found some 29er tires, but they are wire bead so I won’t dare use them.

I’ll probably donate most of this stuff to the local Trips For Kids chapter, and hopefully they can use it.  I may sell a few things here locally, but it’s not like I’m sitting on a gold mine or anything. 

I just really needed to clear some space so I could get an unobstructed view of my autographed Dolemite movie poster.

I still have a shitload of stuff, but at least it’s all usable (and now packed away neatly.)  We still have way too many bikes for just three people though.

Two of those are of the full squish 26 inch variety, and they will be finding new homes soon, hopefully.

So yeah, if you ride bikes and work on said bikes it’s pretty easy to gather useless shit.  I really hate to get rid of stuff, but I can’t see any reason to keep it around.  In the future, maybe I can just get rid of old stuff every time new stuff comes rolling in.

That would make sense.

I don’t really like to make sense.

Have you looked in your bike room lately?

Oh yeah, I’m racing again this weekend in Columbia, SC.


I will be bringing gears this time.

Who gives a shit.

The Waiting Game

Little Miss Sunshine’s new frame is on the way, but it can’t get here fast enough for me. I know she’s ready to enjoy the single speed life, but I just want to build a new bike. I know Canada is a long way from here, so I have to show a little patience.


Screw that shit.


I have so much pent up bike-building energy that I feel like ripping people’s arms out of their sockets. Since I’m not really violent (most of the time anyway), I have to find other things to do that will pass the time.


I’ve been spending my evenings wandering around the garage looking for shit that needs to be fixed on our bikes. Everything is pretty much tip top, and I don’t need to start unfixing things just for the chance to fix them again. You following me here?


Anyway, as we wait for the frame to arrive from the Great White North, the parts gathering continues. The Space Cowboy was kind enough to sell me one of his spare cranksets, and I picked it up da udda day.



We just need to acquire a 32 tooth SS ring for it.


Next up, I grabbed my old set of 29er wheels (which will be donated to the new SS) and figured out what they needed to be “trail worthy” again. Since they were setup ghetto tubeless a few years ago, I decided that I should change the tape.


I pulled out the Gorilla tape and got to work.




I mounted up a set of Kenda Small Block 8 tires and poured in the Stan’s. Two scoops and I was ready to let the sealant do its work.





I’ve been sealing up Kenda tires for a while now, so I’m getting pretty good at it. After a little bit of time, we now have a set of tubeless wheels and tires for the new bike.





At this point I started to take inventory of the parts we’ve acquired. I took a gander in the box of shit I had set aside.



Handlebars, a choice of stems, seatpost, wheel skewers, brakes, chain, and assorted “small parts.”


By my calculations, the only things we need are the frame (on the way, remember?), a headset (also on the way), and a seat. I told the little lady she doesn’t need a seat, since she’ll be standing up all the time anyway on a single speed.


She wasn’t buying that, so there will be seat shopping in the future I guess. That’s all on her.


As soon as the frame gets here, I’ll get to work. Building bikes is one of my most favorite things to do (besides riding them), and this one will be even better because I don’t have to install any shifty bits. I’ll probably only need a total of two beers to get everything together and ready to ride. If it takes less time than that, then I’ll still probably drink two beers.


Hell, maybe I’ll have three.


And now, I wait.

Wasting Time

Yeah, that’s what I did on Sunday. Originally I thought I would go for another bike ride, but I kinda overdid it riding at the year-end party on Saturday. I wasn’t hurting too bad, but I didn’t want to mess up the whole recovery process of my broken riblet. I thought that it would be better to take it easy and stay off the bike, even though I was dying to get back on it. The Dirty party Cycle was taking his big wheels out to Sherman Branch for a nice ride, and I kind of regret not going. I’ll resume a regular riding schedule soon enough, I suppose.


So what did I do? Well, to keep with the title of this post, I decided to waste a little time shopping for bike shit I didn’t need. Yep, I grabbed the fam and went to the Charlotte Motor Speedway for the The Big Stampede Southeast Bike Expo & Swap.


Yeah, it’s a shitty photo, but whatever.


This event is basically a bicycle parts flea market, and I figured that we should go in case there was something we couldn’t live without. I’m a sucker for new (used) shit, so I hoped that I would find some deals. We drove into the infield of the racetrack to get to the shopping goodness, and what I saw was a NASCRAP lover’s dream:







We each paid our five bucks at the gate and went inside. It colder than Jack Frost’s nipples outside, so it was nice to get inside with hundreds of other warm bodies. The place was fairly crowded with deal-searchers such as myself, but a little light in the vendor department. I snapped a quick photo of the inside stuff:



We walked around to each table, and everywhere we went we ran into someone we knew. I spent more time talking to my cycling friends than I did shopping. I didn’t find a whole lot to make me part with my cash either. So, it looks like I paid money to socialize with the rest of the Charlotte cycling community. We all wandered around looking for anything we could buy, but I was striking out. Quite a few of my cohorts said the same thing. We went for one more pass through the exhibitors, and I finally found something:



Yep, knee warmers. It’s starting to get cold here, and I found something to keep my knees from freezing. I guess that’s a common problem with cycling in the winter, so crisis averted. Lunchbox picked up some DeFeet arm warmers, even though he already has a pair. He said he would use the new ones for skateboarding. Good idea, I guess. Little Miss Sunshine picked up some things and put them back, having a hard time deciding if she really needed anything at all. I guess it was somewhat of a wasted trip, aside from all the socializing we did. I think we pretty much made out like Charlie Brown at Halloween.



Yeah, I usually like going to this event, but this year it wasn’t so great. There were a few of the “usual” vendors missing, but I don’t think that was the problem. Maybe I have enough shit accumulated in my garage to keep from from buying new shit to accumulate. I only have one project in the works (single speed conversion on my 29er), and I have everything I need for that (for now.) I guess I should get started on that pretty soon so I’ll have something decent to talk about. The Big Stampede was not what I had hoped for.



I do have some exciting news forthcoming, but I’ll wait as long as possible to tell you like I always do.

There's More Work To Be Done I Guess

Since it’s now the “offseason”, I gotta find some shit to keep me busy. The days are getting shorter, which means soon I won’t even be able to ride after work anymore. Currently I’m able to get out of work, haul ass over to one of my local trails, and get a lap in before dark. The other day I had a nice surprise though, since I got out really early and had time for some daytime riding at Sherman Branch.



Sorry, but I don’t have any “action shots” from the trail. The ride was fast and fun. I was worn out when I finished, and that was the goal I guess. I guess you’ll have to take my word for it. One of these days though, I’ll get one of those fancy helmet cameras and start making some videos. That will surely help pass the time around here. Videos are always a good thing. For now maybe I can show you a sex tape:




Anyway, since it won’t be long until I’m only riding on the weekends, I have to keep my new little helper busy. I did mention that there are a few parts and such slowly trickling into the B-43 Worldwide Headquarters though. I have lots of “projects” in mind. Changing the wheels on Little Miss Sunshine’s bike was one of them, and now I can cross that off the list. Another thing I’ve been wanting to do is to change the rear shock on my full squishy bike, Goose.


Back when I broke it and got a new one, I knew I would eventually need to change the shock. My 2008 Diamondback Sortie 3 had four inches of rear travel, and the 2009 Sortie 3 and later all have five inches. When Diamondback sent me a new frame, they didn’t send a new shock. The shop just used the old one.


It was a nice shock, but it kind of screwed up the ride. My bottom bracket and pedals were lower to the ground, so I kept bumping into stuff (like rocks.) This kept me from really enjoying the bike when I rode it, so I finally ordered a new shock.





It was basically the same shock, but a little longer (matching the original specifications from Diamondback.) This was an easy thing to replace, but I still let R2-D2 do it. I sat back with a beer as he removed the old shock from the frame:




After replacing the mounting hardware, R2 installed the new shock, inflated the air canister, and tested it. I took the photo:



I took a little test ride and I was amazed at the difference. The bike handled a lot better, which is probably why these bike companies spend tons of money on shit like research, engineers, and other fancy stuff. Once again my R2 unit did a great job on the mechanic work. There will be plenty of work for him in the future, including this:



Yeah, that’s a new cassette. There’s been talk of me doing the single speed thing on my 29er, but for now I may put this cassette on so my rides will be a little “easier.” It’s an 11-34, and I’m currently running an 11-32. It won’t be a huge difference, but it will help me in the offseason should I choose to drink more beer and ride my bike fewer miles (which is very likely.) I know, I should be training in the offseason, but I’ll probably just take it easy for a while. Maybe I’ll just look for a tandem bike and have someone pull me around the trails this winter…