Wednesday, November 30, 2005

yeeehaaaaaw!

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Monday, November 28, 2005

thornication at a secret location



Rode at an "undisclosed" location last Saturday. This trail system is not open to MTBers - yet. We were actually invited to "pre-ride" the trails in order to draw up a plan for the property's use to the government. "Area 51" looks promising!

Suffice to say, the place was lush and dare I say virgin. It was overgrown in some sections with the thorn bushes show above. They really nick ya good. The trick of course was to ride fast enough so that they get brushed aside right away.



Jay and I took the singlespeeds, while Polly took his Turner. The whole trail system is rideable on one gear! Nice rolling terrain, with a stream crossing to boot. Forested areas were nice and cool, plus the dirt smelled...clean.



It was fun slaloming through the woods. There were some technical portions that had to be hiked, though. I suprised myself by riding down a set of wood and soil stairs!
Hopefully Jay sends me that pic soon!



Speaking of Jay, it was the perfect place for him to mark his return to riding. No, he isn't marking his territory in the first pic. He actually had a mild case of leg cramps at the start of our second ride. Luckily he found the perfect spot for some R & R.

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Monday, November 14, 2005

shrooms


tempting? NOT! though i did try a spicy soup that the locals make that had wild mushrooms(obviosuly not poisonous nor mind altering since I am here typing this up), which was actually pretty good...too bad the mushrooms they use are the ones that pop up after a thunderstorm (don't ask me, that's what they said).

as for recreational drugs, I don't care much for them. Even in my "carefree" days of ten years ago hehehe.

coffee and chocolate, however, are an entirely different matter. Can't get enough of either.

i had some orange poppy seed cake today, which apparently, cause positive results (not positive as in good, but positive as in present), in drug tests. ha! good thing I've renewed my driver's license already!

Sunday, November 13, 2005

hand in glove


call me a Dirt Rag fanboy, but I think it's one of the better bike mags out there. They not only maintain their objectivity, but they also have features on trail and bike advocacy, as well as literature contests.

so check out my Dirt Rag gloves - which are special edition Fox Digits. A lot more comfortable AND durable than the Troy Lee XC gloves they replaced.

they've got a lot more swag available from their online shop...their titanium jersey looks pretty sharp. But am saving my clams for a new project hehehe

Saturday, November 12, 2005

rut riding


Now that it's "post" rainy season, some of the plantations we ride through are heavily rutted - thanks to trucks/jeeps that the locals use for harvesting/transportation. While some ruts are rideable, others just threaten to swallow your bike (well, not the whole bike, but till the hubs - as the photo attests. Sometimes the best option is to ride between the ruts. Can't complain, it goes with the territory (literally).

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Sunday, November 06, 2005

2 weeks ago...

this arrived.



A Soulcraft Convert. The answer to our chain-tensioning woes (what woes!?). Cherrybomber got one for his Hard Rock too (which we installed in betwwen stripping sessions - see below). Compared to my old Singleator, this is one trick doodad. CNC-machined body, push rod for easy release, and best of all, a urethane roller for minimal resistance.



Promptly mounted it in "push-up" mode, and my initial reaction after taking it around the block was "this thing is buttery smooth". It's first two rides on the dirt gave me no problems at all, but earlier today, it somehow loosened and dropped a few degrees. My chain derailed a few times, until I got around to figuring out the culprit. Oh and another thing, If I ever need to remove my rear wheel, I will have to remove the WHOLE convert. <---NOT! just the whole rear skewer hehe



Oh well! But I am chuffed with the widget's performance so far...incidentally, I also slapped on a 32T Salsa SS-specific chainring. Muy muy muy delicioso!

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

i'm a stripper



...a paint stripper actually (photo by Cherrybomber). Now who in his/their right mind would want to apply StripSol to a brand new new mountain bike frame? We do! Here's the gist:

After taking stock at the amount of leftover bicycle parts we had lying around (that's what happens when you convert your geared bikes to singlespeed), me and Cherrybomber decided to build up a loaner bike with these parts:

Sun CR18 wheelset
Shimano Alivio groupset (cranks, cogs, mechs, etc)
Suntour XC75 fork
choice of 3 straight bars
stubby bar ends
Cane Creek headset
Azonic shorty stem
Tektro V-brakes
WTB Rocket V saddle
Panaracer Fire tires

The only brand new items we'd have to buy was a frame, a pair of grips and pedals that came in size Small. Why small? Turns out we know a few ladies who are curious about the sport, and would like to try it out. The frame can also fit an average (5'7") person with a stem swap. The smallest frame we could find was a GT Avalanche in size 13". So we dubbed it Project Ava. Frame came with a seatpost and seatclamp too.

We're stripping the paint coz we will be powdercoating the frame a nice baby blue hue.That paint stripper is nasty stuff!

Target date for the build is Christmas. Cherrybomber is putting the finishing touches (rather, scraping off the remaining paint), and it's off to the powdercoater for a few days. Seeing that all we need to do is have it powdercoated, we're way ahead of schedule!