The Next Contestant

The replacement for the Inbred arrived today at my office. Designed by Mark Slate of WTB fame, it's an Of Spirit Blackbuck. They make but one size, and it looked like it would fit me. So I took the chance.

Some neat design elements on this, like the curved seat stays and the disk brake tab inside the rear triangle. Tensioning is via an EBB with a split shell set up.

One thing I'm not sure about is the rear brake hose routing underneath the BB and chainstay. I fear a severed hydro line when caught between a rock and a hard place. I'll consider it further during the build.

Please, Sir, Can I Have More?

Tore down the Kona this weekend in preparation for whatever I have to do with it. Looked the frame over some more and found another crack on the left chainstay, again right at the weld.

JRA, man, JRA.

Sent the pic over to Kona...maybe I'm looking at a whole new frameset now instead of just possibly a front triangle. Guess we'll see.

Everyone Loves Crack

The other bike. 2008 Kona HeiHei 2-9. Cracks in the paint on the welds around the BB shell on both sides. The jury is still out. This might bear watching.

Drive side

Non-drive side

And a roached XT BB, after only a year of use. The seals failed on the non-drive side, causing premature death to the bearings.

And I HATE composing in Blogger.

Upcoming Michaux Timber Sales

Going out to bid shortly. Yeah, we ride through some of this. But without official trail recognition, no existing routes will be respected during the process.
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/timbersales/prospectus/01-2009BC02.pdf

The irony with this sale is that the logging road used to access the cut is the Buck Ridge Trail, which is off limits to bikes. Yet it is permissable to drive log trucks on it.


And below Rt. 30...
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/timbersales/prospectus/01-2008BC05.pdf

The locals know what stands to be lost.

Is it inevitable?

What the hell does this mean?

Both sides of the seat stay wishbone junction. Is it cracked? Weakened? Just paint?

Is it inevitable that my On One will suffer the same fate of every other one in the region?

What think ye?

Damn the torpedoes. Keep riding it?

o

r

Abandon like a rat and scuttle a possibly sinking ship?

This Is How It's Done, Son.

Pork?

Sausage?

Got it in spades, bitches. Representin' all the while, too.

My bus tub weighs a ton.

Kick-ass trail trimming weaponry? Check.

Don't get close, it doesn't care if you're leafy, woody, grassy, or meaty.

Hot wife that mountain bikes? Hellz, yeah.

Damn, it's good to be a gangsta.

North Park

...in Pittsburgh rocks. Had a great ride there Monday evening. It was great for a bunch of reasons. I got to ride with a friend that I don't get to ride with much any more. We got to stand around in the dark with no lights and enjoy the night woods--something I think every night ride should have in it. Why the hell do people need to leave their lights on when they're just standing there, anyway? The trails were twisty, off-camber fun and it was cool riding a new place on someone's wheel, running on faith in some cases, much faster than if I had been on point on unfamiliar trails in the dark.

Riding with my bud was great because I helped him get into the sport, probably 10 years ago or so. His first real mountain bike was the 1996 polished aluminum Cannondale frame I bought in college. He bought it from me and we ordered the parts to build it back up. I helped him build the bike, he rode that for awhile and then started down the road of looking for new bikes. That Cannondale made its rounds to other of our friends--serving as another's first MTB, yet another's interim bike, and then finally back to my friend again, who vows never to sell it. I told him that if it ever leaves his possession, I get it. In the intervening years, I've watched my friend immerse himself in bike obsession, learning about parts, frames, suspension types, and it was cool. It was really cool to know he got his start in the sport from an old bike of mine. It was cool to watch mountain biking get under his skin like it's under mine. To be able to pick up the phone and hear him say, "This isn't a work call. Let's talk about fun stuff." I kept using the term "awesome" to describe the ride Monday night. And it was, for a lot of reasons. I think we could have been anywhere. What made it awesome was that it was the two of us, riding together, like we haven't done in a long time. Thanks, Mark, for the awesome ride.

It totally made up for a rained out pisser of a camping weekend in the great northlands that was only saved by seeing my family and by these guys on Sunday. We did see a coyote, though. And many examples of Dodgious Ramicus Ignoramous.

We're still cleaning up dirty, crapped-up camping gear.