Remodeling

 Yesterday I remodeled two bikes. Bikers like to talk about builds as in "this is my second build for this bike." A build is a biker's nirvana. It's when you hand pick every component for a bike, and then you build it up from scratch. It's a labor of love and the result is your dream bike. Bikers talk about builds like parents talk about honor role students.

I have never done a complete build, but I have done some remodels. Like moving bars and seats between bikes, replacing a fork or crank, and converting a bike to single speed. Yesterday I did my latest remodel, resurrecting my silver Iron Horse from the parts bin. Yesterday I put gears on it, added a spanking new crank, and voila I now have a perfectly ridable hard tail.

So today I took it for a shake down ride in the snow. Trail reports were not encouraging, but the trails turned out to be in good condition. Not great, but not bad. It was the type of riding that keeps you on your toes, and forces you to use good technique especially on uphills and off-camber turns. And Silver was a great ride, no issues except it appears I've contaminated the brake rotors with some lube since I was unable to lock up the wheels even downhill on the snow. We'll keep an eye on that.

So now I have a winter beater bike with gears (and marginal brakes), which is great timing. You will understand why when I make an exciting announcement on New Year's day.

Oh and someone went chainsaw crazy and removed the horse-back-rider-scraper-offer at the top of the Sole Trail. And yes the horses were out in force...