Breeding Ground at the C2C Disco

Photo shoot at the C2C disco where two Inbreds saw
First Dirt. That's a fresh Breeze(r) in the background.

First Dirt ride report for my On-One Inbred single speed.

I haven't weighed it yet but I know it is not a light bike. However it does feel light when in the saddle, probably because of the light Easton wheelset (1,700 grams), the Conti X-King tires (700 grams each), and the kicker of adrenaline that comes with any first ride.

The steel frame, large volume tires (2.4s), and springy wheelset produced a very smooth ride for a hard tail on some very hard frozen ground.

Finally, trail manners were superb. The bike felt nimble on tight singletrack but was stable when rolling fast on wide open downhills.

I'll be making a few tweaks (tubeless conversion and extend fork from 80mm to 100mm) but I think I've got a winner here.  SS definitely makes me a better rider, perhaps because I am feeble minded and worrying about finding the right gear is too much of a distraction for me. Feeble minded or not, I do think short technical uphills are best done in a large gear and on a geared bike it is just too tempting to downshift for mechanical advantage. SS definitely gives the whole body workout as well, as evidenced by the whole body soreness (a familiar friend) I am feeling right now. Even MY HANDS are tired!

Yep, we have a winner.

Chris

"29 and single"
     -- unknown

Inbred Inbreeding

Fresh off the boat. Limited edition
single speed only steel frame.

I Guess I'm Inbred Now

The Inbreds are inbreeding.

Rob picked up a used On-One Ti frame last year and seemed to enjoy it. Then over the holidays On-One ran a sick special on steel frames so Miller and I both jumped onto the Inbred bandwagon. I picked up a Limited Edition Single-Speed Only frame with my likeness painted on the seat tube.

This would be my first build from scratch. I've done just about all the component procedures (except facing and chasing), but never all on one bike at one time. Some parts would be harvested from my Rig, other bits I have picked up from various fire sales and LBSs.

Assortment of tensioners and one
broken thumbscrew, all with really
awesome mojo

Long Tangent: A tensioner was on my list when I made my monthly pilgrimage to Shirk's. I love this shop because they know their stuff, they have an awesome inventory (Trek, Niner, Lynsky, and some custom stuff), and I also appreciate their Mennonite sensibilities. They were out of Surly Tuggnut tensioners (I like their "versatility") so I ordered one, paid for frame facing and a pile of parts, and left. I was in the parking lot for about ten minutes catching up on email when I heard a knock on my window. Scott (?) said he heard my car idling in the parking lot so he came out to tell me he had found a Tuggnut in the back. Did I say I love this shop?

It gets better. I had a problem installing the Tuggnut. Long story but the result was a busted thumbscrew. I didn't want to miss this weekend riding opportunity, so I fired off an email looking for a loaner tensioner. The next day I came home to a baggie of tensioners sitting outside my garage. Thanks to Rob I would not miss a single crank turn.

Used a 3" gear puller to remove a
cranky crankset from the Rig

But that's not the end of it. I went to LoweRiders today to order a replacement thumbscrew. We were trying to find the parts online and having a little difficulty. Tim said "hang on I'll be right back." He ran out to his car and came back in with two surly Tuggnuts, slapped them both in my hand, and said "six pack. something brown." Done. Now I'm drowning in great mojo and now have a great excuse to head to State Line Liquors in Maryland.

Bearing cups about to
be installed with Rob's DIY
headset press

Other challenges included a crankarm that didn't want to come off the Rig. It came with some amber colored goo to smear on the splines when I installed it. Some sort of locktight I presume. I used it because I'd been dealing with a creaky loose BB for months and didn't want to deal. That was three years ago. Now that locktight (or whatever) was set up pretty good. I wound up using my father in-law's gear puller. Worked like a charm.

The Inbred SS is also known for tricky positioning of the brake mount between the seat and chain stays. It is supposed to be particularly difficult for BB7s. Yes I have BB7s and yes it is tight, but I think it will be workable.

So finally after three glorious nights in the workshop I took the bike for a spin around the basement (it was 10:00pm and raining outside). I think I have bike that is ready for First Dirt (that's two First Dirts in less than 12 months)!

In the spirit of never being satisfied I'm already considering some tweaks:

• Flip the stem over to lower the hi-rise carbon bar
• Remove spacer from Reba to extend travel from 80mm to 100mm
• 180mm rotor for rear wheel to improve access to the caliper
• Tubeless conversion

Ready to ride!

Chris

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a bicycle, must be in want of another one."
     -- Unknown

Breakfast with the Boys

Breakfast Spot

Starbucks with Kirk and Sebastian, then a mid-morning breakfast with Mike and Mark.

The Lakeside Trail was trashed so we went snooping for a breakfast spot on the West Side. We were not the first ones out, but it was sweet riding the fresh snow and we did manage to find a couple pieces of virgin singletrack.

The Breakfast of Champions

Wind chill pretty close to zero while moving (yes, that is cold) but shot right up to the high teens when we stopped for breakfast. And while my Camelback froze solid, our breakfast did not!

This afternoon I will begin the new Inbred build. More to come on that!

Chris

All Aboard!

This video speaks for itself.

All aboard!

Chris

Thank You Sir May I Please Have Another 22,927

Something's in the air...

Remember when you were eleven years old and it was Saturday morning? Your mom made you a sandwich which you threw into your backpack along with a jack knife, some matches, some rope, and other essentials, you climbed onto your bike and headed off on a day-long excellent adventure with friends to the great unknown. It felt a little risky and just a tiny bit illicit. And it felt a lot epic.

That's how it felt yesterday riding The Crazy Train.  It reminded me why I love bicycles and cycling. Ever since I could ride two wheels, the bicycle has meant freedom and adventure.

Not that cycling 40 years later is any less fun, but it can get predictable. Yesterday's ride was different. It was put together with the wide-eyed abandon of an eleven year old, and it brought me straight back to those wonder years on a bike. Straight back.

"Don't be a dumb ass and please
don't sue us."

It started as it usually does, with the 6:00 am alarm on Sunday. Sneaking out of the house without waking the family, picking up a buddy or two and heading somewhere to ride while the world sleeps. When we arrived around 8:00 am the atmosphere was electric. The rising sun softly lit a light rising fog. A couple of dogs romped in the distance and a cyclists was riding a wheelie across the snowy field. A steady stream of bikes kept rolling in and the crowd quickly grew to 150 riders gathered in the parking lot chatting, laughing, fiddling with bikes, snapping pictures. One young hipster had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth (I don't recall if he finished the ride or not).

First stop. Cheers.

Tangent: At registration I got #52. I turn 52 in March. I took that as an incredibly awesome sign. I was right.

A megaphone broke the silence as one of the organizers climbed onto a pickup tailgate to give the pre-ride briefing. The usual stuff about maps and route markings, post-ride awards ceremony, and the obligatory speech about being safe. Then he summed it all up in ten simple words. Profound words. Words to live by. He said "don't be a dumb ass and please don't sue us." The crowd roared. The ride now had a decidedly campy, slightly illicit feel. We were eleven years old again.

Urban Industrial Wasteland. We
don't find many of these at
Marsh Creek.

Then with the charge to "follow the guy wearing the Octoberfest jersey!" a crazy train 150 strong left the parking lot. There were a couple of bumps and lurches as we left the station but within 10 minutes our heart rates were up and the train was chugging along smoothly, more or less, over and through:

• Frozen doubletrack mostly through abandoned industrial parks and along old railroad beds. This was the even playing field where every cyclist was at an equal advantage (or disadvantage).
• Muddy singletrack with stream crossings, log overs, punishing climbs, and an ample supply of greasy derailleur choking mud. Watching some of the cyclocrossers get all tangled up on the logs was immensely entertaining and fat tire bikes ruled in the considerable slop.
• Just enough pavement interspersed throughout the ride for the roadies to draft and beat us fat tire riders down, remind us that a 27lb bike with big soft knobby tires and upright geometry is no match for the road. Occasional ice covered pavement sections helped to pump up the pucker factor.
• Railroad tracks. Three sections of relentless kidney-pounding railroad ties with an occasional narrow railroad trestle (no railings or guard rails of course) to break the bone-jarring monotony.

With this many riders and the challenging conditions, it was no surprise there were many mechanicals. Mostly flat tires and busted rear derailleurs resulting in quite a few single-speed field-conversions. Ours came at about mile 30 when we gave Angela (racer for Bicycle Therapy) a hand with her conversion to the sounds of Ozzy Osborne's Crazy Train blaring from a smartphone.

Crazy Crossing. We would spend
much of the day riding down these
tracks instead of across them. Ouch.

Tangent: We finished in under 5:30 at which point I had consumed two turkey sandwiches, two packages of peanut butter crackers, one package of shot blocks, one small package of fig newtons, one beer, one soft pretzel, one hundred ounces of water, twelve ounces cup of lemonade, and a pint of chocolate milk...and I was still hungry.

22,928 pedal turns of suffering without having any idea of what was around the next turn was the brilliance of this ride. And hours in the saddle gave me plenty of time to appreciate the Crazy Train challenge: "The terrain calls for you to ride three different bikes, but you can ride only one. Choose wisely."

Tangent: I know it was 22,928 pedal turns because I stuffed a pedometer in my sock before the ride.

The Heckle Pit complete with hash tag

Thank you Kirk for throwing this idea out there with enough time to make it happen, but without enough time to get cold feet, and thanks Mark for taking the plunge, I could/would not have done it without my DB wingman. And of course thanks to Lone Wolf Cycling for sending me back in time.

The story of the original Crazy Train http://wikimapia.org/21514741/Site-of-the-1921-Bryn-Athyn-Train-Wreck


Chris

“Like dogs, bicycles are social catalysts that attract a superior category of people” 
     -- Chip Brown

"Keep riding, Nancy. It's just water and dirt." 
     -- Huck And Roll

Crazy Train

What am I getting myself into?

Looking Forward

THANK YOU to all who reached out in various ways this last week. It meant a lot and I found that all the talking/typing helped me wrap my own head around a bizarre turn of events.

I had a very close call this week. But "all is well that ends well' as they say and this ended well. Let's just say I am an extremely lucky man.  Reflecting back though, this week left some pretty strong impressions that you may (or may not) find interesting so I figured I'd share them while you may be listening:

• Don't mess around if you have symptoms of something serious.  If it happens to you, I GUARANTEE it will not be at a convenient time and there will be a rational explanation in your head for why it's not serious.  You may be right.  But you also may be wrong and it's not worth taking that chance.  In was not convenient for me and I had a rational explanation but at the urging of those around me I did the right thing.  I almost didn't and that could have ended very badly.
• Take a low-dose aspirin every morning.  Make it your routine.  I've been doing that for a couple of years and it may have saved me from some serious hurt, or worse.  The FIRST THING they gave me when I arrived at the ER was three baby aspirin!  Just do it.  Easy breezy.
• That hospital was full of people my age who just yesterday had a lot of life in them.  Now suddenly their future has evaporated.  Hopefully that doesn't happen to any of us, but let me tell you that line between us and them is thinner than you can ever imagine.  Last Monday I almost crossed that line.  You could too.  The point is to recognize each day as a gift and ride the heck out of it.  "Ride it like you stole it" as they say. That's a lot to ask for every day, but having a sense of urgency will be a good thing. 

Thanks for listening and don't forget the aspirin,
Chris