Fell down, Went boom.

Well I had a pretty good crash the other day.  It was about a week ago.  I was riding to work on a beautiful morning.  Feeling pretty fresh after being off the bike for a couple of days. So I was proceeding at a higher rate of speed then I probably should have been.  I was on my normal route to work.  It was pretty dark and my headlight was doing it's job well or so I thought.  I can't remember what I was listening too but it had me pounding on the pedals pretty good.  Before I knew it I was at the corner of 15th and Toledo.  I remember seeing all the gravel scattered on top of the pavement and thinking "this is going to be interesting".  I have no idea what happened after that.  I remember my glasses hitting the ground and grinding into the gravel and pavement but that's about it.  I popped back up after it happened and checking out my bike.(Gotta make sure the bike's ok)  I was dusting myself off and picking up my bike when two early morning joggers came over and asked if I was ok. I felt alright at that moment so I said I was fine and then touched my head and it came away bloody.  So I quickly straightened my front wheel and stem out and jumped back on and slowly rode home.  I remember thinking my pinky was dislocated.  It was very cold and felt like it did when I'd dislocated it back in high school. That was the one thing I thought about on the way home.  Wow my pinky hurts.  I knew I was going to freak Jenn out. There was no way around it. So I walked back into the house and simply said "Yea, I fell down". After stripping off all my clothes I figured out why my pinky hurt so much. I had taken a pretty good chunk out of it and the next finger over.  I just crawled back into the shower and rinsed off.  My leg had gotten it pretty good as did my hip and knee.  My face didn't look that bad until the day after when the bruising really came in.  It's day six and my fingers and shin region are still pretty sensitive.  My eye is healing up well, or at least I think so.  I should be able to get a new pair of glasses soon.

The present configuration of my Yipsan 650b fighter

It's changed a bit over the last year.  Mainly the cockpit.  I'm much happier with it this way however.

The new Jones bars are super comfortable.  My only grip is positioning the brakes and shifters.  I wish the shifters were a bit closer.  Mainly for easier shifting.  However this set up is working nicely.

The Revelate Design bags have held up very well.  Lots of room for everything right now.  When we get to bikepacking that may change.

My tracker, partner in crime and ever present eyes and ears.  This little 705 is such a great unit.  It does so much more then the little I use it for.



Great levers so far.  I've only had them on for a month or so now.  They seem to be doing a great job.



A friend asked me why my grips were on backwards.  I told him they weren't.  It's the new GC-1 Ergon's.  Make for a very comfortable fit.

The other new thing is a set of 535 Shimano pedals.  They make getting in and out so much smoother then my old Coda pedals I had on.

The drivetrain hasn't changed much.  I do have a XTR rear der waiting in the wings when this one fails.

Velocity rims.  Running them tubeless.

Microshifter's I bought when I finally decided to get rid of the drop bar.  They don't miss a beat.

My beat and bruised Maxxis Crossmarks.  Great tires.  Running these tubeless.  The sploch at the top is sealant that's sealed a leak.

 My under the seat bag.  It does it's job well.

This Liberty Mountain bag is a bit of a trash can at times but it works out well.  For $5bucks you can't go wrong.  You can sort of see the Pivot stem peaking out.  I bought it to fit the new bar.  I needed to see if a 100mm 10degree rise would work.  It does.  It'll be replaced with a Thomson soon enough.

This side entry bottle cage knows no equal.  It's been great.

Well there she is.  If you have any questions let me know.  I'll try to answer them.

Problem spots...Maybe?

I have a few concerns with my current restoration.  I don't remember the corosion being son bad when I first painted many years ago.  There's only a few spots but still.  We'll see what everything looks like after a few coats of primer.

Nothing wrong with this...

Let the painting begin!

After a little time with the wire wheel, sand paper and various other paint removing things the Montagner is ready for primer.  Anxious to see what the color combinations will look like tomorrow on the test tubes.

Test tubes..

Since I have two color combinations(Blue/Black and Metallic Blue/Metallic Black) I'd like to try out I bought a little pvc to try out the colors before actually putting it on the bike.  They both have a single coat of primer on them right now and will have two more by the end of the day tomorrow.

Stripper!

Got all the old parts off the frame and gave it a light sanding to open up the pores on the paint.  I've found that the chemical stripper works better that way.  Took a couple tries but the stripper got 92% of the paint off.  The rest I'd have to get off by hand.

Time for a re-restoration....Montagner Roadie -

Many years ago a friend of mine (You know who you are) thought I needed to have a road bike.  So since we were pretty similar in height and inseam.  He gave me his old racing frame.  A very cool lugged steel Italian Montagner.  About 12 years ago I did a half assed job of fixing it up.  Scrapped a different road bike and used the parts on the Montagner.  Gave it a flat black paint job and called it good.  Well with the possibility of riding with a group on the road looming this spring I figured I should be better represented since I am the president of the newly formed WNBC.

Here it is before I stripped it down.  I'll be reusing parts of the drivetrain, wheels, headset and stem(for now).

I came up with a few new paint schemes.

Breast Cancer Scheme

Irish Version

Colon Cancer Scheme

After posting up on facebook and taking the votes from my peers.  Votes came in about 50/50.  With my Dads current health I came up with this final design.  Dave from Redstone Cyclery said that if it's old and Italian it needs chrome.  So I'll show the rear chrome.

I have new bits to go on like, brake levers, brakes, seatpost, seat, bar, bartape and a new set of tires.  I'm going to strip the frame down to steel.  I'm going to do some practice tubes out of PVC so I can get the fade in the top, down and seat tubes right.  I'm thinking I might use Mom's cutter and make some templates for the fades.  Do some triangles that will give the fade a cool look.  Stay tuned....more to come.

A man and his boring flask.

There was no doubt about it.  My flask was boring.  I don't see myself as boring so having a boring flask was a problem.  Here was my solution...



Gilding the Flask from Garrett Olsen on Vimeo.