For the love of bikes...

Ya know why I like bikes? I think it has to do with there simplicity. I mean even my Turner Full suspension mountain bike is pretty simple. Two wheels, two cranks, some other pretty simple bits add it all together and you get a bike. If you just look at the bike with out riding it all the politics and BS in the world just seem to fade away. That's with out even throwing a leg over it. If you get on it and ride, you enter a new world. Spin those cranks, navigate that road. The old fades away and a new reality comes into existence for a little while. This is why I work on my own bikes. This is why I ride. This is why I love bikes.

Alubooyah

Well it was bound to happen.  The temperatures dip and I'm writing blog posts again.  This one's kinda big...literally.  Against the wishes of my mother and girlfriend I bought into the whole fat bike thing.  About a month ago I was looking at Craigslist in Denver.  Saw an ad for a Alubooya.  Didn't think anything of it.  Then again a week ago I was looking at Craigslist again.  Low and behold what's still there?  Yep you guessed it, the Alubooya.  I don't usually low ball people but I figured..what the heck.  Well here it is.  Almost all the bits for a full fat bike.

My Summer so far...

Well it's been awhile since I've posted so I figured I'd try to sum up a bit.  Sort of a photo remembrance.

It seems to always come up very quickly, but Joab did well in the Gowdy Grinder.  Two loops of Stone Temple at Curt Gowdy State park.  He would have done really well if he wouldn't have flatted on his second lap.  I'm proud of him he did well.

These were from the WNBC MTB camp out.  There were only a few of us but hopefully it'll grow with time.  Clifford is still a great rig to haul stuff camping.

Simon, my buddy from Canada stopped by for a short ride.  It was good to see him.

I've been trying to get some good rides in.  Both road and gravel.

We lost some good friends this summer also. 

That's about it really.  Nothing super exciting.  How's your summer going?

Back to Jones

I've been fighting what bars to have on my Yipsan.  I've thrown a ton of bars on this thing.  The latest was a German almost Jones bar.  It had a weird rise and with a long stem slammed I still feel like I was sitting upright.  So I found a great deal on another Full Jones bar this time.  However I am trying out ESB grips.  Which right now are working really well.

German Jones like bar thing

New Jones bar with ESB grips.

January 27th gravel ride.

Well the forecast was for sunny skies and little to no wind today January the 27th, 2015.  When I saw that sunny skies equaled 70+ degrees I knew I had to get out and ride.  So when the clock struck 2pm I was out the door.  Got home put on my garb and was gone by 3pm.  I'd pre programmed a route at work.  Twenty seven miles should be enough for this "Not yet in shape" bod.  It didn't start cooling off till about half way thru the ride.  Then with about 8 miles left it got darn chilly.  I'll have to edit my original route because I used some of Garmin's roads....which aren't actual roads.  It was a great ride however.

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.