Monday, February 02, 2009

Bike Building......And Riding!

Well, it has been a pretty productive weekend at Guitar Ted Laboratories. I even got to ride my bicycle! Woo Hoo! With temperatures over the freezing mark, finally.....I actually rode outside for a bit. I did take it pretty easy though, since I haven't ridden in a few weeks and I needed to start out with a slow, steady pace to get back into putting some base miles in.

I rode the Milwaukee Bicycle Company single speeder yesterday. I just cruised around town this time. It was a perfect rig for the day and great for this sort of weather. Long, lowish, and stable is good for icy, wet, slushy streets. I still got off to walk a few places though. Just too sketchy to trust.

In bike building I nearly finished off the Dissent. It just needs a new chain. I'll get one at work today and probably get that installed tonight. Then it's time to ride it! It's looking pretty cool, so I'll have to throw up some pics of it when I finish it.

The next project hit the stand tonight. The Raleigh Rainier single speed cross bike got its BB prepared,a cartridge installed, (square taper) and I mocked up the rear brake. The brakes are these really cool KORE cantilevers in powder coat white. I've got some other white bits to install too like the old Sante' cranks, brake levers, a Bontrager stem, and white Jagwire housing for the brakes. I got some gold ano Weinman DP-18 rims that look like Pilsner, so that befits a bike named "Rainier" I think. They'll get laced up to some flip flop fixed/free Origin 8 hubs.

I'll have both a fixed cog and free wheel on it for some stupid fixed gear antics. I figure I may as well use this rig for training and commuting this summer. Get used to it before I try to cross race it somewhere this coming fall. Sounds like a plan, eh?

So, that's my weekend. I've got some things to do yet, but I made a lot of progress I think. Hopefully we'll have some more good weather coming up, because I kind of liked that riding a bike thing I did yesterday. I think I'd like to do that some more!

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