Thursday, March 04, 2010

Gravel Road Dreamin' And Schemin'

It all started when I got a notification that my Woodchipper bars had come in at the shop. I ran a few errands and stopped by to pick them up. I wrote the check happily, because you know, one can never have too many Woodchipper bars around!

So, later on I went down and strated in to messing around with the drop bar rigs. I finally had my Tensile freewheel together and working again after it had frozen up solid due to a slurry infestation on a ride with MG on gravel almost two years ago now! Well, at any rate, the freewheel is working and it went on the Karate Monkey to help raise the gear inches a notch for some single speedy gravel grunge training rides. You see, the KM has fenders! Now I know the fender thing caused some folks grief at CIRREM, but not to worry. I think I'll be just fine. Can't wait to get that rig out there again. Oh yeah.......I already have Woodchipper bars on that one!

Then I started resurrecting the Badger. I swapped out a few things, found a few "parts bin" parts, and made a couple decisions on where to go with that bike. It will be a dedicated geared gravel road rig with STI 9 speed shifters. I'll have to score a few bits before I can finish it up from my parts bin horde at work, and buy some new brakes, but it should come out nicely. (No- this one isn't getting Woodchippers. It is staying with the Gary Bars I had for it already)

Then I turned my attention to the Singular Gryphon I am building up for testing. Woodchipper? Definitely! I figured out the basic set up with stems I had and now I can move forward with getting the steer tube cut, a star nut installed, and all of that. I need just a few more tiny bits to get this one done, but it will be done quite soon. And of course, it will need to be ridden out on some gravel roads to start with. Yes! Another excuse to ride gravel. Good!

Finally, I was forwarded a link to the Alaska Dispatch by Mr. 24's parents. It mentions Trans Iowa, and the story has some former Trans Iowa vets and one future one in it. Check it out here. It is a great read, and is about another epic event going on now.

1 comment:

MG said...

cool... i didn't have fender problems at the CIRREM. plenty of clearance, clarence. but i did have rear hub coming loose problems... that wasn't good. steep roads and hard pedaling apparently can reek havoc, even on an xt hub that's been reliable for two previous seasons. crazy.

anyway, i'm looking forward to my woodchippers coming in too... hopefully today. i keep hoping... i saw a lot of 'em at the CIRREM.

talk to you soon, buddy. it's gonna' be almost 50 degrees here today. woohoo!! the snow is disappearing, and fast. that said, we've got a lot less of it than you guys do already, so fast melting isn't gonna' reek the havoc on our system that it would up there... you guys need at least a week of slow thaw before you speed things up, i suspect.

cheers,
mg