Friday, December 24, 2010

Friday News And Views

The History Of The Beginnings Of The Modern 29"er Page: With the conclusion of the series the other day, I gathered all the pertinent posts, edited out the redundancies in the first two original posts, added an introduction, and edited in some comments received after the posts were published, and put that all on its own page. You can see the link to it under the header here. That will be permanent and can be referenced at any time. You'll also notice a link to my Fargo page up there as well.

Since everything has been re-arranged, you might want to dive in and see where the new info has been plugged in. 

Thanks once again for all the great comments and encouragement i received while doing the posts. Thanks also to all who contributed to making the series a lot of fun and very informative.

Trans Iowa V7: I received the first drop off the roster the other day. Please keep in mind that if you can not make T.I.V7 for any reason, we really need to know you are not coming ASAP. It really cuts down on logistical costs when we know we don't have to deal with any number of folks that let us know they can not make it. Thanks in advance. Also, we need more Volunteers for checkpoint duty. Let me know if you are interested. (You will get a free entry to T.I.V8 if you volunteer for V7)

 Maintenance Garage: I've been doing a lot of maintenance lately on "the fleet". Tubeless tire "re-charging". That's when the sealant is old, or completely dried up. I just inject some more, and I'm good to go. I repaired a broken nipple in a rear wheel, and I also got some tires swapped around on a couple of bikes. Maintenance will continue on in light of the winter months lack of optimal trail conditions. I've also been doing some tinkering on the Karate Monkey with the fender and on the rear brake. There are too many bikes down in The Lab, as always, so there is always something I could be doing!

Happy Holidays! It's Christmas Eve, and many of you will be celebrating with family and friends. Take care and be cautious as ya'all travel to and fro.

2 comments:

kdoggett said...

G-Ted,

What sealant do you prefer?

I have heard Caffe'Latex will stay in liquid form much longer and not dry out like Stan's, but that Stan's will seal faster and seal larger holes/cuts than CaffeLatex. Some folks claim the ammonia in Stan's will damage tires and aluminum alloy wheels, but Stan claims this is nonsense as his sealant has less than one-tenth of one percent ammonia, not enough to cause a problem.

I'm interested to hear your thoughts and experiences.

Guitar Ted said...

@kdoggett: Actually, I prefer making my own sealant: Use "Latex Mold Builder" found at most craft shops. Then get a bottle of windshield washer solvent. Use three heaping table spoons of latex mold builder to 4 ounces of windshield washer solvent. Mix thoroughly until solution is foamy. Then divide it evenly amongst two 29"er tires. (Use less for smaller tires)

This stays un-frozen due to the windshield washer solvent. It seals up better than Stan;s and lasts longer too.