Home Improvement

Getting rid of the old....

So Wednesdays are usually my day to get out and about on my bicycle. Usually on such a beautiful day that would be the case. However, a bout of "home improvement" is happening now at the Guitar Ted Laboratories which has cut into my free time. It also has prevented me from mowing the lawn for various reasons, so it isn't all bad!

The GT headquarters was built in 1912, so as is the case with older American homes, there is always something to upkeep. This project involves a porch that was literally sagging off the house in an attempt to collapse and allow the elements into the living area. Not a good thing in a true four season climate. Fortunately, things have come together to allow for a remodel/replacement of the old and the potential calamity has been headed off.

A good company has been contacted and the old porch is long gone and the new one is mostly up. There are always setbacks and this project isn't any different. I had to be available most of the day Wednesday in case certain decisions needed to be made and so any extended bicycle gallivanting around was necessarily postponed until a later date.  Turns out I could have been gone after all, but oh well..... You never know.

The day wasn't totally devoid of bicycles though!

But be that as it may, I did get to fiddle with some of the bikes in the stable today. Since Gravel Worlds is happening this weekend, I was reminded of one of the rigs I rode down there in the last Good Life Gravel Adventure, which was the name of the event before it became Gravel Worlds in 2010.

That rig would be the custom Pofahl rig I had made in 2007. Based loosely on a Karate Monkey geometry, the bike is a very unique sled for sure. At the '09 GLGA I ran this single speed with a 37T X 18T gearing and it worked for me so well that at the inaugural Gravel Worlds in 2010 I ran similar gearing on my Singular Cycles Gryphon and did okay on the hills again. Since then, I've pretty much settled on a 38T X 18T or 17T for any gravel road single speed action.

When I got the Pofahl out earlier this year I noted that it was pretty "spinny" feeling. Whoops! Somewhere along the line I swapped out the 18T for a 21T rear cog to make it more of a mountain bike, I guess. Honestly, I can't remember now. Anyway, I meant to take care of that.......someday. I never got around to it until yesterday though.

It's pretty cool that the Pofahl can cover a 3 tooth change with the same chain since the slider set up has a lot of range. I could even drop it to a sixteen tooth, since I have even more room to slide back with the rear wheel. Anyway, it's back to the good old gravel single speed range I like, so I will have to put the wood to this out in the country soon. It's been a long time since I single speeded the gravel roads around here.