Race News and Sneak Peek

<====The Of Spirit Blackbuck in "bicycle form"

I was able to start the transfer of parts over from my old single speed race frame to the OS Bikes Blackbuck yesterday. It looks pretty nice so far, I think.

I wanted to get it dialed in position-wise as close to the old set up as I can get, ( which looks like it will be easy to do) before I start tweaking with the different forks and what not. This is the Superlight Carbon fork from On One that is on it now. I will derive a "baseline" of handling from this point, since it should be the most similar to the old bike. Then after I get a handle on this set up, I'll start the mad scientist fork swapping.

A couple of tech notes, for those curious about such things: The Avid BB-7 calipers fit fine on the chain stay. No interference with the actuation arm of the caliper. Also, the frame with seat collar and EBB installed weighed 5.6lbs. I figure the completed bike should weigh in at about 25-26lbs when I'm finished. I could cut that down with a different bar/stem combo. (That is in the plans as of now. Salsa carbon bar and a Salsa stem are on the radar)

As for racing this beast, I have already committed to doing the Dirty Kanza 200 on May 31st. There are still spots open to get on board with this long gravel grinder, and I recommend it highly! Good times! Many Iowans are already on the list and several other well known area enduro-freaks are too. Anyway, that will be the first real test of the rig planned so far in terms of racing conditions. I may find another local event before that to test the waters. We'll see.

Of course, it will be getting ridden for the fork tests all along. Also on the radar is the 24 Hours of Seven Oaks which will see the re-appearance of Team Stoopid. The all rigid, all single speed team of four that won their category at the event last year. Now all I have to do is to convince the team leader to acquire a set of adult wheels for the campaign. It'll help keep him upright, I think.

More on the racing scene as it becomes pertinent.



<====Not normally found on my training table!

Had a little celebration last night and I wanted to say Thanks!

Having my little ones sing "Happy Birtday" to me was the best present I could get.

Oh yeah.........I like me chocolate!

Race News and Sneak Peek

<====The Of Spirit Blackbuck in "bicycle form"

I was able to start the transfer of parts over from my old single speed race frame to the OS Bikes Blackbuck yesterday. It looks pretty nice so far, I think.

I wanted to get it dialed in position-wise as close to the old set up as I can get, ( which looks like it will be easy to do) before I start tweaking with the different forks and what not. This is the Superlight Carbon fork from On One that is on it now. I will derive a "baseline" of handling from this point, since it should be the most similar to the old bike. Then after I get a handle on this set up, I'll start the mad scientist fork swapping.

A couple of tech notes, for those curious about such things: The Avid BB-7 calipers fit fine on the chain stay. No interference with the actuation arm of the caliper. Also, the frame with seat collar and EBB installed weighed 5.6lbs. I figure the completed bike should weigh in at about 25-26lbs when I'm finished. I could cut that down with a different bar/stem combo. (That is in the plans as of now. Salsa carbon bar and a Salsa stem are on the radar)

As for racing this beast, I have already committed to doing the Dirty Kanza 200 on May 31st. There are still spots open to get on board with this long gravel grinder, and I recommend it highly! Good times! Many Iowans are already on the list and several other well known area enduro-freaks are too. Anyway, that will be the first real test of the rig planned so far in terms of racing conditions. I may find another local event before that to test the waters. We'll see.

Of course, it will be getting ridden for the fork tests all along. Also on the radar is the 24 Hours of Seven Oaks which will see the re-appearance of Team Stoopid. The all rigid, all single speed team of four that won their category at the event last year. Now all I have to do is to convince the team leader to acquire a set of adult wheels for the campaign. It'll help keep him upright, I think.

More on the racing scene as it becomes pertinent.



<====Not normally found on my training table!

Had a little celebration last night and I wanted to say Thanks!

Having my little ones sing "Happy Birtday" to me was the best present I could get.

Oh yeah.........I like me chocolate!

OS Bikes Blackbuck Pics

<===Sparkly!

I arrived at work yesterday and took a bit of time to snap off some images of the OS Bikes Blackbuck. Pretty cool that a company decided to go the subtle, classy route instaed of doing the huge "billboard" company graphics

Of course, it'll be hard to escape notice with those arched seat stays!






<===The Blackbuck comes with a quick release seat collar.

The intersection of tubes here is cool. Captain Bob said it reminded him of a GT. I think it is reminiscent of what that triple triangle seat stay weld looked like.

I am swapping over parts from my Inbred to this frame. The 27.2mm seat post worked out as did the nicer quick release seat collar I had on it. Both are Salsa items, by the way.




<===Dainty looking drop outs.

The caliper mount is on the chainstay instead of the seat stay, a unique touch. This keeps the frame looking clean with nothing on the top of the seat stay to break up that graceful arching line. No extra bracing necessary.

Notice the two holes in the drive side drop out? Those are for mounting the pin mount derailluer hangar, which comes with the frame in case you are wanting gears.




<===Split shell EBB here.

The old split shell EBB. I have worked on old tandems that utilized this type of eccentric bottom bracket. No pinch bolts to distort the shell and no fancy wedges requiring special tools or force to bang loose. Simple and effective. We'll see if the creaks come or if there are any other problems after I ride it in dirt and mud.

Of course, I'll be greasing this baby up but good!





<====Big external butt on the lower end of the head tube. Beefy!

So, you may be asking yourself, "where's the fork?" Well, I did get the rigid Blackbuck fork for this too. The really cool thing about the frame is how Mark Slate, the designer of the Blackbuck, designed the bike to be ridden with both a non-suspension corrected fork, with suspension forks, or with rigid suspension corrected forks. The Blackbuck rigid fork is really interesting in that it has a 440mm axle to crown measurement and 51mm offset! Mark sent me pictures of his rig with the rigid fork on it all muddied up. He said it rides quite well in this configuration. The Blackbuck also is available as a complete bike and in this configuration it comes with a Reba. I happen to have a spare Reba, so I'll also test it with that fork.

I will be trying out two other forks on it that I have here. The RST M-29 80mm travel/44mm offset fork and my On One Superlight Carbon fork that is suspension corrected and has 47mm offset. In fact, the On One fork will go on this first so I can dial in my cock pit and get some stems to help fit the Blackbuck properly.

I'll have this together soon and I will post some pics then. Be forewarned though! The Inbred has quite the menagerie of annodized parts which will be seeing duty on the Blackbuck. I can't say it'll be a classy, subtle build! That's what I have though, so that's what I'll use.

In related news, the Badger drop bar bike is nearing total completion, so I'll be posting pics of that very soon. Stay Tuned!

OS Bikes Blackbuck Pics

<===Sparkly!

I arrived at work yesterday and took a bit of time to snap off some images of the OS Bikes Blackbuck. Pretty cool that a company decided to go the subtle, classy route instaed of doing the huge "billboard" company graphics

Of course, it'll be hard to escape notice with those arched seat stays!






<===The Blackbuck comes with a quick release seat collar.

The intersection of tubes here is cool. Captain Bob said it reminded him of a GT. I think it is reminiscent of what that triple triangle seat stay weld looked like.

I am swapping over parts from my Inbred to this frame. The 27.2mm seat post worked out as did the nicer quick release seat collar I had on it. Both are Salsa items, by the way.




<===Dainty looking drop outs.

The caliper mount is on the chainstay instead of the seat stay, a unique touch. This keeps the frame looking clean with nothing on the top of the seat stay to break up that graceful arching line. No extra bracing necessary.

Notice the two holes in the drive side drop out? Those are for mounting the pin mount derailluer hangar, which comes with the frame in case you are wanting gears.




<===Split shell EBB here.

The old split shell EBB. I have worked on old tandems that utilized this type of eccentric bottom bracket. No pinch bolts to distort the shell and no fancy wedges requiring special tools or force to bang loose. Simple and effective. We'll see if the creaks come or if there are any other problems after I ride it in dirt and mud.

Of course, I'll be greasing this baby up but good!





<====Big external butt on the lower end of the head tube. Beefy!

So, you may be asking yourself, "where's the fork?" Well, I did get the rigid Blackbuck fork for this too. The really cool thing about the frame is how Mark Slate, the designer of the Blackbuck, designed the bike to be ridden with both a non-suspension corrected fork, with suspension forks, or with rigid suspension corrected forks. The Blackbuck rigid fork is really interesting in that it has a 440mm axle to crown measurement and 51mm offset! Mark sent me pictures of his rig with the rigid fork on it all muddied up. He said it rides quite well in this configuration. The Blackbuck also is available as a complete bike and in this configuration it comes with a Reba. I happen to have a spare Reba, so I'll also test it with that fork.

I will be trying out two other forks on it that I have here. The RST M-29 80mm travel/44mm offset fork and my On One Superlight Carbon fork that is suspension corrected and has 47mm offset. In fact, the On One fork will go on this first so I can dial in my cock pit and get some stems to help fit the Blackbuck properly.

I'll have this together soon and I will post some pics then. Be forewarned though! The Inbred has quite the menagerie of annodized parts which will be seeing duty on the Blackbuck. I can't say it'll be a classy, subtle build! That's what I have though, so that's what I'll use.

In related news, the Badger drop bar bike is nearing total completion, so I'll be posting pics of that very soon. Stay Tuned!

New Steed News

Okay, up front I will say I have no pics.........yet! I had to take the day off and spend it with my little girl since she didn't have school yesterday due to the MLK Jr. holiday. We spent the day doing a few odd jobs together and running some errands. I even let her use a hammer while I held a nail setting punch. (Talk about trust!) She never missed the punch, not even once. Whew!

Well, anyway.............about that bike thing! Yeah, I basically got a deal I couldn't refuse on a new frame and fork that I will be replacing the On One frame and fork with....sort of. (I'll explain further) The bike is something you may never have heard of out of California by way of Taiwan. It's called "Blackbuck" and it's by a company called OS Bikes. The Blackbuck is the only model and it only comes in one size for now. Low and behold, that size fits me to a "T".

It is a single speed bike with a eccentric bottom bracket and about the only thing going for it at first glance is the highly arched seat stays. But that's just the most obvious thing, there are a lot more details that make the Blackbuck quite an interesting bike. I won't get into that right now. I'll be detailing all the subtleties on Twenty Nine Inches. I'll post some of that here too. For now suffice it to say that it is mostly painted in "Kerkove Nation Black" and we'll let it go at that. (Seems odd to say "black" in reference to Jeff these days though, since he is festooned in Ergon's neon pea green.)

This bike replaces the Inbred, as I stated. I'll be throwing on most of the gear from that bike over to the Blackbuck for racing purposes in '08. (Although I'll probably just ride it around a fair bit too) Here's where it gets interesting. The fork choices play a huge part in how the OS Bikes Blackbuck handles. It was designed with this in mind too. For instance, the bike comes with a non-suspension corrected rigid fork with 51mm offset. (!!!) The bike can also be mounted up with a standard 80mm travel Reba. To add to all of this, I am retaining the On One Superlight Carbon fork to use as a test on this bike which has 47mm offset and is suspension corrected. It'll be a fun test to see just what types of handling will result, since I have all three fork options at my disposal, plus I could play with a 44mm offset RST M-29 just to make it even more interesting.

Ahh! Mad scientist type experimenting! So.............like when is all of this snow going to be gone? And like, Get it warmer out there already, mmmmkay! I gotta ride!

Stay tuned! More to come..........

New Steed News

Okay, up front I will say I have no pics.........yet! I had to take the day off and spend it with my little girl since she didn't have school yesterday due to the MLK Jr. holiday. We spent the day doing a few odd jobs together and running some errands. I even let her use a hammer while I held a nail setting punch. (Talk about trust!) She never missed the punch, not even once. Whew!

Well, anyway.............about that bike thing! Yeah, I basically got a deal I couldn't refuse on a new frame and fork that I will be replacing the On One frame and fork with....sort of. (I'll explain further) The bike is something you may never have heard of out of California by way of Taiwan. It's called "Blackbuck" and it's by a company called OS Bikes. The Blackbuck is the only model and it only comes in one size for now. Low and behold, that size fits me to a "T".

It is a single speed bike with a eccentric bottom bracket and about the only thing going for it at first glance is the highly arched seat stays. But that's just the most obvious thing, there are a lot more details that make the Blackbuck quite an interesting bike. I won't get into that right now. I'll be detailing all the subtleties on Twenty Nine Inches. I'll post some of that here too. For now suffice it to say that it is mostly painted in "Kerkove Nation Black" and we'll let it go at that. (Seems odd to say "black" in reference to Jeff these days though, since he is festooned in Ergon's neon pea green.)

This bike replaces the Inbred, as I stated. I'll be throwing on most of the gear from that bike over to the Blackbuck for racing purposes in '08. (Although I'll probably just ride it around a fair bit too) Here's where it gets interesting. The fork choices play a huge part in how the OS Bikes Blackbuck handles. It was designed with this in mind too. For instance, the bike comes with a non-suspension corrected rigid fork with 51mm offset. (!!!) The bike can also be mounted up with a standard 80mm travel Reba. To add to all of this, I am retaining the On One Superlight Carbon fork to use as a test on this bike which has 47mm offset and is suspension corrected. It'll be a fun test to see just what types of handling will result, since I have all three fork options at my disposal, plus I could play with a 44mm offset RST M-29 just to make it even more interesting.

Ahh! Mad scientist type experimenting! So.............like when is all of this snow going to be gone? And like, Get it warmer out there already, mmmmkay! I gotta ride!

Stay tuned! More to come..........