New Toys, Old Toys

The wind has seemed to quiet down some finally. Riding at lunch has been much more pleasurable. The other day I had a stark reminder why breakfast is important though. On our lunch ride we went out on the longer loop we found, and I realized I had not eaten yet that day. Not cool, that ride did not feel good. Eat breakfast, people!

I finally got around to installing a new BB in the Bridgestone. That dials my chainline in nicely on the single front ring to be evenly in the middle of the rear 7 speed gear cluster. The original BB predated cartridge BBs and that bike has thousands upon thousand of miles on it. The bearing retainers were just pieces floating around inside the cups. I'll probably overhaul that BB for another bike. So after putting a flat bar back on it, I'll be ready to go trail riding again. Haven't been for years, but I miss off-road. I'll be hitting the trails up at Moosehead this weekend.

The new toys are a longsleeve merino jersey that I can't wait to ride with, and a Park PCS-1 workstand. This came from PricePoint.com for $120, thanks Jim! It's a very solid stand, we borrowed one from Brian to build Jim's bike in, so I knew what I was getting when I picked it, extremely solid, easy to use, good clamp. It also came with a free Crank Bros 10 multi tool. It's a little bulkier than some of the more foldable models, but it makes up for that in being really solid. Out of the box I didn't need the instructions to put it together, it's incredibly simple. Only two bolts to fasten the lower legs to the Y-joint.

Jeremy asked me what cheap tires I would recommend to get a mountain bike back on the street. Instantly, I thought of the Kenda K-Rad 26x1.95s. I had these on my Bridgestone for all of last year as a mostly road single speed, and I just gave one of them to Tim at work who is now riding with it on the front of his Gary Fisher. The tires roll easily for street, but have enough of a low tread for grass and hard pack trails/dirt roads to get a grip. The checkerboard pattern looks good on a mountain bike and doesn't make much noise on pavement. I even rode these in 3" of snow in January, they did OK, but it was a little on the slippy side. To seal the deal, they are only $10 each from Nashbar. I only took them off the bike to put more aggressive trail/mud tires on.

Wind in the spokes

It has been a windy month. Plenty warm enough for riding, but very generally windy. I've almost been blown of the road a few times though. It's now warm enough to ride to work every day but with that weird early spring temperature differential between 7:00am and a couple hours later. Most mornings I need tights, jacket, hat, gloves, and in the after noon I need none of that. So I've been looking like a camel on my way home lately with my jersey pockets stuffed full.

Today I basically have to go for a very long ride; The century date we've (Jim and I) been talking about is next weekend, but I'm not sure if that's going to work out for a number of reasons.

Now that the weather is a little more conducive to pictures, I got out the whole stable (well, except for the new guy) for some pictures. Here they are:

Nashbar Road bike, built 2006 (aka: Woof):


Dad's [now mine] Schwinn Suburban (1972):


I've been very excited to add Dad's bike to my collection. My earliest memories involve being carried in a backpack while atop this bike. We used to go for a bike ride almost every day when I was tiny. We would ride out to Dairy Queen for ice cream, and up to the powerlines to pick blueberries. I would invariably fall asleep during the rides with the wind in my face. This was a bike that had 10 whole gears. When I was old enough for my own BMX bike, I was amazed that you could have all those levers and gears and you could go so fast. The mechs on this bike are all very old, and weigh a ton. I have begun the process of tearing it down to make a single speed conversion out of it. I will likely be buying some new wheels for this bike soon. Probably track wheels so I can ride it fixed as well. I bought new rubber for it right away, only to find that yes, these are the old Schwinn proprietary rims that don't hold a conventional tire bead. 90 psi- BANG! Off like a shotgun.

Raleigh R-300 (1997) Touring bike:


Hawthorne Fixed-Gear (aka: Dump Bike):


Trek Cruiser Classic (frame 2006) Fixed-Gear (aka: Pirate Bike):


Bridgestone BB-1 mountain bike (1992):


Not pictured are a couple crappy old frames that are hanging in the corner, a Schwinn Varsity, and a gas pipe Shogun. Also just yesterday I picked up a dept store ten speed with a decent looking lugged steel frame, fenders, and 26" wheels. That may be destined for a bizarre FG conversion.