Yesterday my Weirwolf finally came in, so I got some parts and rebuilt the fleet. Julie got a new rear shoe, My God (M’s SS) got the Race Face 165’s and a 34t ring, and the Psurly fixie got built. Pics whenever the laptop comes back.

Riding a fixie is fun, and hard. It’s 44:18, which feels about right for town duties. I did have one oh shit moment when enthusiasm allowed pedal speed to get a little too hot. That’s why a front brake is good. I inverted my riser bar because I can’t get the stem low enough, it contributes to the generally freaky look, and feels awful. Drop bars are better, but this is the cheap bike so I’m not messing with it. To complete the idiosyncracy, I realized that the front fork is off. The front and rear wheel are parralel, just not in the same plain. It’s subtle, and doesn’t seem to affect handling, though I did need to put a ziptie on the right side of the brake caliper to pull it over into allignment and ensure it doesn’t rub.

I love bikes, and most of the time I like working on bikes. Most of all I like having solid and functional bikes that don’t need to be pampered or worried over.

Looks like Enel and I will be preriding the Whiskey 25 early Sunday. I’m not actually doing the race, as it’s the same day of the KTR. Should be good fun, especially if my limited explorations are any indication of the area’s quality. The whole deal begs for a good route linking Lynx Lake and Spruce with Granite basin. I may begin explorations in earnest with the aim of putting together a fall monstercross that would make a complete loop around the “Tri-cities” valley. There are fun roads and trails all over, I just need more knowledge to be able to do the math on a feasible one-day loop.

While in the bike shop yesterday I fingered some of these:

SRAM’s Force road brifters almost make bar end shifters not the way to go. The shift action of the secondary lever, which controls both up and down shifting, is at once crisp, definitive, and light. As the pictures shows, you can move it around with one finger and shift from the drops, while climbing or sprinting. The hoods are also very ergonomic. The only reason to not run ’em on midges for your mountain bike, thus far they are 10 speed only. And this:

Enel started this thread (http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=287222) over at MTBR, on nerve problems and highly swept handlebars. Required reading. Do I want to give up my midges, no. But I also like using my hands. Something I’ll be monitoring this year.

Overall the rest week is going well. Studying for my American Government state proficiency test Saturday, eating, lots of stretching and strengthening exercises. I do want to get up the backlog of photos, it feels like things go on forgotten that way.