I am a bad mechanic, and just completed some of the most difficult wrenching on a bike I’ve done.

When Curiak emailed me last week with an offer I couldn’t refuse, Leviathan seatstays with rack mounts, I thought it would be easy. Undo some bolts, swap, replace. Curiak alluded to head-scratching being involved, but I wrote that off.

Not so.

The chainstay-seatstay pivots work around a brass bushing and alloy sleeve, the later of which must be removed with a 5mm tap and a bit of force (according to Devin Lenz). I found more than a bit of force to be necessary, both in removal and installation.

I think it all went ok, though.

Otherwise, the Lev now has Enel’s Mary bars, my old levers, my homebrew thumbie mount, and a used XTR trigger that had some sweet-ass action during the around the block test. I’ve got some Titec H-bars en route, as I can’t see giving up the multiplicity of hand positions so easily.

Experimentation. I’m just glad the hard part is over.

A final testiment to my mechanical skill: I had to push the cork into the wine. No I have to drink it all. Fuck.

I suppose wrenching is for rest days. “Rest” days. It was a 12 hour weekend: 6.5 hiking, 5.5 riding a wet Sedona Sunday with Brad H. Beware MTBR names, the person with no caps might just be a CB local who finished fourth at the Classic last year. No mercy, and a helluva good time. Some of them off the grid trails are just too damn cool for words.

Now I’m quite tired, and half drunk. Off to bed.