Goodbye SLC

Sometimes good riders and friends move on from SLC (Chowdah), in this case, Adam Banton (Sponsor-Eastern Bikes, who will accept trade-ins of old, worn-out and broken bike parts!) recently moved to Arizona but put together this video tribute to Salt Lake City and a few of the guys that he rode with during his time there. Adam also composed and performed the music in the vid.  Good luck, Adam!

In which crushing and plowing are related

After my recent post on my new green machine, the path has gotten a bit more difficult and crushing has taken it's toll.  The 3rd Cliff of Insanity is largely the source, with it's steep but soft landing ramp.  Fahzures first attempt at Keylining the ramp with the brake lever and bar end did not go well, breaking the attachment point off the lever body.  Fortunately, zip ties work well (thanks for the hollow pivot, Sram!):

Next, the only rock patch in miles beckoned Fahzure to clean some field stones. Spokes make a poor implement for the job:

Back at the Cliffs of Insanity, a little tire plowing:

Never have cleaned out soil from inside the tire before:

Yes, I run 'em 40-45psi (2.3's!)

3rd Cliff, 1st Drops

The newly rebuilt 3rd Cliff of Insanity on the Bobsled is ready to roll.  Demenem gets 1st chair:

After a poor first attempt, Fahzure nails it:

Plans are to continue the line through the super booter hip to a step down and wallride.

Is this you?

These folks were generous, accommodating and a hoot at Interbike. They deserve you, do you deserve them (and MN)?:

Do you eat bacon on your peanut butter donuts? (and will you bring us some?) Drink the finest canned malt/barley/hops beverage at the local beverage store? (and will you bring us some?) Wear a clown-suit to work for a meeting with the boss? Are you familiar with the term “Canadian tuxedo”? Are you proud to finish Dead Last in a bike race?

Here’s the deal. Surly is looking for a marketing manager – and you’re probably not it. In case you’re confused…WE’RE LOOKING FOR A SURLY MARKETING MANAGER! - and you’re still probably not it.

If you are a Surly person with strategy and brand and marketing and bike chops – you’re still probably not it. But we will eat your donuts, drink your beer, and humor you while doing so.

Look, what’s important is that you have an excellent understanding of marketing for a great consumer brand like Surly. Yes, I said “great.” If that made you laugh just leave some beer at the front desk and go the hell away.

If you still think you’re a fit – and you’re probably not – hurry up already, there’s stuff that need doin’! The “formal” job description will be on the qbp.com website until it is filled. You know, the one HR likes.

http://www.qbp.com

Look at these bikes

More of the same, here.

No touch 10 second garlic peeling

Fall is also pesto making time around our house.  Buckets of washed basil:

 Garlic peeled the 10 second method:

 
This year Fahzure and Mrs. Fahzure grew about 20 Basil plants and 200 heads of garlic.  We'll try to put up about 3 gallons of pesto, so having to peel 15 or so heads of garlic can be a real chore and hard on your hands. I use the side of a Chef's knife or cleaver to break apart the heads, so I don't end up touching the garlic hardly at all:

A couple of caveats, it's about 10 seconds per head, and with the bowls the size in the video, about 10 heads is the efficient limit. This method does generate a bit of waste in that the tips of the cloves often break off, mixing with the husks.

Fall is when we ride (and build)

I've always found fall to be the best time to ride.  In temperate climates, nearly a year's worth of suffering and practice are paying off just as the temperatures drop so the body's cooling system doesn't have to work so hard.  As the precip returns, it can also be a good time to build.  I had a couple of hours of waiting around time, so I decided to build this:

Not too spectacular, until you check it out from the other direction. It was installed on the third Cliff of Insanity, making it two and half feet more insane (notice the super booter in the distance?):

 
The low angle light of sunset should catch the whole venue perfectly, can't wait for the shots:

SSSSSS-Super Sick Specialized SX Sending Sunday

For more than 10 years, Fahzure's primary ride was his Killing Machine but, on its fourth fork and needing drivetrain and brake work, the Killing Machine became hard to trust.  I shopped around for over a year anticipating catastrophic failure of the KM (it never happened). I rode the Ibis Mojo HD, Knolly Chilcotin, Yeti 7, Intense Tracer and many more of the 6-7 inch offerings. I decided that I had to have coils, front and rear, some sort of multi-link rear end, and a design based on a 180mm fork.  Tys chose to support the home team, by picking up a One, so that eliminated that option for me. Thanks to my friends at Big Red and Wasatch Touring, I was able update my ride while staying within the lineage. At my age, the less I have to adapt, the better, I thought. Fahzure's new ride: 

 The Specialized SX Trail is the longest travel non-dual crown offering available from Big Red. I switched out the drivetrain to 10sp Shimano, put on a 90mm Thomson stem, meaty Oury grips and a Reverb seatpost, which is awesome when it works, so far, not very often; 39 lbs as you see it.  Saddle is a donor from Griffy after the stock slim jim folded (you'll thank me later, Chowdah) on no footer hard landers.  Lots of stuff on the bar and still tons of room:

 Front hubs are indistinguishable in my opinion, the Fox axle works well:

 Fancy front end: matching color F & F, headset, hub:

Look at all of those shapes, angles and joints:

 XT 10speed w/ SLX shifters has worked great; cool through axle, derail hanger, derail guard:

After six months of light use, the green ano has started to fade at different rates, to different tones; earn your turns stem:

 I'm fairly indifferent about cranks and pedals, as long as they don't break; my first steady relationship with a chainguide equipped bike has been a bit testy:

 Four pot Code brake calipers combined with carbon XO levers, light and super powerful brakes; so far, so good on the rear hub:

750 mm-29.5 inches wide handlebars is quite a switch up for Fahzure, who previously was running bars in the 25-26 inch range.  Fahzure loves his table tops, turn downs and, especially, X-ups. The wide bars combined with the longish stem are intimidating, where bar ends can catch on legs or clothing...will it work out?:

 Super Sick Sending Sundays came to end this past weekend and the turnout was as strong as ever, all kinds of conveyances were present; little tykes:

Many people were first timers on janky bikes, like this one with the quill-type stem a full inch and a quarter above the minimum insert line:

Danky Dan, who has taken up with a plastic 29er, was out Crossfit training on his dualie:

Tys styling the big stepdown:

Fahzure in the skills park:

Flo nearly bottomed out in the skills park (check those stanchions):

 

In the skills park, I got the courage to try a number of tricks on the new bike, including suicide no handers, no footers, and X-ups; on the big stepdown, I got to send it:

Griffy sends it legoman moto style:

Extend your arms and legs, scoot back, twist your arms to full click at the elbow:

Pavel was up with the Go Pro and, with lightening fast speed, put together these two vids of Fahzure and Tys:

 Thanks for a great fall warmup, Canyons, Tys, Pavel, Flo. So far, the transition to SX has been seamless, with one exception. All of my other bikes are black or blackish. I'm considering some repaints this winter, perhaps in dark metallic:

Hard rockin' hardware

Power tools make life easy, they make life fun.