I’m doing a sell-off of some stuff from the shop.

Item 1: Saris Thelma 3 hitch bike rack: best design I’ve ever used, clamshell clamps the front wheel, so unusual frames are no problem. Fits a 1-1/4" hitch, carries up to three bikes, and I have extra parts. $250

Item 2: H+Son Track Wheelset: custom made by 718c in Brooklyn; black SL42 H+Son rims black laced (double butted) to Soma hubs (black front, gold rear) though note the fixed side of the hub has some damage, so you run this as a freewheel on the other side or replace the hub. Basically throwing the wheel in with the front. $140

Item 3: Origin 8 Track Wheelset, all white: white on white on white. Unmachined front so you can see some brake smear but very lightly used all around. $75

Pick up if local to the SF Bay Area, otherwise shippable.
Contact me however you can, via comments, PM email etc

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In all these years, I’ve never ridden Mt. Talampais on a mountain bike. For those not into history, specifically bike history, Tam is the home of the mountain bike. Sure, it’s more complicated than that, but what we all think of as mountain biking today, from equipment to the terrain that spawned the industry that followed, came from Tam in the 70s. More on that here (and yes, Lung, I can give you the film) so it’s kind of surreal to ride Tam off-road and imgine those guys int he early days retrofitting their frames and putting the big rubber on and muscling their way up the mountain. We take it for granted today. Kind of cool.

A ride, 15 years ago, that almost ended not well.

I used to do a fair amount of recreational mountain biking. I wasn’t like the local guys out here that shoot up the mountain every week, but it was the bike I road in the city and on trips, and I loved both single track and dirt road climbs. And even after I traded my mtb for my first road bike (ie. in the adult era), I still rented them on vacations and did rides when I could, such as in Arizona and the like.

Anyway, I’ve always associated the Tam ride with my road bike riding, as that’s just what I’ve always done. Shoreline to Panoramic to the Tam approach, paved, up to Ridgecrest, both peaks, then down. It’s still a great workout, and variations on it, either that route or the Alpine Dam approach, comprise most of the hardest riding I do in my back yard here in Marin. But I picked up a big ole 29er to build into an Xtracycle for kid and cargo transport, and thought to myself: self? You need to ride this as it was intended, before you hack it up… and nowhere better than Tam. So I did. I didn’t really know the route, though friends in the area gave me a general sense of it, and I just cut out of work a little early, and made a go of it. Unfortunately, it was during our recent heatwave, so I worked a lot harder than I would say, today, 35 degrees cooler just 72 hours later. Anyway, it was awesome.

It also kicked my ass! Even with all those gears, that specific gear ratio, the suspension, and a reasonably mild ride from a technical standpoint, it was work. For one thing, my bike isn’t the lightest, being on the entry level end. For another, I haven’t muscled my way up a mountain offroad since Sept. 11, 2001, so there was no muscle memory for that combination of high spinning AND the myriad little surges and pushes you do to get over broken terrain. Plus, it was effing HOT. And lastly, you know, after a full day of work, I wasn’t at my personal best by any means. And yet, it was still a memorable ride I plan to revisit soon.

I took Blithedale out until it narrowed to an unmaintained road, then hopped on the trail. The main route up largely involves Old Railroad Grade, which used to be the bed for a tourist rail system that brought people up Tam back in the day, itself something of some notoriety for being the ‘crookedest railroad in the world’…you can read more about that and the history of Tam here. I was initially disappointed when I learned it was a railroad bed, because my previous mountain riding several years ago was single track. However, it was still no joke. It was heavily rutted, bounders and ravines and rocks and slurry and steep drops down the side. It wasn’t technical enough to be outrightly dangerous to the inexperienced rider, but challenging enough and long enough to give you a go-round, regardless of fitness levels. Much like Paradise and other nearby loops, it’s one of those rides that can kick your ass at first, then become the FUN kind of workout once you’re seasoned. I love that kind of flexibility with regards to loops like that, allowing their continued enjoyment on repeat rides. So I knew going up that I was experiencing it at my general worst for this kind of thing, and that future runs would only be easier.

For the most part, the ride was just fine. I was flying along all the way up to the top of Summit Rd, through great sections of tree canopy and blocks of no coverage where the sun was very hot. I was hydrating and eating and not overdoing it, so I was approaching it the way any experienced rider on unfamiliar route/terrain would: I kept reserves and respected my ride. At the top of that, I missed the cut off to continue up the grade, so I went down quite a ways, further than I’d like thanks to some bad intel from a hiker, but then decided I was returning to Mill Valley that way, flipped it and went back up again. This time, down the other side the way I came, I found soem riders who let me tag along, and set me on the right course again before they peeled off. There are a million smaller routes and side trails you can take, even though general off-roading is banned on Tam to save the ecosystem from getting trampled to death. So after those guys were gone, I kept going alone. My only real trouble was zig-zagging going into a large raving and wrenching my left side, hand and foot, pretty badly in that maneuver, which I would then be favoring the rest of the ride, and much worse a few days later on the Primavera Metric Century later in the weekend.

Otherwise, I got as high as the West Point Inn (used to be a restaurant/shelter for people on that railroad trip, now a hiking shelter) before I got the call from home that my wife could use a hand with the kids, so I had to turn back rather than reach the East peak as intended. As it turns out, I was thisclose to getting there, and had I known that at the time I probably would have just continued to the top.

Anyway, I flew down at the measured, controlled pace for which I have been known in all my years of riding, as friends would fly past me on freefall descents, road and mountain, and sometimes crash out, on road and mountain. I gots kids! Anyway, it was a great descent. I knew of a shortcut that would have reduced the trip to 10 minutes all the way down, but it was very steep and seemed unwise so I kept at my original route until I saw a second access point to that alternate route and took that, ultimately dropping out just shy of Four Corners. At that point, I was actually thankful that I didn’t go that last bit to the peak, because my fuel ran out (OK, yeah, 3 fish tacos and a handful of peanuts was not enough for the day)… so I was bonking hard on Panoramic and all the way home, where I plowed through a beer and some peanut butter like an animal.

Word to Lung, whom I point at specifically, here, representing Team lope in the distance.

Lessons learned on this first ride up Tam the right way:

- stretch more in the upper body: unlike road riding, you rely on your arms and shoulders and upper back a lot when navigating rocky terrain, and I really just stretched legs and core out of habit. I might not have wrenched my wirst otherwise.

glorious fish tacos from FISH. Not enough.

- feed a LOT more than I did. I mean, this would apply to most any good climbing route, but I got sort of complacent about grabbing the chance to ride even if I wasn’t well fueled, as often happens on my morning or lunchtime Paradise Loops prior to eating. Up there you burn out faster, and then guess what: you’re far from home. It’s just common sense. But I had a chance to ride and took it, frankly not knowing how far up I’d make it anyway.

- Drop the diet for the climbs: I tend to use a low/no carb, lean protein diet when I’m trying to get fit, and of course, on ANY type of ride of enough duration and effort, it’s a challenge when you don’t have the carb reservoirs. I had nothing to burn on this ride. At least on event rides I break my diet and fuel up on carbs the day before and the day of. This was spontaneous enough for that not to be possible. I really wished I had that energy reserve up there.

- STAY LIMBER: my wriest wrenching was a great lesson on how easily you can jack yourself up on those jagged sections of trail.

- Lizards are awesome: I saw snakes, a tarantula, birds, a fox, and a metric ton of lizards up there, and in the latter case, I was taken back to my childhood obsession with gladhanding bluebellies. Make what you will of THAT.

- Mountain biking is pure: that’s something I used to know, but forgot over the years. I’m talking purity in the sense of being at eace, being contemplative, enjoying the sport aspect but also having some freedom from the stress of the day. I’ve clocked tens of thousands of hours on road bikes and fixed gears over the years, with a lot of that without a rider or car in sight. But being on paved roads STILL means density: cars, other riders, what have you. Plus, unexpected road condition dangers. On a mtb ride, you are equipped for uneven terrain and expecting it, and you may have other riders around sometimes, just like with hiking, but overall, you’re alone, you and nature. It’s humbling and wonderful. The smells, the sights, everything. It’s pure cycling fun. You put away he time trial brain (at least climbing) and focus on the experience. I mean, I do, anyway. There’s all sorts of competitive mtb riding appealing to any kind of rider. But for me, the lack of an SUV crowding me was the single biggest appeal.

As I said, I plan to do this more frequently, now that I know at least one route, and damn it’s easy to get to from where I am. Ridiculously so. I’ve always said I live in road biking mecca… but the same is so of mountain biking. Now in a few weeks time, my 29er will be an xtracycle. And it is planned to be running slicks. But I suspect that if I pull the kid’s seat off, and perhaps change the rubber, I could get that bad boy up. I mean, I never went into third, or granny, ring on the bike on this run, so even with the added weight of the xtracycle build, I’d have a whole ‘nuther ring to work with and the stability of that longer frame. I look for ward to finding out!

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So the Primavera Century is coming up this weekend, and Lung and I are doing it fixed. At first, I was gung-ho without much attention tot he details only because:
a) we ride fixed everywhere, frequently climbing
2) we rode to LA without an issue
d) fackit

But I started thinking about the last few times I did this event… the Calaveras Road section has ‘the wall’ which is just one of three big climbs of the day… I remember this being an issue for many of the road riders, let alone a couple of dorks on fixies. I got through it, and the other climbs, using my usual double-ring road bike config, but in thinking about muscling up those on a fixed gear, three details emerged:
a) it’s one thing to muscle up a climb, as we often do. It’s another thing to blow that much anaerobic resource on a long day of riding, headwinds and heat and other climbs to follow
2) I recently upgeared to 76*
d) ohfack

Additionally, I haven’t overhauled Crook Type 3 pretty much since I built it up after ALC… and that’s far too long. I rotate through bikes (at one point, 8 of them) in my commute, so the more rigorous overhaul isn’t as necessary for me or as frequent anyway as it is for Lung, riding the same bike every day with few exceptions. And I’ve done several maintenance and corrections evenings, spot-overhauling parts of it. But the creaks int he bottom bracket were joined by some ping-pings recently, and my brake pads were stubs. So it was time to do it up.

I didn’t COMPLETELY overhaul it in the sense that I didn’t break it down to it’s complete extrusion photo level of strippage, but I did the primary stuff: complete drivetrain overhaul, brakes, all bolts and major adjustments. All I didn’t do is pull the 17 off, as I recently put it on, and I didn’t break down the headset.

I’m now whisper silent. I mean, I still have the minor chatter of chainline issues, but the bike itself is a ninja again (a green and white and elkhide and chainline-chattering ninja)… it hasn’t been this quiet since I built it. So smooth. And it’s of course all thanks to judicious applications of my best pal in the shop:

Ole Phil never lets me down…

As far as the Primavera goes, what I ended up electing to do is keep the 76 on the one side, and add a 19 cog on the other, which gets me to around 67. So the total rig is not as nimble as Lung’s 72/03 (or whatever that 21 gets him) but at least we both have a climbing gear to fall back on as needed, one way or another.

I rode the hills by my house a few times on the new cog to get cinched, per the usual routine, and rode in on it, which was sort of torturous, not unlike trying to spend much high-cadence saddle time on Rapscallion with it’s 20 cog (baby bikery) but I really wanted to give it some time to settle in. I will say it’s nimble to climb with it.

Excelsior!
*I’ve been saying it was 77 but I checked and it actually rounds to 76, my bad. 48/17

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So coming off a short but annoying cold I could tell my asthma was doing it’s usual thing and packing the congestion in my lungs like hibernation of pestilence, so something needed to be done. Also, I was itching to get some exercise after my bday and post-bday debauchery. Also, I changed the gearing on Crook Type 3 to 76 and was hot to try it on my Loring climb Alternate Commute Route. So I did. On a frosty, windy morning.

The climb was going to be tough, just judging from GETTING to it, having ridden this bike this route so many times. It’s a modest wavy grade to get to where Loring starts, and by the time I did, I was noticing my legs burning from trying to maintain my customary cadence. Heading up, the main difference was the point at which I hopped out of the saddle, which was a few hundred feet sooner. Otherwise, my performance was the same: no stops, slow grinding mash, and relieved to get to the top. That said, I had a much longer recovery at the top. I actually circled a few times before descending the other side because I wanted to attempt a brake free Alternate Commute Route and the legs felt fatigued.

After that, the descent was a combination of short skids to control speed, back pedaling and a few long skids at the appropriate places. I got to work without using the break I mean brake, which was nice. My quads felt tight, though.

When I left in the evening, I was feeling some soreness in my legs in about three or four places. Ride home was cold and windy and I mashed to get home in time to relieve the nanny, so to speak, so that combined with all the skidding, added to the work being done and you know how it is with muscle fatigue: it’s not any one thing you did or even the combination of them, it’s what you did PAST the point where your muscles were cooked. Having been off the bike for several days and having not done that climb in about a week and a half were all enough to probably make my muscles complain, but adding the bigger gearing to it again was the last straw for me ole quads. So last night I was stiff as a board throughout, getting the baby and chasing cats and what have you, and this morning, more of the same. It was ‘stairs are difficult’ level soreness, not too bad but very noticeable. Enough that my daughter kept asking ‘whatchoo doo on your knee!’

Swim class with her this morning was perfect for it though, as I loosened up and flushed them out a bit, and then I rode in after and got more of the lactic acid moving around and I’m feeling pretty good.

Still, I digress. That was all the unexpected outcome of Loring on the bigger gear for the first time. The point was loosening up my chest, and I’m happy to report that I sounded like Doc Holliday for three hours after I got to work. Tuberculosis cough, I mean. Also quotes: ‘you’re a daisy if ya do!’

Great ride! I love feeling the fruits of my efforts, and knowing that five similar rides from now I won’t be feeling that soreness.

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My practicing of ambi skids is still slow going. However, my other tasks continue to improve. I’ve been practicing skidding on different bars (and by extension, different geometries)… certainly Crook is the easiest to skid with, being a pursuit frame, and the bulls letting you get way forward. But I’ve now been able to skid on Rapscallion (the baby cargo bike, currently now only a cargo bike), Wrongbike and Carpetbagger. That’s in the drops (Wrongbike), on risers (Rapscallion) and on rising arcs (Carpetbagger)… but the Wrongbike situation leads to the next task: sit skids.

Being able to skid from the tops of the pista bars on wrongbike led to my cracking the sit skid. Before this, I could sort of accomplish it by getting into the drops or bulls or whatever, and I could get a bit of sit skid, but not much. Once I could skid from the bartops (granted, not long skids) I was able to focus on the lift and skid necessary to skid seated. I love it.

More arrows, you see! Now I can, for the first time, ride without my finger resting out of habit on the lever. If I see something happening, I can initiate a sit skid while getting to the brake.

Next up, more ambi skid practice, and I’m in the early stages of working on one hand sit skid. Which, of course, means coffee carriage.

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So I finally finished wrapping up Wrongbike’s new pista bars. These were by far the hardest I’ve done.

I used a canvas base wrap, for two reasons: additional padding, and to help the elkhide stay put. I didn’t use any on the first wrap job (Crook) and over time the wrap has slid down the sides of the bulls. However, here, it posed a new problem: the diameter is now thick enough that the lacing can’t go completely tight, and just getting it as far as you see in these pics was brutal enough that my fingers and joints are still jacked up.

I had help, to the tune of two cats and three late night martinis (perhaps ill-advised, as the former were gassy and needle-grabby, and the latter led to a very short three hour sleep night thereafter, and not pleasant sleep either, with all that gin being processed; let’s not to mention the sewing errors I had to keep correcting)

It took about three hours all in I would say. Or, more accurately, 4 episodes of NY Ink forwarding through commercials. HA. It was tough. Going around that corner on the drops was hard. I had to abandon the double stitch towards the last leg of the drops too, in order to have enough thread. But on the upside, the red sneak in the wrap looks pretty dope, or SAWish, as Lung commented over the weekend.

Anyway, the build it TIGHT. I rode in today on it (yay Spring) and it felt great. I can skid int he drops pretty well, and on the tops in small amounts. In current config in the top photo, the bars are pretty low so mashing in the drops is hard on the knees. Though, side benefit, I can ding the bell with my knee at the ladies, the ladies. But it’s not a very comfortable spot. So I’ve subsequently tweaked the bars a bit and will keep screwing around with it until I have it dialed in. For now, I flipped the stem, but that’s goofy, so if I like that height, I’ll just stack some spacers under the stem as it was before. I’ve looked at the stem adapter I’m using and I think I could add about 10mm or so of rise without losing purchase on the steerer. I also tweaked the seat height yet again. I need to get a new seat bolt clamp to hold it place, as it keeps slowly dropping.

Gorgeous, I think!

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The other day, when I was lamenting not getting to ride in the rain (who does that) I noted that I’d post about my ride kit for rain days. I have a base kit that goes with me every day (if all goes as according to plan) including tools, spare stuff, a compressed shopping bag/ backpack, an asthma inhaler for emergencies, and a Heat Bullet. But I also have special sub kits that are conditional. For example, a cold weather kit, certain toolkit adds depending on bike being used, and so on. One such conditional kit is my rain kit.

I keep the other kits bundled in parcels in another container but this one gets a bin of its own.
Within:

- Pair of old Vittoria 1975s (these are the ones that got me to LA and were recently retired as the heels are breaking down) which I use for rain conditions these days.

- Waterproof ankle booties

- Clear waterproof jacket (large enough to cover a backpack)

- Brooks saddle cover

- Helmet cover (a new edition)

I’ve used the rain jacket several times, but the saddle cover I’ve always been too lazy to use. Now that I’m riding in the rain on a regular basis though, I’m finally using it properly. To be fair, previously my rain rides were on the baby bike, Rapscallion, with the baby seat removed, and that has an old Brooks saddle beyond help, and no other leather goods on it. But now that I’m riding any and all bikes, I wanted to take better care of the gear. Of course, leather doesn’t dissolve in rain, as many an animal will confirm for you. But it does stretch and such, something less desirable for saddles and bar wrap. Ironically enough, I had TWO of these saddle protectors when I did ALC and didn’t bring them. Subsequently the bikes were wet a few mornings as they were racked in the open.

Here’s that rain helmet cover. I never had one of these before. I never saw the need. But then again, I never deliberately rode in the rain. Sure, I’ve been caught out in the rain on long rides before, and whatever, you get wet. But one annoying thing about vented bike helmets is that eventually that water gets through your cap and then you get really soaked, water down the face etc… especially when one has no hair. So, not for your typical light rain day, but for a day like today, when I left the house in pouring rain? It makes a world of difference.

Here’s one of those Brooks Saddle protectors. It has an elastic rim, and then a cinch in back, as well as a clever velcro strap that you can secure on a seat rail just in case.

The remaining component of my rain kit is the fold-down European fender. I love this thing.

I was behind schedule last night so I brought the bike up to the house and then remembered it was on the deck, around 11pm, so I pulled it in the house and gave it a wipe down. In the morning, it was a feature item for my daughter, who helped get her mother and brother awake through the repeated use of the bell. As is her wont.

Yesterday was a light rain day. Today was a POURING rain day. And I had a great ride in. Yesterday was wrongbike, as above, and today was Crook. Good stuff!

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Today was a good example of why i love being a consultant. I had a meeting in the city arranged for late morning, so after we took the kids to swim class int he Presidio, I pulled the bike out and split off from my family, to head downtown and do my biz. I tried to noodle, keep the sweat down, but when there are bikes to pass and such, it’s hard not too. Also climbs yield skids.

I got to the site a half hour early. (I’m always early to meetings, though not always social plans >> shut up Lung) but this was gravy, especially since I was riding and wasn’t sure how it would go when pacing a slower ride. Bagel and coffee, and over to the building. I snuck into their building bike parking and locked up on a vertical rack. Sweet!

After the meeting, Lung met me down on the Embarcadero where we went to Gott’s, formerly Taylor’s Refresher, for burgers. It was a thousand degree day in the city and we sat outside in the sun. I had a delicious Lagunitas IPA as well. Just perfect all around.

Of course, the ride back was going to be tough, with the combination of headwind and a full gullet, but I mashed the shit out of it, so to speak, and made good time. Only one rider passed me, a roadie that caught me on the bridge and shot down the grade faster than I could (obviously) but I still overtook him in Sausalito. I got to the office in dire straights thanks to a very full bladder. But it was a great ride, after a great day and lunch with my bro, and I left about 33 grams of tyre rubber along the route, too.

Amusing highlight was a guy driving an AUDI with bikes on a rack that waved me down in Crissy Field and asked to photograph my bike because he said it was the perfect MASH build (subjective of course)… he was hooked on my custom bomber grrrl. Kinda funny. I was like man, I gotta keep MOVING…!

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2. Crook Revs
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This morning was my first ride on Crook after the new wheel, cog, and tyres.

Thoughts:

1. The cog is not as attractive as my Sugino system, which had a nice orangey-tint to the gold finish. But it’s still gold. Halo brand. 17t. Dira Ace lockring.

2. The hub is not as attractive as the previous hand-built hub, thanks to the former’s gold finish that matched the cog quite well. But I’m back in black, at any rate. And whole rear wheels with H+Son and All-City hubs for $160? Can’t beat it.

3. This was my first time ratcheting down a cog and lockring designed for skidding from the get go. All of my previous conventional cog wheels I just cinched the cog down, cinched the lockring down, rode out, re-tightened the lock ring once, and was otherwise good to go. Because, you know, no real backward forces except for back pedaling. But introduce those forces to a bike like that and the weakness in the set-up is immediately apparent. Witness Carpetbagger on first ride with Lung. He hoped on that fresh build, did some skid, and loosened the cog and lockring. So the cog could have gotten a hair tighter, and thus when it did get tighter as I rode over, the lockring was no longer snug against the cog, so when he skidded, he unwound them a bit. Same with the previous wheel on this bike, with the Sugino system on it. All my other bikes I’ve been retightening the lock ring throughout each ride to be safe. Anyway, here, I did a different method: hand tight cog, then chain whip tight, then only modestly tight lockring just to keep it in place. Then I rode up the hill by my house aggressively twice. Then came back, tightened the lock ring, and went to work.

4. I’m tightening that wee fucker all day. I felt some slip after my first long skid, but the cog seemed in place, so I tightened the ring more. Again, when I got to the office, after only a modest skid. Again before I took off this afternoon to do some little downhills around here. Now the lockring is tight and not moving. Still felt a bit of slip. Can’t see the cog going anywhere though. I’m keeping my eye on it.

5. Those tyres are glorious. I’m skidding nice and long now, and it’s easier to get out in front of the bike now. FUN!

That is all! We’ll see if I have a gloomy report tonight, or more good successes to follow…
I still want to take a chain whip to this cog again at home, just to see. It stands to reason that torquing it up hill was more force than I’m going to muscle it, but there was that pernicious microslip I felt. I may pull the switches from the bars and flip it and do the chain method.

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I hate changing tyres. At least I used to. You have to understand, this comes from twin unpleasant scenarios: too many field tyre changes that usually involved two or three tubes due to pinch flats or valve collap; and home changes where I fought with deep, tight road wheel clincher rims and kevlar bead tyres until my fingers fell off. But a few weeks ago, I went to switch out front wheels on Crook, and it went so smoothly that I decided to take on another wheel with some issues, and that went well too. So, it appeared like my curse was lifted. So last night, I went to town on ALL my remaining wheel projects, while BBQing ‘Honest Dogs’.

Step 01: Beverage. It’s been an unseasonably warm weekend (and new week) here in Northern California, and I spent a lot of it outdoors with the kids, though not riding. So I was in a cool, refreshing drink mood. Hence, sangria for the people.

My tasks were pretty straight-forward: New rear wheel on Crook, so new rubber going on that one; replacing the rubber on the front wheel to match, because I’m a matchy-mcmatch dork, which sort of goes against fixie-hipster science; pulled the white tyres off of the white track wheels, and the black/white Everwears off of the black wheels, because I was inspired at 3am to go white on black, and not in a SugarDVD capacity. Necessarily. Lots of taking off of one rim and applying to another rim, lots of opportunities for exploding tubes and mayhem. Also, kids running around, alcohol and open flame. And a knife. And ladybugs, which are in mating season.

One area in which Lung and I differ is the aesthetics of the THICKSLICK tyres that were released by Freedom last fall. He doesn’t like the big lower case goofy font branding. I actually like it, because it evokes the fat tires of drag racers I saw as a kid (well, saw on TV or whatever) where they had similar lettering. I think it’s cool that the lettering works it’s way down to the contact area of the tyre. I love love love slicks. And after beating myself up skidding on Gatorskin Hardshells (the super-beefy kevlar contis I swear by for distance riding on road bikes and on this bike, even beefier than normal Gatorskins) and basically wasting them, I thought I’d have fun with a fire-and-forget skid tyre.

ThickSlicks are interesting. There’s more there there than I originally thought. I assumed these were cheap rubber tyres like Vittoria Randos that are so soft you can draw on the sidewalk with them on hot days, right. But according to folks I know around town, even the basic model (the Sport version I’m using, vs the beefier kevlar Elite model) lasts forever, even skidding. It’s the principle of mass and how they built the section up. It’s a thick tyre. Noticeably so. And much heavier than others, as a result. They went on pretty easily (after muscling my nearly new Gatorskins off) and look great. And, as of this morning, I can tell you they skid even BETTER.

This was the other project: I took the black Chukker wheels that Joe at 718c made me for the baby bike, Rapscallion, and put white track rubber on them. That bike is getting repainted matte black to match the original frame for that project (the Mixte) so i thought it would be a neat look. They look pretty boss to me.

No explosions, no lacerations, no deaths. Big deal, some tyre swaps. But this is an area in which Chiaramonte’s Misfortune Principle generally applies in quantity. So yay.

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