The prime assembly for the Crook project occurred Monday.
I think this was my most anticipated build. Except for Villain, wrongBike and Ghostal. I guess I’m pretty much generally uniformly enthusiastic about such things.

I have to say, some builds are harder than others. Full conversions like wrongBike are multi-day builds, from the stripping of old to the prepping for the new, to the painting, to the cleaning and repurposing of original parts, to the problem-solving when things go wrong on the assembly. Others, like Ghostal, are snap-together affairs with some minor delays here and there. Bikes like Villain are somewhere in the middle. I’d say Crook, so far, has been one of, if not THE easiest, build. For one thing, I’m working from almost entirely new stock, and the reuse of old parts wasn’t that onerous. For another, I had a lot of time to sit down there and think through everything and plan ahead a bit on some things that would have stalled me out had I not. Lastly, I think because the vision was consistent throughout, I didn’t have a lot of question marks going in about how things would work. I’m using same brands and same parts I’ve used on other bikes, and I knew what I wanted. I didn’t finish, but I got damn close.

Plus, I have to say, when you work and have family obligations and a young baby, just getting out there to wrench for a few hours is a wonderful thing. A few more and that bike would have been on the road today. But all in all, a wonderful build day.

One item to note was that, like Lung’s Leaser, this is an aluminum frame with a pursuit geometry. That stiffness means two compromises: creaks and discomfort. On the creak side of things, the infamous creaking bottom bracket was already plaguing Lung. We both did some research that indicated some additional lubery between bracket and cups, not just cups and shell, seemed to be recommended. Lung also had a cracked plastic cup on Leader, which he replaced with aluminum when he overhauled the BB recently. Leader is now whisper smooth.
So, I followed the same process, lubing up both the inside and outside of these cups. I’ve used the same Miche BB on Villain, and one frustrating problem, as of yet unsolved, was that the entire assembly rotated inward into the shell, away from the drive side, over time on that bike. I don’t yet know why. Stands to reason it could happen here too. So, I’m still looking into that. But for now, we’re in good shape.

On the discomfort side of things, I ride a Brooks saddle which is supportive, if not cushy. Other than the all-important rider’s triangle adjustment of bar reach to seat, the only other thing I can do to mitigate that ride discomfort on this frame is to double up on the gel padding on the bars. Padding, double upped! And if I have my way, TRIPLED up, for science, pending sourcing another gel kit. With two layers, it’s already buttery But you know how THAT goes. Not the same feeling on mile 60, 70, 80…

The front end came together very quickly, as I’d done the legwork on the headset and test fitted everything like 33 times. Not that it’s intended to be HARD, with an integrated headset and all. But I had some things to work out, largely me tricking my own self into over-complicating it, and me believing blatantly outdated marketing materials from Cinelli. But we’ve already covered that. Liberal lube of all bearing parts and the lower half of the steerer, and everything came together nicely. I won’t be cutting the steerer until i can get out there and feel out the ride position. I also have mismatched black spacers, so for science I’ll probably make them all uniform, once I determine the proper stack. Good to go! Also, Lung recently pointed out a great trick for stabilizing the front end in the bike stand involving a sock or an arm warmer. Since I use these big plastic clamps, this is how I do it: the clamp handles act as the stabilizers over the top tube.

What took the longest? Would you believe the CHAINRING replacement. Tole you what, I’ve been looking for a table-mount vice grip for awhile, which I think Lung looked for for me as well, and I sure could have used it yesterday. Chainring bolts are allen keyed on one side and have a receiver on the other side that needs to be secured from a slotted groove. OK, two hands, already required. Now, hold the crank securely in order to bear down. Crap. So, I spent a good amount of methodical, frustrating energy gripping the crank arm with my knees and working at the bolts with my hands. So much so that my legs are SORE from it. The worst part? The receivers take a flathead screwdriver to that slot to hold them in place, if you happen to have one big enough (which I didn’t) or a special tool. I must have muscled for 45 minutes all tole, getting all but one free, and then had to put it down. This bolt would NOT break free. Miche loctites them, I suspect. Anyway, on a lark I went over and reviewed my handy Spin Doctor kit and YES, of COURSE… there was the tool. It’s not marked such. it was just one of the only tools I’d never used. I actually went over looking for something to use as a jury-rig solution, looked at this tool, and felt like an idiot. Well, it wasn’t easy, but that last bolt came off finally, using, Cthulu forbid, the proper tool.

I moved up from a 46t to a 49t ring. Not a huge difference visually, but a big one on the road.

Lubed and applied, quick snap! Pedals on! I was going to use new pedals, but I cannibalized Villains’ pending what happens with that project. Vy nott, as my mother-in-law would say!

I’m using a sweet cog retainer system from Sugino in this build. Similar to designs by Miche and White Industries, it involves a carrier, a lock ring, and grooved cogs that fit to the carrier snug. This means that on the road, you unscrew the lock ring and pull the cog right off. Couldn’t be any faster. The Sugino system uses a curvy sine-wave shape to that connection, to maximize efficient bearing surface. It’s a beautiful, beautiful set up. The only drawback is that it requires a Shimano-compatible BB tool to adjust it, which is a new tool for the ride kit. But man, SWEET stuff.

Here’s a money shot of the back end. Check out the gold cog with the gold hub. I’m pretty pleased. It really has the effect I wanted.

These wheels Joe built for me are wonderful, and that’s a DEEEEEP section. Check that out against the wheelstays, for scale.

I think the second longest part of the build day was the cockpit. I’m using FSA K-Wings and they offer an internal cable routing design. Let me tell you, routing stiff cable housing from a hood a short, inflexible distance to enter the bars and come out farther down, very difficult. FSA have an ingenious helper tool, though, which I definitely made use of: it’s a strap of nylon that you push into the wider exit channel, then open wide, creating a loop. Push the cable housing through, snare it with this nylon loop, and pull it out the exit channel. Brilliant! Still not EASY, but I couldn’t have done it without it. This process was time-consuming because of the measure twice, cut once philosophy. Actually, make that measure thrice. You have to get the cable housing measurement just so, then route the cable itself, and get the brake strung, and if anything doesn’t measure up correctly, you have to start over. Tool long and it wouldn’t work. Too short, and, well, more housing required. Worse, I have 33 feet of black housing, but of COURSE I’m not using that on this build, so my stock on hand was less bountiful. Overall, it worked find and is all good to go. Gel on, brake strung, just waiting to wrap the bars until I confirm hood alignment position.

:::

The build as it stands:

Here’s the bike as a whole. Not great pics, in low light conditions down in the bikeBasement, but you should gleam at least 33% of the awesome from these pics. It looks EXACTLY as I visualized it. I’m so in love.

Here’s the front end, with most of the detail obscured, of course.

Here’s from the vantage point of the haters behind me. GORGEOUS.

What’s next?

- I need valve extenders. Badly. My long-valve tubes have valve lengths of 48mm. The rim is 42mm section. I was able to gain purchase on the rear tube somehow with my pump and inflate it, but just barely. The front, however, eluded me several times. it recedes a bit into the rim section. It’s clear that if in a controlled shop condition it’s this much trouble, on the road it’d be far worse, so I sourced some black valve extenders and I’ll pick them up shortly. They’ll be looooong and jangy, but get the job done! I don’t mind that. I like some distance from the rim.

- Once the front is inflated properly, I’ll do some test fits and ride around, checking the angles and stack height. That will tell me what spacers I still need, if any, and then I can cut the steerer and cap it.

- Brake adjustment, of course. Hasn’t happened yet. Just threw the wheels on this morning for the photos.

- Final wrap of the bars pending verification of the hood positions.

- Of course something critical is uninstalled: the chain! But it’s here, ready to go. Solid BMX half-link beastie. See, without loud clackity Campy freewheels, Lung and I need SOMETHING to warn you we’re approaching from the rear…

-Final step: beautification. i have some custom graphics and bar end work underway.

Oh, one final note: This is my first time using a Thomson post and I’m sold. I love it more than those Ergo posts on the Look frames, as light as they may be. First, it’s a FAT section. But also, two bolt adjustment for seat positioning, fore and aft. It’s never been easier to quickly align seat angle. So awesome.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: Crook Type 3 Conversion
2. Bike Build Process Log: Crook
3. Bike Build Process Log: Crook – Assembled and Ridden

i originally POSTED about the SRAM torpedo a long while ago, but today i found a pretty thorough REVIEW of it on one of my most-favorite bike blogs.

of interesting negative note is the slack issue.
of interesting positive note is the superior cold weather performance.
of interesting hysterical note is the trick to unfreeze a stuck freewheel in the winter. yes, i have done that.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. SRAM torpedo [f] & ]f[ hub
2. A’ME heated … wait, WHAT NOW?
3. Ode to my Castelli Winter Jacket

THIS is interesting (bottom of page). the double/double system is "comprised of a double chainring machined from one piece of aluminum, mated with an ENO crank and a DOS ENO freewheel. The configuration for a 26" wheel bike is offered with a 38/35 big ring mated with a 16/19 freewheel. The 29er configuration mates a 31/34 ring with a 16/19 freewheel. The system works by either running the chain in the outer tooth positions or, alternatively, in the inner tooth positions front to back. The gear ratios are significantly changed when switching from one combination to another, however, the chain length does not need to be altered to accommodate the two differing ratios."

now, this isn’t technically a "shifting" setup, because you have to stop and loosen your wheel enough to move the chain from one gearing to the other, but i like the idea of it, mostly in that final point that "the chain length does not need to be altered to accomodate the two differing ratios."

HERE are some pics of it mounted…

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. white industries’ quick-release pedal system
2. kimori fixed-gear adapter
3. Bike Build Process Log: Villain 3.0 – SRAMery

Today was a HUGE day int he evolution of the wrongBike(tm).

It went from looking like bike parts… to looking like a bike.

I started by utilizing the new allen head 5/16" bolt and nut I got at the hardware store as a replacement stem clamp bolt, and it worked. I finally got the bars on, and could really see how these crazy arcs look on the bike. Granted, we won’t know how they RIDE just yet, but they look AWESOME.

I was still unable to get the cog off the Eno hub, and the front fork problem remained, and my seatpost issue was not resolved, so I spent a little time working on some of this other stuff. I mounted the brake calipers in front, for example. I mounted the front brake lever, and the bell (went with the silver) and also prepared my brake cable and housing for install, though I didn’t finalize it until the wheel would be on there. I should mention, on all clamping parts, I’m including a swatch of rubber cut to fit, as a gasket, which I think is a nice touch.

At this point, the inability to proceed was killing me. I wanted to use the car for my next exploratory mission, because I didn’t have a ton of time to work today and I needed flexibility to make multiple stops. Fortunately, wifebot(tm) got back from the gym, so I hopped in and went to Performance to solve the first issue: the cog. He had quite a bit of trouble with it too. He said, at one point, something that chilled my blood: "is this green stuff LocTite on here?"
I almost croaked. MAN. I hadn’t considered that. I thought the green was old lube of some sort. Eventually though, by switching to a different chain wrench, he popped it off. His first wrench was the same as mine, the Park one, and it wasn’t quite working. The second was longer. So, success! Off to Philz for sustenance and coffee, and home to proceed.

This is where I discovered a missing link, nearly literally: I mentioned before, possibly, that my rear eno hub was going to require stretching the chainstays to fit, too, and that troubled me a bit. It was the same with Fix-e back in the day. Anyway, I figured I’d deal when the time came, much like the front. So I set out to put the new 18-tooth cog on the Eno hub, now that the old cog was loosened. It turned out to be a 15 by the way, so that would have been a beast had I attempted to use it. Anyway, I was mildly annoyed that this silver hub had a black lockring, since I went out of my way to get a silver cog. I checked my other eno hub on the wall, and it had a silver lockring. Aha! So I decided to cannabalize that one for this bike. I pulled it down, pulled the lockring, and then installed it on the wrongBike(tm) hub. Gold!

Funny thing, though. While I was holding the other hub, I noticed that the spacing of the wrench seats was asymmetrical, whereas on the wrongBike(tm) hub it’s symmetrical. These are the flat sort of ledges that make the Eno work: you install the wheel, then use a wrench to turn these shelves, which pivot the wheel farther back, allowing you to get dynamic adjustment despite the vertical drops. It’s a brilliant invention for frames like this one. Anyway, hm. SO I decided to caliper them both. Sure enough, the other Eno was a narrower dim, shorter on the non drive side. Question marks haloing my head became exclamation points! So I seated THIS rim as a test fit, and the hub fit perfectly. WHOA. So I quickly switched cogs to this other hub, stripped the tyre off and mounted it here, and in the fastest tyre change of my life to date, I had the other hub installed in minutes, ready to go. Sure it’s got a dark rim technically violating my no black rule… but then again, it was already violated by brake housings, so eff it I say! SUCCESS.

Boom boom boom, like clockwork, the new chain was broken to fit, smart link in place, pivoted the hub into taut chain position, and locked down. Suddenly, I had a complete drivetrain for the first time!

SO STOKED.

Next up, called around the local shops that actually carry track parts, and actually struck gold: American Cyclery, which replaced Freewheel as the shop of choice thanks to superior staff attitude, had a single chrome seatpost in 26.6mm which I theorize will work on my approximately 27mm seat tube. AWESOME. Since I had to go back there to get a replacement brake pad, I was happy about this convergence of errandry.

Last task: what to do about this front form problem. I muscled it for a while now that I could use the bike’s weight and gravity a bit for leverage, but to no avail. There’s NO way I could stretch theme myself, and still doubt that I could get it stretched feasibly with three dudes, due to reach and grip limitations. What I really wanted was some sort of spreader contraption. I had inquired at the bike shops to blank stares. So, I decided to fiddle faddle with parts on hand, as Lung likes to do.

Here we have a vice, with a crank arm as a block. It obviously didn’t work, as it just compresses the left fork blade, but I was working out the physics of the leverage needed. It was clear it needed to be spread from within. Additionally, it would have to be stretched over time so that when you removed the spreader, it wouldn’t just snap back to the old position. In theory. So I went over to Ace up the street, and described my conceived spreader contraption, involving threaded rod, washers and bolts and a makesshift winder handle. The first person was dumbfounded and passed me to the ‘problem solver’. He listened patiently, then exclaimed: "what you need is a REVERSE CLAMP!"… why yes, my friend, that’s what I’m conceiving of… and lo, he HAD them. DUDE. I picked up two types to be safe: a wood block type for woodworking, and a pipe clamp.

3.3 minutes with the wood reverse clamp and I had the forks wider than they need to be. YEEE! So I left them spread overnight, and we’ll see what’s what in the AM.

But man, it’s looking like a bike.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Effing Forks, Seatposts!
2. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Whither the Rattlecan?
3. Bike Build Process Log: wrongBike – Small Gifts and Large

So Saturday was the big build day. I was very excited. Unlike conversion projects based on old bikes being re-used, this was a simpler process as it didn’t involve stripping down and reconditioning anything. It was a bolt-on affair, which is much simpler. But it involved new technologies for this bot, and was fraught with it’s own little challenges.

All my remaining parts had arrived over the past week, and all that remained were some various small items, which I picked up on our Saturday FixCrawl, so by noonish I was home and ready to go. Brief one hour interlude to assist wifebot(tm) with some stuff, and off to the wrongRoom(tm) I went, caffee thermos in hand, to attack my project. The way build days usually go for me is that i get about an hour in and find a critical failure in my plot, which forces a delay while i solve. Didn’t happen until the end, this time, and it was OK.

This is my semi-traditional pre-build extrusion. Please note about 33 parts containing 100% minimum awesome.

:::

Stage 01: Front End

I started with the headset, as this was my least familiar territory. The Look frame came complete with a Cane Creek integrated headset, which was awesome, but I wasn’t familiar with how to use the compression bolt. I read up on it online, and learned about the star nut, how the compression bolt expands it in the steerer tube to hold the fork in place before you secure the stem. Sure, OK. Dutifully following instructions as provided by the stem manufacturer (I’m like that) I dug out my file, rounded the edges of the steerer tube, sanded for burrs on the tube itself, then dropped my 18mm worth of carbon spacers onto it, loosely set the stem in place, and then regarded my headset pieces parts, which, as had confounded me initially, did not at all look like the star nut and compression bolt I had read about.

Lung loaned me a star nut installation tool and explained it’s use, and i was prepared for an installation that required the bolt to be removed, and the installation tool using the threaded hole in the star nut to get it up IN there, or down there as it were. However, as you can see, not the same. It’s a special Look system, and confounded me until I realized it was assembled out of order. I couldn’t figure out how to expand the flanged ring, as if it had started to expand, it couldn’t get into the tube, and if it hadn’t, it got lost in the hole and didn’t work. However, I experimented until I figured it out:

The expander piece was cone-shaped, and when I reversed it, and put the flanged ring between it and the cap above, the tightening of the integrated compression bolt would force the expansion as desired. So, armed with this theory, I executed same, and it worked very well. I got the front end set up as described in my literature: tight enough to hold things in place, loose enough to allow the fork to rotate without binding, spacers just loose enough to be able to be finger rotated.

Excellent! Stem secured thereafter, my sweet, sweet Thomson X2.

Here’s a shot of the special Look top cap holding it all together. Nice!

Stage 02: Cranks

Working out the bottom bracket and cranks was kind of interesting, because again, it differed in technology some from what i was used to. For one thing, the crank bolts are integrated and are not greased.

For another, while I did have a Shimano compatible cartridge bottom bracket installer tool, it didn’t QUITE fit the same teeth as the splining on the Miche bottom bracket cups. It was close, but like a millimeter too big in diameter. But as I was technically capable of screwing the cups in farther than flush, it wasn’t a problem. On the drive side, I hand screwed a liberally greased cup to flush, then inserted the cartridge tight against it from the opposite side, then spun the non-drive cup on. As it got close, it was time to use my tool gently, but a second challenge: my tool has a long rod coming out of the center of it, which is inserted into the hollow core of the square taper spindle… however, the Miche spindle is hollow only to a point, where it’s plugged. So, the teeth of my tool didn’t even reach the splines of the cup. So, I improvised with a small screwdriver and some leverage, and got it into place.

The Miche Piste Advanced crankset is a beautiful thing, I say. I have no remorse whatsoever on this little carbon-spent gem.

I have to say, using a frame from 2003 that was well cared-for, it was a refreshing change not to have any threading issues on the bottom bracket cups whatsoever. On they went, correct orientation of course, and no issues! What’s even MORE unusual, in my experience? I had no problems with the pedals either, despite being used. On they went, no threading mishaps, well greased, good to go.

Stage 03: Brake

Brakes aren’t the most glamorous thing, but I quite like this one. The SCR-3 is the same one that Lung uses on Loosey. I admit, I bought it for the ’3′ despite lighter models available from CC, but what the hell. Respect the brand! Please note the highly elusive brake pads I installed. I saw them on the Kool-Stop site but had some difficulty actually securing the dual compound road/wet design in Dura Type compatibility. But there they are, and brand aware for both the bike schema and the TRDL way. I have to admit, in this regard, as well as in a few others, it was nice to be able to refer to my road bike to check orientations and configurations. Though that bike uses Dura Ace, it was similar enough that I was able to answer some of my simple questions using the road bike as a case study.

Stage 04: Wheels

Things were going better than I anticipated, and I was getting superstitious. No headset problems? No crank problems? No PEDAL threading issues? I knew the wheels were going to bite me. You know, binding up the tube in the tyre, struggling with a pesky spoke protrusion or something, or even just the classic stubborn bead.

And yet, wow. rim tape, tube, tyre, air and cap went together in a snap, even with a social circle gathered around the garage for distraction.

Back wheel, same. Of course, until the drivetrain was connected, we still wouldn’t KNOW, dude.

Stage 05: Drivetrain

This was the moment of truth. I had calculated my magic gear, had my 46/15 good to go, pulled out my DED chain, and discovered a number of challenging issues, chief among them, no masterlink. OK, that’s not a deal breaker. However, I didn’t really note this until after I had begun the process of breaking links one at a time to get to the exact length I needed for this gearing. And by then, it was too late: I had popped the pins OUT, so they weren’t going back in. And I tried. For an hour. Screwed! Fortunately, Freewheel came through, having one 1/8" masterlink in stock. So I raced down there in the threatening light sprinkles, under a dubious sky, and grabbed it. For a sweet, sweet, appropriate three bucks I say! Lucky for me, and again, atypical, to have discovered this issue shortly before they closed, and not after.

So, the 1/8" masterlink took a little more effort than the 3/32" ones I’ve used on the other bikes, because it’s a three piece affair: a male, a female, and a locking plate that secures the one to the other. It took a little work with a screwdriver, greasy hands, greasy chain, etc. But soon enough, the success were mine!

And this was where, as was becoming clear as I assembled, I had too much chain slack. It was like I needed half of one link removed. But I wasn’t sweating it. After all, I had my ace in the hole:

Adjustable vertical drops. 5mm is a pretty big margin, when dealing with chain slack and already wielding a half-link. The drops, as you can see above, were set to the closest point by default (meaning the wheel would be as close to the center of the frame as possible, in the semi-aero design of this geometry that puts the rear tyre millimeters from the downtube.

Sweet! So, I moved these back and forth until settling on the middle dimension, which was what I test measured before I started all of this magic gear business.

This con-fused mish-mash shows the drivetrain complete! I was, as the kids say, stoked.

Stage 06: Wrap-up

Man, this was awesome. The one day build was finally coming together. My garage neighbor Redding came by and we talked economic policy and other probably boring topics while I wrapped one of my bar ends, then rewrapped it (I always wrap to tightly the first time and run out of tape, and have to go back and do it again to get it right); wrapped the other side, taped it up, installed these sweet new larger blinkie bar ends, and brought it down. I seated the Brooks saddle at the same dimensional increment on the Ergopost’s markers as with my Road Look, but since this frame is one size larger, I decided to bring the saddle down a bit more to even it out.

The moment of truth: Test ride! Not having the brake cable installed* I wasn’t going to bomb down the street to my villainous end, but I took some loops back and forth along the street and man, what a RIDE. Tight, responsive, and the gearing feels awesome. I was delighted. Enthused!

*The remaining tasks include brake and badging. I ran out of time to string the brake cable before being summoned to come in for the night, so I have to take care of that. Excluding these two remaining details, and including the Freewheel trip, lots of reading of my Zinn book, etc the build-up took 5 hours. Five thrilling hours.

:::

Here are a few other pics.

And this one’s for Joblue:

You can see all the pics, including some not posted here, in the [fu]Villain{(tm) gallery on Flickr.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: Villain 3.0 – Strippery!
2. Bike Build Process Log: Villain 3.0 – Completeds
3. Bike Build Process Log: Villain 3.0 – Swappery

holy SHIT. i’ve seen this karl poynter kid before on some of my BMX videos and he’s smooth as a pornStar’s moneyMaker, but THIS is bordering on unbelievable. that’s gotta be a hundred and fifty feet he slides that mother.

note that he’s not backpedaling. that’s because he’s running a "freecoaster," which is a FREEwheel that doesn’t backpedal, making it function like a COASTERbrake, but without the brake. it’s hard to explain generically, but suffice it to say he wouldn’t be pulling that wheel nearly as far without it.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. Longest Skeletal Tandem Ride Ever
2. milwaukee’s fixie freestyler bites lungStyle!
3. halo rims fix-t cover

This Friday, Ironlung and I had our first opportunity to ride a critical mass in 2009. What made it extra sweet, was that it was also the inaugural ride on the Villain and while I was fairly certain it wouldn’t explode, I didn’t know exactly what to expect. On the one hand, I had the concerns that not having properly worked all over the connections to manufacturer’s specifications, I was risking leaving a $200 crankset somewhere on market Street. But on the other hand, I was also expecting that it would be a sweet sweet ride. Well, we did have to do some last-minute chain tensioning, but overall there were no mechanical failures, and that includes my ass.

We actually got to the critical mass meeting point at Justin Herman Plaza earlier than usual and very few people were in attendance, so we feared that there would be a low turnout due to weather. However, over the next 45 minutes enough people arrived to make a mass out of it and so we did. The route this time was fortunately less hilly then they have been in the past, which was perfect, since I haven’t really tested what kinds of gradients I can handle with this new gearing.

It was nice to be there early for a spell. i got to gaze longingly at my new ride, and jaw about it with a few lookieloos that came by, and Lung rolled around practicing sweet sweet BMX moves on Loosey, including backrolls, bunny hops, and wheelies. He even gave Villain it’s first skidstop. Lucky for me he isn’t a RAMBOW yet, or those new Everwears would be more everworn…

We spent the obligatory half hour or so inching our way up market Street and trying to avoid the streetcar grates and avoiding inexperienced riders, drunks, and Muni buses, which are always inches from you along that stretch. But soon enough the ride turned up into the business district and we were on our way. I don’t enjoy the beginning of the mass as much as I do the rest of it only because we’re packed in too tightly and it can be dangerous. It’s hard to avoid obstacles, grates and cheeseburger meat and the like when there is a bike 3 inches from you in every direction. But I figure if you haven’t gone down by then it’s probably going to be a good night. In this case I was so hyper focused on how the Villain felt to ride relative to my other bikes that I frequently found myself in between streetcar tracks and tucked into wedges between cars and tricycles or whatever in ways I would normally try to avoid. But after about a mile I felt pretty comfortable on the bike.

It’s interesting: riding this bike is unlike any other that I have. On the one hand, it’s a very large each gear, so it’s slow to start and slow to stop and a little bit difficult to maneuver at slow speeds just because it takes so much extra torque to turn the cranks than I’m accustomed to on a fixed gear. But on the other hand it’s a very calm ride because you’re having to push less revolutions to go the same speed than you would on a more moderate inch gear. Reasonable!
Another thing that’s interesting for me is being in a road position but on a fixed gear bike. Ironlung has been riding what is essentially a fixed road bike for several months and makes it look effortless, but I found that it was a little bit confusing at first. Sometimes I felt that usual familiarity of being on my road bike path and i’d be stymied by the lack of freewheel or being in a heavier gear than I would normally be if I was riding my other Look around. But it was a short transition. Soon enough it felt like I had been riding it for weeks. Literally, because I hadn’t given my seat time to break in. These Brooks saddles require softening agents, which are basically fats, and a few hundred miles to conform to your sit bones after which they feel great. Best saddles I’ve ever used. But the first hundred miles are tough, and the first 15 miles or so on an untreated saddle can be a recipe for disaster, especially since I wasn’t even wearing bike shorts and had no protection for my business. I don’t know, maybe I was just so enthused by finally getting to ride the Villain that I was ignoring the shrieking of my central nervous system but I felt pretty great all night.

The real test came when, after descending a gentle grade on Columbus, and watching a few riders tumble on the wet light rail tracks, the mass turned left up Bay Street, which is pretty steep. Because of the density of the mass at that time, I couldn’t build momentum to rocket up the hill so after about three car lengths I ran out of juice and had to hop off. But that was actually the only time I had to walk it, the rest of the climbs being moderate enough for me, having enough momentum to keep the bike going. The real test will be trying to commute into Marin on this thing, or more specifically, on the way back.

Overall it was a great mass. After several days of rain it was pretty warm, lots of people were out and not just the regulars but many new riders on rental bikes or old beater ten-speeds or whatever having a great time, and we actually rode longer than we usually do. We ended up splitting off to grab a bite to eat at one of my old haunts in the mission / Noe Valley area, called Papalotes. It looked like we would have to wait for like three hours to eat but the line went faster than we thought and we actually got a great two-person table near the window in view of our bikes. Having that viewing angle was a blessing and a curse, because I got to not only see a small child flipping out at my blinking bar ends (which I left on for visual security) but also got to see a dope lock up his beater bike on TOP of mine which ultimately scratched the frame. That’s okay though, because after all, bikes are meant to be ridden, and you can’t be too precious about it.

What a great night!

The next morning we agreed to meet for breakfast because Lung wanted to give me some small gifts, and I wanted to give him some digital somethings, so we met at bugaboos and had a casual breakfast. I was surprised, actually, how much work it took to get there because while the grades are fairly gentle in my neighborhood and in the mission, grades are grades and I had to horf the bike more than I normally would Driving Miss Daisy style. Which was nice, actually; its fun to have a bike that you have no choice but to get a workout on anytime you ride it. And man, like Lung said elsewhere, it’s also pretty cool to be on a fixed gear that you can really put into overdrive. At any given cadence I’m going about 6 mph faster than I was on my other fixed gears so when I want to push it, I just mash a bit and boom, it’s off like a rocket. How long? Well, it depends on what I’ve eaten. But regardless it’s extremely pleasing, both aesthetically and functionally. And thorough.

Overall, the first of what I hope are many sweet sweet critical mass evenings on Villain in the year to come!

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. Team Lope Ride Report: Critical Mass, SF Jan 2009
2. Team Lope Ride Report: Fixie Comute SF/MV Mar 2009
3. Team Lope Ride Report: Critical Mass, Chicago September2008

Today one Lung and i did one of our semi-regular Saturday morning fixie crawls around town, which we try and do when it’s not raining and there’s no long road ride planned that weekend. We generally do the same thing: get breakfast, noodle around, go to bike shops to pick up small gifts, and ride bikes around our beautiful city.

This time was triple-nice because Lung brought along Grrl(f) cousin Rambo on his first fixed gear. Rambo bought this bike previously converted, and Lung and he broke it down, tuned it up, replaced some stuff, and made it road-worthy. Rambo’s love affair with fixed gear bikes is just beginning, and he’s eyeing pieces parts in the LBS and scheming. But in like 72 hours, he already skid stops like a MASH guy. It’s amazing. He’s great!

We met down by the docks, (dodgy fucks in the duck!) and rode along the water to the Marina to Home Plate for breakfast. Then we bombed through the Presidio and up a route to the top of the grade that WASNT the nice curving one which is hard enough, but a straight shot runners path. Lung made it all the way up, but Rambo and I had to walk it towards the top, to be honest. Then we shot over to American(s) in the Haight for small gifts, before jetting back to the Mission, where we went to Freewheel and then parted ways. Here’s a map Lung put together:

A great day for riding; sunny, warm and extra sweet for the new Team Lope ridership AND the impending storm on the horizon. Excellent!

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. Team Lope Ride Report: Critical Mass, SF Feb 2009
2. Team Lope Ride Report: Fixie Comute SF/MV Mar 2009
3. Team Lope Ride Report: Critical Mass, SF Jan 2009

ok, look. i’ve done a million peg grinds down a million stairLedges. ON A FUCKING BMX BIKE, WHICH HAS A FREEWHEEL AND WON’T SNAP IN HALF ON A SCREWY LANDING.

but a pedal grind, on a FIXIE? holy christ, that’s balls.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. fixie freestyle — a musing
2. Sick of Fixie Freestyle
3. prolly’s top 10 fixie freestyle photos of the year

:::

This Team Lope Bike Bio chronicles my first ever carbon fixed-gear build. And it’s a villainous ride indeed!
Read on!

So, I wanted to squeeze on more bike project in before this summer, when the botlet arrives, and I had a few candidates, which included a break-apart travel bike mod to Fix-e, and a p-far I’ve been chasing for the last year and a half. But then fate seems to have skewered me with a destiny arrow, and I don’t even believe in fate. But here’s how it goes:

After my beloved Look 1.0 was stolen, I pined for it’s replacement. I could never find the original all black/carbon frame again, in my size, online through classifieds, ebay, craigslist and the like. I set up routine auto-searches for same in ebay and google, and proceeded with life. Ultimately, I found a sweet, sweet Look to replace my first one, this one being a KG381 Team with the commemorative colorscheme and signatures business for most-special-Look-rider Laurent Jalabert after his retirement from pro cycling. I love this road bike. Probably three times as much as the Look that preceded it. You can find more info about the Look love I’ve had up until now, here. The new Look is lighter and pretty much, in my mid, the perfect Look: still retaining the conventional geometry and classic lugging of the previous gen (like my stoleLook(tm) but slightly more fly tube sections and a top notch groupo. I’ve ridden it ever since and I love it so. But, though I had a proper Look to ride, I always had a nostalgic pining for my first all-black Look, and left those auto-searches running. And now, thanks to the general economic collapse and earth-cracking-in-half, suddenly some frames like my beloved stoleLook(tm) began to pop up, and I realized that though I could not technically AFFORD it, I had an opportunity to go after my old love, and make it new.

I flirted with a frame that was the exact match to my old one, but the seller was dodgy. I also had a lead on a KG381 Team like my new Look, but a true team bike that was a spare for a very famous TdF rider of some dubious distinction, but it was set up as a complete bike, and had a proper Dura Ace road kit on it, which would be a great deal overall, and a wonderful historical artifact, but a shame to bastardize with my new purpose. For, you see, I intend to make this beloved Look into a fixed-gear.

Finally, I gave up my options on these bike frames and said, it’ll be right when it’s right, and if that doesn’t happen before botlet, then it will happen later. And sure enough, a few days after that, a SECOND Look 381 Team, again just like my road bike but in team kit all-black, appeared on ebay at a bargain price. And so what choice DID I have.

After painful shipping delays due to Fed-Ex route mangling, my new beauty arrived earlier this week, and the project has begun.

This frame is in wonderful condition. Some very slight blemishes in the carbon here and there, but otherwise perfect. The seller included the stock carbon fork which was used with this model year, which has a steel steerer, and also included a Cane Creek integrated headset. The Ergo post, also carbon, was not only in perfect shape, but it came in its original box (now I have two, since it is the ONLY part of the Look 1.0 that I retained after the theft, ha.)

So, the plan is pretty absurd, I admit: a carbon fixed-gear. Carbon is extremely light, so you can go faster, and tire out more slowly. Fixed-gear speed is limited by gearing, and the lack of freewheel is tiring in and of itself. It’s more of a proof-of-concept exercise. I want to make a bike out of the frame, and I don’t want a second road bike. It must be a fixie. It MUST.

And, for safety, i will stuff the top tube with clouds, in order to weight it down some.

The name of this dastardly machine?
[fu]Villain(tm)!*

Onward!

*from my original speculative lyrical quote, after misreading that the theme song for Quantum of Solace was a duet with Jack Black...

"He’s a super slick spy dude with a cock of gold and a quantum of FUCK YOU VILLAIN!!!!"

And what could be more moustache-twirly than a bike that is:
-unfarily judged
-preposterousl
-involves an excessively elaborate master plan

So there you go!

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. Bike Build Process Log: Villain- Yes Brake
2. Bike Build Process Log: Villain 3.0 – Strippery!
3. Bike Build Process Log: Villain- Ergo Post, Bars and Coggery

« More Current — Less Current »