I'm a Lumberjack

Alfine 11 - Short Term Review

2011-10-12T19:22:00.000-07:00

I have put some solid time in on the Alfine 11 gear. The only that I can't really comment on would be the long term durability, but I will definitely follow up on that if there are any problems. What follows are my impressions of my Shimano Alfine 11 set up with a Gates Carbon Drive 50 tooth/24 tooth centertrack belt drive.

Initial Impressions

In a few words...I'd call it "not good". This stuff is really expensive. It trickled in to distributors in bits and bobs. There was little to no information on the Shimano North America Website. Nobody knew anything about it. I had to go to a separate distributor to get the mandatory parts kit (why wouldn't it come with all the parts that you need?) and even that didn't come with all the parts I needed (proper no-turn washers). Much of this will go away over the next few months, but I wasn't left with a great impression.

As well, the actual parts weren't that impressive. The hub showed up in a box that had soaked in it's own juices...which left me wondering about the hub seals. And the shifter was nowhere near the quality that the price implied. It feels especially terrible when you shift it while it is uninstalled. Still...I wasn't about to send it back.

Wheel Building/Assembly

This is only the 2nd wheel that I've ever built and it didn't seem to be any more difficult than a normal wheel. But there are a few strange points. First, the wheel would only spin one way in my truing stand. Perhaps this was just because of the plastic spacer that held all the seals in place? I didn't try it with the spacer removed...which just sort of came to me now. But when spun the wrong way, the hub would back itself out of the truing stand.

Next, you should try to line up the oil fill port with a gap in the spokes. I missed it by one spoke but it wasn't super obvious until I had the wheel completely laced. I'm sure this will be easier for somebody with wheelbuilding experience but it wasn't for me.

Once you have the wheel built, the cog is a giant pain-in-the-ass to get on. It's held in place by a dinky little split washer that is tough to get on and tough to get off. Throw in the Gates Carbon Drive rear cog, which seeems to be a bit thicker, and it's even harder. This just does not seem like a great way to hold a cog in place. As well, the Nexus/Alfine system only engages three little indents. I don't foresee durability problems, but it doesn't exactly fill me with confidence either.

Next, you have the no-turn washers. Not only do you have to buy an aftermarket parts kit to make this work...you also have to buy separate no-turn washers if you have anything other than a vertical dropout set-up (these no-turns come in the parts kit). And then if you want to install chain tugs, you have another problem. I was lucky enough to have access to a machinist at work, who was nice enough to cut some threads in to the no-turn washer to allow me to use it as my chain tug. Why couldn't Shimano have thought of that?

The shifter comes with about a mile of cable/housing. It has a fixed metal ferrule on the hub side, so you have to completely unthread the cable in order to shorten the housing from the shifter side. There's a rubber boot on the hub end of the cable that I could not thread my cable back through. So I just left it off.

The final issue is bike specific. But there isn't much clearance back there. The arm with the cable stop on it digs into my chainstay. And the cable comes very, very close to rubbing on the Gates Carbon Drive cog. In fact, when I first installed it, it did rub. I had to pull it off and flip it around to it's lower-profile position. This removes some of your ability to play with chainline. You'll have to make all of your adjustments at the crank. You can see in the below photos just how close that cable is to the cog.

Disc set-up is relatively painless. I've avoided the shimano splined disc system as I'm not found of the restrictions and overly expensive replacement discs. But there's no option with Alfine. It's actually pretty slick. I probably wouldn't use it if I didn't have to, but I'm no longer going to completely avoid it.

Once everything is mounted and located properly, cable set-up is a breeze. Shift the shifter to the #6 spot (which is nicely marked on the shifter) and adjust your cable tension until the two yellow marks line up. So simple.

Most people are probably buying this gear already installed on a bicycle, but for anybody that isn't, be prepared for some installation hassles. I've assembled dozens and dozens of bicycles from the ground up and this is easily the most I've ever monkeyed around.

Riding Performance

I've never ridden with an internally geared hub before and I'd imagine some of these benefits aren't specific to the Alfine 11. How does the thing actually ride. Well, even with some dramatic flaws, it's still pretty amazing. I didn't really realize how amazing until I rode my standard derailleured mountain bike after a few weeks of only riding the City Bike...but more on that later.

First, this thing is nearly soundless. Couple it with the Gates Carbon Drive and it is a remarkably silent ride. With fenders on, there's some slight clacking, but other than that you cannot here this bike. There's some minor clicking when you backpedal the hub, but nothing while coasting. Totally silent.

I'll talk a bit here about gear ratios. As I mentioned above, I'm running a 50 tooth ring and a 24 tooth cog. 24 is the only Nexus/Alfine size offereed by Gates. I thought the 50 tooth might be too small, but the next largest one is 55. Shimano doesn't recommend using a ratio lower than 1.9. For what it's worth, this 50/24 set-up is just about perfect for a 700c commuter bike. I spend the majority of my time in the 6-7-8 slots. Steep hills can generally be done in the 2-3 slot. And I've yet to spin it out in the 11 slot. However...I haven't used a front derailleur in 7-8 years, so I'm not really all that used to pedalling quickly down paved hills.

On to the shifting. Shifts are pretty much instantaneous, with some serious qualifications. Normal operation will see the shift happen as soon as you hit your shift lever. Under load, things change. Downshifting under load is generally pretty good. I've gotten a few strange metallic grinding noises, but nothing too bad. Upshifting under load is a different story. If you're used to a derailleur set-up, you may have to re-think how you ride. A bit. Not much.

"How so?" you say. Well, think about how you normally shift your bike. When I shift (I'm talking about rear derailleur, I don't ride with front derailleurs any more) I slightly ease up on my pedal stroke as the chain moves through the cogs. This is something I don't even think about. This is something that new cyclists find really difficult to grasp. This is something that is hard to explain in words. But you probably know what I'm talking about. If you use this technique with the Alfine set-up, sometimes it will shift, sometimes it won't. It seems worst in the 5-6-7 slot. Better everywhere else. But upshifting around that range requires you to almost completely back off your pedal stroke. Once you get used to it, you can actually shift the lever, keep pedalling, and then complete the shift a half block later when you decide that it's the right time. It's very strange. Once you get used to it and anticipate it, it's not so bad. It would be better if it acted the same way across the whole range.

The shifter itself feels a lot better once it is on the bike. It's still not great and for such an expensive shifter I would expect it to feel much nicer than this. The wholesale cost rivals XT, but the lever feel isn't close. As well...Why didn't they just make it Alfine 10 and let you use whatever Shimano shifter you'd like? I'm sure they could have figured out a way to make the cable pull of the two systems line up.

Other than that, there are a few other quirks. Sometimes, as you push the bike, you'll get about a half a crank stroke worth of pedal forward. And then it will stop. As well, when you pedal the bike on a workstand, it's obvious that there is some drag in the system. But it certainly isn't noticeable while riding. I've hopped back and forth between this bike and my road bike and I don't really notice any differences in efficiency. There probably are some, but they aren't noticeable.

My final note is that the hub seems to weep a bit. There's sometimes a few drips of oil sitting under the bike when I grab it in the morning. I started parking it with the oil port facing up, but I think the oil is weeping through the seals. It's not horrendous, but it's not great. It's disappointing.

Final Thoughts

So, I read through this and I think "what a piece of crap". But if you were to ask me in person what I think of this hub I would tell you that it's pretty great. I'm having a hard time reconciling this discrepancy. The only thing that I can think is that the functionality of this internal gear hub is pretty amazing. There's some serious flaws to this system but there is nothing that dramatically detracts from it's everyday use. If you can fight through the set-up headaches and get used to the riding quirks, you're going to be very happy with this hub.

While I was building this bike, I often thought that it would be pretty bad-ass to build up a mountain bike with this same set-up. After riding it for a while on the streets, I'm not sure if I'm still as excited about this potential project. The shifting hesitation in the mid-range might be too much to overcome. I can't imagine riding a technical North Shore trail and having to think that hard about shifting my bike. The silence and simplicity would be very appealing...but it is a project that might have to wait.

This is why I make bikes

2011-10-06T14:20:00.000-07:00

"Once you switch from making something because you feel like it to doing it because you have to it takes away from it."

Nobody seems to get that.

City Bike Prototype is Complete

2011-08-24T11:58:00.001-07:00

This has been the most difficult bike build that I've ever done. The first ever Lumberjack was easier than this. I guess that's why you prototype.

I'm very happy with how this turned out. Not ecstatic. But very happy, and all the little nitpicks that make me less than ecstatic will be hammered out in the production version. The big things are there. I'm happy with the concept. I'm happy with the general arrangement. I'm happy with the colours. I'm extremely happy with how it rides. But the production bike will need to be cleaner. Better cable routing. Sliding dropouts. Etc. Just a bit better.

I'll also follow up with some impressions of some of the gear on this bike. Brooks saddle and grips. Alfine 11. Gates Carbon Drive. North Road style handlebar. Etc. Anyhow, take a look at the photos.
Here is a photo of the rolling chassis. I was super excited at this point as the bike was so clean. I think I can recapture most of this with some better cable routing. Internal? Maybe.

Custom Bike Building

2011-05-31T10:18:00.001-07:00

Wow.

Slate has a story about custom building your own bicycle. I often thought that this might be a direction that I would head in...custom building customer bikes. It's so hard to get the right accounts set up in Canada though. Much easier in the US.

Bixi is in Trouble!

2011-05-18T15:27:00.000-07:00

The Montreal Bixi system is so fantastic. I've also used a similar system in Paris, but the bikes were nowhere near as good as in Montreal. The Bixi takes away so many excuses to not ride a bike. It's cheap. You don't have to worry about your bike getting stolen. You don't have to worry about maintenance.

My only worry about a similar system coming to Vancouver is:
- You'd have a hard time keeping a stock of them at the top of hills
- The rain might make things difficult
- Our helmet laws make it difficult to hop on/hop off

Hopefully financial problems in Montreal don't derail the whole thing. And hopefully Vancouver is smart enough to purchase designs already in place in Montreal.

Race Face RIP

2011-03-14T15:34:00.000-07:00

I was hoping there'd be some more news up today before I commented on this. But there isn't. So prepare to get weepy. For me to get weepy. Probably not you.

I remember the first time I ever layed eyes on a Race Face component. It must have been 1993 or therabouts. I was young and impressionable and I somehow found myself hanging out with my friends older brother and his good friend, Chris Sheppard. Chris was a Kamloops XC god at the time and to find myself hanging out with him at a bike shop, looking at new parts was kind of surreal. I remember standing around with him, looking at these new cranks. He was blown away by them and it became another one of those things that I just never imagined would be on my bike.

The first Race Face part I ever owned was a pair of Gold Turbine LP cranks. We had ridden our bikes downtown from UBC and we got about halfway there and my crankarm fell off. I had an 8mm so I screwed it back on and then it fell off again. Sugino square taper cranks weren't made for the North Shore.

We rolled in to Simons and I started trying to figure out how to make a new set of cranks work on my tight budget. I asked Simon if he had any cranks and he showed me a set of gold Race Face Turbine LP's that he had pulled off a bike that the new owner didn't want. I had a brown Rocky Mountain Equipe at the time. The prospect of throwing a set of gold Race Face LP's on there just blew my mind. "One hundred and twenty-five dollars." I gave him the money before he could change his mind. I think those cranks are still rolling strong on my old Stiffee that I sold to my friend Dan. I miss those cranks.

97/98 rolled around and I had to explain why I had nothing but Race Face parts on my bike when I started my co-op job at Syncros. Man, those guys just did not get it. Here we were, at the epicenter of the mountain biking universe of the moment and they just couldn't see it going on. They sponsored XC teams. They were totally isolated from other bike companies in the city. They laughed when I suggested flowing some parts to some of those crazy, upstart "freeriders" that were all around them. They were bankrupt 8 months after my Co-op term ended.

But that was just the craziest time in Vancouver for biking. Every week there was some new trail. Some new stunt. The energy on each mountain was thick. Vancouver was making the bikes that mattered, the parts that mattered, the trails that mattered, the riders that mattered. Everything. And then it slowly began to fall apart.

Syncros. Gone. Dekerf. Not really relevant in the era of full suspension. Brodie. Cheapened. Rocky Mountain. Let's not talk about that. Race Face. Race Face was still there.

My only bad memory of Race Face was applying for an engineering job there a few years after that. My friend was marketing manager there at the time and it just seemed perfect for me. I've never approached something so confidently. I sent him my resume and cover letter. I started drawing up ideas for the interview. I learned 3d modelling in my spare time. It just seemed totally inconceivable that I wouldn't get that job. And I didn't even get an interview.

A few years after that, I was building my first hardtail and I needed parts for it. I dropped Race Face a line and one of the marketing guys helped me out. Diabolus had just come out and there was no real middle ground between the XC stuff and Diabolus. I ended up with the heaviest hardtail you could ever imagine (Marzocchi 66...Diabolus...insanely heavy Syncros wheels). I still have all of the Diabolus stuff running somewhere on one bike or another.

A few years after that, I'd gone in to production on the Rented Mule. I got an e-mail out of the blue from one of the Race Face Sales guys with an OEM price list and an invitation to start ordering parts. Jesus Christ did that ever help me out. It knocked a couple hundred bucks off each part and bailed me out of a few last minute parts problems. I really did start to plan all of my parts builds outwards from the Race Face parts. Yes, the headsets weren't all that great. The seatposts were a bit awkward (shit...that reminds me...I have a broken one that I was going to try to warranty) and the chainguides were a bit ugly. But the cranks, stems and handlebars were all a rock solid start to a well spec'd bike.

I completed my last Race Face order two weeks ago. I received the parts last Wednesday. I was e-mailing the sales guys on Thursday looking for a couple of bolts that I couldn't find. He was going to throw them in an envelope for me until I found them an hour later. It couldn't have been more than an hour after that conversation that it all got shut down. It just seemed so baffling to me. I honestly looked at my watch to see if it was April 1st when I saw the announcement. It was inconceivable. Just like not getting an interview for that Engineering job.

Nobody seems to know what went wrong at this point and time. Everybody had an opinion. My only comment was that as I looked through their last price list, I couldn't believe how much shit there was. So many crank options. Bar options. Colours. Grips. Chainrings. Stems. Some of it at prices that I couldn't imagine. But so, so much overlap. Perhaps that's the way you have to do things in this day and age but it took me an hour to sort through everything and make sure I had all my numbers right, just to order a couple of cranks, a chainring, some grips and a few other miscellaneous parts.

Vancouver has slowly lost it's position as the place to be for mountain biking. Trails are disappearing. Companies are disappearing. We exploded on to the scene and now we're left with Norco and a few small little companies here and there. I was a teenager when it first started to blow up. Everything seems pretty awesome when you're that age. Whatever it is, this Race Face thing depresses the hell out of me.

Ask Nick

2011-01-03T14:34:00.000-08:00

I'm getting pretty fed up with the state of Mountain Bike websites these days. I stumbled across this series on Velonews and we need something like this for mountain bikes.

It's all about road bikes, but the insight from a professional mechanic is very intersting and worth checking out.

Steve the Bike is Finished

2010-07-16T11:55:00.001-07:00

Steve the Bike is more or less complete. New brake levers, brake pads, rear derailleur, fenders, basket...that's about it.

I rode it to work yesterday, just to try it out. It's a bit more work than my road bike, but that could just be the lack of seat height for me. It shifts okay, brakes acceptably. I'm pretty happy with it for now. I think Andrea is too.

Vanier Park Dirt Jump Progress

2010-07-14T21:53:00.000-07:00

I popped by the Vanier Park Dirt Jumps a few nights ago and I just about pooped my pants. All along I've hoped that this becomes a real dirt jump spot. It's definitely looking like this is going to be a great little spot.

The big line is definitely a big set that is going to take some skill to get over. The medium set will be a nice little challenge, but the gaps are half filled in so the consequences won't be severe. There isn't much shape to the little set yet. But it truly does look like something for everyone. With a solid pump track this will be amazing.

Some shots from the side that aren't that great.

New Project Bike

2010-06-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

This guys is a bit different and not for me, but this is the next project.
It's in pretty great condition but needs some work. New cables. Fenders. Brake levers. Maybe a new rear derailleur. Tires eventually. Maybe wheels. A new basket. I'll probably just do the basics to start off.

I wanted to get some new brakes for it and couldn't find anything via the usual routes. I went into Mighty Riders:

Me - Hey, I'm looking for some new brakes for this bike.

Them - What's wrong with those?

Me - Well...these ones don't work. I'm going to replace the levers and cables, but if there is a cheap option I'd like to just replace these.

Them - Those will probably work fine if you do all that and change the brake pads. Besides, we don't have anything that will work.

Me - Could you order something in?

Them - I guess so. I wouldn't really bother though. That thing looks brand new anyway.

I like Mighty Riders. It's funny when shops don't seem to be able to get motivated to order something in for you.

Anyhow. It says "Peugot", but this will hopefully soon be the newest Lumberjack roaming the streets of Vancouver.

LBJ0001 Becomes a Commuter

2010-02-05T10:27:00.000-08:00

The Rented Mule actually builds up quite well as a commuter with 700C wheels. I had one built for a while, but stripped it. I have my prototype frame sitting in the corner, quite literally collecting dust, so I decided to build it into a commuter.

I rode the prototype frame for a year or two and it's quite a nice frame. The angles are slacker than the production model. The seat tube is a half inch longer. The gusseting is different. The head tube is not machined. And, most importantly, it has a different set of dropouts. Other than that, it's pretty close to a production model.

Unfortunately, I screwed up on the prototype dropouts. One of the holes is .1 inches out from where it should be, causing it to ride a bit high on the disc. I fixed it by running a 7" adapter with an 8" disc and then spacing it up to fit properly with washers. This doesn't work too well though. The caliper constantly came lose and you could see that it was stressed out and causing the holes on to ovalize a bit. I wanted to drill it out to where it should be.

Where the hole should be overlaps with where the hole is, so it's a pretty difficult hole to drill. I brought it in to work to use the drill press and asked my riding partner/maintenance supervisor to help me out. He figured we should get one of the millwrights/machinists involved as he would be the best guy to get the job done.

My plan involved bolting a disc adaptor to the right spot and then drilling through the whole works to get a hole in the right place. I would have to sacrifice the adaptor, but this seemed like the only way we would get the hole in the right place. Worst case, if it was a bit out, I could clean it up with a file. Well, worst case I could weld in a new dropout and get the frame re-painted.

Millwrights, of course, aren't used to dealing with such precision. "We'll just file it out. Here. Gimme." Next thing I knew, my frame was clamped in a vice, one of them was scratching away at the paint to mark out where the adaptor should sit and the other was banging away at things with the file. They wouldn't believe me that it was steel and got a magnet out to prove me wrong. I probably should have just filed it out myself in the first place, but I honestly thought I'd be able to have a cleaner solution with a drill press at my disposal. Anyhow, it's almost there. I will have to clean it up a bit with a file once I get it built.

So, the lesson for today...you're always better off doing the job yourself. My paint will survive bit it was hard for me to watch. I should have taken a "before" picture. I'll try to get an "after" up in a few days.

Vanier Park Dirt Jumps

2009-09-23T10:52:00.000-07:00

Well, the dirt jumps are finally approved. Hopefully we'll be jumping by next summer. Chris wrote up a short something for Vancouver is Awesome that summarizes it.

Getting involved with this approval process was a new one for me. There's people out there with a lot of dedication...baffling amounts of dedication. I have a lot of respect for that. I have a hard time keeping my interest level high for such a long period of time.

As well, I have a solid respect for the Park Board of this city. There were a lot of interesting questions asked and a willingness to move forward on something that I didn't think they would be up for. It gives me a bit of hope that perhaps there are politicians out there willing to listen to what people actually want. Yes. I know. It's only the Park Board. But it's a start. Incidentally, I think we're lucky to have the Park Board that we have.

So now the design and construction process begins. There's already people climbing out of the woodwork to have their input (what is Vancouver's Bicycle Advisory Committee?). And they're calling it a "Skills Park", not a "Dirt Jump Park". So hopefully we can all keep our focus on the dirt jumps and get this built right.

Worlds Coverage

2009-09-08T19:02:00.000-07:00

It's been interesting to catch coverage of the World Championships down in Canberra, Australia. There's been a bit of bitching that the course is too pedally and not technical enough. But I think the course gives it a good "made for TV" sort of vibe to it. Charging down a steep rooty pitch looks exciting when you know how difficult it is, but is probably too slow for the average person. But everybody can understand hauling ass between giant rocks while boosting off huge jumps. I like it.

Anyhow, there's been a bit of a Steve Peat love in leading up to this years race. If you have a few minutes, please check out the Freecaster coverage (via NSMB). Watch Lopes run off the top. Steve Smith at 57:50. May as well watch Kovarik after him. Barel at looks crazy on his tiny bike with no pads at 121:50 and puts on a display of unbridled, small bike handling madness. Mick Hannah at 1:30:45.

Then Forward to Steve Peat at 1:36:49.

Honestly, the run is great, but the announcing...honestly. Greatest announcing in the history of the world, ever. I think it's Rob Warner, but I'm not 100% sure. It has to be heard to be believed. Go check it out.

You may as well hang on for Sam Hill right after. Then Greg Minnaar. Then watch Gee Atherton just for the reaction to Steve finally winning. Ooops. Spoiler.

Oh man. That's just so crazy. One of the greatest things I've ever watched. This is what is great about mountain biking.

DT Swiss EX1750 Wheelset Review - Aka The Most Expensive Wheelset I Will Ever Own

2009-08-25T20:07:00.001-07:00

MSRP for these suckers is a jaw-dropping $1650. That's a lot of money. For anything. I'm honestly sitting here looking at that number thinking about how silly it is that these wheels are actually on my bike. It's crazy.

At the time I bought them, I didn't have too many other wheel options so I forked over (a lot less than full retail, mind you) and prayed that they lived up to their ridiculous, ridiculous price. Yes, I know. Wheels are pricey, and you could pretty easily spend this much on putting together your own custom set. But light enough to be called all-mountain and strong enough for Sam Hill to race downhill on them? Sounds good to me.

Selection and First Impressions

As I said above, I didn't have too many wholesale options when I was putting together my bike. It was either Mavic's on an XT/Formula hub or these suckers. So I ponied up and jumped in.

When they arrived I was very impressed with the initial..ummm...impression. The white sparkled. The black spokes sucked light from the air. They came with their own carrying bags for christ sakes! I was impressed.

The wheels themselves are more or less a pretty version of a 340 hub (I think) laced to an EX5.1d rim. However...handbuilt to perfect specs by DT. 32-bladed black anodized spokes. 10mm thru-axle rear hub with a DT ratchet axle. Don't fool yourself. These wheels are nicer than the sum of their parts.

Colour me extremely impressed out of the box.

Installation and Set-up

However...this didn't last long. First up I threw some new rubber onto these wheels and discovered that they're presta only. It took me a while to figure out that this is most likely for running tubeless (kit sold separately). I'm never running tubeless and presta-only rims suck so I drilled them out. I felt badly about this and it seems like a stupid thing to have to do to wheels that cost this much. I also discovered (when I was driving the wheels over my friends place to use his drill) that the bags the wheels come with barely fit wheels with tires on them. I know, they're probably made for a 700c wheel and they never thought about having to squeeze big rubber in, but they should have.

Once the tires and cassette were on it was time to go on the bike. Problem number two. The ratcheting rear axle is a beautiful item. But it's not long enough to fit in my steel dropouts. These aren't pinner little old school dropouts either. They're easily as fat as some aluminum drops out there. But I had to space it on either side with a pair of stainless washers. Not a huge deal, but once again, why is the thread length of this thing so borderline. It's sloppy and I'm not impressed.

Other than that, they're wheels. They fit on my bike and I was ready to ride.

Riding Impressions

I've been riding some heavy, heavy wheels the last few years and it's crazy what a difference a nice light set of wheels makes on a bike. Yes, I know. Light is a relative term. But I haven't run something this light in years and my bike loved me for it. I felt like I was pushing an extra gear or two up Fromme. Wonderful.

Other than that, I noticed nothing. Perhaps this is a good thing. They're plenty stiff and they do their thing. The lockring on the front hub backed off once and drove me crazy for a week as I tried to figure out why my wheel turned so slowly, but other than that, they've been relatively bombproof. I've got a season-and-a-half on them and they still spin absolutely true. Honestly, the tension in them is still perfect and I haven't touched them. And the hubs still spin like new.

However, I have to admit, I'm scared of wrecking these wheels and that results in me babying them a bit. The cost of them is just too crazy to subject them to abuse. Where am I going to find flat bladed spokes? Where am I going to find a replacement white rim? I don't steer around anything when they're on my bike and I've taken them down some pretty nasty stuff. But they come off whenever I go dirt jumping. And I wouldn't dream of shuttling them or doing anything lift-accessed. So factor another 500 bucks into your purchase price for the cheaper wheels you're going to have to buy for all the times you're afraid of wrecking these things.

Conclusion

Light enough to not be an excuse for anybody. Strong enough to get Sam Hill down to the bottom of a DH race run. Expensive enough that you could buy a decent bike for the same price. Beautiful. Strong. Light. Expensive. A wonderful product, but I can't imagine recommending these to anybody that would have to pay full retail.

After

2009-08-24T20:43:00.000-07:00

I finished up my re-build of the road bike. In the end, I had to do a bit more than I wanted. Turns out the guy had thrown a 27" wheel on the front, so when I went to swap tires the old 700c's wouldn't fit. So I bought a nice new front wheel with a Mavic Open Pro on an XT hub. So in the end, it was:

New cables - brake and shifter
New housing
New bar tape
New brake pads
New tires
New tubes
New pedals
New seat

It's pretty damn fun to ride around on. And I'm finally learning how to handle the thing. Still, it's much more unwieldy than a mountain bike. I know from experience that 700c wheels on their own make a bike act kind of crazy. Throw in the drop bar though...I honestly can't think that the aero or hand position advantages outweigh the handling advantage you get with a flat bar. But I guess I haven't ridden the thing for more than half an hour.

My new ride

2009-08-04T18:14:00.000-07:00

I have an illness when it comes to bikes. It's never "good enough". I always seem to just slowly creep up until I've created something ridiculous.

For example. I've been trying to build a city bike for some time. I built this guy up a while back. But it was too nice to lock up. I wanted drops. And it got geared out rather quickly. So I stripped it down and sold the frame to a friend.

I decided to build a cyclocross frame. So, I started with a SOMA frame. Which became a Salsa, because they're close in price and the Salsa is so much nicer. And that needed discs.... and on and on. Pretty soon, I'd only spent $1500, but I had something that I absolutely, positively, could not lock up anywhere.

So I re-set and started searching Craigslist for old road bikes. There's a lot of crap out there. And the hipsters are creaming the city out. So I finally found this guy, and I had to have it. Yes, it's not super pretty yet. I probably could stand to have a size larger. But with some minor modifications (new pedals, tires, tubes, cables, housing, brake pads, handlebar tape, seat...that's about it) I'm going to have an almost bone stock, classic Bianchi. Call these the before pictures.

Oh. I'm going to have to completely re-learn how to ride a bike. I just rode it up the street. My quad kills (I did about 10 pedal strokes) and braking is absolutely crazy. But it should be fun.

Avid Elixir CR Review - aka Ode to the Juicy 7

2009-06-26T12:33:00.000-07:00

On my big bike, I was using a set of first year production Juicy 7’s for the past several seasons. They were great brakes, but were feeling their age compared to the newer Juicy 7’s on my hardtail. My friend really needed some brakes, so I sold him the old Juicy 7’s and decided on a set of Avid Elixir’s for the big bike, after hearing good things. Shortly thereafter, I needed the Juicy 7’s for another project bike and decided to standardize the Elixir’s to my hardtail. So, that’s how I ended up with Avid Elixir CR’s on both of my bikes.

Selection and First Impressions

First up, I’m not super impressed with how the Elixir line of brakes is set up. You have the cheaper model with no contact adjust and an aluminum lever (Elixir R), and you have the CR with a carbon lever and the reach adjust. I think there’s some other OEM options, but these are what most of us have to choose from. I’ve never, ever craved a carbon lever, but I felt like contact adjust is a must. To me, contact adjust is what made the Juicy 7’s such a nice brake. You could just dial them in to exactly where you wanted them. Any new brake going on to my bike had to have this feature. So I bought the CR’s. For a pretty hefty premium over the base model. And they’ve already come up with an “improved” version with a magnesium lever and a shorter contact adjust barrel. It’s a real kick-in-the-balls to buy the newest of the new and have that usurped within the first month of ownership.

The brakes arrived and, I have no pictures, but the packaging was beautiful. The thing I love about Avid is that everything comes standard. Two different sets of adapters for the front, hose barbs and crush washers for setting the line size. The only thing missing is a small bottle of DOT 5 for brake bleeding.

The brakes themselves look pretty bad ass. The black is nice and the red ano goes well with other X-9 offerings. The new G-3 rotors look good. The calipers look beefy and the new pad spacer highlights a great feature of the Elixirs – top loading brake pads. This just makes so much sense. You can see how much pad you have left. You don’t have to squeeze your fingers into a ridiculous nook to grab the old pads. I haven’t swapped them out yet, but when I do…oh boy. As well, the inboard location of the banjo is nice, as it keeps the lines inboard and out of the way.

The levers I’m not totally sold on. I like that the reservoir is essentially built into the lever, but the whole thing looks a bit larger than it needs to be. I won’t go into the internals of it, as others have already done that and I don’t think it really matters to most of us, as long as they work well.

Installation, Bleeding and Set-up

The brakes installed…well, just like any other disc brake system. Once again though, all the Avid hardware is really nice. Deep torx heads on the rotor bolts. Nice hardware and adapters. It makes me happy as a mechanic to put this sort of stuff on my bikes.

Bleeding is just as simple as it has been in the past. Note that Avid has slightly changed the order of things though. Bleed the line from the caliper…squeeze the lever and bleed the caliper…then bleed the lever. Not a huge change from the old (caliper, then line, then lever) and I’m not sure why they’ve swapped this around. It’s all just as easy on the Elixirs as on the Juicy 7’s. Shortening hoses is the same process as well.

Once the brakes are on, setting them up isn’t without it’s nitpicks. First off, the reach adjust is incredibly difficult to turn. It’s probably easier to use the knob than it is to fish around in the back with a tiny allen wrench, but still, it’s tough to turn and this seems like something that could be fixed. I leave mine all the way out, so it’s not really a problem for me.

Next, the contact adjust is a nice feature and the Elixir version (in line with the brake line) is touted as an improvement, but I’ll take the spinny Juicy 7 knob any day of the week. Easier to visualize, easier to turn and no need to spin your hose around as you make an improvement.

Riding Impressions

Everything that I’ve read about the Elixir’s goes like this:

-More power than a Juicy 7

-Less power than a Code

-Great modulation

I can honestly say that I don’t really feel much of a power difference between this and a Juicy 7. If Avid says it’s there, it’s probably there. My hands still feel tired at the bottom of trails that they used to feel tired on. I don’t really feel like I can stop faster on a sniper drop line. This isn’t a bad thing, at all. I’m just saying that if you’re expecting a serious upgrade from your Juicy 7’s, don’t be surprised if you can’t feel it.

Now, the bad. Well, first up, these brakes really like to be warmed up. If you’re dropping into a trail on a wet day, oh my god…mine seem to howl like crazy for the first 15-20 seconds or so. Maybe this is to do with some sort of strange combination of my set-up…but I’ve gotten really loud noises out of both of these brakes and it seems to be attributed to being wet and cold.

Next, with brake feel…as I said above, power and modulation are both great. However, I just don’t like the feel at the lever of these brakes. Scratch that. I prefer the feel of the Juicy 7’s (with stock aluminum lever blades). I’m primarily blaming the carbon levers and I’m sure that with a set of straitlines (when they develop an Elixir lever) or even the standard aluminum levers, it would feel better. But that kind of sucks. You’re forcing people to pay a premium to buy a carbon lever if they want the contact adjust. It makes it difficult to justify spending even more money to upgrade the levers. When I hop back on a bike with Juicy 7’s, the lever just feels right. Solid. Firm. Precise. The Elixir CR is just not as nice.

Next up, the front brake on my hardtail is giving me fits. This brake is by no means seeing the kind of abuse as the brake on my big bike. It’s probably overkill on a hardtail. My problem is that I can never seem to get this brake on center. Once I do get it on center, it seems to be rubbing by the end of the ride. At first, I attributed this to air in the lines. I didn’t touch this brake out of the box, I just bolted it on and rode. After a week or two it was obvious that the brake came to me with air in the lines. If the bike got flipped upside down, it would be mushy for a few minutes and then firm up. As well, as mentioned above, it was impossible to center and would always be dragging at the bottom of a downhill (due to the air expanding, I assume). I bled the line and the problem with turning the bike upside down remains. But it still won’t remain on center. Somehow. The sucker is tight. Is this due to the really, really long bolts on a 7” adapter? I had the same set-up on my Juicy’s and it never moved. Or is it something else? I can’t figure it out and it’s really pissing me off. No problem on the other three brakes, but this one is giving me fits.

Conclusion

Anyhow. My verdict. Nice brakes, but if you can get Juicy 7’s for a better price (or already have them), then stick with those.

Vanier Park Dirt Jump Meeting - Democracy Might Actually Work

2009-05-14T19:26:00.000-07:00

Tonight was another meeting about the Vanier Park Dirt Jumps. Once again, things seem to be going along really well and the Park Board seems to be in favour of this going forward. There was some opposition, but more on that later.

I wasn't too clear on what was to be decided at this meeting. Once I arrived I figured out that this was to present the findings from the open house and public consultation process. Based on that feedback, a subcommittee of the park board was making the decision on whether or not to go forward. I was a few minutes late, but I arrived in the middle of Mark Vulliamy (Manager of Research and Planning) presenting his findings from the consultation. The response that he highlighted seemed overwhelmingly positive. They had every piece of communication from the public noted and every response from the open house laid out on a chart. The response at the open house was something like 82% in favour. Even most of the phone calls and e-mails that were received were positive.

Lesson #1 - The park board definitely takes note when people get in touch with them. They had noted every phone call, every e-mail and every comment from the open house. They put greater weight on communication coming from nearby residents. Every little bit helps.

Mark also went broadly over the plan and what had lead to things getting to this point. He noted that Oak Street hadn't been built by the city, but they had no problems with it (other than concerns that the trails were damaging the trees) and even the neighbours seemed to enjoy it. He also pointed out that there are some dirt jumps in the area of this proposed park and nobody has ever made much of a stink about them.

Lesson #2 - While I figured an illegally built set of dirt jumps would have been a negative against us (both in Vanier Park and at Oak Street), the city put a lot of stock in the fact that these areas existed and didn't cause any problems with the neighbours. Who knew piracy could pay off?

From there, the meeting progressed into presentations from members of the public. There was a broad selection of people in support of the park (pro riders, shop owners, dads, girls, moms, etc) and the subcommittee seemed to grasp most of the points that were being made:

1) Every other municipality in Metro Vancouver seems to have something like this except for Vancouver.

2) The kids are getting fat and they need somewhere to go.

3) Everybody on bikes gets along and there has never ever been a problem at a dirt jump park. Ever. Anywhere.

4) Don't forget about the kids. They really, really need somewhere to go.

Once the cyclists were done, the naysayers had their time at the podium. Against us was the head of the Bard on the Beach and the head of the Kits Point Residents Association. The Bard on the Beach fellow was mostly concerned with the potential for noise and pointed out that perhaps there could be a better use for this land. He seemed like a reasonable dude and I'm sure that if we sat down and talked to him - perhaps showed him a dirt jump park - his concerns would be somewhat alleviated. But maybe not.

The Kits Point Lady seems a lot less likely to be brought over to our side. Her key point seemed to be that they fought any attempts by anybody to put anything remotely close to anywhere near Kits Point. She pointed out that this spot of "unspoiled greenspace" shouldn't be handed over to a "special interests group". She also complained that they hadn't been told about this until the notice went out for the public consultation and wished that they had known earlier on. I thought this was interesting as, well, I mean, isn't that the point of public consultation?

Lesson #3 - Even if you don't think it's possible, there will always be somebody that doesn't want you to do something and doesn't really want to talk to you about it.

Once everybody spoke, the 4 counsellors on the sub-committee made some comments and everything said was overwhelmingly positive. One of the counsellors even admonished the Kits Point lady for referring to cyclists as a "special interest group" and pointed out that if you looked at the pictures and all the garbage and missing trees in the area, it was hardly an "unspoiled greenspace."

So, on we go to the next step. I'm not exactly sure what this means, but it seems that the Park Board Staff now have the go ahead to dig into the details of things and then they will present it for a vote to the Park Board in a few months.

Latest Bike and a New Dealer

2009-05-14T19:22:00.001-07:00

Here's a shot of the latest bike that I built up. I have some decent photos of the bike so I thought I'd post them.

This bike is a little bit different and built for a lady. I put a slightly shorter travel fork on it than usual (Rock Shox Revelation) and a regular front hub up front vs. the usual 20mm. I kept the front end low with a flat bar and flipped the stem. It fits a smaller person quite well.

Also, I put a bike and a frame in at Snowcovers on 3rd Avenue and a fresh build in at North Shore Bike Shop. Go check them out.

Vancouver Dirt Jump Park

2009-01-19T22:10:00.001-08:00

It's strange to think that I woke up this morning knowing nothing about a potential dirt jump park yet I'll go to bed after witnessing unanimous Park Board support for just such an animal. I never, ever imagined that the City would do something like this. I'm excited that they're even thinking about it. Anyhow, a recap:

The meeting started at 7 and the Dirt Jump Park was pretty far down on the agenda. I was surprised that it was standing room only at the meeting, but there seemed to be a number of citizen-riling/enabling projects on the agenda.

First up was saving the hollow tree at Stanley Park. All the historical buffs were out in force and I never imagined that there would be a large group of people passionate about saving a really old tree. Their arguments made sense and everybody left happy. The hollow tree stays!

Next up was something about the semantics of changing the City Park sign by-laws. All the crazy anti-corporate environmentalists were out in force. It seemed to me the board is just trying to clean up the language of the by-laws but most people felt this was the slippery slope towards coke billboards replacing all the trees in Stanley Park and corporate naming rights for all the parks. So they postponed it and everybody left happy.

Next up was a new skateboard park in Kensington. The Community Center is using it as justification for a youth advisor/worker and a traffic barrier, but don't seem opposed to it in any other way. There were lots of skateboarders there and their voices were heard. The motion passed for a consultation into the new park and everybody left happy.

Finally was us. The Dirt Jump Park. Now, before you get too excited, the motion was just about creating a public consultation for the Dirt Jump Park, which is pretty much the first step in the process. The City guy outlined the basics of where it will be (down beneath the Burrard Street Bridge, between the bridge and the Planetarium) and some of the criteria that went into selecting the site. Then we heard from a couple of BMXers, including Jay Miron. I don't remember much of what the one guy said, but Jay was pretty interesting. He spent most of his 5 minutes talking about his past accomplishments and by the time he was done talking about those it looked like the board would have agreed to anything he said. They voted on the motion and it passed unanimously. Really. It was shocking. The appetite from the board for this sort of thing is amazing. This could be really positive for our sport. A couple of notes:

1) This seems very focussed on the BMXers to date. We, the mountain bikers, need to get a voice in their somehow.

2) Our voice shouldn't be too strong. Mountain bikers seem to screw things up and try to make everybody happy. I think if we can get a Jay Miron designed dirt jump park in the middle of Vancouver we should just let it happen. We don't need ladder bridges. We don't need skill centers. We need dirt jumps.

That's about it. Stay tuned. Get involved. This could be really cool.

And yes, everybody left happy.

Electioneering

2008-10-14T18:04:00.000-07:00

The Federal Election is today. Results should start rolling in at any moment. This matters because now I won't have to lecture you on politics as it is too late to have any effect.

I was sitting around a few weeks ago bitching about politics. Things really have me worried and I was saying this to my friend. So, she said "That's what's wrong with our generation. We bitch about stuff but we never do anything about it." So I decided to do something about it.

I've never thought of myself political. But I am informed. I like to read. I like to know what is going on. I don't really see myself as supporting any one party, but I have definite ideas of what our ruling party should do and look like. None of them come across as "the best" option. But clearly one stands out as "the worst". So, getting involved with a specific party didn't seem to be a good option.

The next thing I thought of was motivating people to learn more, get informed and go vote. Then I thought of NSMB, mountain bikers, young people, etc. I decided that the best thing I could do would be to use my contacts and "journalism skills" to put together some sort of story on the election for NSMB. This is the result.

It was very interesting talking with the candidates. I was blown away by my ability to look up a number on the Internet, make a phone call and get the campaign manager on the phone. And, with only one exception, the parties all seemed to recognize a chance to get their ideas out there and were more than willing to answer my questions. The glaring exception being the Conservatives, of course.

What's with this party? First up, the campaign manager was barely civil on the phone. I felt like I was pretty unimportant and I needed to apologize for taking his time. I realize that I am fairly unimportant, but you'd think a campaign manager would be able to talk to people on the phone in a respectful manner. As well, he only offered to read our questions and then decide if they wanted to answer. I guess this is fair enough, but all the other candidates committed without knowing the questions.

I gave each party a week to look at the questions and provide answers. The day before they were due, I sent out a reminder e-mail to all parties. On the due date, I got two sets of answers (NDP and Greens), a frantic phone call promising the questions by the end of the weekend (Liberals) and...nothing (Conservatives). No "We're working on them." No "We don't want to do them." No "Go fuck yourself." Nothing.

I gave it a few days, phoned the Liberals, phoned the Conservatives and got more of the same. The Liberals were committed and just needed some time, the Conservatives didn't write me back. I gave them both one final deadline, got my answers from the Liberals and was forced to move forward without the Conservatives. I still can't believe that they wouldn't even write me an e-mail telling me that they wouldn't participate. I guess no answer at least gives them the chance to deny that they got the questions or something.

So, I hope everybody voted. Time to see how screwed up things are going to be for the future. Or how great. Who knows.

Another shirt.

2008-10-06T22:37:00.000-07:00

This whole thing has taken FOREVER. The latest delay is the Rampage, but I look at this shot...

...and I'm okay with it.

Oh. Before we get into it, check this thing out too (youtub e if that isn't working). Transworld has some great ideas. I know things like this have been attempted with bikes, but it's just not the same. No bike crew would ever create something around a Dodos song.

Oh. I also found it pretty funny that these dickfaces ripped off my design and made bumper stickers with it. With the original graphic with the wrong font as they ripped it off some photo that Cam posted.

So, on to the next shirt. The NSMB article talks about it a bit, but I'll expand some more. Cam approached me to do another batch of the old shirt and I wouldn't have it. I don't like that shirt. I had one waiting in the wings that I really liked, but nobody else did. I wanted something a bit more generic as it seemed like everybody outside of Vancouver wanted one and a lot of them didn't even really get the concept. Lots of people asked me if it was San Francisco. So I came up with something generic and nobody liked it.

It took me a long time to create that graphic and I was bummed that nobody liked it. I was talking to Cam one night about how much he didn't like it and this new concept sprang into my head. I jumped into Illustrator and I had the new design in about half an hour. I spent a few more hours working on the bridge and stuff, but the basic concept came really quickly and it was so obviously better than my original idea. I was happy.

From there, I got the shirts made, wrote the story and then Margus and I went up and took some photos. He wasn't too happy with them and I thought I looked like a tool, so I just decided to spruce it up with something over my face and a critter added to the surroundings. We had hiked up Family Guy for the shot as it seemed fitting as this is what we're fighting for.

We sat there for half an hour and nobody rode the rock face. 20 people rode by and nobody rode the rock face. I'd just come back from Whistler so I had hiked my bike in, just so it wouldn't get stolen. We thought about making this the shirt shot but knew everybody would freak out about the lack of...anything.

Anyway. That's it. The new shirt. Oh. There will be some similarly themed kitchenware coming out in a year or so. I'm not even joking.

Perks and the City Bike

2008-09-22T17:42:00.000-07:00

It's been a good year for bikes. I'm pretty lucky to say that I've built up three brand new bikes this year. 2009 is going to suck.

The last bike that I built is one that I've been looking forward to for a long while. It's been in my plans to build up a city bike that I can run errands on, get around town and lock up outside stores without fearing too much for it's safety. I've been thinking about it and thinking about it and finally decided to do it.

I've guided a lot of people over the years to buy Kona Dew's and other bikes in the family. They're pretty cheap and have a bit of a mountain bike edge. They aren't perfect but beat the hell out of similar offerings from Trek, Specialized, Giant, etc. My problem was that I would end up replacing most of the parts so I'd be left with a cheap aluminum frame with decent parts hanging off it. That didn't really work for me.

I moved on to looking at a variety of cyclocross bikes, city bikes and 29ers. A cyclocross seemed like a good idea, and there were good offerings from both Salsa and SOMA. I came pretty damn close to placing orders on both of these and I also took a good look at their 29ers with thoughts of perhaps running fat tires on the thing occassionally. I also gave the Steel Wool a good look, but the geometry was just too wacky once I got the right top tube length. It was at that time that I looked at the pile of Rented Mules sitting in the corner and started thinking "Hey...wait a second..."

The first step was to figure out whether I could get a 700c tire to fit in both the frame. I went down to Dizzy and swapped some wheels around to show myself that there would be lots of room. Incidentally, they told me I was crazy and that it would never work.

After that, I tried to find a rigid fork that would work with my frame that was designed around a 6 inch travel fork. Even the longest "suspension adjusted" fork wouldn't work. I looked at some 29er forks and they were still too short. Luckily, I found a sale on a Rock Shox Revelation with 5 inches of travel. This seemed like a pretty good compromise to get the right fork length without adding too much weight.

Next up was wheels. I couldn't find a set of cyclocross wheels that would work due to both hub spacing issues and the fact that nobody seems to make disc compatible cross wheels. Why is that? I realize that the UCI doesn't allow disc brakes in cross competitions, but how many people are actually racing these bikes. Stupid. So I did a bit of research and learned that a 29er rim is the exact same diameter as a 700c rim and figured that as long as the rim wasn't too wide, any 700c tire should fit on a 29er rim no problem. So, after digging out a few old parts and buying a few new, I was ready to go. Here's what I got.

So, on to things that I've learned:

1) a 700x23c tire is almost exactly the same diameter as a 26x2.4 knobby.
2) anything larger than that probably won't fit into a RockShox suspension fork.
3) 700c tires are fast as hell.

Seriously. This bike is so fast. I can't even believe it. It's so easy to spin out a 38x11 gear. It's shocking. And as you can see, no problem on the tire clearance.

I'm pretty pleased with this bike, but I've created something that I'm not all that comfortable locking up at the grocery store. It's just a little bit too nice. In hindsight, I should have bought a $150 10-speed from the second hand store and built up a nice set of 700c wheels to fit my mountain hardtail. Oh well.

BMX!

2008-08-21T19:46:00.000-07:00

Oh man. I just watched the Olympic BMX. That was so awesome. Why can't mountain bike events be that awesome? I'm serious. How can our events be so similar yet there's kick so much more ass? They have the Red Bull Elevation (well, they did), we have Crankworx slopestyle. They have the Olympics, we have a bunch of 4x's that nobody cares about.

Anyhow, there was some pretty good representation from mountain bikers. Anne-Caroline with the gold for the ladies. Jill Kintner with the bronze. I thought for sure Jared Graves was going to be in there for a medal, but he got taken out in the 2nd to last corner. I was pretty bummed about that. And...I've got a new crush! Sarah Walker from New Zealand is just about the cutest bicycle rider ever. 4th place. So close. Sarah. Gimme a call. We'll do up a Lumberjack BMX.

But honestly, what a crazy track. I was looking at it wondering if I could even clear it on a mountain bike. 36 foot gaps at the end of a row of huge jumps? Sheeit. I was worried they were going to pansy out for the Olympics, but that was full on. Well done, Beijing. Well done.

Zooey and the Lumberjack Shirt

2008-07-27T13:32:00.000-07:00

Well. I have to admit. I have a huge crush on Zooey Deschanel. I think it started a few months ago. The She & Him album had just come out. Zooey had just been a guest voice on a Simpsons episode. And I watched Almost Famous one morning while I was hungover. It seemed like the world was telling me to have a crush on this girl.

A couple of weeks ago my friend told me that she was taking a trip to New York and had tickets to the She & Him show. I pretty much lost my mind. I mean, a trip to New York is exciting enough...but a trip to New York and hanging out with Zooey (after paying for the privilege along with a room full of other people)? Almost too much. I told her that she would have to take some sort of present from me to throw at her on stage.

I'd kind of forgotten about it but my friend was leaving and asked me where my present for Zooey was. I kind of chuckled. And then thought about it a bit. And then thought "What the hell? Why not give her a Lumberjack shirt?" I dug out a small, Navy blue (should have been Royal, in hindsight) and dropped it off with my friend.

So. The show was last night. And this is what my friend had to say about it.

First of all. Excellent show. Zooey’s voice sounds even better live. Really crisp and clear and lilty. She’s also very pretty and charming. One of the guys I went with said she looked like a sparkly cupcake but I disagree. See attached pictures.

I finally got the nerve up during the encore and managed to toss the shirt on stage from 4 rows back and a rather big security divide as well. I was quite proud. Managed to get it about 1-2 feet away from Zooey who seemed semi-frightened by a largish object coming from nowhere through the light beams. Then she analyzed the situation, stopped talking, picked up the shirt, said “What’s this? Oh it’s a shirt, someone’s given me a shirt....I wonder if it’s for me or for matt? Well I’ll save that for later”...something very nice like that anyway. She seemed happy enough. Then she put it down next to her amp and then left it down there until the end of the encore when she walked half off the stage and then returned to pick up her very special t-shirt. In picture 19, you can’t see what she’s carrying in her right hand, but it’s actually your shirt. Because she’ll obviously treasure it forever.

So, I didn’t talk to her but I did get the shirt into her hands. I hope that is good enough. My friend is 5 foot nothing and she literally almost got beaten up by some hard-ass Jersey chick on our way up to the front. I would have gone down with her if it came to blows so I hope you appreciate the danger of the mission you set up for me.

Zooey, if you're out there, I've got a bike here with your name on it. Not, like free or anything. But it will be a good deal. I promise.

Anyhow. Other companies have team riders and expensive advertisements in magazines. Nope. Not us. Free t-shirts for indie goddesses!

Update:

There's an additional photo of Zooey picking up the shirt.

And, there's even Youtube footage of the whole thing.

North Shore Bike Shop - Largest Lumberjack Dealer on the Planet!

2008-06-04T21:32:00.000-07:00

I'm pumped to have a bike in at North Shore Bike Shop at 16th and Lonsdale. The shop has been around for about a year. The owner, Matt, seems like a really solid, genuine guy and I like the feeling I get from his shop. I've never seen a bike shop owner make such an effort to greet everybody coming in and to drop everything when somebody walks in with a request. Please have a visit, check out the bike and say "Hello!" to Matt.

We've put in a Medium Red Rented Mule. Take it for a spin. Buy a shirt. It will make you happy. I promise.

Finally!

2008-04-28T21:48:00.000-07:00

Holy crap this build took a long time! I've actually been running this bike for a few weeks, but I finally finished it off tonight. I had scabbed it together with some old parts and the new brakes and drivetrain finally arrived. I had to special order some stuff through some different channels and I learned my lesson...not worth the wait.

Needless to say, I'm absolutely, positively stoked on this bike. With a very all-mountainish build and no attempts to save weight it comes in at 33 pounds. Yes, I know. That isn't super light-weight. But...it does include a 6 inch fork, freeride tubes, 2.4 inch tires, a burly-ass headset, a chainguide and 8 inch discs. This also represents a significant weight savings over the prototype, so it's a joy to ride.

So. Here she is.

Oh. And up top too, of course. And...stories galore...

The Paint

Man, I've been sitting on this idea for a paint job for years. When I talked to my painter, Harald, he seemed pretty pumped on trying it out. The idea was pretty simple: Camouflage with cream, brown and blue. I picked out the colours and we talked a bit about it. Harald said "I can mask it like regular camouflage but it will take forever and be stupid expensive. If you'd like, I could square things off. It will still look good, but it will be a lot cheaper." Cheap is good so I told him to go for it.

I sort of imagined some sort of digital camo pattern, but I guess Harald was thinking of something else. When I picked up the bike I have to admit that I was super bummed. I realized that I hadn't communicated what I wanted well enough to Harald. Through nobodies fault but mine I had an expensive paint job that I didn't like. Hated really. I hauled it home and thought about hauling it to a powder coaters and eliminating it from my life. I couldn't face taking it back to Harald for a re-paint. I knew how long he'd spent on it and I couldn't do that to him.

But then a funny thing happened. I started to like it. I finally threw some decals on it and it looked even better. And when the parts arrived and it started to take shape...man...I was super pumped on what I saw. So, I'd probably never do it again, but I'm pretty stoked on the paint job for this bike. The colours are perfect and the pattern is probably something that has and never will be seen again. So, Harald, you obviously know better than I do. Thanks for the paint.

The Fork

I decided on a Lyrik coil for this bike. Hearing about all the air Totems blowing up, I didn't want to mess with it. Supposedly the Lyriks are okay, but I didn't want to chance it. Plus, the U-Turn travel adjust seemed pretty cool.

Let me tell you, this is the right fork for this bike. You could save a bit of weight but the coil feels amazing. The U-Turn is almost a necessity on a bike like this. The prototype had a 66 RC2X on it, and I hated that fork. Too much travel and too much weight. Plus it just never felt right.

But not all is rosy. Man, they put a lot of crap on the top of the crown on these forks. On a medium it's a pretty tight fit between the knobs and the downtube. The large that I'm running has a bit more clearance. I put a fairly high stack Cane Creek headset on to create a bit more room but come on! There's no need for that much stuff on the top of the crown.

Well...other than that...a bunch of the parts will hopefully be an NSMB gear shots in a month or two, so I won't blow my wad.

Retirement

2008-03-18T20:34:00.001-07:00

It was a nice day today so I decided to get my fat ass out on my bike and take the old prototype for it's retirement ride. I pick up my personal frame tomorrow and I should have it built by the weekend. It seemed like a fitting tribute to take the proto for a final tour around Vancouver.

I loved this bike and it was honestly the kick in the ass that I needed to start this company. My initial plan was to start with a full suspension design but this bike felt so natural that within 10 minutes on my first ride I had made the decision to start with this as my first model.

However. The parts kit really sucked. This bike is too heavy. The wheels are the most bomber wheels I've ever ridden, but they weigh a tonne. The fork is way too heavy, way too tall and just never felt right. The cranks are overkill. The brakes suck. There's just too much weight on this bike. My next build is easily going to knock 10 pounds off and won't give up much in the way of strength or suspension performance.

As well, I can't look at this bike and not see all the mistakes that I made. The new dropouts and gussets are cleaner. The slightly steeper angles are going to handle a bit better. The shorter seat tube is going to be nicer. The lower BB is going to kick ass. The machined head tube takes out a bit of weight and finishes things off nicely. I'm super, super pumped on the new bike.

And riding around Vancouver these days is always pretty exciting. I've been longing to take this photo for the last couple of months.

I call it Signs of the upcoming Real Estate Apocalypse. Hopefully.

Photogenic

2008-02-10T18:59:00.000-08:00

Things are finally starting to feel somewhat real. I spent most of yesterday shooting photos with Harookz at the Brewery. I like working with Harookz. He's just about the most excited person you could ever meet, so he can flush all the self doubt from your mind. And we also seem to be pretty good at working together to create an idea. I start with something small. He adds to it. I add to that. He adds to that. Pretty soon, we're left with something that can only be either a complete trainwreck or insanely awesome. I'm pretty sure we hit the latter.

The first part of the day involved sitting in a massive cooler taking pictures of a bike.

From there, we thawed out, rounded up a few people, a couple of beers and a whole lot of lights and set about creating a scene to highlight the shirt. Shit was pretty complicated but it turned out real good like. Now, if I could just get a website up and running to post it on...

Here's a shot of the crew. Thanks for your help everybody.