New Bike day! 2011 Specialized Enduro Comp

Yep! you read that title right: its new bike day. What is the flavor today you ask?

2011 Specialized Enduro Comp

So...those of you know know me in person will attest to the idea that I am a cheapskate: I never buy brand new when it comes to significant purchases like cars or bikes. I really want that brand new all carbon 29er enduro but at the end of the day I simply cannot come to terms with spending the better part of $10,000 on a car, let alone a bike!

Me and eBay go way back though. Way further than craigslist could hope to go! I have bought vehicles and paintball gear and all sorts of useless chinese junk through ebay and now i have bought a complete, albeit used, bicycle!

Of course this idea comes with lots of unknowns and puts a LOT of trust in the seller. This is not always well founded trust.

But it is usually enough of a good deal to me to take that risk and worry about the details later. This bike was one of the "worry about the details later" moments just like the Porsche adventure was.

I did get a complete bicycle and not a box of rocks, so at least I have that going for me. I ended up paying about $950, once shipping was added on, for a well abused 6 year old bike. maybe not the best of gambles but it should be fun to ride once I spend a bunch more money on it!

This is what she looks like assembled and out of the box. 

Per the ebay ad I already know the following:

• Rear triangle was replaced with a piece from a 2012. Gives the bike a 12x142 rear axle.
• Rear Easton Havoc wheel has a pretty big dent in it.
• Lots of paint scuffs and chips.
• Thompson Elite seat post

Now for the things I have discovered since unwrapping and setting it up tonight:

• LOTS of scuffs and paint chips. Way more than anticipated and clearly from trail use not just "from the cheap bike rack I used" stuff.
• Tires are original, and full of tubeless goo, and have bent presta valves. But do take air and appear to hold at least for a few minutes!
• Handlebars are from BlkMrkt. Hubba hubba!
• Seat is an old Bontrager junker...will probably replace with the WTB Speed on the old hardrock.
• front brake master cylinder is shot. pushes fluid out of the gasket somehow.
• Shock needs a rebuild. oil comes out when pumping the pressure up.
• Cranks are badly beaten and at least one is bent.
• Rear derailleur hanger is bent, possibly from shipping as pictured above. Hard to tell if the derailleur itself is bent.
• Fork should probably be rebuilt while I am at it.
• Should probably replace the suspension bearings while I am tearing things up.

Thats all I have so far.  Looking forward to some, hopefully, easy wrenching and tuning!

Stay tuned for more!

2013 Trek Rumblefish

So I wanted to do a little bike check to tell everybody about what I have been riding this year, for the most part. I have wanted a full squish pretty much from the get-go but until this last season I have not had the drive or resources ($$$) to make it a reality. I definitely do not see a full squish as a starting point for beginning riders, but once you have the basics down the compliance of full suspension sure is nice.

2013 Trek Rumblefish

picture

So I bought this bike used from a nice talkative guy on the south side of the cities. there were a few mods that he had done that I thought were useless to me but I also thought that they showed that the bike was not beat up by him. Unlike me using a bike...

So we agreed on $1100 and I took the bike home. I didn't even know how to remove the QR15 front axle that day so I tried to fit it inside the truck cab and that wasn't even close so i ended up flopping it in the back. It has since rode many miles in the back of the ole Chevy!

I took the riser post off of the fork and the silly flame grips off and returned the bike to a mostly stock configuration. I checked the pressure in the shock and fork and rode around the yard until I thought the ergonomics felt good.  I took a few bits apart to grease and check the condition of bearings but for the most part everything was in good shape if a little dusty from sitting in the guys garage for a while.

First Ride.

Myself, Bryan and our coworker and former classmate Shawn met up to ride some trails non of us had hit before. We hit up Carver Lake Park, which is awesome with great technical features for the more trialsy riders. then we went down the road to Battle Creek trails area. This was an area none of us knew and we parked at the top where there is poor trail signage. There are some wicked narrow and technical descents and sure enough I got caught out trying to keep up with those two ya-hoos.

I hit a little kicker along a bank thinking the guys had hit it and as soon as my front tire came up I regretted it, panic braked and when I came down the bike stopped and I went OTB and the bike tumbled down the trail. Unknown until a week later I bent both the handlebars and one of the saddle rails in this off.

I didn't get significantly injured, besides my pride, so I considered it a good day.

I also rode my first MTB race at Elm Creek on this bike over the summer. I didn't finish very high but I still had a blast doing it. I can see doing lots of XC on this bike but after riding it at Spirit Mountain a few times, and my experience at Battle Creek, I am not sure if I will keep it for the long haul. I will likely post a new update once that fate becomes clearer...

Night light review

Hey all,

I was going to do a video review of this light, but I decided to return it before I even had a chance to shoot any footage. As you will notice at the link above this light only costs about $18. That should be setting off alarm bells in your brain that this product is so incredibly cheap that it cannot be good. I am here to confirm that idea for you.

It arrived in an unmarked brown cardboard box with kanji written on it. I opened the box and found all of the components to be in decent condition after shipment. Unfortunately all of the components are of very cheap quality and build. The rounded portion for clamping to a handlebar is designed for a 25mm or 1" handlebar so it was not going to work well for me as I run 31.8mm bars on any bike that I would ride at night.

The included "headband" was also of low quality. It had a small round plastic section that was on the front where I assume you were supposed to use all of the handlebar circular pieces to mount the light. This all made the whole assembly rather bulky and awkward.

I had to get one just to see what $18 gets you, but I cannot suggest it to anybody I know. Consider one of the lights below as an alternative. Sadly I have not had them in hand to evaluate if they are better or not but at least they come from a known cycle related company.

2010 Specialized Hardrock Disc

Thought I would give a little more detail on a couple of my bikes, to help flesh out what I do around here.
As I have recently mentioned I bought this 2010 Hardrock off of craigslist.org for the princely sum of $150. It was as original as they come.

I think this picture was the day I bought it. It still has the specialized tires on it even!

Since I was getting more into bicycles when I bought this one, I decided to go through and do some clean up and simple maintenance that i knew how to do. I took the fork apart and cleaned and re-greased it. I also rinsed and re-packed the headset bearings while I was in there. I tried to lube the cables and clean and adjust the derailleurs. I also replaced the clanky BB with a cheap Shimano one.

And then I rode it for a while. It was great! I could ride over way more rugged terrain without having my fillings or kidneys fall out. It had disc brakes so I learned what good brakes felt like. things were wonderful.

Of course I couldn't leave things alone! Why have disc brakes if you aren't going to hydraulic, right? Here comes our friend eBay: $60 for a full set of Tektro china specials, with all the hardware and discs even!
Then a new seat. Then some new stems to play with ergonomics.
Then some pedals to replace the poly original ones. Cheap Wellgo pedals. Work wonders over the worn out stock poly ones.

The chain and sprockets start looking poorly so I buy a new cassette, a new chain, and decide to take the raceface crankset off of a frame I got and freshen up the whole drivetrain. I learn how to adjust derailleurs correctly this time.

Finally I bend the wheels one too many times. Brian, the mechnic at my LBS, says "these things can't be trued correctly. I got it straight but if you hit too many more bumps its probably going to pop right back to where it was." So off to the internet! what looks robust: Azonic Outlaws! they cost twice as much as the bike but they come in green so it happens. May as well put some of these aggressive looking Michelin ATs on it while I am in there.

Lots of time and money spent on this rig. I just took it out for a ride today as a matter of fact: since I have been recently riding my XC bike this thing feel terrible. but it is still light, flickable, and nimle feeling comapred to my 33lb full squish. :) Experience it a terrible thing sometimes.

cheers!

2009 Specialized Cirrus

Well, again I started this post a while back when we picked up the bike but had not had a good chance to update it and finish typing.

So I bought Leann a road bike. She has long complained about how much she wants a road bike so that she can go on rides form the house. I see no problem in hoping on a MTB and adding some air for a nice recreational pedal around the park, but women think differently.

So I did a little craigslist browsing and VIOLA! or something.

a very nice condition Specialized Cirrus in 54cm size. nice metallic white in largely original condition.

First things first: get rid of the crappy changes that previous owner had done and make it more suitable for biking 150 miles. Remove and discard old MTB seat and install Leann's body geometry seat. remove crappy walmart plastic flat pedals and install simple VP clip-ins. Remove and discard squishy grips and install some decent modern clamp-on grips.

I also did some easy maintenance. Popped the pedals and bottom bracket out to clean and regrease threads. a few squirts of lube into the brake and shifter cables. Clean and lube of the chain.

And that is it. so far Leann has got one flat on the front after we went for a ride, luckily Pricepoint.com had recently had a sale and I stocked up on 700 tubes!

And that is it so far. Leann seems to enjoy it and we go out for rides. happy pedaling!

And now for something completely different

Who knows what a trials bicycle is? I think not too many people!
Thanks to my friend Brian I now own not just a MotoTrials but also two Trials bicycles!

The first bike I bought was a Norco Evolve. It is from about 2007 and I think a pretty decent frame for general use. I have put a new front rim and converted to a front disc brake, and that is about it so far!

The second bike is more of a project really. A ZOO! Pitbull frame and some parts. I happened across this gem on eBay and it turned out to be a local seller so I messaged him and a week later I had the frame, a front fork, stem, handlebars and some worn out tires. Score!!

I have done some riding with Brian and some cats from Minneapolis and I feel like  I am doing okay, skills wise. I have to say that riding Trials is very enjoyable from both a personal fulfillment aspect and as a great training tool for general bike skills both Moto and Pedal.

Cheers
G