An Evening with Tools

One recent Friday evening found me unsupervised as Le Jefa and the Little Man were called out of town for a baby shower. This meant that I finally had the time to hunker down in my half underground lair to install all the new unobtainium drive train parts on the Niner. Follow along in picture book fashion as I proceed to install a new go system in a record time of 4 beers:


Old go system removed and bb shell is ready for facing.


Required tools, parts and hydration......check.


Who knew that all you needed to PROPERLY face a bottom bracket shell was an old piece of 200 grit sand paper and a sanding block?


New and 'Improved' Niner EBB correctly installed in shell.


Unobtainium Chris King BB and XTR Single Ring crank partially installed.

I had to install the CK BB three different times before I figured out that I did not need any of the 3 spacers provided with the new 73mm width bb, as noted in the instructions. This took 2 beers on top of the 1 beer that was spent facing the bb shell. I decided to stand around and have a 4th beer and look at my handy work that took 3 times as long as it should have and start a new the next day.

Summer is for racing. That is unless you have money for a beach vacation, a pool membership, a friend or family member with a boat or anything else better to do. Since I have none of the above I started training for Bump n Grind yesterday with a recovery ride. I don't know what I was recovering from but I just felt like I needed a recovery ride and I hear a lot about these such rides so I thought I would give it a try. Kinda boring, spinning around on the road atop a skinny tire bike with gears and hair on my legs, doesn't make much sense, but then again not much of what I do anymore makes any sense. Today I will try some short 'Race Pace' intervals, I hear a lot about those so I will give that a try as well.

More on race prep. tomorrow.

The Question is Moots

I told you I was very, very close to winning a Moots frame at the 3rd running of DSG. I had a feeling that I might win the frame since I have been so deserving of a Moots for so long that I bought five chances to win the Moots. I was sure I would win, since I am incapable of winning the single speed class I might as well have some luck and win the door prize. So how close was I?




Becky won the Moots! You know Becky, the faster half the dynamic mountain biking duo known as Becky and Rich from Charlotte, NC. They even stayed with La Jefa, the Little Man and I the night before the event (I refuse to call what transpired at DSG this year a race. You can't get too much closer than that. It was a well deserved win for Becky and I am happy that she won the frame.........maybe something good will happen to me because of it. I have not given up on something positive coming out of the misery that was DSG this year. Okay enough about Dirt, Sweat and Gears, I am going to put it out of my mind, if I can.

Some changes were made on the Niner for this season of racing. The first change has been aimed at improving the drive train of this bike. The old Niner EBB just hasn't performed like it should so Niner designed a new 'Clam Shell Type' EBB.



It is new and more expensive so naturally I had to have one.

Also new and more expensive and previously discussed and desired on this very blog is the new Chris King BB.



I had to have one of those also.

Now all I needed was a crank,



and some rings.





File photo, I actually installed a 20T.

Joining all of these parts proved to be more than a two beer task like I had originally estimated. After three beers I became more patient and learned yet again to not only read the manufacturers instructions but to follow them as well.

Performance review to follow later this week. Oh yeah, Bump n Grind pre race report will be out this week also.

You Know the saying; April Showers Bring ......... More Rain in May

It has been a long, wet spring in the southeast. I have only been on a handful of decent mtb rides since returning from AZ and blogging about rain soaked road rides sucks even more than road rides, or at least as bad. Reading about them is even worse. But things are going to pick up, the trails are going to dry and some exciting stuff has happened and is going to happen.

An fortuitous moment occurred last weekend, I finally met Team Dicky at Mud, Tents and Beer. This has been an event I have been looking forward to since last years edition of DSG, there was nothing about the race that could be construed as mountain bike racing, however I did meet Team Dicky and that is an event in and amongst itself.

In addition to meeting Team Dicky last weekend I was very close to winning a new Moots frame. Very close. Very, very close.

More about that, Team Dicky and more about nothing on Monday.