A losing weekend

No, I didn't race (though that'd likely be the title if I had as well); but everything else at least felt like a loss aside from my one major victory of a mechanical variety. Not only did the Ravens lose badly yesterday, the Orioles lost the final game of the season in a trouncing by the Yankees; a game I sat through with a bit of dismay despite the beautiful weather. It really looked like the players just wanted to be finished from the start of the game; even though the normal started weren’t playing nobody looked like they cared. Innings lasted forever, runs were walked in, pop flies were dropped and O’s managed to go out with not even a slightest hint of a fizzle; more like the final bit of air squeezed out from a slow leak.

The night before SC barely eked out their 3 point win over Washington; a team that when they played their best the offense could pick apart as shown towards the end of the 1^st half, though too many dropped ball, bad passes and mental mistakes led to a game that was much closer then it should have been. In reality I should be glad they won, though they apparently showed enough people their weaknesses to drop to 2^nd in the coaches poll to LSU despite the win.

Enough of the loser talk now though, on to the best news from the weekend; I finished building up my cross bike! Everything came together well and I commuted in on it this morning and even felt relatively safe riding it! Aside from the headset and the wheels I built the entire thing from the ground up which I’ve got to say is a pretty good feeling. The only real work I’ve even done has been on the fixed gear which seemed like nothing compared to everything that’s involved in building a full geared bike. Amazingly the bike shifts perfectly and feels solid; though I need to do some more adjusting to the saddle before I get much further with anything. It's probably a tiny bit big at 57cm for me for cross racing, but it doesn't feel awkward or anything I feel like I've got adequate control for cross riding. Hopefully the larger size doesn't mean more ball busting though.

In the end I ran the cables, installed and adjusted the derailleurs (ok, so the front was already clamped on the frame as well), ran and adjusted the brake lines and brakes and finished it all off with some slick looking grey and black cammo bar tape. It looks pretty slick actually; not at all like the thrown together franken bike I expected. I even love the way the red and black saddle (that came with my fuji track bike) looks on the bike; the bit of red really makes it look pretty sharp.

Unfortunately the flash drive solution I came up with for transferring pictures to post online didn’t work out when this morning my computer won’t recognize the memory stick. Hopefully I’ll figure something else out soon and get some shots of the bike up along with everything else I want to get up there.

Bike build 101

Now for the bike related post of the day (past month). Managed to pick up a used cross frame (an older aluminum Redline Conquest Cyclo-X) and parts and got the majority of the necessary items for my build in last night. Still need some rim tape, stem spacers and a new stem since the two stems I got from the guy with the frame 1 1/8” and the fork is 1”. Once I get that tonight after work though I should be set to build it all up. Hopefully I’d screw anything up since this will be my first official full build, though not having deal with the headset was probably the biggest blessing in my eyes (I’m clueless and scared of this).

The frame looks just like this one. Nothing flashy and definitely used, but it'll certainly do the trick.

Last night I got the bottom bracket and cranks installed, added a new Deore LX rear derailleur and got the cassette all set up on the Mavic CXP22’s. Tonight hopefully I’ll be able to pull the rest together and have it ready for a ride tomorrow. I’m likely going to need to change out the chainrings when I get to racing but for now I’ve got a 53/38 with I believe a 12/25 on the cassette. Definitely WAY too heavy for cross racing.

The rest is all pretty basic, used Ultegra from derailleur, basic 144 or so bars, used (borrowed) shifters/breaks, a pair of tektro brake levers for the flat bar section and the old seat off my Fuji Track bike for now. The Ritchey Pro Logic cranks probably weigh more then the bike itself but changes will come in time. For now though I’ve spend more then enough money on bike stuff, its time to start putting some into the house instead.

I’m hoping that if I can get the cross rig built up tonight or tomorrow I’ll get out and spend some time on it though I’m also really itching to get out on the mountain bike. I had so much fun the last time I went (which was a while ago) I just wish I could get out all the time. I was going to try and go early last Sunday and then watch the Charm City Cross and cheer on some friends and teammates but ended up doing a dump run and yard work with my brother in law instead. The cowbells will have to wait a little longer. Sunday instead of going to the Ed Sandor Memorial cross race I’ll be heading to Baltimore with the family for the final home game for the O’s against the Yanks. I kind of hate going to those games since there are always more Yankees fans then O’s fans; it’s a little embarrassing.

Bicycle Maintenance Wisdom

Last night my friend Mandie stopped by with the front tire off her (somewhat) new Jamis cyclo-cross that went flat last week during a ride. As I started to pull out the tube (during the commercial breaks for Friday Night Lights which is a fantastic TV show fyi) and did my best to show Mandie what I was doing, my mind jumped to how simple of a task this is. But, then I started to think about when I had no idea how to change a tire and even when I knew how but still wasn’t very sure of myself in doing so and remembered how dumb I felt when I had asked for help in these occasions. I mean who doesn’t know how to change a bicycle tire, right?

While bicycle maintenance is far from complicated and difficult, it is also not just something that you pick up and automatically know how to do (at least not most of us). This past weekend I took my “new” polo/beater bike frame over to City Bikes to get a couple of measurements and I was reminded of just how useless one can feel when dealing with bike maintenance. The first reaction of the mechanic when I walked in with the frame was a bit of an eye roll and a quick run through of what he would likely need to do to build it up. When I explained that I was building it myself and that it was for polo his tone and the amount of respect towards me changed noticeably (keep in mind this was one of my favorite mechanics there and I am not complaining about him or his help as he has been more then helpful to me in his many encounters with my “dumb” questions).

After I told him this and said I was just getting a couple of general ideas for what I would need, he launched into a whole tirade on routes I could take for my bottom bracket and my headset which went well beyond my scope of knowledge. The main thing I got out of our discussion was that it looks like I’ve got an English threaded BB along with a couple of measurements he gave me. Hmmm, most of the rest came out to a smile and nod unfortunately, though I got the general idea for a bit of what he told me. Basically though my knowledge on these parts of the bikes are limited to what I’ve read in my basic bicycle maintenance manual which really is just a basic guide that doesn’t cover most of what I need.

So, I pretty much found myself in similar shoes as to when I first was learning how to do something as simple as changing a flat. I’m sure that after I continue to work on my bikes I’ll get a much better understanding of all the parts and measurements and then I’ll look back at this like I do changing a tire now. Until then though I’ll just have to keep asking questions and trying things out (hopefully with out breaking anything) until I get to the point that I am comfortable with it all.

Scott posted on the Racing Union blog yesterday a post which quickly discussed the differences between knowledge and wisdom. Here I can read about threadless and threaded bottom brackets and headsets all I want but until I get my hands dirty and get some real working experience with them, all this reading is going to produce is some basic knowledge; the wisdom will come with the work itself.

Luckily I’ve got Scott to provide some knowledge to me from his broad bank of wisdom and for the most part he is willing to deal with the “stupid” questions I consistently throw his way. Hopefully I’ll be able to do the same for my friends as they get more ingrained in the world of bikes as well.

Conversion Part I: The bulk buy

Picked up my frame for my new beater/polo bike last night from the massive Craigslist group buy I got in on with some people from the dcfixed discussion board. While a lot of the stuff ended up being complete junk there was definitely some great stuff mixed in as well. I believe everyone who was hoping for a frame out of the deal will be getting one and there were certainly some decent bars and some coaster hubs people were getting pretty pumped up about.

Being the first person to show up I picked out a frame I liked almost immediately when I saw the burnt orange glint on top of the pile. The frame turned out to be an old Raleigh steel frame built in Nottingham England with Sprite 27 on the down tube. I found the matching fork with the stem attached and picked out some basic bars that I’ll chop down for some skinny polo horn style bars.

So, next step is to try and get my hands on the rest of the stuff for the build and get this baby on the road. I’ll probably pick up a new bottom bracket and seat post just for ease there and try and pick up the rest of the parts used through Craigslist, ebay and friends and hopefully will get this built on the cheap.

As of now my total cost is the twenty I put in for the group buy, though I plan to grab a couple of more junk parts from the “booty” once everyone has had a chance to lay their claim. Otherwise I’m hoping to keep my build right around if not under $100, though we’ll see how well that works out once I really start looking into the parts I’ll need. For now the fingers are crossed and I’m pretty optimistic I’ll come out of this with a sweet cheap a** ride.

I’ll be posting up pictures of the build as I go also once I get my hands on a camera so be sure to check back for those. Hopefully I’ll get some this weekend to put up of the parts I’ve currently got.