Thursday, February 21, 2008

Never raining, always pouring

Yesterday Jason and I went for a ride somewhere new for me, out Warrandyte way. On the singlespeed, now with half a gear after a few crunchy noises, it was a tough little ask. The gearing on there is whatever I put on it that was sitting on my bench, so I have no idea, but it used to keep pace at the flat dirt crits so I guess its pretty tall. Anyway, we had a great little spin around, there really are some wicked trails out there, and I had a ball! I wish I had of taken more photos, but I just didn't, so sorry...

(its in here somewhere...)

Anyway, I've now got about half the teeth I require on my rear cog, and think its time to stop being silly and get a proper cog... Maybe ;) Or I can just wait till it goes round, but riding uphill is seriously off the list now! Typically, I managed to bin it almost within sight of home, sticking a brake lever into my calf with a silly little crash that I was lucky to escape without more serious injury. Something about one tyre on one side of a path edge, and the other tyre on the other edge. Continue until ground... It all ended up pretty funny, bike in the air, stuck in the burr's, in the rain. Funny times!

So wrenching my Virtue to re-install the bottom bracket after we slipped in some very tasty new ABEC5 bearings from www.DIYMTB.com.au, and it wasn't going well... The cup was being difficult to reinstall, but I knew that we have chased out the threads, so I must have been doing something wrong. Turns out it was Em's hair, causing it to bind. Then, the seat clamp snapped whilst I had my back turned. I heard it 'click' and then the bike started to slide off the clamped seatpost. Bugger. Then I was changing the cleats in my shoes for the first time in 3 years, typically the bolt head was stripped, so I drilled it out. The steel must have been weakened or corroded, as the drill went straight through like butter, and pushed the plate with it, making me think I drilled the top of my shoe!

But I hadn't :)

After all the calamities, all the bikes (with the exception of the 'round' sprocket) are going great now! Good thing too, as we're off to 'find' some new trails... ;) I've got a good feeling about this one!

And you should watch this video some time.... Not the crap you tube clip, but the real deal.



And I know that most people have seen this on 'sports tonight' or whatever, but watch it again....

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