Tabitha's New Sister

I've been looking/contemplating for a couple of months of getting Tabitha a playmate.  She's pretty energetic and I'm gone all day so she'll bat her toy mice around until they're all too far under the couch to reach-this usually happens within minutes-and then sits around all day.

So I've been browsing Petfinder.com here and there and finally saw someone I thought would make a good companion and needed a bit of a break. 

Not a lot is known about her new friend other than she's about the same age-3 or 4- and lost her right eye, but not to a vet as the wound is not closed as a vet would do.  Right now she's shaved a bit as her fur was pretty clumped and matted.  She's also light as a feather and needs to put on some weight but a very mellow and sweet cat so far.

Hopefully within the next few days a name will hit me but until then I'm just calling her Newbie.  Right now she's occupying Tabitha's clawed up cat castle and getting used to her new digs.  I'm sure she'll appreciate how quiet it is here over that noisy pound. 

Wheels

At this point I can only assume that my soon to be new bike is jinxed in the fork department.  The first shop I tried to order it through sat on the order for almost 2 weeks, then told me it was backordered and not available until next year.  Of course 5 minutes after I told them to cancel the order it was going to be magically available the next day????  Something sounded a little too fishy.
Shop #2 had the two parts I needed 'instock.'  Great!  However, 'instock' meant that QBP in Minnesota had them 'instock.'  Minnesota.  Black Label fixie kingdom located in a spot within our great country that means super slow shipping a few states over.  I can place an order from Speedgoat.com in my homestate of PA and get it here to Salt Lake quicker than anything being shipped from ho-hum MN.
Needless to say I started down this road on December 11th.  It's now December 29th and my parts have yet to start their journey to Salt Lake.  This is about the only time I'll ever be thankful that it's zero degress outside and I can't ride.  If this was Spring, I would not be a very happy camper.

During my wait, I did manage to build up my first set of 29'er wheels and my first set of wheels period since the '90's.  Of course, I experimented on Noah's wheels first before starting this adventure.

I think the last time I was poor enough to not afford a complete blingy set of wheels and had to opt for the scrounge an old hub, find some inexpensive close-out rims and try and remember how to do geometry to figure out spoke length was back in 1999.  At the time I was finishing up a long stint at AlphaGraphics located convienently next to the University.  Probably one of my more 'fun' jobs as I ran all the finishing equipment in the back.  It was a great 7 years as I had free parking for school, access to all the University course packets-printed up for free.  My papers were always printed on nice paper/in color and bound professionally and I had access to the Internet.  Which meant countless hours opening and printing off online wheel building manuals that I covered and bound before I left and still own to this day-Thank You Sheldon Brown.

Building up a 29'er wheel was a bit odd I must say.  Everything laced up easy enough.  But getting the wheel 'solid' took quite a bit more work than I recall with any 26" wheel.  I'm not down with this whole 29'er wheels are better than 26'er wheels debate-I call BS on that.  I'm freaking tall and so I opted for a 29'er hardtail over a 26'er hardtail for that reason only.  Having spun some spokes on a fresh 29'er wheel I can tell the strength isn't going to compare-but this is for a XC machine, not a DH/All-Mountain racer.  Those who know me have heard my ramblings about my first 29'er wheel back in 2007.  The pair came stock on my first Niner Air 9 and lasted .9 miles on Gooseberry Mesa.  Not nine miles, .9 miles.  The front just folded in half.  Brand new WTB wheel on a brand new bike.  Not even one mile.  My second and third venture on the Sultan and newer Air 9 (built with my own pick of parts) faired a bit better-however, I was always truing wheels even after basic XC rides.  Compare that to one pair of 26" EX1750's that weigh exactly the same as the pair of Mavic Cross29max wheels I had on version 2 of the Air 9.  I raced the EX1750's down the Bountiful Bomber in a DH race, numerous Super D's, DH shutteling, etc... and had to true my first pair once in two years.  Sorry, but there are zero 29'er wheels out their that can do that and even come close to 1750 grams. 

Oh well, time was definitely on my side so all is good with the build-I hope.

I'm pretty stoked at riding a wheel creation of my own again.  I opted to tear down a pair of DT Swiss EX1750's, selling those super pricey DT Swiss aerobladed spokes and rims to Noah and rebuilding the hubs with new Enduro ABEC-5 bearings-keeping an older pair of 1750's on the sidelines for spare hub parts. 
Doing so I ended up with a 10mm DRS system rear and a 15mm front hub that's can convert to a 20mm or a 9mm in about 2 minutes.  Rim wise I went Mavic this time with a pair of new TN719's.  Spokey-dokes came in the form of DT Swiss double butted Competition's in the 2.0/1.8/2.0 size-way in subtle black.  I was a bit torn in the nipple department.  I like my nipples to stand out and almost went for some colored, aluminum version but hesitated.  After a few years riding EX1750's and being super impressed with their durability, I ended up using the more expensive and less noticeable DT Swiss Prolock nipples. 

My fingers are crossed.

Maxxis got some TwentyMcNiner tires out and so I'll be starting off with a 2.2 Ardent up front and a 2.1 Aspen out back.  If that doesn't work, I'll switch it up and add the 2.1 Ignitor that was sent as reinforcements. 

Anyway...  Perhaps sometime in 2010 I'll actually have a complete bike to post up.  Until then, you just get to read my rants and watch video's of old bands.

Fruita

So close, yet so far away.  Kind of a maddening thought that this place is just 3.5 hours away and then realizing what mother nature's been doing lately.  Earliest I've been able to ride down there (just the Mack Exit side) has been the beginning of February.  It's usually fairly tacky and most people are still skiing. 

With no full sus big travel bike for next year it'll be an interesting visit. 

Throwing Kristin

Keeping up with my trip down memory lane while the snow keeps me indoors...
Throwing Muses came to the University back in 1990 or 91. I can't recall the exact year other than it was Mayfest and they headlined-and it was a free outdoor concert. I was pretty much floored. Don't quote me on this, but at the time I believe Kristin or the other singer Tanya was pregnant yet still played amazingly. Kristin Hersh's voice is...well, I'll let the video's tell that part of the story. There were so many good video's on EweTube that I had to condense it down to the my three favorites. Unfortunately, a lot of the old school Throwing Muses footage was quite rough.

Kristin's 50 Foot Wave:



Anyway....Reason #1 why I don't read Mens Journal.  Pretty simple solution for those who really wanted a Manitou:

The Stern Brothers

Sorry, nothing bike related this weekend other than hoards of used bike crap being posted on MTBqueeR.com as I wait out the rest of the parts for the Bandersnatch to arrive.

I came across this on EweTube and thought it was pretty punk and well done. I mean what embodies 'punk rock' more than a broken down van? Seeing as how Youth Brigade's one of my all time faves I thought I'd share. Enjoy



And whadda ya know, these boys are all grown up and can still kick it.



Here's the history. I'll post up a review once my copy shows up.

Gratuitous X-Fest Eve Post

Supposedly 'tis the season to reflect upon the year gone by. Unfortunately, I can't stop doing just that.

There was a time in the not so distant pass when my bedroom looked like this:

And my living room would look like this:

And at the same time I would get a wild hair up my arse and this would show up:

And the Nationals would come through our fair state instead of bypassing and setting up shop all year long in that damned Colorado neighbor's yard.

Oh how times have changed.  This is it for 2010, besides my old trusty LeMond Reynolds steel and Made In America (or fabrique' if you're a francophone) 'cross commuter.  Rumor has it that 'steel is real.'  I guess I'll soon find out.

Tabitha can't get enough of that mouse.

Asiemut Film Review

Apparently I've been "nice" as Santa showed up early shimmying down the chimney right into my mailbox where I had a plate of cookies and a tiny bowl of cat milk waiting for him-thank you Gaylord Focker.

Asiemut is a film about two Quebecois, Francois Pierre Xavier Spankeipants and Dominique de Snaggletouth, who go by the generic screen names 'Oliver and Melanie', and their journey across Mongolia, Tibet and India. Self supported, self filmed and on a pair of blingy Kona hardtail mountain bikes in the shark skin gray colorway. 

Like most cycling films, this is a documentary at its very core and it doesn't get much more documentaryish than Asiemut-which I believe is the name of the sheep Oliver rides mid-film and later falls in love with-although this is just my pure speculation and interpretaion as his English is quite fuzzy at times. The story is slow moving as is their pace and we come to find out that this is the first time Ms. Snaggletouth (Melanie) had really ever ridden a bicycle, let alone a bicycle equipped with a pair of polished Shimano clipless platform pedals and laden with paniers (or 'bike bags' if you're from Chicago).

Pretty cool film for a Thursday afternoon viewing. It's no Turner and Hooch but inspiring nonetheless. Highlights include a female groin protrusion 'the size of a golfball', real food and trails that aren't over 5" deep sand. I do have to warn that there is a brief moment of crying so those who are offended by that type of emotion should be prepared to have a friend fast forward through that section.

I give it a solid One Kick To The Nuts.