As of tonight, all of our original music for the new CD is on tape! It's been a long, hard road, but I think that the destination will make it worthwhile.
We have a bit more work to do, including the final mixing and mastering of all the tracks, producing the cover art and liner notes, plus some icing for the cake. Then, "Subtle As a Sledgehammer" will be ready to ship.
I am excited by the sound on these tracks, and I hope that you guys will be, as well.
More, later.
x
Showing posts with label Bikes Wallpapers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bikes Wallpapers. Show all posts
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Busy Week
This past week was a bit hectic, for me. I was inundated with samples, at work, which all needed to be tested "yesterday". I had a meeting of the Emergency Response Team, for our building, and then I had to prepare for, then help conduct, the monthly certification session for WAQTC. Then, of course, I had to do the follow-up work for that as well. (All of this in a four-day work week, due to Veteran's Day.)
In the meantime, on the home front; Steve returned from Tennessee and we got together on both Thursday and Saturday, to do some recording. The Thursday session was pretty unproductive (partly due to us not playing, for a while ... partly due to the fact that I had gotten up at 3:45 in order to get to work at 5:00 so that I could do the final prep for WAQTC, and I was just wiped out by the time I got home.
Friday night, I ran down to Herman's Hideaway, and talked to the booking guys about our next show. Being out of circulation for 6 weeks, we had sort of fallen off of their radar. We may, or may not, have a show on the 11th of December. I should know, tomorrow.
Saturday was a busy week, all on its own. I went down to Kaladi for coffee, then over to pick up a used guitar case, from a buddy of mine, for my old Phoenix/Electra guitar.
The guitar was made in 1984, in the Japanese Matsumoko factory, and I bought it in a Memphis pawn shop in 1987, for $99.00. It didn't come with a case, at that price, and I never had one for it (other than a gig bag), until now. Interestingly, this is the heaviest guitar that I own. The body is solid maple, and that gives it a very nice tone, and a lot of sustain. But, it makes my shoulder and back sore to play it for more than about 20 minutes at a time, standing up.
After I got home with the case, Steve texted me and asked if I wanted to do some recording at 3:00, before we were to go see Robert Harrison and the Outsiders, at the Bluebird Theater, at 8:00. Of course, I did.
I took advantage of the time before Steve showed up to put some new wheels on the fat bike. After last week's fiasco of an attempted ride, I had decided to just bite the bullet and get some new wheels with the correct spacing, quick release axles, sealed bearings, and a freehub for modern cogsets. There is a company selling complete wheelsets, on eBay, for the same price that a 170mm rear hub costs, so I ordered a pair. They arrived on Wednesday, but I could find neither the time nor the energy to deal with them until Saturday.
I pulled the wheels out of the box and was somewhat surprised to see that the rims were double-walled. At this price, I really expected single-wall rims.
I installed a new 8-speed 11-32 cogset that I had lying about, and swapped the brake rotor and rubber over the new rear wheel...
In the meantime, on the home front; Steve returned from Tennessee and we got together on both Thursday and Saturday, to do some recording. The Thursday session was pretty unproductive (partly due to us not playing, for a while ... partly due to the fact that I had gotten up at 3:45 in order to get to work at 5:00 so that I could do the final prep for WAQTC, and I was just wiped out by the time I got home.
Friday night, I ran down to Herman's Hideaway, and talked to the booking guys about our next show. Being out of circulation for 6 weeks, we had sort of fallen off of their radar. We may, or may not, have a show on the 11th of December. I should know, tomorrow.
Saturday was a busy week, all on its own. I went down to Kaladi for coffee, then over to pick up a used guitar case, from a buddy of mine, for my old Phoenix/Electra guitar.
Not bad for $20.00...
The guitar was made in 1984, in the Japanese Matsumoko factory, and I bought it in a Memphis pawn shop in 1987, for $99.00. It didn't come with a case, at that price, and I never had one for it (other than a gig bag), until now. Interestingly, this is the heaviest guitar that I own. The body is solid maple, and that gives it a very nice tone, and a lot of sustain. But, it makes my shoulder and back sore to play it for more than about 20 minutes at a time, standing up.
After I got home with the case, Steve texted me and asked if I wanted to do some recording at 3:00, before we were to go see Robert Harrison and the Outsiders, at the Bluebird Theater, at 8:00. Of course, I did.
I took advantage of the time before Steve showed up to put some new wheels on the fat bike. After last week's fiasco of an attempted ride, I had decided to just bite the bullet and get some new wheels with the correct spacing, quick release axles, sealed bearings, and a freehub for modern cogsets. There is a company selling complete wheelsets, on eBay, for the same price that a 170mm rear hub costs, so I ordered a pair. They arrived on Wednesday, but I could find neither the time nor the energy to deal with them until Saturday.
Beauty shot
I pulled the wheels out of the box and was somewhat surprised to see that the rims were double-walled. At this price, I really expected single-wall rims.
...then I swapped out the rotor and rubber on the front wheel.
I like the black rims, a lot. I had been contemplating painting the original rims black, as a matter of fact.
Now, the bike is ready to roll.
Once Steve arrived, we started playing. The session was much more successful than Thursday's had been. We ended up getting a couple of songs in the can, including "I Got The Blues", which we have probably attempted 30 times. For some reason, I could just never get the tone and the energy flowing at the same time, until Saturday.
The funny thing is, the take that is going onto the CD is one that we played at the tail-end of another take. We finished the first try, and I decided to just keep playing. We ended up just jamming on the song, for fun, with no pressure to try and make it "perfect". So, of course, it came out awesome. I am very proud of how it sounds, because it really captures the "live" feel that we are going for.
The rest of the evening was spent at the Bluebird. Adam, Adam, and John played their hearts out, and it was a really tight set.
The view from the balcony, via crappy iPhone photo...
The Bluebird is one of those places where I would really like to play, myself. I was happy for these guys to get the opportunity.
So, the week played out, and I realized, this morning, that I had never gotten a chance to post anything since last weekend. Hence, the big, long, post. Hope you enjoyed it.
Until next time...
x
One Of Those Days
First off, I overslept. I meant to be on the trail, at Mt. Falcon, by 6:00, but I didn't get up until 5:30. As I loaded the bike, I took the front wheel off, and noticed that one of the mounting bolts on the front caliper was missing! What next?
I got to the trailhead, and put the wheel in the front fork (I had replaced the missing brake bolt). At that point, I noticed that the front tire was flat. I apparently picked up a thorn on my ride around town, yesterday.
Two hundred fifty strokes of my frame pump later, I had the front tire aired up sufficiently, so I took off up the hill.
After I had ridden through the ravine, just out of of the parking lot, and started up the side of the mountain, I noticed that the freewheel was a bit balky about back-pedaling. Eventually, it got to the point that I had to constantly pedal forward, or the chain would get dragged down around the cog. I stopped to check it out, and realized that the freewheel was pretty much locked up.
At that point, I turned around and headed downhill.
Once I got home, I disassembled the freewheel and found that one of the pawls was broken, and one was bent.
So, I removed the cogs from the freewheel body, and put them on the body of the freewheel I had been using, before. (They were the same freewheel, just with a different range of cogs.) Then, I patched the tube, and I was back in business.
On the plus side, I did answer the three questions I wanted to address, on this ride:
1. Do these tires work well, on dirt? Yes, they do. Even with the rear tire somewhat over-pressure, the tires hooked up well and performed nicely.
2. Does the weight of the bike make it unpleasant to ride, on the big climbs? No, it does not. I was probably not as fast on the bike as I would have been on the 29er, but I didn't notice that the heavier bike was harder to deal with.
3. Does the longer rear end (compared to the Mukluk), and the "cruiser" geometry have a negative effect off-road? No. I had no problem lifting the front wheel and climbing over the waterbars on the trail, and it handled just fine. In fact, it reminds me of late 1980s/early 1990s mountain bikes.
So, I am happy with the bike, when it comes to performance and handling. Now, if I can just keep from having a mechanical, on the next ride...
x
The Hard Way
I was riding along on the fat bike, last Thursday, on my way from work when I started thinking about what I was doing. It was my seventh day in a row of riding that bike for at least an hour a day, and my knees were a bit sore. For three weeks, I had not ridden enough to speak of, and I was really enjoying riding back and forth on my commute.
But, why was I commuting on the bike, out of all the bikes I own, that takes the most effort to get down the road? My knees probably wouldn't be protesting, as much, if I had been riding my cool titanium bike, for a week, instead of the near-50-pound Beast.
In a word, I was riding that bike because it was hard, rather than in spite of that. I wanted the most ride possible, withing the time and distance constraints of my commute. I wasn't looking for an easy ride. I was looking for a more intensive ride.
This got me to thinking about other aspects of my life.
Steve and I are in the middle of recording the second Skull Full Of Blues album. We are doing that the hard way, as well, per my choice. About a year ago, we went into a professional studio and recorded the first CD/album/collection of songs (I'm not sure how to refer to it, nowadays ... nobody calls them albums, but the CD is on its way out, as well). Kyle, the studio guy, miked us up and set the levels and all we had to do was play.
It was a bit too easy.We got everything done in a day, and it was representative of our sound, at the time. But, something was missing. The effort level was just too low, I think, and it lacks something, to me.
So, for this album, I decided to take the hard road, and record on tape. So far, we have worked on the album for a solid month and we have eight songs in the can. We are recording on tape, with two microphones, in my living room. It took us two weeks to figure out how to get the room sound to translate to tape, and two more weeks to manage to get the songs we have down to sound right. And, we have six songs to go.
The sound is not as clean as the studio sound. There's some electronic noise due to the bad wiring in my house, and my microphones are not near the quality of the studio mic's. But, I love the sound that we are getting. It sounds like it was recorded the hard way, live in a juke joint, and that's the sound of SFOB.
Blood, sweat and tears = soulful living, for me. Your mileage may vary...
x
But, why was I commuting on the bike, out of all the bikes I own, that takes the most effort to get down the road? My knees probably wouldn't be protesting, as much, if I had been riding my cool titanium bike, for a week, instead of the near-50-pound Beast.
In a word, I was riding that bike because it was hard, rather than in spite of that. I wanted the most ride possible, withing the time and distance constraints of my commute. I wasn't looking for an easy ride. I was looking for a more intensive ride.
This got me to thinking about other aspects of my life.
Steve and I are in the middle of recording the second Skull Full Of Blues album. We are doing that the hard way, as well, per my choice. About a year ago, we went into a professional studio and recorded the first CD/album/collection of songs (I'm not sure how to refer to it, nowadays ... nobody calls them albums, but the CD is on its way out, as well). Kyle, the studio guy, miked us up and set the levels and all we had to do was play.
It was a bit too easy.We got everything done in a day, and it was representative of our sound, at the time. But, something was missing. The effort level was just too low, I think, and it lacks something, to me.
So, for this album, I decided to take the hard road, and record on tape. So far, we have worked on the album for a solid month and we have eight songs in the can. We are recording on tape, with two microphones, in my living room. It took us two weeks to figure out how to get the room sound to translate to tape, and two more weeks to manage to get the songs we have down to sound right. And, we have six songs to go.
The sound is not as clean as the studio sound. There's some electronic noise due to the bad wiring in my house, and my microphones are not near the quality of the studio mic's. But, I love the sound that we are getting. It sounds like it was recorded the hard way, live in a juke joint, and that's the sound of SFOB.
Blood, sweat and tears = soulful living, for me. Your mileage may vary...
x
Lou Reed Dead at 71
I don't know what to say. He was such a hero of mine.
Back in the mid 90s, when I was still married, Val and I went to see him, here in Denver.
after he walked out on stage, Val leaned over and asked me, "Why are they booing him?"
I pointed out to her that the crowd was not booing, they were chanting, "Lou, Lou, Lou..."
The guy was a musical genius and had a huge influence on my songwriting and delivery.
Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou...
More here.
x
Back in the mid 90s, when I was still married, Val and I went to see him, here in Denver.
after he walked out on stage, Val leaned over and asked me, "Why are they booing him?"
I pointed out to her that the crowd was not booing, they were chanting, "Lou, Lou, Lou..."
The guy was a musical genius and had a huge influence on my songwriting and delivery.
Lou, Lou, Lou, Lou...
More here.
x
Silk Purse
They say you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, but this bike comes close to disproving that. It has come so far from its humble WalMart beginnings, that it is almost unrecognizable.
I rode it to the coffee shop, yesterday. Then, on the way home, I rode around, aimlessly, for about an hour. I took the bike path which follows a drainage ditch through the D.U. neighborhood, and comes out behind the YMCA. I stopped in at the bike shop and grabbed a cable, then continued riding up and down alleys in the D.U. area, just enjoying the warm weather and celebrating the fact that I finally felt almost normal, again,
When I got home, I put the bike on the stand, and pulled the rear wheel. Twenty minutes later, I had re-centered the axle so that I could add a spacer on the drive side. This allowed me to adjust the derailleur to the hit all five of the cogs on the freewheel.
Speaking of the freewheel ... I found a five-speed freewheel at VeloSwap, last week, which has a 34-tooth large cog on it. With the 22-tooth chainring, the bike now has a 17.5" low gear, which matches the low gear on my 29er. At this point, the bike should be rideable on any trail I would ride on the 29" mountain bike.
I also drilled the dropouts and bolted the rack directly to the bike. I was not satisfied with the P-clamp mounting. It set the rack too high on the bike, and it wasn't very stable.
The relocated lower mounts moved the rack back far enough tht I had to fabricate an extension for the front struts.
While I was at it, I installed these Simplex shifters. They came off of a Peugeot mountain bike which I fixed up for my friend Paul's stepson. They really don't work any better than the shifters I had on the bike, before. But, they are a matching pair, and they just have that cool 80s vibe.
So, I think the bike is ready for a GrinderBikes sticker.
x
I rode it to the coffee shop, yesterday. Then, on the way home, I rode around, aimlessly, for about an hour. I took the bike path which follows a drainage ditch through the D.U. neighborhood, and comes out behind the YMCA. I stopped in at the bike shop and grabbed a cable, then continued riding up and down alleys in the D.U. area, just enjoying the warm weather and celebrating the fact that I finally felt almost normal, again,
When I got home, I put the bike on the stand, and pulled the rear wheel. Twenty minutes later, I had re-centered the axle so that I could add a spacer on the drive side. This allowed me to adjust the derailleur to the hit all five of the cogs on the freewheel.
Speaking of the freewheel ... I found a five-speed freewheel at VeloSwap, last week, which has a 34-tooth large cog on it. With the 22-tooth chainring, the bike now has a 17.5" low gear, which matches the low gear on my 29er. At this point, the bike should be rideable on any trail I would ride on the 29" mountain bike.
I also drilled the dropouts and bolted the rack directly to the bike. I was not satisfied with the P-clamp mounting. It set the rack too high on the bike, and it wasn't very stable.
The relocated lower mounts moved the rack back far enough tht I had to fabricate an extension for the front struts.
While I was at it, I installed these Simplex shifters. They came off of a Peugeot mountain bike which I fixed up for my friend Paul's stepson. They really don't work any better than the shifters I had on the bike, before. But, they are a matching pair, and they just have that cool 80s vibe.
So, I think the bike is ready for a GrinderBikes sticker.
x
Sick Of Being Sick
The doctor said it was the flu. All I know is that that I had over three weeks of fatigue, body aches, congestion and the ennui that illness brings.
I think that I am finally over it. Now to get back on the bike and regain some fitness...
I have a few things to post, but I just didn't have the energy to post them as they happened. Stay tuned.
x
I think that I am finally over it. Now to get back on the bike and regain some fitness...
I have a few things to post, but I just didn't have the energy to post them as they happened. Stay tuned.
x
Motorbikes Seen On The Street
I have a habit of snapping photos of interesting motorbikes that I see on the street. I lost a few of those pictures when I changed phones, last a while back, so I thought I would load a few up, here, just in case.
I spotted this guy, last week, as I was on my way home from the coffee shop. I like the stripped-down crotch rocket look. This is a Yamaha, of some sort...
I may have posted this before. It pulled into the parking lot of the joint where Steve and i were eating, post mountain bike ride, in Idaho Springs. Crazy.
This 1996 Speed Triple was in the same parking lot. I still want one of these.
I saw this one on the street, as i was riding my own motorbike home from work. Looks good, but I think I would miss the front brake. Early 80s Honda Hawk 400T.
This CB 550 was parked in front of an apartment building in Capitol Hill.
This is the same model bike as the one with no front brake. For all I know, it may be the same bike, as this is an earlier picture. But, this one was taken in a different neighborhood, as I rode my bicycle home from work.
Brad and I saw this one in Salida, when we were on a 3-day motorcycle/camping trip, a couple of years ago.
Co-worker's bikes, next to mine, in our parking lot at CDOT.
This is outside of Erico Motorsports, where I bought my Scrambler. This Bonnie was tres cool.
This GoldWing, and the bike below, aren't exactly on the street. They were competing at the Bonneville Salt Flats, last year. They are cool, though, so I included them, anyway.
Motorbikes are one of my biggest passions in life. I often point out that I got my first motorbike 39 years ago, and i have not had a day go by, since, that I didn't own one. Along with guitars and bicycles, they provide some of my best experiences and memories.
x
Fat Bike Friday - Built Marty's Motobecane Fat Bike and Finished Danny's Beast
How's that for a descriptive title?
I pointed out the Bike's Direct fat bikes on the blog, a while back, and happened to mention them to my buddy Marty, from down the street. He ended up buying the top-end model, because he doesn't have boxes and boxes of bike parts lying about to use in upgrading, and he figured that was the way to go.
One of the selling points for the $950.00 model, over the $850.00 version, was that it was spec'd with the 120 tpi Vee Rubber Mission tires. But, after he had placed his order, Marty got an email informing him that htere had been a problem in the supply line, and those tires were not available. So, he opted to go with the next model down, for $100.00 less.
The bike arrived, Thursday, and it was the $950.00 model. Bikes Direct refunded Marty his $100.00, and he ended up with the nicer spec, other than the tires (which are still a respectable 78 tpi). On Friday, I assembled the bike for him.
The bike was packed in a pretty standard manner, as I expected it to be. The frame was well-protected with both foam and cardbord wrapping, and the paint came through without a scratch.
The front rim is 100mm in width, and has double-walled construction. That was something of a surprise. I really expected single-wall rims at this pricepoint.
I measured the rear rim at 88mm (I suspect the published width is 85...). The front rim is drilled with a double row of holes, while the narrower rear is drilled in single-file.
Here, you can see the frame protection, for shipping.
The rear of the frame is offset, similar to the Surly fatbikes, and the rim is drilled assymetrically to allow for the wheel offset. The full 9-speed cassette is usable, without having the chain contact the rear tire.
The only problem with the bike, out of the box, was a missing water bottle cage bolt on the downtube, with the rubber painting plug still in it. There were extra bolts with the bike, so I just pulled the rubber plug out and installed a bolt.
The cage fitting, missing a bolt.
The front derailleur is an e-type. That allowed the company to spec a less-expensive front derailleur than if using a direct-mount type (which only come in XT and up, to my knowledge).
Complete, with a pair of my platform pedals, the bike weighed in a t a respectable 36.30 pounds. My Beast, with rack, tool kit, etc, weighs 48.3 pounds, by the way...
I pulled Dan's Beast, and mine, out for a group shot.
Another view of the gang.
Lots o' rubber in the driveway.
Beauty shot.
Another.
And, another.
Marty, with his bike and mine.
Here, I am filing down a seat shim to fit on Danny's bike. He got a custom-made layback seatpost, which needed two shims. The inner one was a bit too big, so I fixed it up.
Beauty shot of the completed BlackBeast.
It was a big day, here at World HQ. Or, at least, it was a big tire day.
x
I pointed out the Bike's Direct fat bikes on the blog, a while back, and happened to mention them to my buddy Marty, from down the street. He ended up buying the top-end model, because he doesn't have boxes and boxes of bike parts lying about to use in upgrading, and he figured that was the way to go.
One of the selling points for the $950.00 model, over the $850.00 version, was that it was spec'd with the 120 tpi Vee Rubber Mission tires. But, after he had placed his order, Marty got an email informing him that htere had been a problem in the supply line, and those tires were not available. So, he opted to go with the next model down, for $100.00 less.
The bike arrived, Thursday, and it was the $950.00 model. Bikes Direct refunded Marty his $100.00, and he ended up with the nicer spec, other than the tires (which are still a respectable 78 tpi). On Friday, I assembled the bike for him.
The bike was packed in a pretty standard manner, as I expected it to be. The frame was well-protected with both foam and cardbord wrapping, and the paint came through without a scratch.
The front rim is 100mm in width, and has double-walled construction. That was something of a surprise. I really expected single-wall rims at this pricepoint.
I measured the rear rim at 88mm (I suspect the published width is 85...). The front rim is drilled with a double row of holes, while the narrower rear is drilled in single-file.
Here, you can see the frame protection, for shipping.
The rear of the frame is offset, similar to the Surly fatbikes, and the rim is drilled assymetrically to allow for the wheel offset. The full 9-speed cassette is usable, without having the chain contact the rear tire.
The only problem with the bike, out of the box, was a missing water bottle cage bolt on the downtube, with the rubber painting plug still in it. There were extra bolts with the bike, so I just pulled the rubber plug out and installed a bolt.
The cage fitting, missing a bolt.
The front derailleur is an e-type. That allowed the company to spec a less-expensive front derailleur than if using a direct-mount type (which only come in XT and up, to my knowledge).
Complete, with a pair of my platform pedals, the bike weighed in a t a respectable 36.30 pounds. My Beast, with rack, tool kit, etc, weighs 48.3 pounds, by the way...
I pulled Dan's Beast, and mine, out for a group shot.
Lots o' rubber in the driveway.
Beauty shot.
And, another.
Marty, with his bike and mine.
Here, I am filing down a seat shim to fit on Danny's bike. He got a custom-made layback seatpost, which needed two shims. The inner one was a bit too big, so I fixed it up.
Beauty shot of the completed BlackBeast.
It was a big day, here at World HQ. Or, at least, it was a big tire day.
x
New Hat
Steve and I played at Bushwacker's, on Friday, and I stayed until closing in order to get our cut of the drink sales. I ended up getting into bed at 2:30 AM. Saturday night, I went to see Robert Harrison and the Outsiders at Herman's. They went on late, and I stayed after the show to help them load up/just hang out. I ended up in bed at 3:00 AM, Sunday morning. I was up by 7:30, both mornings.
Steve and Adam M both had colds, over the weekend, and I ended up with my own, yesterday. I think that all of the staying up late lowered my resistance, or something. In bed at 7:00 PM, last night, and finally out of bed at 12:30, this afternoon.
In the meantime, my new helmet showed up. It is a Daytona, DOT-certified full face. They advertise it as being the lowest-profile DOT helmet available, and you can see that it is noticeably smaller than my Bell 500. I wore it on my commute, yesterday, and I found that the interior isn't as nice as the Bell. But it cost about half as much, so that isn't a big shock.
I need to figure out some graphics because, while the gold metal flake is cool, I just can't leave stuff alone...
x
Steve and Adam M both had colds, over the weekend, and I ended up with my own, yesterday. I think that all of the staying up late lowered my resistance, or something. In bed at 7:00 PM, last night, and finally out of bed at 12:30, this afternoon.
In the meantime, my new helmet showed up. It is a Daytona, DOT-certified full face. They advertise it as being the lowest-profile DOT helmet available, and you can see that it is noticeably smaller than my Bell 500. I wore it on my commute, yesterday, and I found that the interior isn't as nice as the Bell. But it cost about half as much, so that isn't a big shock.
I need to figure out some graphics because, while the gold metal flake is cool, I just can't leave stuff alone...
x
More Gears on The Walgoose Beast
I pulled the single speed freewheel off of the rear hub of the Beast, yesterday, in order to test fit an old SunTour 5-speed freewheel on the rear hub. I screwed the freewheel on, then added another lock-nut on the axle, so that the frame and the freewheel would not contact each other.
Then, with a little elbow grease, and a lot of leverage from some pry bars, I spread the rear triangle of the frame, a bit, and managed to slot the wheel in.
Out came the angle grinder, to trim the huge drive-side dropout in order to allow the rear derailleur to mount up. I used a reverse-slot claw mount, originally designed to mount derailleurs to bmx frames, and an old LX derailleur from the parts bin.
Shifting is handled by a basic friction thumb shifter, also from the parts bin. The cable and housing, from a Bell Sports cable set, were just long enough to work, so I didn't even have to trim them.
The smallest cog on the freewheel runs a little too close to the frame, so the chain won't run on it. But, that's fine with me. The other four cogs, 17-20-24-28 teeth, combined with the 22-32-44 chainrings give me a pretty wide selection of gear ratios. I'll be looking through my parts, derelict wheels, etc, to see if I can find a 5-speed freewheel with a 32 or 34 tooth cog on it, just to get that ultra-low climbing gear for the long, steep climbs we hit on a lot of the trails around here. In the meantime, though, the 22/28 low gear is usable in most circumstances.
The rear rack was on the closeout table, down at Performance Bicycles, a couple of weeks ago. It was packaged as "disc brake compatible", and had spacers for the lower bolts to run through so that the legs of the rack would run outboard of the dropouts. But, the whole rack is so wide, I don't see how it would fit on a standard mountain bike frame. It fits on the wide rear end of the Beast like it was made for it, though.
I actually rode to the coffee shop and back, both yesterday and today. Those were the first rides I have made since getting sick, a couple of weeks ago. The 4.5 mile round trip wore me out. I am not convinced that I am completely over whatever I had.
That said, I think I may ride to work, tomorrow, just to jump-start myself a bit. It all depends on how I feel, tomorrow morning.
x
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