A bike-related post a day. That's the goal.

I have been really tying to focus on getting back to the original goal of this blog. As the title says 365 days… not once a month (at best) not ‘whenever I feel like it.’ but once a day. Bikes.

Well, lets start with today.

This is the short loop I’m riding right now to get back my base level of fitness. It’s short, not too strenuous and I can do it in an hour or less. I’m shooting for 45 min before August.
I’m preparing to die at a little race called Schalflos im Sattel (Sleepless in the Saddle) on the weekend of August 5-8th. Call me stupid, but It sounds like a shit-ball world of beer, pain and fun. I just need to make sure I have good lights and am confident enough in the dark.

In other news…

Otis Ruben is quite pleased with his new surroundings.

I’m a father. Otis Ruben was born on the 4th of June at 2:05 am. He weighed in at a heft 3.8 kilos and a length of 58cm. Pretty big, but he is his father’s son. He’s all smiles and full diapers right now, but he’ll be riding alongside me in no time, I’m sure.

—me.

Finally got around to rotating in some new tunes. Enjoy.

I’ll be around sporadically, but I’m just too busy and lazy to really post anything.

—me

It’s a Jesus-holiday. It’s gorgeous out, and I’m going for a spin.

edit : It was really nice, and I even made it without stopping. (Well, only for hikers and the occasional dog and technical section I’m not comfortable with.)

Check it out.

I’m off to my allergist for my weekly shot. Pics and new music list in the works.

—me.

Well, I been busy. Workin. Let’s leave it at that.
I was always bad about updating, especially in winter, but ESPECIALLY in summer. I’m really going to try to fix that.
First up; I painted and finally reassembled my Monkey.

Blue Monkeys make me smile.

As you might be able to see, I’m giving singlespeed another go. I never had a good time riding with only one gear, but I also gave up quickly when it got difficult.

Bling, but not for long.

The other part of the drivetrain is the rear wheel, running a 14 tooth gear. (That would be the wheelset I built earlier. Scroll down for pics and info…) I have a different chainring (25 tooth) in case the 2:1 ratio is too much right off. I haven’t been on a bike in months, and even longer on dirt. My fitness level is atrocious. Hell, let’s be honest, I HAVE no fitness level. If it was possible to be in the negative, it would.

If you’d like to point and laugh, but can’t get to Munich to do so in person, I offer you this.  Yeah. Keep going back there to track my activity. I am trying to get fit for a race in August. (I won’t call it training, because that would mean I know what I’m doing…)

I’m going to go now. It’s 50 degrees out and raining. I’m not going to ride, but I might go out for a bit.

—gimp

Sure, it was only to work and back for two shifts, but I did it. It felt awesome, although my knee was a bit sore.

I am off to true my front wheel (successfully rebuilt after ordering the correct length spokes) and look into a new BB to match my cranks.(Hint : They’re not square-taper nor isis) There might be something about work in there as well, but on Fridays, that is trivial. I’m all about the weekend and getting back into regular dirt rides. Even if it’s fire roads and not singletrack.

—me.

I swear I was posting here daily. >head… meet desk…<

Nothing bike-related. Just updated the playlist (right column…) Now, I’m off to true my wheel at a friend’s place. One of these days, I’ll have to get myself a stand. Until then, I’m gonna mooch.

—me.

I spent saturday last building my new singlespeed wheel. It was REALLY easy considering the measurements were the same from mid-flange on both right and left sides. One spoke length makes life a LOT easier.

So there you have it. Sorry about the lack of updates. I’ve been a bit under the weather and otherwise busy. Once I have the matching front wheel built, I’ll take them out for an inaugural spin. Hopefully these (along with the new cranks/bottom bracket I’m installing for SS use) will help me get a good bit of my old fitness back come spring. Until then, I’m on the trainer in front of the T.V.

—me.

This time around, we have a rear hub for DJ/Street, what have you. I got this to build up with my Halo Freedom 29′er rims for a set of singlespeed wheels. I haven’t built them up yet, but here are the specs and some info about it.

Last bikes ZAKK hub comes with the following :

The ZAKK rear cassette hub is made of 6061 and 7075 aluminum with an oversized axle and 10 mm CrMo bolts. The driver is a one piece construction made of super strong 7075 aluminum and features 6 double pawls. The one piece driver construction allows us to use bigger bearings in the driver. We use two 15×28x7 mm oversize bearings that have a static load rating of 2240 Newton and a dynamic load rating of 4360 Newton. This is more than 200% compared to bearings used by other companies in their single speed drivers. The result is a dramatically increased life time for the driver bearings. The flanges are spaced symmetrically 35,5 mm from the center line for similar spoke tension on both sides. This gives you a stronger and more balanced wheel. The big diameter of the axle cups gives you a rigid interface with the dropouts. Besides this we took off all unnecessary weight, which leads to a total weight of 449 g (11T), 450 g (12T) and 457 g (14T). These weights include steel bolts. The hub is designed to work with 3/8″ wide chains, 135 mm dropout spacing and comes in 32 and 36 spoke hole versions.

So If you can restrict yourself to an 11,12 or 14 tooth rear, and have weight issues of the non-titanium type, (read : like beer, hate exercise…) this might be the rear hub for you. I’ll let you know how it works out for me.

—me.

As I am ahead of many of you by around 7 hours, here are my most recent coffee ramblings…

One. I used to live in Los Angeles. All over L.A. as it were, and had my fair share of idiots in cars harassing me. I would ride from Victory and Coldwater up to Laurel Canyon and Ventura to work, and back. Nothing special there, it was more or less a straight shot. I could (and did) use sidewalks at night, because i had no lights and didn’t really feel like cheating death.
Then I moved nearer to Koreatown/La Brea. Had to go up and over daily. It made me passionate for biking, and in turn, bike lanes. There were a few back then, mostly unconnected and poorly lit, poorly maintained and utterly useless when going past the Hollywood Bowl and Universal Studios. Coming home at night was worse, as all the Valley idiots were heading to the Burgundy room (or later The Room across the street…) to drink and hook up and do their ungodly worst Swingers emulation. (I was there to drink; hook-ups were tertiary at best.)
Anyhow, I worked in Studio City and there were always assholes who pulled the “Don’t you know WHO I AM?” bullshit. I said on more than one occasion that I didn’t give a rat’s ass, and they could go elsewhere if it was such a hassle that I was doing my job correctly.
More than anything it was around the awards shows that I hated most of all. In L.A. it seems you can’t escape it. It’s on TV, radio, people are talking about their favorite shows, movies actors and actresses. It’s infectious. It’s like SARS. You don’t want it in your head; There is no good reason to have it in your head, but due to so many other infected around you, you end up getting it. (And in a worst-case scenario, you retain it for longer periods of time than you really want to…)

So to make a long rambling post finally get to its point, I present to you Christine Hendricks; star of ‘Mad Men’.

My god, how I love a redhead.

(h/t to The Superficial for the pic.)