SWEETNESS

I'm engaged to a beer-laden cyclist!

I'm happier than that picture lets on.

Beer & Ride Report

So my first homebrew batch ever is... a little over carbonated, but drinkable! It's sweet & malty, even for a Bock. I didn't reach my target final gravity, so the ABV is about 5.1% instead of the 6.2% that the recipe should have reached. The over-carbonation may be due to the fact I had extra fermentable sugars in each bottle from an incomplete primary & secondary fermentation. However, the over-carbonation definitely cuts the sweetness and allows the beer to be more palatable. Overall, I'm very excited that I'll be able to celebrate great recent events with my family over my first homebrewed beer.

The Old, Fat & Slow ride today at Walnut Creek was also great, although I did have a mechanical in the last mile:

A RockShox suspension seatpost cam failed

The bold pulled the threads right out of the cylinder cam.

So, I rode my Scott Paisley MTB the rest of the way without my seatpost.

'Twas most fun.

Stolen Bike, Walnut Creek OFSMBC, First Taste

Yesterday, I received a pretty crappy phone message from Will Canup. He had his bike stolen over at UVA. Most people that see this blog are in Charlottesville, so I figured I'd pass it along. His craigslist post:

I had my black Trek fixed gear stolen from on grounds at UVA sometime in the last 48 hours. It was a black frame with black rims and camo handlebars. The right side of the carbon fork had a huge crack down the middle so it may have been ditched somewhere.

Let me add that he didn't have horizontal dropouts, instead had a magic gear with kinda loose chain tension. Here's a picture, but it no longer has a steering wheel:

Good luck Will. I'll keep my eyes open.

Onto good news, riding over at Walnut Creek with the Old, Fat & Slow Mountain Bike Club tomorrow morning. Really it'll be just 3 of us. Can't wait to get back on the mtb. It's too fun with the current setup.

Cracking open my first homebrew ever... NOW...

Hammering Bikes & Campagnolo Keychain

I've spent a lot of time working with the general public at Charlottesville Community Bikes. The scariest thing I ever hear while I'm working there is a mechanic "using" a hammer on a bicycle part. When this situation occurs, I immediately stop what I am doing and approach the culprit for damage control. By the time I arrive at the scene of the crime, the deed has usually already been done. I once heard it described, "An ounce of technical know-how is worth a ton of brute force. When you have an itch on your ear, you don't take a sledgehammer to it."

However, there are some (albeit few and far in between) times when the use of a hammer is appropriate in bicycle repair. Today I came across the perfect use for one:

The dented head tube on my Rockfish.

The head of the hammer just fit inside the head tube.

All it took was a little leverage action from the handle of the hammer. It rounded out the head tube easily. Pressing in a headset should not be a problem now.

Right there where the dent was.

As circular as it needs to be.

Also, Do Right Fear Not's Shifty Keychain post inspired me to snap a photo of my bike keychain:

An aluminum Campagnolo toeclip that snapped. Dremeled it smooth.

In the name of the law

Our OFSMBC (Old, Fat & Slow Mountain Bike Club) ride was cut short at Biscuit Run today because of friendly encounter with the Virginia DCR Police:

Shhh... they are cracking down on illegal hunting and ATVs on the new state property.

They were nice, but they asked us to stay out until the park is open to the public.

On it's first run, Dave's Crud Device,  "Mr.Crud" worked spectacularly.

RtD Recap, Bad Beer, and Old Fat Slow

The Ride the Divide film event at the Paramount was a hit. Supposedly about 235 tickets were sold, so Charlottesville Community Bikes made some money! Waiting on the total $. The film itself was a bit of a downer. It really exposed the true limits of human strength and psyche in a 2700 mile back country mountain bike race. I'm glad I saw it, but mainly because now I know not to recommend it or ever watch it again.

Chris invited me to ride with the Old, Fat & Slow Mountain Bike Club (OFSMBC) today. You must be at least one of those things (Old, Fat, or Slow) to ride with that crew. I'm slow. 9:30am today, Biscuit Run. I'll bring Rachel's camera. Last night I worked on my Scott Paisley mountain bike for the ride today. It's a 26" rigid, fillet brazed, early Hope mechanical floating caliper disc brakes, set up right now as a 1x7 with a Dave's Crud Buster:

Scott Paisley mountain bike, rigid (minus seatpost) 26"

DCD - Dave's Crud Buster

Hope mechanical floating caliper disc brake.

I'm excited about my Hope brakes a bit more as of yesterday morning. I've had the hardest time finding good info on them, and came across a current retrobike thread about them.

Now, time for less talkie talkie, more ridie ridie.

Biscuit Run

Made it out to Biscuit Run two weeks ago. Proof that I do saddle up sometimes.

Ride the Divide at The Paramount in downtown Charlottesville tonight. 7pm, $11. Bike-blended smoothies for donations!

Bottling Night

 

Special thanks to Rachel for all the good shots and help filling the bottles! It was messy enough that I had to wash the kitchen floor afterward... fun. Collecting, washing, sanitizing, filling, and capping all the bottles is quite a bit of work. Now I know why home-brewers often move on to kegging.

Recovery

I've been down & out for the past week or so. Monday night I ate something bad, (expired yogurt?!) missed a day of work, and I'm just beginning to feel okay again.

Last night was the second ever Wednesday Wechanics @ Charlottesville Community Bikes. Had two people show up and start helping. We weren't super productive bike-wise, but organizationally I think we got some things down.

This Saturday I'm tabling at the CAMBC mountain bike festival for commbikes early in the morning with Chris. We hope to get word out about the Ride the Divide movie at the Charlottesville Paramount.

The fork that I originally bought on ebay for the Rockfish  ended up needing the threads on the steerer to be about an inch longer if I were to be able to use it. So, I returned it yesterday: the first time I've ever returned something on ebay. However, I'll be buying a different fork from the same seller that's actually suitable for the bike upon my refund. I've started looking for the best solution for a wheelset... with 126mm rear spacing I can put a 7speed hyperglide hub on it...

I took last Friday off of work and went mountain biking a bit on my own. Being in an unknown trail system by yourself on private property is a bit creepy. It was nice to get out and go fast on pretty level trails. My commuter is getting destroyed, slowly but surely. Using it as a mountain bike and polo bike is a horrible, horrible idea. I have a picture to post of the ride, but Rachel is out in Chaco Canyon, NM until Saturday with the camera, so I'll have to wait til she gets back upload it.