Craigslist Deal of the Day, Floyd Back in CO, MS Ride Fundraising Drive Has Begun

Floyd made it back to CO 1am this morning, and seemed glad about it. Sore upon waking up, as expected, his wife suspects he may have a mild concussion given how off he feels.

I picked up a used, but recently serviced, 120mm Reba Team fork and a matching Stans Rimmed American Classic wheelset with a 20mm "Maxle" via Craigslist for $300. Daniel in Oakland hooked me up nicely, perfect timing as I was hesitant giving up my fork to Cycle Monkey for service without a backup. Turns out this fork was serviced by Cycle Monkey.

I started with trying to put that new WTB Bronson in my garage on the rim - I barely got one side on and gave up, these do NOT fit Stan's, honest. Barely got it off.

Then I tried that nice looking Schwalbe Racing Ralph with the spare tube stuck through it - that was a hint to myself, as this tire has
the unquenchable hole from previous tubeless attempts. I did get the tire on without much fanfare, a little soap is key. I didn't even bother pre-inflating, just put 100ml in and went for it.

The old fork came off okay, had a debate with regarding the need for a crown race and decided to pop it off and onto the new fork. Cake. I then noticed the leaky tire was on backwards, but took it out for a spin and it all worked, the fork was super plush, but every rotation spewed some Stans around. Later I reversed the tire and then checked the pressures. Seems to be holding better, I'll let it sit overnight and hope it plugs, else it might be tubes unless I break the seal on the old QR wheel/tire. Maybe.

For the shock top and bottom at 70ish lbs, needs 120-135psi so I tried that. Sag seemed a little low, just under an inch out of 5. I'd like to get 30%/go soft. I've gained an inch, might as well use it up.

I removed the remote with my old shock, good riddance. I'm not in a rush to service the shock if this one works out.

I now have 3 sets of MTB rims, 2 forks and 1 frame. Nice Tallboy on Ebay but Gnuti talked me down from it, too XC oriented. If I find a frame, I have the front covered with this new bad boy and can fix the old one then.

I checked into the MS Ride website and got it all configured for 2015. I already am getting some donations!

50mm of Travel, Fear the Deer

MTB has had a shocking decrease in fork travel, time to take it to the shop. I see from April pictures in the blog there are indicators on the stanchions that are no longer visible.

Also time to take Floyd's bike into the shop unfortunately - a deer ran into his rear wheel/pedal this AM as we went down Grizzly Peak in the dark at 38+ MPH - Floyd was ahead of me.


The first deer passed in front, but a little one jumped out and stuck itself into Floyd's wheel, went down hard and sent Floyd flipping into the air. He handed hard on his butt, hit his helmet and got his chin but stayed conscious and no broken bones - actually a wrist. The deer was killed instantly, the rear wheel of the bike yanked out of its dropouts and dented. The right side pedal had blood (maybe Floyd's or deer) and deer fur on it, the front wheel was not damaged at all.

Car drivers stopped and were a great help - the driver behind us was an ER doc on his way to the hospital, and another driver phoned an ambulance and firetruck up to us. A firetruck and an ambulance arrived to check over Floyd and took him to Highland Hospital for cat-scans, stitches, wrist brace and road rash on the bottom cleanings.

I picked him up around noon when he was released. We recovered his bicycle from the "gurney garage" and I got Floyd to his hotel where his son arrived to help out, and where Sensys was having its meeting!

Floyd was in a hurry to get back to CO, considering himself lucky to get out of Berkeley at this point.

Successful Tour de New York, Chinese Carbon Finale (FM166)

The Giant Rain bike worked well in Upstate NY. Having gears was fun, cruising 20+mph for miles
of non-techical flats was a nice change, rollers were good. I even used the harsh Token carbon saddle without much bother. Not as much Strava domination as I hoped, but I did adapt to the heat/humidity. Bid on a few Niner RIP 9 frames, but lost/they went away.

Upon returning started riding the Chinese FM166, and after debating Di2 again in my head, I pulled
the trigger on the RS685 hydro+mechanical 11 speed. Needed the rest of the parts too, another $800 in. Oh and new disks.

In the process I realize I have a nice 10-speed cyclocross option, with bar end shifters. Rain bike II? Supposed to get wet this year :)