Mendocino Trails Report - Up n Down with the KT, with Rain n Bears

 Yes, it was amazing. We had hero dirt from the rain, excitement from a bear visit in the rain, cooking and conversation but being the KT, mostly riding up and down big hills quickly.

I rode Peak Bike, worked great but the bottom bracket needs to be replaced. At one point, my crank tried to fall off, fortunately I caught it during lunch. New one is on order.

Big Tree of Big Trees

KT and a Big Tree

The Man!

No time for the Beach, this is KT MTB

More KTs

Happy Birthday to the Organizer D

Peak Bike aka the Pseudo Cruz

Subi Cowl on the Curve

Hammering in PB's WRX so Cool

Fitness Trends - Shoulder and Covid

Prepping for the Carpool - Tesla S to WRX

Drying out the camping gear

Old Blue Gets a New Cassette, New Chain, New Press Fit BB

 The decision was made, parts came in, and now they are on the bike. 

• Cassette - Shimano HG50 10 Speed Mountain Bike Cassette 11-36T
• Chain - SHIMANO CN-HG95 10-speed HG-X chain - 116 links
• Bottom Bracket - PF30 Outboard Threaded-Together External Ceramic Bearing Press-fit BB Bottom Bracket for 24mm (Compatible with Shimano) or 22/24mm (SRAM GXP) Crank Spindle

Eccentric 30mm BB For Sale for 24mm Axles (Shimano Hollowtech + some Raceface), it actually might be worth something.

What To Do with Old Blue? Could have just Swapped pedals.

I had awakened all fired up to ride at 6:30 in the morning all by myself,  

So my shoes were still wet from BBC All Club ride, a 70+ mile ordeal that included big stints in the rain along the Bo-Fax climb, 7 Sisters, Pan-tol highway all the way into Mill Valley. Complete soakage, but I survived it and felt better the longer the ride went.

The dirty White Lines (Ridley Fenix) was still in the stand, ready to go with a few wipes and chain lube, but my shoes were still wet. I could not easily find/see my trainer shoes and took the mental leap to lets just take Old Blue! Tires were aired from Wednesday, and the brakes, I love those brakes!

So I get to Strada Cafe around 7:30, get a Cappuccino and wait for the lazy crew. But no, I get Mike S. Tough hammer Mike S. I had concern because Old Blue is undergeared and over-rubbered and is not used to the hammering life, serving mostly donut-Fridays and Treasure Island Tuesdays. Mike wants the flats and promises to wait so what could go wrong?

It began with a creaking at mile 20 or so after I took a big pull on San Pablo. Mike pointed out there was not much gap on the left side of the tire in the frame - maybe the wheel was out of the dropouts? Nope, continue on.

Sisis, we stop for a nature break and I perform a general bolt check. All tight, check the rear-wheel dropouts again.

Then the chain went around mile 28, gently when I began to stand up on the pedals up the hill Fortunately I had a great park chain tool in the saddle bag, waiting for this day. 2 links out and we were off again. Additional noise but I carefully rode up Pinehurst, left Mike at Tunnel and rode home.

All the way I though about What Do I do with Old Blue? Fix it? Sell it as is? Remove the parts/sell the frameset?

History of Old Blue:

1. I was cyclocrossing my MTB and decided I was finally bike worthy. CX was big 2014-2017 in the Bay Area, I still had the will to try.
2. TRP Brakes Are Awesome, but need a place.
3. How about a single speed CX?
1. eccentric PF30 BB with 24mm spindle
2. shinamo cx 2x crankset
3. narrow/wide 34t front chainring for the crankset (not narrow wide)h
4. That was dumb - Look others love the TRP Brakes and created a shift-mount holder? Geneveve!
5. Dynasis 10 Speed Shimano XT Anyone? 
6. 2024-0818 - ride today, blew that chain, bb all crunchy, dished to overdished situation
7. 7 evening, ordered new cassette, chain and BB

Old Blue before she was stripped and put up for sale at TPC (The Pros Closet), then acquired by me in 2015. This picture might become an important reference since

the Raleigh company is apparently gone, purchased by KKR in 2022.

Dishing A Wheel The Proper Way by Park Tool, which I have one of, the nice blue one

https://www.parktool.com/en-us/blog/repair-help/wheel-dishing-centering

2024-0814 Log

Updates in No Particular Order

• Cut the 34 Fox Factory on Peak Bike to 8" - it was nearly 10" and risked skewering me in the chest
• I dropped another 8-10mm lower on the stem mount
• White Lines aka Road Ridley Fenix got its drivetrain rebuilt. I somehow failed to note this, from new caliper to new cassette, chain, and front derailler.
• New tires on Old Blue. Its not new news, but it was ridden today. I put a 37mm rear gravel tire and put that Nano 40 up front. Sorta ugly but it works well, and again, I love the TRP braked on that thing.
• Wardrobe Updates
• got new pair of 11.5 Five-Ten Freerider Pros - tried them out with the new helmet they work fine - new and sticky!
• New Jersey as featured with the alien
• 2x new Handsup Pants - wear these to work mostly, as it cools down I might do more pants in the winter
• Shopping
• sweet deals at SB on Scott Addicts - just not into roadie enough though I need to do it more for fitness. I just got the Ridley aka White Lines running well again - new front derailler, new chain, cassette, caliper, etc
• hightower xl v3 C just popped up on Pinkbike - I think it was auto-added to my wish list
• FAIL - potential sale of the 951 fell through
• good deals on new SCs

One More Reason To Click on a Road Bike

 Click click click with each pedal stroke.

Bearings, chainrings, pedals? No no no

Click click click

Chain keeper scrubbing, crank arms loose, cadence magnet rubbing?

No no no

Click click click

We had replaced the rear brake caliper, a slight upgrade from the rs685 original

Shimano Rs785 Hydraulic Disc Brake Caliper

and also had replaced the cassette and chain.

Click click click

...and on that chain we installed a quick link, a SRAM, an Oil Slick SRAM from a bandaleer of MTB parts

Click click click

so the shape is a bit odd...

Click click click

and did I say 11 speed chain....

DOH!

The issue was I put a 12speed quick link onto an 11speed Shimano chain. How did it even begin to work? Why had it not broken, it went for 128 miles before I got to this point...

Put an 11speed on and the click is pretty much gone...

The Tamo Alien Got Me Twice on the Emergency Mountain Bike Birthday Ride

Jason's Imminent birthday was revealed on Junior Friday, and we were riding Tamorancho the next morning (thank you kind bosses).

I rode Santa Creme, now featuring dual Minions with lots of knobs available. Tamo features a very tricky left-hand corner that leads to a steep and usually slippery rockface. Its been years since I got up and over this puzzle, today I felt good (compared to previous weekend) and gave the face a good push - not enough, I was left hanging, then falling backwards. A tearing and tugging on my shorts, the entire bottom tore out as I fell backwards and caught myself. I had the BBC diaper on so could continue, but I left the shorts with the Alien...so funny haha.

Pic by Dave

So we continued on, me with extra and appreciated ventilation - why are we wearing shorts? New HandsUp jersey there.

All the way around I repeated the effort, repeated the fail, front wheel rose but rather than catching myself on tearing shorts, there was nothing there, no footing even, over I went and I felt my head hit the rock through the helmet. Rung my bell, but I didn't pass out, I took my time checking overmyself and feeling for holes. I had my buds check my head, then I got up. Neck was a bit whiplashed, but I was well enough to ride around and out to Gastalt Haus.

The POC Tectal Spin Race did its job

No crash replacement policy so no *need* to stay with the POC. I found the helmet hot and really ugly in pictures before the crash, so I had my eye on the TLD A3 Mips. Colors all sucked for 2024 so I found a sweet Silver 2023 on Amazon. May it cradle my head like the POC "volvo".

Facing the Fitness

 Rough time on the bike today, a casual ride somehow going beyond race pace, my heart and cardio talents not showing up, falling behind. Like aging in general.

Hopefully just a bad day on the bike, riding with people on a fine or normal day, I really suffered, felt almost embarrassed. Underprepared, but its just a ride honest.

Blame it on Covid, maybe its long, blame it on July which has been bad and low mileage. I might be riding too much with my aging buddies who are naturally slowing down, might be time to bring up the effort a notch.

So use the lesson as motivation. Not done yet!