To the Beat of His Own Drum

This week has been slow on the bike. Only about 2 hours! The weather guester is calling for a winter mix tonight then turning to rain. You got to love it. Guest I will hit the gym at work on Thursday.

This might not be news for some but if you have not surf over to the Rivendell website you might not have seen the 2010 Rivendell catalog.In the day of carbon fiber bikes and FS bikes and other bike bling it is cool to see these lugged steel bikes. It is also cool to see that for all these years Grant Peterson marches to the beat of his own drum.

Since I am sharing what Grant Peterson is doing today I will show you what I am doing with his bikes from the past. I have started to do some clean-up work on my Bridgestone MB-1.
I know not much, but this is a picture of all the bottom bracket parts. This is the first time I have ever worked to this type of BB. I think it cleaned up rather nice and I only had to replace 9 of the ball bearings. So the BB has been clean and checked and will be used in the rebuild.

I also made the call that I will not be using the Shimano 600 Headset. The 600 series heatset takes an .obscure headset tool that the oldest bike shop in town does not have and they have been around since 1917. So the replacement is a new 1" Ritchey heatset that I got off a guy from the local forum for $15. Tonight I started cleaning up the crankset and that should take a couple more nights. Looks like the middle ring will have to be replaced. It is a 38T ring I just need to figure out how many mm's it is. Should run about $22-$27 to replace.

I should be posting pictures in the next few days. I also so found today a Raleigh, I think it was a Sport women's bike for $15. It is not in the best of shape but could be made into a good bike. I am kicking around the idea.

Christmas is Over, Now Back to Cycling!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas this year. We did at the Bikewright household. I recieved some Endura cycling apparel for cold weather riding, so I am going out in the morning to see how the stuff works.

Now since Christmas is over we can start to focus back on cycling in 2010. I was checking out some of the pro cycling websites today and wanted to pass on what I found.

Jelly Belly Pro Cycling Team is donating to Kimberlee Bikes See their news release Here

Next up is Team Garmin-Transitions gives us the Christmas gift of the release of their 2010 Team Roster. Click Here to see the news release.

I think this is the third name of the team? But glad to see this American Team has 10 out of 27 American riders. After Lance's retirement, Garmin-Transitions & Team Columbia-HTC where the teams & riders that I was rooting for. Glad to see American owned teams doing well in such a short time.

I have not been following Lance's new team Radioshack, but I am sure they will do well in the next few years. He is going to put strong riders on the team. Since Lance's retirement comeback cycling in the U.S. has become more mainsteam.

That's all I have to report. Now go ride!

A Day Out , The aftermath of the Night Snowshoeing

Looks like my days with the snowshoes are over until I can get them replaced I hope under warranty. My friend "G" AKA Richard gave me a call to see if I was going hiking or snowshoeing. I told him what had happen with the snowshoe last night and that I would be up for a hike.

I told him that we would hike down the fire roads to Camp 7. Camp 7 was the Civilian Conservation Corps camp for African-American men. All that remains of the camp is a brick wall at the western edge of the pond. From the house it's and out-and-back 4.8 miles. Just enough to get the heart pumping.

The fire roads that we where going to take link-up and make the Bright Hope Trail. I am sure there is a story about the name of the trail but I don't know that one.



G takes a photo break with Fidget. The dog loves the snow and it has been a long time since I have taken him on a long hike. The only thing about the snow is he does not know where to take a bathroom break. It's something about the snow!

The turn around point

On the other in of the pond is where the remains of the brick wall is located. A local Boy Scout Troop was working on making this a primitive camp for non-profit groups. I think that work has fell to the wayside.

This was a good two hour hike and we had a great time. Richard and I started working on the trails back in 1996 and this is apart of the park that he has never see. Glad I could show it to him.

A Nightout

Got up today to a nice 8" or so of snow. It has been years since we have had this much snow before Christmas. Took my little one out twice to play in it. We both had a great time.

There was a post on the local fourm about a snow ride but I went for the snow shoes. Since the park was still closed for hunting I told my wife that I would go for a night hike and that should not be an issue.

I have had a pair of snow shoes for several years but only get to bring them out only once or twice a year. When I went to put them on tonight something was not looking right with the left shoe. Part of the rubber that goes around my boot had broke. I did not let that stop me.

About 40 minutes into this hike I had a problem. The rubber broke in two places.

I had to take the left shoe off and walk back with only the right snowshoe. This was like having one leg shorter than the other.Still after having an equipment issue this was still a great hike with a light snow.

Great stuff

OREGON MANIFEST CONSTRUCTOR’S DESIGN CHALLENGE from oregon manifest on Vimeo.

I don't care what you ride, what type of riding you do or what you are getting for Christmas. The bikes in the video are just fantastic! I am also down about the
NANBS right here in town. Just great I get to be in some 3rd world $hithole during that time.

Enjoy the video and if you go to NANBS please take pictures for me!

Building the Kit - Tool Kit #2

This is the second tool kit that I put together and would either be used with Tool Kit #1 or the Cool Tool from Kit #1 would be added to kit #2. This kit is set-up for a long day in the saddle or an Epic adventure.



On the inside of the bag I have two plastic bags. You can purchase these 4X4 plastic bags from a art & craft store. The bag on the left has a red shop rag and a 3ml dropper bottle of chain oil. I found the bottles here

The bag on the right has the following:
1 Patch Kit with 6 round patches, 4 small patches, 3 large patches & 2 tubes of glue
2 1 set of brake pads
3 1 Power link
4 1 chain pin
5 4 spoke nipples
6 1 set of cleat bolts
7 1 GB-2 Super Patch Kit
8 4 cable ends (2)brake (2) shift
9 2 tubes
10 1 valve stem adapter
11 1 TB-2 Tire Boot
12 1 Tire Lever

What could be added? Spare derailleur hanger, poly grease for your fork and a toothbrush w/cut handle

Building the Kit - Tool Kit #1

Not to long after my S24O backpacking trip I found an article on the equipment Eric of Epic Designs uses on his bikepacking trips. I found this to be one of the best equipment list that I have found on this subject. I think what made it good was how things where grouped together and package.

I had most of the same equipment and for the most part all the stuff can be used for bikepacking and backpacking.So just like my Made In America Series I will have Building the Kit Series. First up to bat will be Tool Kit #1. This is the tool kit that I take on every ride. It works for both road and mountain biking. It will fit in a saddle bag but I like putting it in my jersey pocket.



Disclaimer: That carpet is in my office. It looks better in real time than in the picture!

The Ultimate Direction bag holds all the items other than the co2 inflator.



Inside the bag we have the following:
1. Cool Tool multi-tool
2. Park Tool Tire Lever
3. Spare CO2 Cartridge
4. Tire patch box with the following: (2)Park Tool super patch, (1)Valve stem adapter,(1)Chain pin,(2) Sram quick link (1)Spare Chain link

The only thing I would think about changing is the Cool Tool. They make lighter and better multi-tools. The patch box takes up some room but keeps all the small parts in one place.

Getting it in before the rain

I got a new camera for my birthday and wanted to shoot a little video of my route that I take at work to reduce a little stress and get some training in. This is part of a 20 mile out and back route that I take.




The old brick farm house is just about a mile outside of Blackstone and is own by a Doctor.

Today the weather was against me. About 39 degrees with a light rain. I was nice an cold by the time I got back to my office!