Big Bikes

You're So Technical

Word on the street is that my Superfly won't be getting to me until March. This has not prevented me from gathering some of the parts I will be using to build the thing, nor has it prevented me from painting a beautiful mural on the wall of its new room, de-leading the house, and having my cats euthanized. Don't worry I saved their bodies for meat. Being a newbie carnivore I feel obliged to try every form of flesh possible at least once.

I might not have the bike yet, but my good buddy from Trek, Bill Hand has hooked me up with a very official looking 29er Crew T-Shirt which is more than large enough to fit me in my current, slightly bloated state. In a month or so I'll be looking to squeeze into a smaller shirt, Fi-Fi boy that I am. You should never look a gift horse in the mouth and say "Hey...hey gift horse, get me a shirt that fits". Especially if you're looking really closely at its mouth and it understands English, because it might try to eat your face.

So I got me some Avid Juicy Ultimates. This is a big upgrade for me, I've been using the Avid BB-7 Mechanicals (you can't beat the price to weight ratio) for years now. They work fine, I mean better than fine, they work great, but having the added stopping power of the hydraulics will allow me to brake later and conserve valuable hand energy for flipping off BMW drivers. I'm running the 140mm rear rotor to save weight, it will be interesting to see what the trade off is between having a small rotor with a more powerful caliper. I can only hope that they are as reliable as the BB-7s, I have had problem 0 with those things in all the years I've run 'em.

I'm thinking the 10mm Thru-Bolt will serve to stiffen up the rear end

Not so much an upgrade but an adaptation is the installation of a DT Swiss RWS 10mm Thru-Bolt rear skewer. I have heard from two reputable sources (one at DT, another at Trek) that these will allow me to run my 2008 (2009 no workie) Bontrager Race X Lite Wheel (it has a DT made hub) on the Superfly frame which uses a rear facing horizontal dropout. Allegedly it applies enough clamping force to secure the wheel like a bolt-on system would. An advantage of this system is that it is still a quick-release type system, no tools required.

The End caps just press in and theoretically should just "pop out". Jamming a pick in and giving it some sideways pressure while yanking on it helps.

The lil' red knob there releases the lever allowing you to position it where you like. I've put the lever on the right (some would say wrong) side because the Disc Caliper prevents the lever from turning freely as you "Wing Nut" it on. Yes the lil' red knob solves this (you can tighten-release-tighten) but it is just easier to have it on the right side. In the case of a single speed there is no reason you can' t have the QR lever on the right. What's that geek-boy? You have a reason? Made up! Now go die.

The Ferrous I call Dunderchee uses an EBB and has vertical dropouts so I won't know 'til I get the wheel on the Superfly if this deal will really work.

The 10mm End Cap just pops in

Still in disbelief over the fact that I am now a member of a big, awesome, team I had to put my equipment order in to Fisher and wait for a phone call or email saying "Who the hell are you and what is your problem?" and find out that I was the brunt of a cruel joke. When that didn't happen and I received a big box of tires, grips, and a snazzy new handlebar I knew I was in for real.

Like Xmas in February

I am a total rubber whore (can I say that on T.V.?) and I'm looking forward to trying out the New low-knob-super-light-fast-rolling XR-1s. The Mud-X served me well last season. It's a killer mud tire (duh) but it's light enough to shine in a variety of conditions. When in doubt I'd throw these on, better to bring a Bazooka to a knife fight than the other way around...unless the fight is in a small room or garden shed, because that might be bad for everybody not just the guy with the knife.

Having tires for every type of condition with several more pair for back up will let me anxiously writhe and sweat and fret over something else while trying to sleep at night.