Big Bikes

Things Fall Apart

And they do it with the best of timing too. I have one race left on the calendar this year, The Swank 65 on November 8th. The Superfly has decided to completely unravel going into the finishing straight here. The Fox F-29 RLC has been leaky lately, still functioning, but leaking inordinately. Saturday night, while getting ready for the Big Bay Circuit ride (which we shall speak more about later...in the week) I noticed one of the eyelets on my rear rim was pulling out. To get my bike to North Carolina on time, I had to have it in a box Monday afternoon. With an all day ride Sunday, there was no way I was going to overhaul a fork and build a wheel in time.

The rear wheel of The Superfly is that DT RWS 10mm Thru-Bolt jobby too, which is generally awesome, but in this case, sucks. The Superfly uses a rear-facing horizontal drop-out, it requires a bolt-on hub or a system like the mentioned-afore RWS business. I can't just use some wheel I have lying around the house. I guess I've taken for granted how durable the Bontrager Race X Lite wheels have been. For a couple seasons I had "race day only" wheels like The American Classics or The No-Tubes ZTRs. This season I didn't bother getting a second set of wheels, relying on this set of wheels for both racing and day to day trail riding. I'd say over all this worked out swell...until now.

So two seasons on one set of not the lightest, but pretty damn light wheels — not too shabby. Replaced the bearings once on the rear, the front wheel is still straight as an arrow and the bearings are smooth as one of those weird, hairless Egyptian cats.



See that photo above? That's my bike, or at least the parts of my bike which were functional enough to send to North Carolina...they fit in a frame box. Pretty sweet, $28 for sending "my bike" UPS to Carrboro. The fork and the rear wheel will be flying with me, I'm hoping the wheel box I'll be flying with will be perceived as checked baggage and will illicit no further charges. Who knows, maybe I'll bring the bike back this way. Like a poor man's (total pain in the ass) S & S Couplers.


The Superfly has taken some abuse in the past couple months. Between the five and a half hours of riding in a downpour at The 50 and the Wrentham Cross race, it's kinda hurtin'. In fact I went to pick it up the other night and heard sloshing, like many ounces of water sloshing inside the seat tube. A wise man named Lloyd Graves, one of the founding fathers of Independent Fabrication once said "You gotta let your bike pee." I had not done that. Simply flipping my bike over after either of those water-logged events would have allowed the liquid to drain out. Now I'm not sure if the seat tube on The Superfly is sealed, but I'm assuming, since the water was unable to drain out through the bottom bracket, that it is, which with a carbon fiber frame is not a big problem. If this were a steel frame which had a can of soda worth of fluid hanging out in its seat tube for over a month...we might have a problem.

Pre-drainage weight, post drainage weight. You do gotta let your bike pee.

So when I get back from North Carolina I do believe The Superfy will be up for sale...just throwing it out there. I'm talking frame/fork/headset/seat binder (maybe a post if you want one) for about a G. I will be posting more stuff for sale soon, maybe even doing an official type thing on the sidebar there. I've got a 57cm Lemon fixed gear, a Large 2008 Trek Remedy...couple three speeds, all sorts of exciting crap. Aren't you excited? I'm excited.

-t