one9.us

I’ve spent the last 11 years riding a hardtail and/or rigid mountain bike on singletrack, rail-trails, roads, you name it.  It’s pretty much suited me fine, but the constant tire swap has always been annoying.  It seems no matter where I want to ride on any given day, I always have the wrong tires on my bike, so I have to spend 10-20 minutes swapping them and then re-calibrating my cyclo-computer before I can go ride.  Nowadays, I replace my large chainring with a BBG bashguard for trail riding, but put it back on for the road.  Along with it, I have to re-mount my front shifter and derailer.  Typically, spring and fall mean road or semi-slick tires, two chainrings and a front derailer, while the summer is spent on the trails running a 1×9 gear set-up.  As I said, this has been fine for quite a while, but I finally decided to try something new.

After putting way too much thought into the matter, I decided on a singlespeed road bike to get me through the colder months.  For one thing, having only one gear means I don’t have to screw around with shifters and derailers when they decide to act up.  It also means I’m forced to use muscle when I ride, as opposed to selecting a gear that’s easy to spin up a hill while I stay planted on my seat.  I have plenty of endurance, so I’ve chosen to focus on building muscle.

While browsing around eBay for parts (I planned to just piece a bike together with whatever worked) I stumbled across a posting by Cycling Closeouts, suppliers of the EighthInch Scrambler.  After a Google search, I discovered it’s actually a house brand of Wheel & Sprocket, a bike shop in Wisconsin.  Most of the parts are re-branded (or non-branded) OEM parts, but the frames are made specifically for them by an unknown (to me) Taiwanese frame supplier.  I spent about a week reading reviews online and scouring bike forums to see what other owners had to say about them, and the impression I got was mostly positive.  In fact, just about the only negative comments I found were from people who had never owned or ridden one.  That, plus the relatively low $600 starting point helped me make my decision…  well, at least my decision about which bike to buy; picking out colors and options turned out to be much more difficult.

So, let’s get this straight:  Wheel & Sprocket is the bike shop, Cycling Closeouts (.com) is the website, they go by Wheelandsprocket on eBay as a secondary way of selling online, and EighthInch is their brand name for their bike parts.  They also have a blog on Wordpress, a Facebook fan page, a YouTube channel, and post regularly on Twitter.  It’s almost as though they want people to be able to find them anywhere.  I can’t find them on MySpace, though, which, in my opinion, is a good sign.

Okay, now on to the bike…

Unlike a lot of companies that let you choose a red bike with black stripes, or a black one with silver stripes, and nothing else, EighthInch gives buyers a huge say in what their bike looks like.  Most parts are anodized (or painted) aluminum, so letting you pick a gold stem, blue rims and a polished crankset doesn’t cost them any more than if you picked other colors.  The upside to this is, you get to order the bike with any color combo you can dream up; the downside is, you eventually have to make up your mind.  You can also select between three different types of handlebars–track, bullhorn or riser–crank arm length, freewheel and fixed cog sizes, and whether or not you want brakes (a no-cost option).  I think one way they keep prices so low is by not paying marketers to research what options buyers may want, and letting us pick them out for ourselves.  Novel concept.

As you can see, I’m not very creative.  I went with all black, with white rims and tires, after seeing a Specialized Langster L.A.  I also ordered black cranks, but they called to inform me they were out of stock; I selected polished silver instead, and they look so good, I’m glad I didn’t get black afterall.  I also picked a white chain, knowing I would swap it with a black one (they don’t offer black for some reason), and bullhorn handlebars, because they give me similar hand positions to a flat MTB bar with bar-ends, like I’m used to.  Oh, and I picked a carbon fiber fork in place of the normal steel one (more on that later).

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I know removing and installing the rear wheel on a geared bicycle can be a hassle for someone who has never done it before.  I actually had trouble with it 10 years ago when I began biking, too, so I thought I’d do a little how-to for others who are having trouble with it.

First, before removing the wheel, make sure you’re shifted into the largest front gear and the smallest gear in the rear.  I know this seems like an optional step, but it really will make the process a lot easier in the long run.

The other important step involves pushing downward (assuming the bike is upside-down as it should be) on the rear-most section of your rear derailleur.  By doing so, you will force the pulleys upward, and along with them, the chain.  This will leave the drop-outs free and clear for the axle to move in or out.

Study the animated image below, and then go practice.  It’s better to learn how to easily do this now, while you’re at home, than later, when you’re stuck on a trail somewhere.  As you’ll see by the animation, I’m showing how to put the wheel back in place.  Removing it is just a reversal of the steps.

Make sure you fully tighten the skewer and check your brakes before riding.

Good luck.

I was inspired to do this project after seeing RL Policar’s How To Bling Your Bike For Less Than $5.00 post on MtnBikeRiders.com last week.

I had recently bought a used Shimano FC-M510 crankset off eBay for my wife’s bike, as a replacement for her Shimano Tourney crankset.  She likes the Tourney because of its integrated chainguard, but it’s always bugged me that the chainrings are riveted on, as opposed to bolted.  Once riveted chainrings wear out, the entire crankset is useless, since the rings can’t be replaced.  It was also a bit on the heavy side which, for someone like me, is downright blasphemous.

Not wanting to spend a lot of money, I ordered a used crankset from eBay.  While waiting for it to arrive, I found the above mentioned article and decided I’d give it a try.

The crankset arrived very scratched up, just as I had expected, but in perfect condition otherwise (unfortunately, the picture doesn’t do the paint damage justice, as it was far worse in person than it looks).  Also, a couple teeth on the large chainring looked as though they had a bite taken out of them by a piece of concrete, but this won’t matter once I’m done (you’ll see why).

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I didn’t plan on doing a review of grips, but these are so much better than anything I’ve used before, I decided that I had to.

I’ve used various rubber and dual-compound grips for years, such as Salsa Cycles Juegos de Fuegos, Bontrager Select, and many others.  I usually go through whichever set I buy at a rate of two per year, since the soft rubber wears out pretty quickly.  I’ve also noticed that, even though the rubber compounds different manufacturers use damp vibration, my hands still go numb an hour or more into a ride.  I figured it was just me, but now it seems otherwise.

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It’s really not difficult finding great reviews on BBG Bashguard’s one and only product:  mountain bike bashgaurds (or bash rings).  Just head over to MTBR.com and do a search for "BBG" and you’re bound to find multiple posts with nothing but great things to say about them.  In fact, that’s where I first heard about them.

I had previously been running a pretty insane gearing on my mountain bike:  46, 32, 20T chainrings and an 11-32 cassette (now an 11-34).  Whether it be my great Shimano XTR front derailler, or just dumb luck, I’ve never had an issue with the large spread in chainring sizes, although most riders will tell you to stay away from a 26-tooth spread from large to granny.  But, what do they know?

Not much, apparently.

In fact, I’d been running the same chainring combo for years with no problems.  That is, until last fall when I was introduced to Binder State Park.  Like many parks, when a tree falls, park officials just leave it where it is, giving you an extra obstacle on the trail.  I quickly ran into an issue with my large chainring coming in contact with the logs as I passed over them, as you can see from the following phone cam pic:

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I went ahead and ordered my Carbon Cycles eXotic carbon fork this week due to my lack of self-control and patience.  But before I work on my personality issues, I thought I’d pass along my first impressions of the fork.

I ordered from CarbonCycles’s eBay store on Tuesday, and received the package on Friday; total price with shipping was $190.  The first thing I do after unwrapping any new bike part is put it on the scale.  eXotic’s claimed weight is 850 grams (1.9lbs), though it actually came in slightly higher than that with an uncut steerer tube.  It’s not a huge difference, but it’d be nice if manufacturers would more accurately post the weight of their parts.

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I don’t normally write reviews on anything, but since the internets seem to be lacking in them for Mosso’s increasingly more popular rigid aluminum fork, I thought I’d do one.

I bought this fork last fall from eBay for $55 (incl shipping).  I didn’t know what to expect of it in terms of performance or durability, but for the price, it wasn’t a bad investment.  At the same time, I re-sold my ‘06 Rock Shox SID, so the Mosso became my primary fork, and forced me to get used to riding a rigid bike.

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Awareness test…

Lately, my bar ends have been causing my hands to go numb.  My extremely rigid aluminum fork is probably to blame since it doesn’t dampen vibration like my old SID fork did.  Since there are no decent grips on the market for bar ends (other than some slip-on types made of neoprene), I decided to make my own.

I got the idea after seeing a lot of guys using alternative handlebars on their bikes and being forced to use road bike bar tape, as it’s impossible to slide grips onto most of these bars; the Titec H-Bar is a good example.  I bought some Easton bar tape–black, of course–and used Elmer’s spray glue to bond it to the bar ends.  Bar tape has only a quarter-inch wide strip of 3M adhesive running down the middle of it, and that wasn’t going to be good enough in my opinion.

After wrapping the bar ends and trimming the edges, I used some elasticized shoe laces to add pressure while the glue cured overnight.  The tape also came with some nice, larger-diamter end plugs that I used to replace my smaller ones.  The extra size helps protect the edges of the tape a litter better, and the plugs weigh 3 grams, the same as the smaller ones.

I finished by wrapping a piece of wide electrical tape around the end of each bar end, as a means of keeping the bar tape from coming loose.

Overall, the tape adds a nice amount of padding, plus gives more grip, so hopefully my riding gloves won’t slip on them anymore.  It also added only 3 grams of weight to each one, so I can live with that.

Click thumbnails for larger images, or click here to start slideshow

Edit:  nearly a year later, the bar tape is still holding up and I’ve had zero issues with it.

To paraphrase a post on one of my bike forums, "I don’t care how light a bike is, slap heavy tires on it and it’ll climb like a pig in mud."

Well, on my first ride of 2008, that’s exactly how I felt today.  Not just because my ridiculously light bike had super fat, heavy tires mounted on it.  Not just because the parks and rec department threw a fresh pile of gravel on top of all the trails.  Not just because it was extremely windy…

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I found this guy’s Mexican Highway video (posted below) on YouTube awhile back.  From there, I found his website with a ton of interesting bicycling videos he’s made over the years.  Watch the video below, then check out the rest here.  Other than the Mexican Highway, I’d have to say the one with he and some friends riding on the iced-over Charles River is my favorite.

Combine a derelict shopping cart with a bicycle for a ride with ample cargo capacity. This is a nice way to save a shopping cart and a bike that might otherwise end up in a landfill. Not to mention a great way to save gas and get exercise for a quick trip to the grocery store.

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It’s not often you see naked people outside, you know–doing "it"–but that was just the beginning of an awesome ride. I was at less than 4 miles from home, heading up Anthony St. near the MU campus when I noticed a tent in someone’s side yard. Then I noticed what looked like a person inside, so I kept staring (what else is there to do?). About the time I was lined up really well with the opening of the tent, I saw a fully naked girl sit up on an equally naked guy, and begin to reach over and close the flap. At 8:00a.m. on a Saturday. I hope they were enjoying themselves.

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I can pretty much do this with my eyes shut.

Going on a bike ride unprepared is about the worst way to go about it.  Not only do you need the right tools for a possible–sometimes, probable–breakdown, you also need to know how to use them.

Flat tires are the most common breakdown. being forced to walk anywhere from a mile to ten miles or more due to a tiny–almost invisible–hole in your innertube simply because you failed to bring along $1 stick-on patches and a 50-cent plastic tire lever, or never practiced removing your tire in the first place, is about as bad as it gets, especially when you consider it’ll take less than five minutes to repair a simple flat tire with very little practice at all.

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