Saturday’s Ditch ride was a good test for the new Panaracer Rampage tires on the Moment. On the last training ride I took on the bike, the greatest difference I noticed was in the lower rolling resistance. On the hardpack doubletrack and singletrack, the lower rolling resistance benefits could be felt also. The cornering was as good if not better than the Mountain A/T’s. This was probably due to the higher side and edge knob density, and the lower, stiffer knobs. There was a noticeable deficit on standing climbs and clawing performance up rooty sections or over rolly branch pieces on the trail. Moisture aggravated this. Exploring an apparent side trail, I tried riding up an angled one-foot step-up with a rooty surface. The ground was damp and the back tire went into immediate spin-out. Continue reading ‘Rampage Trail Test’
The unstable weather was teetering on the balance between sunny blue and rain on Saturday afternoon, so we met for a afternoon ride out at Ditch. Ckucke was nappy boy, but Root, Jeff, JT, and Chris managed to break away for some trail time. There was some new hardware to trail-test. JT was sporting his new Foes, so was itching to take it on the dirt and see how it performed. Root had switched out the heinous Marzocchi Bomber on the ToddBike to the Psylo off the Straight 6. I had those new Panaracer Rampage tires to try on the dirt. Continue reading ‘Allergy Ride’
As I was leaving work Thursday Afternoon, I heard the familiar pathetic little whistles of the little invader dove. He was perched alone on the power lines outside the warehouse door looking rather forlorn. He’s still alive…
Today I tried the regular version of the Burger King Steakhouse Burger for lunch. Like the “Stacked” version I tried last week, it’s the patty from the Angus burger. This one had 2-slices of American cheese, A-1 Steak sauce, crispy fried onions, lettuce bits and tomato. It was assembled on the same cornmeal-dusted “premium bakery-style bun”.  The crispy fried onions were under-represented on the specimen I was given. The large size value meal is around $7.50 USD, and comes in at 1390 kcal (burger = 950, large o-rings = 440, large unsweetened iced tea = 0) – that’s 20 kcal less than the “Stacked” version. This one was much better than the “Stacked” one. Gone were the impressions of saltiness and dryness. The food value was good for the price.
4 out of 4 grinning monkeys
3.5Â out of 4 cardiac arrests
Recommended (you just might live a couple minutes longer if you choose this over the Stacked one)
Great. This is going on the second week of no riding. There is a cold front North of Kauai that supposedly will bring thundershowers to Kauai today. I hope the Kona winds that brought the tan haze back to Oahu yesterday will keep the front away, but knowing the way things tend to go, I am guessing that there will be bad weather again this weekend and therefore no trail action. Curses!
Describing the kind of person who repeatedly parks his private vehicle in a hospital loading zone is unnecessary – his actions speak loudly enough to define his personality and moral fiber. Even then, his choice of vehicle brand and the hey, look at me religion-as-fashion/advertising die-cuts underscore this point even more.Â
We just got a new Hope headset into the shop last week. It is different from the original UK Hope threadless headset. Gone are the multiple o-ring seals of the “Pre-2007†headset. This one has simple cups, angular contact bearings and dual colletted races. The bearings are not press-fit into the aluminum cups – instead, they just drop in. Hope is relying on the conical inner surfaces to keep the bearings tight when end-loaded. Both the crown race and upper bearing steerer collar are aluminum split-collets. This is good from the centering/freeplay/end-loading aspect. It would be nice if the crown race was stainless steel though, since it will take a lot of impact and shear loads – not sure how long aluminum will last in this application. The colletted crown race will make installation extremely easy – only a cup press will be required. Continue reading ‘Post – 2007 USDM Hope Headset’
So anyone thats a fan of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations must be familiar with the Vietnam episode where the guide takes him to a remote village and says about the dish of the day, “I think in your language you call it Squeezo.” Theres been a lot of chatter about Squeezo/Squeezel, but it got forgotten until I recently had a conversation with someone about Kopi Luwak, the expensive coffee that comes from Southeast Asia, famous because its pre-digested by Civets (that is, its eaten as a berry, then crapped out and collected as a bean). After looking over that Wikipedia article about Kopi Luwak, Dave wondered aloud if the Civet was the elusive Squeezo, as the Civet is a common food item in that region. Reminding him that the stew had pokey quills of doom, it launched The Search fo Squeezo…
A little Barred Dove managed to get into the warehouse at work today… well, we found him today – he might have been inside all weekend for all I know. Doves and their kin are all incredibly stupid birds, so turning off the lights and opening the roll-up door did nothing to persuade him to go outside. He just sat up in the diagonal bracing near the ceiling and made these pathetic cries. If left to his own devices, he would stay up high until he died of starvation or dehydration. The concept of going down is completely alien to their tiny minds. Continue reading ‘Rats with Wings’
Saturday, I’d gotten the 4AGZE starter motor to replace and relocate the balky starter. Relocating the starter requires changing out the bellhousing splash plate. Somehow I was able to install the transmission myself.
Here you see the old plate, the hole for the starter on the front/exhaust side of the engine. The new plate you see the hole on the other side. It’s a little hard to see, but the starter is now buried in there to the left, under the intake side.
