Ain't no party like a progress party

The Pegboard of Plethora project moves forward.

Rather than just have a wall mounted pegboard, I wanted a work surface close by as well. Sure, I already have a bench, but the only thing better than a bench is a credenza. Luckily the ReStore had what I needed for next to nothing... and it was made out of something called "wood." Must be an antique. I'm prepared to get very organized.

Last night, Kangalangmangus dropped off some pegboard, 2X4's, brackets, and assorted peg things, so this project is about to have life breathed into it very soon. The old bench will soon be cleared off and used as a display area for a Lord of the Rings diorama. Not sure if I should go Isengard or Helm's Deep.

That doesn't make sense to me. But, then again, I am very small.

I'm leaving for the Southeast Bike Expo tomorrow with fellow Team Bike 29 throbbing member, Chris Muddiman. The plan is to leave at 6:30AM, ride/demo as many bike as possible, hopefully log 50+ miles, relive the fading memories of my World Championship victory, recreate the podium moment that I never had (I left early), and celebrate with my first beer in four weeks.

The weather is looking good, so come out. Don't forget, if you are coming down to make great bike ride, bring the following:

Your riding shoes
Your pedals
Your helmet
Hydration
My beer money

Myself, I'll be bringing this as well:

Let's face it, demo bikes have just as much of a chance of failure as your own. I don't wanna spend my ride time walking four miles back to the expo area, so bring your shit with you.

If you go by the Dedicated Athlete booth, stop and tell them all that Shane Schreihart is a doper. I heard he's on that EP-NO stuff.

And grab me some samples while you're there. I'm not worried about the adverse side-effects.

I've been cheating

I don't have any improved/approved images of my By:Stickel. Various commenters asking about clearcoat options on my raw frame pushed me over the brink, and I went ahead and asked Steve if this was an option. I think I made his head crimple. All along the process, I've been asking him "What if... ?" way too much.

The problem being that he was moving right along the whole time much faster than I'm used to.

Me: "Steve, what if we went with the Phil Wood half-link EBB?"

Steve: "I'm already building your frame."

Me: "Doh."

Suffice it to say, if I wanted to go with a clearcoat, things woulda/shoulda been differently from the start, things that can't be undone now. Back to my first choice on my frame that is already built.

And what a frame he built.

That's interesting. I always thought it was odd to brace between the seatstay/chainstay on slider equipped frames. The backside of the brace has a private message stamped on it. Maybe you'll see it later.

I found images of my first and second single speed on my mom's computer. I have no idea what they're doing on there.

My first single speed, the Planet X Ridgeback (I think that's what it was called). It was not meant to be a single speed, but a variable chainlength geared dirt jump bike. Single speeding was not as popular back then, so getting a 5" fork compatible stock SS frame was not an option in 2003. There were only certain stay lengths available, so I was stuck in 34X17 most of the time.

It was this bike that convinced me that I never wanted less than 5" travel up front. Sooooo much fun. Somewhere I've got a picture of me getting air on it with my tongue hanging out... my mom doesn't have that one. Its dirt jumper oriented, beefy aluminum frame used to beat the living shit out of me, but it was a stick-and-move short chainstay missile.

Anyways, this bike was my gateway drug. I sold it and my Titus Hard Core Racer so I could scrape up the money to get a 5" fork compatible custom frame from Gene Spicer.

I loved that bike. If the Planet X didn't push me over the edge, this bike did. A purpose built single speed wrecking machine. This is the bike that convinced me that single speeding was the way of the future, or at least my future. After less than a year of riding it, I sold my Ellsworth ID and the Spicer to Big Worm (who destroyed it at Trans Germany) so I could plunk down some serious coin on a Dean... the OG Meatplow.

I love every part of custom bikes... right down to custom tools for custom bikes made by a man of metal, like this piece from Anvil (his main site is getting work done, but his flickr is running full steam):

If I won the lottery tomorrow, I'd buy two of everything he makes and start building shitty frames (with the goal of making nice frames ten years from now after I get a healthy, eccentric beard going).

Sorry honey.

Single speeds

Custom frames

Bike builds lubricated with beer

I'm in love... with the other woman.

Your standard Wednesday... oh, and my frame is built

Let's get this out of the way, the Wednesday Retro Dick Pic of the Week.

Probably something like 1986, Deep Valley Christian Service Camp. I can't remember if I was a camp counselor or a camper that week. Pictured with me is Mike Rozman. I'd like to think that we all had our Mike Rozman's in life... so many stories. The Great Bee Wars, The Bean Can Lid Incident, Blizzard Walk, The Circle of Pain. Ask me to spin a yarn when you see me. You probably won't believe what I tell you, but I swear it's all true. And trust me, a well thrown bean can lid can lacerate your leg deep enough to sever a major blood vessel. I've seen it.

I received my Paragon Machine Works hardware yesterday.

Sweet looking black post mount hotness. No idea why more people don't get the "None More Black" option. The ti combination hardware was bought with a specific purpose in mind. I'll always set it up at home using my Topeak digital torque wrench set at 27nm and a 10mm 12 point socket. That will preserve the integrity of the 6mm allen heads for field adjustments. Sweet.

Also recently in:

A matching left handed Z-cage, new bolt-on skewers (my other set had too short of a rear to work on the PMW sliders), and a MOOTSpost sticker to refurbish my MOOTSpost... but just one. I'm gonna have to call my distributor later.

I'm still waiting on a couple parts (wheels and rotors), but hopefully it will all come together soon since this By:Stickel of mine has come together already.

It is done, minus some powder coat, decals, and seven coats of Turtle Wax. I have no permission to share the photos I got yesterday, so I'm gonna ask Steve for a good round of images before the frame heads out the door.


If you have time, especially if you're one of the fortunate 200 people who will get to do the inaugural Pisgah 111K, check out this article in the Citizen Times.

So much to see and do...

If one were trying to buy a Race, Hitch, Back Forty ,or Clutch strap or just a Tülbag right now at this very moment, one might have to wait awhile to get it. You see, the folks at Backcountry Research some times need a break from all the sewing, and cutting, and sewing, and sweating, and sewing, and beer drinking. The "Store" is closed until Feb 27th, that would be next Monday for the calendrically challenged or 5/14th of a fortnight from now for the more mathematically inclined old timers.

You might notice, if you're the kind of person who notices things, that two new products are coming soon. The Slab will be replacing a piece of gear that I use that was not originally intended to be used for what I use it for. Right now I'm kinda using a oven mitt as hat, and while it doth cover my head, it is certainly no hat. The Slab isn't either. Are you confused? If so, my work here is done.

The other new product you can expect is the Fönbag. I'm sure you can guess what this will be without thinking too hard. It was something I asked for shortly after getting my Tülbag, lost interest in when I realized I could shove my Not-So-Smart phone into an old prototype Tülbag, and regained interest in when I went for my first ride with my Oh-So-Smart phone. It's a product that makes sense, will be well constructed and thought out, and sold at a sensible price point. It will not be a glorified Ziploc bag, and you will not be able to fit a full size baguette into the Fönbag no matter how much butter you slather on it.

You'll see something when there is something to see, I assure you.

FYI: Online registration for the Southeast Bike Expo ends tonight at midnight. You can register when you get there this weekend... but you'll just have to pay more. The weather is looking good four days out for some bike riding on OPB (Other People's Bikes). The beer is looking even better than the weather.

On Saturday my dry spell is over, and I'm coming out swinging.

Important thing to remember if you're going to attend (that I woulda forgot had they not reminded me on Facebook):

Just a reminder, Please bring your pedals, helmet, and hydration if you want to demo bikes. You can bring your bike to so you can test out lights for some of the bike companies Saturday night.

Will there be a shit ton of exhibitors there?

Yes, I would say that's a shit ton.

Getting somewhere by going nowhere

Not drinking beer has made me entirely too productive. I was up at 4:50AM on Saturday, got in a great ride my neighbor Todd, and spent most of the rest of the evening socializing. When I got home, I started to work on the broken steam cleaner. The Pie told me to go to bed around 11:30PM, but I was up at 6:45AM working on the steam cleaner again. There were some deeply embedded screws, so rather than go over to Home Depot (literally three minutes down the road by bike) and get a longer Phillips head, I created mine own.

I got the steam cleaner fixed (fuck you, steam cleaner), piddled around my bike room (including installing XTR pedals to my Race Face Deus cranks that are going on the By:Stickle), took my mom recliner shopping, and then watched Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers with the family. At 9:40PM I got a bug up my ass and totally moved my bike room/office around.

What was the point?

I've been eyeballing Thad's new bike room...

Corporate, clean, artsy fartsy, cute, efficient, organized, a Happy Meal of efficiency.

And I've been looking at Stevil's new digs...

Manly, spartan, rugged, gloomy, under-lit, organized, a Royale with cheese of a bike room.

I notice they both have something I do not, a peg board.

I normally keep my tools in various tool boxes, trays, and orderly stacks until I need them, but slowly and surely they take over my work bench until it is covered with shifting piles of bike repair implements rendering my bench useless until an anal retentive, beer fueled cleansing rectifies the situation.

This will be addressed soon...

My work stand has been moved to the end of the room near a blank wall that will soon host a new Pegboard of Plethora instead of a Village of Andover sign.

Of course the only thing standing between me and a nicely arranged pegboard replete with pegboard mounted tools is effort and money.

We'll see how that goes...

Happy Birthday Pie and a Stickel update

Today is The Pie's birthday. What did I get her?

I planned on growing it out until the end of March, but she pleaded with me to end it for her sake.

That's just half the gift. The other thing she wants me to do is sign up for a volunteer shift at Give Kids the World so we can do our thing while we're down in Florida this Spring.

Anything for The Pie (who's letting me race the 6 Hours of Warrior Creek on our 17th wedding anniversary)

Time for a Stickel update.

This whole time, I never bothered to ask Steve how his process works. I've been through the custom bike frame experience enough times to know that I don't wanna know. Although I've been gathering parts and components, I've been dragging my feet on getting the wheels going. I wanted to try some high zoot crabon rimz, but everywhere I turned I was met with defeat.

ENVE ~ Only does internal nipples... sounds painful

Reynolds ~ Not enough holes to put all 32 Industry Nine spokes into.

I looked at some crabon rimz that were all the talk on MTBR. I even went as far as to put them in a cart, walk around the e-store looking for last minute impulse buys, and made it all the way to the payment screen.

And then I balked. Sure, 23mm wide (internal width) rims at 440 grams sounded nice, BUT I like Stan's rims. I also like some of the fine folks at Stan's (including Rich "Grape Ape" Straub), and I even like Stan himself.

I was gonna hem and haw some more, but I talked to Steve Stickel on Wednesday, and my front triangle is already done.

Shit, that was fast.

So I emailed Jake at Industry Nine and asked them to get hopping on some pink 29'er Ultralite SS specific wheels. Mine won't be "Ultralite" since I'm going with the heavier Ultrawhite Crest rims. Still, at 1,630 grams, I'll be looking better than a bikini clad super model holding an ice cold beer and saving over a half pound of rotating weight over my current white Flow/Arch combo.

Also on the way to complete Project BS DickStickel Meatplow V.6, I have an order on the way from Mark at Paragon Machine Works. I've ordered from him/them before, and it's a shame they didn't sell something I could order more often... like lacy panties or chocolate covered turnips. They're always so pleasant to deal with, especially considering I'm not even a frame builder. I ordered the bad-ass Titanium Complete Combination Bolt Kit.

This ain't my first time at the slider rodeo, and I can see these things being a major upgrade from what I'm used to. Multiple reasons I might get into later, I guess.

I also picked up the new post mount slider... in black

(image terribly altered to represent the color (or lack thereof) black)

I asked Steve if he had any photos of my frame in progress that he could shoot my way. Apparently he builds frames like I build bikes. I mean to document the process from the start, but the deeper I get into it, the more I forget to take photos.

Anyways...

Here are my tubes (maybe)

I'm assuming the rebar will be used as chainstays for ultra compliance.

These are "cylindrical stuff in your frame."

And this is the "Beginning, in fixture."

From that point on, Steve put the camera down and kept welding, cutting, and chuckling to himself.

I can hardly wait. Horrible time to not be drinking beer.

What am I saying? It's always a horrible time to not be drinking beer.

At least it's only one more week till the Southeast Bike Expo and the end of my dry February.

Lord of the Mehs

Firstly, Eric "PMBAR Honcho" Wever, being the benevolent race promoter that he is, acquiesced the requests of the masses. You asked for it, and you got it...

The "None More Black" Sleeveless Pisgah 111k jersey

Now with more 100% more BACK in Back

Complete with Rear Pocket and Back Hem!!

It's only $55 which means you save $5 over buying the version with short sleeves, and you won't have to break out the scissors. More than likely I will be ordering two different sizes even if I happen to meet all the requirements of a small person on their sizing chart. I know if I tried to pick one, I'd pick the wrong size and be S.O.L. on this sweet piece of limited availability gear. I'll sign the one that doesn't fit and sell it to a small, very fortunate child.

There's only one thing you need to go with a sweet sleeveless jersey like that...

ARMWARMERS!!

So be that guy. Wear your "None More Black" Sleeveless Pisgah 111k jersey with your Pisgah 111k armwarmers and fly your freak flag high. Thumb your nose at the nonplussed, anti-Fred, late to the "meh" game Bike Snob... even if he has already written his second book besting my bestest efforts by a factor of two.



Sorry about the lack of a Wednesday Retro Dick Pic of the Week yesterday. I used up most of the good ones right out of the gate, and like so many things in life that I commit to, I've lost interest in keeping up with it.

I did find this image last night:

That's me, Eric "PMBAR Honcho" Wever, and Ian "The Pony" Leone lining up for the XC race at the 2001 Icycle. That was back when the XC race took place the day after the night downhill race and an evening of gladiator style debauching. I had won the sport class the night before and on this day I not only won the sport class, I also caught the two expert riders that left ahead of our group. This is not a testament to my former abilities, but a fine example of how the Icycle draws a much stronger, highly competitive field nowadays. I sucked then, but in the land of blind pigs, I was the one eyed pig.

I'm still the one eyed pig, but my porcine competition has certainly used the benefits of their vision plan.