Meh at Work

The Pie took Fajita out last Tuesday night, so I was left without any adult supervision. Having hours to kill after work and no real projects to tackle I went ahead and did the unthinkable.

I know I said I'd only ride a suspension fork till the MOOTS graces me with its presence, I know I said it was too much work, and I know I didn't go all the way, but I made some effort. The semi-repaired Meatplow is back for one more day of battle. I went ahead and swapped the 8" front rotor to a 6", but I didn't take the time to swap the front tire to something more short tracky. I was hoping my new Industry Nine race wheels would be here in time, but as luck would have it (at least my luck) there were no 355's in stock when it was time to build my wheels. Without my new wheels to play with I wasn't in the mood to do a full Stan's style swap on the front tire for one race. I did swap the saddle to the Assgrater 2000 even though I'm not all that sure it is lighter than the Silverado. It does look intimidating though, and I've seen them on some of the faster guy's bikes at the short track races this winter, so one can only assume it adds to overall speed significantly.

The rest of the build is pretty straight forward. I went with a silly 36X18 gear which is two teeth higher than I normally run at the short track. I was planning on getting the bike weight down four pounds (from the squishy yet to be named Zion weight) and get my weight down four pounds since the last race two weeks ago. Well, I succeeded on one and failed miserably on the other, but the tall gear stays to punish me for my dietary transgressions. Lucky for me I realized I stuck my stainless steel 18T Chris King cog on the rear instead of my aluminum one, so maybe ten more minutes of effort will make all the difference I need.

Last night I was on the first conference call of my adult life. The powers that be at MOOTS and Swiftwick decided to have sort of a team meeting. Even though I'm considered outside of the actual Swiftwick team, but still associated with it in some bastard form being a MOOTS rider who wears Swiftwick socks I was clued in to the informative call. Part MOOTS history lesson, part technical info session, and part team strategy think tank all I did was listen for the most part. All I can say is "pretty neat stuff" was discussed and once I do the at home worksheet (multiple choice, matching, connect the dots, and MOOTSudoku) at home I will be quite the knowledgeable MOOTSrider. I finally TRULY understand the difference between double pass welds and single pass welds, and I can tell you how many employees it takes to build 1,200 to 1,500 frames (and miscellaneous accessories) a year.

FYI : I found this MOOTS Factory Tour article on Road Bike Action. It's an interesting look inside a place I plan on actually being inside sometime this year. If/when I get out there I plan on doing my own factory tour piece, but I will focus on the bathroom, break room, parking lot, and video game arcade instead of all the stuff most reviews cover. I won't let you down.