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Friday, February 13

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.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

That virtual factory tour gave me a cold-forged, straight-gauge titanium boner.

Anonymous said...

Hopefully you can find a chair or couch to sleep in at the factory when you are racing in Colorado.
Lucky Stiff!

dicky said...

Couch?

They have an upstairs apartment for VIP's and foreign dignitaries.

Pffffttttt...

Anonymous said...

That bike would look so much faster with 36" wheels.

Anonymous said...

Rich- I keep meaning to post this...sorry about a return to the iron topic, but.
I've been a veggie for 18 years now. My iron levels were good last time checked (3 years ago). I read somewhere years ago I way to get more iron into your diet as a veggie is to cook in cast iron-really, I'm not making this up. I don't know if it's truly helped, but I've stuck with this.
mb

Tim said...

Do they have a horse shoe pit?

dicky said...

No horse shoe pit, but they do have a Harry Potter chess set.

cornfed said...

Grant told me to remind you you're not on the team, we just let you join our call so you'd stop whining.

Can't believe how embarrassing your totally uncouth conference call behavior was...