Cranky

I know most of you would expect me to drone on and on about The Burn 24 Hour Challenge, but I don't have much more to say. I would like to mention that this was the first year that the Brushy Mountain Cyclist Club took a bigger roll in promoting the race on their own (they have been a significant part of the race's success for six years now), and they did an excellent job. Nothing fell through the cracks, and it's still the best value 24 hour race in the States and perhaps on the planet. Nuff said.

Now that I have a nice gap in events it's time to address the Meatplow's needs. Some of you might remember that I solved my DSG bottom bracket issues by soaking the bearings in oil. That was just a temporary solution to get me by, and I have a new bottom bracket waiting for me to pick it up at my somewhat local bike shop. Problem is, I'm not sure when I'm gonna get a chance to get back out there and get it, so I needed something in the mean time. I also got my new Middleburn chainring from Alex at MTBTandems, so there was another reason the cranks and BB needed to be pulled off and have elbow grease applied to them.

Luckily Ben "Bubba" Cohen (one of the Throbbing Members) came through and returned my old XT cranks from the sweat shop known as Phoenix Cranks. I had handed them over to him some time ago, but being that we are separated by the time/space black hole that is jobs, family, and distance I hadn't been able to meet up with him till The Burn.

Anyways, here's what my XT cranks looked like when I gave them to him:

I had tried to paint them years ago, but you can see I failed on a high level there. Ben sent me emails as he took them through different levels of finish:

Bead blasted:

Satin:

Full polished:

Since I had an XT bottom bracket laying around and an old Boone ti 34T ring I went ahead and put it all together.

and where they belong:

Ben didn't just do this for me because of our "special relationship". He refinishes bike parts in his spare time so he can have spare money to buy more spare parts (which he probably polishes). If you've got some lackluster parts laying around you wanna bring back to life (cranks, stems, whatever) do yourself a favor and check out Phoenix Cranks.

Sadly this post was way more informative than it was funny. Perhaps I'll do better tomorrow when I re-hash the non-rehasing of The Burn 24 Hour Challenge...