The Return of the Return of the Phantom Stranger

There's no doubt in my mind. It's back... the Phantom Stranger just can't stay away. At least I'm catching it early, but then again what difference does it make. I'm already doing everything I can, and it still came anyways.

Even though I've been wearing shoes as opposed to sandals all winter my left pinkie toe has still decided to turn on me.

It's puffy and red and somewhat contorted looking... sorta resembling a simple balloon animal. I can remember the day it crept in through an unlocked back door (the Mustache ride), and I long for the day that it takes its leave.

In a totally unrelated bit of news a concerned citizen felt like it would be a good thing for me to have a Feedback Sports Alping digital hanging scale (with 55lb capacity). As if I needed to have one more thing to play with I believe the perpetrator's purpose was to confound me with yet one more way to fall into the anal abyss that is bike geekdom. It was out of the box and weighing bikes in a matter of minutes. Of course I weighed the new Meatplow first, but I'm saving that for last.

The Fastest Bike in the World

That's none to shabby considering the threaded fork/headset, SPD pedals, wire bead tires, hoopty handlebar, and cheap front wheel. I imagine it gained some weight recently when the SLR saddle broke and I had to replace it with a death bin Flite (not shown). BTW: Why was I keeping a broken railed Flite, a missing railed coverless Flite, and a torn leather cover in the death bin?

Who knows...

How 'bout my clapped out DeBernardi Road bike that I would love to replace with something fancier to hang on my wall?

Twenty pounds even? Not as bad as I thought, but considering I replaced the heavy Shimano 600 8 speed STI shifters with downtube jobbies (that work even though they're 7 speed) and some Cane Creek levers and the fact that the wheels are ultralight climbing wheels that's probably where it should be. Long live single pivot calipers!!! Anyways, that's kinda sad when I compare it to this:


The old titanium Thylacine, built up with a heavy Phil Wood fixed hub, shitty Bontrager front wheel, Misfit bar/stem combo, and some $9 wire bead cross tires. Sad day indeed when it crushes the road bike in the weight department. No wonder I grab this bike as a last resort before I grab the road bike as an even lastier resort.

The Death Stick

Wow. That would be a heavy bike, at least for a single speed hardtail... for me. All that weight comes from the addition of the 5"+ travel fork and two beefy tires (1,400+ grams for the front). I guess it doesn't matter how heavy it is since I built this bike to play in the mountains of NC, and they're gonna be covered with a glacier till 2012 when the world ends.

And the one you've all been waiting for.... The Meatplow:

Hmmm... not quite Fuzzy's 17lb carbon scooter is it? Well when (if??) I get my crabon frok that should drop @ 1.25lbs, so I might just flirt with a sub twenty pound build. That's hot. The scale did verify that my bike would be 30 grams lighter with a 31.6 Thomson post as opposed to the MOOTSpost/drilled out Cane Creek shim as shown, but it would be 15 grams heavier if the shim wasn't drilled out. This scale is going to drive me crazy.