Jeff Schalk will shit his pants today

I am very much closer to having a geared bike together for the Shenandoah 100. Yesterday was a very big day.

This key piece of equipment showed up:

My first ever gear compatible Industry Nine REAR wheel. Pink, hub, pink spokes, and nasty gNar approved Stan's Flow rim with bolt-thru capability. The bicycle is an excessive exercise in lateral stiffness. The DT RWS Thru Bolt is gonna be killer in that respect.

Something else showed up yesterday. I got a box of the all new, top secret, you ain't seen nothing like this Backcountry Research Awesome Strap "Grappler". I'm not showing you pictures since I don't think it's approved for public consumption as of yet, but I'll be rocking one at the Breck Epic all week testing it out. I wondered how they were going to come up with something better when I was told there were improvements coming down the pike. This thing looks pretty bitching, but we'll see how it holds up to a few hundred miles in the high country, rock infested trails of Breckenridge.

Oh yeah, another other something else showed up...

My ever loving, gob stopping, Freakazoids report to the dance floor Tallboy is here!!!!!!

Just look at that shit. Five and six hundredths (three fiftieths for Thad) pounds for a full squish frame. I wish I woulda taken out the bottle bolts, removed the seatpost collar, and pulled the O-ring off the shock before I weighed it... maybe it woulda broke the 5lb barrier by a hundredth or so.

I went ahead and started the build process, even though I had very little I could actually do.

Pressing in a Cane Creek headset with the all the right tools makes for an easy, non cup/bearing/frame damaging affair. The tidy little adapters that go right on my headset press fit directly into the cups in the most precise manner to save them from any half-assed ham fistedness.

Yes, my stem is mounted to a piece of scrap steer tube from an old fork for display purposes. Whatever.

The saddle, post, and cage all done... not really that much left to do. It really is something to see. I am slowly learning to embrace the crabon. My road bike, now my full squish (which still hasn't seen its first squish), and maybe someday my main steed? We'll see about that. I've got a major woody for this stuff right now. I love steel, I adore ti, and over this last year I've learned to love aluminum, but there's just something evil and alluring about crabon. Like a $1,000 hooker with a sign that says "50% off and free cocaine for first time customers"... it's so dangerous and appealing at the same time. Almost too good to be true.

Now I'm really in the hands of the folks at SRAM. It's probably to late to do the "Open Letter to SRAM" thing now. Maybe I should contact Paul, who I met in Durango on the shuttle ride down the Colorado Trail at the SSWC09. Sure he's a warranty guy at SRAM (or at least he was), but I'm sure he knows somebody or at least knows somebody who knows somebody. This bike will be 2X10 or nothing, and since I can't afford XX right now it is currently nothing. I beg you powers that be at SRAM, get thine tidbits to the distributors this instant. Don't force me to strip the parts off my Rival equipped road bike just to do the Shenandoah 100.

A coupla things before I go to Colorado.

The Double Dare is on again for 2010. Two years ago I partnered up with Captain Morgan and we almost had an impressive second place on fixed gears, but missed the cut-off on day one by 10 minutes so we went home the biggest losers. I am interested in going back to the Double Dare, but I have no partner as of yet. Assuming I have some SRAM 2X10 shifty bits at that point I would like to do it on a geared machine with a partner who is similarly equipped. Here's what I am looking for.

Bike? Gears and at least front squish would be nice.

Fitness level? Strong enough to pull two full days in the woods, but you don't have to be Koerber strong to keep up. Being Koerber attractive would be a plus.

Sex? I like it, hopefully you like it too. We won't be having any at the Double Dare, but I might talk about it while we're in the woods. You should know that. Boobs are always a topic of discussion.

Beer? You should know there may be a beer challenge at the Double Dare. Captain Morgan had never shot gunned a beer before the Double Dare. How did he get through college without shotgunning a beer? Be prepared.

Goals? Either we stay out and go for it Tin Cup style or bail early and drink beer. I'm more of a Tin Cup kinda guy.




Contact me at teamdicky at hotmail dot com with serious offers.

That's it. I'm out for a week. Maybe I borrow Peter's computer to update while I make great bike race... maybe not. I like taking a break from the internet, so we shall see.

If anybody knows anyone with any power at SRAM (like parting the seas, hailing swarms of locusts, or just getting ungettable parts) please have them contact me ASAP.

Seriously.