News that is news to you but not news to me

The Meatplow is in the travel case and ready to go. This week will be hectic'esque, so I had to make hay while the sun was shining. Before I stuck it in the overpriced plastic box I made a few changes. I threw on the useless in Charlotte 23 tooth cog and a secret weapon of global implications.

The Stan's Raven 2.2

I've been staring at this tire off and on since I won it at the Trans-Sylvania Epic back in early June. It is over 100 grams lighter than my standard rear tire, the Crossmark. Why would I give a shit about weight when the odds of me being on the podium in Breckenridge are somewhere around 15 to 1? I'm considering this an attempt to reduce my suffering as much as possible on the climbs. When I want(ed) to do well in a race I always played it safe with a heavier tire since a flat could be the difference between winning and losing, but this time around a flat would probably be a welcome break from cycling high in the Colorado mountains with a beautiful view.

I've got my own logic going here for me. I would explain it further, but I'd rather move on to something else.

19.62lbs with wet foam grips from the pre-photo bike wash. Probably 17.48 with dry grips (scientific guess).

It is now officially day twelve of The Tallboy Watch 2010.

Here's the most recent good news. I was billed for my Santa Cruz logo emblazoned QR seat post collar in size extra-Dicky on August 5th and it showed up on August 11th.


As of August 12th a much larger charge has been billed to my account:

The charge is quite large and would indicate that my frame is on the way or perhaps they are shipping me another 100 or so Santa Cruz logo emblazoned QR seat post collars in size extra-Dicky. If the shipping schedules are similar by any means I might have photos of my frame on the blog before the end of the week. If the schedules are not then there might be photos of me crying in my coffee this Friday.

One element of bad news is that I hardly have any parts to mount to the frame whence it arrives. You've already seen the photographic evidence proving thusly. The only thing I can really do this week is mount up this awesome piece of hardware that Admiral Ackbar, Sponsor Liaison and Equipment Acquisitions Director, acquired late last week.

What you are looking at is a Cane Creek 1.5" 110 XX lower cup mated to a 1 1/8" Zero Stack 110 upper cup. If you've got a bike, especially a modern type cycling device with quirky headset needs, then Cane Creek has the headset for you. Don't know which headset you need and your LBS doesn't have a nifty Gary Gauge to help you figure it out? Cane Creek has their handy dandy online headset fit finder to help you fulfill your headset desires.

My 110 tapered-happy headset is very sexy and something I can actually mount up as soon as the frame shows up. Admiral Ackbar's absolute favorite Cane Creek product? Why of course...

So when I get back from Breckenridge on the 28th the plan is to build the Tallboy over the next five days, test ride it in the backyard, and take it to the Shenadoah 100 to get it's virgin ride knocked out in true Santa Cruz Hell Ride style. That is assuming my DT RWS thru bolt compatible Industry Nine rear wheel shows up and George "El Diablo" Wissell at Bike29 can procure the currently unobtainable bits of 2X10 SRAM technology that may or may not be at the distributors in time.

My fate lies in this man's hands.

Perhaps that's why I've been having trouble sleeping at night.