Simplified

Even though I will not get the chance to ride the Misfit diSSent Brontoawesomeous Meatplow V.5 until the weekend, I couldn't wait to address my braking issues.  Had it not been for a Faster Mustache: Charlotte meeting of great importance regarding our Tour duh Charlotte race on Sunday night, I woulda already had it fixed.

Take out the pads.  Very glazed.  Somewhat short on pad material.  Highly suspect.

Look at the rotors.  Very schmeary.  Somewhat suspect.

Alcohol and emery cloth to the rotors.  Same for the brake pads.

Pads on the left; the more ineffective rear, post-treatment.

Pads on the right; the more effective but much noisier fronts, pretreatment.

It wasn't until after I sanded one set of pads when I noticed the braking material was almost, if not all the way worn down to the thickness of the spring.  Time for new pads.
New pads, clean rotors, some bedding in the pads in front of my house (I often wonder what the neighbors think I'm doing... sprinting, applying brakes, sprinting...).  No more noise, superior braking power, ready for a much better ride experience.

I'm not sure where I'm going this weekend, but I will be riding this:

Here's how I feel about rigid single speeding, and why I haven't done it since Sept 8th, 2012 at the Fool's Gold 50.

photo cred: Joe Cattoni

I love riding a rigid single speed more than any other form of cycle sporting.  The connection to the trail, the direct feedback (both positive and negative), the simplifying of a beautiful thing down to the bare minimums.  Back in October when I sent my frame away to be refinished, I thought it would be just a short time before I would see it again.  In the meantime, I had the Scott Genius which needed to be ridden and the Dickstickel Meatplow V.6 set up in fall/winter mode.  What's that exactly?

I decided I will no longer ride rigid in the mountains when the trails are leaf covered.  It's just too sketchy to be fun (dangerous?) when you can't see the junk through the fallen foliage, especially when you tend to choose the harder trails Pisgah has to offer.  The character of many of the best Pisgah trails has changed a lot in the last decade or so... the erosion has been wicked.  So the Dickstickel Meatplow V.6 had a Fjox fjork on it, and the only thing that kept me from swapping it to rigid once and awhile was extreme laziness and the expectation that my Misfit would be back at any moment.

Then I got bored, bought the FSR EVO 29'er, rode it, and patiently waited.  Dead sailor drops to flat, mindless blasting down the mountains, able to keep my fellow fast squishie friends at least in sight, enjoying what it was.  A diversion.   A toy.  A motorless motorcycle.

So the plan for now?

Ride the rigid SS as much as possible.  I've gotten soft.  Time to HTFU (harden the frok up).

Then...

more than likely race the Fjox fjork equipped Dickstickel Meatplow V.6 at Pisgah Production events.  Being competitive in Pisgah (the real Pisgah) on a rigid, albeit crabon frok is a tall order.  All other events will be contested on the "new and improved" Misfit diSSent Brontoawesomeous Meatplow V.5... save for the Pisgah Productions Double Dare in November.  Since my Double D partner will be riding a shifty/squishy in her quest for the Queen of Pisgah title, I may try to match her efforts on my FSR EVO... assuming it hasn't been sent to the auction block for liquidation by then.

One more timely thing:

My second SchwagBox showed up late last week.  That's what was inside... minus the worn out brake pads, blue masking tape, and Topeak digital torque wrench.  On a Schwagbox related post on Bike Rumor, one reader commented, "Still feel,it is not worth it. I received box #2. Doesn’t seem like even $5 worth of stuff."

I wondered that myself.

Fortunately one slightly more anal reader with way more time on his hands than I have did the research.

"The Feb definitely has at least $10 worth of stuff. The Fluid single use sell for $12/8 ($1.50 each) as do the Camelbak cleaning tabs. Two of both is $6. The Justins Nut Butters typically sell for $0.9 – $1 each and there are two of those. That makes it $8 total now. The bike wash is $10 for a bottle that looks to be 8-10 oz, so the 2-oz is ~$2 worth. That puts us at $10 before adding in the packet of coffee and the wipe."

There you have it.

Myself, I'm holding onto the hydration product samples until I start doing longer, slightly more intense rides to see what works, what doesn't, and what I might try to use when the "season" begins. 

I'm thinking tomorrow will be peanut butter and gel sandwich for lunch.

So much win I can't understand why anyone would want to lose.