JaBronSSon Bjorn

Sunday morning. Wake up in the back of the Honda Fit of Rage. Watts makes me coffee... again. So nice.  Say my goodbyes and head back to Charlotte.  First stop?  The grocery store so close to my house I could walk but I drive directly there instead.  Buy one of those place-and-bake pizzas and wander the aisles looking for a one liter bottle of Coke.  I give up after a minute after finding twelve packs, tiny six packs, two liters... I just want one liter.  Guess I'm just eating pizza all day with no Coke.

I was coming back home to a certain amount of efforts, domestic and bike related.  The lawn needed harvested, and with the family outta town and due back soon, I needed to get the house in a state of order that looked like I at least made an effort while they were gone.  Bake the pizza while I take a shower and put it on the stove top when it's done for easy all-day grazing access.

First on the bike cycle list was figure out why my rear wheel was wobbly towards the end of PMBAR.  Clean off the Pisgah mud/dirt/horse poop and pop the wheel out.  Bad bearing on the non-drive side.  Easy fix... had I remembered to put the axle back in before I installed a new bearing.  Doh.

Fortunately, it was a dry PMBAR.  That's all I had to do to make the Vertigo Meatplow V.7 ready for its next adventure.

Next?

Turn the JaBronson into a JaBronSSon.

A pretty straight forward thing to do... sorta.  The bike was only semi-assembled after getting back from Sedona.  I'd ordered an oval ring from Bike Source, but it wasn't in yet, so the crank went back on with the Eagle ring still mounted.  Meh.

I made sure to let all the air outta the rear shock when I measured the chain to allow for chainstay length growth at maximum travel.  All said and done, I might be able to take another link out, but I was too stupid to read all the instructions while putting everything together.

Had I seen that, setting the chain length woulda been way easier. That spring is t-i-g-h-t tight.  Everything all assembled, ride it around in front of the house... my legs hurt.  Meh.

Go back in and hang it on the wall.

Since the family wasn't coming back until Tuesday night (Monday evening was reserved for heading to the stores to replenish the empty cupboards/fridge), I was able to squeeze in a quick Backyard Trail sesh for a few minutes.  Last night, I got a bit of a longer ride in after work.  How did all that go?

1. The chain stayed on.  I know BYT ain't Pisgah, but I hit the highest speed stuff out there, launched off the cannon jumps, and did what I could to slam the dangly bit around.

2. The tensioner does make a thwack noise springing back into place after bigger hits.  I'll get used to it?

3. I dunno about the 32X19 gear.  It's similar to what I ran on the Stickel Meatplow V.6 tho.  There is more than a chance that my legs are still pretty fatigued from PMBAR, so I'll keep giving it a chance for awhile.  Mebbe the oval will make a difference here?

4. Weight.  Right around 27lbs.  This is probably about the same as the Stickel with a Pike and less than my first custom single speed (26" wheeled steel Spicer with a 130mm Manitou Minute fjork).  Another reason to blame my tired legs and not the bike for the slow going.

5. I felt way more at home without all the thinking about shifting.  I could concentrate more on carrying speed, ratcheting the pedals through technical sections, and getting droopy.  I'm not saying gears are stupid.  I'm saying that I'm too stupid for gears.

All you haters can have your say.

"You ruined a perfectly good bike."

"You're a fucktard."

Etc.

I bought this bike for a few reasons:

1. To go to Pisgah (and similar) and rip descents slightly faster than I would on a hard tail with a bit more safety and comfort.

2. To take a break from riding rigid from time to time in order to mix it up.

3. Slow rides with friends locally where pleasure is of the highest order.

This bike still does that, so there's that.

I like my Peanut M&M's with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, my hats tiny, and my bikes single.  In the words of the modem philosopher Sheryl Crow, "If it makes you happy, everyone else can suck your balls."