More Busy

I spent most of my day in the shop building, again, today.

I converted the RockCombo to fixed gear.  In addition to removing the shifters and derailleurs, I swapped the crankset out for a single chainring Sakae crank, and I set up two sets of wheels for the bike.  In the picture, above, is the wheelset with studded tires.  I figure I will use it when there is some ice on the road, but not a lot of snow.  The Mukluk, with its 4-inch wide tires, is a bit of overkill, in those conditions.

 Here is a shot of the studded tire tread.  These are cheap (for a studded tire), and a bit heavy, but they get the job done when the roads are icy.

 This is the wheelset with standard mountain bike tires.

The Dartmoor tire, from Performance, is one of my favorite mixed-use tires.  The are smooth enough to roll pretty well on the street, but the side knobs are substantial enough to allow real mountain biking. I got these two folding tires on sale, a while back, just in case I ended up needing them.

 The wheelset with the Dartmoor tires is a bmx cruiser set.  I had to put spacers on the axle to make it fit the dropout spread on the mountain bike. The hubs are disc-compatible, and I used a TomiCog bolt-on cog.

I had originally set up a wheelset with a freehub on one side, and the TomiCog on the other.  Then, I realized that the wheels were disc-specific and the rims had no braking surface on the rim. That made the job take a bit longer than it would have, otherwise.

The gearing for both wheelsets is 40 x 18, which produces a 57.8 gear-inch final drive.  That is a bit tall for the big climbs on the trails around here, but allows for a decent speed on the street, as I go back and forth to work. (I don't take the fixed bike if I am heading for any of the steeper trails.  It is more for making easy trails a bit more of a challenge.)

I still need to get a cyclometer for the fixed bike. Other than that, the bike is finished.

I also installed the replacement Campagnolo Ergo shifter on the left side of the bar of the Red Menace III. It's nice to have the levers match, again!

It was windy as all get-out, here in Denver, today.  I was happy enough being in the shop from 9:30 to 3:30, out of the wind, and doing something productive.  I figure that I will take advantage of the warmer weather, on Sunday, to go mountain biking again.  I figure that the Super Bowl will keep a lot of people off of the trail, so I hope it will be a bit less crowded than last weekend.

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