New Tires On The Funk!

I have had a problem, lately, with flats on the Funk. The old Ritchey SpeedMax 35s were wearing thin, and the sidewall was beginning to fail on the rear. So, I decided to finally install the Bruce Gordon Rock and Roads that I got on a trade with Brad. 

The R&R's are considerably beefier, but don't seem that much heavier. Tomorrow's commute will tell the tale on that. That is, if I do commute by bike tomorrow. I'm pretty worn out from cutting down a dead tree, in my front yard!

Anyway, whenever I commute next, I'll know if the extra girth of the tire has any effect. I suspect that it won't. 

I certainly like the looks of the new tires on the bike. 

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A Month Later ... Some Musings and Some Bike News

As you probably know, the word "blog" is shorthand for web-log. A log, according to Webster's, in addition to being a bulky part of a fallen tree, is defined as "a record of performance, events, or day-to-day activities". In other words, a more mature-sounding diary. It is as such that I even continue to post on Two Wheels/Six Strings. I get the feeling that, if I were trying to reach an audience, I would just be shouting into the wind. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc., have stolen most of my audience away. The lack of inquiry as to where I have been, for the past month, certainly illustrates that. In the old days, readers would come knocking if I passed a week without a post.

But, I find it is nice to be able to look back at certain times and events, and see some day-to-day detail that might otherwise be lost to my memory. So, I continue to blog, even though it is certainly no longer cool, or stylish, to do so.

It's been a hectic month at work, and in my personal life. I have built and/or modified a few bikes for people. Steve and Adam and I have played 3 or 4 shows. I've broken and fixed two of my Gibson guitars (Cooper's neck and one of the volume pots on the Bigsby-equipped Flying V). So, I have let the blog languish.

Last week, though, I modified one of my own bikes, and I now think it is 98% perfect.  What's not perfect? I'll get to that...

Here is the bike of which I speak, before I worked on it:

 It is, of course, my old "Motobecane" aluminum 29er frame, with the 650b (27.5") x 2.8 tires on it. I did not like the suspension fork, so I hemmed and hawed about taking it off. But, I was thinking I needed a "modern" mountain bike.

Then, I happened across this bike, on a website somewhere:

 

Photo from www.bikerumor.com

This is the Marin Pine Mountain 1. It is basically a steel version of my bike, with a rigid fork, and a 1x11 drivetrain. It has "Plus-sized" 650b tires, and it is the first new mountain bike in years to make me sit up and take notice.

So, I pulled the Rockshox fork off of my bike, and replaced it with my old cro-mo VooDoo rigid fork.

 

It's as modern as the Pine Mountain 1, now, even with my preferred fork. (I know it's weird to worry about such designations, but that's just how my brain works.)

So, what's not perfect about it? For one thing, I think I want to put some more upright bars on it, just to differentiate it from my other bikes, a bit. Every bike I own has either mustache bars, or some kind of dirt-drop style bar on it.

For another, I would like to have some wider rims to make the big tires even fatter. I am currently running rims which measure 24mm, on the outside width. But, I will have to wait until I happen up on a bargain on wheels or rims. Right now, the wider versions are way outside of my budget.

The last, but not least, thing that's not perfect, however, I can't fix. I wish it was a steel frame, rather than aluminum. There is no real reason for that; the aluminum frame is fine. It has a nice ride feel, handles well, and looks fine. I just have a little thing for steel mountain bikes.

The easy fix would be to buy the Marin. But, that's a thousand dollars I don't have, right now. So, I'll ride the old faithful aluminium beast, for a while, and consider myself lucky that I have it!

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