Foreplay

...see what I did there?

Devil's Advocate

I love Toronto's scene. That's why I'm always critical, because I want to see it back at the lofty heights it reached before. If I come off as being overly harsh to Dropmachine or Pinkbike, so be it, I want things to change.

By extension, I want to support Canada's small-time bike scene in any and every way possible. I'm waiting for the day I can proudly say I bought a local frame. As some of you know, all of my life I've been riding Specializeds. I love the feel, and with the most recent iteration, I feel like I'm riding the best street...er....streat frame out there today. But come on, I'm riding a frame designed in California and welded in Taiwan. Hard to be proud of that.

Enter Dobermann bikes. They founded their company on the premise of not being a big guy, like Specialized is. They brought with them the new school of street geo, high BB, tiny back ends, and steep head angles. Really continuing where Norco left off with their Reynolds frames. But front and centre was the idea of customer service. You bust their shit? OK, they'll weld it up. Alain and Gabo prowl Pinkbike, looking for their beloved Dobermann name. They do custom shizz, if you so desire it. This, to be perfectly honest, is the frame I'd like to be riding. Specialized geo made in Canada. Perfect.

Look around online. No, look at Pinkbike. The Dobermann riders are essentiall an army of yes-men, and ANY criticism of the company or frames, no matter how trifling, and you are swarmed with angry Dobermann riders. This is where I come in. It's come to my attention that Alain wants to discuss my Dober-hating. Well then...

I want to see Dobermann progress into more than just "the next .243". I choose to criticize because I want to see them move forward. If no-one lights a fire under their asses, they'll get lazy and stop progressing, only to become stagnant like .243. Are they even still in business? Who knows?! That's my point. Don't want to see another promising Canadian brand go down the tubes. Yes, I am very often hard on them, but someone has to be. Not everyone has the online confidence or online eloquence (if I do say so myself) to speak against them like I do. So obviously I have to be the Devil's Advocate in almost every case.

Alain, ya dig?

Spots!

Bickford, at Christie and Bloor, is a freakin' goldmine. No pics, sorry. I have a massive headache.

Tomorrow 12-1PM Dairy Queen @ Pottery Rd.

Meet there for a downtown ride.

You saw my bike, now check out the progress of team rider Khaled's Riot:


Still waiting on a few parts, but that's the rough essence of it. Black Market Riot, rawed with hints of paint throughout, baby blue bits and pieces, freecoaster and peg. Mounts castrated as needed.

The ride

Done, for now.

I'll do a full bikecheck later, maybe tomorrow.

Putting the gears on was interesting. There are a few tough points. First off, running gears with BMX cranks and a singlespeed hub is never easy. The cranks, Primo Powerbites, run a 22mm spindle, so that made my choices a bit harder. There is only one sprocket on the market that clears a 22mm spindle and will play nice with a 9-speed chain, so that was an easy choice. Profile Imperial. Luckily I got one of the few Imperials that Ten Pack Distribution had left after they dropped Profile, a 33t polished Imperial. Sick! The singlespeed hub really just means it's dishless, so since it has room for a 6-speed cassette, I reduced a SRAM PG-950 that I got for a steal.

What was tricky was the chainguide. Firstly, I had to add some spacers on the driveside, between the BB and crank arm, because otherwise the sprocket bolt would grind against the LG-1 backplate. I also had to run the LG-1 top guide higher than I otherwise would've, because the Primo crank arms would rub against the lower part of it if I ran it as it should be run with a 33t ring.

Next up, limiting the X.0 proved impossible. Because of the design, the easy limiting method, playing with the limit screws, meant that when reduced to 6-speed, it just wouldn't shift down. Impractical to say the least. So now I just have to be vigilant enough not to shift down too much.

More later. So proud of it right now.

Revised Cove Foreplay

This is some unoffical shit right here. TS exclusive, don't think anyone else has even noticed. Check those dropouts. those look like sliding dropouts? Keep your eyes on Cove.

Word of warning

Be very careful about who you let represent you.

Duke's Cycle: Go fuck yourselves. You have done nothing to earn my money, I will never go back. I don't care if every other shop in the city closes, I'll walk to Eastside in K-W. If the topic of your service, screw it your store, should EVER come up in conversation, I will tell people about how you fucked me over. Give me a single good reason not to, please. I held off on publicizing this, when mentioning the situations you put me in to friends, I defended your bullshit until I couldn't possibly justify it to myself.

Specialized: You guys have kept your word and hooked me up with new frames, against all odds (dents, long forks, etc.). For this I am extremely grateful. I'll do my utmost to tell people about the generosity of your warranty. I love the way the frames ride, how the frames are designed (mostly...), and the light weight. But DAMN, Duke's has made me seriously reconsider riding a Specialized.

General public: Stay the fuck out of Duke's. There was one employee who was a decent dude, who kept me posted...he left the shop and with him left any customer service. They never told me they got my frame, they never started to build it, you name it. Stay out at all costs.

Core site is up!

Go click that big-ass link over there!

To whom it may concern

Vanderhoof skatepark is good to go. A few puddles but nothing major.Go get rad!

A Microcosm

The cat comes out of the bag, bit by bit. My fork of choice, a Rockshox Pike 426 Air U-turn. Strongest of the Pikes, most adjustable, and lightest of the adjustable. Comes in at a decent weight.
I took the stickers off(OK, I scratched them half off on concrete in a few months and said fuck it, I'll clean this up a bit...), decided to throw on a CORE sticker (just looks so good on there, it's a new trend!). This time around, after killing the second set of seals, I asked Mr. Leimonis to lower it a bit. He did. Then I chopped an inch off the steerer and replaced the stock starnut with a normal one.

Therein lies the funny bit. I really didn't save much weigh with the chopping and starnut. 21g, great. I've seen heavier sneezes. But now, I can run fewer spacers, which is stronger and cleaner-looking, and a chrome Chris King topcap I've had stashed for 6 months, which will match my stem. And speaking of the weight - these things add up!
So saving 21g really let me save another 25g on top of that. Funny how these these work out.

Regrets

I feel like I owe Specialized an apology. The shop I've been dealing with (they'll remain nameless unless they REALLY fuck up) has been thoroughly incompetent and careless, and made it seem like Specialized's fault. When really, despite their reputation as being a corporate monster (which is definitely deserved), they have an awesome warranty policy.

Dented, cracked bike that's 3 years old, that has been running a fork 40mm longer than stock? Sure, we'll warranty it! Matter of fact we'll give you a brand new, 2008 frame, a P3 instead of a P2! Cracked that one? Alright, we'll give you another one, just wait two months.

And sure enough, they did ship it at the end of February, and it was the most desired, popular frame they've released in the P.line yet. Matter of fact if they released it as frame only, it would sell out in days. Anyway, they got it to me as promised, yet I've been chirping them online and in person. You may think 2 months is a while to wait for a frame that's been out since November (Hell how do you think I feel?), but they got it to me right when promised.

So props, Specialized, for having better customer service than certain companies (ahem Dobermann) who built their brand on having awesome, non-corporate, policies.

Pics soon.

Customer Service Tip:

If you make a loyal customer wait 2 months for a frame that's been out since November....












...Make sure it's in one piece when it arrives.

Madness of all kinds

So I dropped by Core bike shop today, while not in class. Still fucked over because of the flood, but Chris still greets with a smile and handshake. Even when the ceiling, floor, and walls are torn up, and the place looks like a biohazard quarantine.

So we're talking, and I mention I am still waiting on a frame from Specialized (Come on, Spez, get it together! You've been shipping 09 frames since November!), so what does Chris do? Grabs his Norco 250, asks me if I want to take it for a spin. Now this isn't just any spin, he tells me to go cruise around for a few hours and get rad, do some long fakies on his freecoaster, hell take the entire afternoon on it. I mention I have class, he asks if I have anywhere safe to put it during class.

Now you're probably missing the full significance of this. Chris lends me his personal bike to someone he KNOWS is hard on wheels (who do you think deals with my wheels? Only the best) at the best of times, who he KNOWS hasn't ridden in a few months, who has no experience with a freecoaster whatsoever. He lends his bike out for a few hours, itending me to ride it like I'd ride my own (but obviously not as well). Amazing or insane, you choose.

I had a blast, rode really fast, rode a new spot (very badly), and when I gave the bike back, my palms were aching for the first time this year. Bam. Can't wait until I've got a bike to ride, and until the Bike show.


Signs the apocalypse is upon us....people are now weighing their clothes. T1's little joke could not have come at a better time.

Custom, part III

On my extensive travels around the internet, I've come across some neat part tuning. Let's forget about Greg Melms, he deserves a post or two unto himself.

First off....Derailleurs. From MTBr:

Just to show how easy it is these days to get a reall light rear derailleur:

DA 7900 standard: 165g
pictured are all standard parts which later get replaced: 45g
tuning parts: 21g
removed cable adjustement bolt. not needed since you still have barrell adjusters on the shifters.
tuned DA7900: 143g

Note that i still use the standad plates. There's lighter carbon plates available but i still have them on my old DA...those should be another 5g lighter or so. i just thought that close to 140 is low enough. I also didn't install the Titanium spring. I would have needed to modify it too much since it didn't fit perfectly...so i still use the almost 2g heavier standard spring instead.

the DA once again fits perfect also with a 11-32 cassette in the back.

He later on mentions buying his parts at Toronto-Cycles, the weight weenie's paradise. Crazy that he could drop 22g off of Shimano's top road derailleur, crazy that there's more weight to be lost, just plain crazy...I worked out that I could get my X.0 into the 160g range. Such an expensive, addictive game.

Wheels! Still from MTBr:

Ok... looks like the forum seems to be slow these days with un-interesting posts. I just received these pictures from Jeremy over at http://www.alchemybicycleworks.com/

He just finished my latest wheel build and should be shipping them out to me shortly (so don't ask about ride impressions as I haven't received the wheels yet, and it is -9C outside (15.8F for the imperial users)

-"tuned the cassette body by replacing the stock 6902 bearing with a lighter 6802 bearing"
-"replaced the non-drive bearing with a ceramic hybrid"
-"internally butted the rear axle"


The build specification:

Front wheel:
Tune King Hub 28h (tuned)
28x PST TB 1422 Pillar Titanium bladed spokes
28x Aluminum Anodized Gold Nipples
Alex XCR Disc Rim 28h

Rear wheel:
Tune Kong (tuned) w/ Titanium Freehub Body
32x PST TB 1422 Pillar Titanium bladed spokes
32x Aluminum Anodized Gold Nipples
Alex XCR Disc Rim 28h

Total weight = 1185g

Absolutely ridiculous. Tune makes the lightest of the light stuff, and yet he manages to drop 6.5g off the front hub, and 15.7g off the rear hub. Attention to detail, mind-blowing. Just for some perspective...If he put on two Eclipse tubes and two Schwalbe Furious Fred tires, his complete wheel build would weigh 1887g. I weighed my rear wheel with tire, tube, cog, spacers, and chain tugs a while back...2175g. To be fair to myself, chances are he doesn't subject his wheels to what I do, and since then I've learned a bit about wheels and my next build would probably weigh in at around 2kg clean, but....damn.

I could add more, but I won't.

Back at long last

Speaking of stalled-out...

My favourite website ever, Grindstate, had been down for....a year now? Back at long last.