To whom it may concern

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

Bike riding at long last

Occasionally, we do ride. My frame has been broken for a few months, but just today I (mostly) built my other bike. Said "Fuck it!" and rode instead of worrying about details.

The Kona you see here isn't in spring shape quite yet...she needs a chain (obviously), but that's waiting until I figure out how I'm maintaining tension, and that's waiting until I decide on a ratio. No sweat! She's also waiting on a front brake. Stay tuned, you'll get a full speclist when she's done.

TS team rider Duran produces with a footjam tailwhip in the grimy, poorly lit garage.

TS team manager and manly man CR takes a break from finding shit to blog about and chucks a tailwhip in the grimy garage. Courageous decision to wear a white shirt. Early snap from Duran, but we'll forgive him this time.

Anticipation

One of my bikes is coming together, at long last. Feeling all tingly, haven't ridden a bike of my own in a few months, haven't ridden this bike since mid-summer. So let's get some history, and pictures.

First off...history. This bike came to be courtesy a "Free Stuff" thread on Dropmachine this summer gone by. She was offered up by the user Stephen, and I quickly snapped her up. Turns out he lives close to me, so I was able to get her before he left for Fort McMurray or somewhere even more rural. Then I slapped on a few of my own parts (seat and pedals) and gaver.

At this point, she was SS, lite trials set-up...22:13 ratio, derailleur tensioner, 2 rim brakes, all fine by me, but the deal-breaker was really up front...a rigid fork, threaded, with a quill-type stem. I cannot ride rigid to save my life, and just looking at that quill-type stem, I just couldn't bring myself to spend money to remedy the problem. So she really got neglected for the most part, I rode some XC on her, rode her when my Specialized was in the shop, but really didn't like it beyond the novelty. The chain would jump all the time, and the rigid fork just killed me.

Then my Specialized frame cracked. Off to Specialized it went, and I was left, mid-summer and mid-stoke, with no street bike. So the Kona got pressed into street duty. I ditched the derailleur tensioner, turns out 22:13 is a perfect ratio with a new chain, which I bought (710SL for the Specialized). Even if I didn't really like the ride, those two weeks are really when I got an emotional attachment to the bike. She kept me riding when I otherwise would've gone crazy. Slow, unwieldy, but I still made it to every Wednesday Night Ride.

Then I got a new frame from Specialized. I haven't ridden the Kona since. That new frame is broken, no replacement for another month at least, and I've got a bike sitting in my basement. I'd really been annoyed at myself for getting this bike and not riding her, Stephen gave her up because he wasn't riding her, and here she was in my basement. Then I discovered the headtube was 1.125, not 1" as I originally thought. The rest is history...


Full specs and a full shot coming soon. Frame is a 2001 Kona Scab. She'll be built for XC and generally versatility. Finally, FINALLY, I'll be able to really ride her and enjoy it.

Here's some art.

I'm still learning to use the calculator as a medium and there's no eraser tool.