Work has been incredibly busy the last few weeks and hadn't much time to blog. Doesn't mean I'm not biking. Last Saturday, I did a brutal 20 mile SS mtb ride. It was brutal for a few reasons. 1. I had wings for dinner the night before. 2. I was out late. 3. I'm still getting used to the 32x19 gearing I started running. Nothing like knowing you can do more but, your body telling you, "NO!" I guess every now and then you need a reminder that diet is just as important as riding all the time.
The next day we did a 52 mile road, rail trail, and singletrack ride. We were supposed to do a century but, it got pushed back so others could have time to get in shape for it.

It was nice to have my road bike stripped of all it's commuting gear. It's nice and light now. We did have one flat on pavement about 30 miles in. Not on the single track with big rocks and roots everywhere. On the paved rail trail right after someone made a comment about a flat...

Of course the spare tube had a slit in it and we wasted a CO2 on it before we discovered that. Luckily, I always carry a pump and CO2. I've had my share of CO2 failures and pump failures to know better. Once we discovered the slit, I patched the original tube and we were on our way.

While I was going downhill on one section of road I was close to 38 mph and I started getting crazy front wheel wobble. Scared the crap out of me. I never experienced it before so naturally, I loosened my grip and took weight off the front while braking, making it wobble even worse. I thought I was going to be skinned alive. I finally managed to slow down enough for it to stop. Later on I researched it and found out that you need to add more weight to the front and grip the frame with your knees and hope that fixes it. Scary.

A few weeks ago my wife's uncle gave me a 1989 Trek 1100 aluminum framed road bike with a cromo fork. It rides beautifully. Since, it was just sitting in my shed and I liked having my specialized without all the commuting crap on it. Yesterday, I decided to set it up for commuting for a while. At least until after our century.

I think I need a shorter stem on it but, I'll ride it a week and see. I might just need to raise up the current one. I need to get a battery for the computer and see if that works, too.

My wife wanted to go for a ride yesterday so, I took her to the local rail trail. I took the Dolomighty. You get lots of stares and smiles on that thing.

Finally today, me and a friend took a trip to Delaware to ride White Clay State Park. I love that place. It's pure trail bliss. IMBA helped in building it and the Trailspinners do a fantastic job of keeping up with it. A lot of skinnies throughout the park, rollers, climbs, creek crossings, a skills park and about 30 miles of trails. Can't beat it.

I just love my Raleigh XXIX. It's pretty much perfect. I would like to put a 180mm rotor in the front but, other than that I think it's my perfect bike.

How to drill your rims.

We've all seen the "holes in the rim" look seen all those expensive fat bikes. Well, You can do that yourself, on the cheap, and save some weight. Here's how to do it:
1. Take the wheel off the bike.
2. Take the tire, tube, and rimstrip off the rim.
3. Mark out your center holes. They should be equally spaced between each spoke, like so

I kept away from the tubes valve hole. the 1.5" just seemed too close. I heard you could use a 1'' one but, I didn't have one on me.
I set my wheels on my workbench, pressed up against the wall, on two 2x4s to give me a flat and steady surface to work with. This kept me from bending the brake rotor or putting unstable pressure on the axle.

4. Take a small drill bit and drill out a pilot hole. You do this to ensure accuracy of the hole saw

5. Take a bit larger than the one you just used but, smaller than the hole saw drill bit, and drill your pilot holes bigger. You do this to make sure the hole saw bit doesn't catch, bind up, and break.

6. Get an 1.5" hole saw and a drill. I used an electric drill. I knew it'd be a lot of drilling and the batteries on my drill aren't the best, anymore. The benefit of a battery drill would be instant stop when you let go of the trigger. While the electric one keeps spinning for a while. I use these things all the time at work and have the feel for it so, I knew I'd be safe.

7. It's going to get messy. Put a sheet down to catch all the metal shavings.
[Not the one off your bed. That'll pis your wife or mom off}
8. Drill, baby, Drill! I kept the rim secure by having it on the floor between my legs. Worked fine. Make sure as soon as the hole saw goes through you pull it back up. It'll mangle your spokes if you don't. You also want to drill straight down. Not like it looks in the picture. That was for illustration purposes only. Also, spray some oil on the rim where you are drilling. It'll save your bit and it'll cut quicker.

9. Once you're done drilling, go back onto your 2x4 platform and take a rounded file and get rid of all the extra metal hangnails. Smooth out the edges of your holes. I picked up this file at a home improvement store for 8 bucks.

10. Give the rims a good wipe down from all the metal shavings. Inside and out.
11. Now you need to cover the holes with something. Some people use gift wrapping ribbon for special colors. I thought about white but, it would get really dirty and I didn't want to have to take them apart all the time. I stuck with a black waterproof gorilla duct tape. I wrapped around the rim twice with the black side facing the holes. I put the rimstrip then over the duct tape.

12. Replace tube and tire and you're ready to roll!

Now everyone will want to ride your fattie!

The Beast...errr... Dolomite has arrived!

And it's sweet! Sweet looking at least. I only got to ride it from the back to the front of my shed, so far.
I was busy the first night tearing things apart and regreasing everything. I swapped out the handlebars, pedals, brake levers, and stem for stuff I had laying around. The fact that I can do this is one of the reasons this bike is better than your other Walmart bikes. The BB5's I was planning on using didn't work with the brake mounts. So This morning before work I quickly swapped the stock ones back on. They work pretty well. I've been planning on upgrading my SS's rotors to something higher; at that point I'll use those mounts and put the BB5's on. I need to get some seat post shims so I can use the one I have laying around. I'll probably wake up early again tomorrow and work on it for a few minutes before work.

The frame had some skuffs on it from packaging I imagine. Stickers are a little bubbly. I'm probably going to rip those off and have a "Walgoose" sticker made or something to make it look like it was an expensive bike.

I planned on getting starting on drilling out the wheels tonight but, our sink drain started leaking so I had to attend to that. Of course I had everything but, the one little washer that makes all the difference in the world. Such is life.

Dolomite is on it's way!

My Mongoose Dolomite should be here the end of the day on the 11th! Can't wait. I already got my spare parts waiting on the work bench to go on it. I'm going to drill the wheels out per fat-bike.com's instructions before I even put them on. Of course once I get it, spring will be rearing it's beautiful head around the corner. Average temp for the beginning of this week will be in the 50s. I'm actually going to be able to shed some layers for the commute in to work! Of course by the end of the week there is a chance of snow with lows in the 20s.
Speaking of commuting. I got a flat tire on the front last week. I fixed it rode it a few times, just went out to the shed to toy around and it was flat again. ugh. There are a cuts in the tire. So I switched out the Mavic Aksion tire that came with the rim to a more burly 25mm all weather tire that came with the bike when I got it. Hopefully, I like it. I think I should be rolling on a fatter tire anyway. Anyone have a recommendation on a 28c tire?
Remember my cracked shoe? Well I finally took it to the LBS. I thought I was going to have to take it in and wait for the Mavic rep to look at it for the warranty stuff. That's the way the LBS made it sound. So I was going to wait til it was warmer and could switch out to my too snug road shoes. I decided to take them in on Saturday. He swapped them out for a brand new pair of a different model. saweet! New stuff is always fun!

Now available

The Mongoose Dolomite is now available at Walmart.com Mine is expecting to be here on March 17th. bummer it can't be sooner!

Mongoose fat bike (s) recap

Last Thursday, Mongoose and Walmart released the 20" Mongoose Massif.

This obviously made everyone waiting for the Dolomite refresh Walmart's page a million times a day. A couple people were able to pre-order the Dolomite direct from Pacific Cycles last week. Rumor is that they shipped them out to Walmart now and pre-ordering is no longer an option. Hopefully, that means this week we can order them at some point. Price rumor is under 250$ A test rider for Mongoose has given us the frame specs which are:
24" effective top tube
19" chain stays
70d head tube angle
73d seat tube angle
Will have the same tires as the beast
Full alloy 1 1/8" stem
Hubs are steel nutted disc freewheels

fat-bike.com reported a spy shot of another Mongoose fat bike that's supposed to come out later this year. Yes, that will be three new fat bikes this year from Mongoose. This is a sub 1k$ bike with a 10 speed Shimano drivetrain. You can check that out here I'll be interested to see the actual price point and full specs and see how it compares to the sub 1500$ bikes and if having the Mongoose name will be a deciding factor for some people. Me? I can't justify that kind of money for a bike I won't use all the time.

Walmart fat bike

So, this is interesting.
 Rumor on the streets is Mongoose will be releasing a sub 300$ fat bike called the "Dolomite." Sporting a 1x7 drivetrain, threadless fork, and disc brakes. Supposed to be available Feb. 23. Now I know what you're thinking! A Walgoose? Come on! Well, the original Mongoose beast has a cult following. A cult following that has welded on their own disc mounts, v-brake mounts, who knows what else. I've seen people who've cut them in half and welded them back together to make them longer.All while laughing and having fun. I could see myself having fun on this... Especially at night during snow storms. Cruising around empty Main St.  Will it turn around your hatred for Walgooses, or fan the flames?