Kogs is ready to roll

See yesterday's post for context. Volsen's Kogswell frame came on a good day. Glen was free last night. And I had time to go over to Elephant HQ. And I happen to have a six-pack of beer in the fridge and ready to roll. Glen transferred the components on my MB2 and to the new frame in record time. I fussed and did tire stuff and some light and rack fussery. But really, my main value is in helping fill Glen's mind with my endless chatter. He needs that.

Here it is. I ended up putting a normal post on it and tweaking the bar height a bit. It's super comfy, though I might bring the bars down a hair more to optimize for trail chicanery.

I think I'll keep this a while. Of course, I always think that during the honeymoon phase, but this is a hard bike to argue with: good angles, nice rackage, integrated lights/fenders, good fit. And really, the wheel size (559) just seals the deal for me. This really puts the nail in the coffin for the RB-1. 

There's a lot going on there. Click for big. 

Speaking of angles. On paper, I'm pretty sure this frame was supposed to have head and seat angles of 73/73. Glen measured last night at 72/74, which wasn't surprising to me at all. There's gobs of virtual ink online about how far off the mark these bikes were from the published specs.  But whatev's. I dig it.

 Glen has been tooling up the Elephant shop something fierce over the last few months. That convoluted picture shows a bit of his new Anvil jig. But I like the stand he made for it. Solid.

And this. That little box bolted to the side of the welder is a pulser. Glen is super psyched about it. As far as I can gather: it basically allows Glen to optimize the amperage for the type of weld and steel properties he's working with -- basically, the pulser makes welding quicker, cleaner, and more precise.

Fixing to commute again

There was a one-year period where I really embraced the whole fixed gear thing. That was about 8 years ago. In fact, one my first posts on this blog was about the HD trails and riding it on my Quickbeam. Like a lot of folks, I discovered the idea of fixed gear through Sheldon Brown. But the guy that really inspired me was Kent Peterson. He would post epic ride reports on the mile43 website that he did on his fixed gear bike. And I'm using that beat-to-hell term, epic, for real: we're talking about rides from Seattle to Minnesota. In like, 6 days, loaded with gear. What the hey?

After a while, I enjoyed gears and the fixed gear went away slowly. I gave my favorite fixed frame to my brother. But I ended up building up a fixed gear every spring as a way to force myself back into shape. And I've always built one up for ice riding in the winter.

So this year I put the Shogun together as my ice bike and there really wasn't any ice. I rode it to the store a couple times, but otherwise, it's just been in the way in the garage. Last night, I decided that I'd  go back to the spring-conditioning-on-the-fixed-gear-bike approach, and so I put some 32 mm Pasalas on the Shogun.

Bars are sort of jacked up. I' need to bring them in and level them off. 

I expected the commute home to suck for a number of reasons: patchy ice, my miserable out-of-shape-self. Well, that's only two reasons. But the commute ruled. All that snow you see in those pictures is barely snow. There's very little ice under it and it presents almost no resistance. Overall, my fitness level does suck, but the fixed gear really smooths out the effort, which is higher, but reasonable and consistent until you get to the hills.

The last couple miles of my commute is all climb. Not monster climb, maybe 400 feet, but it's steady with some little kickers. The fixed gear forces the hammer down. That's what I need.

I may put some CX tires on it for a bit of trail riding. That FLT section of parallel trail is kind of perfect for this bike.

When I got home, I found a package on the front porch. It's Volsen's old Kogswell. He rode the shit out of it, bringing it on his South American tour. He went through Pat's Rackufacturing Institute and built a bitchin' rack for it. I was all set to find a home for it until he reminded me that he had adapting it for 26" (559) wheels, which makes it way more interesting. It'll probably become the new trusty turd. At least for a year or so.

Here's a picture of this frame when I owned it and it had 650b's:

I think it might look like that again. But with 559s. And a single gear. Verily.

Seeing that picture reminds me of a wreck I had on that bike on the HD trails: the old front-tire wash out. Freaky stuff; I just flew like superman off the trial and down the side of the bluff. To this day, every time I go by that spot where it happened I tense up a bit.

100 calorie hill

Riding home in thick snow, then shoveling for an hour earns a "free" beer. 

The week in review

I ride down to the bus stop every morning. I leave at either 6:10 or at 6:20 depending on the bus I want to catch. It's all downhill. I think the warmest morning last week was about 10 F. The coldest was -3 F. So, I'm basically just sitting in 10 degree weather generating windchill as I coast down the hill. This set up here works pretty good and is work friendly too. It's a Lebowski sweater with a shell over the top. I'm smiling behind that gator.

Maddie made all of her valentines for her class. These are the kinds of things that this whole quit-the-fancy-job-austerity-move has made better.

Every day I get to campus by 7 AM at the latest. I sit at the same table and drink coffee and read email. I came in one morning and the shell of my TSBC pin was sitting on the table waiting for me. Sure enough, the pin (without the cover) was still attached to my backpack. You can see it in the first photo... the morning before. Good karma there. All is right again.

With the super cold comes super hard icy streets, which brings out the kicksled fun. 

Glen, Pat, and I took a spin around Rimrock this morning. Beautiful day. Glen is taking a work call here. Pat is arranging a mini photo shoot.

Houston Road.

Local color at Jenny's Diner.
Good spot, that.

A quick chub spin through the Saltese Flats Conservation Area

Maddie calls these the "Chub Bikes"

Brian hosted.

Trusty turd

The old MB-2 spends most of its old life hanging in the garage, neglected. Even though I've it pretty dialed in for a summer BMX style ride, the fact is, I just don't ride it much anymore.

But in the fall, I nerd it up and put the fenders/flaps, lights, rack, and studded tires on it. Generally, Spokane doesn't have a lot of days that require studded tires. In my experience, studded tires are excellent on ice and hard-packed snow that acts like ice. There are conditions where bits of ice lurk under fresh snow. And there's also the scenario where it's icy on the edges of the road but not on the car-part where the salt goo is applied.

All of these riding conditions are great for the old MB-2. I'm grateful for it this time of year.

Bit of snow

6:15 AM commute. All down hill.
But I still had to pedal a lot.
Much friction.

It was snowing.

This is what a picture might look like if one were to attempt to take a cell phone pic in the dark in the snow without a glove in the cold on the way down the hill after inadvertently hitting the zoom function.

Hours later. Home-bound.
See that trail? That hill? I pinned that shit.

Hill #2. See the footprints? That's not god carrying me through the hard parts.
I did not pin that shit. 

It was just above freezing on the way home, which made for crisp tracks.

The streets are hard packed snow. Unless it snows more tomorrow, I'll probably ride a studded bike.

Maddie. Barely not smiling.