Sunday, October 21, 2012

explaination.

I just glossed over some things.

Back in 09 I was riding the Miyata that I bought off Craigslist. But I was unhappy with the performance of the brakes. So I pulled together my spare change and bought from a friend a used 1x1 frame. I had taken a wheel building class and with the newfound confidence built a set of three leading three trailing wheels. It looks as good as you'd expect. geared 1:2.15 with 170mm cranks I am pretty happy with the set up. I have battered rack bolted on and collapsable wire basket zip tied to it on the non drive side. Mostly, the bike was built from parts from the SBR or bought/bartered from other's reserves. The bike has mismatched 160mm  disc brakes.

We bought my wife a Long Haul Trucker and promptly changed the handle bars over and again till we found the set up she liked. Midline levers were as important as anything in making the noodle bars comfortable. It started off life with us with the MKS battle ax pedals and we switched them out for mks tourers. And we took the v brakes off the Instigator and got rid of the crap oryx that the bike came with.

The Instigator has an enabler fork on it and I have sewn a frame bag. I don't have a rack on this bike anymore, it never was made to have one and was battle against its nature. The enabler fork improved the handling I think, and I usually ride it as a 69er. I upgraded from the v-brakes to bb7s. I keep turning to this bike for riding single track. I tear through the woods, crashing on occasion, without worry--this bike is nearly bombproof.

Last summer I borrowed a friend's Pugsley and fell in love with the platform. I learned a few things along the way. Hydraulic brakes for example are great when they work, but if the line pops--then you are screwed. Late in July I was looking on craigslist and found one for a song. I've been commuting on this primarily since, and every ride is giggles. The bike came to me single speed, 36x18 with a second cog for 36x20. The bike looks like an 09 model? When I bought it the handlebars were at a bizarre angle that seemed completely unnatural. I left them in case the guy I bought it from was on to something. Seems he was. I have adjusted my other flat bars to match now. Climbing is more comfortable with smiling bars. Today I gave it fangs.

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