Showing posts with label SS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SS. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Checking out the trails

I figured I was due to see what the trail out to Eagle Lake was looking like. I also checked out the local recycling yard, but not a single bike to be found. For some reason, all photos in this post are Sepia. The trail has a center hard packed section from foot traffic. It's nice that it's hard packed as the rest of the snow is very deep, but, it's also ridiculously rough. I mean sitting while riding is painful. Standing up absorbs more bumps, but even that gets fatiguing very quickly.

The beginning of the trail to Eagle lake
Obligatory bike in the trees shot
The trail back to work
Trail behind me, this afternoons tasks ahead
Quite a casual, but relaxing ride. Bikes are fun.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Odyssey Straddle Rod

Until recently, I never even knew these things existed. The straddle rod replaces your straddle cable and cable hanger with some nice shiney bits of aluminum and steel. They allow fine tuning of your cantilever brakes and compensate for cable stretch. While I do think that you can get away from much of the issues associated with Canti-brakes if your initial installation and setup is done properly, these straddle rods do give an extra little bit of precision in setting up your brakes. On top of that, they look cool. Everyone likes hanging a little bling (or at least some interesting parts) on their bikes right? I’ll be re-building my pink S/S bike and these bad boys will help dress it up a bit, while keeping with the “old school mtb S/S” theme (no carbon fiber). Think a totally rad mountain bike from the early 90s. yeah
The pink bike was a bike that I found at the local recycling yard. I’ve ridden it enough to know that it is a capable, comfortable machine. Tange 5 double butted tubing, tig welded joints and made in Japan. Geometry is pretty relaxed and stable. Most importantly, the size is large and this bike fits me well. It’s just what I want in a low-cost highly capable S/S mountain bike.