shirts and schedules

It seems my recent post has triggered a blogoterrarium wide hub rebuilding party. Hub rebuilds are always fascinating. You're welcome.

On to the important stuff. I've given it an entire Big Bear Classic mug's worth of thought (normal sized mug included for scale. a big bear classic mug's worth is a lot.)


Anyway, I've given it a lot of thought this morning, and now I believe I'm ready to release the 2011 Extremely Tentative and Imminently Changing Official Knobby Meats Racing Conglomerate Schedule. That acronim would be ETICOKMRCS. (Pronounced etty-cock-merse. I know you were stumbling through it.)

Most of these dates are pulled from Mahokey's very excellent calender on XXC:

1/29 Snotcycle
3/26 Michaux Mash
5/14 Mountain State 100 (if the mysterious promoter ever puts up more info)
6/4 Mohican
6/13 Stoopid 50
7/16 Breck 100 or Single Speed Nationals
7/30 Wilderness 101
9/4 Shenandoah 100 

I'll fill in the rest of the weekends with some WVMBA, OMBC, and ABRA races (if the rumors of ski resort mountain bike events are true.)

Since I have free lodging lined up with my helper monkey Sam (the little angry faced one on the back:)


I'm planning on staying in Colorado and racing out there for a month. But I still have to pay for all those ETICOKMRCS entry fees.

I threatened to do it a while back, and now I've done it. Just in time for Giftmas, Knobby Meats shirts are on sale. Hooray! I know you're thrilled.

Everybody looks more dashing in a viking cat shirt (and the more shirts I sell, the more silly things I can write about races.) I embedded a large lime green shirt button at the top of the blog. And now we're off to the weekend. Later folks.

a really surly hub re-build

My Surly hubs are a constant pain in the ass. I've spent more time screwing around with my fixed gear wheelset than my Hope Pro IIs or Industry 9s. Anybody who says fixed gears are maintenance free is delusional. Or they ride a really creaky bike.

Anyway, before the Gnar Check was a Gnar Check, it was just a plain old lime green Cross Check.


I raced cross on it for a few months, and while I was doing the Dirty Dozen fixed, the rear hub died. Tim Carson pulled it apart, and found the bearings entirely smashed. He put some ceramic bearings in. We hoped that would solve the problem forever.

It didn't. The hubs are super finicky because they're adjustable cartridge bearings. Too tight and the wheel won't turn, too loose and rim wobbles side to side. The other day my back wheel stopped turning again. So I pulled it apart.

I didn't take any pictures of disassembly, but it's pretty simple. Unscrew all the stuff on one side of the axle and slide it out. I don't have any cone wrenches, so I used needle nose pliers.

The naked axle:


The end caps fall out when the axle is gone, and the bearings are exposed. I carefully pried the seal off the front of the bearing with a razor blade. It was very crunchy inside.


Wiped out all the crap, then packed it with a shit ton of grease. It's gonna be a long winter. The road salt'll wash out all the extra.


I worked the grease into the bearings by spinning it with my finger, then popped the seal back on and pressed it down with my finger nail. Boom. No more crunchy bearings.


Set the end cap back on the hub.


Greased the axle and slid it back in.


Then screwed everything back onto the axle.

I screwed everything together with my fingers. A wrench will make the bearings too tight when they're clamped down in the frame.

While I had the wheel off, I cleaned up my dropouts.

Same brush I use to get knots out of my hair.

Then I achieved proper chain tension by wedging a big Made in USA (Chinese round things won't work) round thing between the frame and the tire.


And then I made sure the axle nuts were tight. But my wheel always manages to slip forward at the worst times, so I went crazy and made doubly sure that everything was tight.

I stepped on that shit. With my foot. (I'm not sure how else you would step on something, but I still felt the need to specify.)

And now it's tight.

(note- You'll probably crush bearings if you step on wrenches. The torque settings on my foot are just calibrated better than most peoples.)

cross checks and bad ideas

I've been meaning to put my Cross Check on Craigslist. But I never have the motivation to type up an ad, so it's hung sadly in the work stand while I ripped around on the Crosby.

A few days ago, I picked up my Punk Bike prize that Larry at Thick Bikes had snagged for me.

GNARRRR BARRRS. yahar.

This was a game changer. Previously, I hated riding the cross check because it wasn't gnarly enough. But with gnar bars...

I started getting the bike ready. The bottom bracket was shot and wobbly, so I had to replace it. As soon as I threaded the crank puller in the non-drive side crank arm and tightened it down, it stripped. I tried all kinds of locktites and clamps to get the crank puller to hold, but it just wouldn't go.

Then I tried a gear puller:

Looked menacing, but it was also a failure.

Finally I resorted to cutting the crank arm with an angle grinder, then smacking it really hard with a hammer. If all else fails, destroy. It worked. I got the bb off, screwed in a new one, and put my old set of Race Face Turbines on.

Then I pulled the Cross Check fork off, installed my Salsa Cromoto Grande, bolted on a 50mm stem, put an WTB Exiwolf on my fixed wheelset, and mounted the Gnar Bars.

And the most gnar shredding Cross Check in the galaxy was born. Those bars are 700mm wide, and droopy on the ends:


It's so good and slack. I'm guessing it has about a 67 degree head tube angle.