Garage Sale

Two forks:

 

1.  White Brothers Fluid 150.  20mm TA.  Just returned from full factory rebuild/relube, new seals, etc.  185mm steerer (7 3/8 inch).  Stanchions are perfect, lowers have scrapes.  Works perfectly.

$300 shipped.

2.  Marzocchi 44 TST2 120mm 15mm TA.  New uppers.  Currently set at 120mm but adjustable to 140 by removing spacer and down to 100 if you obtain the correct spacer from Marzocchi.  Lowers are scratched in places, Stanchions perfect.  210mm (8 1/4 inch) steerer.

$215 shipped

Two hubs:




Brand new never laced Gold King ISO disk 20mm front, QR rear.  32 hole.

$410 shipped, firm.

One wheelset:


Mikesee built wheelset:
Front 240 OS hub.
Rear 150mm X12mm TA 340 hub 36 tooth ratchet upgrade
Both laced with 2.0/1.8 Comps to 32 hole Gordo rim.

Both are well worn, but perfectly straight.  Some spokes are bent, the hubs are dirty, rims have lots of rock dings/scratches, but no flat spots.  The hub internals are perfect and clean.
 

The front currently has 15mm end caps, but I have the 20mm available, just specify what you want. They can also be converted to QR if you buy the caps.
$400 shipped.

One crankset:




Surly Mr Whirly 175mm cranks with BB.  Scratched, but lots of life.  5 bolt spider to fit 20 tooth and 30 tooth rings.  The rings are completely worn out and need replacing.

No idea how to price these, make me an offer.

One broken frame with very nice matching fork:




This is a size 18" Ventana El Comandante frame with color matched Zion Brand 475mm a-c steel fork with 180mm (7 inch) steerer.

This frame should not be ridden as is because it has a small un-separated crack at the HT-DT junction.  This crack is repairable by Ventana, but requires re-weld, gusset, re-heat treat and repaint.  I don't know what this costs, but probably $300-400.  Call Ventana for a quote.

The fork is perfect and matches Ventana's Cosmic Orange paint.

I will basically give this away if you cover my shipping costs +$50.  The Bushnell EBB alone sells on Ebay for about $70, but ideally I would like to see this thing repaired and ridden.

$75 for the fork.

Thanks for looking.

Fourth Ride

Today I got out to ride a super steep, loose challenging trail locally. It ascends 1000ft in about a mile. The grade is just near the maximum I can push with a single speed. If I take it slow and easy, I can barely get up it without blowing up. Some parts are steeper than I can sustain, but I can burst through them on a good day, then recover on the less steep stuff. It starts out steep immediately, so you have literally no warm up from the trailhead. Within 30 seconds my heart is near maximum.

Compounding the difficulty are two issues:
1. 70 wooden water bars, so every 25 yds or less you have to accelerate, pop the front, then the rear over a ~10" obstacle.
2. The surface is decomposed granite and extremely traction limited.



Anyway, on a good day I can clean this climb on the SS bike. I probably get through clean 1/4 tries, but I have not done it for a while.

I felt tired and weak today, too much rigid SS riding this week. Somehow I still managed to clean it New bike magic? I dunno.

Observations: The short rear really helps this sort of climbing in two ways:

1. It seems easier to pull the rear up and over when I am nearly stalled. I remember a couple instances where I was almost not moving, got the front over an eroded bar, then did a desperation lunge throwing the bike forward to get the rear over and on to a tractive surface again....it worked better than any bike I have ever ridden at that sort of thing.

2. The short rear makes it really easy to get the front up and over stuff when I am completely anaerobic and not really seeing straight. It is just one less bit of energy I have to expend to get up the trail.

I can't say I noticed increased traction with the shorter stays, but theoretically it makes sense. I would say tires have a much bigger impact.

It feels like for every 1/2" I take off the chainstay, my J/bunny hop increases 2 inches in height. Probably not the case, but it just feels like I can fly through the air.

After the one mile climb, the trail descends on loose eroded surfaces with multiple water bars. Turning around and going back up this descent presents many unclimbable (by me) obstacles, but it is always fun to try.

I got up this for the first time ever (any bike) today.



Burst and hop and hope the traction holds on the off camber surface. It was a blast.

Descending the 70 water bar trail is best experienced with as much travel as you can bring. The looseness with the short sometimes less than a one second interval between water bars means you really have to be on your toes and the forgiveness of suspension is a blessing. It's no big deal if you ride the brakes and go slow, but who want's to do that?

With this bike I definitely had to keep my head in the game. It was easy to leap over the water bars, but too much speed/air meant I was leaping, landing and two wheel skidding in to the next one without being set up for it, with no suspension to cover my mistakes. I ended up throttling back and having a fun, drifting type descent. I wouldn't say the bike was a handful, but there is no way you would want to fall asleep on it on this trail. Horses for courses; my best runs down this trail have always been on the Lunchbox....just bash through everything on the way down, keep the wheels on the ground and go.

I will be interested to repeat this ride some time with a 120mm fork on the front for comparison

Later.

Third Ride

I just got back from a regular old mountain bike ride (not a rock crawling session), and I am a little bit lost for words.

This bike was optimized for tight, very low speed technical terrain and I was concerned the geometry would lead to twitchiness or instability at higher speeds in more open terrain.

Those concerns were completely unfounded. This thing blew my doors off today. The trail I rode was not particularly technical, but had lots of ups and downs, some tight singletrack, some fast sweeping corners, and a few rock gardens. The big problem on these trails is lack of traction due to loose decomposed granite over hardpack. It allows you to have some fun drifting, or you can find yourself drifting right into a bush.

I thought the front end would push with the 16.4" chainstays, it didn't push at all. This was a total non-issue. Steering is perfect. Pumping rollers, bunny hopping, slamming around corners was just super fun. In preparing for this build, I had some other builders tell me a bike with sub 16.5" stays wouldn't corner well. I can only think they had never ridden a bike with them this short because I can't find any downside so far. Perhaps if I ran gears rather and SS and sat to climb the front would be too light, but I don't know.

Climbing steep, loose switchbacks with strategically placed water bars was a non-issue. I could do it on other bikes, but it was just so easy with this thing. I can literally stall in the middle of a climb, track stand for a few moments to catch my breath and think about it, and accelerate out of the track stand. If I stall really bad I can sort of trials hop up the obstacle pretty easily.

As far as sizing, Steve totally nailed it. We had done some measurements and I put my saddle in the center of the rails pre-build and have had no need or desire to move it anywhere. I am completely comfortable and at home in the cockpit.

The Gravity dropper got a work out today. This is my first try with their 5" design and it works as invisibly as any of their other posts.

Here is the pic of tire clearance with FR3 on a pretty wide rim, and chainstay at 16.4" The Simon Bar can not accommodate this tire at 17"!



Pic with saddle up.



Anyway, I went from merely pleased with the bike to totally exhilarated.

S

Second Ride

It rides just like we planned. Very nimble, very capable. On my initial night ride with cold weather gear it felt a bit nervous in the steering dept. On yesterday's ride in the daylight with my typical gear I felt completely and perfectly at home on the bike. I can place it perfectly where I wanted. Whatever adaptation period I needed is over.

I am extremely happy with the ride and our geometry selection. My only niggling criticism is that the front end feels flexier than the mega reinforced Simon Bar front end I have become used to. I don't know if it flexes more, but it absolutely flexes at a different (lower) frequency. It took about 1/2 hour to take that into account and all was well.

I hope it lasts me a few years because I am quite pleased with the overall package.









I even ran into a hiker in no particular hurry who was willing to take some action shots.

First ride

Arrived yesterday.

Built up in about 30 min.

Ridden in tech lion infested terrain, in the pre dawn dark in 15 degree weather for about an hour. I survived, but the camera bats died in the cold, so I stuck it in my shorts for the spin back to trail head and here is a crappy shot. I am still tweaking a few things, so no glamour shots yet. This is the basic configuration.



Steve's packing job was excellent, I've never seen its equal.

The sizing and geo look perfectly to spec. Every measurement we agreed on is dead on. Seatpost fits nice and tight, but not too tight and no slop. BB threaded in entirely by hand.

I ended up being able to use the 32X21 gearing I wanted without any modifications. Chainstay ending up 16.3" (415mm)

I compared it to the SB (which tore it up this weekend), and the cockpit is identical with shorter stem and seat in middle of rails.

Wheelbase is essentially identical on these bikes, so we have shifted my BB about 13 mm back in the wheelbase. I will tell you it is absolutely easier to manual than the Simon Bar, but the difference is not massive. I can actually flip it over in a manual without the big effort it takes with the SB. I will say the bikes are more similar than different which is a good thing. I have only about 2mm of side clearance from the rather large side knobs of a Bontrager FR3. My buddy can not run this same tire on the SB without trimming the knobs.

The bike ended up 2lbs heavier than the SB( 26.6lbs versus 24.6lbs). Frame is a pound of that, wheels are probably another 100 gms each, tires and rims are much more burly than the SB, fork is 100gms heavier as well. I can live with that. I need this thing strong.

Steel just has a different indescribable feel compared to Al, especially at slow speed hops. The steel feels like it gives back a little energy. I have ridden it around the yard and the basement avoiding kids toys, etc and I will tell you it is very nimble.

With the low 1/2" rise bars I chose, I have to run 35mm of spacers which sucks a bit in the looks dept. It is perfect if I ever run a suspension fork. You can not shorten a head tube once the bars get to high. I could get a higher rise bar and or stem and get rid of a bunch of the spacers. I will wait on that for now.

I feel the fabrication of this frame is very accurate and top notch.

The PC job is a bit of a let down. Pretty industrial IMO. I am sure it will be durable. I will scratch it up plenty very soon. I never wash my bikes anyway, so I don't give much of a rip. Given the choice between this PC and paying $300 more for a super paint job, I would keep the cash every time. If you are really into paint jobs, would recommend you have Steve build your frame and then send your raw frame to the painter of your choice.

Fun with Aqua

The dude can ride.  A great day.

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