Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Maiden Voyage


This morning I was finally able to throw a leg over my precious for her first ride, a quick shake down/commute to allow me to make some minor adjustments before this afternoon's proper 2hr (hopefully) commute home. For the most part, things went pretty smoothly but I did have to adjust the headset, the brakes need some fine tuning (rub in the rear and not enough power up front), the seat post seems to be too short and I definitely need a remote lockout for the fork but, those things aside, it was a pretty sweet ride and I can already tell I'm going to love the bike.

enough brake housing for myself and someone riding in front of me



Here's a handy little ss tip for folks out there. If your ride included road and trail, put two cogs on, one for your trail riding and one for the road. Set your ebb (assuming you're using one) for the trail gear and when you hit the road, simply drop your wheel out, put the chain on the other cog (should be smaller unless you're living in reverse world, or maybe Canada) and pop the wheel back in. If you're on the road, there is really no need to adjust the ebb because what is a bit of chain slack between friends. If you're good (you know I AM) you can make the switch and be rolling again in less than 30 seconds.

slacker chain



At some point, I'll get some actual good pictures of the ride, promise!

8 comments:

Mike J said...

Dang, that looks like a sweet ride. Making all of the adjustments on a new bike is fun because well it's on a new bike!

rick is! said...

except when one of your changes requires it going into a shop that has a 3-4 week leadtime... if only I didn't have 10 thumbs.

weak and feeble said...

Now Rick, is that still a singlespeed ;)

nice ride, I had to chose between that and the Chili for my one bike this year- the Chili won- but that list looking SWEET. Dig the matching blue.

Sven

rick is! said...

ugh, I hate people who give me that crap! there are some serious ss zealots out there. I keep three cogs on the bike at all times so that I can change at will. you can never do it fast enough to change in a race anyway.

Wheels said...

Sexy!

Jason said...

Very nice dude. Congrats. 3-4 weeks lead time? Is BM the ONLY shop in Maine? Thank God for good wrenches 'cause I too am all thumbs. I'm the kind of guy that could crack a frame adjusting a brake caliper. Have fun with the adjustments.

rick is! said...

W & F: just wait til you see the new bottle cages coming in...

Wheels: I agree, I'm sexy, but what do you think of the bike.

Jason: it's the only shop in the area that I actually trust to work on my bike. there are way too many high school kids who think their mechanics around.

Matt said...

Rick,

Another option for the 2 gear SS, is to run a 32/36 up front and a 16/20 rear. Then you don't have chain slack issues. Just an idea I saw on a friends bike.

-matt