New Bike

Almost as exciting as the results of the election -- I got a new bike. Much to my wife's relief, it's not another motorcycle. It's a new mountain bike:



It's kind of a mutt of a bike. It's a brand new, but old stock, 2007 BMC Trailfox O2 frame. It's got a bunch of new parts, but also several old parts from my old bike, a 1994 Specialized S-Works FSR:



Even though the bikes share a few parts, they're quite different. It's amazing how bicycle technology has improved over the last 15 years. The S-Works was the pinnacle of full-suspension technology of its time. The only thing that it had that still sort of measures up with today's bikes, is that it weighed 28lbs. That's what the new bike weighs too.

But the new bike has more of everything on it, and it still weighs what the old one did. Disc brakes, 5" of rear suspension travel (vs. 2 or so on the old bike), a shock with lockout and adjustable rebound, etc. And all of it on the BMC actually works. The FSR suspension didn't work all that well. It was better than a hardtail on rough stuff as you'd imagine but not by a huge margin and it really noticeably sucked up your leg power on climbs. And the old-school gearing (26/36/48t front cogs) didn't help either.

I've only put a couple hours on the new bike since I built it a few days ago, but it's already impressed me. The rains just set in here, and the trails are littered with slippery wet leaves and mud. The new bike climbs the slick muddy switchbacks with amazing composure, and I can really feel the difference in the way the rear suspension works. This bike doesn't feel like it's wasting 10% of my energy like the old one did.

Whether it's the better gearing (22/32/44teeth front), the improved efficiency, or just the effect of the "new bike smell" making me push more, I'm definitely much faster on this bike. There's a trail here near the house that I ride all the time -- I could reliably count on the loop (from my front door, down the mile to the trailhead, do the singletrack climb and descent, and back to the house) being 45 minutes. The first ride on the BMC reduced that to 35 minutes, so the new bike definitely works.

I'm also using disc brakes on a mountain bike for the first time. I'm quite pleased with the Avid BB7 mechanical brakes. Hydraulic brakes would've been nice, but I already had good levers and didn't want to spend the extra dough. These mechanical ones are super easy to adjust, there's no mess, and they work great. The rear suspension design on the BMC also allows the brakes to work even in rough stuff -- the suspension stays active under braking -- and this was quite noticeable on the slippery descent. The FSR's old cantilever rear brakes were terrible, and were essentially on or off, you were either sliding or nothing. These new ones are easy to modulate and actually slow the bike down. It's also amazingly cool to actually have brakes when it's wet out.

I was a tiny bit worried about the geometry of the frame in combination with my existing 100mm front fork (BMC recommends forks ranging from 110 to 140mm), but I'm quite happy with it after all. Since I've been riding for 20+ years, I'm used to the feel of the old super-steep angled XC bikes -- like my 1990 model Klein Rascal that I still occasionally ride -- so the 71 degree angle of the BMC with this fork feels great and works just like I'd expect. The bike fits great and it feels perfect to me as it's configured. If you're used to today's "all mountain" geometries, you would not like the way the bike's setup. The 2008 model of the Trailfox has a 69 degree head angle and would be much better for folks desiring a more relaxed ride. A 140mm front fork would also slacken things up, with a bit of a weight penalty.

The best part of this all was probably how cheap it all was. The new-old-stock frame was on sale for an absolutely ridiculous price at jensonusa.com, and by picking and choosing the cheapest clearance stuff -- and a few no-name items -- from Jenson and Pricepoint, I was able to put together a very nice bike with decent components for way less than I'd imagined was possible.

Here's what the build consisted of, first, the new parts:

• 2007 BMC Trailfox O2 frame -- this included a FSA ZS-3 zerostack integrated headset (with the cups already pressed into the frame which made it easier for me to assemble), and a RockShox Ario 2.2 shock. (jensonusa.com)
  
• Truvativ Stylo Crankset/bottom bracket (jenson)
  
• Shimano XTR Front derailleur (jenson)
  
• Maddux T2 Explorer 26" disc-only wheelset (pricepoint.com)
  
• Avid BB-7 mechanical disc brakes, 185mm front rotor, 160mm rear (pricepoint)
  
• Planet Bike cycling computer (pricepoint)
  
• Hutchinson Spider air-light tires 2.3" wide front, 1.8" rear (pricepoint)
  
• Tubes (presta, no-name, pricepoint)
  
• Sram cables, brake and derailleur (pricepoint)
  
• Sram chain
  
• Sette APX seatpost (pricepoint)
  
• Various specialty tools I didn't have and needed for the build (pricepoint)
  

And here's all the stuff I pulled off the old bike:

• Shimano XTR M900 rear derailleur
  
• Shimano XTR 8-speed casette
  
• Avid speed-dial SL7 brake levers (I had recently replaced my original levers with these, so they're almost new)
  
• Shimano XT 8-speed shifters -- these are circa 1999 or so, I replaced the FSR's original shifters with these then.
  
• Avenir handlebar
  
• Avenir bar ends
  
• Yeti grips (almost new, put these on when I got the new brake levers)
  
• Control Tech stem.
  
• Fox F100RLT fork (2005 model) -- a recent craigslist find I've been using on the FSR this summer.
  
• No-name seat
  
• No-name SPD-compatible pedals.
  

Since I didn't use the wheels from the FSR (they're rim-brake only) I plan on using them to upgrade the even older wheels on my Klein hardtail. I just need to buy a new casette, the Klein's got an old freewheel that won't work.

Other interesting things to note -- the frame weighs a tiny bit over 6 pounds, that includes the headset cups and the built-in seatpost clamp.

I didn't weigh the wheels before I mounted the discs and tires, but after the tires were mounted, there was a bit of a surprise -- the front wheel, with the larger (2.3" width) tire, and larger 185mm disc, weighed almost exactly the same as the rear wheel with the XTR cassette, 160mm disc, and 1.8" width tire. They were both approximately 4lbs 2oz. I'm happy with the overall weight of the bike -- 28lbs isn't bad, and it could be easily lightened just by swapping out some of the older heavy stuff. It'll be interesting to see what it weighs in the summer with my lighter summer tires.

I'm very happy and enjoying the ride. Now I need to spend some money on some better cold-weather riding gear -- I'm having so much fun I don't want to take my normal winter cycling break.

Here are some more pictures for details:

The day after

Wow. There is actually hope for this country after all.

Oh goody, another debate

Mr. McCain looks like crap in hi-def.

Expectations

I think both candidates probably met or exceeded their party's expectations.

Prediction: tomorrow, folks will be talking about McCain leaving immediately after the debate, and Barack and Michelle hanging out and taking pictures and signing autographs for 20+ minutes.

Just my prediction though. Does kind of show the class of the two candidates -- who's willing to hang out with the "normal" folks and who isn't...

One hour in

Kind of pleasantly surprised that the "debate" hasn't devolved into a shout fest yet, my friends.

But we just started on foreign policy, so McCain might get a bit testy now...

Responsibility

Wow, did you know that health care is your "responsibility"? My friends, you're responsible for your health care. If you fell off your porch, you're "responsible" because you're a gawdam klutz. Mmmkay, my friends? Keep that in mind next time you pay $400 to get a check up.

Retracted

OK, I retract my surprise.

Brokaw says "everybody agrees" that social security and medicare require radical changes to "save" them -- that's just plain wrong.

Although those programs are both expensive, they really aren't in trouble. Any possible "trouble" comes 50+ years in the future, if you use the most conservative estimates.

So my friends (pause to drink) Brokaw does indeed suck balls.

Surprised

So far, I'm pleasantly surprised by the format. I think Brokaw is doing a smidge better than the last two at trying to reign in the candidates. Nobody is more surprised than me.

McCain looks stiff as hell, my friends. And he's rambling a ton, my friends. My friends, McCain likes nuclear energy. Some of my best friends are "my friends."

This guy drives me bonkers.

Update: Not hospitalized yet, though one large martini down, beer commencing forthwith my friends.

The debate "town hall" style

Reminder: This isn't actually going to be a "town hall" -- the questions are either pre-screened by Tom Brokaw, or are just his own questions. This is the same Brokaw who's hacky enough to be the "liason" between the McCain campaign and NBC -- 'cause the campaign of course need help with that darn librul media.

There also is supposedly an agreement that there won't be any followup questions. So, much like last week, the candidates can just choose to ignore the question, ramble on about whatever the hell they want, and the "moderator" isn't supposed to follow up with them.

I am cautiously hopeful that this will exceed my expectations, but if the last two were any indication, those hopes will be dashed.

Update: Brokaw just said that there will be 2 minutes for answers, with 1 minute followup. Not sure, but maybe there's hope.

Wink, wink, winky

I hope McCain winks at me tonight. He's so dreamy.

My drinking phrase is "my friends" so I fully expect to need to be hospitalized by about 10 minutes in.

Maybe McCain should adopt a fake, homey, accent like his running mate, to fool all the gullible rubes.

Oh, and while I don't think it's quite as eloquent (kidding) as my "There's no such thing as "the free market"" post below, Naomi Klein spoke against the creation of an economic research center at the University of Chicago named after the University’s most famous economist, Milton Friedman. Worth the read. She makes a good case that Friedman's free market theories have now been well tested, and should be relegated to the dustbin of history.

Wink, wink

If anybody ever winks at me again, I'm going to poke them in the eye with a pointy stick.

In Fuh Stucture

Seriously. In Fuh Stucture.

If you can't even enunciate simple language, are you actually qualified to lead the country?

In.

Fuh.

Stucture.

Yeah, teh infustucture of merka is vury portant. Golly darn gosh. Durngully. Shux. Reagan sure was great, eh, golly, back in the day when Repub li cans were men and men were woman and Rudy hadn't yet worn a dress. Or something.

Yeah, skip past the Shrub years and hark back to Reagan, that'll work.

Dear god we're doomed, aren't we?

Another martini, squire!

A team of mavericks

Oh for fuck's sake. She just called her and McPain "a team of mavericks" -- if you call yourself a maverick, you're not a maverick. Mmkay?

Why is this race even as close as it is? These people are complete, unadulterated, drooling, morons.

Criminy, now she's "shouting out" to third graders. And doing the whole fake "golly goshdarn shucky gee" crap. This woman is a complete, fucking, idiot.

I never would've thought we could be worse off than we are now, but seriously, the McPain administration would be inconceivably horrendous.

If you're undecided, you're an idiot.

Eye full

For the record: Gwen Ifill is annoying as hell.

Oh, and Bible Action Barbie: it's "new clee ar" although channeling Dubya's "new kew lar" does kind of indicate where you are on the intelligence scale.

Why am I watching this?

Debates

I think we can all agree that the last debate can be summed up as some crazy old dude yelling "Damn kids, get off my lawn!." Which we probably should have predicted.

So, some predictions for tonight's epic adventure between Bible Action Barbie (with new moose fur outfit and convertible Hummer!) and Joe "I like trains" Biden:

• A combination of Barbie's terrible recent "interviews" and obvious complete and utter inability to form a complete thought un-prompted by cue-cards, has caused the expectations of her performance to be lowered to such a level that if she manages to actually get onto the stage, fully dressed, without drooling too much, she'll "win" the debate.
  
  
• Joe Biden must take off his coat, find a puddle to cover with it, bow courteously, offer her a handkerchief, light her cigarette, hold the door for her, buy her dinner (and not expect anything out of it), present her a "Ms. VP 2008" sash and commemorative bouquet of (white) roses, and then back quietly off the stage without answering a single question. If he does anything else, he's a big meany meanypants, liberal elitist who hates women, puppies, and especially hates Joe Sixpack, who he obviously isn't even though his name is Joe.
  

Could we come up with a dumber way to pick our politicians? I don't think we're trying hard enough, the current system is obviously far too dignified.

Comical

This is.

The music industry doesn't suck quite enough, so to up the suckage quotient just that little bit extra, they start accepting bribes"incentives" to feature brands in song lyrics.

[Note to self, write hit song about a fictional character named Cokie Ferrari]

There's no such thing as "the free market"

Fuckers.

The "Invisible hand of the free market" is great to talk about when you're complaining about possibly perhaps maybe some sort of minor adjustment to our abysmal health care system, or social security, or outsourcing, or whatever an actual working person might care about. But the government wants to throw a trillion (yes, that's a "t") at a bunch of rich people? That's just grand and great and swell.

Fuckers.

Of course we get various "free market" folks going on TV to complain, that they, the real libertarian free marketers don't like this one bit, and that if only we had a real free market person in government, we'd show them, and let these Wall Street types sink. But of course they wouldn't -- it's all a shell game. Pretend that they care about the sacred "free market" so they can kill off or prevent any and all regulation, act surprised when, again the whole thing falls out from under them, and then complain because, well of course, we shouldn't bail them out, but well, we reluctantly will, just this time, you know, for the good of the country and all, you understand, not for themselves... But next time, gosh darn it, we're going to let that market really work!

Have I mentioned that these people are fucking fuckers?

Beyond the Palin

You've got questions about Sarah Palin? Of course you do! And they're important questions. Mavericky questions. About a maverick.

• Is she the bestest most maverickiest ever, or only just mavericky enough?
  
• Is she standing up to the fat-cat lobbyists and big-money men in a noble, principled, small-government-conservative kind of way, or is she standing up to the fat-cat lobbyists and big-money men in a noble, principled, small-government-conservative mavericky kind of way?
  

These are the questions of our time. Sadly.

Thankfully, Fafblog is on the case, and will answer these most important questions about this double-extra-mavericky-maverick of a candidate.

Look ma, a blog!

I realize that my posting schedule of once-a-year is a bit ambitious, but us A-list blogger types have to give our reading public what they clamor for. In my case, fewer posts.

Or something.

I'll be back soon with wise words about stuff and things, and such. Really.

Misc.

Couple quick items:

First, this past weekend we had a Corvallis subaru meet. Fun drive: pictures here

I've been getting into old Japanese motorcycles. Just purchased a couple old Honda CB160s to restore/mod into a cafe/gp race replica. Pictures of them and my 1972 Honda CB500 can be found here and here