Posts Tagged → gear

Boone Clearance, Clarence

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Today’s post is yet another post that falls into the lengthy Soiled Chamois sub-category of The Weather is Crap & I Didn’t Ride, But I Wanted to Post Something. Usually these posts end up being about food, crap photos, beer, or people that race bikes way better than me (in that they still race them). However today I figured I would post something that someone out there could actually use. Something that I was going to post over the weekend but got all caught up in the joy of my beer the moment and forgot. It’s to do with the Boone 5’s tire clearance when using a WTB Nano 40 tire (my tire of choice).

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Things I’m High On

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I know the title of this post suggests that this post is going to be about various sorts of glues, gases, pills, herbs and beverages that I may or may not be using to get high. As it is, I am on nothing. Sorry. But since Monday the weather has thrown me a bit of a velo-cock block and forced me to the Stankment and the trainer, so I figured I would waste your time talking about some things that I am digging right now, both on and off the bike.

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Getting By

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I mentioned a while back that I decided to not re-join the gym this fall and winter. One of the only reasons I went back to the gym last fall was to give myself something else to do besides sit and ride to nowhere on the stationary trainer during the winter. Well, once I got my (now sold) Pugsley late last January, I found it increasingly harder to go to the gym rather than ride my bike. Having a viable option to ride outside in the Michigan snow now made lifting weights seem just as stupid as it sounds… just when I started to see real progress and added strength.

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Catching Up (with opinions)

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The past few days have been filled with three things: beer, football (er, soccer) and dirt. In other words, three things I dig.

I skipped riding on Thursday to drive down to beautiful downtown Alma, Michigan and pay a visit to Terry’s Cycle where I picked up a Trek Farley 8 demo bike. I spent some time getting it dialed and had it out on the trails Friday morning for a lap at MMCC.

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Trek’s Farley 8 is SOOOOOO light compared to my heavy assed Pugs! It really is an awesome bike… sort of.

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New Meats

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For some reason, earlier this summer, I fell out of love with my four-year old Jake The Snake cross bike (which has never been used for cross, only gravel riding). I’m not 100% sure why, but after putting literally thousands of miles on it, I’ve been opting for my Ti El Mariachi mountain bike whenever riding gravel and dirt roads. Not wanting to see the bike sit idle, and knowing that if I tried to sell it I would get very little for it, I had the cassette, chain, cables and pulleys replaced (something that should have happened about a year ago). Now I am making a last-ditch attempt to save the Jake from becoming a two-wheeled clothes hanger and my El Marichi from becoming nothing more than a flat bar Fargo. I also picked up some new meats from WTB: the Nano 700 x 40 Comp.

It appears the Nano’s more aggressive than most cross tires tread, girth and added volume will get the job done on our shit Michiganderburgh dirt, gravel and paved roads and maybe add some comfort. From a short spin around the block yesterday they seem to roll pretty good on pavement and look meaty and delicious on the Jake.

In about twenty minutes they tires are going to get initiated into gravel and wet cement-like Michigan dirt roads, I suppose after that I will have a better idea of what the future holds for the J.T.S.

POST RIDE UPDATE: Sometimes it is about the bike. The tires were great, but I think my relationship with the Jake The Snake is over. Wanna buy a cross bike?

Bad Ideas Turned Good

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As I mentioned the other day, my buddy at the shop lent me his Trek Farley* to ride for a few days and see what I thought. I did a lap on singletrack last Saturday and thought it felt a bit harsh compared to my Pugsley and made the pre-mature decision to shelve any ideas of considering one in the future. Then I got to thinking: whether I buy one or not, I think my assessment was a bit rash and not all that fair, given that while I have ridden my Pugsley on singletrack, I have only done so for 10-12 miles at a time to mix things up after I’ve done a “real” lap or two on my Superfly, or when conditions were shit.

I’ve love the Pugs in the snow and on the deep sand ORV trails, so I figured I should give the Farely another go before I return it this week, and ride it on surface that would be more akin to what I would actually use a fat bike on. The trouble is (thank God!), there is no snow on the ground and this week won’t really allow for me to head north to those ORV trails. So I had an idea– I would use the Farley for my dirt road ride today. Afterall, some of those roads are pretty sandy and pretty shit… It was a bad idea; sort of.

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Sausage Party

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I would love to fill your heads with tales of racing and long rides, but I can’t. I could probably talk about U.S. Cyclocross Nationals, but cross really isn’t my thing, so I won’t. Instead, I will fill your head with sausages, because lately many have come to expect very little from this “cycling” blog and I aim to please.

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