We had something catch on fire at the office today. At first I thought CRT had blown up, but looks like it was a fan in the ventilation system burning out and generating some smoke. Of course, the fire alarm went off and the building was evacuated. Luckily, it was after 5:00, so the number of people jarred from their desks was minimal. On the way out I managed to grab my laptop bag, but forgot my keys. I had to stick around until the fire department sounded the all clear to get back in and get them.
While I was waiting for the elevators to get switched back on, I caught a bit of conversation from the firefighters. One said, “There’s this one office with THREE, count ‘em, THREE lava lamps.” What can I say… we like lava lamps.
I asked if he turned any of them off, he said he did. I said, “Those control the power supply to our servers!” He almost bit for half a second, but quickly wizened up.
I keep an eye on the bike postings on Craiglists (Denver/Boulder) for good deals. One thing I’ve noticed lately is this guy selling older MTB’s as single speeds. He brands the rebuilt bikes as ReSSurection (the cap SS is short for… duh, Single Speed). I’d thought of doing just that, as single speeds are generally very, very overpriced at the retail level. Here’s a link to one his prettier ones.
As I said, I’ve actually thought about doing the very same thing, but never got past the “think” stage. I’m glad someone is doing it, there are a lot of perfectly good frames floating around out there just looking for a new life.
One of the things I’ve noticed on most of his rebuilds is the lack of chain tensioner on what appear to be horizontal dropouts. Other than that, they look pretty good. He seems to have tapped into the “spirit” of single speed. Low-tech bikes ready to go thrash on the trail (even though he slaps slicks on them).
Wow. Cyclingnews is running tests on different wheel size mountain bikes. I Googled and there are a surprising number of folks going for the new 29ers. Everyone else is commenting so I might as well throw my two cents in the mix. When I lived in the desert there was this guy who rode a bike with seven gears, 24 inch wheels — and he smoked all comers. So obviously, based on this anecdote, everyone should scrap the 29′s and the 26′s and go to big wheeled BMXers.
I really can’t see trying to stuff a 29 inch wheel through some of the rock gardens I ride (my 26 inch wheel barely fits). I can’t see taking a bigger wheel and trying to do hairpin switchbacks with it. I can see pushing it up smoother climbs, but ones that have lots of power moves seem like they would take a bit more energy to get up and over. I’m not talking about rolling over roots and rocks, I’m talking about going from almost a dead stop on the other side of a switchback to up and over a two foot hop. I can see rolling one around the race course at Bear Creek, but anything that’s stop and go seems like it would hurt that little bit more to get going. On a climb like Bergen’s Peak, that’s a lot of “little bit more” to add up.
That being said and my tendencies towards retro-grouchiness (allegedly) set aside, I can see a benefit for some of the taller folks. The frame geometry on some of the taller bikes makes me turn away, lest my eyes bleed. So for aesthetic reasons alone, there’s a need. There’s a nice little bike shop down on Speer that’s demo’ing a 29er singlespeed, although that might not be a good test, because I’m definitely not going up Bergen’s on a SS. I really can’t see someone loaning me a geared one to bash up on the downhill from Bergen’s either.
So, until there’s some more data to sway me (I doubt Cyclingnews comes to any firm conclusion) I’d say 29er’s are not for me.
Update: The photo album is available at in the new gallery section.
The license on the photos is Creative Commons, if you use the pics, I just ask that you attribute this site.
Wash Park in Denver is one of the only places in the city with controlled access and room enough for bikers, pedestrians, rollerbladers, lawnmowers… you name it, you’ll see it co-existing on the loop around Wash Park. There is a “crackdown” on bikers, lame, lame, lame. A child was “reportedly hit”. Where were the child’s alleged parents at the time of the nebulous incident? I smell a “a biker scared me” and “protect the children” campaign gearing up.
The Bannock Street Critertium kicks off this coming Sunday (August 6) down on, well… on Bannock Street (close to Speer). For anyone that has ever wanted to see first hand what 60 bikers packed like a school of tuna look like flying around a small course, this would be the place to be.
The official site is here, with links to start times on the race flyer here. If all goes as planned, I’ll have some pics by Monday.
