Bicycling thread - you build 'em, you repair 'em, you ride 'em

[N8YX]

I know a few of us like to hit the trails or the road on our human-powered two-wheelers - so let's hear what you're up to.

This week I finished building a Salsa Fargo. For those unfamiliar with the model it's essentially a non-suspension mountain bike with a drop bar and road brake/shift levers. Perfect for bikepacking and touring - has 5 (count 'em) bottle mount boss clusters including two on the fork legs.

As delivered from Salsa, many of the components are of marginal quality. Okay, but they'll not last under extended hard usage. So...I bought a frame, fork and a wide-tire fork (more on this in another thread) and begun hunting components. $490 set of Shimano ST-4500 shifter/brake levers...$160 shipped; thankya eBay vurrymuch. $200 rear derailleur...$79 shipped.

Etc.

For roughly the same as a bike shop charges for a "stock" Fargo I ended up with one which would cost several times as much and is as bulletproof as I can possibly make it. Except I spec'd the wrong front derailleur and can only get the bike to shift into two out of three chainrings. Ahhh, what the heck: Order another closeout model (actually, a fairly decent one at that) and use the existing piece on another project bike.

All in all a fun contraption to ride. We took our Rockhoppers south through some of the gravel and dirt sections of the towpath this evening; this after swapping wheels for a set which are shod with 2+" mountain knobbies. Seems yesterday's heavy rains had muddied up a good many places and a smoother pavement tire just squirms under power in that slop.

We're tired as a result. 20mi on the Captain Controls is like 50mi on the Serfas Drifters or the Conti Tours which the bikes usually wear.

Thus, I'm headed off to bed...

[NY4Q]

I have a Giant Anthem 1, a Bianchi M.U.S.S, and a Merckx Cyclo-cross (Campy Veloce) bike that I have two wheelsets for soze I can ride road & dirt with it.

I do am my riding around Jake & Bull Mountain that is about a ten minute drive from da house.

The Anthem's rear suspension blew up (rocker arm bearings) and I have those parts on order from the UK now. I'll be glad to get that bike back on its feet.

[N8YX]

I have a Giant Anthem 1, a Bianchi M.U.S.S, and a Merckx Cyclo-cross (Campy Veloce) bike that I have two wheelsets for soze I can ride road & dirt with it.

Great minds either think alike or run in the same gutter - take your pick. I've started doing this with ours: My full-suspension rig - a Specialized Camber Elite 29er - got a set of Sun Ringle MTX33s laced to a Shimano Alfine dynamo front hub and XT rear. At the same time, Mike (of Lacemine29 fame) threw together a Stan's Flow rim and Shimano Alfine dynamo as a replacement front wheel for my Rockhopper.

All of the wheels are 36h; I see some very large people riding some very sparsely spoked road wheels on yon path and seriously wonder how many of them last through a season. 'DSG - my XYL/partner-in-grime - can get away with running 32h wheels but wants a rugged set or two for her bikes. And a generator wheel.

I do am my riding around Jake & Bull Mountain that is about a ten minute drive from da house.

Here's ours:

http://www.ohioanderiecanalway.com/M..._Trail_56.aspx


It's about 200 yds by air and 300yds by foot from my front door to one of the trailheads. If one rides the path south from Summit County into Stark, one finds that the further ones goes the more a full-suspension bike is called for. Upon reaching Canal Fulton you can detour off the main trail and take this one:

http://www.starkparks.com/park.asp?park=16&view=9

It's much nicer (IMHO) and less-traveled. There are ghosts of the Pennsylvania RR to be found along its length (the trail is an abandoned right-of-way) and a lot fewer clueless dog walkers.

The Anthem's rear suspension blew up (rocker arm bearings) and I have those parts on order from the UK now. I'll be glad to get that bike back on its feet.

Nicki's Rockhopper and my Fargo have USE XCR suspension seatposts which are sourced from England. It literally takes a month in some cases to get items from the dealer who stocks the posts and service parts. On the other hand, the Fargo's Bengal MB700T brakes were obtained from an outfit in Australia and arrived as fast as if they had been shipped from a CONUS location...and anything I buy from Taiwan or Hong Kong shows up with similar speed.

The Asian Gang isn't so bleeding-edge that their stash of component groups are here today/gone tomorrow as is often the case with the U.S. bicycling scene; they tend to keep a large supply of proven items on-hand and sell them at very reasonable prices. I'll buy Shimano goodies from that part of the world whenever I can.

[NY4Q]

Here's a link to Bull/Jake. There's a trail map, but it doesn't show the rea near the Army Ranger Camp where there are about twenty more miles of trails.

http://www.imba.com/epics/bull-mountain-epic

I've pimped the M.U.S.S with Thompson Stem & Seatpost, Avid Carbon Juicy brakes, and a Monkey Lite Bar and a bright orange powder coat along with a carbon celest bottle cage and Bianchi celest clipless pedals. We call her Peas & Carrots. Oh, and I've added a nice American Classic wheel set since this photo, but also since this photo is about four years of riding, so it banged up again. Alas...

PA280004.jpgPA280007.jpgPA280010.jpg

[N8YX]

Old-school cool - a nice looking, clean rig. A Fargo is essentially the same as your M.U.S.S, albeit with Woodchipper bars, road controls and a road front derailleur. (Remember the Asian Connection I mentioned? They savedhooked a brother from his own stupidityup with a nice Tiagra FD-4503. None of the U.S. or U.K. shops are stocking them, however.)

My Camber has Juicy 3s on it at the moment but that may change some day. You're lucky to have a "mountain" bike area so close to you. I have to drive over an hour to reach our nearest one.

Thus...everything we own gets bastardizedhighly modified for recreational touring purposes on the towpaths. Here's my 'hopper. 'DSG's is very similar with a couple key differences:

RockHopper2.jpg

Her OEM flat bar was replaced with a set of trekking bars which (fortunately) allowed re-use of the existing brake/shifter hardware. I also put a set on mine...wanted to try something different...saw the Titec J-bar and ends. Perfect. Except for the fact that the Avid brake levers could not be mounted at the same place as the shifters.

Shimano to the rescue! Deore single-lever brake/shifters are the shizzit...but their fluid is incompatible with the Avid's, so new calipers and lines were needed.

All of our brake rotors are 203mm (front) and 185mm (rear). This allows for seamless swaps.

In the photo above I went back to the stock (non-suspension) seatpost and threw an old Avenir comfort saddle on the bike. It actually feels better than the Brooks Flyer/XCR combo which was on the rig; that setup is currently installed on the Fargo - and works marvelously. Go figure.

[NY4Q]

Nice. I could do with a set of fenders during the rain/slop season. Although, I do not ride the trails here after a rain.

I was on a fire road (double-track roads cut by the forestry service for fighting forest fires) near the Ranger Camp a while back on the Anthem and picked up so much slop that I had to stop and dig it off with a stick. I could barely pedal. Of course I took a picture! I don't think a fender would've helped in this peanut butter.

photo.jpg

[N8YX]

There's a man having fun on his bike. ;)

And for the

"Hint: The combination of red clay and rain does not equal good mountain biking. Trust us."

comment, might I present Pugsley:

pugBK3181__51447_zoom.jpg

Our trails are basically unusable from December through March in a typical winter, due to mud, snow and ice buildup along with the occasional washout. Pugsley don't care. He'll go darn near anywhere. The added benefit is that we have the trails to ourselves when inclement weather sets in.

A Pugs is next on the build list and I've started sourcing components. I also bought an Enabler fork for the Fargo so I can run a 135mm rear hub, wider winter tires and SS/FS gear on the front as a backup to the rear freewheel...just in case. Surly built the same flexibility into the Pugsley, albeit with the use of a dished wheelset - and you can get a 4"w tire in either end.

[N8YX]

Just got back from a trip to Ernie's Bike Shop and the Blue Heron Cafe in Massillon, OH by means of the Ohio-Erie and Olde Muskingum Trails. Round trip time and distance was 6h (1h spent shopping and eating) and right around 42 miles. Last half was in a cold and at times driving rain. Got some interesting pics which I will be posting later; we need dinner and beer.

[ki4itv]

Nice. I could do with a set of fenders during the rain/slop season. Although, I do not ride the trails here after a rain.

I was on a fire road (double-track roads cut by the forestry service for fighting forest fires) near the Ranger Camp a while back on the Anthem and picked up so much slop that I had to stop and dig it off with a stick. I could barely pedal. Of course I took a picture! I don't think a fender would've helped in this peanut butter.

photo.jpg

Looks like you found some of that good ol' Southern gumbo. Devil's dirt, that is.

[N8YX]

Perhaps we ought to merge the "Ever fall in love with a trail?" thread with this one, as the pathway I'm about to describe is the very same.

The Olde Muskingum Trail is part of the abandoned PRR/Penn Central/Conrail right-of-way which was known as the "Massillon-Cleveland RR" prior to its leased annex by the Pennsy. The roadbed runs from Clinton, Ohio (at the Stark/Summit County border) south through Canal Fulton and eventually into Massillon proper. South of Forty Corners St in northern Massillon the roadbed is overgrown with vegetation and is unrecognizable from the street, though the right-of-way is readily apparent from a Google Earth vantage point.

Here's the northernmost trailhead - Cherry St. in Canal Fulton. Listen closely. You might hear the rumbling of freight trains past. Or that could be the still-active RJ Corman (ex-B&O) line which is about 20yds to the right of the wooden fence. PRR and B&O operated this stretch as a shared dual-track segment for many years until the CSX/N&W realignment of 1990...at which time many secondary routes such as this one were abandoned.

O-M Trailhead-1.jpg