Just Riding Along... Return of the night ride.

Got out on the Little Miami path last night with friends. Spring is here in full effect here in Southwestern Ohio, with comfortable temperatures in the 50s last night. Lights were installed, supplies were loaded, and off on the path for a nice 18 mile jaunt in the darkness.

Just for this trip, I decided to switch out my tires from the huge Ardent 2.6s to a smaller more road worthy Maxxis Crossmark 26x2.1. Thees tires roll surprisingly well for a dirt tire, and very quiet. After the tire swap, I added some racks to the Troll:

I pulled the old Blackburn rear rack off of my T500, and then installed my new Salsa Down Under front racks. This was my first trip with the Troll loaded up, and it rolled very smoothly, which was expected. I am only using the Blackburn rack until the Salsa Minimalist rack comes back into stock, then that will be my weapon of choice.

View of the Salsa front rack from above.

After the ride, beers came out in the variety of a stout, a Belgian style ale, and a smooth golden ale in a can. Reviews on those to come soon. Get out and enjoy this weather!

Just keep spinning...

Just Riding Along... New shoes...

Since March usually is one of the wettest months out of the year here in Ohio, I have started my search for road tires for the Troll. My plan all along has been to keep this bike versatile, and eventually have a second wheel set to swap in and out for road duty. Until that though, I will be wrestling tires on and off of my Sun Ringle rims. With all of the rain here lately, and the rain in the forecast, what better time than now?

My first choice is this:

Photo from utahtrikes.com

Second choice:

Photo from bikemania.cz

Both are around the same price, the Big Apples measure in at 26x2.35" and the Hookworms at 26x2.5" respectively. Both are huge! And both are heavy, that is to be expected. But, for the time being, I will be putting on my skinny, cheap, Forte (Made by Panaracer) City ST tires, which measure in a 26x1.5. I plan on running these for my road duty until I can finally make up my mind.

And, just because, here is a quick picture from after one ride last week:

Just keep spinning...

Just Riding Along... New Year's resolution.

This year, I decided to make a few resolutions. One of which had to do with my unicycle. I want to be able to ride it. At the moment, I am pretty bad. And by bad I mean not good. So, why not make it a goal to be able to ride it? Sounds good to me.

Since this winter has been non existent here in SW Ohio, it has given me more time outside, and that means more time to mess with my horrible balance issues. Uni-cycling has been a little harder than I could imagine, but this is coming from a guy who cannot ride a bicycle too far without his hands on the handlebars. Anyway, I picked up my unicycle on the local Craigslist this past summer, and put a little time into it, but I always felt like I needed more rubber underneath me. Thankfully, that rubber came into town the other day. Enter the Maxxis Hookworm:

This tire is 1.95" wide, which it looks a little bigger than it really is. Compared to the last tire that I had on this bike, it is a huge upgrade. And surprisingly, there is still room to spare on the frame, so eventually I will be searching for off road sized tires once I can ride this thing. That is the goal, or resolution, to be able to ride this bike well enough this year, to take it off road. That sounds like a good time.

Stock tire, around 1.75" wide.

Just keep spinning...

Just Riding Along... Brooks and Maxxis.

So the new parts are starting to come in for the upcoming build. Every time that I order something online it is like Christmas morning when it arrives. Such a good feeling, thanks postman!

The past couple days have brought in a couple important pieces. First up was my Chris King headset from eBay. Apart from the faded finish, and some unexpected "hidden" shipping costs from the seller, it was still a great deal. eBay is a gamble sometimes, for example, when an item is listed as "Like new, excellent condition!" you would not expect fading right? Neither did I. Like I said though, it is in great shape still, and was a great deal, just a tiny hassle. Buyer beware I suppose.

Next up came two different packages. One carried my new Brooks B17 Narrow saddle. After lathering it up with some Brooks Proofhide last night, I took a 10 mile or so spin on it today with the T500. Right out of the box, I was quite surprised at how nice the Brooks fit me. Maybe it is due to me riding a little stiffer of a saddle as of late, but the Brooks was not at all terrible. If I am liking it now, I cannot imagine how comfy it will be once broken in.

The last package was one of the most important for a bicycle, tires. Those came in the form of two Maxxis Ardent 26x2.6" beasts. After installing them on my Sun Ringle Singletrack rims, I would guess that they do not measure out to 2.6" wide, but they are big nonetheless. Not a bad tread pattern as well:

I am planning on running these front and rear for MTB duties, but I do have the thoughts of putting a Maxxis Minion DHF 26x2.7" tire on the front. The Troll has big tire clearance, why not use it all up? I think with either of those setups it will make a nice "fatbike lite." This is probably a bad road to start down though, because it only ends at this:

Photo from Surly's site.

Finished...

So, I have had some time to put in a few miles, what can I say. It's pretty awesome. Yesterday did around 10 miles before the newest snowstorm hit the Cincinnati area, and everything feels really good. Maybe its the fact that the bike is long, or that I have more gears than I have ever had, but this bike climbs really well. I am also surprised how well the Maxxis Crossmark tires roll on pavement. These tires will give me some options when the nicer weather rolls around. Here are some pictures of the complete bike as it sits...