Minication Zion

After a day of climbing and another day of riding, we decided to head into Zion to do the turista thing.  The wifer had not been to Zion and we were in the hood so it made a lot of sense to go in and check out some of those big cliffie thingies.

We took the dogs for a walk along the trail by the visitor center (the only trail that allows pups in the park).  It was a nice way to walk along the valley floor and look up at the formations.  Like most National Parks, this place makes you feel pretty puny.  Zion is such an amazing place and we really only just saw the very tip of the iceberg.  I would like to head back and so some hikes through slot canyons, etc.  Angel's Landing is another hike worth re-doing - you definitely feel a wee bit exposed while hiking up but the scenery is amazing once you crest.

Speaking of scenery....here are some pix:

MTB Hurricane Guac

Day 2 our of mini vacation took down to Hurricane where we rented a bike from Over the Edge and heading up to the mesa north of Gooseberry to ride the Guacamole trail.  The rental was a nice Rocky Mountain with lots of cush.  It was heavy as a tank but did not ride as heavy as it weighed...you can perhaps say it was big boned....

We headed up to the mesa and took turns riding/watching the dogs.  We got up there and had the mesa to ourselves - by the time we got done riding, we had lots of company.  The strangest might have been when I returned from my ride to find the missus hanging with the dogs and a mormon family in the same area cutting down firewood.  It was strange because at the time there was no one else up at the mesa but they had to choose the same location to crank up two loud chainsaws.  The weirdest thing of all though was what they said when they pulled up....the asked the missus if she minded if they stopped there for a picnic.  Apparently 'picnic' is mormon code for busting out chainsaws and increasing the decibel levels for a while.  When I got back from my ride and heard the chainsaw action, we quickly got in the car and re-located down the road where the chainsaws were at least muffled a little more.  Ahhh, the sweet sounds of the outdoors.  Mental note:  must learn mormon code mo' betta'

The weather was still amazing (perhaps even perfect) and we were treated to some great riding and phenomenal views overlooking Zion.  The riding on the Guacamole trail was not as technical as Gooseberry or Gander but was certainly still enough to keep you thoroughly engaged and on your tek game - any lapse in focus or judgement could make for a bad day as there could be consequences.  It too had some exposed riding near the rim edges but not nearly as exposed as you felt on parts of Gooseberry.

The riding generally felt like it had a little more flow but you had to pay particular attention to the cairns that marked the way because it was super easy to get off track and not see where the trail went.  All in all, it was a big thumbs up - the missus and I both got some riding in and the dogs got in another great round of play.  By the end of the day, they would be exhausted.

Some pix of the Guac trail:
looking towards Zion:

 The mesa was rockier than at first glance:

 it looked like there had been a recent burn too:

not a shabby way to spend the turkey mini holiday.....

Mini Vacation

The missus got Thanksgiving Friday off at the last minute which meant we had a small window to plan a little getaway.  Unfortunately it did not leave us with enough time to plan a getaway to visit family anywhere but it did provide us with a 4 day mini break.  We decided to rent a mini-van and head south to try and chase the sun.

Destination: St George in Southern Utah.  As soon as the wifer wrapped up work on Wednesday, we loaded up in the car and started the 11 hour trek down to Souther Utah.  The intent was to get a good push in on Wednesday night, leaving us with a manageable drive on Thursday.  We made it as far as Orem and pulled over to catch some zzzzz's late Wednesday night.  We got up early and got behind the wheel once again, arriving in St. George around midday on Thursday.

The plan was to do a little climbing and riding over the next couple days.  Fortunately the weather played nice and we had blue skies and warm temps.  The temps hit the upper 60's on Thanksgiving day and we all got out into the Red Cliffs recreation area in St George to play on some rock.  We ended up at Turtle rock which was a crag a little further away from the first pullout that can be a little bit of a circus thanks to the short approach and easy access to climbing.

We hiked the mile or so over to the crag and then roped up and proceeded to get utterly humbled as basked in the sun and got put in our place after not climbing for over 3 yrs.  It was still good to be out climbing but it was a reality check of just how out of climbing shape we are.  My forearms got their pump on quickly and lasted all of 4 short climbs!

It was perhaps one of the most humbling climbing days I have ever had but it was probably a good reality check of what happens when you don't do a sport for 3+ yrs...the ego was bruised - well, actually, the ego is still bruised!  It was still good to be out pulling on rock and try to get back in the right head space.  The dogs had a great time and we had some really awesome weather.

Let the spank fest begin!  Warm up route:

 crag dog:

 even Otis got in on what being a crag dog is all about...notice the black basalt rock behind Otis - red sand stone mixed in with basalt...a very crazy geology in the area....very cool

 coming to terms with starting over from the climbing strength department:

 an arch off in the distance

 heading back to the car after being spanked and beaten, with my tail between my legs.....

Night Ride Ben Stiller Style

Ben Stiller describing a night mountain bike ride:

Knobby Phattie

Knobs on a phattie?  Oui Oui...Most phattie tires have been created with few knobs.  The mellow tread on the snow/sand tires makes sense given the conditions they are ridden in.  As a trail addict, I feel it is important to have a choice of tire that is a little bit more aggressive and looks like it belongs on a mountain bike.  Enter Nate.....

The Suly Nate tire looks like a true mountain bike tire on 'Roids.  I am fully expecting to hear the hummmmmm of the tires if they ever hit pavement - you dirt afficionados will understand said sound.

I went to work on the front wheel today - drilled out the Rolling Darryl rim, deburred the holes, wrapped the tire with ribbon and Gorilla tape and voila....some sweat equity that went a little sum'n' sum'n' like:

The original wheel pre-drill action

 Finishing up the drilling....

 Weapon of Choice - I think the rim is feeling a wee bit violated and is looking disparagingly at the bad bad drill

 a little white ribbon, gorilla tape and ready for some rubber...

 speaking of rubber....for giggles, on the left is a road tube, middle is a mountain tube, and to the right is the phattie mcphattie big boy tube!

 rim drilled, rubber installed, looking mean and ready to get dirteeeee

 I love me some Knobbiiieeeees -

Phattie Hiatus

Work took me down to Phoenix last week and it put the phattie build on hold for a few days.  It was a bit of a shock leaving Montana when it was snowing and arriving in Phoenix where it was a balmy 75 degrees all week!  That was not nearly as much of a shock as the return as the body quickly adapted to the 75 degrees on the way down...the payback was returning to snow and 5 degree weather!

While in Phoenix, some more phattie parts rolled in...the front wheel arrived, the cranks arrived and the cable housing also found its way home.  I started to build the bike up a little and quickly realized three  things...# 1, I need a different stem - the stem I was going to use from one of the old bikes was not going to work - too long....#2, I need a cassette - better to use a new cassette than an old one that might not end up working well due to skipping, etc.  #3, I need to drill out the new wheel that came in.  With a little luck, the parts will roll in and phattie will be ready to roll some of that big ole rubber within a week or two.

In the interim, some photos of the installed headset and the new wheel:

Fat Sheba & Larry

The rear wheel is more or less done!  I bought some white 2 1/2 inch ribbon to use as rim liner/strip so that the tube does not run against anything sharp on the rim.  After installing the ribbon, I installed the tire and tube and then pumped and pumped and pumped air into the tire...with a big volume tube/tire combo, it takes a while to build up the pressure.

I inflated the tire to around 30 PSI in order to seat the tire on the rim and get it to take shape.  It will probably sit in that higher PSI for a couple of days and then will be adjusted to the 7-10 PSI it will run at.

Pix of the beast for the rear:

 Cd for scale....

 close up of the drilled out rim and ribbon used as rim liner:

 In some ways this juicy beast looks a little like a motocross tire, but without he big nobbies...the tire choice for the front will be a little more aggressive and will look a little 'knobbier' though.

Drilling a Fat Sheba

The rear wheel on the snow/sand phattie bike is made up of a Salsa 170mm hub and a Fat Sheba rim (gottsta' love that name) that is 80mm wide.  The 170mm spacing for the rear hub is 35mm wider than a regular 135mm rear hub.  The 9:zero:7 frame is built specifically to be able to handle the wider hub without having to offset the rim such that the wheel rubs along the drive train.  The 170mm spacing allows for a symmetrical wheel build for wide rims/tires.

The wider the rim, the more float on soft surfaces and the better the ability to be able to ride on top of that stuff based on the contact area of the tire.  The penalty for wide rims, hubs, tires, tubes is that there is more material and you pay the price with a significant weight penalty.

The work around to lighten wheelsets up has been to drill out the rims between the spokes in order to shave some weight.  The 80mm aluminum rim and spoke spacing/lacing allows for 1.5 inch holes between spokes.

The plan was to use a hole saw to cut out the holes and then debur the hole's sharp edges with a deburring tool.  Before doing that, I created a template that would fit between the nipples on the rim so that the holes would be drilled in the same place each time - sorta kinda wanted to make sure the holes were spaced equally, etc...

so the process ended up a little like this:
Measure the width between channel and length between the spokes and cutout a template and marked the center with an X.  This gave me the centerpoint for each hole.

 I then used a hole punch to mark the spot that would later be drilled out with a hole saw and pilot bit.

 If you look carefully, you can see the hole punch mark:

 Once the wheel was marked, it was time to drill 30 holes....1/2 way there...no turning back - no testing the waters - jump right in, the water is warm!

 It was rather messy with lots of aluminum shavings everywhere:

 All holes drilled - I did not drill the section where the seam was and obviously did not drill where the valve hole is

 about 300 grams worth of rim....I have not weighed the wheel or the parts yet but most people seem to have saved a little over 300 grams worth of weight

 Once everything was drilled, I used a deburring tool to smooth out the sharp edges on the holes.  It took a while as there are 30 holes and the holes needed deburring on both sides of the rim (inside where the tube will sit and also outside as shown here)

 voila - the Graceful Fat Sheba rim after her gastric bypass....

 peeeeekaaaaaboooo

 phewwwww....doing something new on a new purchase is always a little on the anxious side but fortunately it turned out well and it was an easy thing to do - messy, a little time consuming, but easy once you had it all set up with the right tools.
Next step....need to get some ribbon or reflective tape to place as rim liner/strip in order to contain the tube when inflated.

The big unknown is whether it can be ghetto'd for a tubeless set up (especially with the new drilled out rims) - more experimentation at a later date....

McPhattie Parts

Yesterday was a banner day for starting the flow of parts for the McPhattie build.  With the frame having arrived Monday, it meant that it was sitting all by its lonesome waiting for the rest of its identity to arrive.  Fortunately it started to feel a little less lonely yesterday as Mr Brown was busy delivering packages yesterday.  Brown might have just been my favorite person yesterday.

Before we move to the goodies that arrived, there was a question that was bouncing around in my head that was begging to be answered....what is the frame weight?

I took the frame out to weigh it and was surprised that it came in at 4 1/2 pounds.  It might be marginally lighter once I remove (will stay on there for now as they are holding the dropout, bolts for cages, etc) all the bubble wrap on the rear stays but at best, I would imagine it would come in at around 4.4 pounds including all the hardware mentioned above.  That is a pretty reasonable weight considering how burly the frame looks.  I can't imagine how heavy the steel versions of this bike are...talk about an anchor!

When I opened up the front door I saw 3 packages looking like they meant business!  Wednesday's booty included the bottom bracket, brake levers, tires, tubes, rear wheel and skewer for the rear wheel.

What Brown did for me yesterday:

 Rolling Rear Phattie with the skewer attached

 80mm wide rim just begging for some rubber....

for reference on just how wide Phattie is (rubber in the background)....