It was started by a friend of mine. Just for fun. If your bike was a car what kind of car would it be?

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?p=6666614#post6666614

Its been awhile I know. New jobs in new states make it hard to get out on two wheels these days. The great state of Colorado has trails, paths and bike shops for days so no excuses here. Ive been a bad cyclist lately and I’m sorry.

To make myself feel better I sold one bike that I dearly loved but didnt see myself loving as much as I did ever again.
Cyclocross racing was a blast but as they say in business “the last one in is the first to leave”

Goodbye Surly Cross-Check - You will have a great life in Kansas in the cross scene there. You will be treated well.

So after a tearful trip to the fedex office it took me about 10 minutes to get over it.

Theres a new kid in town!

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I am specialized……………………………………………………………………………

2007 Specialized Enduro Elite

Fox Air front and rear

Sram X9

Many muddy miles memories made.

This is the seat that came on my fixed gear project bike, it was in about as bad condition as the rest of the bike and I didn’t want to reuse it as it was.  This was the last part of the bike that I repaired, and was the one I had the least confidence in being able to get right.

First I took apart all the metal hardware and all the layers of the seat padding and vinyl, just to get a look at what I had to work with.  The metal support frame, bolts and the red plastic piece that holds the shape of the saddle itself were all in good shape and just needed to be cleaned up.

I wanted to use leather for the surface for durabilaty and for the old style look.  You can buy a big sheet of leather at a leather store for not much money, I got a piece about 3 feet by 5 feet several years ago and have used if for a bunch of projects like a guitar case, camera case and nail bags.   Here is the leather I cut for the seat surface.  Of course a utility knife goes right through this stuff, but these scissors worked fine too.

I wrapped the scrap around the plastic seat and put softening liquid on it.   Then I tied strings around the whole thing and left it for a few days to take the right shape.

For padding I bought a silicone seat pad for ten bucks at target.  It’s made to go on the top of your seat which is ridiculous and ugly, so I cut it up and threw away most of it.

Here you can see what is left of the pad after I cut off the fabric that is supposed to wrap around the seat and hold it on.  This pad is still too wide so I had to cut it some more.

This pad is now small enough to just rest on the top of the seat and not hang down over the sides, which would make the seat uncomfortably wide.

I started to stitch the leather to the plastic seat base.  This required a hole punched in the leather and the plastic seat base for each stitch, and it was a huge pain to do.  This much stitching and hole punching shown above took about two hours.  I eventually gave up and decided to use rivets, which are way easier to install and have worked well for some of my leather projects before.

With a Hammer, Rivet punch, 1/8″ hole punch and anvil, these rivets take only about 5 minutes each while you are also watching TV.  These are bronze rivets I think, or maybe brass.  I bought a box of them at same store where I bought the leather, and they were pretty cheap, only a few cents each.  I used 27 rivets instead of the 300 or so stitches which it would have taken to go around the whole seat.  Here’s the rivets half way done, seen from the bottom.  This is also before trimming off the excess leather on the sides.

Since it was a flat piece going onto a curved shape the leather had to be cut in a few places, and I didn’t do a very clean job, but you can hardly tell from 5 feet away.  I left the stitches in the back section because it would have looked ratty to have them sitting there.  Also I had cut the leather a little too short already front to back, so I couldn’t just pull the whole thing back and cut off the holes. The leather piece I used was about 6 years old and was pretty dry, it didn’t stretch as much as I wanted even with the softening oil, which left a slight bump in the middle of the seat.  And there are mistakes all over this thing, but the final result actually looks really good.  It complements the old style look of the rest of the bike.

Totally transformed!

Not perfect, but not too bad either.  The padding is not very soft but is comfortable enough.  I think this project turned out pretty decent considering I had never done a bike seat before and didn’t know what I was in for.  I want to do this again with another seat and make it look a little better, but I am keeping this one on the bike.

 Well I’m back on the bike. I finally got a chance to ride my bike to work. My new Lemond is completed and it rides like a dream. Well Candice and I have a new residence that’s about 5 miles away from work. This morning I left my house around 6:45am the temp was 48 degrees. I was a little cold initially but after a couple minutes it felt great. I cant wait to ride again.

Ten minutes after sunrise, Veterns Day little to no traffic.

Showing off my knickers.

I love fall the changing of the leaves, the freash air, and awsome holidays.

Well looks like they haven’t picked up all the port a johns from this weekends marathon. Congrats to Justin on completing the marathon. Candice did the half, she got second in her age division. I’m proud of you Cookie.

I got a chance to wear my knickers to work. There perfect for this kind of weather. I may need to make a new pair.

Well this a picture of my new Lemond Tourmalet. I put it together myself: 853 reynolds steel frame, 105 shifters, Ultegra cranks,Titan forte wheels, Ultegra rear, dura ace front, and carbon fork. All and all it comes in at 19.5lbs.

I think winter is officially here in Denver.  It has snowed a bit so far and there is a bit more coming tomorrow.

I am trying to get as many miles in as I can. Don and I have also gone back to the Gym to get Ripped! LOL

Some terrible pics from my old phone last monday.

Fixed Gear 4 Life!

Beautiful trails here in Denver.

New Bike Nerd Ink! Bici Fiets Velo Love     look it up

Snow we got a few weeks ago. More to come.

I finally bit the bullet and paid for a fixed sprocket and lockring for my old motobecane bike.  I bought them at Stevens and they were about 33 bucks together, with tax.  This puts the total cost of the project at 315 dollars, which is more than I expected, but I am happy with what I have.  I decided on the fixed gear partly because I’ve never had one before, partly to keep the very simple look of the bike, and partly because it was such an easy way to add some stopping capabilaty to te bike.  I thought about brake calipers but they would have ruined the look.  I still want to try a coaster brake and perhaps an internaly geard transmission hub.  Also, the seat on the bike right now is from an old mountain bike and looks rediculous, I am still trying to repair the old seat.  Those changes will come later, for now the bike is amazing.  It looks sleek and rides smooth, and it will continue racking up miles on the clovis bike trails.  I will post more pictures soon.

 Cadel Evans won the Road Race World Championships yesterday, It was an awesome race. If you live in the valley and you are not aware yet Channel 32.1 universal sports carries cycling. Its a great channel you can watch triathlons, marathons, cycling including cyclo-cross. I recommend you guys check it out.

2009 Denver New Belgium Tour De Fat

1972 Raleigh Sports 3 speed cruiser

Live Music

Tires? No no this one has Reeboks!

Tires? Yeah from a minivan!

This one had two steer tubes, one in the normal spot and
one on the seat tube. This was my favorite.

Two man backwards forwards rudder bike.

Don, Sean, and myself went to the tour, drank good beer, rode weird bikes,
rode normal bikes home and had a great time.

Check out this video! I founded on bike snob.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9ZHLAQzZ_4

We started in Northglenn, rode north to Brighton, then west over

to 168th and i25. There were 6 of us, average speed 16-20 mph.

38 miles total.  3000 calories burned. 6 new bike friends made.

I am constantly amazed at the courteous drivers here in Colorado.

They move over for bikers not a honk or a yell yet.

about half of those 38 miles were on Multi-use paths, awesome.