Addicted to bikes

May 12, 2010

Addicted to bikes

The bike bug hit me again, probably the last time for this calendar year. I built myself what I hope to be a long lasting and useful bike. The idea all started when I saw Andrea Wilson's personal Surly Cross-Check that was built up more monster cross that mine turned out. So I knew I wanted to build one so I started scouring around to see what I could find at work to make this come together. I went to the parts bin and came up with a huge pile of good stuff that included: unused Dura-Ace 9 speed cranks, used bottom bracket, Salsa cross bar with big sweep bottoms, Bontrager seat post, Felt stem, and a good chainring. I went to my work area at my house, err I mean bicycle infested other bedroom in my apartment. . . and went through my stuff to see what I could turn up. The list here wasn't shabby. Fizik Arione saddle, fixed gear lockring, anadized cage and spacer, pedals, and some single speed chainring bolts. I dicked off the last night in my Womens Lit class, logged into the distributors website and loading up the last pieces I needed to make this happen. I centered the build around a Surly Cross-Check 60cm frame in Beef-Gravy Brown. I got some Surly hubs that came laced to Mavic CXP33 rims and just went for the cheapest tire I could find. I ended up with some Michelin Transworlds with steel bead and some reflective sidewalls. When I got them in my hands and had wrapped up my hoops in them I was really impressed at how they looked aired up. The dusty tire, frame, and carpet all blurred together but there is some good clearance down there at the chainstay, on the tire and chainring side.

It has a super square profile and it seemed to eat the gravel on the unfinished CSX Greenway last night. But don't tell anyone that I was riding in that miles long construction zone that is filled with only nice white guys or Mexicans who point and laugh at me while I use THEIR ladder to climb down from the Wolf River bridge and get on the trail. Swear to sweet baby jeebus that once I used the bridge to cross the river and just said "Hey I don't want to ride down summer to cross the river, can I use that ladder?" Construction guy was totally cool with it and just let me use the ladder. When I came back from riding to Germantown road and hitting the Circle-K to get my V8 smoothie fix I hit the ladder to climb back up and just wheelied off into the sunset. But back to the story of my new bike. . . I slammed the rear tire to the front of the rear dropouts and made my chain as short as possible because I knew that the gear ratio I am running is going to be the biggest/easiest gear I will run on the bike in the life of this chain. Also I wanted the rear end to be short, it is already hard to wheelie a cross bike, this one isn't too bad. So with my total investment relatively low and the ability to ride it fixed, freewheel, add gears, fenders, racks, or any combo of the above that tickles my fancy I feel like I got a decent rig. The total weight is 24lbs. Remember its a 60cm steel frame with 46cm bars and 40cm wide tires I think it's not too shabby. This photo belows is to show how I still have clearance for that bottom fender mount, which I am digging.

Finally I guess the real reason to admit that I might not be able to buy another bike this summer is this: I am out of room in my mancave/bike room also known as the spare bedroom in my apartment.