Ten Years Later

The Spiritbox Studio blog. At 10 years!

Happy Anniversary!

I started this blog with my first post on May 3, 2009.

You can find it in the links at right, or you can find it right here:
http://spiritboxstudio.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-blog-new-shooz.html

Mostly, it was just talking about some new cycling shoes I got.

Well, ten years later, I still got em!

They're definitely a little more worn and dirty, but still in good shape. The laces are getting ratty, need to replace those soon. But as 4 of my 5 bikes have SPD pedals, they get used pretty regularly.

Speaking of bikes, I posted recently on the Orange Chopper project bike I built. And mentioned in the Christmas post about the 5th bike I had finally gotten - a real road bike. Since this seems to be mostly a bike stuff post, how about just a little more with a current photo of my road bike - The Fred Sled.

It's a very good bike - a Specialized S-Works bike. Which is their top end bike even today. This particular example dates to 2004. So about 15 years old. Its a very nicely finished aluminum frame with carbon fiber fork, seat post and handlebar. Current higher end bikes are usually entirely carbon fiber. Over the years, the prior owner changed a bunch of the components from what it came with. It was kind of grungy, some time with automotive polishing compound cleaned up a whole lot of seemingly permanent grime. Did some tuning and adjusting, touched up a number of paint scratches and chips. It's got new tires and tubes, pedals, bottle cages, seat bag and a cyclocomputer. Otherwise it's just as I bought it. For its age and a lot of use, it looks really, really good. 

In the future, I'm thinking of stripping it down of all the miscellaneous components, and put on matching current generation Shimano 105 parts. And a new set of matching wheels. Plus a few other minor changes like a different saddle and handlebar. Which is just about everything!

But its all functional as is. Certainly feels different from my other bikes as its about half the weight of any thing else I have. Fastest I was able to pedal up to, on flat ground with a bit of tailwind, was 33.7 mph. Briefly. Can't maintain that speed at all. 

Time to wrap up this anniversary celebration. Open the champagne!

Sneak Peek - Coming soon - Something else with wheels. Considerably larger...

From Many, One

Many parts, and much time and too much money = One custom bike!

A couple months ago I posted about my project bike. I finally got most of the parts I wanted. Ended up with a long chrome non-suspension fork, as the springer types weren't long enough due to this bikes long headtube. And a smaller, mag style 20 inch front wheel. Which doesn't match the back, unfortunately. Big chrome handlebars, better derailleur, better brakes (important because now it has ONLY rear brakes). Lots of miscellaneous little parts and details. This photo shows the original bike and the parts for the big conversion.

It took quite a while, some of the parts like the fork I changed as I went. Took longer to get it all together, and the brakes were one of the last things to finish as I changed levers, so I couldn't ride it outside. But I did get it all working, and have ridden it inside on the trainer. So it's pretty much ready to go, as is...

What do you think? It's probably 90% finished. Still need to add the computer, tool bag, some chrome fenders, headlight and a few other small details. I already think I'd like to put on a wire spoke front wheel, with a disc brake, which I can mount to the new fork. I just need to find a wheel with the mechanical disc brake. I like the look of the 20 inch front wheel. But a 24 inch is also a very possible setup. The banana seat is a little harder and less comfortable than I expected, but for this bike style is important! All my bikes have nicknames, but I still haven't come up with one for this one yet.

Overall, I think it looks pretty unique. Looking forward to some nicer weather so I can get some real road testing done soon!

Ow!!!!

Well, that was unpleasant.

Last Saturday, after some cool and rainy weather, we got a couple hour break of warm and sun in the afternoon. Decided to take the MTB out for a quick ride.

Should have stayed home.

I headed for the greenway. The concrete bike path through town. Usually always a good ride. But not today...

From the earlier rain, some things were still a bit damp. I ride a short distance on a unpaved road from where I live to the Greenway. The first thing I hit on the Greenway is a short downhill into a sweeping right turn. Traveling under 15 mph (cause that's the max shown on my computer). Banked around the turn as I've done hundreds of times. But this time something different happened.

The rear wheel suddenly slid out under me like I hit a sheet of ice. And I was sliding on the concrete on my right side. It was over in seconds. No broken bones or anything like that. But my right hand took a hit, with several bleeding scrapes. My right leg got it worse. One small scrape, one slightly larger that was bleeding a fair amount, a bigger raw area near knee, but it wasn't bleeding. And a sizable scrape halfway down leg probably an inch or two wide and 5-6 inches long.

Ow!!!

Post-crash analysis tells me that even though the greenway itself was dry, my drive on the damp dirt road got the tires to hold some dirt/sand. Once at the greenway, all was ok. But the edges of the tires were still gritty. Once I banked in to the curve, the gritty sidewall was the contact area. And physics took over and down I went.

Bike took a little abuse too. Similar to me. Scraped off the edge of the handlebar grip, and the rear derailleur. Almost shredded the shift cable. With a little filing and some paint, had it back to good shape. Later discovered I needed to straighten the derailleur hanger, think it got bent a bit as well.

So, bike is healed up. And me, I'm working on it. Getting there, but it takes a bit longer. Got lots of midly touchy scabs on leg though! I have pictures, but I think I'll leave them off this particular post.

Today took my first ride - on the same bike. Did the ride I was going to do a week ago. All went fine. No crashes. Going a bit easier as the leg can feel a bit sore at times. But back on the horse!

Mystery Revealed!

Not that much of a mystery, really.

Picked up a basic 7 speed cruiser bike for a closeout price a few months back. Performance Bicycle Americano with an aluminum frame and 26 inch wheels.

Decent but basic. The components are all pretty cheap, but after some tweaking by me, they work ok. Here's the bike in its nearly stock condition -

My plans for it are quite extensive. I'm planning to make a sort of custom bike, inspired partly by chopper bikes, low rider bikes and the old Schwinn Sting-Ray style bike.

Almost all the parts will change. I bought it mostly for the full size frame, to use as my starting point. Been figuring parts for it, getting ready to start ordering. And do more figuring. As I haven't entirely decided some things. Like the size of the front wheel (probably smaller, but how much?) and the fork (springer or straight chrome or suspension?) and so on.

But for now I'm just riding it around, enjoying it as is. Before things get crazy!

Taking A Bath

Just got back from a summer vacation trip. Visit family, do some chores, ride bike, take a few photos, etc.

Weather was all over the place. From beastly hot and humid to stormy to almost cool. Typical northern plains summer weather.

Took my old (like 30 yrs old) mountain bike to do some riding with my brother. My trip could be divided up into 4 major legs. And on every leg of the trip, I got rained on quite extensively. As my bike was in the bed of my pickup, it got to take a bath. Four times! I covered the seat once, and took it off once. Because I just knew it was going to get soaked. Again. And it did!

Clouds, rain, rain, clouds. But, the clouds were pretty cool looking!

A change of pace. A shot of fire! Helping dad burn piles of old tree limbs and yard debris. Something he occupies a lot of his summer time with.

Here's OB (Old Blue - my brother's old Trek MTB) and ROB (Really Old Blue - my 30 yr old Supergo MTB. The one that got plenty of free washes this trip) back at Urtle Tate for some trail riding. Discovered that there are several new recently finished trails, along with some others still being put in. Very nice!

And on my way back home, more clouds, more rain! Pretty good trip overall though, had a good visit.

And So It Begins...

Starting a new mystery project.

What is it?

Gee, I wonder what it is? It's orange, I'm pretty sure.

More details to come in the future...

Electricity! That's the Ticket!

As in maybe I should get an electric assist mountain bike. I went out again, and took the MTB. Back to the same place I was hiking last week, and cycling at a month ago. Today I rode some, but not all of the trails I hiked last week.

First off, it has changed A LOT! Had some cold and very windy days this past week. Which are really good - for removing leaves from trees in the fall. And they did. Many of the bright and colorful areas a week ago are now nearly bare of leaves. I'm glad I got to see them when I did.

No wildlife sightings either. Bugger!

And I'm on the bike again. Same results as before. I can negotiate the trails (most of the time). Traverse the downhills, flats and small hills. But the big hills leave me wheezing for air. And wishing for an electric bike to drive me up the hills! It's fun, I can cover a lot more ground, but MAN does it get tiring after a while. Especially later in the day.

OK, enough whining. How about a few photos?

A small cluster of trees that still held on to its leaves. They were coming down today as I traveled around. But got a shot of the bike and the fall colors. That's got to be good for something. The color spots were a lot fewer and far between. So I got a lot fewer photos of it.

Recognize this? Look several posts back, about a month ago. Back then, there were a couple trees that were turning, and a bunch of green ones. Now, as you can see, it's pretty much all gone. How brief the season is...

Finishing off with another spot revisited. This is the third time I've shot this spot this season. Previously it was colorful, though had lost some leaves. Now its pretty much bare. Sigh. The fall color season for this year is pretty much over here. Guess it's time to find something else to take photos of! Hope you enjoyed the fall color photos at any rate.

Huff & Puff & Hike

Remember that mountain bike I bought last year? I've ridden it a lot on the Greenway paved path. As well as quite a bit on a off-road trails park here in town. But never in the actual mountains. Till now!

Nice warm day, went out to a favorite hiking spot. Where I have tried my other mountain bike ROB (Really Old Blue) in the past. But with no suspension, it was just to punishing for me. Now I have a full suspension bike, time to give it another go!

Here's a scenic overlook shot. Which I posted because off in the distance you can see a forest fire that just popped up today or last night. It was a bit windy, but they got the fire under control in another day or so so it didn't grow too much. That's good! All the grayish spots throughout the trees? Lots of dead pine trees. Too many.

Since it's early September, its a bit early for fall colors. This little meadow area is very green. But in a couple weeks the many tall aspens here will be in full color. That'll look great. I may come back for a hike then. Check out that bike in-situ!

Here's later in the day. This area is much less green, more dried out. But you can see a little fall color too. I saw bits of color, mostly in the smaller trees. So the colors are starting...

Here's a 3-shot panorama I took on the way out. Merged together in Photoshop. Still a lot of green (and dead trees too) without much color to see yet.

So how'd I do? Well, the bike and I both survived (other than a blister on the side of my thumb). The riding was certainly a lot better with suspension. That saved me a lot. I still had to go slow and careful in the rough/rocky/loose ground areas. Which there were plenty of. Climbs were my downfall. I just don't have the juice for long climbs on rough rocky uneven ground. I often had to get off and push the bike up many of the hills. Climbing is NOT my strong suit. Good thing I never wanted to be in the Tour de France. Or Pro mountain bike racing. Casual riding is my strong suit. Cause I'm a pretty casual guy I guess!

Atroz?

What's that?

Not sure. Only definition I came up with online is its Spanish for 'Atrocious' or terrible. It also happens to be the name of my new Diamondback Mountain Bike! So I'm gonna go with "Dude, that bike is, like, totally atroz, man!"

Here's the whole bike. It a full-suspension bike with 27.5 inch wheels, the latest 'in' size between the old standard 26 inch and the new but too big for some 29 inch. Hydraulic disc brakes, 10 speed rear cassette with single speed front, aluminum frame, rock shox shocks. I've only added a couple accessories so far, have some on order. It's gloss black with bright green details, so I'm gonna go with that a little more, and call it my X-Bixe (along the lines of X-Box). Got it on sale for a pretty good price.

Rides pretty well, certainly a LOT different than my OLD mountain bike ROB (Really Old Blue), which is from the days of no suspension. But its still perfectly usable, and I still ride it occasionally. Curiously enough, that bike is a Supergo Access Comp, this bike is a Diamondback Atroz Comp. Both Comps. Coincidence?

One of the things I still need to get the most is a suspension pump. This bike has front and rear air shock suspension. Comes with some air in it but I don't know how much. But from riding it on some trails I know it needs a little more air in it. Suspension compresses quite a bit on bumps.

This is the trail in a park in town where I can ride off road. This is a pretty flat area, also has some areas with a lot of built up ramps, bumps, mounds and more to ride over. Due to the excessive rain this year, its very green and weedy and there are a lot of wildflowers. I wish the city would do a little more to maintain this trail, as the weeds are 3 feet high in some spots and have almost totally overgrown the mostly very narrow trail.

Time to ride some more!

Can't Touch This!

It was a nice saturday. Partly cloudy, a bit breezy, temp in low 70s. No chance of rain.

So I got the bike out, got ready and took off. Did a fairly long ride - almost 23 miles in total. Wasn't even that sore which is good, considering I've only done a few rides.

Very few people out on the Greenway today, surprising since it was such a nice day. Though one of the parks was completely full of people and kids all doing junior soccer. Guess that was todays activity for the crowd.

Anyway, once I got home, I looked through the data on my cycle computer. And noticed something odd.

Check out my Max speed - 76.2mph! Can't touch that! Yow!

I know the fastest I went on a downhill area was 27.1 mph. And I reset the computer before I started. 76.2 - I wish I could go that fast! I think the cycle computer went a little wonky.

Or my leg muscles are REALLY strong!

Spinnin'

Just a quick photo, with just a little 'tweaking'.

Significance? None, other than its the first time I've been out on the bike since last fall! Been a long time. Took a relatively short but good ride. Need to be riding a little more, but I'm not much of a fan of cycling in cold or windy weather. And that seems to be all we have around here!

LDOTYBR

Otherwise known as the Longest Day Of The Year Bike Ride!

Summer Solstice today - longest day of the year! Was very humid much of the day, but got quite a bit nicer by this evening. Since I haven't done much cycling lately, had to put a few miles on the two wheeler. Very nice night! Think I only ate one bug!

Will I do a SDOTYBR? Well, that's in December. So, odds they are not so good. But who knows?!

Urtle River Tate Park

I've been on vacation visiting family in NoDak. And got to spend a couple days with my brother. We both like cycling. But don't get to spend much time doing it together since we live so far apart. But for now we get together when we can. Unfortunately the weather (I think it's summer) was not very cooperative. Either overcast and very humid and raining. Or cloudy, cold and windy. We finally took off on monday to Urtle River Tate Park. That's what the sign says, so it must be true!
See? We're only 20 miles or so from my brother's place. Nice area with trails and a river, mostly through trees and parkland, some prairie spots. Not a huge park, but its nice. I'm more used to trails with rocks, pines, steeper hills and such from where I live. This is actually easier to ride for me. Lance Armstrong and those like him got nothing to fear from my cycling ability.

Even though it was a mostly cloudy and cool day, still had to keep hydrated.

I wonder what's in that bottle?

Must be Superman juice!

Got an awesome tat! How about that?

Ok, so it's really just a grease mark on my leg from the chainring. But it does look like a tatoo!

A shot of the ubercyclist wannabes. We had a great time, just wish we could do more. Thanks for putting me up and the cycling lil' bro! And check his blog, I know he'll be posting on our ride as well.

Le Tour

Lest you think I haven't been riding the bike, oh, how wrong you are. I ride it fairly frequently, though mostly just shorter rides on the bike paths around town. But it is generally not very exciting or photo-worthy.

Me showing off my mad biking skillz of....sitting on a bench! Yeah! Just out for a spin on my hot-rodded up cruiser bike.

Spinning at Curt's

Took a bike ride today to a place I don't go much. Curt Gowdy State Park. It's nice, has nice trails (more for hiking IMHO) a reservoir, camping, etc. It's closer than some of the other places I go, but not real large. And usually kind of busy.

Here's a shot from along the trail. At least the weather cooperated. Lack-of-rain wise. The wind was blowing so hard sometimes it was pushing me off the trail! This view is looking towards Granite reservoir in the distance.

A shot of the serious biker. With his 'ancient' mountain bike. This thing is really punishing me on rough trails. No suspension, low bottom bracket, long crank arms and a semi-skilled, tired rider equals a lot of scraping and bouncing off rocks. This trail has too many of them!

Another along the trail shot. It is pretty good in some places. In others, it's get off and walk. Which I did a LOT of today. Kinda frustrating. The trail is often no more than a foot wide, with too many rocks trying to snag me. And cactus cactus everywhere, right along the edges. I've never seen so much cactus. The little clumpy ones, with the big long spines. Overall, not my favorite kind of riding. Maybe my opinion will change if I ever get a new, full-suspension mountain bike. But the scenery is nice!

The Stone Temple. That's what it's called. A rock feature along the Stone Temple circuit. What a coincidence! That trail is 'intermediate' difficulty. Some of it I'd say. A fair amout should be considered Advanced. I went on several Advanced and Expert trails today also. How? You guessed it - mostly on foot pushing the bike! Not ridable. Not by me. Didn't feel like breaking any bones. Though I managed a few minor wipeouts anyway. Tough ride day.

Hey, did that rock just move???

A nice waterfall just a short way off one of the main trails.

So how'd I do for the day? Somebody must want to know

• Ride time of 2 hrs, 40 minutes. But I was there for close to 6 hours
• Average speed of 5.4 mph. Blistering!
• Distance of 14.7 miles.
• Max speed of 25 mph! There were a few clear downhill areas, apparently!

Nice area, many good views of scenery. But more a hiking destination that a biking one for me. After the pounding on the trail, the wind and the rest I was pretty wiped out by the end of the day.

New Blog, New Shooz!

Welcome to my new blog. And to go along with it, my new cycling shoes. Since I have SPD Shimano pedals on one of my bikes, I needed some shoes to use the clips. After looking at several, I got these, which look like normal shoes, and you can walk in them without looking like you are either learning to walk, or just escaped from clown college.

So far I'm just walking around in them getting used to the stiff soles. Maybe one day the weather will finally get nice out so I can ride outside! And yes, for the observant know-it-all out there, the SPD cleats are not yet attached to the shoes!