123 Polo

Played some bike polo on Thursday night. It's exactly the release that I needed after a shitty long day at work. I always end up breaking the shifting cable for my commuter when I play because it extends out of the rear axle and bike polo is a very contact-oriented game. That's why the Rockfish needs to be built as a polo bike. It can serve as a bike I can wreck without commuting consequences.

I'm definitely getting better at polo... the practice and confidence really helps. Will Canup showed up to polo and it sounds like I'll see him tonight at the Paranormal.

Roll out

The bike is ready. Always is. I'm not. Never am.

Matt Lockaby was kind enough to invite me to watch him brew with his full grain setup next time. He has a reputation of being quite good at brewing, so I'm excited to get the chance to see his process. I stopped by "The Lodge" last night to drop off a wheel for a bike he and Adam are building for a friend, and I got a peak at some of Matt's equipment at the same time. Pretty amazing stuff. Who knew you could secondary in a keg?

Spent some time at the shop last night stripping junk bikes to prepare them for recycling. We are supposedly receiving 40-50 broken bikes from UVA Parking & Transportation on Friday in exchange for a few working bikes for their employees to use. That's one way to recycle. I'm struggling to get a program together where mechanically-oriented volunteers can meet weekly for a few hours to assemble nice bikes and sell them on craigslist for shop rent. Contact me if interested. Free pizza likely.

Paranormal Activities

BRAINS

This Saturday is the 2010 CRC Paranormal mountain bike race in Earlysville, VA. It's always a great 6 hour endurance race with beer, costumes, beer, camping, beer, and best of all - it starts at 4pm and is dark after 3 laps. I've done this race for the past three years, twice with Charlottesville Community Bikes in the shop category, and once solo. I'm not really that great of a mountain biker, so I've never made it more than three laps personally. Also, it doesn't help that I don't have a great light set for riding single track in the dark.

If you wear a costume to the race you are awarded a 2 minute head start. Last year was the first year that I went solo and decided to go all out on my costume. Swine flu:

Turn your head and cough.

I even wore a curly tail.

Charles wielding a sharp weapon as usual. Will as a Donnie Darko skeleton.

In 2009 I raced on my 26" rigid Scott Paisley mtb (to be salivated over on a later post). But this year I'll be converting my rigid mountain bike commuter into something viable. It has a 3 speed Sachs Torpedo internal hub in the back, two rings on the front, and a front generator hub to power a headlight. To convert my commuter I'm swapping out my slick tires and spring saddle to knobby tires and a racing saddle, adding another water bottle cage, and removing the rear rack, light, and fenders. This bike, too, is a rigid 26":

So tonight I'll be re-suiting my commuter for the race and rebuilding a rear mtb wheel for Chris. He has had the worst luck with spokes breaking, so I've convinced him to go with double-butted Wheelsmith spokes. They should be fun to build with.

If anybody in the Charlottesville is looking for a teammate that can drink better than he can bike, drop me a line and we can ride some beers together at the Paranormal.