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I’ve been hankering to punish myself recently so I decided that I will look for a hardtail frame and start my Single Speed Project; the only caveat though is that I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on this build because if i absolutely hated it, I wouldn’t be in the whole too much.

MY first suggestion by an STR member was to find a used front suspension mountain bike, strip all the drivetrain gear out of it and convert it to a single speeder. Not a bad idea actually, if you have the patience to look for one make the trip to look at it examine it and haggle. If any of you readers know me, you know I cannot wait. Plus my itchy fingers likes to build things and put things together. So I decided to look for a used bike as well as look for an extremely affordable hardtail frame as a basis for my single speed budget build.

WOULDNT you know it? My buddy Thai (who loves the thrill of finding the bargain) found a great deal from a local bike shop (LBS) called Adrenaline. The frame is your standard double triangle frame with some really nice gussets and welds stout enough to make this into a dirt jumper if you’re so inclined. The price on this frame you ask? On the Adrenaline site, it lists for $99 + shipping and tax if you’re a California resident. But if you’re a member of STR you actuallyEn 1986 el difunto senador Jack Lindsay, Marlboro, indujo discretamente una clausula en una ley complicada que permite que las maquinas de poker entreguen pagos. get additional discounts from the shop, kind of a way to say thank you for supporting a local shop instead of some conglomerate chain. As luck would have it the frames he had in stock were all painted a flat black! I LOVE BLACK. Chatted with Neil (Manager at Adrenaline) and he told me he’s built a handful of these Marin AXC 1.1 B-17’s before and they are great geared or as a SS. With those words, there was no turning back for me. This guy was not set to embark on a journey that I hope will not only challenge me but also open my mind to what some mountain bikers refer to as being one with your bike. Neil even jokingly said, are you sure you want to do this? Because most people that try single speeding will never ride their full suspension bikes again. I hope not! Because I spent a lot of money on my other bike and my wife would kill me if I didn’t ride it as much!

компютри втора употребаSO the tally so far, I spent $80.00 on the frame and have made myself a list of what I needed to get, either through donations or through shrewd bargain hunting. Here are some pics of the frame.

THIS is what I need: seat post, saddle, front fork (100mm travel), stem, handlebar, single speed conversion rear cog kit, wheelset, tires, disc brakes, crank arms, bottom bracket, and clipless pedals! Seems like a lot, because it is a lot, I’m basically building this bike from the bottom up! But this is where the fun begins! In discussing this build with my co-worker who himself is an avid mountain biker, he offered up some parts from his Enduro that he had just upgraded parts from and is no longer using. He offered up (I got giddy with excitement), a seat post, saddle, stem, and handlebars. FOR FREE!!!! STOKED I was! He also has a Manitou front fork in 100mm travel (ironic eh?) that’s sitting at his house in Houston that he’ll bring bake with him when he heads home to visit for Christmas! Not only that, but he’s planning on upgrading his disc brakes to some real Gucci disc brake system from Magura. So we struck a deal that I would get those brakes from him for $100 to help him offset his new brake investment.

THIS build is really starting to take shape!

BUT wait, there’s more! I went and looked on eBay and watched, bidded and WON a brand new set of wheels for $156.00 SHIPPED to my door. The wheelset consists of Shimano XT hubs front and rear, DT Swiss straight pull spokes and nipples, and Mavic 317 wheels all laced up in black…it matches Another item to tick off the list. The next item that I got through the immense generosity of a fellow mountain biker on the STR forum (Jeff) donated a spare set of Truvativ Single Speed crank arms and bottom bracket! He read my post about my ambitious project and was thrilled to hear/read that I was taking the SS plunge that he wanted to aid me into the spiraling descent into the SS world. Didn’t I tell you that the mountain bike community here in socal is probably one of the closest and most caring and generous group of individuals you will ever have the pleasure in meeting and riding with. Before I end Part I of the build I wanted to recap. What do I need now? seat post, saddle, front fork (100mm travel), stem, handlebar, single speed conversion rear cog kit, wheelset, disc brakes, crank arms, bottom bracket, tires, and clipless pedals! So I’m still just $236 into the project and managed to secure 10 of the 12 items on my checklist. That’s 83% of the needed parts already! How cool is that? All of this cannot be possible without the generosity of other passionate riders. I’m just bursting with excitement waiting to build this bike up!

TUNE in the next installment when I finalize my build list and start the installation process!

As we get old we often forget to enjoy the simple things like when we were kids. The absolute joy of accomplishing something like riding your bike for the first time made me realize how much we take things for granted. My daughter is 7.5 years old and has not been very confident on her bike so she’s been riding her bike with training wheels for a while. I had promised her that we would learn to ride her bike sans the training wheels. All day long my wife told me how excited she was to for me to come home from work so she can start learning. After a moment of apprehension we proceeded to take off the training wheels and off we went. I was really surprised at how quick she learned. Within a half hour she was getting the hang of it, making somewhat smooth left and right turns as well as stopping. But the important thing was she was gaining her confidence in her ability to ride and she is slowly grasping the concept of speed and bike control. I was happy to capture this moment on video and wanted to share it my readers.

Some of the readers may know that I host a Saturday morning casual ride at Aliso Wood.  Nothing too crazy, a few climbs where one would be considered technical but short.  Well since I started riding again back in July I have been gradually building up my endurance and leg strength.  Normally the first climb of the day is up Cholla and I have to admit even though I’ve managed to clean it (no stopping) I was apprehensive to try to climb that trail in anything bigger than granny gear front(your typical mountain bike will have 3 gears attached to the crank) and 2 cogs down in the rear.  Well today mark a major milestone for me.  I rode with my buddy Bon today and he had this great idea to try to climb Cholla in middle ring today, I reluctantly complied and expected the worse and hoped for the best.   Well I was AMAZED stoked that I almost cleaned that climb!  I only stopped once!  I attribute that to the fact that it was the first steep climb of the trail and I was having a little trouble keeping the front end down so I bobbled and had to stop. We chilled for  a little bit and resumed the ride again, this time Bon led the way and I followed.  Next thing you know, Bon made his second stop and I continued to press onward.  This was simply amazing, I’ve always benchmarked myself to Bon as he is the climber.  His physique lends itself nicely to climbing like a billy goat and I have always wondered how he does it.  It was amazing, I would have never thought in my wildest dreams that I would be able to climb Cholla on only one stop!  Next time I will continue to work on my middle ring technique and hopefully in short time will be able to clean Cholla in middle ring without any stops!So we pressed on along the western ridge of the park enjoying the sunny day and catching up on life and just basically shooting the shit with each other.  We got to another challenging climb, it’s about a 70 meter long short but STEEP climb.  Again, I normally climb this sucker in granny front and 2 cogs down spinning my way up the climb.  This time we started the climb in middle front and first cog in the rear.  By the middle of climb, I shift that puppy up to 3 cogs down (smaller gear in the back) and got my butt out of my seat and start to mash my way up to the top.  V I C T O R Y, another accomplishment!  What a sweet day it is and I shall savour it.  We then started our last climb up to Top of the World, again this isn’t a technical climb, just long and for the uninitiated, you are led to believe that the climb is over after you crest only to see that you were fooled because the climb continued as you summit.  I had cleaned this part of the loop the previous week in middle ring so I knew what to expect but this time my legs were feeling a little rubbery since I did the ride so far in middle ring.  I trudged along and finally made it to top of the world to enjoy the gorgeous view that rewards the rider once he/she gets to the top.We then decided to back track a little and go down Mathis (normally a climb), Bon followed as I led.  I think it has a lot to do with the amount of saddle time that I’ve been putting in and the fact that I’m not over analyzing what’s before me and letting my bike do the talking as opposed to me trying to fight it; “be like water”.  Always cognoscente of climbers working their way up Mathis I always slow down and yield if I have to so that the climbing riders will have a choice of lines.  If possible I would take the harder/rockier line so that the climber would have the smoother route; part of trail etiquette.   I flew down that sucker letting the bike do all the work and taking little jumps here and there when it was warranted got to the bottom of that trail and looked back to see Bon pulling up with his helmet a little eschew telling me “dude you are going way too fast” brought a chuckle to the two of us.  Of course I disagreed and told him that I was merely going at a speed that I was comfortable with and retorted back to him that he was not too far back behind me as I heard his chain slapping as we were descending.  His reply was, “yah I was behind you but I was not in my comfort level”.  More laughing ensued as we rode back on the fire road ending our ride at Canyon View Park.What a great day we had, beautiful weather, great company and riding bliss.  What more could you ask for?!  I may sound like a broken record but if you’ve never tried mountain biking, I urge you to buy or borrow a bike and get out there on the trails and meet some great folks (www.socaltrailriders.org).  Mountain bikers are by far some of the coolest and most compassionate group of passionate riders I have ever had the pleasure of meeting and riding with.  Get out there in the dirt and do something crazy and healthy for you! 

Rode a new trail today aptly known as San Clemente Singletrack.  This entire trail system/network was built by Team WTF (yes WTF), it’s an amazing trail system that consists of a HUGE loop that gets near Camp Pendleton and there are other trails that branches off from the main loop.  
We had a great time with my 4 other buddies today exploring and getting somewhat lost along the way, but it’s an adventure and the ride becomes secondary.   I shot some pics and made yet another video on iMovie for your enjoyment.

So I got the iLife upgrade recently and today was my first time giving iMovie a spin.  I went mountain biking with some friends from SocalTrailRiders.org this morning at my local trail (Aliso Wood Canyon Wilderness Park).  I usually bring along a Canon 40SD point-and-shoot camera to capture some moments.  Well it’s got a video capture feature on this camera so I took it upon myself to shoot some footage of my riding buddies coming down some sections of the trail. <p>iMovie is super easy to use!  No joke!  I launched the application and I was off and running with NO instructions.  So here’s a sample of what I was able to throw together in less than 30 minutes.

As some of my friends can attest, I do love the hatch and with Subaru making a big push to make their venerable STi a 5 door wagon as opposed to a 4 door sedan just makes it even more enticing for me.  I have been looking for something with the versatility of an SUV without the gas penalties of an SUV.  Plus it’s fast so that satisfies my urge to go quick with AWD.  Here’s a video of it almost undisguised at the famous ‘ring’