Building up a bike for my son

My son is turning 11 this year. Last year we got him a 24" Specialized through craig's list. It was sort of an impulse buy and I sort of wish we hadn't done it. It's beefy and like many kids bikes has too much crap on it that they don't need, such as a heavy ineffective suspension fork and chain guide. The brakes were crap as were the shifters.

We've been him riding on some trails and he was belly aching away. I'm tired, I'm having trouble shiftin, I'm having a hard time braking.... We'd sort of chocked it up to the typical 10 year old I'm really a teen ager.

I took a harder look at the bike and was in a debate regarding redoing all the cable housings and putting some nicer brakes and rear shifter on it. It really was heavy and didn't brake or shift well. Instead of putting any money into it I decided to just go ahead and look at 26" bikes cause he'd be growing into them soon enough. He already likes to ride his mom's bike around

Now the next hurdle was finding an affordable small bike that didn't look like a women's bike. No women's bike names, sky blue, pink or lavendar or flowers. I wanted a frame so that I could use some of my parts bin parts and then ebay the rest. This proved much harder to do than I'd expected.

Ebay was the only real venue. All the small frames were going for more $ than I'd wanted or were full bikes. Some that I'd seen that fit the bill for a short effective top tube included trek, Fuji, a haro, marin, specialized. But once you included shipping the costs were getting a little more than I wanted. Plus I just plain lost a few in the bidding process. Small frames are hard to come by.

But then someone at mtbr turned me on to some frames that performance sells. They picked up the older superslow Access frames and their own house brand. I emailed and got some geometry measurements (shown at the bottom of this.) Decided on the red Access bike. Sort of funky tubing but cool. ETT seemed short and the plan was to put a short 50mm stem on it with the goal of increasing stem size as he grew.

$149+shipping -10% discount coupon. Plus I could send it back no questions if I needed. I was pretty impressed upon opening it. They upgraded their powder coating process and it looked pretty cool. Light too. Note that it comes with a seat binder and crap headset cups (zero stack) I did order a Woodman zero stack just to be safe. A cheaper frame is there perf. brand but I wanted red

I'd had some parts and picked out the rest through some closeouts at Icycles, treefort bikes and ebay.

We gave a box of parts and the frame to him as an early bday present. But he had to help put it together. I must say it was really really fun to do it with him. Real father son time. He did a great job and helped with almost every part. I was a little bit more excited about it than him at times. Explaining each part in detail especially some of my prized parts bin treasures like my Real Designs Square taper Bottom Bracket.

I showed him how to grease parts


and press in the headset.


Scoured the Internet for some red platform pedals


He now knows Race Face and has brand loyalty to them over nike. As I have several other race face products. They had 50mm stem. Its a downhill stem heavy and beefy but cool.


We wrapped the chainstay and even put heat shrink tubing on all the cable ends


I'm pretty stoked on it. He loves it. 27'lbs with full disc. Heavy parts, front hydraulic disc, rear mech disc. WTB saddle, Sugino impel crank, heavy easton post, bar, nashbar rigid fork. The reach is good, but the big wheels make it a little on the large side. Sort of looks like a 29er. He'll adapt no problem and will grow into it in short order.


All in all, I'm really happy as is he.

Here are the measurements from performance on their frames:
small frames geometries

http://web.archive.org/web/20061017142713/www.fujibikes.com/2006/geometry.asp?id=163
performance frame xsmall:
XS-14 S-16 M-18 L-20 XL-22
Seat Tube (C-T) 355.6 mm 406.4 mm 457.2 mm 508 mm 558.8 mm
Seat Tube (C-C) 275.6 mm 326.4 mm 377.2 mm 428 mm 478.8 mm
Effective Top Tube 533.4 mm 546.1 mm 558.8 mm 571.5 mm 584.2 mm
Actual Top Tube 516.6 mm 523.7 mm 536.7 mm 556.1 mm 577.2 mm
Chainstay 430 mm 430 mm 430 mm 430 mm 430 mm
Head tube 120 mm 120 mm 120 mm 120 mm 130 mm
Bottom Bracket Drop 32 mm 32 mm 32 mm 32 mm 32 mm
Wheel Base 1018.6 mm 1031.3 mm 1044 mm 1056.7 mm 1069.7 mm
Head Angle 71 deg 71 deg 71 deg 71 deg 71 deg
Seat Angle 73 deg 73 deg 73 deg 73 deg 73 deg


Build Requirements
Seatpost diameter 27.2 mm
Headset Threadless, Standard, Pressed-in, 1 1/8" Steerer
Front Derailleur 31.8 mm
Seat Tube Collar 31.8 mm
Bottom Bracket Shell 68 mm

Miscellaneous
Weight 4.18 lbs
Replaceable Dropout Yes
Rear Rack Eyelets Yes
Rear Rack Braze-ons not included, but there are braze-on

access
2009 Access XCL Comp Mountain Frame Geometry (item 30-1873)

14.5 16.5 18.5 20.5 22.5
Seat Tube (C-T) 368.3 mm 419 mm 470 mm 520 mm 571.5 mm
Seat Tube (C-C) 298.3 mm 349 mm 400 mm 450 mm 501.5 mm
Effective Top Tube 540 mm 580 mm 605 mm 630 mm 650 mm
Actual Top Tube 524.3 mm 555.7 mm 579 mm 607.2 mm 630 mm
Chainstay 420 mm 420 mm 420 mm 420 mm 420 mm
Head tube 110 mm 110 mm 115 mm 140 mm 155 mm
Bottom Bracket Drop 34 mm 34 mm 34 mm 34 mm 34 mm
Wheel Base 1012.6 mm 1047.3 mm 1072.1 mm 1098 mm 1113.2 mm
Head Angle 70.5 deg 71 deg 71 deg 71 deg 71 deg
Seat Angle 73 deg 73 deg 73 deg 73 deg 72.5 deg


Build Requirements
Seatpost diameter 31.6 mm
Headset Threadless, 1 1/8" steerer, Zero Stack
Front Derailleur 34.9 mm
Seat Tube Collar 34.9 mm
Bottom Bracket Shell 68 mm

Miscellaneous
Weight 3.9 lbs
Replaceable Dropout Yes
Rear Rack Eyelets Yes
Rear Rack Braze-ons No, and no openings for them

a bear of a maintenance weekend

I have a WTB LaserDisc Lite wheelset. It might not be the most bombproof and it might not have the Chris King Bling but it's the best value in weight weenie hubs around.

From a bombproof perspective I mean having the ability to ride through anything without needing maintenance. It isn't sealed very well from wetness so after a few soggy rides the pawl mechanism gets a little crunchy. Also key is to use very lightweight grease or even thick oil or gear oil in place of they typical Phil on the mechanism, which means that is resists water even less.

Given all the wet weather we've been having it was in need of an overhaul. One thing I love is how easy they are and actually simple to work on. I get into these things so it doesn't try my patience that much to break them down. Some people can't handle the down time of working on stuff when they'd rather be riding.

Another little character flaw with this version of the hub is that the specs call for a little bit of play in the hub when installed on the frame with the quick release tight. This is a little disconcerting as typically you try to adjust hubs so that all play is gone when the wheel is tight. But with this one the manual says just a little bit of play. I heard that the newest version gets rid of this though.

Also nice is that there are replacement freebody kits and cam plates available which I'd actually changed out fairly recently after more than 2 years of beating on it.

Well when I put it together I think I erred on the side of too tight. Maybe wasn't thinking or thought I felt the play. But after some riding it started to feel funny. Difficult to backpedal , some skipping but I was out of town and decided to get one more ride on it, then pop, no more pedaling.

When I finally got into it it was ugly. cam plate was shattered and there is a spring on the under side of the freebody that was broken off in there. It had gouged out the innards as well. Thankfully I had the old freebody that was working ok just had one tooth broken off, and the new cam plate that had come with the replacement. I chiseled off the gouged out metal and put the old body on.

It was having lots of problems catching on the backpedal and it looks like the teeth were pushed out just enough to engage the pawls, so I took a file to it and wore it down enough so that it clears the pawls when backpedaling. It's not great but I think it will work. so back in business.

BUT...when putting the wheel back in I bent the hell out of my hanger. See, with gripshift/sram somewhere I read that it's easier to get the wheel back in if its in the biggest cog in back. Most other shifting systems they say to put it on the small cog in back. It does work better in the big, but not a good idea if the front chainring is also in the big ===crosschaining. Well for whatever reason I'd had it in the big and when tried to put the wheel in the chain was so tight and I was pulling on it so much that I bent my hanger.

I was going to bust out the safety replaceable der hanger but decided to have more fun with one of my favorite tools the park DAG-1

I manhandled it into alignment and shifting is much improved which means that it has probably been tweaked for a little while. I doubt it will stay well adjusted given how much I'd bent it trying to get the wheel in so It might be better to order a new one anyway. Also since IH is out of business and the parent company is under investigation there might not be many more around.

So hopefully I'm back and running. My hardtail is dead in the water with a busted rear wheel and I stole the front disc off it for a buildup for a new kid bike. Which leads me to my latest obsession, possibly trying to convert it to singlespeed.
more on that later. I've been there before and it was fun, but I'm going to do it different this time if I do it.

aching lower back

Been riding some here and there. It's a little bit of a condundrum. I'm riding very strong at times, but it definitely doesn't last long. Climbing really well, most likely due to long road climbs. It's interesting though how my power riding on the singletrack has weakened. They don't go hand in hand and are different systems.

Power to weight vs pure power.

I'd stopped lifting in April and I could feel my core and upper body collapsing within a few weeks. I started back with some upper body work and stiff legged deadlifts. This put some strain onto my lower back and then went on some serious climbing. Ohh that put a hurting on the lower back.

hopefully in a few weeks my back will be back (pun intended) to a more stabilized state.

North American Handmade Bicycle Show coming to Richmond

The NAHBS is coming to the east coast, Virginia for that matter.
Velonews just announced the North American Handmade Bicycle Show is coming to Richmond, VA on February 26-28.

I am beside myself. Since almost the beginning of my bicycling career I've been enamored with custom frames. It is just the ultimate culmination of two of my passions: cycling and making things. I just love the fact that you can make something. Actually anything whether it is a table, boxes, a fishing rod, a knife, but a bike, sheesh it's my nirvana. Steel tubes, welding and paint. From a raw materials perspective, not much, but designed right it's just a thing of beauty.

My very first local hero of cycling in Davis, CA was a local expert mountain bike racer, Kurt. Kurt, the ex..pert was the saying. Super super nice guy who helped me get into racing and would always offer tips on training and riding. Enough so that I forgive him for trying to shift my truck into reverse when going 55mph on the highway. He wasn't that good at driving stick and was going for the 5th gear overdrive and went to reverse instead. I also forgave him for taking us on a incredible epic without telling us how much food to bring. All I remember was this other guy, Mike, getting all pissed off at Kurt's goofy smile and happy go lucky comments after 4 or 5 hours. Every time Kurt opened his mouth to say something, Mike would immediately talk over him and say..."Shortest way home, Kurt... Shortest way home".

Anyway, Kurt had a Rock Lobster hardtail. They were all hardtails back then. Deep burgandy with yellow decals with black letters. Man I loved that bike.

Years later when I finally had a little money, I decided to get a new frame. Turns out that I do not fit the typical mold. I've got long legs and short torso, in fact my inseam is similar to some people 3-4 inches taller than me. So I decided to go the custom route and got a BREW. In fact got my wife one too.

Over the years I got a second BREW, went through a lugged road bike phase then a single speed cross phase, but I didn't design the geometry right on that, otherwise I would have kept it. Somewhere in there, I scored a custom Ti road frame on ebay. That might have been a keeper except the top tube was just too long and a short stem would not cut it, as it threw the handling off for my extremely fine tuned senses. I also didn't care for the feel of the Ti. It was light for sure and it definitely muted some of the road buzz, but no joke, to me it didn't have this little bit of liveliness that a good steel frames has.

And then moved to a TIG welded road frame. Which is my current love. That bike has hit the spot for the time being. Sometimes I want to not like a frame after a period of time so that I can justify going for a new one. This one is pretty darn perfect. But the wonderful thing is that the frame is the heart and everything else can be swapped on it to create a virtually new bike. A repaint, new wheels, a new shock, and you gotta new bike.

I think my favorite is the TIG welded frame, hardtail mtb and road. There is something really clean looking and utilitarian about it. But there is also a beauty to the lines of a good frame. Sometimes I'll be in the garage or basement where the bike is on a trainer and I'll just look at it. For several minutes at a time.

Years ago there were only a handful of builders and hardly any dedicated mountain bike builders. Recently, with the advent of the internet and resurgence of things like the single speed, 29ers, 650Bs, free ride-hardtails, hipster bikes, dedicated commuting bikes, beach/snow bikes, cyclocross...custom frames are in a golden age.

You'd think that with so many production companies out there who now offer many options in sizing that you wouldn't need to go custom unless you just wanted to. But take my road bike for example. It's got a 49cm Seat tube length (c-c) but only a 51.5 effective top tube length. Most road bikes that have that short a top tube, have much shorter seat tubes. I also got an upsloping top tube and a 14cm head tube length so that I wouldn't have to use one of those high rise stems in order to get the bars high enough for my inflexible back and hamstrings.

My wife is very petite, and even with the proliferation of women's specific road bikes, there are still few options for frames. There is still a market for customs from a hard to fit perspective, but it's really about 1) having something that few others have; 2) supporting a small company/one person; 3) being able to bug someone on email every other day about the tiniest detail of the location of a cable stop and the gold fleck on the clear coat. Frame builders consider many potential customers and many of their actual customers to be time toilets, cause bike geeks can suck a lot of time from someone, and a $500 deposit is license for a desk jockey to email every day about their frame.

I'd love to go to framebuilding school. There are a few other classes around the country and lots of online resources and some out of print books. It's one of those I'm going to go sometime things, just got to find the time and allocate the funds. My 'bucket list' is pretty much Go to frame building school.

Right now I want a single speed mountain bike. This is probably a passing fad and after a few weeks on Brush mountain I'd be over it. But I've tried the chain tensioner route and want a real singlespeed. I also want a commuter built on my road bike geometry.

I daydream about building and selling frames but highly doubt I'd like to do that for a living, rather I'd like to build a few a year... No hipster bikes though.

check that chain

There is a wonderful, inexpensive little tool by Park that you can use to check chain stretch. It gives you a go/no go check for whether or not to change your chain.


The basic premise is that your chain, cassette and rings all wear together. The chain stretches over time and the cassette and rings wear down too though not at as much.

At some point the chain stretches enough that if you keep riding it then when you do change you will have to change both the chain and cassette at the same time. But if you change the chain first you can eek out much longer life from the cassette and rings.

You will learn this first hand the first time you change your chain after a long long time and don't change the cassette, you will go to stand to hoss on the pedals and you'll get a kaaa-chunk, kaaaa-chunk as the new chain slips on the cassette. Also there is a much higher chance of getting some serious chain suck when using a new chain and an old chainring.

With this chain checker you can identify when it is time to change the chain out. I like that you don't have to think too much about it, just try to stick it on the chain and at the .75 setting and if it fits you're still ok, but if it fits with the 1.0 setting than you gotta change.

blast from the past

A co-worker of my wife is graduating this year and she wanted to give a small gift. He's into the whole new biker scene in the town and asked if I had an of this bike jewelry I used to make years ago.

Back in the day I'd take old chain and form it into keychains and necklaces and earings. This was before you could buy them from online catalogs.
Down in the basement in a dusty old box, I found the last two pieces I'd made.

One time I even set up a booth at our local street fair in town. The booth was sold for Friday afternoon through Sunday. I didn't feel like setting up and Friday afternoon and went to see a band instead and set up Saturday morning. So I am setting up this rickity wooden display easel that I'd jury rigged the day before and a folding chair and old card table, next to the seasoned street fair regulars with credit card machines, nice canopy tents, and lots of merchandise who were all geared up the day before. The street fair enforcers from the town downtown council came by and chewed me out for not setting up on Friday and that they would have sold my spot to someone else ,etc, etc. And I sat all day in the baking sun. Sold enough for several nights of Cellar pita pizzas and beer money for a little while and never did that again.

I think I gave one to an olympic track cyclist who worked with a friend of my brother's out in California and I sent one to Missy Giove. One day I saw a cover shot of her on MBA or similar magazine and sure enough there is my necklace
*That's it but the star shape came apart*

(like the one below) around her neck. The funny thing is though she had sent me a thank you letter that started with :
Dear Homegirl, or Dear girlfriend or something like that...

She must have thought I was a woman as my name alone isn't really distinctive to gender for someone unfamiliar with it.


This morning my kids saw the keychain and I made one for my son on the spot with a dime in the middle of it. My wife still has hers from 15 years ago.

Fun stuff. I like to make things now and then. For most months out of the year I have shop tools that lay dormant, but a few times out of they year I have to make something "right now". A box or a knife or something tangible. Something about taking whole process from drawing a design on paper to forming some raw materials into something that transforms from just wood or steel into something beautiful, tangible, and real. My son and I are making some small boxes right now. 6 mos later it might be done given the rate I'm going...

as good as sliced bread: Trigger Point Massage Ball

One of my many mini ailments over the years has been tight muscles. Yes, Yes i know that Yoga and stretching are things that I need to do, but never seem to be able to get around to it.

My hot zones include my IT band, especially where my bulging quad muscle transitions to the it band, my hamstrings, lower back, psoaz,
soleus by the calf


back of the shoulder


piroformis


Without my usual rub down and physiotherapist on staff I've resorted to a whole cadre of tools to help. These include some of my most prized possesions and all fall into the Hurts so good catagory. Such as The Stick



I've got the blue one. I love this thing. the key to it is to get deep into the muscles when they are in an unflexed state. It takes a little experimenting to find the right positons to hit things like the hamstrings totally unflexed and to find the piriformis.



The key to it is these rollers that surround a slightly flexible core so you can really bend it and lay it into your muscles. The transition between my quad and IT band is like a square edge so that when I roll the stick over it it will stop until I give it more oomph.

Love it on my quads, hams, and piriformis.

One of my favorite aids is the Theracane.


I can really get to the sweet spots of my upper back with this. I often combine it with this ointment called Bio Freeze. After using both I can definitely feel some relief on my external rotators.

But while using the theracane feels sooooo so good, I havent' found it to truly 'release' my muscles like you hear about. The theory is that stimulating these trigger points of knots helps the muscle release and regain its flexibility.

For the IT band I got one of these foam rollers


This was outside of the hurts so good realm to, omgood help me. It took a few weeks before I could put unsupported weight onto my quad/IT band. Again, with some funky positions I can really get to my piriformis.

I've been working out my external rotators on a regular basis which has helped significantly with being able to keep my elbows out in downhilling. But they get really tender and soar and knotty. The best thing I've found so far for relief has been the elbows of my kids. Once they find the right spot I just have them lay into it with their full weight. But it takes about 5 minutes of wait, wait, just a little higher, no to the left, ahhh not there that is my bone, higher, higher...wait wait right there......

Then the get tired, and cya.

I'd been thinking about this product called the Trigger Point Massage ball for a while.


I've tried tennis balls, and the even the corners of walls to get deep into the muscle. The idea behind this is that the ball simulates the same combination of give firmness seen in a thumb. Where you have a flexible outer and then a firm core. This allows you to get deep into the 'belly' of the muscle to really work it out.

When I first got it I was squeezing it and didn't really see how it did what they say. But when I followed the instructions...Well let's just say I'm a firm believer in it. The instructions say to either use it against a wall or the floor or to press it in using your hand, to wait 5 seconds then take a deep breath and then roll it around a around the trigger point.

The instructional DVD calls this a hurts so good technology. When I first used it, I put it on the floor and laid down on at my rear shoulder. Well, I didn't need to take a deep breath, because I pretty much was gasping like I'd been hit in the solar plexus or had jumped into a freezing lake. It just took my breath away. And rolling it around the trigger point, again. Heavan and hell in one.

But something was different than like when I'd used the theracane. For the first time in memory I could turn my head to the side farther than I ever could. I mean it really did seem to 'release' the muscle. I've used it on my lower back, shoulder, hamstring, soleus, chest, IT quad.

oh man, I went riding over the weekend and didn't bring it. My seat had moved back on the rails over the past few months, and I moved it back to the right spot. This change was very noticeable to my piriformis. And I'd left my ball at home.

I'm telling you, for real, the first thing I did when I got home was get this thing and sit on it

What I'm realizing is that I need to use it almost every day. My muslces just want to revert back to that tight, knotted position. I've had a little bit of rolfing done years ago. One of the theories behind it is that the fascia that is on top of the muscle hardens up over time and maintains poor position. I'd like to go through the whole rolfing procedure sometimes cause I think it did work. This TP ball might be the closest thing.

I want to get this masochistic device made of the same material to replace the foam roller. I've heard that this thing hurts so good/bad that it makes the foam roller seem like a walk in the park.

Anyway, I love this thing