Taste of B.A.L.L.S.

Cracked Pepper

Starting on something new.

Happy spring from Madison

Hub Conversion

The bolt on wheels on the Masi had to go. It's silly to need a 15mm wrench, which is uncommon on modern multi-tools, just change a flat...

Hollowing the axle was the stressful part, the bit wandering was a real threat. I drilled to the center, over 2", flipped it and met the hole on the other side and they lined up perfectly.

Gravel grinder

Despite a night of little sleep, I took off early on Saturday morning with the Pugsley on a ride out Blue Mounds to attend a trail work day with CORP. It's about 10 miles of pavement from my place to where the gravel starts, and the latest reports of the trail were that it was too soft still, but that was almost a week ago and big tires float well. As soon as the tires hit the dirt I knew it was going to be fine, there were soft sections but I barely left a print. I lowered the pressure down a bit, from an initial rock hard 20 PSI, to smooth out the ride but was worried about going too low and picking up resistance which which would have been undesirable for the 60ish mile trip.

The ride was mostly an experiment to see how the bike felt for long treks because I'm considering taking it on B.A.L.L.S to try and make the Cheese Country trail at bit more tolerable. The weight is certainly noticeable, but the wide bottom bracket was the big concern and thankfully my knees didn't complain about it.

The work day was scheduled to start at 9am, so I was riding against the clock and was pushing the whole way to make it but never really checked the time (what good would it do anyway). A coworker mentioned that he was starting a road ride at the top of the mound with a big group at 9am and sure enough, right as I hit the park road, several dozen road bikes came screaming down the hill, perfect.

Build some trail, everyone took the Pugs for a spin, struggled on the way home, did yard work, became zombie, in bed by 8pm.

Field repair

I was out riding on the Capital City Trail with two other guys today and learned a neat bike repair trick. The path had a lot of sections that hadn't melted off yet, the temps were in the low/mid 20's but the sun had softened up the snow and ice mix for a slushy experience. The ice build up on our bikes was pretty impressive by the end. About half way through the ride, out in the prairie sections that are far from anything, my cassette got so covered in ice that the chain just skipped over it in any gear and only the slightest pressure on the pedals; I wasn't going anywhere. I was about to start jabbing at it with a multi tool (which I wasn't keen on doing) when one of the guys suggested melting it off... One empty bladder later (not a camelbak bladder) the bike was officially mine, the drive train was astonishingly clean, and we were on our way.

Semi bi annual blog shakeout

Why not. More stuff that's happened since the last update. Me and 7 other guys headed out west to ride from Durango CO to Moab UT using the San Juan Hut system. Lots of driving, lots of riding, lots of beer, and lots of fun.