Life, Lust, and Silly Puns

Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot I got a road bike! Yeah, it was scheduled to arrive on the 28th, but I guess they were quick about it. I got it Thursday evening, spent Friday tuning and adjusting it, and went for my first ride on it today. I only went 9 something miles, but I barely felt it.

Anyway, I love my bike. It's 26 pounds and runs 32 mm tires, but I can still keep up with the big kids on their more expensive bikes. Anyway, my bike.



I don't like the Sora shifters. I'll keep scouting Craigslist.

It's been a while, but I just wanted to say I've got a pretty schweet X-mas gift coming up. It'll be delivered on 12-28-08 but I might not be able to get it on that day. I'm hoping I can get my hands on it by the 29th. Since this blog is about cycling, and because everyone knows my hobby, this gift will be related to biking. I've mentioned considering getting it these past few weeks, but you'll know for sure which one once I get it.


Counting down....


F5F5F5F5F5F5F5 etc.

Ok, quick post before I worry about my CTA tomorrow.

So before, I said that the best height for your seat is when your leg is almost fully extended with the crank in the 6:00 position. Well that's partially true, but one thing I didn't mention: It's the heel. So basically, in the 6:00 position, your heel should barely be touching your pedals. So when you pedal regularly, you'll have some knee bend at the bottom of each stroke.

Also another thing that I said before and still holds true. For the seat fore-and-aft (front and back for you geniuses), put your cranks in the 3-9 position. The front tip of your forward knee should be bisecting your pedal. It may be hard to see it perfectly when you're looking at your own knee while sitting on your bike. Here's a small pic to illustrate my point.




Enjoi ur ride ppl.

So yesterday rained (of course) so I took the Red Bike out and rode around w/ Jasper. We went to Panda Express, then Evolution, where we looked at the SRAM X.4, bashguards, etc. Still dunno what to get for Christmas. Anyway, the fenders worked pretty well, especially the front one. I'm not sure about the rear fender, but I'll just say they worked.


Delicious SRAM X.4

it's about the engine. just sayin'




might wanna get workin.

Ever wanted to know what frame material to make your bike out of? Well "supcom" from bikeforums posted... (had to give credit, right?)

"Aluminum lawyers are fat and fatigue quickly. Steel lawyers are thinner and never crack under pressure but they get rusty after a while. Carbon fiber lawyers are good at isolating you from those little bumps life throws at you, but they can fall to pieces unexpectedly. Titanium lawyers really aren't better than any other lawyer, but everyone says they are, so they run around naked and charge double."

Excellent.

The Red Bike 2.0 is finished!

Anyway, here's what I did today. Replaced brake system, which includes brake lever, cable, most of the housing, calipers, and brake pads. Since my fenders are attached to the brake bolt, I also adjusted the fenders too. I also found out that, because of the weird derailleur mounting, the frame rubbed the chain while on the highest gear (a whopping 3-5!) So I also adjusted the rear derailleur.

Overall, a good pet project. No quick releases at all means that you can't mess with my bike unless you bring tools. 1.5'' tires roll fast. Fenders cover road crap. Rigid fork doesn't suck sprinting power. Yeah, it's a good beater bike.

I was flying down a hill. At this point, it didn't matter that I had just failed an in-class essay 15 minutes before. I was on 3-8, but I knew that if I pedaled, I would spin as if I were on 1-1. My handlebar was incapable of turning. I don't know whether or not it was because of the centripetal force of my front wheel, or because my arms were frozen in place from the exhilarating speed. Cars were passing me at ~10 mph. It was great.

When I walked out of Lit, I knew I had two options. Either go home and mope about my failure to prepare for essays, or go do some hill training on that "valley" on Stevens Creek. After stopping by my house to drop off my backpack, sweater, and lock, I was on my way.

Roughly 15 minutes later, here I am, typing on my laptop, eating a Clif bar.



At least I'm not moping about my essay.

Yup, they arrived today, on time, from Amazon. They're not like the mountain bike style, where they're mounted on a seatpost, 5 inches above the tire. Rather, they're a more traditional style of mount, with less than an inch of tire clearance. And I got the set of front and rear fenders + shipping + whatever for $15. Not bad.

Anyway, I'll post some real pictures of the Red Bike when I get my brakes. Meanwhile, enjoy some "teasers".






Yeah, I'm so artistic.


._.

F5F5F5F5F5F5F5... you've done it before, I'm sure. Perhaps you were tracking a package? Well then you might start to know how it is to track 3 packages... and knowing they'll get at your front door a week later than you had thought. The wait is killing me.... F5F5F5F5F5F5F5F5



If you didn't know, that's from XKCD.




F5F5F5F5F5F5F5F5

The following has nothing to do with biking. Surprising, no?


So apparently, this new thing is spreading. FutureGame. Click a few lucky clicks, win Apple stuff. Naturally, I wanted to do a little background info, as it had to do with money, and the Internet. As it turns out, the Terms and Conditions (oh my god, I read it! *gasp*) aren't so long. The following are two quoted paragraphs, with bolding on the words that I want to emphasize.

"Players may request prizes and/or money awarded to be sent to them only when the value of the award has exceeded $20 and the Player has been registered for at least a month. Prize and/or money awards will be sent at the end of each calendar month, provided the Player had eligible awards and requested the said award.

To receive prizes and/or money, FutureGame requires a home address and phone number. To receive more than $400 in cash or equivalent prizes during a calendar year, FutureGame requires the Player to provide their Social Security Number as well as complete a W-9 Form from the IRS for tax purposes."

If you play it safe, earning $0.01 every time... well, don't worry. You have a whole month to get $20. Enjoy your Shuffles guys.

Yes, I have played it. Yes, you can win prizes. Yes, there are better ways to make money. Just my little rant.

So I guess rainy season has (finally) started. For the first time in a looooong time, the humidity in my room has gone above 30% (It was 50% on Friday :P) But then rain comes with a price - getting wet. Pretty obvious, I know, but my slick tires attract a lot of kick up. Since Friday was the first time it's rained in a long time, all the road crap was kicked up onto my bike and me :[

So yeah, I'm getting fenders. But not on my Mesa! I'll be riding my red bike 2.0 for the rest of the rainy season... as soon as my parts come in. Fenders come Wednesday, and brakes come sometime next week, or maybe the week after :[ I haven't ordered my tires/tubes yet... if I really can't wait, then I'll replace the current tires with my old Mesa ones. WTB Velociraptors :P


Oh, and just a side note, if you wash your bike with a garden hose, wipe it dry with a towel after you're done. The fluoride in the water will leave marks. (Thanks for reminding me Jasper)

My dad didn't want to spend too much money on the rebuild, and I remembered I had my old riser bars that came stock on my Mesa. So I put those on. I cut 1" off each side before I put them on ;) No specific reason. I await my brakes. I'll post pics once I get my new brakes on.

It's starting to look like a decent beater bike now, instead of some crappy mart bike.

So one Black Friday a few years ago, my dad decided to get a $40 bike from Walmart. Luckily, it wasn't a Y-frame. Here's the best picture I could find of it.



I didn't want/forgot to take pics of the bike before I started fixing it up, so the pic above will have to do. It was stored outside, so just imagine random bits of rust in nooks and crannies. The brake pads are terrible and deteriorated (not worn out!), and the brake calipers are plastic, so whenever I brake, the calipers bend. It has no quick-releases whatsoever. The shifters are friction shifters, not index-shifting. Index shifting, you press a lever once, and it shifts 1 gear. Friction shifting is like turning a knob. ~80's technology.

Anyway, what's been done already? First off, I replaced the seat with my old WTB seat, and the disgusting handlebar "grips" with my old ones. I raised the seatpost, too :P. I used my Dremel with a wire brush bit to get off all the rust. I cleaned the chain (link by link!) and lubed it, and also adjusted the front derailleur. I also cleaned the cassette. I spent 30 minutes with Goof Off and got all the (peeling) decals off. The frame looks much better without those lame decals. I'm ordering a new brake kit today (levers, cable housing, cable, calipers, and pads). Hopefully I'll get new tires and tubes, handlebar, and seat post quick release, with the priority in that order. I'll take pics after I get new brakes.

It's a good beater bike, and once I get new tires and tubes (and hopefully flat handlebars), I might bike to school on it occasionally. ;]

Yup, switched 'em with my old Raleigh, although something was funky about my right metal pedal. Somehow it didn't fit my 15 mm open-head wrench. So I had to use a monkey wrench. No pics, use your imagination. :P

Yup, I cleaned my disc brakes the real way, so no more squeaking for me. Last time, I used a towel and water, which did the job I guess, but not what you're supposed to do. You're supposed use either denatured alcohol, which is better, or isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol, which takes more to do the same amount of cleaning as denatured.

I also adjusted my pads, so no more rubbing, either. Disc brakes are a PITA. Sure, they're better at stopping in all conditions, but Cupertino's mainly dry anyway. Whatever. I'm just glad cyclocross bikes come with canti's :]

And no, I'm not going to talk about the name this time. I was thinking back at my purchase of my current Mesa (at Performance). I remember feeling kinda stretched out on it. However, what did the guy do? He said I'd grow into it, and didn't do anything else. Now, a good LBS would have put on a shorter stem, and done some other fit adjustments. Unfortunately, Performance isn't the type of shop to care about your needs. Not only do they have too many customers to care about, but if you don't like buying a bike from Performance, there are many other customers that will. So one customer won't make that much of a difference. If I'm gonna spend >$800 on a bike, I want to be fitted to it, and know that I made the right decision. And for that, you need the care of an LBS, not a retail store.



Also, I'm takin' this bike to college, I don't wanna get s*** for the brand name.

Sorry. Had to say it.

Step 1: Get rid of dork-disc.
Step 2: Get 3 or more zip-ties.
Step 3: Tie your cassette to your spokes in at least 3 places.
Step 4: Cut ends of zip ties.
Step 5: Revel in your shift-able fixie.
Step 6: After enjoying, cut and dispose of zip-ties





I apologize for terrible pics.


Edit: So I tried it myself, and turns out, it's not exactly like a fixie. First off, you can't go backwards, and when you stop your pedals (coasting) your chain falls off. Here's the punishment for going backwards or coasting.





Note: I am not responsible for you being an idiot and hurting yourself. Fixies are hard to ride. Enjoy being a fixie-hipster at your own risk.

This time, it was Calabazas Cyclery, in San Jose. They were the closest shop that carried Cannondales, where I was originally going to go check out their CAAD9's. It was a heck of a ride, but thanks to Jasper's implanted GPS chip, we got there w/o getting lost.

When I walked in, some old guy asked if I needed any help. He didn't seem very friendly. I declined his offer and started looking around. I saw a few sleek road bikes, although the bike shop was mostly BMX or MTBs. All the road bikes were out of my range. Anyway, I decided to talk to someone. A lot of the staff were talking amongst themselves. I looked around for help, then decided to talk to the old guy again. It didn't go very well, and in addition to the fact that the staff didn't seem interested in the customer, I had a terrible first impression of the shop.

And just when we were about to leave... the old guy asked another guy in his 20's to "take over". This totally changed everything. He was really friendly, although in the beginning, he treated me as though I didn't know anything about bikes. After I started using more technical terms, he realized I actually knew something about bikes. Toward the end of the conversation, he said he was actually surprised by how much I knew about bikes :D

Well anyway, I talked to him more, and my very initial suspicions of needing a cyclocross bike were right, although I will admit I am very confused right now. So they have this Kona Jake, with decent components for $950. I don't really like Kona's style, though. They also have this old Cannondale 'cross bike with a few chrome-finish components that I don't really like for $920. Did I mention it comes with full Tiagra and a 105 RD? Awesome, I know. But the stem, seatpost, and maybe the headset will need replacing...

And those were the only two bikes they had that were in my price range. And so, we left (after Jasper asked a few questions) to Jasper's house. I did some major bike studying. Thanks to our excellent economy, I found lots of bikes withing my price range. But no, seriously, the only sub 1K '09 'cross bikes (picky, huh?) I found were the Giant TCX 2 and the Kona Jake. The Giant is overpriced for the components that come on it, although it does look nice. The Jake's components are nice, but as I said before, I don't really like their style.

Giant TCX 2 - $975


Kona Jake - $900 MSRP, $950 in Calabazas


Edit: So I was browsing Kona's website, and I saw their '05 Jake. It actually looks good, and the components are a Sora/Tiagra mix. The price? $750. Thanks a lot, economy. (Replaced a few people with the word "economy" so that I wouldn't be pointing specific fingers. Tricky, see?)


So what do I do? I haven't found any one bike that sticks out as the bike I should get. Shall I risk a Scattante from Performance? (Yes, that's the brand name.) Let's check the specs of their 'cross bike, shall we? Hm... oh yeah. FULL 105 for UNDER 1K. So what's the big deal? Here's Shimano's component group, in order from crappy to pro: 2200, Sora, Tiagra, 105, Ultegra, Dura-Ace. So yeah, I'm getting 105 components for the price that Giant charges for a Sora-Tiagra mix. Generally, low end road bikes today come with Sora. Only rarely do you see 2200 parts put in.

Scattante X-560 - $950


If only those fools are Perf. bike didn't name their bike line that, I bet they would sell many more bikes. For the value and quality, (yes, their frame quality is decent, since it's made by Fuji and rebranded) it's actually a really nice bike.

Although I'm still unsure about their name, I did see 2 Scattante's on my biking trip Saturday, and surprisingly, Bikeforums did not bash Scattante. Yes, there were some comments on its name that I agree with, but overall, most people praised it for its value and quality (for the price).

If I could buy a bike tomorrow (or this weekend, whatever) then the Scattante X-560 would be the first on my list, because of the full 105. Second on my list? I'm not sure. The only thing holding me back from the X-560 is the brand name, which yes, is a tiny thing. And maybe the $950 price tag. However, all the other bikes have multiple things holding me back, (price is one, style is generally the other) so while the X-560 didn't climb to the top of the list, we'll say it got pushed up there.



And thus concludes my extremely long post.

So it's Sunday morning, and I'm trying to avoid doing homework. So what do I do? I weigh my bike :P

This is me with my shoes and jacket etc.



We'll call it 102.


And this is me being all buff carrying my bike in my left hand and taking a picture with my right.



133-ish?

My bike weighed less than I thought it would. 31's not bad.. right?

Left Saturday morning, around 10-10:30. Jasper couldn't come, but we still rode. There were a ton of road bikers today. We only saw 2 or 3 other mountain bikes, but all the other bikes were road bikes. Some noteworthy bikes: 2 Cervelos, 2 Scattante (rofl), and a Specialized Allez -__- . We saw a couple pack riders, but otherwise they were biking alone or in pairs. We went a little farther than Saratoga High, which was a 5 mile point, then we headed back. It was really windy, and my hair kept on coming out of my gigantic helmet vent. That was really annoying. On a better note, I didn't have to use any of the tools I had brought. In the end, we finished 2 Clif bars, half a bottle of powder-mix Gatorade, and some water. My dad was exhausted, but I wasn't as tired. I also mentioned that I could bike farther, and with the addition of all the road bikes we saw today, I think he may be more convinced on getting me a road bike ;] Just maybe.

Not too many pics, there wasn't much scenery. Just roads and stuff. In one picture, I blinked, and in the other picture, I looked retarded. So none of that for you.

Oh, and a side note, my dad and I hit 23.2 on a slight downhill slope. I wonder what I could hit... hm. Maybe later I'll temporarily mount that cyclometer on my bike and hammer it. :P





Oh yeah.


Edit: You know how I said I wasn't as tired? Apparently it kicks in several hours later...

So before school ended, I called CBS to see if they had the Crank Brothers Multi-10. They didn't. I knew Evolution had them, cuz I saw them last time I was there.

And thus began my commute. Going there was easy, as it was mostly downhill, and the wind was blowing to the side of me, or at times behind me. I was on 3-8 the entire time, except for the stoplights. Yeah, it was really windy today, and there was lots of dust. My the time I go to Evolution, my eyes were red. I bought my M10 and admired it. It was a little hard to open, though. The way back was windy hell. I had a headwind the entire way, although there were brief periods of no wind. I had to stop at Target to rest. One time while hammering through the wind, it was really hard to pedal, but I glanced at my shifter. 3-5. It felt like 3-7 or 3-8 on flat ground, and I wasn't moving very fast. Total trip time: a little less than 45 min. To sum it up...



Credit to Rick Smith of yehudamoon.com for the comic. I love it.

Afterwards, I spent 5 minutes adding teflon lube to my new M10 and now it opens smoothly.



Gotta unflip my stem cuz tomorrow I'm riding 10-15 miles with my dad and Jasper. I'll try to remember to take pictures ;)

So me 'n Maiko went to CBS today to get a floor pump. They had Specialized floor pumps, but the only one I brought enough money for was the Sport model, but it had a plastic barrel. The metal barrel version was $10 dollars more, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to spend the extra money. I'm not working in a bike shop, so the most I'll use it is like, once a week. But the thing that sold me was the free one-year warranty, so if it did break, I could pay an extra $10 then to get the metal version, or just get another plastic barrel version.







Heehee.


Oh, and afterwards, we went to the media training. Last year, robotics was pretty fun partly because of the small size of the club, where you felt like you knew everyone. This year, (not to be racist) the club is ~60% Indian, ~75% of which are freshmen. Also, ~30% of the robotics members probably don't know anything about engineering at all. They probably joined because "Oh robotics sounds fun, and my mommy tells me I'm talented, so I must be a useful contribution to the team." Not that I'm saying robotics has no good people, but I just feel that the addition of so many people isn't necessarily beneficial.



freshmen.

Well I talked to the guy at Evolution, and even he said he points most of road customers to CBS... and they mainly deal with mountain bikes... so I guess I'll take the hint. CBS builds the bike too, but I guess quality will suffer a little, but it should be fine I suppose. And the fact that CBS actually gets people with road bikes. And their inventory is more than half full of road bikes.

I'm paying MSRP in both shops, but since this is hypothetical it really doesn't matter. I'm not getting a road bike for a couple years anyway.



Sad face much?

Alliterations aside, I finally got a plier and took 5 minutes to remove the dork disc I had for way too long. (It's the plastic disc between your cassette and rear wheel spokes) Don't get me wrong though, you're supposed to keep it for the first couple of weeks to make sure your rear derailleur is aligned.

Pics!







And you should consider it. ;)

So me 'n Jasper went on a bike shop tour (actually only CBS and Evo., but whatever) and as it turns out, Evolution is pretty good. They order bikes from certain companies, among them, Specialized, Giant, Marin, a few others. So I asked around, and it turns out that I may not need a cyclocross bike. For the price I'm paying, the 'cross bike will be total crap, so I may as well just buy an entry level road bike and put the thickest knobbies I can on the bike.

So blah blah blah and a pizza later, I'm at Jasper's house and we decide the Specialized Allez (Al-lay btw ;]) is my best bet. For the price, I can get decent components. Bikeforums says to ask for a front derailleur upgrade, LBS (local bike shop) should only charge about $15 ish... but I'm not sure.




Why can't I get it now?

Edit: CBS says they'll charge ~$40 to upgrade Sora to Tiagra front derailleur.

A win win situation, really. Jasper gets a higher end fork, and I get a stiffer fork. I should have took pictures of the process, too bad I didn't. :P

Edit: So I took pictures a while ago, but I forgot to put them up here. So I got my camera and downloaded the pictures onto my computer and looked at them. I don't know what the hell happened (maybe I've spent too much time in the 'cross and road bike sections of bikeforums) but my bike looked UGLY. GAH. Geometry, color, whatever. Yeah I've probably spoiled my eyes on bikes I can't afford for a couple of years, but wow, yeah I was shocked at how bad my bike looked.

No pics for you guys.

Edit2: Never mind, my bike doesn't look that bad in reality... does it? I must be a terrible photographer.


Someday, somehow, I'm getting a rigid fork.


And a 'cross bike.

sigh.

So I cleaned by rear disc brake today, cuz it was squeaking every time I applied the brakes. Took apart my brakes, cleaned and sanded my pads and rotor a bit. It was pretty dirty.

Sorry no pics... didn't come to mind.

I didn't really like the look of the spacers on top, so I decided to try flipping the stem. It looks GREAT.



Fork looks weird... I realllllly want a rigid fork.

Went to Performance yesterday, bought a flat bar, locking grips, sweet Pearl Izumi gloves, and a big bottle of drip Teflon lube.

I also lowered my handlebar height.







I want a rigid fork...

I finally got Spore to work... after three days I think. It was like I wasn't destined to play Spore or something. Hard drive crash, password issues... finally got it to work.

Thanks Jasper.

Yeah I left Friday afternoon, got there at 11:30, next day went to some meditation sorta thing, felt like I was in Bay Area again cuz of all the freaking Chinese people. Seriously, the area I was in was like a smoggy Milpitas. Left at 4:00 got home at 10:30.

Not very interesting at all.


My Sansa needs a new battery.

So what's the difference?

There isn't much physical difference, but

A singlespeed is just like a regular bike, but only has 1 gear. Can coast.

A fixed gear is a singlespeed, but the chain directly connects the crank and the wheel. Cannot coast.

Both have a really clean look to them due to lack of gear system.

Just a little FYI

It was a casual day, an ordinary Tuesday, where I got out of school phenomenally early. Me and some friends were going to TK noodle (which I think isn't that great, but whatever) for lunch. As you know, I recently finished roadifying my handlebars, turning my bike into a beautifully fast steed. Well anyway, there's this railroad that runs near my house, and a concrete path that runs parallel to it, with a metal fence/gate that runs between the two. So I was riding on the top of my handlebars, as many people do. I didn't have 'cross brakes on the top, as many people don't. But I was planning to.

As I approached the concrete path, I hesitated for a second, deciding whether or not to take the concrete path. I was moving at an average speed, which I figure was 13-15 mph. With my thin tires, I couldn't corner well, and I found myself heading straight for a metal pole that started the gate/fence. Naturally, and at the time, calmly, I reached my fingers out to grab the brake levers. For a split second, I felt something there, but it faded away fast as the pole came nearer and my bike maintained speed. My brakes weren't there. At this point I realized I was TOTALLY SCREWED, and had no choice but to brace for impact. A lot of things could have happened to prevent this, but they didn't, and so I hit the pole.

My head felt this sense of pressure, and crushing, and it reminded me of when I was hit by a car. I hit the hard concrete, and was frozen to the spot by the pain that washed over my body. A minute passed, and my friends came over, surprised, possibly by the accident, but also perhaps because of my stupidity. After a minute, the pain went away, and I figured I escaped with scrapes and bruises. I made the move to get up, but as I rolled over, I spotted the pool of shiny red blood that lay where my head was. I swore, and tried to take handle the problem, while shunning the dark thoughts of possible brain damage. Calls were made, and a kind AT&T driver stopped and helped, (apparently he had some first aid training) and determined that luckily, it was just a gash, and my brains weren't spilling out. I asked several times, just to reassure myself, then I relaxed, knowing I wasn't in any serious medical danger. Anyhow, more people stopped over, (one was EMT trained?) and eventually my dad and his friend came over.(and the paramedics, and the police, and a freaking firetruck came by, though I made the point that I wasn't on fire. But firetrucks came to my car accident too, so I don't know.) Anyway, I went to a clinic (Palo Alto Medical Foundation, anyone?) and got 3 stitches and something for my knee.

The same evening my dad made me change my beautiful road bike into a hybrid again, and I was told to walk to school for the rest of the school week. I didn't turn on my computer for 2 days after the accident, and so this is the first day that my computer has been on since the crash. Luckily, it wasn't major, and I acknowledged that I was stupid, so I don't suffer from the biker scare that bikers experience when they have a crash. (Makes you not want to bike anymore, but it goes away, depending on how serious the accident was.)

Changing back my beautiful bike depressed me, but I'm getting over it. I'll get my stitches removed this weekend (and get new flat handlebars, as I dislike the looks of risers), and back biking to school this coming Monday.

I love biking.

I took lots of pictures along the build, so here they are.


Mockup


Sawing didn't take as long as my dad said it would, although turns out I used the wrong saw, (the pictured saw is apparently wood only...) so he was kinda mad about that.


Sucess!


Yeah I can't read that either.


Trend of the future?


Cable routing


Bar tape

Finished pics










Now I just gotta save up for a rigid fork. :D

I went to Performance Bike today, got new handlebars and brake cables, so now I have to wait till tomorrow to start. I'll have finished pics by tomorrow, you'll see :D

Moved my brake levers and road ends, and sloppily threw on my bar tape. Gonna get a flat handlebar and a new brake cable on the weekend. Here, have some pics.

Ok, so I posted my handlebar woes on bikeforums.net, and I got some pretty good advise, so I'll be working on that tomorrow. I think I'm gonna get a rigid fork and definitely flat handlebars. I'll post pics as I go.

So even though I've already roadified my mtb, there's still 1 thing that bothers me. Generally, road bike handlebars are the width of your shoulders to reduce shoulder and back pain. Mtb handlebars are wider to allow your to steer easier, maybe on a tough trail. My road ends are on the end of my mtb handlebar, so while I'm not in any pain, they look reaaally bad. Sorta. Unfortunately, my shifters/brake levers can't move over anymore(mtb handlebars grow fatter towards the center), so I'm stuck in my current position. Considering buying handlebars that don't get fat.

Yeah so while I was ranting I forgot to post pics and I didn't want to edit it so yeah

JG G36c
TSD M14
Walmart M9 beretta

Edit: Oops, image broke. Fixed. (Right click -> View image)

Well I haven't touched on my airsofting, so I guess I'll do a bit of an intro... or how 'bout a timeline?

-Got into airsofting
-Celebrated birthday by airsofting with friends
-Got awesome (airsoft) weapons
-Got busted by cops
-Hate old men on wheelchairs with nothing else to do but worry about their own safety (from teenagers carrying REAL $5000 GUNS JUST LIKE IN 'NAM) but I mean seriously, what, they have like 5 years left, may as well go down in a teenage shootout. But we were all asian, so the chance of us owning real guns in Cupertino is like 1 to 459847593483948 so RAAAAANNNNNTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT f'ing old people. And the way he rolled over on his CLASSY STATE OF THE F'ING ART ELECTRIC WHEELCHAIR THAT HITS A TOP SPEED OF 5 MPH was like over the line, with his indignant f'ing face GD it.


Although it was worse back in 'nam. see, in those days, you had to fear for your life every second and general rosfield was just not a nice guy i mean the way he pushed us everyday was just YEAH I DONT WANNA HEAR IT OLD MAN

Yes! I think I'm done. This thing is fast, and I spent under $100 for the entire thing. If I had a lot of money to spend, I would get new shocks, new rims, but those together is more than $300. And then the frame would be odd. And instead of buying a new frame, shocks, and rims, I may as well just buy a freaking bike. But I'm happy with my bike. Anyway, the "before" picture is in the previous post, and here's a current pic. (Right click -> View Image)



So yeah, kind of a frankenbike, but I love it nonetheless. I'll get more pics later. Going out riding now :D

So I've been roadifying my '06 Schwinn Mesa GSD for a couple weeks now, and the final piece arrived today. I've always been wanting drop bars, (on road bikes) but the diameters were different, and complications would arise. However, I stumbled upon Origin 8 road ends a couple days ago. Basically, they're curved bar ends, thus giving an mtb road ends without diameter troubles. I'll post pics of my frankenbike later.

My roadification in chrono order:

Stiffened fork (can't afford/don't want a rigid fork)
Skinny wheels
Sexy saddle (sexy thin)
Road ends
Bar tape (for above road ends)

So yeah, a budget roadification, but it really helps for speed and efficiency.

My original Schwinn (forgot to take a picture of my Schwinn, so I stole this one.)




Origin 8 road ends

So I used to carry around 2 flash drives (2gb and 8gb, both SanDisk Cruzers). The 8gb carried my stuff around (games at school?) but the other didn't really do anything. So then I thought, "Hey I'm gonna install an OS (operating system, like Windows) on it." So a few days later, my 8gb has Linux on it, and my 2gb has an (extremely) slimmed down version of Windows XP. Find more info here.

Windows XP (you won't be able to tell it's XP once you run it, but it is. Also, this project takes a long time and is quite difficult.)

Linux You can install all different kinds of Linux on your USB (it's easy, really!) but pendrivelinux made their own compilation of linux especially for your usb, and since it boots fast and works well, I use it. Their Linux is called Penddrivelinux 2008 and is based of KDE... only linux people would know what that is. (I do.)

I figured since I'm gonna be talking about bikes, you'll need to know what I'm talking about. I found these great pictures on bike anatomy.

If the pictures don't fit, right click and choose "View image"
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So yeah.