Shady Trail

I've been super busy lately and haven't had much time to ride or do much other than work. So when things ease up I'll usually head to the Trinity Trails with my son. I picked up a very large handlebar bag which I've been using when we ride together. When I ride with my kids I usually pack anything and everything that will fit.



A nice shady spot to take a break from the infamous Texas heat and humidity.

New Crankset

I was on a mountain bike ride when I noticed my left crank arm was feeling a little weird. I stopped on the trail, checked it out and realized that the bolt securing the arm was on the verge of falling off. Luckily I wasn't too far from the trail head so I walked my bike back to my car. I checked the bolt on the drive side and realized that it was loose as well. To make a long story short my crankset was shot. I had been tightening the bolts before each ride but they never really stayed tight. According to everything I had read online, once you have ridden on loose crank arms with a square taper spindle, they will never tighten up properly again. I usually try to spend as little as possible on bike parts but I splurged on an FSA singlespeed crankset from Bikeman. After a quick install, I went out to Sansom Park and tried it out. Nice and smooth. The crankset came in a cool little box that I almost hate to throw away.

Bad Weather

I hate springtime here in Texas. We've been pounded by severe storms just about every week. It rains just about every time I try to get out to ride my mountain bike.



I bought my 11 year old son his first real mountain bike. Its an Iron Horse Maverick 5.5 that I picked up for sale at the local Performance bike shop for under $400. I really didn't want to spend too much because he will outgrow this bike within the year. Since the mountain bike trails were wet I took my son riding on the paved Trinity Trails on the south side of Fort Worth. The river was high and there was lots of damage from the recent downpours. I'm hoping things dry out soon.

Vintage Univega

I pulled into the Radio Shack parking lot at the Montgomery Plaza yesterday morning when I ran across this old steel framed Univega mountain bike secured to a light post. Judging from the skyward facing bar ends, gel seat pad and frame mounted floor pump, it probably belongs to one of the construction workers in the building. The bike looks like it's from the late 80's. It has that speckled paint job that was so popular back then. It has Onza bar ends, thumb shifters, XT rear derailleur, LX front derailleur, Suntour cranks and a really long Zoom stem. It has some really cool after market cantilever brakes on back. It's also equipped with a really nice Bontrager fork with V brakes (a later addition I suppose). You don't see too many of these old mountain bikes around.

Out Of Shape

I drove out to Sansom Park this morning for my second ride in three days. I'm sure most of you understand the predicament I'm in, spend your free time riding or spend quality time with the family. I almost always choose family. Since I haven't been working out as much as I should, I try not to overdo it when I ride. I've been sticking to the green intermediate trail until I feel I've gotten to the point where I can tackle something a little more difficult. I've never been this responsible with my workouts in the past. I've always gone out and just thrown caution to the wind and forced my body into shape. I'm 41 now and heavier than I've ever been before. Well, I decided to try the red/ expert loop. It didn't take long to realize that I've got a long way to go. Its not the difficulty of the trail or terrain that I had problems with, it was my lack of aerobic fitness. I going to have to start running in the mornings before work and ride in the evenings. Hopefully this will help.

Done!

As soon as I got home from work I put the bike on the stand and mounted the bash guard.



I then mounted the chain guide. A couple of quick trips around the pump track proved that everything works. I probably need to shorten the chain a little but for the most part it's done.

1x9

It's back to work on my low budget project bike. Thanks to my income tax refund I was able to buy a decent tool kit and a really basic repair stand on sale at the new Performance bike shop that recently opened just down the road from my house. Even though I've been riding since 1987 I'm a complete novice when it comes to maintenance. At least I've got the right tools now. The bike repair videos I found on YouTube helped a great deal. My plan has been to turn this bike into a 1x9, for simplicity more than anything else. I was focusing on the crankset today. I picked up some short chainring screws from Colonel's Bike shop here in Fort Worth. I removed the outer and inner chairing on a Specialized Strong Arm crankset I stripped from my old bike. I was then going to use the shorter screws to remount the 32 tooth middle chainring. I removed the cheesy Suntour crankset from my Kona and realized that the chainrings were bolted on but were riveted together.



I also discovered that the bottom bracket was some cheap Chinese cup and cone model. This thing would need to be replaced. I replaced the old bottom bracket with a sealed Shimano bottom bracket with shorter spindle to bring the single chainring in a little. I was told that I might be able to get away without having to buy a bash guard and a chain guide. I put everything together and found that the chain would jump to the inside of the chainring when I shifted to the two largest rear cogs. I'm going to buy a an unramped chainring, bash guard and chain guide and see how things go.

First Ride of the Year

The weather was in the 70's and beautiful on Saturday. I drove to Sansom Park on the the northwest side of Fort Worth for my first real ride of the season. My unsuspended Kona low budget project bike handled great.