Sacko

I've been riding a Surly for a little over a year, and it's fukin bombproof. The Kings are sweet, but I like the flip/flop option with the Surlys. And you can't beat the price. They just intro'd a new high-flange set too that looks kick ass. Go to their site and check out the new Karate Monkey (29er). mmmmm..

bump. Devilush - that picture has 2 of my favorite things in the whole wide world - bicycles and panties (not necessarily in that order).

Accidentally bought an old Bonty on Ebay a coupla weeks ago. $180.27 for frame, Judy XC fork, headset, and XTR front der. Oh, and it's got a 1 1/8 steerer tube. She's almost together. The Judy will be replaced sometime soon hopefully, but it'll do for now. Took it into the shop last night for headset spacers, and one of the wrenches said he thought it was the same frame as the 98 team issues (red to white flags to orange). Supposedly the guy who sold it got it as a warranty a year ago on a Fisher frame he had. Sounds fishy, but after looking at the frame, I think I believe him. No surface rust (at all) in the BB shell, and the paint is pristine in the areas where there's no chipping. I can try to post pics soon if you guys are interested. I say I accidentally bought it b/c I bid when I didn't think I'd win. Got home and it turns out I had won it. Had to pull the cash together at the last second. I'm stoked about it now.

I'm pretty sure any shop can order generic axles. Especially if you were willing to go to a solid (nutted) axle instead of a quick-release axle. Try Ebay for buying an old 6-speed hub. The 36-hole may be a little harder to find, but they're out there.

Jesus, that thing looks fast just in a goddamn picture. Don't know if any of you guys are into 'em, but I just acquired a Bontrager frame and fork on Ebay. Pretty excited about that. I should have enough parts laying around the house to set it up. A dude here in town sold me a pair of 95 XTR cranks for 20 bones, so the only thing I have to buy now is a seatpost. It'll be my first geared mountain bike in over 2 years, and I think I'm ready for it. Oh, and by the way, I bought a nearly brand new Brooks saddle at a garage sale for $1 not long ago. I almost felt guilty.....

Alkaline - NiteRider lights are the shit. I've got a Digital Pro 6r, and I love it, but I must say that the HIDs are worth the extra money. 4-4.5 hours of burn time. And they light shit up like a goddamn football stadium. It is most definitely worth the extra money. If you can afford it, do so. If you can't, the Trail Rat will do you just fine. Just ask Steve Austin how his HID worked as he WON the 12hour Duo category this weekend at the local 12/24 race.

check these out: http://www.rivendellbicycles.com/webalog/h...tape/16027.html I know, I know, 50 bones is a lot for a pair of bars. But you can ride these suckers all day long. I hate standard drop bars. Any shop can order them from their Quality catalog and get them within the week.

Joker- as far as the resume, I would think something semi-casual would suffice. Don't you have to submit something up upgrade from cat5 to cat4? I would imagine they want something similar. If they don't know you too well, they probably just want to make sure you're not some clown who just wants a good deal on some new equipment and threads that will disappear a month into the season. Our team has had a couple of dudes do that shit. They get 2 free jerseys, and order some shit at cost, and then you never see the fuckers again. We've actually instituted a "trial" period of 1 year for that reason. Seems nothing's simple anymore. As for the fixie, I like to run a 42/16 on mine. We've got an old commuter airport downtown where I live. There's a 3.5 mile loop around it that's dead flat. Headwind down one stretch, tailwind down the other. Perfect for early season fixie riding.

Just find an old pair of freewheel hubs somewhere. I got 4 rear hubs at my local bike swap this March for like $10 total. Have 'em built onto a Mavic Open Pro rim and they'll last you for a long time. Screw on a track hub and an old BB lockring (w/ a little loctite) and you're good to go. Buy a solid MTB axle from your local shop ($8), and drop it into the hub instead of the skewered axle. I've been using this setup on my fixie for quite some time with no problems.

The trash talk had been increasing daily in the week approaching the latest in the Frank Tuesday series, The Search for Spock. Most of it being the standard shit you'd expect for this kind of race. Then Max has to chime in. Max is the 300lb self-appointed Minister of Whining, because he didn't like the results of the last race. Hey, the other team got a 40-minute time bonus for shit (yes, a ziplock bag of feces). It put them over the top. WHat can I say, they earned it. Anyway, Max starts in with this inane bullshit about how he's gonna win this time, fuck everybody else, blah, blah, blah. 20 people unsubscribe from the list before the promoters finally shut his ass up. So Saturday evening rolls around. Pre-race BBQ at 4, race at 8. I've got other duties to attend to, so I don't get the bike packed into the car til 6:30. Stop by the grocery store for a sixer of shit beer (carbo loading for the race). This thing's at a park just outside of town that has about 30 miles of sweet mtb trails. But it's a long drive out there. I finally get there about 7:30. Just in time for the Friz game to end, and for me to imbibe enough foreign substances to be properly lubed for the event. Next thing I know, it's starting. I roll myself over to the starting line, as a 230lb man with a bald head dressed like a nun gives us the lowdown. Something about six buckets in the woods at random places. First one to find all six buckets and bring home the six trinkets inside wins. The other way to win is to find Spock (evidently they couldn't find a Spock doll, so a small plush toy was substituted instead). After a quick flop of the rear wheel (I was feelin a little too good, so I decided the fixie wouldn't be a good idea), I'm off. Some 20+ miles of trail at my fingertips, and I may have to ride it all to find the six buckets. Nothing like riding around alone in the woods. A short time into my ride, who do I come upon, but Max. He wants to ride together, and to be honest, I'm a little weided out about the alone in the woods thing, so we run together. After about an hour of riding, we finally find one bucket, and take about 3 trinkets each out of the bucket, in case we need to trade with someone else later. A little later, we run into Eric and Beth going the opposite direction. We have a quick chat and continue forward. The whole time Max is talking about how he's gonna fuck anybody up if they find Spock, cuz he's gonna win this one no matter what. I figure I'll ride behind him just in case he passes by it, and then grab it and go the opposite direction. Gone before he wisens up. Never saw Spock though, so I didn't have to test my plan. Somewhere along the line we come upon a young man standing at a table in the woods. "Drink a cup and sign yer name," he says. Purple Passion. Haven't touched that stuff since I was in high school. Still tastes like shit. We drink, sign, and motor on. Somewhere around midnight, we decide to head back to the parking lot to see if anyone else has had better luck. We've been riding for 3+ hours, and have 2 buckets so far. Not too good. I grab a beer while Max asks everyone how many they have. Someone mentions that he he found 3 buckets, and took all the trinkets out of each of them and threw them in the woods so no one else could win. I decide I've had enough fun for the evening (I've already gone over the bars once on a particularly rocky section, and now my foot hurts). I hang out for a while and then head for home. It's a long drive, and I don't need to be making it a 6am. Found out Tuesday that the nun told Max where Spock was and he rode back in for it, and came back about 2am with it. The trophy, a cool sculture made of a BMX wheel and fork (among other things) resembling the Starship Enterprise, had already been given out to someone else. They evidently brought back all six buckets plus a wooden sign (requiring HER to ride one-handed in singletrack at night). Of couse, Max whined about that too..... Coming soon, the Tribute to White Trash (Lynyrd Skynyrd, AC/DC, Whiskey, and mullets).

Ted Nugent: The Surly Crosscheck is pretty sweet for what it costs. Like $800 for the whole bike, or $390 for frame only. If you want a really sweet ride, get the Bianchi Reparto Corse cyclocross frame. I think it's like $600 (frame only). These are two of the only cross bikes I've seen that still come with horizontal drops AND a hanger. Gears. Single. Fixed. Cross Racing. Road riding. Commuting. It'll do anything you want. I won't buy another bike that isn't versatile. My next mountain bike will have vertical drops and an eccentric tandem BB. Tasty. You could build the crosscheck into a kick-ass single speed for less than the $800 complete bike. Bianchi would run you closer to $1000.