Alright, so tonight I had to go meet some people (it was a good thing…shouldn’t use the term “had to”). I figured I’d rather go up there on bike than go on foot. And I wasn’t in the mood to rock the knobby tires, so I thought I’d give the Fuji frame another shot and see if I couldn’t rig it up with my existing components and get a temporary fixie going. Lo and behold, I made it work. The chainline wasn’t as bad as I had remembered. Go figure. And so when the time came, I was riding this bike up towards where I was going. About a mile out (about halfway there), something bad happens. Apparently, the nut (it was the type of BB where you have a nut that threads onto the end of the BB spindle instead of a bolt that threads into the end of the BB spindle) holding the crank on the left side had worked its way loose and jetissoned itself at an earlier time. I know this because all of a sudden I’m pedaling and my left crank arm is sort of, well, dangling from my left pedal, which is attached to my left foot via a toe clip.
And so I figure I’ll just walk the bike back, hope to find the nut, and go from there. Never did find the nut. And so now I’m going to need to pick up a new Sugino BB (I’m hooked on Sugino, btw), but that’s another story. I get the bike back home, throw on my MTB shoes, and head out on my Trek 6700. Now, before I get much farther, let me explain some of the differences between the kind of bike I’ve been rinding since my parents came up and the kind of bike I eventually rode to my friend’s house tonight. The former category is that of the fixed gear bicycle. One chainring in front, one cog in back, and maybe (maybe) one brake in the front. These are converted road bikes or road-ridden track bikes. They are light, they are lean, they are zen on two wheels. There is no coasting (as there is no freewheel) and if you are ballsy enough, you can get away without having any brakes because, since you can’t coast, you can use your legs to resist your momentum and slow down that way.
So yeah, that’s where I started. Both my old (now dead) fixie and the fixie that dropped the crank tonight were quite svelte, weighing in at about 18 and 17 pounds respectively (I think…don’t quote those numbers). The Trek 6700, while by no means the heaviest of bikes out there, comes in at about, well, I don’t actually know since it’s not listed online anywhere I can find, but I’m guessing around 30 pounds. Not too bad, but not like the fixed gears, either. And this has wide, knobby tires, 27 times as many gears, front suspension, v-brakes, etc. I love this bike, I love it dearly. But going from fixie mode straight back into this thing tonight was, well, interesting.
First off, I actually had to learn how to coast again. And brake First stop sign I almost just sort of nonchalantly rolled through the intersection because I forgot to brake. My mind’s thinking, “OK, just start resisting and you’ll slow down.” Only I have a freewheel on my Trek and so my feet just stop….moving. Meanwhile, my brain doesn’t catch on until I’m essentially in the intersection and have to slam on the brakes to keep from hitting a car. Oops.
Next thing I had to get used to again was the posture. Compared to the fixies, I felt like I was so upright it was like being on some sort of bizarre mobile easy chair. As in, “I swear I should be in a different position to pedal.” Raised the seat a few inches, which helped, but didn’t eliminate the weirdness altogether. Took a few blocks to get into it again.
Following this, I had to remember that I wasn’t so limited to a particular route any more as I was with my fixie. Feel like hopping over that curb? Hop over that curb. Feel like going down those stairs? Go down those stairs! Run over that crazy old lady trying to walk her cat on a leash? Well, you get the idea. Even managed a weak bunny-hop by the end of the night (I’m guessing I could have cleared a 2×4).
Having gotten so used to riding fixed, it just felt completely….weird to go straight into a multi-speed mountain bike. Which isn’t to say bad – as I have noted before I absolutely adore that bike, just didn’t feel much inclination to ride it with a fixie on hand.
And I’m not sure what was the culprit (though I am lowering the nose of my saddle, that much is for sure), but the riding tonight, which came to a total of about 4 miles to get back and forth from the house plus probably another 4 tooling around on the residential streets afterwards, I totally ran into some gihugeous chafing action. To the point where I’m surprised I didn’t take off my bike shorts to find a blood stain on the chamois. Mysterious and painful.
As for the fixie from today, though, I must say I’m pleased that it will actually work out as another bike for me. Of course, now I have to figure out where the heck Panasonic moved to so I can re-mail him the check I wrote for it in the first place, but that’s totally doable. I honestly can’t figure out why the hell I couldn’t get the chainline straight when I tried to rig it up initially. I’ve been thinking about it all night and it just doesn’t make sense.
Anyhow, in the short term, re-building my regular fixie with the components I stripped off my old frame will be the top priority. The new frame (go back to an entry some time last week for a picture) will get here on Tuesday, and I’m assuming that by the time I go to bed on Tuesday night I will have the new bike built up. As for the old fuji frame (which you see above in today’s incarnation), about all I need for that is a new bottom bracket (or a new nut for the left side, which is what I’ll undoubtedly get instead), a couple wheels (which can be had or arranged without too much trouble), a couple brake levers, brake calipers, cable housing, and handlebar tape. The eventual plan for it will be to make it as absurdly practical a bike as possible. That means not one but two brakes so as to be nice to the knees, fenders, racks, headlight, etc. This will be a bike I can bring back a full load of groceries on. And it will fucking rock.
As a side note to end this, is it just me or am I on a total parenthesis-use kick tonight?
