Mighty Mobile Bicycle Repair is guaranteed, top quality bike repair parts & service that comes to your doorstep!

Looking for a simple brake adjustment.... is that skipping chain driving you crazy.... how about those leaky seals on your suspension fork..... oh you need a wheel built.... the search is over! Mighty Mobile is here to help!

Let 20 years of friendly service help you out of your next bike conundrum. Serving all of Truckee and North Lake Tahoe.

Gregg Stone
Mighty Mobile Bicycle Repair
fixthebike@gmail.com

Friday, December 31, 2010

hippy hillidaze

Tell ya what, I'm ready for things to settle down a bit. Ever since signing the lease on a new rental house back in Mid Oct, I've been busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest.
First on the list way back when was firewood. After an amazingly long winter last year, we went through wood piles that I forgot we even had. This was kind of OK in the sense that I didn't have to move existing wood from one house to another but the caveat was the amount of wood I felt I needed to cut to keep things toasty inside the house this winter would be rather large. Meh, whadda ya gonna do. I made the best of it "maxing out" my little trucks potential doing loads of lodgepole around here and taking my bike with me down into the foothills for smaller loads of oak.
Next would be the actual act of moving. Man I hate moving. It seems so easy when you look around your house but when you start packing up the last 5 years of your life you realize that your ability to pack things away like a squirrel storing food for the winter kinda turns around to bite you in the arse now that you're responsible for getting all of your junk across town and into a new place. Anyone who visited the Truckee thrift store in early Nov probably scored some pretty neat stuff as many-a-loads were taken there. Then of course there's utility connections, address changes and figuring out just where to put all your junk from the last house.
Not too long after moving, my trucks intermittent inability to start turned into something a little more consistent.... like never wanting to start. After having a look around the engine compartment and cleaning up a few contacts I officially maxed out my electrical troubleshooting capacity and called a professional (or at least a
guy with a test light and ohm meter) to get things sorted out. After getting all "high tech" with test lights and remote starting systems it turned out to be a loose screw on my ignition switch. I guess things loosen up after countless turns of the key to start the truck in its last 16 years. Meh, I can handle that since I put almost exactly NO maintenance into that thing.
Let's see, next would an epic trip back east with Megan (girlfriend) for Thanksgiving where we left for the Reno airport in a blinding snowstorm. After almost turning around (twice) on our way out of Truckee, we amazingly made it to the airport on time. Once back on the east coast I would be rewarded for my efforts with the annual Thanksgiving day ride back in the "motherland" of Pennsylvania. Of course, it rained but we still had 12 people show up for the ride which has probably been going on for 20+ years now. After spending about 5 days back in my hometown we packed up and headed to Baltimore Md for the last two nights and spent a day at the
Baltimore Aquarium. This place is friggin' rad! If you're ever in the area, it's a must see. Watch out for "giant man eating fish" if you go!!

After Thanksgiving, it was back to "normal" life in Truckee. Super busy this time of year. The ski shop I work part time at is in it's busiest time of the season and there's more work there than you can shake a stick at. Add to this the fact that I'm still doing a fair amount of bike work and it leaves little time for skiing although I've still been able to get out a few times.
Getting out of town for Thanksgiving worked out so well that we thought we'd try it again for Christmas and visit Megans folks in Santa Barbara. Super nice. Warm. Green. Took the road bike. Did a "sensible" ride one day and then a stoopid ride the next which found me on a 45 mile loop with almost 5,000ft of climbing. After riding less than twice in the last 8 weeks, I felt a little out
of my element and ate everything I could find in the fridge upon returning back to the house. Ahhh, I can't wait for spring when I can feel like this on a weekly basis.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Whadda Ya Do

With wrenches spinning and freewheels tick tick ticking away I often get asked the question of "so... what do you do in the winter?" as I'm working on someones bike at their house in the middle of a hot summer day. As cool as it would be to simply answer "ski" the reality of the situation here at Might Mobile is that I DO like eating food throughout the winter, ski equipment requires payment with actual US currency and electricity is really something that I've grown accustomed to would like to keep around the house. All of this stuff costs money and although I'm sooooo thankful that I can make it in Tahoe in the summer months via wrenching on bikes, I still need to work throughout the winter.

The past couple of winters, I've been spending my time at the
Start Haus in Truckee. The shop is primarily a race shop, but does dabble in backcountry gear and freeride skis as well. I usually find myself tuning skis and doing some boot fitting.

When tuning skis, I'm usually staring at stickers on various pieces of equipment depicting that even if I read this...

.... and wear these.....

.... I still may find myself like this

Neat huh.

Do I do ANY bike work in the winter? You betcha! If you've got problems, I've got solutions. But, until global warming really takes over and we're riding the Tahoe Rim Trail in January you'll find me at the Start Haus running skis through some sort of machine or trying to contort my hands and wrists while attempting to do a grind within the confines of a ski boot.

Coincidentally, I'd like to give a big ole' shout out and thank you to all my customers that have made Mighty Mobile a success again this past summer! From the guy with the flat tire to the gal that got the suspension rebuild thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! Thanks for letting me help you.