Womens Repair Clinic May 2nd

A heads up to all the ladies out there on the swithcbacks and singletracks!

In conjunction with Alpenglow Sports, I'll be facilitating a backcountry repair course in a couple of weeks and I encourage all the gals to come check it out.

I'll be focusing on "real life scenarios" that happen on the trail and show the best/easiest way to get your bike going again. Bring your bike and any tools you normally carry with you on a ride. Tuesday June 2nd @ 6:00. Hope to see you there.

Faze 3

OK, so there have been WAY more that 3 phases of working on the van, but I think that the majority of the work has happened on 3 days. Yesterday was one of those days.



The piano hinge was installed on the work bench. The hinge is 56" long with 56 screws to hold it in place. I'm glad to have experience mounting ski bindings as I'm sure it helped with the successful layout and installation of the hinge. Well, that and some advice from my dad who runs a successful home repair business on the east coast.


Next was making some access holes in the bench for the support cables and installing a latch to keep the bench up when in drivin' instead of wrenchin'.


The empty beer bottles on the previous photo were the result of getting these bolts in place. Getting this bolt fed through the side of the door frame was no easy task... trust me. The access hole for the bolt is around the right side (where you can't see) and up a tad. There is very, very limited room inside the door frame where the bolts need to go and they just loved to slip out of my fingers and fall down to the bottom of the door frame which just happens to be 20" deep and fully enclosed. The only way to retrieve the bolts was with a telescoping magnet... a super lucky impulse buy at the hardware store. I probably dropped that bolt down into the confines of the door frame no fewer than 15 times.

Once the support bolts were in place it was time to put them into action and run the cables. With a 750lb load limit the bench is ready to take on some frozen bolts, stuck pivot pins or anything else that needs some serious "elbow grease" behind it.

Then it was time for more layout work. This is the finalest of final places that the tool board will pivot.... or at least it's damn close.

Ride Break

After realizing that I can't convert a Chevy Van into a bike shop in ten days (my original time estimate) it didn't take long to realize that what I really should be doing is RIDING!! And that's just what I did.

Megan and I headed down to Nevada City to do a little single track delight. We stayed in the "mid section" of the Burlington Ridge where the mud was minimal and the temps were ideal, so much in fact that we ended up staying out for almost 5 hours! How good was it?? Well, it was good enough to make Megans pigtails glow AND good enough to not even think twice about going down there the very next day and do it allllll over again. Even found some new trails! Some times you just gotta look around and "think outside the box".

If you've ever thought about checking out some of the trails down there, NOW'S THE TIME!! Unless of course you DON'T like: spring flowers, tacky dirt, no dust, bermed corners, perfect temps, exploring new trails.... the list goes on. Don't know where to ride.... try this guys site. He's got maps on there that are perfect to get you going. There's also a killer map available at the Ranger Station in Nevada City called the South Yuba Recreation Map. I got that map from those guys about 7 years ago and have been exploring its possibilities every chance I get in the spring and fall.

See you on the trail.

That's it....

.... new rule! No more working on the van without drawings! I've wasted an incredibly huge amount of time installing, removing and re-installing misc. things into, out of and back into the van. Thought I could shortcut. Thought I could save some time. Thought I'd just "pull it off". Well..... I thought wrong.

I've also realized (and remembered from doing my truck) that the project of converting the van into a rolling bike shop isn't something that's going to happen quickly. It takes time to make things right. Make things efficient. Make things work for the long haul.

On a positive note... things are happening. I took the time to clean up a bit inside and install some shelving. Interesting project. Drilling lots of holes to tie in the shelving into the sides of the van. Gotta keep things in check while in "mobile mode" on the highways and byways of the greater Truckee area ya know. Also, got some great ideas on how to support the workbench, my next undertaking, from a customer the other day. We did some heavy duty brainstorming on how to make things work and I'm ready to apply some of them.... after yet another trip to the hardware store of course.

The Van... Part 1

It starts with an idea. You stand at the back of that van and ponder the possibilities.... sometimes for way too long.

Things start to happen. Ideas come to light. You measure. Make marks. Theorize. Erase marks. Re-measure. Re-mark. Re-theorize..... sometimes for way too long. To the curious bystander, this process must look incredibly boring and painfully nonproductive.

Aah. The pivot. Designers of full suspension bikes aren't the only ones loosing sleep over just EXACTLY where the pivot point should be. It's equally as important on a 100lb wall of tools that will swing into or out of the work space.

At the end of the day, you have little to show for your efforts. The pile of reciepts on my desk would indicate one of the greatest undertakings of mankind. The inside of the van, however, looks like someone merely left some wood in the back and dropped a toolbox in the front, kicking its contents around before leaving at end of a very long day.

The Parts Bag

Aah, the used parts bag. A retrospect to what once was and shall never be again. So.... then why do I give old parts back?? I really dunno. I guess it's something I'd like to see if it was my bike that just got fixed. Maybe I'd want those old parts back so I could throw them across the driveway in a fit of rage, stomp on them with my foot in anger or sacrificially burn them at the next pre-ride camp out. I've seen recycling taken to "the next level" with old bike parts and the used parts bag really gives an opportunity to get the creative juices flowing..... or you could just throw them in the trash. In any event, I like the used parts bag.

Contents of the bag above: First off we have that odd looking stuff that looks like a lock of Barbies hair. It's actually a derailleur cable made by Power Cordz. You can click on the link to see just what their all about, but I can tell you that the Power Cordz turn into a huge mess when the cable anchor bolt washer tab (that's the other part in the bag) breaks off causing the washer to spin and the cable to get pulled in all the wrong directions.

The other stuff in the bag is electrical tape. With 1000's of uses, electrical tape shows up everywhere on bikes. This particular time around it was used to hold the front brake line on the fork. I dug around in my parts bin and found something a little nicer to hold the brake line in place. This bike is heading for round one of the Nevada State Championships after all and if ya look fast you'll feel fast and if ya feel fast you'll be fast.... at least that's what I hope for this guy. Good luck George!

Bike to Work Week

Finally settled down (kinda) from FTR and am feverishly working towards the next project which is a big, white Chevy van. Yep, Mighty Mobile is heading to "the next level"..... well, actually I'm just getting tired of loading and unloading all the tools and supplies from my truck three times per week. I'll be posting updates on the progress, or lack thereof, of the "van project" for all of my loyal followers.... yep, all three of you can monitor the action right from your lounge chair.

The flier above is for bike to work week and is something that I really wanted to get involved with last year as it's right up my alley. I love commuting by bike and you should too. I'm doing a free, yes FREE, maintenance clinic in front of Alpenglow Sports in Tahoe City Thursday the 14th. You should come by and check it out!

Well, I'm off to the DMV. Wish me luck.... I'll need it.