Never Ending Tinkering

The Ogre (aka Olive Drab Roller; ODR)



I have a bunch of bikes.  I use them a lot.  I use them hard.  I have mentioned all of this before with my hopes of someone sponsoring a serious commuter and enthusiast to help offset the costs.  At this point I am an unofficial spokesperson for QBP, the folks who own Surly and Salsa (combined I have four).  The best I have received from them is a stem and a handlebar which were awarded for my literary talents and desire to get a tin sign of their logo half way around the world with out it being destroyed.  I have been riding the Muk to work a lot.  My boss calls it the Panzer, I think it is fitting.  The other day, I was trying to get out of the office so I could assist with taking one of the strap hangers to the dentist.  I literally couldn't get past people with the Panzer.  They blocked my way and asked questions, people are fascinated with the size of the tires on the Mukluk.

If you are considering ordering or purchasing a fat bike I will warn you right now; people will inquire, stare, make comments in passing, and ask you what it is for......the questions are endless.  I haul this thing up a flight of stairs and keep it behind my desk (when it is not nasty out) and I will have someone come to speak with me and the whole time we are talking the person is looking over my shoulder at my bike.  One of the people I supervise is completely distracted by it.  He stares and than mid-work related statement says "I am sorry, I can't help it, those are the biggest tires I have ever seen."  They speak to others and their relatives, it is amazing.  Great PR for the Quality Bike Parts.

Today for no great reason I cannibalized my El Mariachi for some wheels and brakes.  I suppose will not ride it again this year.  I have wanted to do some off road on the Ogre but wanted some decent stopping power.  I have it geared towards commuting with a 48 tooth chain ring, but this will allow quick wheel change outs to some wider rims and big rubber.  I have been wanting to do some single track on it, now I can!  I missed a great deal on some disc brake calipers, two sets for $50.  This would have been amazing because I now need (want) Avid BB7 brakes on two bikes.

I also did a night ride last weekend in the freezing cold.  Just before, I switched handle bars on my Giant Anthem X 29er for a Salsa Low Rise bar with 17 degree sweep.  I won that bar and if felt great on the ride, I am fond of a bar with some sweep and with just a little more tweaking on lever position life is good!

On a final note I do not like to post random stuff from bike part companies and their product announcements, but this is special because it takes me back to my 1994 with my GT.

Prince Would Be Proud

 

There was a time when I was riding in purple anodized bliss.  Anything I could get in purple was on that bike.  You name it:  chain ring bolts, bar ends, caps, binders, skewers.  At one point I took the rear derailleur apart to replace the mounting bolt with a purple break away variety.  By the way, that can be a nightmare if you disassemble wrong, tension springs can be a pain.  In fact a friend of mine was doing the same thing and he called me to tell me not to remove X piece.  I thanked him for the advice as I crawled on all fours looking at springs.  Thanks again Dan.  But it was worth the hours of reassembly for that one more accent of  Purple. 

Then it seems Purple died off, but not my love of it.  Great times.  If I had the coin this would be the time to get the hubs and headset.  I wonder if it would look good on the ODR?