The Aldrich Ave Daily

Ready for the trail eh? Nope. Not quite. Maybe God doesn’t want me to ride a bike from Erik’s. Well, at least he’s making it more difficult then I would have thought. I started building up my newest edition to Bad Andy’s fleet last week. This was probably the most fun I’ve had building a bike. Yes, road bike was fun with the Campy, but hell, this is and S-Works. It truly is what the big dogs ride. To
you’re left welcome to problem #1. See that chain rubbing on the seatstay? Yea, not supposed to happen. Now the American Classic hub came with two spacers for the cassette. I put on the narrower of the two, problem is still there. I’m sure a little grinding wouldn’t hurt, but still I shouldn’t have to do that. I try my XTR/Sun Ringle wheel and no issues. Fuck beans. I hope I can find a way to use these wheels.

Feast you’re eyes on problem #2. Its kinda hard to see with the flash, but the wheel is not sitting straight in relation to the frame(spacing from side to side differs). The Park Tool FAG-1(Frame Alignment Gauge) does not work well with this frame so I do the old “string” test. Sure enough, the rear triangle is out of alignment. Cripes. I make the call, get a new frame on order and life is good right? Besides the facts of having to wait for a new frame to come from Specialized, build up another bike early next week, quickly get a few rides under my belt on the new frame, scurry to make small fit adjustments then race on the 8th. Oh yea, its all good. I know I shouldn’t complain too much. I was totally stoked to get the chance to own one of these, it’s just these problems have come at a bad time. On the upside, the road bike has been seeing lots of miles. 50 on Sunday, and 60 today. Nice long rides.

Myself, Nate, and Matt bussed it downtown this past Friday to watch Stage 3 of 5 stages in the Nature Valley Grand Prix. A local road stage race that is starting to get some national attention. Friday’s race was a 1 hour Crit through downtown. Those of you who are not familiar with this term, a Crit is an all out sprint with numerous laps around tight turns. It was a blast. I’ve never had the opportunity to see one
of these in person and it was a treat. There’s a blast of wind as these
guys go blowing by. Speeds on the laps were around 30-34mph with the
last lap at a quivering 36mph. Thats a fast speed to maintain for an
hour. It was a great scene. Brits was nice enough to give us plastic
cups so we can enjoy our drunkenness right up on the gate. A great race and a great crowd. It was announced that some 35,000 people attended the race. Though I think thats a bit exaggerated there were a lot of people watching. All kinds. Not just the uber hard core cycling crowd, but you’re every day person just checking it out. People just getting off work staying and watching, kids of all ages. It was fun.
So for those of you who have not talked to myself of Matt in awhile you do not know that our landlord put the house we are living in up for sale about 3 weeks ago. Not cool. We love living here and before this news had not intention of moving out anytime soon. Now there is a chance we could continue living here, but there are a lot of variables and volatile chain of events for that to work out. Obviously the buyer has the will to do whatever he/she wants to the house. If they decide to keep the house a rental property there’s a chance the rent will go up. Or, if they keep it a rental property and want to move in they will most likely move into our unit. For two reasons. 1. All the showings are in our unit. 2. Its the biggest unit and in my opinion most unique. Or, the buyer will kick all of use out, and change the entire house. The ideal situation for us would be no or minimal rent change and that we continue not paying for heat(yes we don’t pay for heat). With that said, you guys will definitely know if we are moving out and will have one last party. Well, I think I’ve earned a couple cocktails with today’s ride. I’m off to William’s for a couple drinks. See you all on the flip side. Ciao

daily quote – “this sport is so hard, you can’t do it for a paycheck” -24 hour and endurance mt. bike racing pioneer John Stamstad commenting on 24 hour solo mt. bike racing.

today’s term – vegetable tunnel n. a singletrack that is heavily overgrown with foliage, so a rider must duck and bent to get through it.

My collection of bicycles will almost double in about 3 months this summer. I have to say, this addition to the fleet is pretty damn cool. Feast your eyes on the 2006 Specialized F.A.C.T.(functional advanced composite technology) Carbon S-Works hardtail frame. It weighed in at the shop with our highly accurate fish scale at 2.9 lbs. Then again at 3 lbs. I am going to shave almost a lb. off of the Salsa and will be flirting with a sub 20lb. mountain bike. This morning will be my last ride on the Salsa as it is now. Sniff, sniff. I will be building up the new S-W after my ride this morning. Then at some point next week building up the Salsa with my old parts from the Kona. Remember that frame? Booger green and dirty white. Once I build up those two bikes, I will be doing some work on my dads road bike. He is getting my old Ultegra parts. After that, I am flirting with the idea of building a single speed out of the old Kona. OOFTA, its going to be a busy couple of weeks for me building really, really cool bicycles. It will be nice to have two fully built mt. bikes

so other people came come riding with me. I know my roommate and my brother have been getting that old itch back. Its that itch to get back out on the bike and shred the gnar. I love that itch, and don’t think I will ever be able to fully scratch it. So hopefully I will have some really cool pictures for you guys to look at. New bikes and what not.

This week, is the week that I really start upping the ante on the training. Two-a-days are going to be a common theme now, and longer rides. This morning I plan on doing about and hour and a half on the Salsa, then in the evening we’ve got the Tuesday night ride. So a solid 3 and a half hours today. A day off tomorrow, then Thursday will be another 3-3 1/2 hours, and another ride on friday. The check for the 24 hours went in the mail last week. Last year, I was the 46th person out of 72 to sign up. Just for shits and giggles I sent mine in as early as possible to see how low of a bib number I could get. This years theme is “Grow a Spine”.

I have never had a bike defeat me and have had to make that call to the customer “sorry sir, but we can’t get this part out and you will need to buy a new bike”. I was worried that streak had come to an end last week. A customer brought in a very old Cannondale mt. bike for some service. Turned out he needed a new bottom bracket. The original was totally shot. Bearings, spindle, and cups all worn out. No big deal. remove old one, put new one in. This cup you are looking at is notorious for being a pain in the ass to get out. There are two flat spots on each side of the cup that are designed for the tool to settle on to remove. The problem with this design is keeping that tool on without sliding off. Especially when the cup is seized up and does NOT want to come out. After a couple of days of soaking, heating, soaking and heating it wasn’t moving. I wish I had a picture of this, but we had that bike upside down on the floor, one mechanic holding down the back end, another the front end, and my self holding the tool that had been clamped against the shell, winding up full swing with a hammer. This cup was so seized that the tool actually started digging into the cup. Nothing. I sent out for help and got a tip. Use a Dremel to grind out two notches that fit for a bmx freewheel tool. After about a half hour of grinding, more lubrication we FINALLY popped it free. All good right? No, It still took us an other 20 minutes just to un-thread the damn thing. I was worried that the cup was going to pull the threads out with it. I don’t think this bottom bracket was greased when it was installed at the factory over 15 years ago. Aluminum and Steel don’t like each other, and when putting two and two together grease has to be in the picture at some point. Luckily, it was ok. Some re-tapping and re-facing and the new BB was finally in and the customer has a bike back. Kudo’s to Jon for the helpful tip. It was like a huge load off my back. It was stressing me out at work. Yesterday was a good day and the first one in a looooong while at the shop. Looks like our heat wave is over for now. Time to ride and enjoy the sunshine. Cheers….

daily quote – “Baseball is 90% mental, the other half is physical” Yogi Berra

daily mt. bike term – tea party n. when a whole group of riders stop and chat, and nobody seems to want to ride on.

MNSCS #3 was this past Sunday at Afton Alps. The annual and from what I heard last Afton Avalanche. It was only fitting that the hardest race on the circuit was also going to be the hottest. I heard guys talking that during the Comp/Expert race their computers were reading 97 and even 100 degrees. This course has been known to make people shudder. I think it takes a person a long time and many laps to appreciate and enjoy this course. Someone on the the MORC forum was quoted in saying “I don’t know how they do it, but the entire course is uphill, very strange”. Indeed it is. It looked like a good field in the comp race. Of course mother natured treated us with unbearable muggy and hot conditions. The manhandler was kept out of the course last year and some of us were puzzled. This is still the Afton Avalanche right? Home of grueling climbs and unforgiving heat. Well, the Manhandler was back this year. Riding up that thing on Sunday felt like it was a slow elevator taking you directly to the sun and certain death. 15 of the 51 Comp riders DNF’d most likely due to this heat. I was pretty satisfied, I finished 24th out of 51 riders. 4th in my age group. Not a bad day. The guy that won the Comp race beat second place by over 6 minutes. BALLS. Sandbagger, I better see that guys name in the expert race next time. And what better timing for the new 24 hours of Afton site to come up

24 hours website I am sending in my application today. Just over two months away from a weekend of pain and suffering. I can’t wait. Its being hosted by Salsa Cycles this year. Pretty cool because of the fact that I ride a Salsa. But Bad Andy might show up to that race and some others by the end of this month on a new frame. Hint -Carbon. S-W. Nothing more until it is officially in my hands. A hot week is ahead, and I plan on riding the next 4 days in a row. Chevelle concert tomorrow night @ The Myth. I can’t wait for that. The new Vena Sera album is their hardest to date. Very in your face and raw. If its anything like their last show, I cannot wait. Sleep tonight will be at a minimum with anticipation and the heat on my mind. Here’s to a hot week ahead and lots of sweating. Cheers

daily quote – “Grow a spine” -this years theme to the 24 Hours of Afton

p.s. I am adding something new to the Blog. with the daily quote, a new daily Mt. Bike term from The Dictionary of Mountain Biking. Compiled and credited to Doug Landauer and Jim Frost…so here tis

daily mt. bike term – dual boinger n. a full suspension bicycle

The transformation is FINALLY complete. For those of you who have been reading this dribble know very well how long I’ve wanted to do this. For those of you who are new to my “blog”, heres the deelio. I’ve wanted to get a new Groupo on my road bike for a good 2 1/2 years. I’ve wanted to put the Campagnolo Centaur group on my bike. I initially was going to put the older version of this group on. It was still the 10-speed version but the parts were this polished gray color. For 2007 Campy upgraded the Centaur line, changed the color back to silver, added some carbon here and there, and incorporated the new Ultra-Torque crankset. Some unfortunate events these past couple of months forced me to scrounge around online to find what I wanted. A few weeks back, I found some deals, made a deal with my dad on my Ultegra parts, bodda bing bodda boop, here we are. I put it together yesterday and pounded out 43 miles in the wind. Damn, this stuff rides nice. So smooth, plush, and comfortable. You can see pics in my biking pics section. I love building up my own bikes. I’m not a huge fan of the whole “pro-form” deal at the shop. I like to pick and choose the parts I want. All 3(soon to be 4) of my bikes are this way. I find it more satisfying that way. Also, my bikes are totally unique. Nobody else has these frames built up the way I do. I look at it, and think “yea man”, I built that. My way. I can’t wait to get out on it again. It will probably be sometime next week though, I’ve got a race at Afton Alps on Sunday, and yesterdays ride was very hard. Time to rest the legs and show up ready to kick some ass on Sunday.
This past weekend, Ryan got hitched. Myself, Erik, Luke, and Rachel drove up to Detroit Lakes for the festivities. It was a blast. I’m so happy for Ryan and Angie. I couldn’t think of a nicer guy. It was a nice small wedding, and a very well done reception. Not to mention some of the best chicken I’ve ever had. I’ve never been to Detroit Lakes, but I gotta say. Its a lovely town. I hope to make a trip up there with the guys and give Shitty a visit. It was a crazy night. Luke got this grand idea to get little bottles of Jaeger, Hot 100, and a bottle of wine. Between that, and the vodka, beer, rum, it was a good time. I can only hope someday that I can find that person to spend the rest of my life with. Watching Ryan’s face as Angie was walking down that isle was priceless. He looked so happy, proud, I couldn’t stop smiling myself. I wish I had a pic, but I was in the back. It was good to see some old friends too. Christian, Song, Andy, Ross, I haven’t seen those cats in eyons. Apparently Luke has a 3-part series of videos on his camera that will be on where else youtube in the near future. Life is a short and special process, and I wish Ryan and Angie the best, and hope myself to find that one day. Heres to the newly weds. CHEERS!!!!

daily quote – “Heart rate monitors are for sissy’s, and people with scars from poodle bites”. -former pro mt. biker for GT bikes Greg “Chopper” Randolph, now working for Bike Magazine.