Thursday, February 18
Frank, it's a Revolution...
by
Billy Goat
on Thu 18 Feb 2010 09:31 GMT
Todays post is just for my 'virtual Buddy' Frank who lives in Canada and is a lover of vintage Canadian bike components, as is yours truly!! I owe him some information and am famously slow at performing tasks like this so I figured, surprise Frank and also do a little piece on these, my most favourite of vintage MTB cranks. The Revolution Crank first showed it's face in the 1991 Pro-Series Component Group (as far as I can remember) and it stayed around for several years with Syncros eventually making Road and Compact Drive versions. Material wise the early Revs were made from tubular Columbus Nivacrom and weighed 400g, which at the time was pretty damn light. Later on they were constructed from Tru Temper OX4 and tipped the scales at 410g. The cranks were cold forged at 125 ton pressure which was supposed to make the metal even harder and stronger.Syncros Cranks are either loved or hated, after all they are rather bland and boring looking when compared to something bright and garish like Kooka trash or Grafton etc, but they do the business and are very strong. They don't look good on every bike but are a good match for any early Rocky Mountain, Brodie, Offroad Toad etc and they also look kind a neat on my EWR  For some unknown reason the value of these has gone sky high in the last year or so and its not uncommon for these to change hands on eBay for insane money, in fact a NOS set sold in Germany with the elusive Crank 'o' Matic crank bolts for nearly £400 just after Christmas 2009.I am lucky to have three pairs of these, well in fact when I started typing this post I only had two pairs but I've just received news on closing a deal for a third pair so I now have two pairs in Standard Drive (110bcd) and one pair in Compact Drive (94bcd)  So, Frank....to get back to you, here are some pix for you, take note of the inner chainring bolt pix. The bolt is 14mm long by the way, let me know via RetroBike if you need any more info     
Friday, February 12
Honey, will you pass the lube?
by
Billy Goat
on Fri 12 Feb 2010 21:36 GMT
Call me old fashioned or maybe even call me wrong but I've been using GT85 to lube my bike chains since the early 90's, somebody back then must have told me it was a good idea...Anyway it seems things have moved on in the lube world quite a lot since then so its time to get with the times.
One of my riding buddies (Chris) talks highly of Rock 'n' Roll lubes, specifically Extreme Chain Lube which is some strange, gloopy blue stuff so I thought I'd give it a go so the Rohloff SLT-99 has had a nice bath in the stuff and tomorrow i'm off to some really shitty (mudwise...) forest down in Suffolk that has some nasty gritty sandy soil that really gets into the chain and mechs so this will be a good test!Man sized, Extreme lubrication  So, once the chain had a birthday I gave the whole bike a check over and paid some attention to something that many people leave untouched....the saddle clamp.
If you think about it this is an important piece of kit, you have your ass sat on it for long periods of time but it gets blasted with crap off the trail and probably doesn't get cleaned real well. So I stripped mine down, coated all the threads and brass inserts with Anti-Seize Compound, put a big bunch more on the rail clamps and put it all back together again....nice smooth bolts and no more creaking Ti rails Cleaned and greased Syncros clamp  As the Flite Ti was taken off the bike to clean up the saddle clamp I figured I'd swap in the SDG Kevlar Ti Comp that I got from the USA, I've been curious about these (as mentioned in a previous post on here). To be honest the profile doesn't look much different from a Flite but its gonna stay on for two big forest rides tomorrow so I'll report back later...Nice rails 
So the bike is more or less ready for tomorrow, just gotta get some air in the tyres.....watch this space for a ride report over the next few days 
Friday, January 22
Home Theatre Makeover Project 1
by
Billy Goat
on Fri 22 Jan 2010 10:10 GMT
Apart from bikes I've always been a big fan of Microsoft Media Center and have been using it for years and years, in fact I'm still running MCE 2005, having avoided Vista Media Center at all costs. Technology improves however, particularly hardware and this year its time to totally rebuild my Media Center box with some serious horsepower  Currently I have an old Pentium IV with 2gb RAM, 160gb system disk for the OS and 4 x 1TB drives for media content (1Tb for Recorded TV (700 hours capacity), 1TB for DiVX/AVI movies, 1TB for TV Caps and 1TB for Music and Pictures), 1 DVD ROM, 1 X Plextor DVDRW, Card Reader, Gigabit Ethernet, Hauppauge TV-Nova PCI TV card and a 512MB HDMI out graphics card. This is hooked directly into a Samsung Series 9 46" LCD TV and the sound runs into a fairly low rent 5.1 Surround Sound.The stuff that's gonna get changed is as follows:Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-EX58-EXTREME which is an Intel Core-i7 X58-Express board with DDR3 RAM.CPU - Intel® Core i7-920 Processor (8M Cache, 2.66 GHz)RAM - Kingston KHX16000D3T1K3/6GX DDR3TV Tuner - Hauppauge PCI Express Dual Tuner WinTV-HVR-2200 MCAMP - Onkyo TX-SR 607 AV Receiver (Full 7.1 HD Audio/HDMI Outputs)Speakers - Kef 3005SE K2's in gloss blackAcquisition wise I already have the mobo and RAM and hopefully next week will have the KEF's and Onkyo. Most likely I'll use the Onky and KEF's immediately on my current system until I splash for the i7 CPU, at which point I can rebuild my Media Center and reload it with Windows 7 Ultimate. I'll post up some more pix when there's a bit more progress but below is some of the kit that's either coming or already in use at Billy Goat Towers.KEF 'Eggs' Samsung Series 9 46" LCD (LE46A956D1MXXU) Onkyo TX-SR 607 - Front
Onkyo TX-SR 607 - Rear
The 'Onk' has plenty of future proofing built in, I can add two more satellite speakers and turn it into a 7.1 system or I could add these, plus a second sub and have a full 7.2 system (my neighbours would hate me though  ). There's several extra HDMI inputs here that could be used for Games Consoles, Blu-Ray players etc, it also handles Sirius Satellite Radio too and has fill support for all of the current HD Audio standards!
Monday, January 18
Abandon hope all ye who enter here
by
Billy Goat
on Mon 18 Jan 2010 14:05 GMT
First proper Sunday ride since Xmas so I thought I'd make it a good one, headed out of town and across to Geddington to ride Clay Dick, then over to Fermyn Woods, then Aldwincle, Lyveden Way, Bear Gate Track and home. Clay Dick is an old Byway that links Geddington to Brigstock and possibly the site of a Victorian Brickworks (hence the clay reference...). Anyway usually the top end is virtually unpassable, with the trees hanging so low over the trail that in some places you cannot even push a bike through......except this time the Byway had been 'repaired'.
By 'repair' I mean they have bulldozed the whole thing flat, about 40 feet wide, ripping out all the trees, bushes, rabbit and foxholes and turning it into a mile of sticky wet clay that will take months to settle  . So I rode as much as I could until my EWR stopped working and my feet started to look like Swamp Thing and then I carried my bike for 3/4 a mile  .
I fought my way to Brigstock and crossed thru Fermyn Woods which was another, barely rideable shitfest before aborting the ride near Sudborough  Wildlife count for the ride was still good, four or five Red Kites (all eluded my camera sadly), 5 fairly big deer in Fermyn Woods and six Llama's.....yeah It's true, although they could have been Alpaca, Clovius Hoofus isn't my area of expertise Nice beginnings Mud stops Play... Magura 'Mud Magnets'...wheel locked   'Repaired' trail - The Long Walk Mud Magnets Part 2 FUBAR EWR Kapitan Billy Goat says "TARFU, Mission Aborted!!!"
Thursday, January 7
Being upfront pays off...
by
Billy Goat
on Thu 07 Jan 2010 14:21 GMT
So you guys and girls all know the score....Xmas/Thanksgiving comes along, family and friends all do that "Hey, what do you want for a present?" thing, you Ummm and ahhh, suck air through your teeth...say "Hmmmm, I dunno" and weeks later unwrap something mundane like aftershave, nasty socks, wine you wouldn't pour on a skunk, a hideous sweatshirt....you get the idea So this year I decided to be more assertive, I needed a bunch more bike and DIY tools so I assembled a wishlist of tools, added the exact Part Numbers, prices and web site addresses and stepped away, telling people to "Please be precise, or fallback on the skunk wine/socks route..."Et Voila....it worked Santa Claus brought me:      I'm one happy goat....everybody wins
Monday, January 4
World SPD Stamping Championships 2010
by
Billy Goat
on Mon 04 Jan 2010 11:50 GMT
For a year or so now my riding buddies have been extolling the virtues of SPD's and trying to sell the idea to me, you see, I still live in the world of the Toeclip so I can't see the sense. I never fall off my bike, never have much trouble 'getting in' to my toeclips and to be honest, in recent months I've gone back to flat pedals with no clips at all. Yesterday was what turned out to be a large RetroBike meet at Thetford Forest, the largest lowland Pine Forest in Great Britain, down in deepest Suffolk with 22 riders attending. Also present in large quantities was snow and ice.....LOTS of it, which, much to my amusement, seems to be THE Achilles Heel of SPD pedals The tranquil, picture postcard 'snowscape' scenery was shattered by the sound of dozens of MTB riders furiously stamping on their frozen/useless SPD's, wobbling and dabbing the ground...hence the title of this blog post  Joking aside a great day was had by all during the two sub-zero rides we did yesterday......some pictures:Chin Wag Art Haus Wobble Fun Watching the 'Bomber Kidz' Snow Road All Along The Watchtower Iced Mech Xntrick Machinery Alien Sunset More pictures and words can be found HERE
Friday, December 4
Thetford Forest Ride - Primordial Shitfest
by
Billy Goat
on Fri 04 Dec 2009 23:28 GMT
Main Entry: penis en·vyPronunciation: -"en-vEFunction: noun: the supposed coveting of the penis by a young human female which is held inpsychoanalytic theory to lead to feelings of inferiority and defensive or compensatory behavior.Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc. ...a little twist on this:Main Entry: 29er en·vyPronunciation: -"en-vEFunction: noun: the supposed coveting of a 29" bicycle by a man which leads to feelings of inferiority and defensive or compensatory behavior by owning a 26" bicycle when the fact dawns on him he has just been 'outgunned' by superior technology.....so, NEVER try and keep up with someone on a 29er, especially when you are on an early 90's fully rigid 26" MTB
It was like a Roadrunner cartoon....Jango was off into the distance, casually pedalling while still seated, as if he was on a genteel Sunday amble. I was Wile.E. Coyote (Pure Genius) pedalling crazily like a schoolkid on a BMX, bouncing off tree roots, slipping all over the trail, vibrations from the trail jarring my body, repeatedly looking down at my gears as if there was something wrong or about to fall off.....there wasn't, I was just riding 'Old Tech' and the 29er, as horribly modern and soul-less as it is, this was was the superior machine on the day.....it was like trying to follow a Cruise Missile in downtown Bagdad (remember the Speederbike chases in Star Wars?) Thetford was cold and wet but the sun was out and the clouds had gone, only two of us turned out for the smallest Mini-Meet in history. Thetford Forest's trails had turned into Primordial Ooze.....it was a Shitfest of the highest order, gloopy brackish slimey puddles, slippery trails and a cold wind but it was great riding. We did most of the Dusk Till Dawn route, plus some of the Black Route and The Beast in the morning (12 miles) then back to Brandon for Macaroni Cheese and unedible Bread Pudding before hitting the trails again after lunch, our bottom brackets feeling like someone had packed them full of sand and refitted them and our rear mechs complaining bitterly about all the gritty shit they were being force fed  The afternoon was a shorter 7 mile route on the Visitor Center side with some great flowing Singletrack.A brilliant days riding, cold wet legs and some very dirty bikes!!
Daddy Tractor and Baby Tractor
Sunny Fire road
Dangerous times?...Health & Safety paranoia
Oh well.......not NOS anymore
Halfway point
A cold, wet and HUNGRY Billy Goat
Shitfest got my EWR
Shitfest got my EWR - Part 2
Shitfest got my EWR - Part 3
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