Happenings

I have been scrambling around the last few days.. Piling up gear and writing list so not to forget anything for the trip to Colorado. Just taking the essentials; bike (duh), helmet,clothes, shoes,light,GPS,camelback,tools..Jeff lent me a sweet hard case to carry it all...Hope the airline doesn't charge me an arm and a leg extra to fly all my shit.
Ken hooked me with his friend Chris out in Denver. Looks like he puts a lot of time and energy in to the SS lifestyle..Can't wait to get out there and ride. The plan is to meet up with him and his single speed buds for some night rides after work.
Yesterday I stopped by to talk with Christopher Igleheart at his welding shop in Danvers. First time I'd been in the shop and it was what I'd expected...a cool fabrication garage stuffed with equipment, bike frames, frame jigs, welders, gas bottles,saws, drill presses, notchers, boxes of steel and titanium tubes and tool boxes full of machine parts and instruments. Interesting to see Christopher in his element with equipment he has gathered over the last twenty years or so. We have been talking over the last couple weeks about building me a custom steel rig and the visit to his shop solidified the deal.
Picked out some tubes and talked about the angles and measurements at length...Christopher is a huge 29'er fan and loves utilizing the rohloff speed-hub. I am a 26 inch'er to the core who likes the action of traditional gears...I know there is a better system out there but for a mountain bike I gotta stay with what works well and is light and responsive. I tried the roholff and wish the rear wheel wasn't as-much an anchor. I may change my view at some point but yesterday put the wheels in motion for a sick-ass epic racing rig. For those of you who care here is the build:
23 inch TT (effective)
70 degree head tube angle (slack)
72.5 seat tube angle
12.25 BB height (high clearance)
16.75 CS
Columbus Life Niobium doped tubes
Also picked out the rear drop-outs and got to mount them in the frame jig. I plan on owning this frame for many years and it was blowing me away to pick out everything down to the cable routing and paint scheme...talk about custom! If all goes well I'll be racing her down in Georgia on April 22!!...and hopefully not assembling her in the back of the station wagon rolling down the highway!...but some how know that's what will happen...