Mountain Bikes Mysteries

Working on bikes can be rewarding and frustrating. 

Blogger has change things so this post is a relearn. 

Pictures of trail riding were taken by Bell Rock and Court House Butte Trails where the trail head is located off of Arizona #179 six miles below the Sedona City Limits.

My experiences lately have been a learning lesson. When I was living on a sailboat in San Pedro I had several shore lockers to store bicycles, tools and parts. I had my S-Works with Fox suspension and a Hybrid that I used for gathering things at the market. My road bikes were basically complete and I my track bikes didn't need any work. 

When I was on the sailboat my neighbor was also a bike nut. He like to ride for transportation and fun. He also was always building something new. Something always different. He built a 29 inch and kept telling how it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. So after I moved to Arizona I started looking on E-Bay for a 29 inch bike. I found a hard tail that was from Nashbar and this was before they went out of business. This was being sold from someone other than Nashbar and was offered for $500.00 below the normal price, 

It arrived via a UPS truck in a normal cardboard bicycle carton. 

The components were low line Shimano/Suntour and was a 3 chain wheels  x 8 cog cassette set up with disc brakes. The tubes were paper thin and the tires were goat head magnets. The front forks lacked in air and were very flimsy. Since I have had very good forks in the past I started looking for an upgrade.

Suntour offered an upgrade for $100.00 for a $400.00 fork so I bought it. First mistake is not knowing what you have and what you are getting. Big difference. The new fork had a tapered steering tube and the Nashbar frame was made for a 1 1/8 tube. I searched the internet and then went to one of the local shops in the Village. I tried to explain it with drawing to the shop mechanic but he said to bring the bike in and he would look at it. Well there is no way I would show my Nashbar POS to him so I went back to my drawing board. I actually have one and a decent t-square.

So I made a bearing out of copper wire for the headset lower and with plenty of grease actually made it work (kinda). 

This led me to start for a search for a frame that would accept the taper. I found a bare Marin hard tail frame on E-Bay and subtracted from my meager bank account. The new build would be all new stuff using only the Suntour fork upgrade. It took a while to find the exact lower bearing but Jenson had it and the part really fit correctly.

The last time I raced cross county at a Norba National in Fontana on my S-Works lots of riders were using these giant rear cogs and tiny front chain wheels. That was all too strange for me. So when I ordered new bottom bracket for the Marin I went with 3x9 not knowing it was no longer in favor.

It took a while to get pedals, seat post, bars and brakes. The wheels took a while as they came from China. The Marin frame had blue  high lites so almost everything that was added were blue. When the bike was ready to roll I left off the remote handlebar lockout for the forks as it was disassembled and looked like too much work to figure out. 

So after riding the Marin for a while I changed the rear cassette for a bigger set. Then I took off the triples and left just a single chain wheel. The shifter was also removed. Now it was a 9 speed but still not geared low enough show  I went shopping for a 46 tooth in the rear. With the pandemic it took for ever to get the part and when I did it took a while to get shifting and keeping the chain on to get past the mail box. Finally it shifted smoothly and reliable. 

But the remote lockout remained in a dish in my tool/parts cabinet. So I took the plunge and tried to install it. Getting the cable to go through the fork cap was driving me crazy. Finally after a day of going nuts I quit. Later in the middle of the AM I woke up and restarted the chore. Then I went on-line and found a YouTube DIY video. My problem was I had not realized there was a hole in the cap for the allen wrench to tighten the locking slug that depressed the ball bearing that controlled the fork pressure. 

I could not get the lock switch to return to normal so I increased the cable length and add a return spring to the cable end as shown. So how when climbing a hill I can depress the lever which lockouts the fork to stop wasting energy in bouncing. It actually works and snaps back to normal with a simple touch of the release lever, 

Been Off Line

My Flat Tire Special

My German Shepherd likes to go out early in the morning when it is still dark. There isn't any daylight savings here in Arizona and when we go out it is very dark unless we have a bright moon.

During the day he is allowed to roam around but not in the dark. There are coyotes here and I often see them by the house and in the County Road. The little Yorkie can not go out as he would be a tasty meal so we always he an eye on him.

Using blogger with a slow internet connection can be problematic as unless the files size is small enough and has been resized the upload takes a day or two. So for now no more pictures. The air outside when we go out is about 25 degrees. I am not to used to that. The little dog stays inside until it warms up. 

My mailing address shows Sedona but main Sedona is about 10 miles away. The Village of Oak Creek is 2 miles away and many prefer to call this place Big Park. As I may have mentioned earlier this is not San Pedro by any means. Since August I have seen the sheriff's car twice here. 

My daughter's house and my smaller ranch house is located about a tenth of a mile from the County Road where the payment ends. It is not uncommon to walk to the mailbox and see someone who is lost having missed the turn on Jacks Canyon Road. Often you will see people out of their cars taking pictures of the buttes and mountains. Out county road is Lee Mountain Road and we are across from the mountain which is 6250 feet high while the house here sits at 4250 feet.

There is one market in the village that has been remodeling since I arrived. This week they had a grand opening and reduced prices through out the store. Some products here are lower than California and some are higher but the sales tax is much lower. Gas is much cheaper here. Might be four gas stations on the highway in the village Circle K sells liquor so you can fill up the gas tank and also get tanked,

I spend a lot of time changing tires on my 29 inch bike. Yesterday I put on a larger tire and a new slime tube. This is goat head country. If you have never seen these little devils you are very lucky. Beside being a pain in the bicycle tire they stick to your shoe bottoms and get carried into the house where they lie waiting for a stocking foot.