I’ve been getting ready for gunnison the last few days. I rebuilt my fork a couple days ago so that it will actually function as a suspension fork (and not a rigid). Hopefully that was the last time on this one, gotta start saving the pennies for a new one, I did what I could, but it was not pretty.

I went for a night ride last night with Frank’s lighting system which I’m borrowing for the race this weekend. Holy shit, what a difference a good system makes. He has an HID for the bars, and a halogen for the helmet, both from light & motion. I believe I was riding as fast at night as I was during the day with that setup. He’s got extra batteries for each as well, so I can have a set on the bike and a set on the charger. I now have no excuse for the night laps to slow me down. Damn.

Today was rebuild the drivetrain day. I threw a new K710SL chain on the bike, flipped the rear cog around to wear the other side of the teeth, and replaced the front ring.

This is the first time the front ring has been replaced since the bike was built a year and a half ago. If I figure around 60 miles a week on the bike (probably about right) year round, for the last 70 weeks would give somewhere around 4200 miles. Just to be conservative, lets call it 4000. This is what a chainring looks like after 4000 miles of singlespeed shredding:

Compare that to a new ring:

The old chain had stretched the length of a full link over the entire length of the chain, and it was a beefy KMC chain as well, so that would explain the damages to the chainring. The chris king cog on the back is a steel cog, and it had some sizeable damages as well, I guess 4000 miles will take its toll. . .

So, now I’m off to lay out a few more things tonight, and then tomorrow morning it’s pack up the car (from the giant spread of stuff on the dining room floor) hit the grocery store for some last minute supplies, and then mosey on up to gunnison for a trip to the pain cave. Should be a blast.

Oh yeah, and I have heard a pretty good amount of interest in the new t-shirt design, so I may actually get some screens made at a t-shirt shop here in town and get an order put together. Don’t order anything from zazzle for a bit, I’ll get back with details (should be cheaper than zazzle, and nicer quality too).

Peace out.