I have a certain weakness for precision machined, anodized aluminum. So pretty. . . .

(via the “sswc08 blog”:http://sswc08.blogspot.com/)

I’ve been so busy that I haven’t even been thinking about “SSWC08″:http://www.sswc08.com until about a week ago. Now, the time is upon us, and the preparations have begun. I cleaned up the bike and replaced the blown-out cranks and BB last night. “More anodized aluminum,”:http://www.raceface.com/components/cranks/2/ mmmm. . . .

Unfortunately, I wanted a 34T ring, and the RaceFace cranks came with a 32. So, I got a FSA ring to go with it.

Did anyone else know that a middle ring and an outer ring actually have a slightly different dimension on the crank arms (even though they are the same bolt pattern)? WTF? And furthermore, who decided that a 34T ring is an outer ring? I felt bad for a few whole seconds about destroying my new chainring, and then pulled out the grinder and made it fit. Problem solved.

Next issue: the big-ass BMX chains I like to use rub the bashguard. Why make a singlespeed crankset that doesn’t fit a BMX chain? I know that all raceface did was slap a bashring and a middle ring on a pair of cranks and call them ‘singlespeed’, but it really wouldn’t have taken too much more work to do it right. Oh well, no bash guard for me. Never used one in the past anyways.

I’ve been telling everyone at work that I’m going to singlespeed worlds, and that if I come back with a tattoo, they’ll know why. They didn’t believe me, until I sent everyone a picture of “Adam Craig’s ass”:http://www.singletrackworld.com/mod/submit/images/2555-3.jpg. Between the ass tattoo and the creepshow mustache, it shut them up quick.

Somehow I don’t think I’ll have to worry too much about that. In the words of Steve Sanchez “You better go really hard, or you’ll be dead last”.

Thanks for the words of encouragement, Steve.