Nary a bike under my bum!

Or something to that effect, translating to mean that I didn't ride a whit this weekend. I did enjoy some HoneyMoon seasonal from the Blue Moon Brewery, a few Hazed and Diffused's from the Boulder Brewery and a few other tasty treats. Hey, it was a holiday, and I made hamburgers and brats and dogs on the grill all weekend, so lay off it, MOM!

I spent some time on Friday repairing the blue EWR. Checked the cranks and the bottom bracket for damage from my loose arm experience, and thankfully found none, so a clean and a grease and that's all sorted. Then I migrated to the front tire and sorted the flat, found a small hole in the tube and patched her up, looks to be from a thorn or a shoot of some type. Puncture damage, which follows that I was on a trail loaded with vines and bamboo....hmmm.

Then I got a little industrious and pulled the 8 speed SRAM cassette (and the New Succes derailleur and Sachs twisty) from the blue EWR and replaced it with the nine speed drive train from the TST. The gear spacings on the cheap SRAM 8 speeder are just too spread out to make that option viable. I have the 9 speed stuff, and it's clean and ready to go, and the shifters and rear derailleurs for the 9 are SRAM X0, so that will save me some weight, so why not. Retro be damned!

Found a Cannondale Pepperoni fork on eBay with a steerer tube long enough for the Beast. The poll on Retrobike has about 90 percent in favor of me pulling the Kona fork for the Pepperoni, so I guess I'll agree, as I always brainlessly do with what I read on the web, and swap those next.

I also put the Cannondale Rush in the stand to find the source of an irritating creak that is about to make me chuck the thing off a cliff. Pulled the pivot and the shock and greased up all the attachment points, but I can't get it to shut the hell up. I hate full suspension for just this reason. Sure its like riding a sofa on the trail, but I demand that it be a quiet sofa. My bike shouldn't make a sound, and if it does, (and mine does), and I can't get rid of it (and so far, I can't get rid of it), and the shop is clueless on how to solve it, (they are looking), then it's off to the eBay gods with you. The Rush is on probation...

What do you know, I DID do a lot this weekend after all, even if no bike/miles were involved!