Only 134 sleeps til the Kiwi Brevet !

I knew I was really looking forward to 2012's Kiwi Brevet when I was daydreaming about the new course and I nearly rode into the back of a parked car. I also had this strange dream where I was riding my bike flanked by a group of Pukekos. Birds are very portentous to me. Native birds anyway. Maybe it was a combination of Brevet memories of all the Wekas we came across near Moana, and the time we were riding with a baby deer. The mind does strange things. I have done a lot of very cool things over the years on my bike, but so far the Kiwi Brevet tops them all. A special combination of adventure, camaraderie and challenge.

Last time I was very green, and apart from doing Outward Bound in 1984 I didn't have much outdoor experience. My aim was to able to cope with anything that nature threw at me. I wasn't interested in buying into the "accommodation anxiety" thing, riding on into the small hours to try and make it to pre-booked accommodation. I felt the need to be prepared. If you break a freewheel in the middle of the bush your credit card wont save you, so I took a bivvy sack and a sleeping bag.  As it happened we did experience a breakdown of sorts with my buddy coming down with heat-stroke and an enforced camp 3/4s of the way up the Mangatapu on day 1. Its not like he wasn't fit. We had done a fair bit of training together and I was worried about keeping up with him to be honest. Anyway, we had the gear for a comfy night out so we were sweet. It was the most memorable night of the ride for me too. Camped out on Murders rock, with an amazing night sky..

In the end we were all very lucky, with good weather the whole time and what seemed like a perpetual tailwind. That doesn't mean to say it will be the same this time around. New Zealand's weather can be very changeable.

This time I am looking at different bike options. Last time I adopted a pretty simple approach. I brought a Freeload rack and bolted it onto my Santa Cruz full suspension bike (my installation pix here). Freeload built the first, and to my knowledge only rack that will bolt on to almost any fully (or suspension fork). If you have a fully the only other option is one of these overgrown seat bags. Having never used a seat bag I cant comment on how they work. I guess the weight is up a little higher. Freeload also do a pannier specific rack now, which I have but have yet to test.

I ended up riding with two other guys with Freeload racks. Jonty had them on both ends and Nick had one with panniers on the back. While they would have have been very envious of my fully as we rode through the Molesworth corrugations, I was very envious of the ease of access that Nick had to gear in his saddlebags. There was no messing about with un-strapping a dry bag which you probably just spent 15 minutes cinching up so it wouldn't wobble off after a couple of hours on a gnarly track. A couple of small side panniers like Nicks were brilliant.

Outside the Black Ball Hilton.

Now that I have a rigid 29er Surly Karate Monkey I am wondering if I should use that. Its going to be at least 2 pounds heavier than the Santa Cruz which weighed in at 28.5 pounds with aero-bars and rear rack (no load). The 29er wheels roll beautifully and I am not yet convinced the weight would make a lot of difference.

It didn't seem to be a problem for the Aussie Brovet guys who came over with their fully loaded Salsa Fargos.  There is a hell of a lot of climbing in the Kiwi Brevet, but it is spread out over 1100kms. Its got to be pretty damn steep for a heavier bike to make a big difference. There will be a few very steep segments this time around, probably more than there was last time, but if it comes down to it, if you get out of bed 30 minutes earlier the next day, any disadvantage from having a heavier bike would be gone (I think). This implies a degree of competitiveness, which we weren't actually buying into in 2010.  I am pretty sure I wont be buying into it again in 2012 ! The Karate Monkey is also a very simple bike, cable discs which are so set and forget, compared to my finicky hydraulics, and friction bar-end shifters. No pivots or shocks to break. Who am I trying to convince?

Cleetus in Port Underwood. It was hot.

Riding a fully in 2010 made it fun for me. I am wondering if that's what kept me fresh and enabled us to bang out the last 200 plus kms from Hanmer in under 11 hours. How tired would I be if I rode a steel rigid bike the whole way. That is the big question. Am I stuck on the big-wheeled band-wagon? I guess I need to do a few long rides. Some with CX tires, some with full sized tires. The CX tires fairly scream along on the flat stuff, but in lieu of suspension, a fatter tire is the only suspension you will be getting on a rigid frame.

More questions, a camera or not? I took some good photos last time, many of them good enough to be used in magazines, and I also used my little phone to take some passable photos for blogging. What's the use of doing such a cool event if you don't take the time to snap a few quality shots to document it and skite about what a fun time you are having while you are doing it! There is a lot of weight in there if you also take a phone charger, plus one for your lights. The new Ayup light's batteries come with a low-power light setting so that could greatly extend battery life.

The next thing I am geeking out on is a bivvy sack versus a tarp. A tarp could be a bit smaller and breathe a lot better. I only used my bivvy sack twice last time and I found it a bit sweaty. Here is a very cool set-up. Charlotte used one like this in 2010. Check out this website pimping the pros of "quilts". It actually makes a lot of sense.I am also keen to use aero bars again, they are a great place to hang some light gear off and you really appreciate having another position for your hands, and the ability to stretch out and take some more weight off your butt. I made sure I was well used to my aeros before the last Brevet and even did a lap of the Coppermine circuit when in Nelson with them on. Right now I am messing with some home-grown minimalist aeros in my shed. Never throw anything out : )

So that's were I am at at the moment.Thinking about the Kiwi Brevet on February 4th 2012.
Only 134 sleeps !

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Some of my favourite pix

I reckon you are better to have a crappy camera in your pocket than an expensive one at home in your cupboard. Here are some of my favourite pix. None of them are from particularly flash cameras. All of them point and shoots, a Canon Power Shot A460 and a Canon Power Shot SX200IS.

If you want to see what you can do with a compact camera, check out this guy's stuff, its really impressive. http://www.gnatlikes.com/


Cleetus ripping up Mt Climie on his Singular Gryphon

 

Jonty and Chris on the Molesworh in the Kiwi Brevet

 

Cleetus on Mt Climie again

 

Jonty in the Waiuta on the Kiwi Brevet

Snow on Belmont Trig this year.

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Flatter than a flat thing. Nth island CX champs.

That was the worst I have felt in race since the singlespeed world champs last year.
I was flatter than a flat thing. Such is life. But I have got to tell you about it just so I can include this cool photo that Craig Madsen took. You can't tell that I am complete rubbish in it. At least I had the option to have a free beer on each lap, not that I did... I dont think I have recovered from the 6-peaks 6-pack ride I did a few weeks back... thats probably why I am flat... Too old for that kind of nonsense.
Craig Madsen had just got off the plane from Interbike 2 hours earlier, he raced, took photos and was full of gossip and tales which I could tell you about but then I would have to track you down and kill you, and I am too flat for that right now..

Well done to Bike Hutt's Mike Anderson for putting on a great series of events. Cyclo-cross was the winner on the day and there were costumes and all sorts of dodgy things going on. I am not sure, but I think one of the Hawkes  Bay guys won, but on a beer count-back the local Yeti Alex Revell may have taken home the trophy. A good report here from Ken.

Legend of the day had to go to Mark Humphries for riding his Pugsly in all three races! He is gonna kill himself or get very very strong. It was also good to see "Frog" Woodward who I don't think I have seen since the North Island Cup at Dry Creek in 1993. Funny how things go. I am pretty sure that back then Frog was on a double chain-ring set-up with drop-bars. How bizzare. There is truly nothing new under the sun.

It was great catching up with heaps of the local crew and some of my old Brevet buddies who are starting to get a bit amped about Simon Kennett's 2012 Kiwi Brevet !!

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The importance of arithmetic

I had my first real MTB race on the Karate Monkey on sunday at the Wainuiomata Trail Park, round 1 of the PNP series. It was also my first offical race as a Master 3 (50 year old). Not that I am 50 yet, but I will be this calendar year. Given that I was M3, I knew there would be limited technical challenge to the course (knowing the course designer's preferences quite well) so running a rigid frame wouldn't be too much of a hindrance.

Photo borrowed from Andy Woodwarks Collection

The hooter sounded and I wound up the new 46 sprocket (thanks Marco) and shot past a fair few of the combined M3, M1 and elite field before we turned off 10 seconds later onto the first climb. Straight away I was hammering up behind my old protege Jordan Blake and before long Marco floated up behind us on his 17 pound C-dale. I could see Marco was angling to take the left hand side of the water-tower at the top of the first climb, but my gut feeling was that the right side was quickest. Jord had the local knowledge so I went with him. Good call, we didn't see Marco again for quite a while, until I heard him call out from behind that "The Painting Man was coming through". Despite his digital weight-loss techniques Ian Paintin was still a bit behind on the climb, but was about to make his move. He busted through on the descent and we levelled out again on the next small climb.


The first of the granny climbs went well but I lost traction just before the top. On the second climb, Ian had the good line on the left, and I had the gnarly one on the right, but he spun out and speared off over to my side forcing me off,  apologising profusely like the gentleman racer he is.

We remounted and somewhere before the main ridge track Marco made his move and got ahead of me before the left turn into the newly built Towai single track. Ian was having none of it and retook the lead, having been caught behind Marco's extra large elbows before. I on the other hand was not so clever and spent what seemed like an eternity stuck behind the Godfather until he agreed to pull over. I have the guys in the workshop working on a high-voltage Capacitor Discharge device that should enable me to give Marco a good zap on the ring-piece if he shows a lack of fair play again!

The new Towai track was great. Narrow and winding, and a bit rooty, but I cant wait to get out on it again. The wagon wheels on the Karate Monkey seemed to eat it up quite well, but I suspect a bit of front end suspension would have been a help. I got out onto the main trail in second place wondering how far up ahead the Painting Man was.

The bee-line descent went well, (took the girls route) up Jungles and down Snails and over the Wetlands and on to an unmarked fork in the track. Bugger. What to do. The majority of the wear and tear to the track seemed to be to the right so I went that way. Doh! 20 seconds later I almost had a head-on with someone coming the other way so I back tracked back and took the left hand fork. I heard a coasting free-wheel up ahead and wondered if it was another super-crusty who had passed me while I was going the wrong way. Sure enough I spied Gary Moller up ahead. Catching him was hard, as I kept hitting back markers. They were always courteous and pulled over where they could. Gary is at the upper end of the super-crustys age bracket and has just gotten faster over the last 3 or so years. I snuck past him near the top of the climb somewhere but didn't put much time on him down Snails on the next lap.

Somewhere along here things get hazy. I would swear on my death bed that I did 3 laps of the course, as outlined in the Course Algebra description, but obviously I did 4, and I apologise for convincing Gary that we had an extra lap to go, as it cost both of us a place on the podium. A small amount of post-race research found that there was a strong correlation between our numeracy skills and our final positions, with school cert maths results having a big influence on the final outcome with Ian Paintin scoring 98, Marco 86, and me a dismal 50. It all makes perfect sense now.

All things considered it was a good day, a fun track and some good riding. Things are looking a bit dire up our way at the moment. The Waitangirua Forest Park is closed for lambing and Danzig is likely to get levelled so that the timber can be turned into car-boxes in Japan. On the up side Marco and his buddies are building a new link track from the Coach track across to Hill Road  (I think).

The above foto was from Andys shots. More photos and relevant links here.

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Snow business

Who would have thought, my first ever experience of riding on snow would happen in my own back yard!
After the dumps we got at our house I figured there might be heaps more up the hill, so headed off up to the top of Belmont Trig before work. It was amazing, no wind and about 6 to 8inches deep where there was a northerly aspect. Hard work riding up it, but a blast coming down!

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Where are the roadies?

Here are a couple of nice shots from Craig Madsen from The Bike Hutt's latest Cyclo Cross in Upper Hutt.
He must have had some old black and white film in the back of the fridge ; )

Craig's Pugsly was a popular ride at the race. Incredible to think that Surly are about to launch one with even fatter tires called the "Moonlander".

About 1.3 seconds after this I slipped and fell flat onto my knees in front of the next barrier ! The guys that were bunny-hopping these were taking heaps of time out of those of us that werent. There are some great photos of guys on CX bikes getting big air in the Bike Hutt facebook, in particular Ben Knight.

It was a full-on course with lots of tight corners and quite a few barriers to deal with. The hardest one for me so far. What was really cool was seeing the little kids doing their race. This is the perfect environment for the kids to race in as its not easy to find flat places for kids in the Wellington area.

I am a bit surprised to be going as well as I am at these events as my bike training at the moment is pretty much 1 ride a week ( 2.3 hrs a week average over the last 3 months) as I get ready for the Butterfly Creek Midnight Madness Night Run which is on this weekend in the Hills above Eastbourne.

Its a 15 km two-man teams event, (480 metres of climbing) but unfortunatley myself and Cleetus both got broken-arses last week, him with his back going out, and me with my first time experience of  ITB (illiotibial band syndrome). I probably got it by trying to run downhill too fast just trying to keep Cleetus in sight. Hopefully with a serious taper we can enjoy ourselves for a few hours on saturday night.

More photos here from the Bike Hutt's Facebook page. Ken Feist had a good race and on his Blog asks the question we are all thinking. Where are the Wellington Roadies? As I was waiting for Cleetus at the bottom of the Hill (on the ride out) both the Welly bunch-ride and the Meoow GP ride came through. I guess we missed our chance to infiltrate and spread the good word....

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Drop it like its hot !

The Karate Monkey is getting close to being a final build with the addition of some MTB wheels - brand new, complete with new Racing Ralphs for $285 off tardme!

Some Avid BB7s disc brakes (mtb version) complete the package. All of this has bumped the weight up by about 3 pounds to about 27.5 pounds over the v-braked road-wheeled iteration I was using at the CX's. The CX tires will be back on for this weekend hopefully.































It got a good hammering at Wainui Trail Park last weekend. The drop bars were great, but the rear brake was almost unusable they were skidding so much. I know that the Racing Ralphs roll incredibley well on the road, so a bit of the skidding could be caused by them, but I think I basically had the Avid BB7's set up too well. I backed off the inside pad a few turns when I got home. Hopefully it will make them less vicious as the outside pad will have to drag the disc over to the inside which should knock back the efficiency a bit.

I am really liking the Woodchipper drop-bars. I cut 2 inches off each side last week so now I can at least get them into the shed without snagging bottles of turps and paint brushes all over the show.

The position of your hands when riding these off-road is such that its like hanging onto a big set of bar-ends. You can get massive amounts of power through them, which is handy, because with bar-end shifters, I am not going to be changing gears as often as I would if I had an STI road shifter on the front right.

There are several reasons for this choice of shifters. You need a different set of BB7s for road pull levers (mine are special ones that pull the normal MTB amount) and I am using them in friction mode as I would be surprised if STI would work with my circuitous cable routing : )

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Why you should take Global Warming seriously

Beer - it's a kiwi favourate - but according to NIWA global warming might just be about to taint your pint.

Another beer related item. DB has managed to gain ownership of the trademark 'Radler' . Imagine if Ford were the only people allowed to call there cars "CARS". The rest of would be driving "Motorised buggies".

I like the suggestion of Radler brewers putting an '@' in the name to give the finger to DB.

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Trees are our friends

Last saturday myself and celebrity seismologist Mr Cleetus, hit the Wainui Trail Park yet again. We were both on our rigi-didgy 29ers and as I followed him up the Wainui Hill I pointed out that his rear dropout looked less than perfectly vertically aligned. He acknowledged my concerns and pedalled on. We shot up Labyrinth to check out the new trail that is being built up near the top - The Towai Traverse? It is really coming along and is quite different to the other trails at WTP. A bit more natural rather than being so smoothly bermed. Towards the end of the trail it started to get pretty muddy. Initially my Beaver/Karma combo was sweet, but before long it had turned into a big fat mess just like Cleetuses dry weather Geax Akkas.

Before long there was a foul exclamation and Cleetus stopped to view his now extremely dislocated rear derailleur which was jammed between the spokes in a most unnatural position. His non-replaceable steel drop-out was also looking very munted. We were in a quandry. What would Bear Grylls do? It was way too cold to pee on our tee shirts and make a bandana so I elected to break the chain and make a singlespeed to hopefully get us home.

After 10 minutes we eventually found the power-link in the mud covered chain and we removed the rear derailleur. Cleetus related to me a belief that it might be possible to realign his drop-out to a usable level by leveraging it between two branches in a tree. 

 It sounded far-fetched to me, but anything was worth a go. Low and behold there just happened to be several trees near-by, one of which was a good fit. 10 minutes later the whole thing was reassembled and we scrambled up the short-cut to the firebreak to continue our ride.

We decided to keep it safe and leave the gear changing to a minimum but had to ride down the Snail Trail at least a couple of times. Its a very fun trail on a rigid bike and I was really enjoying the control on the "wide-as" Woodchipper bars. I always assumed that they were a disadvantage to Cleetus, but I am well and truly convinced now that they are not.

We shot up Jungle Gym and Directors and down the Wainui Hill to finish off an eventful day.

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Leave it to Beaver

Maxxis Beaver 29er tire - first ride. 

I was on the lookout for some 29er tires. I'd just built up my Karate Monkey and had blooded it with its first Cyclocross race and it went well - with CX tires, now I needed some MTB tires if I was to venture further afield in more comfort and control.

Given that I am not currently rich enough to have proper 29er wheels, I needed some 29er tires that would work well enough on my current wheels (Mavic open-pros road wheels). I did a bit of Googling and found that its not unheard of for people to use 29er tires on 700cc road rims, but it was advisable not to go too wide. I managed to find a cheap Kenda Karma 1.9 somewhere for the rear, so I just needed a front. A quick look online and I spied something called a Maxxis Beaver. I googled it up, and could only see two references to it at all. Everyone else was either testing prototypes from the factory or had just got them and hadn't put any real miles on them.


I clicked "buy", and 18 hours later there was fresh Beaver on my desk! A  29 x 2.00 tire designed for use in mud and challenging conditions... apparently. There is nothing about them on the Maxxis website, this was just from some PR fluff I came across. They had a nice sticky feel to them and weighed in at a scant 553 grams. How can a 29er tire be lighter than most of my 26ers? They didn't have scary thin looking sidewalls or tiny knobs. The did have the EXC specification which is supposed to offer high TPI count and lightweight "advantages".

Anyway. The day after the sunday cyclocross race I came down with a very bad case of dysentery that had me out of action for most of the week. A real shame as it was forecasted to bucket down by the weekend. I snuck out on thursday in the early dawn to see how the Beaver held up on the Danzig track, which was trying to dry out after the previous week's downpours. Danzig is a slippery muddy pig in the wet, so it was a good test. It wasn't as bad as I had seen it in the past so thought I would give Big Weta a crack as well.

The combination of the Karma on the back, and Beaver up front was was giving me very good braking. I wasn't constantly locking up like I do on my Superlight, but then again, the Superlight has powerful disc brakes, and presumably a smaller braking patch. Cornering was pretty much as expected on a bicycle in the mud. No real surprises, only me continually surprised that it takes a while to get used to no suspension on the front after 15 years of having a suspension fork!

It got a bit squirrley near the bottom of Big Weta and I had a magnetic tree experience and ended up trying to embrace the sky as I went over the bank. Thankfully there was lots of damp rotting plant matter to soften my fall. It was still a bit dark, but darker still down the bank. I hauled myself out on a Ponga frond after documenting my stupidity in Gonzo style.

I checked the tires and they were still working well enough. A fair bit of sticky mud build-up in between the wide-ish spaced knobs, but nothing that was hampering traction. If it was wetter, there would have been less mud stuck on the tires for sure. Danzig's combination of drying mud and pine needles can be pretty crappy if you get it at the wrong time on the wrong tire.

This was only my first ride on the Beaver, and given that it has pelted down non-stop since then, I will have to go out again and try it in even wetter conditions.

* No Beaver/s were harmed in this test and I paid full screaming retail for the tire. I am in no way affiated with the Beaver/Maxxis family although its true I once lived in a town which was to be called "Beaver Town" but which thankfully settled on Blenheim as a name.

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Mud glorious mud!

We had a good day today at round 1 of this years new and improved BikeHutt Cyclo-Cross series. It was my first serious outing on my new Surly Karate Monkey so I was hoping all my DIY mechanicing would hold together. I had a 42 mm tire on the front and a 38 on the back so riding out to the event on the road was a doddle. I stopped for some more "moody" shots on the side of the road while the bike was still clean.


The course itself was the most enjoyable one I have done so far, and either it was longer, or I was fitter, because I didn't get lapped which was good. It would have been an excellent course for a single-speed set-up and I reckon I only used two gears on the back as it was.  I diced with Mike Thomson early on in the race and he was on his Masi CX bike set up in Single Speed mode, no way I could hang with him. The Karate Monkey worked flawlessly and although it picked up a bit of mud it didn't impact on gears or anything that was going to cause me grief. The 45 minutes plus 1 lap format is just right, although 40 mins plus one would have suited me better as I exploded pretty much on time during the last lap.

There were heaps more CX bikes there this time and some really fruity set-ups. I am pretty sure Revolution Cycle's Alex Revell was the winner on the day on his very cool Yeti Cross bike.

 Check out a nice image from lensman Craig Madsen (http://www.craigmadsen.com/). I met him after the event while washing my bike. He has this beautiful looking Pugsly. As he was washing it as the thing was trying to float away!

 Some more images (above) of one-time NZ Junior Downhill Champ - Ed Banks, Cleetus and myself. I don't know how Cleetus gets all that crap on his face. Maybe he has a water bottle full of it and he squirts it on so he looks staunch.

Results:
http://blog.thebikehutt.co.nz/2011/06/cx-12-june-provisional-results-45mins.html

Dont miss the next one...


Cyclocross Series 2011
CX Dates/ venues as below:

• Sunday 12 June - Trentham Memorial
• Sunday 26 June - California Park
• Sunday 10 July - California Park
• Sunday 24 July - Trentham Memorial
• Sunday 7 August - California Park
• Sunday 21 August - California Park
• Sunday 4 September - Trentham Memorial
• Sunday 18 September - Harcourt Park

http://blog.thebikehutt.co.nz/2011/05/cx-series-info.html

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Karate Monkey first impressions

I went for the first ride on my new "frame" on thursday. I still hadn't recovered fully from the cold that I have had for the last week so it was a gentle up and down of the Danzig and Big Weta tracks in Belmont Regional Park, about 8 minutes of descending and 16 minutes of leisurely climbing.

The Surly Karate Monkey is a pretty bizarre looking machine and is well known for its utilitarian design. If Batman had a bike on his utility belt, it would be this one... if you could take only one bike onto a desert island, then you would take the Karate Monkey... or so the legend goes. It is adorned with all kinds of welded on attachments (except cable stops) which enable it to be used in many different roles.

Apologies for the crappy Tablet photos.

Its a 29er, with canti studs so can be used as a Cyclo Cross Bike, a Cross Country bike (can take a suspension fork and discs) a Single Speed (has horizontal drop-outs) and a touring bike (has mounts for racks and mudguards). So that's effectively four other bikes I don't need now... which is just as well, because I had to disable at least three of them just to get together enough parts to make this one go!!

I had to borrow the rear v-brakes off my single speed, the front v-brakes off my Franken-cross bike, the Woodchipper handlebar and old road-wheels off same, and the right-hand shifter off my Time trial bike !

Cleetus gave me his ex-Kiwi-Brevet 42mm conti-cross tire for the front and I picked up a cheap 38mm CX tire for the rear.

Aside from having no front suspension and very narrow tires my initial descent of Danzig and Big Weta went well. There was a fair bit of jarring but nothing I couldn't handle, a big fat tire on the front would give me a completely different ride. I cant wait. What impressed me most was the nimbleness of the bike, it just dropped into the many Danzig "zig-zags" beautifully. Maybe it was the short chain-stays tucked in close to the bent seat post, reminds me of he old Fisher Hoo Koo E Koo? Surprisingly it felt way more nimble than my Santa Cruz Superlight which is the bike I ride down there the most. Not what I would have expected from a 29er, although the thin tires may have had a big effect on its lively feel.

The frame layout is very strange to look at, and I did a lot of comparing of "effective top-tubes" before I ordered this size - the 16 inch. The actual measurement from BB to the bottom side of the top-tube is only 13.5 inches, but to the top side is 16. The actual "effective top-tube" length is longer than many other "medium" sized bikes at 576 mm, or 22.7 inches.

My plan was always to use this as a drop-bar bike which tends to put your arms more forward than a flat-bar anyway. I do have short legs and a long torso (5ft 10 - very monkey-like; ) and so far the fit feels really good. The amount of actual seat-post sticking out is surprisingly identical to my Superlight, even though it looks crazy. It looks like the top-tube almost slopes directly into the rear chain-stays on the 16inch frame !

The Woodchipper drop-bars are amazingly good. They feel really safe, because of the way your hands just fall into them, but I have to wonder what would happen in an off - would your legs get all tangled up behind the things ? The bars do offer quite a few different positions and what I found really interesting was how natural they felt when climbing. With the hands on the hoods position they had a very similar feel to what you get from riding on bar-ends on a flat-bar equipped XC bike. I have the top of the bar set up about parallel to the top of the seat, but ideally they are supposed to be quite a bit higher than that for proper control while riding on the drops off road.

It will be in the Cyclo cross/Commuter format for quite a while I think, because to run fatter tires I will need wider rims, and if I am going to do that I might as well get rims that have braking surfaces AND disc ready hubs while I am at it. No sense in having two sets of wheels when you are cheap.

The current brake/shifting set-up is very basic but comfortable, Diacompe road levers with special pull for v-brakes. I have done my time with normal canti's and ain't going back!

If I ever go to STI styled shifters I would probably go for an SLX 10 speed rear cluster, that way I could have a 34 rear, meaning potentially less chain-rings needed up front.

Surprisingly in this current build it only weighs in at 23.5 pounds. With a steel 4130 frame at about 5.5 pounds and a 2.6 pound fork it was never going to be a light-weight. Anyway, as you know, steel is real, real heavy and real cheap so I am really looking forward to getting over this lurgi so I can get out for a really decent ride !!!

Some relevant links
Baby monkey - riding on a pig going backwards.....
http://www.surlybikes.com/frames/karate_monkey_frame/
http://www.tomac.com/john-tomac.php

Phoo! Google is your friend, I found you can actually run 29er tires on road rims, it's just not recommended! I will try out this 1.9 Kenda Kharma. The Rim is an old 36 hole Mavic Open Pro with a Durace hub. I am pretty sure the wheel, or the hub was once my workmate Sam Raphel's.

A few more observations.
For some reason the front cantis only have holes for one position of the v-brake spring while the rear studs have three. It means I cant get the brakes snapping back into position how I'd like. The seat-tube is also so rediculously short that there is hardly any room to mount the front derailler cable-stop without it potentially fouling an incredibley fat wheel (if it was used) hence negating the pretty bent seat-tube design - hence the cable angle is pretty gnarly. Usually when I assemble a bike I can tap the head-set in with a piece of wood and rubber mallet. Not this one. I gave up and used a proper tool that required %*&^-loads of torque on it to force the head-set in. The BB went in easily with no extra preparation.

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