Welcome to Crossgeared.com, the new home for my blog.   My blog has existed under a few domains, on more than a few platforms, and as part of some of my other sites.  Here you will find my complete blog archive back to early 2006 as well as the various bits of information from my other sites.  As of this post, Crossgeeared.com is based on WordPress 2.8.3 and a theme developed by Eric and myself.

While some of the pages loosely resemble content from my other sites, all of the content has been imported into WordPress.  This may seem lazy, and it is, but WordPress is a very good content management system and makes site management far simpler than my old mix of php scripts and static code.  Anyway, enjoy the new site.  Don’t bother looking at the old sites, I’ve deleted the content and they just point here.  For those looking for the old VW-related 251.org, I’m sad to say that after over thirteen years it is no longer available online.  251.org will be back up at some point, but don’t expect much VW content.

The New UK-14’er

I’ve had the UK-14’er for a little over a year now. The bike has been great, and I’ve ridden it in Maryland, Virginia, Utah, Colorado, and South Australia. It was in Missouri for a couple days as well, but only saw a parking lot. I really don’t have any complaints. Aside from the parts I broke or wore-out, the bike has been a lot of fun and very reliable.

The UK-14’er at One Year

Anyway, here is a list of what I broke, wore out, or just decided to replace in the past year:

Replaced due to wear

• 3x chains: One Wippermann 908 and two Shimano HG93
• Middle chainring: The original Shimano XT ring was replaced with an LX ring
• Cassette: The well worn SRAM PG990 (taken off of the M2) was replaced with an XT cassette
• Freehub: The Mavic freehub was serviced and replaced per Mavic’s recommendations
• 6x tires: 4x Panaracer FireXC, 2x Hutchinson Toro XC, plus many tubes
• Brake pads: 2x rear, 3x front with a mixture of Avid and Kool Stop ceramic pads (Kool Stops are better)

Replaced due to damage

• Handlebar: Kent Eriksen bar replaced the Titec titanium bar that got ripped in Moab
• Rear derailleur: Shimano XT Shadow replaced the older (c. 2002) XT derailleur taken from the M2
• Derailleur hanger: The derailleur snagged a shrub and tweaked the original. I now have a couple spares.
• Computer: A Knog NERD replaced a Sigma BC1600 that was damaged in a crash

Replaced due to the rebuild after arriving in Australia

• Brake and shifter cables were all replaced as well as the brake housing

Replaced for no good reason

• The Chris King stem cap was replaced with one from the Poison Spider bike shop in Moab
• The Minoura blue anodized bottle cages were taken off for a while and replaced with King stainless cages due to the bottle tearing up the Minoura cages. Later I found some blue anodized Specialized cages, but they turned out to be crap. The Specialized cages wouldn’t hold a bottle and were quickly mangled by use and crashes. The Minoura cages are back on for now.

I got the Eriksen out to Eagle Park a couple times this weekend. The first day I rode a short distance with some local riders who showed me the tracks and gave me some tips. The rest of the day was spent making minor adjustments and getting the Eriksen (and myself) back into decent riding condition. Now that the brakes, derailleurs, bottom bracket and headset are happy I should be able to ride without carrying a full toolbox around with me.

The second day was a much longer ride and the low clouds made for some great photos. Overall, Eagle seems to have a broad range of trail types. There are easy fire road tracks, mild to technical xc tracks, a ‘skills park’ and even some downhill tracks. The terrain is varied enough that this will be a good park for regular rides and shouldn’t get boring.

The Forester is a great car for transporting bikes around. The trunk is large enough for all of the gear, the roof is long enough that rear-hatch to bike tire clearance isn’t an issue, and the roof line is low enough that getting the bike on and off is easy.