Lazy weekend

The John Muir WEMS was this weekend but there's just so much to do. Persephone's 7th birthday was Friday. We picked her up early from YMCA After-School and went to get her bifthday surprise. She had asked if she could get her ears pierced and we figured at 7 she could handle the accompanying responsibility. I was impressed with her tolerance of the piercing. When the first lobe was pierced she looked at the lady with an expression of "should I say 'ow'? I guess I will." On the second lobe she didn't say a thing but wanted to look in a mirror. He's been proudly showing her ears to everyone. A dinner at Red Lobster allowed Sephie to refresh her crab eating skills. Every summer she helps catch crab in Puget Sound at Dennis & Wendy's Whidby Island beach cabin. She's able to eat her weight in crab and nothing goes to waste.

I've got framing and drywalling to do in the basement bathroom. The plumbing repair was completed but I still have grand plans of an inset shelf next to the plumbing stack. Home Depot will be sponsoring those activites.


Rig repair and upkeep was needed and BKB kit was picked-up. A quick drive in the cage over to Trek West to see Jesse, Marco and Brett yielded the new kit and a pair of BB7 pads for the front brake of the Rig. The old pads were nearly down to the spring after a 15 months of use. The results of the LP post fracture are back. Paul emailed me this...

"I took the seatpost into work to analyze. It comes down to lack of compaction. They take a steel mandrel and wrap carbon around it about a million times and then cure it and remove the mandrel. The problem with this method is that no matter how tight you try to wrap it, there is still a gap between some of the layers. Carbon will take the load on the first outer layer and then transfer it to the second layer, and then the third, and so on. This works great if all of the layers are touching and supporting each other. When the load comes to an unsupported layer or gap it will collapse or crack which allows even more flex and higher loads to the next layer. Depending on where the gaps are, this can cause a chain reaction. In this post, about 1/3 of the layers had gaps, and to make matters worse they appear to be at the backside of the post. Every bump would keep transferring loads thru the layers until there was no more support. It should work fine for a road post, I can bring it home if you would like."

So it wasn't my fat ass. If you want a carbon post, buy a Bontrager Race XXX Lite part #240651

As I put the finishing touches on the Rig, Neighbor Matt came over with his Fuji and asked if I could help. His singlespeed project was ahead of schedule. He'd managed to break the 5 speed freewheel and needed the remnants of the body removed to make way for an 18t BMX freewheel he'd picked up at Revolution Cycles. Use of the bench vise removed the body, but I couldn't let him walk away. The droput alignment tools and a vernier were put to use as the proper chain line was determined. Fresh grease on the bearings, juggling of the axle spacers and redishing yielded a lovely chainline for his 52x18. He's properly stoked.

The kit came ready to Kill Dreams. I'll be as easy to spot even without the glow of neon. A full zip ensures maximum air flow on hot days... but I have to wonder about the chamois pad in the bibs. I might be old and "tough" but seeing this made me wonder if the current generation's taints are tough enough. I'm not one to enjoy saddle sores, but wow, this seems a bit extreme.


Gotta stop. There's shit to do.