Newsletter Issue No. 7 - May/June/July 2002
...and do we have issues!
www.mtbkanata.com
Newsletter Issue No. 7 - May/June/July 2002
...and do we have
issues!
www.mtbkanata.com
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In this edition: News From The Editors Videos, Hits and Bandwidth, Oh MY! Thanks
to everyone that has visited / linked to / visited / participated in www.mtbkanata.com! First thing that we should mention is that we've been letting some of the projects that we have on the go slip. This newsletter for example has been sitting in "EDIT" mode for way too long. Not as an excuse, but more as an explanation - we've been trying to focus our energy where it will do the most good for the community. More on that later in the newsletter. I will also apologize for the fact that several articles may appear to loose their cohesion or change their direction... you get a lot of "late breaking updates" with your newsletter sitting unfinished for so long. Joe has been working on the site to make it a bit cleaner/slicker and experimented with logos and the like... the best news of all is that we've had comments from as far away (or a close as - depending on how "hep" you are to a "global community") as the Netherlands - telling us to not change it too much, since they like that the site has a bit of "dirt" to it (Thanks Castor!). Even though we've picked up some videos from riders that are far more skilled than either me or Joe... we're still dedicated to "keeping it real"... the outrageous stuff you see in the visitor contribution videos comes from real people... folks that actually talk to us and would likely say "hi" to you if they met you biking... We were thinking about segregating the mtbkanata.com video stuff from the "user contributed" videos but then we realized that mtbkanata.com IS user contributed... Joe and I paid for it, Joe does 99% of the web development but it's 100% OURS... (if you're reading this, then "OURS" definitely includes YOU!) News from Joe... Eric had his turn, now it's mine! There have been so many changes since our last news letter... it seems like 10 months! We have grown quite a bit over the last little while, adding more and more sections to the site and meet loads of new people! Some of the sections we are excited about are: Online Photo Gallery - http://www.mtbkanata.com/photo.html Here you can upload your own photos, comment on the other people's photos or just browse the galleries. There are so many cool shots that you're sure to find something you like! If you have enough photos, I can even set you up your own gallery! Just ask Mike B! Online Calendar of Event - http://www.mtbkanata.com/calendar.html I don't know why everything starts with the word 'Online'... I mean everything here is Online.. maybe I need a new word. Anyway, the Calendar of Events is your way to see what's coming up in the would of Mountain Biking. You can post your own events, or just read the events of others... either way, it's a Free service for you to use 24 hours a day! Chat Forums - http://www.mtbkanata.com/forums.html Another great part of the site is the Forums where you can interact with people from all over the world! Have a great story to tell? Need some advice? Just want to read what other's have to say? Check it out! -Joe We're selling Jerseys! Want to have your own MTBkanata.com Jersey? Come check them out! We have 2 styles available. At these prices, you might as well get one of each! They are:
Our local wrench will try to answer all reasonable questions related to maintenance tips and will provide one article each issue on how to perform some type of maintenance. Send your suggestions for articles to wrench@mtbkanata.com Jump
to: This Issues Sneaky TipYou checked the tire pressure by feel just before the ride and it felt fine... then you pinch flatted over something that you regularly just let the rear wheel hit without any consequences... now you're replacing the tube since patching it isn't going to be any fun and since you always carry an extra tube with you (right?). you're pumping up the tire and making the same mistake you made in the parking lot... you're checking something as important as tire pressure by feel. Ok, so fine, you're a fitness rider and you can do trials on 400g semi-slicks running 12 psi... if that's the case, consider this a tip for "a friend". Carry a pressure gauge in your ride toolkit. They're light and easy to carry and really useful to help protect that replacement tube. Sneaky Tip Follow-up You may remember the sneaky tip from issue #2 on removing grips... well that tip isn't bad or anything... but I now feel it's one of those "good once" tips... because the MTBKanata crew has recently switched to the ODI lock-on grips. Use that tip to get your old grips off and then stop messing around!! I used to do the spray adhesive thing followed by using safety wire for security and running bar ends to protect my hands and for extra security to make sure the grips couldn't come off. Joe just called me after installing his new ODI lock-ons and had the same response as everyone that's tried them so far: "What were we doing before" ! Just remember to check on the clamps from time to time to make sure that they are still tight - I imagine if you let a clamp bolt loosen then the grip would let go rather quickly and completely. Also I noticed a bit of rotational play on one of the grips after installation... it's more of a "parking lot feel" issue but the easy way to correct it was to loosen one clamp, rotate it until the play was absorbed and then cinch it down again. Every once in a while a product comes along that makes you feel really dumb for not thinking of it yourself... ODI lock-ons have been around for a while... I only feel dumb for not getting them sooner. The trails are drying out, much of the mud has stopped, and even in Kanata where it's been a wet summer so far we have experience dust on the trails! Here's where we get into the "know your dirt" segment of bike maintenance. Folks that ride in sandy soil will know that hubs, headsets, pedals and anything else with grease packed bearings needs to be re-packed as soon as you hear a gritty sound when the bearing rotates... here we ride on mostly rock or clay based trails, the result is that a very fine silt get into components, even if you can't hear grit, the grease may be contaminated. Silt doesn't seem to cause the same sort of abrasive wear as sand (at least directly) but it reacts in a very peculiar way when it contaminates grease. Silt dries out grease. If you're not sure what I mean by silt (or incase I'm using the wrong word) it's extra fine clay particles, like the dust that comes off kitty litter being poured or from that industrial oil absorbent found at the gas station (which is really kitty litter without the "fresh scent" additives). It works on high quality bearing grease the same way it works on spilled oil. We regularly open up a head set and are able to remove the grease by hand as a gelatinous washer. The real tip here is that just because it doesn't sound bad doesn't mean it's ok. Know your riding conditions and how they affect your equipment. Even thought it's the middle of summer you might want to take the next rainy weekend to strip down, clean, inspect and rebuild your bike while your waiting for the trails to dry. I cleaned my bike after a wet 24 hour race and after draining 100ml (4 oz.) of water from the bottom bracket shell was really glad that I took the time to do it right. When I say strip a bike down this is what I mean:
I left the headset cups in the frame to prevent wearing the frame from repetitive pressings and the RaceFace cartridge bearings are a one time pressing so they also stayed in place but even the sealed cartridge bearings were repacked. I hate to sound all "trained professional - don't try this at home" but you do need the tools, time and know-how to do something like this right. Upgrade of the year??Ok... that might be a bit much, but we did just upgrade XC-Tom's 2001 RockShox Psylo XC from Vari-travel to U-Turn!!! That means to adjust the travel there's no more:
Now XC-Tom has a - "p!ss-off-your-riding-buddies" - U-Turn equipped Psylo... Just "Turn and Travel"... all the more reason for that clicking sound to drive others to therapy!!! One note... RockShox forks that DON'T use the pure damping system will drain/purge/dump/belch (get the idea?) all of the 140-155cc of their damping oil when you break the bolts free at the bottom of the sliders... KEEP THIS IN MIND!!! Other than getting covered in 5wt. - did I mention I hate this stuff - RockShox Hydraulic oil the upgrade went really smoothly... So what's "the wrench" tip on this one? REMOVE your brake pads before goofing around with fork oil (we're assuming disc brakes)... XC-Tom still has good brake pads since we pulled them before pulling the fork lowers and belching oil everywhere... Bike Rebuild - 1998 Joshua X1 The item of note was without a doubt our rebuild of the MTBKanata 1998 Gary Fisher Joshua X1 test bike (a.k.a. Joe’s old bike). Instead of doing a full-blown article here, we were so happy with the progress and results that we (read Joe) put together a photo series on the rebuild… I added in the text (yes, I can edit web pages too) and we left it at that. Link to the Photo Gallery: http://www.mtbkanata.com/images/Joshua_rebuild/1280/index.htm Better MousetrapsSo let’s leave the by-the-book approach to "The Wrench" and take you into the product of a [twisted?] mind approach to solution development… calling it inventing is a bit over the top... so let me lead in with the following… Necessity may be the mother of invention…. But a couple of the inventors out there aren’t fully listening to their mothers… or maybe necessity is an underachieving parent that hides behind adequacy as acceptance… wha-te-ver. This brings me to a couple of MTBKanata "feats of engineering"… These aren’t inventions… they weren’t new ideas to answer problems… they were redesigns of the proverbial mousetrap. Take the above in combination with one of the main "SportsBar" principles… "if we don’t have it, we’ll build it." and you end up with the following: The Pickup truck bed bike rack Materials: 2 x Swagman fork mounts Ok, 2002 Short-Box Ford Ranger pickup truck & bed liner "sold separately" (but you get the idea) Take a look:
The Materials 2 x V-Brake gimble hardware set As above there is a little bit of "sold separately" equipment involved, specifically a VistaLite 430 dual beam lighting system that regularly suffers from inadequate mounts. Take a look….
The best part is that the lights can be readjusted quickly to accommodate for different front-end heights and bike geometry (remember, I’m the proud owner of a 2002 Psylo SL). The mount took a fair amount of tooling (hack saw, file, rubber mallet, bench vise and a cordless drill) and shaping to get the design just right (or close enough). The strength seems good, the lights are stable and it goes on in a snap. The best part about a cable tie mount is that for under $10 you get well over two year’s supply of mounting "hardware" – that you can figure out how to work after your third lap in a 24 hour race! Just to prove that not everything that initially appears to be the best is what you end up wanting… I thought I was pretty smart with version 1: 2 x V-Brake gimble hardware set In many ways this mount is superior but it proved to be "not exactly number plate compatible" and it interfered with the cables and hoses at the front of the bike. It proved itself as a solid design for over a year of riding and held up for the night shifts I rode at the 2001 - 24 hours of AdrenalinŌ at the Kelso Conservation area in Milton, Ontario. Here we see the system in place in the early stages of figuring out what to do with the number plate.
I gave up some protection of the lights for the compatibility with number plates and stability/convenience. The unfortunate part of my desire for overall improvement was that, for regular riding, this set-up was great… single cable tie mount, lights very well protected and a serious "why didn’t I think of that" factor… The photograph is actually of attempt version 1b… version 1a used a machined aluminum mount for a BMX fold-up footpeg sold by GT in the mid 80’s… now this one rocked, used hand tightened bolt mounting, held solid for half a season but was a bit clunky. It was in use until it fell victim to me trying to angle the aluminum "mounting flanges" and breaking one… But folks, being prepared to just "leave well enough alone" is what leaves us with inventions that can so easily be improved. Any of the items shown here were produced through independent thought. Instead of applying for a patent we are giving these "engineering principles" to the general public. We don’t mind if the commercial manufacturers out there want to copy these designs but don’t go trying to patent them as your own, do all the riders out there a favor and try to improve on these ideas. If you gave a footnote credit to the MTBKanata Wrench we would get a real kick out of it! To the consumers, send this newsletter as a link to a manufacturer out there that might be able to improve their system.
NCMBA.com One unfortunate thing that came out of our trail maintenance day was that by organizing it as MTBKanata we may have taken away from the visibility of the work that official organizations are doing with the hard stuff... moving dirt, rocks and wood while fighting with mosquitoes - is easy compared to trying to develop plans, formalize them as proposals, get approvals all while trying to adequately represent the mountain biking community. With that in mind, we're meeting with the National Capital Mountain Biking Association (NCMBA) board of directors to offer more than just "send folks their way" and "show up when called upon" assistance. Joe has taken a (volunteer) position as member services and I'm offering project management and coordination skills. KANATATRAILS.com (and .ca) Since we were feeling like helping out other groups and realizing that we need a voice not JUST as mountain bikers and as TRAIL USERS we went out and bought the domain KanataTrails.com which had expired due to lack of funding. To suggest that it's not a commercial group and to represent it's Canadian home we also bought KanataTrails.ca. MTBKanata will be paying for the hosting, server space, bandwidth and offering website development assistance. I've been encouraging folks for a while to join multi-user groups to ensure that we're PART of the decisions for trail access instead of only being a part of a separate group trying to add ourselves to the multi-user community. As a note on the above: Yeah, that's right - the NEXT newsletter might be even later than this one is! FITMART.com Hey there... okay, so this months feature website has nothing to do with mountain biking... we'll that's if you don't need to eat or drink! While exercising, it is important that we have the right fuel in our tank. Fitmart is a Canadian store in Markham with a killer web presence as well. You may have seen the rotating banner I placed for Fitmart in the forums... they didn't pay me for that, I just did it because they have provided me such excellent service! So, check it out... browse through the catalog of healthy goodness... (My personal favourites are Gatorade and Clif Energy Bars!). All orders over $50 get free shipping in Canada via XpressPost. Not sure about the USA, but for us Canadian shoppers that's a good deal! Oh yeah, if you do make an order, make sure you let them know you are from mtbkanata.com. I was talking to Darryl and he said if people from this site make orders (other than me of course), he might extend a 10% discount to all mtbkanata.com members! Great deal! Okay, enough babble from me... just when I find something I like, I like to let the whole world know!!
Link: www.fitmart.com - Joe Elliott Stickers Nothing is more of an inexpensive pick-me-up than a couple of bike related stickers… the best is when they come free, imported from InterBike in Las Vegas, from an event you’ve attended or are picked up by a spouse that recognizes that you have components by that part manufacturer… The worst stickers to get are unwanted stickers affixed to your bike while at a ski resort when you were a kind enough rider to let somebody try out your full XTR Cannondale V700 with Lefty… Check out the photos of the Team Ergophobia Pit toolkit (basically the SportsBar in a metal box)
But cool as cool can get has to be the new mtbkanata.com window sticker seen in the Wrench section above. These cost us some serious ca$h ($20/each) so we can't really give them away... but they ARE out there... On the note above... in case you didn't hear about it in our forums.... we have mtbkanata.com bike stickers to GIVE AWAY!!! Joe and I do have to wait until payday to see how many more we can have made up but we're getting them printed off and out to you as fast as we can. Giving them away is a limited time offer so let us know quick!
Not Really Features, but Product Reviews! The list of reviews is slowly growing... I can only review so much, so if you have a product you have reviewed, send me the details, and I'll make a page for it! webmaster@mtbkanata.com Review
1 - Sigma Sport Cycle Computer
First a little bit of melodrama: (or caked on the visor)… The above was written more than a month ago... since then we've stopped lamenting what's happened and been trying to do our part to work towards correction and prevention. Joe and I have been attending Community Group meetings, been in touch with the Land owner to get permission to do a trail maintenance day and have attended a city planning meeting where zoning of other "Trail Land" was in question... soon the petition signing will start to protect the land... then the campaigning will surely switch to protecting/excluding the interests of mountain bikers in regards to land access. One of our latest MTBKanata activities was our Trail Maintenance Day. For the most part this activity was a success. You can find our Plan, Before, After and Follow-up report here. This just in: The issue of banning mountain bikers from the Kanata Trails Network has already come to light. An article appearing in the July 19th 2002 Edition (37th Year, Issue 29) of the Kanata Kourier Standard on page 10 outlines the position of an executive of the Kanata Lakes Community Association and president of the Kanata Environmental Networks that although they are "not anti-mountain biker" they indicate many reasons they feel that mountain bikers are the group responsible for trail damage. The article also indicates that certain trail maintenance strategies are not effective in controlling the damage. The article is the topic of quite a bit of discussion in our forums. Opinions expressed vary slightly but instead of using this news letter to post my opinion I suggest that you read the article for yourself and ask that you add your opinion not just to our forums, but also to the voice of the community. The good thing that will come of this is that it is forcing the issue of creating a trail maintenance and trail use education plan. Unfortunately many of the points such as trying to determine if mountain bikers should follow a code of conduct overlook the fact that for the most part we already do. Communication between trail users and mutual respect would go a long way to resolving conflict of this sort. One of the excuses - I mean: reasons - that we didn't get this newsletter out only ONE month late was that many MTBKanata.com core members were participating in the 24 Hours of Adrenalin at the Kelso Conservation area in Milton, Ontario. There was some serious fallout and concern from local riders after the race since it was held on a weekend that saw heavy rains leading to substantial trail damage. The race organizers have stepped up to acknowledge the issues and at their last communication have been working with area interests to assess and repair the damage. To try and keep this newsletter of manageable size I've linked to my race summary here. About the "Flat Tire Award": Category: "It's supposed
to be like that" Category: Captain Headphones For signaling a turn while riding ahead of Duncan and the swerving back into the lane... not hearing Duncan behind him or the subsequent crash because they were wearing earphones... Category: "Ski Patrol" For the statement in a public open house that they were "tired of skiing along looking at signs saying 'Trespassers will be charged'". In all fairness I'm sure (ok, I REALLY hope) they meant that they were tired of skiing on the open trails having to stop and turn around/left/right when they got to the "No Trespassing" sign and for that reason they hoped the land would be purchased... but unfortunately, to a lot of people, it sounded like they were saying "I'm tired of seeing the signs while I'm trespassing, I wish the city would buy the land to stop me from trespassing". Is it really wrong to ride closed trails? Before we even get to the article, the MTBKanata.com answer is: YES - it's wrong. But given the number of different opinions we hear, I feel we should give the subject some discussion. The following list isn't comprehensive but it gives a few of the commonly heard arguments for and against riding illegal trails. Since it is a one sided report there is a good chance I've missed some of the passion or reason of "the other side". That said, we hope that, even though we are restating common justifications we've heard for riding illegal trails, readers don't adopt justifications for riding illegal trails.
I'll admit that I look at that list and start to wonder if I'm just a well behaved idiot for not riding closed/illegal trails, worrying about causing erosion damage, staying off the trails when they are wet, getting permission to do trail work and trying to be courteous to other trail users... Ok.. I'll admit it to myself - I'm probably missing out on a lot of fun. But I'll still "play by the rules". I also feel like a hypocrite, since I break other of society's rules with similar types of justifications: I have driven a motor vehicle at a speed above the posted limit - and never really felt that I had to worry since I wasn't even "keeping up with traffic". This is what I call the "Everybody does it" justification. There are a lot of us at the MTBKanata.com crew that play by the rules...and we played by these rules back when what is MTBKanata.com was an e-mail instead of a popular website. There's now one more reason for at least Joe and I to play by the rules that affect mountain biking. We keep saying that MTBKanata.com isn't an advocacy group... but with our unexpected popularity we realize that we have the opportunity to set an example. Using the speeding example above, once you choose to become a driving instructor you automatically get less available demerit points on your license, there is a lot less tolerance allotted to you. If you are expected to "represent the rules" then there is less forgiveness for breaking them. A lot of the arguments for following the rules seem fairly meek compared to the passion behind many of the justifications given for breaking the rules. But we hope that the first reason given to follow the rules is enough. Sure we at MTBKanata.com chose to set the "play by the rules" example, but not just because it's easy. We're putting in the extra time to still do things but to do them "right". Thanks to the folks that respect our choice in this matter. The answer?: We've got our official answer above, and for the MTBKanata.com crew it's the same as our actual answer. Your answers will have to come from within, we're not the "Trail Police" or the "Ethics Police". I'm working on a plan to combine the "in your face" visibility of a mass "civil disobedience" while keeping within the rules... I'll be tabling the plan with the NCMBA when it's stabilized and in a position to go forward with it's mandates. By the way, as mentioned elsewhere in this newsletter, Joe and I are working to help get the NCMBA back on track - Stay tuned. This seemed like a good idea for our newsletter but as it turns out everybody already rides their dream bike or chooses to discuss it in the forum... Some such developments were Henri's (a.k.a. Ik_jij_en_jou-NL-) 24 Cycles Porn King and Castor's LTD edition Rocky Mountain Slayer custom build. Don't hesitate to submit a dream bike to us, whether still in the dream stage, planning stage or as a mission accomplished. Hey all, well new month, new stats! As you can see this month, we have made a few changes, and added quite a few new movies! As the site is always in transition, expect to see many more changes in the upcoming months... now, if only I was any good at graphic design!
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