Till the cows come home...

Ride to work...

OUCH!!!

Ok, it was fun, but wow did the wind on river front suck today. I was peddling for all I was worth and could get up to a whopping 8mph.

Squirrel racing...

Squirrel can run at about 13.5 mph for some time. On the ride home Friday after work I was racing a Squirrel. Now I'm not really sure why the little guy ran by 5 trees before going up one. My only guess is that the one he/she went up was home. But for the 50 or so yards of river front park that we were side by side on he was going at about 13.5mph. I'm not so sure I would call it run or I would call it flying, they don't touch the ground very much when the run.

Pet of the Day...





I would have loved to seen how this played out.




Why Helmets don't Suck...





Remember boys and girls, always, always verify the depth of a water crossing PRIOR to making your entry.




Sgt. Pezzers Epic Fail...




HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!!!!! I'm not sure how the hell they pulled this off, but I'm sure it was really, really hard to do.

By popular demand...

Surly Instigator Pictures and parts outline...

My I present the Surly Instigator, plus some customizations.

Frame features of note:

• 100% 4130 CroMoly steel
• Curved top tube to save ones junk
• Solid piece CNC milled drop outs

• Crank set: Shimano Deore LX
• FT Derauiler: Shimano Deore LX
• Chain Stays: FFF Fatties Fit Fine ;)
• Peddles: Crank Brothers Egg Beaters
  

Read Derailleur: Shimano Deore (Not LX yet!)

• Chain and Casset: SRAM
• Wheals: Custom build on XT hubs (Or as the bike shop calls them, "I want to see you break these")
• Drop outs: CNC'ed solid steel
• Also notice the cross brace
• You know you love the chain stay protector ;) $2.00
• Breaks: BB7 rear
  

• Seat Post: This is new, Thomson muti-adjustable. Its made by a guy that used to make parts for rockets. Its thicker in the front and back then it is on the sides.
• Seat: Bont, same one I have had for well ever.
• Rack: Aviar Painer Rack

• Forks: Since the frame is set up for a 100 - 130mm travel fork, I decided to go with a solid fork rather then a suspension.
• Breaks: BB5 in the front.

• Handel bars: This is one of my better ideas.
• Inside Climbing Bars: I have no idea who makes these I got them from Performance.com a few years ago.
• Outside Bar Ends: Cane Creek.
• Shifters: Generic
  
• Break Controls: Avid

Yard Gnome: Gnome-be-gone Gnomes. (You know you want one)

Pet of the Day...


Kitty Roll UP?



Why Helmets Don't Suck...


Road Bike + Mud Pit = Reason number 10 skinny tires don't work well




And Introducing the all new section to the Shami

Sgt. Pezzers epic fail...


"Yep, that's the way those "New Fangled" cameras work.

A new ride...

What is a new bike...

Steal, Aluminum, Cro-moly, Carbon Fiber, all of the above. No, its hope. Hope that you will be able to climb that hill just a little bit faster on this bike. Or hope that you will get out and ride more often then you did on the old one. Its hope that this one will not break after 6 months. Its hope that you will loss weight, get in shape, be faster, better, jump higher, ride longer and all around be a "bikeyer" person.

Its a hope that you will not look like you do in 3, 6, 8 months from now.

Sadly this is not always the case, most new bike come home and only come out on a rare weekend ride with the family or to go to the beach as a car ornament.

I believe the problem here is a full on lack of understanding of what owning a bike means.

It means PAIN, in many different ways.

Legs, back, BUTT, arms, feet, lungs. There have been climbs where I wanted to roll into traffic to get the burning in my legs to stop.

Wallet, holy crap can stuff get expensive, I took a few min just to calculated up the things that I can remember getting.

Gary Fisher "Marlin" Mk I - $600
Egg Beater Peddles - $60
Helmet - $40
Shorts - $40
Shoes - $100
Gloves - $20
Computer - $40
Flat tire kit - $20
Hydration - $30
Tires - $80
Tubes - $30
Replacement Crank - $300
Replacement Chain Ring - $65
Replacement Chain - $30
F. Derauler - $60

Gary Fisher "Marlin" Mk II (Replacement Frame) - $free
Parts transfer - $200
New wheals x2 - $200
New tires - $60
HID light - $100
Shoes - $100
Helmet - $60
Painers - $45
Backpack - $85
Gloves - $35
Socks - $100
Cold Weather Gear - $100

Surly Instigator MK I - (Replacement Frame for GF MK II)
Frame Save - $40
Cables, housing and setup - $100

Grand Total - $2740 I'm going to guess that you can add about 6% to that for purchases I have forgotten.

PAIN.

If you ride a bike you are going to;

1)-Be in pain
2)-Break something expensive
3)-Feel better
4)-Loss weight
5)-Increase heart health
6)-Start looking at bike racks and bikes on cars differently
7)-Notice trails, bike paths and wide berms

8)-Have about the same amount of fun you did when you were a kid.

I'm now thinking that I should have not posted that dollar amount, when the wife reads this she is going to want some new camera equipment.


Pet of the Day...



"Ahhhh, Ummmmm, I think the dog door is a BIT to small"









Why Helmets Don't Suck...



In the biking world this is called "Tacoing"

Meaning your wheal now looks like a Taco, and so would your head with out that helmet.

All Hail Saint Patrick...

Today is one of my favorite days, the patron Saint of Ireland...

Captured by Irish raiders and taking from his native Wales as a slave to Ireland, where he lived for six years before escaping and returning to his family.

After entering the church, he latter returned to Ireland as a missionary in the north and wst of the island.

In his own words from his declaration letter,

I saw a man coming, as it were from Ireland. His name was Victoricus, and he carried many letter, and he game me one of them. I red the Heading: "The Voice of the Irish". As I began the letter, I imagined in that a moment that I heard the voice of those very people who were near the wood of Foclut, which is beside the western sea-and they cired out, as with one voice: "We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk amoung us".


While people all over the world will visit the church today and pay their repecets to St. Patrick, most of my american breathren will be hoisting cornbeef and cabbage and drinking creen beer.

I love this contry.

I am Job...

Its Saint Patrick Day, and I have a job tomarrow, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.


From the ashes of the Fisher, risese a Surly and its a BEAST...

Well all is said and done at this time, we got all the parts from the fisher fitted over and set up on the new Surly. WOW is this bike fun, its just makes you want to hop a curb, hit the dirt and do things that are just fullish.

I will post up some picturues of the new ride when I get the chance, there are a few new set up items worth taking a look at.

Discounts, Discounts, get your discounts...

Step 5...

My frame is in, I so excited, I' m going to pick it up while my boss is at PT this afternoon.

Road ID discounts...

For any of you that are thinking about getting your self a roadid, friends of Broken Shami get a discount.

If you go onto ROADID.com and place an order, use code: ThanksJason467543 to receive a discount.

Also to be safe...

Two other things that have come across my desk in ways of keeping your self safe.

1) Place a note inside your helmet with Name, Number, Address, and contact information.
2) Place an entry in your Cell phone of ICE (In Case of Emergency) and put in all your important phone numbers. You can also list all of the contact people names in the email fields.

Air Rocket...

I'm not sure what what into this, but I know I want make one.

Never mind, I found how to make it. I know what I'm doing this weekend.

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/03/compressed_air_rocket.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890



Supper Bike...

From Gixmod/GixMag

I give to you the BERU's Factor 001, with built in GPS, motorsport grade sensors and a radio transmitter. 7kg, designed entirely in house by F1 engineers using F1 grade materials.

Ceramic breaks, all cables and components are integrated into the composite carbon-fiber frame.

Price: 20,000 GBP.

Bright light, light bright...

Philips US release in July for their LED light buld.

45,000 hours, 40w for $50 - $70 hours.

CFL - 10,000 hours
Standard Buld - 750 hours

Not sure this is going to hit main stream this close to a user acceptance of CFL.

I kill you...

Peewee RC spitfire can only destroy panzers driven by Nanonazis (thanks you gizmodo)

1/72nd scale for $150

I like, I sort of want. Link

Pet of the Day...







Why Helmets Don't Suck...

Wonder if Red Bull gave him wings?

Stage 4...

The Next Step...

Well my frame is not back yet, but when it gets here it has to spend a few days at the shop for a few coats of frame saver.

I will admit that I am really, really, missing my bike, I want to ride.

While we have a little down time...

We are taking some time to make me a bit safer.

www.roadid.com

This ankle strap will have all of my contact information, who I am, who to call if something happens to me and most of all, on the bottom of the strap.

NEVER GIVE UP!!!!!!

Grain, any fool can make bread...

But the devout can craft BEER!!!


Your car smells...

It smells like a moco save-ay... wow the jokes around here, read on soon it will make sence to you too.

Experts say that 5-7kg of used coffee grounds can produce one liter of biofuel at a production cost of about $1 dollar a gallon. If Starbucks figures out that they can make the world smell like their coffee two they are going to be biger then Costco.

What kid would not want to try this...

Hell what adult for that matter.

One letter at a time...

Wow, you know things are bad when you can't even keep you sign on any more. (would have been a nice hack)

Pet of the Day...

I try to stay away from all pictures of pets with captions. Especially all captions that are written in that cute "pet" language that always ends in SSSSSS. I have news for you, my cat does not understand English, if it did, it would not get on the table. While I do not think that poor sentance structure makes this picture cute, there is something about cat in a PC case that I just cant seem to pull my self away from.




Why Helmets don't suck...


Wall riding 101.

Pass!








Fail!

Stage 3...

Time...

Now that I have some non-ridding time on my hands I have decided to clean everything that gets bolted onto the bike.

Last night I wipped down my front derailleur while watching a hockey game. Its strange seeing it that clean.

So this brings on the question.

Clean the chain, and if so, what is your method. or replace.

Stage 2...

Yesterday...

First - My local LBS...

I walked in holding my new-broken frame and they all looked at me and said.
"NOOO!!!!, you did not break another one?"

Well after talking it over with them, they spun off the BB for me and knocked out the headsets.

Second - My other local LBS (MFG LBS)...

After walking in and talking to Steve, very nice guy, we came up with three options.

1) Will the LBS buy the replacement frame that Trek will be sending back to me?

2) Can I ask for a "beefier" frame rather then one with Carbon chain stays?

3) What is the retail of the replacement frame? So I can sell it, and buy something I'm not going to kill.

Basically, I loved my fisher, but I'm not willing to be changing frames every six months. So Steve (MFG LBS) asked me what frame I was looking at getting. After talking it over, he said that they may be able to get me my "wish" frame instead of the standard Fisher replacement.

So I left the bike shop slightly amazed by the level of customer service I just encountered, and not in the usual way. Ya know when you are shocked by the lack of service, this time it was shocked by the HIGH level of "Lets try to take care of the customer" service.

Next Day...

Today I received a call from the bike shop (The MFG one) they are going to be able to replace the frame under the warranty. But this time not for the same Fisher replacement frame, but this time for.

Dan, dant, dan...........

Meet the INSTIGATOR!!!!


The Surly Instigator:

Allow me to pull a line from their site that sums this frame up.

"If you ride big or are simply a big rider and break just about everything you throw your leg over you'll appreciate this level of stoutness"

Now I don't want to say anything, but I'm thinking I need a stout frame.

Specs:

Tubing: 100% Surly 4130 CroMoly Steal.
Rear Dropouts: 4131 Steal, cut from a solid block of steal.
Brake Compat: IS Disc or Cant. (Cant. bosses are removable)
Braze-ons: Dual Bottle, Down tube shit, guides for Hydro or solid housing, ICGS chainguide mount.
Seatpost Diameter: 29.4mm (HUDGE)
Downtube: 1.5" (also HUDGE)


Also stright from the Surly Web site:

As one reviewer said "this bike encourages you to be a hooligan"



Well its suposed to be here in about a week, after getting here it will be visiting the bike shop for about 48 hours for 3-4 coats of frame saver. After that its bike building time in the basement. I'm so excited!!!!!!

Killing me...

Well your not going to believe this.

My frame broke, again...

Same place as last time, right above the BB on the right hand side.

My friend, Joe H. gave me a BB5 and a BB7 that he was not using any more. After installing them I decided to degrease my drive chain and give the bike a wipe down to get some of the road grime off it. While cleaning up the bottom bracket I saw a hair line crack on the right hand side right above the weld.

CRAP!!!!!!!

Interestingly enough, I can strip a bike down to headset and bottom bracket in about 15min.

Back to the shop I go, this one only has about 500 miles on it.

In a word.

GERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!

I'll be posting pictures up shortly.