jt profile

Me? Jumps. In the last four years or so I have just gotten so worry warted about jumps, especially the new school variety that are popping up all around, the big, long tranny table tops. Coming from a BMX background, having learned 360's on on a 97 Kona Chute with a 130mm Z1 and Tioga 66's over a proper box jump,  and learned suicides on an old Bontrager Race, it just maddens and bums me out that I'm breaking before the tranny that my friends are banging over. Mentally I KNOW I can clear it, but there's a gut reaction to slow the f down and not do so. Currently trying to peg down a weekend day where i can drive the hour to the closest jumps and just session the line most of the day, to work like Stella and get my groove back. The screwy bit: drops? Yeah, pretty much not an issue. Just a total one dimensional mental wall.

Using spray adhesive I've just had to use an air nozzle on the compressor. Requires a bit of wiggling, but that's expected. I've been able to reuse the grips without issue.

Chromag's Semenuk grip has become my fav. The extra length allows me to keep the bars stock at 780 but set the cockpit up like the 760 width I prefer, giving me that oh so tiny bit of extra leverage out on the ends when climbing that requires a bit of horking on the bar. I used to secure my grips with tubular cement but have since moved on to spray adhesive. Spray the bar, let it set, then a quick 360deg spray in the grip to put em on. I've had no need to wire them to the bar after winter slush or other seasons' rains.

Pert near nailed it. MS with it's trapezoidal rather than square splines supporting near every cog on the cassette is an improvement on the HG interface. That alone makes it cost effective when producing cassettes at all pricepoints while getting rid of the only real downside to HG freehubs: the galling the inevitably occurs when the loose cogs cut into the freehub body on alloy freehub bodies.

Yup, the Al version. It was a helluva deal, but not THAT much of a deal :D

A buddy who works at a bike co-op at a local high school got a donated SB66 frame that he sold me for a song, a very short song. Problem with it was the 20" seat tube and it didn't have internal routing. With warranty thoughts no where to be had, I lopped off 35mm from the top of the seat tube and poked a hole through a spot in the BB forging (after consulting a friend who's a prototype machinist) to run a 150mm dropper. I wasn't looking to go back to 26 from my 27.5, but Yeti>Trek near any model year.

Personally, Torx all day. But I've worked with Junior Mechanics who didn't RTFM and used a smaller size Torx wrench than the fastener was, screwing up both tool and fastener. Obviously user error, but that same kinda mistake is pretty damn hard to make with a hex set, aside from mixing English and Metric. And even then, let's not forget about German autos and their liberal use of Torx and triple square bits, so depending on your proclivities it is possible to use the wrong type of driver on accident. But that's definitely reaching on my part.

Seems about right. We've a lotta folks that suddenly have a lotta time on their hands trying to maintain a sense of normalcy, and then you have a lotta other folks who are trying to create a new one.

Commuting, road, back roads, and some local dirt, but not pinning it partially because the trails have been jammed with people walking/hiking/fishing. Bars and restaurants were shut down two days ago, but there had been a substantial increase in the number of people wandering around in the woods prior to that event.

Totally, with exception for the Sunrace jobbers coming in under $100US for the HG bodies and around $120 for the XD versions. They're not 52t equipped nor the jewel quality appearance of the Rotor's, but the shifting performance has been damn fine. I'd slip it between Shimano and SRAM on that end. For the price and performance I think they're worth the extra 200 or so grams. Just my two bits.