Silence of the Hams

The lower back / buttocks / hip / quad conspiracy is starting to quiet down now. The pain is merely bothersome and occasionally sharp, not screamingly God-awfully terrifying and debilitating as it was just a few days ago. Yet I am walking around very gingerly, with a slight sensation (maybe only mental) that the pain is waiting around the corner, ready to leap out and stab me hard in the right ass cheek again as soon as I do something stupid, or as soon as it gets up its courage to face down the dynamic duo of Flexerill and Vike, Batman and Robin to hard-to-diagnose soft tissue injuries's Joker. Let's all hope for a continuation of this particular Silence of the Hams, because frankly, I'm tired of all their screaming.

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I stopped in to Seibold's shop today to order a few bits for the Kona. Ever been seduced by a bike into putting more trinkets on it than you planned? That has happened to me with this bike. I had intended to just swap out all the gear on the Surly and leave it at that. Then the Kona showed up and it was this amazing Root Beer Brown color, with black, gold and white trim. Very sweet, in a 70's sort of way. The rear hub was dying, and as detailed below, there was no good quality midrange fixed/fixed option, so I went with the Phil Wood, with a very nice Mavic CXP 33 rim, which is terribly light and terribly strong, and true to Lex Bontragerus, not terribly cheap. You know about me getting just-the-perfect saddle, the Sella San Marco Regal, in brushed leather with copper rivets and tubes, and some Salsa brown leather bar tape. Today's visit to FBS was a continuation of the theme. I need to upgrade the handlebar. I have terrible hand numbness problems with small bars, and the Salsa Poco bars now on the bike are tiny. With my ham hands it's like gripping a couple pencils. So we hunted around for some 46cm oversized bars that have a nice flat profile between the flats and the spot where the brake levers will mount. Since we're doing the tape and bar thing and speaking of brakes, might as well upgrade to some decent brake levers, right? So Jon's getting me some Cane Creek levers and we're ditching the shambolic old cheapy Shimanos that worked barely alright. Jon is also drawing a bead on a Thomson seatpost of appropriate length. The Thomson stem now on there will eventually be replaced with a shorter one. That will leave only the brakes - old compact canty Avid Shorty 4's - to be replaced with something lighter and more glam. Maybe the Kore cantis or some TRP Euro-X'es? I'm also eyeballing wooden fenders, which I know don't work as well as plastic curvy ones, but damn, the wheelbrows would look soooo durned good on the Rootbeer Haole Hauler. So much for a practical winter beater and fixed gear trainer.

See what I mean? This has gone from a frame swap, to a total bike build. I can't help myself. The thing rides sweet, and because it rides sweet and looks sweeter, it totally owns me. It would be pathetic, if I wasn't having so much fun building an awesome-riding, light little knockout of a cross/utility bike. That maybe someday I'll actually get to ride again...

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Update: This is simply too good of a true story not to post.

Man Suffers From Haunted Scrotum. What? You mean some of them aren't haunted?