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Day: November 12, 2009

Rough Riding

Published November 12, 2009

As expected, the Nokian Hakka WXC300 tires acquired last week are not fun to ride on pavement. They are very noisy (read: difficult to talk over) and knobby enough that the vibration makes one’s ass sore pretty quickly. However, the package recommends that they be ridden for 30 miles on pavement before use off road, so today’s group ride out to Metro Beach and back worked well for this. With roughly 18-19 miles on the tires I’ll attempt another ride tomorrow to finish off the break-in; possibly a quick 12 mile-ish ride up to River Bends and back.

I can’t get the noise out of my head. An hour and twenty minutes of 300 metal spikes hitting pavement with every tire rotation. With a circumference of 2099mm and tonight’s ride being 18.79 miles, that’s roughly 3,034,070 discreet metal-on-stone click sounds in rapid succession, not dissimilar from similar to riding over a sheet of bubble wrap. An endless sheet of bubble wrap. For an hour and twenty minutes.

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Danielle’s First 29er

Published November 12, 2009

Tuesday evening Danielle and I headed out to Novi, in response to this post on the MMBA forum (PNG mirror). The seller was offering a Motobecane USA 29er mountain bike with a 15″ frame size for $250, and this sounded like a really good deal and an ideal first mountain bike for Danielle. After trying the bike out to see that it fit, we took it home. While there were a few obvious problems with it, everything appeared easy to remedy.

After picking up a new tube I spent a few hours this afternoon working on the bike, adjusting things a bit and fitting a rear light. Having 29″ wheels drilled for Schrader valves made finding tubes a bit complicated, but I was able to locate one at REI. As the rear wheel had a slow leak (emptying once daily) I wanted to get a known-good tube in there. Beyond the slow leak, the bike also had the following problems, all of which were (or should be) easily remedied:

· Bent Saddle: This will be replaced with something more comfortable for Danielle.
· Too-Short Seatpost
· Brake Adjustment Needed
· Wheels Slightly Out Of True
· Rear Wheel Dished Incorrectly
· Brakes Not Bedded In Yet
· Uncomfortable / Small Pedals
· Fork Lockout Non-functional
· Handlebar May Be Bent / Weird

All of these should be easy to fix with just a bit of time, making the bike quite nice; especially for a first mountain bike. Here’s some more photos of the bike:

· Danielle’s new 29er bike, a used Motobecane Fantom 29 that was purchased for $250.
· The rear wheel is not properly dished. I’ll have to fix this.
· Mismatched brake levers because one was broken. They are still good levers, though.
· The seat is a bit bent, which is just fine, as it’s going to be replaced.
· The 350mm seatpost that came with the bike is much too short for Danielle. A longer one will be acquired later.

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Skinny Puppy at Royal Oak Music Theater

Published November 12, 2009

Soft Spoken Change Is Nothing; A View So Cruel

Rather last minute I decided to head out to the Royal Oak Music Theater to see Skinny Puppy perform. Despite Ogre having a 103°F (39.4°C) fever thus cutting the encore a bit short, and the backing video and costumes lacking the religious and political imagery which marked previous shows, I’m glad I went. Unlike years past I also brought earplugs, which were wonderful as I could hear properly both during and after the show.

As expected, the show was almost like a small reunion of Detroit-area industrial folks. While (obviously) not inclusive, I saw a good number of people whom I hadn’t seen for a few years and managed to say hello to most of them. I also ran into a coworker there, which wasn’t wholly unexpected as I’d previously seen him at an Apoptygma Berzerk show, and known his like for VNV Nation.

Due to life being fairly busy recently I made a last minute decision to go to the show, but it worked out well. As I was about to purchase my ticket someone was asking the queue if anyone needed a ticket, as he had a spare. While he was asking $15, I only had $20 bills, but I gladly handed one over in exchange for the ticket, as the result was still $10 less than door price, and no one in the process technically being shortchanged.

Here’s one more image, taken just after the show illustrating most of the stage setup, including the blood sprayed acrylic and metal box where Ogre spent much of the show.

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