Another week older...

Okay, so another week passes us by. What do you have to show for it?

Me?
Well, I have a few birthday presents some cash and promise of additional presents (in form of shopping with mom for some new bike gear). I have a bike that is currently in a minor state of dysfunction. I am trying to setup a 3 ring crankset that uses 22-32-38 gearing. The 38t is non-ramped dh purpose ring, but should do the trick. It is however going to take a bit of time and tinkering with the front derailleur to adjust it right. I might have the squeeling disc brakes tamed, but I am going to reserve patting myself on the back for a few more rides.

In addition to the 38t ring(that may turn out to be more of a hindrance than a gift) I also treated myself to a new front hub and a pair of mavic 823 rims (Universal has them on sale for less than wholesale). First time I have built up a Mavic UST rim. Kind of weird. It takes about twice as long to lace up a wheel since you first need to loctite all off the eyelets into the rim. Once the eyelets and nipples are in place it is kind of awkward lacing the spokes up (much faster when you can use a nipple driver from the backside(wow, sounds kind of dirty when I put it together like that)). The whole process despite being a bit more labor intensive went smoothly and I now have a new UST front wheel (Mavic EX823, Hadley 20mm hub, DT Champion spokes, brass nipples) at 1147g of sturdy trail riding beef. My first ride on the new tire/wheel was met by picking up 2 thumb tacs that some asshat had dumped on the road side. I laughed as I pulled out the tacs, spun my wheel, and watched the Stan's seal the holes in less than a second. This would have cost me about 10 minutes with a tubed setup. Gotta love tubeless.

Austin 5 on Wednesday, so he is officially a big boy. The house is still strewn with wrapping paper and streamers. I spent about an hour assembling his tricked out 16in bike. Not many kids are lucky enough to have bicycle obsessed parents. Austin is lucky and spoiled enough to get the Fuse 16 pit bike. Strong enough for me to ride, this is one kids bike that will be around for a while. Saturday is our Chucky Cheese party. That should be fun, several kids from his preschool and lots of games. Austin's birthday really had Erin and I feeling like that 5 years went by so fast. Hopefully we can catch our breath and enjoy the next 5 a bit more.

In news from abroad Chris and Flindie have a new baby boy. Logan Oliver Green was born on February 19th. Congratulations to the three of them!