Ploafmaster General

After 10 miles riding the Maxxis DTH tires on the old Trek, I totally get why folks love these tires. I really wish they made them in 27.5.

I have contempt for people who walk up to a counter, order coffee, and pay, all while on a phone conversation.

I mean, I had to try them, didn’t I?

We can have a state funeral in a sewer, right?

I feel like I’ve crossed some kind of funny line in my home bike mechanic journey: I’ve ordered a tap handle and M5x0.8 tap (in this case for tapping a threaded hole in a BB shell, but I could also use it to chase bottle boss threads on old frames).

Sitting on the porch in near perfect weather while my 12.5 year old practices a gymnastics floor routine to Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September” in the front yard. Maybe only a frosty beverage could improve the situation?

I swear, people in Richmond selling stuff on Marketplace have a really inflated sense of what their bikes are worth (especially that one dude in Mechanicsville who floods Craigslist, too). And for the love of cheese, include drive-side photos.

Yes, Paul Components are pricey. But their products are of impeccable quality, made in California, and sometimes Paul himself answers your questions by email with helpful advice. Some costly things are worth it!

I’m noodling over this idea in my head where I’m comparing Art History as a degree program to something like English/Creative Writing. One is usually from an art school (when an institution has one) and the other a liberal arts program. But I feel like there’s a conceptual kinship between them.

Just…just look at that sparkle and shine. All I did was clean it with some Simple Green and use some Goof Off to remove some weird residue on a few spots. I still plan to use some of the gentle car polish and it’ll be blinding.

Got my replacement BB for the Crust and replaced it. So uh…I blew out the non-drive-side bearing and there were loose balls in there. That’s what I get for being a big chungus who mashes hard on the pedals with the $17 Shimano dealie.

Maybe time to get that high grade Tange BB with huge caged bearings 😜

Forgive the frankly terrible photograph of an otherwise beautiful bike. I was in haste to capture its current state in the sunlight. Even without having cleaned it, this bike’s “sugar plum” paint job sparkles. The seller on Marketplace, asking $75, was the original purchaser, having bought this for his wife in Syracuse, NY in the 80s. It has been kept in his basement and barely ridden at all. Everything is original except for the tires (perhaps tubes?), stem, handlebar, brake levers, and grips (as sold it would have had a Sakae polished aluminum stem with drop bars and appropriate levers).

I have been following this bike for many weeks and finally was able to make the trip up to Fredericksburg to take a look. I want to make this a chill, mostly upright bike for my wife to cruise around with me on pavement. After ensuring the seat post and stem weren’t seized, I forked over the cash and gleefully loaded it into my car. Why am I so excited about this particular bike?

This is a 1986 Raleigh Olympian - a model in the Raleigh USA lineup. The catalog, for reasons lost to time it seems, mis-states the frame material as some Raleigh-rebranded double butted CroMo steel (“Raleigh 555”), but the decal on the bike itself indicates a different variant, Raleigh 575SL (SL = “super light”) triple-butted. Digging through some bicycle forums confirms that the decal isn’t specific to my 1986 example, and while Raleigh may be pretending at some Reynolds-style branding, it does at least seem to be some very nice steel. The bike model itself wasn’t necessarily one of their top models in the whole lineup, but it appears to have been the top of the Sport Touring range. It includes some really nice touches:

• Shimano Light Action front and rear derailleurs with ratcheting friction shifters (goosebumps here) on a stem mount
• lovely Sakae cranks, 110/74 BCD that should allow me to make the gearing a bit easier
• Sakae fluted alloy seat post
• Suntour freewheel that still feels pretty nice
• Dia Compe caliper brakes with a quick release on the front (the rear on the mixte doesn’t have this because it’s bottom pull)
• Sealed bearing hubs, special seals on the BB cup (even though it has caged bearings) and caged bearings in the headset, but everything is smooth spinning with no apparent notching

Anyhow, I’m currently disassembling the bike so I can give it a good clean and check out the inside and treat it with rust prevention. Then I want to give the whole thing a gentle polish to really bring out that sparkle. Long term plans include a Nitto quill stem and some VO or Riv handlebars, easier gearing, and probably a 650B conversion (folks have made it work on this exact model with Tektro R559 long reach brakes) so I can squeeze some 42mm tires in there. Fun project for me, nicer and more comfortable bike for Valerie!

Looks like VCU Police wasting resources to shame pedestrians again instead of protecting them.

One of my favorite parts of scrolling through Marketplace is the implied seller’s resignation when you see a price beside a prior, struck through price. You can feel the deflation as that vintage pram reduces from $225 to $75.

Another day, another horrifyingly racist statement from Stephen Miller that ought to earn him eternal tack hammer strikes to the testicles by gleeful children (I like to imaging a cackling kid running to the back of the line for their next turn).

Finally ordered spokes and nipples (already have the hubs and rims)…gonna build the wheels for my grocery bike once those arrive!

Like, these SunTour XC-9000 levers have no more slop than Paul Canti Levers. Not an exaggeration. Moto-style, beautiful, and smooth, solid movement. Good, chunky barrel adjusters, too.

Some of my favorite words to see on the eBay are “SunTour NOS”.

I submitted a request to the city’s 311 system 4 days ago about a sign leaning over in front of my house at risk of falling over (loose in the ground like a truck maybe backed into it). They just showed up in the last 30 minutes and took care of it!

Picked up some Odyssey/Vans slip-ons at an outlet this past weekend. In the past I could never get Vans slip-ons on my feet because of a high upper part of my foot, but these worked somehow and feel great. And you know what? I totally get why folks like biking in these things. Super comfy.

As previously noted, I haven’t been able to ride much the past couple of weeks, but today I was back on two wheels, and the weather in Richmond was just the chef-est of kisses.

Latest Pink Sky Rides vid combines my love of film photography (with an RZ67, no less!) and bikes as she photographs her husband’s dope GT: www.youtube.com/watch

Stopped by Crust today and picked up the new 800mm Shrike bar (so it also has a 31.8 clamp diameter) in black along with some matching stem spacers. Gonna use this bar on the Diamondback Apex I’m working on. Pumped!

Lotta great sounds out there, but I’m pretty sure a laughing baby is the best sound.

Cutting it a little close, but we booked a flight for the family to LA for spring break. Gonna go see my grandma while we still can!