Guess what fags! I don’t care what your shitty opinions are and I’m tired of moderating (aka putting bad words into) your windy dickbag comments. If you were planning on commenting on this post, please light a match inside your asshole instead. I know it’s fun to stick up for Sheldon’s shitty opinion on this now that he’s dead but I hope you all die of shitpox.

All due respect to Sheldon Brown, but I cannot believe that anyone can talk about BioPace chainrings as anything other than utter fucking filth. This is like lauding the brilliance of the Citroen hydropneumatic ball based engine stuff, or how great an idea it was to use nikasil-liners, how the Titanic design was truly brilliant, the Hindenberg was amazingly well thought out. The simple fact is, history has god damned spoken, and time and time again, the results are the same. Piece of shit. Officially disavowed by the people who made it, universally accepted as failures. Moderate fowardthink without any real analysis. Maths without fizzix. But every couple months, on the ONE cycling forum I read, there are five pages of huffing and puffing about how it was OK and how it was really a pretty good idea, etc.

That’s dumb. If you think Biopace is good, you have dumbness in you.

So, in my last post, I decided my hate-on for Octalink 1 v2 cranks was supreme, and that I would go ahead and get some square taper cranks and sell off the BB. Instead, I went back to Citybikes and found another set of Octalink 1 v2 cranks (this time in the “touring” gears, 28-38-48) that seems to be in better repair. It was the cheaper option ($25, versus $25 for cranks and $20 for a new BB), and hey, it’s gotta work OK this time, right? I even got some washers to install between the pedal and the crank, and lubed the threads of the pedal when I put it in. Now that the weather is getting nicer (Fuck you cloudy skies on the weekend, this shit needs to stop), I’ll take her out for some grocery runs and whatnot. Still need a new fork, if only so I can adjust the frickin’ stem up some, but that is another dollar for another day.

Looks like a helicoil that size will cost about $40. So… no. I can get a set of square-taper Bulletproof or RPM cranks for $40, and a square taper BB for $10. I can probably sell the stupid Octalink v2 BB that I had to buy for $20-30, it’s brand fucking new, so no, it’s dead. The cranks are neat looking, but obviously beat up pretty bad before I got into their life, so I’m done trying to keep them around. Not gonna be doing this too soon, so back to the fixed full time. Hooray!

Meanwhile, here’s a picture of my IRO.

Well, I somehow forgot to post about my bike for a while. I got it all together, got my albatross bars and my basket and set it all up, and it sat, waiting for a sunny day.

I picked it up and rode it into work.

Problem 1 – Seat was too high, and I didn’t know where my allen wrenches were.

Problem 2 – Rear basket rubs on my right heel (but not my left). Gotta figure that one out.

Problem 3 – Riding position needs wooooork. It’s not very upright, but it is very short in the cockpit, so it’s like riding with my hands on my knees. Got to get the bars up, probably six to eight inches to really make it townieish.

Problem 4 – Steering is squirrelly. Probably just an artifact of having 70% of my weight on my hands.

Got to work, noticed some funny feelings from the left pedal. Which led me to the big one.

Problem 5 – My fancy used Deore LX Octalink V2 Hollowtech cranks are fucked out. The non-drive side pedal threads just fell right out and the pedal came off. Awesome. I was hoping that I could find an insert or something, but it’s not looking good. I guess I could try a helicoil, but that seems like a huge pain in my dick.

Lame, but I got on the Rob Roy and pedalled in the next day, and it was a revelation of simplicity and comfort. Managed 3 days the first week, 4 days the next. I’m on-call this week, so riding in is out, but next week, I’m shooting for the entire week.

So I bought a basket to go on my reformed bike, but it interferes with the shifters. I think I can remedy this by moving them outboard, but I’ll end up removing the barends. No big loss, as this handlebar setup is just a stopgap, but a little annoying. There’s a store locally that is selling the Surly Instigator fork on eBay, but they don’t list it on their real website, so I’m not sure if they stock it or if they just drop-ship from QBP.

Meanwhile, I’ve found the On-One Superlight fork, which is hotter than hot, they have a US distributor in CA that I have emailed to find out the price, as their site sucks. If I can get it for within $15 of the Surly, I’ll do it, because it’s that much more attractive. I might even buy it in white. I still haven’t dropped the change on the handlebar, as I am afeared of change (and also my current credit card debt load), so I think that will wait for spring. I also forgot to put in some slack on the various cables, to take into account the possibility of changed position on the shifters and brake levers, as I am a retard. Therefore – the flat bars will stick around for now. Once the weather changes I might feel more charitable and free with the money hand.

Edit: ZedSport sez : $125 plus shipping for the On-One fork. Surly goes on eBay for about $80 plus shipping, but it seems quite a shame to go with that oogly unicrown number just because of a silly thing like a couple greenbacks. Time will tell.