The Rhyno Lite wheelset is almost completed.

The tire mounting saga is done, they now reside on the wheelset where they belong and I am hoping that they loosen up/stretch a bit while mounted so that if I ever get a flat I can actually remove them from the rims. I decided that taking them into the LBS would be my best bet mostly so that the cursing could be to a minimum and so that I didn't have to go through every tire lever in the state so this afternoon off I went.

I enter the bike shop and explain my situation and after I tell him what a PITA the tires are to mount, the guy says "so ya just want us to install some tubes for ya?" so I replied, "yeah we'll see" and smiled. The mechanic takes the wheels and tries to pop them on as I did, no dice, out come the levers and lots of repositioning the wheel but alas, nothing mounted. To get right to it, thirty minutes later the tires are mounted with tubes that are not popped, yep, I punctured both of the brandy new tubes that I had bought with the wheelset so I needed to buy 2 more from the LBS, such is life. Here is a look at the end product mounted on the wheelset, I still need to install the rotors but they have not arrived yet so for now they are brakeless.

PG-850 cassette installed and turning perfectly.

I am digging on the meat these tires have, they look pretty aggressive I think.

When I had first walked in I said to one of the fellas at the shop that I was a bit embarrassed to be bringing in a set of tires to be mounted as its something that I can usually do in 5 minutes. When the job was done, yes I am calling these damned tires a job! the mechanic said to me "Ain't no shame in having to bring THAT set of tires in" and I do pray that I never get a flat! its probably a good thing that these are just a spare set for the K2 but then again a flat can happen anywhere so I will have to be careful, I am just happy that everything is mounted and all I need it to wait on the new rotors.

K2 Zed with a Rhyno lite wheelset & WTB Graffiti SF tires.

Above is a shot of the bike with the wheels mounted on it, I am diggin the look of them on there and I am pretty sure that I will be going with a rigid fork to finish up this bike. I do want to mention that the wheelset seems heavy, this could be because I was handling the trainer wheelset with the slick on it at the same time but I don't think so and I will weigh the set at some point. You can also see the Hybrid style seat that I mounted for trainer use and I used an older seat post that I had so the WTB pure V that I ride with is still mounted and its just a flip of the quick release to swap seats out and pop the new wheels on and I can take it on the road. That K2 has come a long way since the day that I got it and some might say that I've put too much into it but I can't say it enough how well the bike fits me and now its almost exactly how I want it.

Now that I am just waiting on the rotors perhaps I can put a bit more time into the Motobecane and get that all done, I do believe that I have an addiction....

That's all I got.

P.I.T.A tire install! with pictures and a punch in the face!

The big brown truck pulled up and dropped off a box for me, I tore into it like a child on Christmas morning because I knew that my wheelset was suppose to be delivered and bamn! new hoops for the K2! I pulled everything out of the box to look it over and the wheels were pretty wide looking, this is a good thing! Wheels? check! tubes? check! rim tape? check! gear cables? check! headset spacers? uh huh! and into my bike bag I went for my tire levers.

Once I had the levers in hand I ran upstairs and grabbed the WTB Graffiti SF tires and was ready to go, or so I thought. Now normally I can change a tire in about 5 minutes and that's removing the tire, replacing the tube and pumped back up so I am thinking that I will have the wheels ready to go and be installing the cassette in about 15 minutes.... Wrong! I pried, and pushed but to no avail, this is the most stubborn set of tires that I have ever had the displeasure of trying to mount! so onto the net I went looking for solutions to my problem. I came across a thread on a forum saying to use a hair dryer to warm the bead up so I did... I came across another post that said to try baby powder so I did... I worked on the wheels for at least an hour and a half and by the end of that I had the front tire and tube mounted and the rear tire is on completely on one side and about 3/4 of the other. Here is a look at the wheelset as it came out of the box, they seem to spin freely and true and if I can get the tires on I hope to ride on them one day!

By the end of the ordeal my thumb was sore and I had straightened out 4 Park Tool tire levers, the levers did not break but the hooks on the end actually straightened out! worse than that? when the first one straightened out it popped off of the wheel and I punched myself in the face! yay! I did say that I got the front tire and tube mounted right? and that's awesome! well it would have been anyways if I hadn't pinched the tube while mounting the wheel, so when I pumped it up that "Hsssssssssss" sound that was deflating the tire was literally deflating my excitement over the new set of wheels. Here is where I left it, notice the baby powder all over everything including the throw rug... yeah that needed to be cleaned up before the wife got home! hey, I thought this was a 10 minute job when I started!

I haven't decided whether I am going to bring them into the LBS, buy a tube for the front have them install it and ask them if they can pop the bead onto the rear while I'm there, or if I will just but some steel cored levers and have at it myself because I am stubborn like that. I don't want to wait for Kool stop tire bead jack to come from amazon or ebay even though I am pretty sure its probably the best route to take, hey I'm a kid like that! a bit annoyed that the tires are not cooperating I did as I said put them down for the day and if the rotors were here I would be a little bit more annoyed but I suppose I can wait.

The difficulty in mounting these tires does have me thinking about perhaps getting something different to mount because if I flat out on a ride I will need a support vehicle to come and get me because if its this hard at home, imagine how it would go out on a ride.

To be determined I suppose..

and with that the end comes to another post.

A weigh in and some wheel talk.

Friday has come so it shall be that time to step upon the cold weight telling contraption made from glass plastic and Chinese circuitry again. This morning I did not know what to expect because I have stayed off of the scale for a few days, no reason other than the mornings have been hectic lately so it was business as usual and straight to the scale before my date with Joe. The last time that I weighed in for the blog the number was 364.0, then Evacgutpocolypse happened and I was up in weight which was odd because I had done nothing but evacuate my innards so I did not weigh in last Friday. This week I got back on task with the eating and even though I did zero exercise because of letting my back ease back into every day life the scale did show a loss, I came in at 362.6 which is of course a 1.4 pound loss and I am happy with that considering that I was hurt and sick in that time.

Now that we got the Friday weigh in part of this post taken care of lets talk bike for a moment! I mentioned the new wheelset for the K2 in a post yesterday and this morning I was checking the tracking number and thought that I would add up what I paid for the set, i think that its a great price for a good set of wheels.... but of course I don't even have the whole set in my hands yet so we will have to see just how good it turns out. I am into this wheelset for $159, I pieced it together instead of buying wheels that were ready to put on the bike and taking that time to do so saved me some green stuff I think, here is how the set looks as far as components go.

Sun Rhyno lite rims
Shimano Deore disc hub
SRAM PG-850 11-32 cassette
WTB Graffiti SF 2.2 tires
160MM Avid G2 Rotors
Velox rim tape
Two 26 x 2.2 - 2.5 presta valve tubes

Now I don't think that is an end all set of wheels but I do think for the price paid I got a great deal! and you know that once I get them all set up I will post some images. I have not worked on the Motobecane in a while because I get fixated on one thing at a time and since the K2 was getting some love in the way of the wheels I haven't thought about the Moto. This weekend I am going to try and get most of the polishing that still needs to be done on the Moto completed and then I will just need to get the cables done and buy some tires and tubes. I did decide on either a gunmetal or silver cable housing for the bike and as soon as I narrow that down I will put the order in but I am still undecided on the bar tape/saddle color combo, keeping it simple may be the direction that I go with black/black but like I said, I just don't know yet.

Over all things are good now that the stomach bug I had used and abused me and left without even dropping a $20 on the bedside table, as long as its gone it can keep the $20! I have an old Cannondale frame that i will be starting on when I am done with the Motobecane so look for posts on that in the future, its a 1990 Cannondale SM400 and its in my size so painting it up and getting it roadworthy again will be a fun project that leaves me with another bike to add to the lineup.

Thanks for reading along and until next we meet keep those pedals turning!

Parts is parts.... its just some of mine are.. well.. old!

So a severe stomach bug later and here I am, truth is that I have been very busy lately and between my bug and my daughter getting a double ear infection I just haven't had time to post, but enough about that because here I am! The Moto project has gotten no love lately because I have re-aimed my focus onto my K2 for whatever reason, perhaps its because I don't like seeing it with the slicks on it or maybe its just because I like to buy bike stuff.

I wanted to take a ride a few nights ago and the Trek was up stairs, the K2 was sitting in the living room raising its hand while hopping up and down saying "me me me!" but since its set up for the trainer right now it would not be chosen. I decided that I like having options past changing a set of tires out if I wanted to go for a ride so I ordered a set of wheels to have as my "I really want to ride the K2 today" wheelset. The wheelset that I decided on partially because of price and partially on some reviews was some Sun Rhyno lite rims on Shimano Deore hubs, an 11-32 SRAM PG-850 cassette and I will be mounting some WTB Graffiti SF 2.2 tires on the set, it should be a pretty solid set of wheels. I still need to pick up a set of rotors but I am debating that since the stock wheels will be strictly set up for trainer duty I may just steal the rotors off of them to mount on the new wheelset.

You can see in the image that I bought a bit more than just the wheelset stuff, I also have a Sunline XC-1 stem and a set of Bontrager big sweep 12* bars to mount on the K2, I liked the Bontrager bars on my Xcal so much that I figured I would get a set for the K2 as well. With these additions to the K2 there will literally only be a couple things on the bike that are stock (shifters, complete brake set and fork) and with THAT said, I want to install a rigid Surly Instigator fork on the bike as it will be on pulling my daughters in a trailer and Adams trail a bike duty in the warmer months but that will be for another post.

Ok a bit onto the health part of this blog now, I have been within my calorie range but the exercise has been lacking because while I was sick with the bug I also blew my back out so I am recovering from that too. When it comes to my back I don't play around, if it flares up its time to listen to it and relax for a while, old disk injuries are NO JOKE! and missing out on some trainer workouts or some calisthenics just isn't worth the pain. I am waiting patiently for the weather to get just a tad warmer so that I can start running on my 6 mile hilly workout loop on a regular basis, even though it is warmer than usual here in Southern New England I can't get out until after 6PM usually and by then its dark and getting colder so its trainer work for now.

Over all I am still on focus, the bikes are getting played with when I have some free time and I want to get that Motobecane done for some easy spring riding around the neighborhood, Thanks for reading and remember don't be afraid to drop me a comment!

That's all I got.