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The story of this bike started at last years  omaha cx weekend, Sam jumped out of the car with a new shinny rig.  I rode it, it I liked it  I wanted one.  In all honesty I wanted steel custom bike for long time. As MK would say, it’s nice to have something that’s one of the kind.  Well, I did what any self respecting person would do I harassed and bugged Skip and Sam  to the point  of them relenting.  That’s actually worked on MK so it had to work on those guys as well….

Well Skip was pretty serious about the whole process so we  ironed out the details. Got the fit done and talked about general idea of bike capabilities. Then I waited. Sure there was some emails back and forth and collection of parts for the new build and some head scratching about the bike theme. But finally the ideas came to fruition and I picked up my WMD frame referenced here from Skip last Friday.

If you are not comfy with Man crush sections of the  blog skip to the pictures.

Everyone know that MOD is a great wrench. There  was no doubt in my mind who I wanted to build up the frame.    He is really good. Watching him I realized that

a) dude can build   a sweet bikes

b) is really fast at doing so

c) has a lot of tools to make it easier

d) is pretty good teacher about bike build

So late Tuesday night after some part  compatibility issue we were done. And by we I mean MOD. Here is the result

Non-drive Side

WMD Chain stay…

Drive side

So there it is. The WMD  in the wild. I would I like to thank WarAXE for letting me be their first customer. MOD for building it up…. Monkey Wrench for some parts and Jonathan Neve for hooking me up with 28.6 clamp adapter.

P.S. you can take a look at the bike at GW. The riding of said bike at Gravel worlds is depended on weather conditions.

That’s why I came here, so is the line from  SNL Robert Goulet  skid. Good times.  MK and I loaded up our car and headed to wausau, wi for their 24 hour throw down. While the idea of riding a bike for 24 hours is appealing, I opt out for 12 hour event as good way to get some miles and be still somewhat productive for Gravel Worlds.   The drive was quite fast. At the camp site we met with Will Wolff and Mr. Appalachia. The good times would ensue with a crew like that.  WE were also stationed next to T-6 guys  so I finally got to meet them and thank them for the sweet Metal gear.

The goal was simple keep the laps within +/-5 of 60 minutes and life should be good.   We setup our sweet old school trek/vw tent and were good to roll. There was about 400 peps ready to stampede to their bikes. Off we went and the first lap was as always stop and go traffic for the first 2-3 miles.  The first 3 laps were pretty standard smooth and consistent. Quick stops, one water bottle change and off to next lap. So 3 hours to go and things were looking up everything would stabilize, beside the team guys redlining their laps, it was a regular routine.   Lap 4 started out  well.. It was quick change some coconut water and off to the woods. My bike started to mis-shift all over the back cassette.  All the sudden the chain just snapped.  I busted out the chain tool and started to take the link out. It took a while as I didn’t have quick link.  So i fixed the chain, lost some time and was back to it after 15 minutes. Lost one low gear.   About a mile later the chain snapped again. This time Josh rolled back and gave me a quick link.  Take another link out. 2 gears down… This was happening as  the good rain stop was brewing.  Then the rain started…. For you keeping track at home, it means I have  been in 3  rain events this year. The worst part was the fact I broke right when i got to the big climb….. err river…  So hike a bike section of quarter mile section with rain pouring down on you is not that much fun.  AS Troy Krause says “You suckers are missing out”

Once i got to one of the neutral aid stations there was about 40 dudes standing under the tent with the organizers on the radio figuring out what to do. We stood in the shed for about 30 minutes, just like kanza….then the decision was made. Current Lap we cancelled. We would take giant penske to the start finish area

Restart after the rain

I had to think fast… Riding a bike with crappy chain with missing 2 links and 2 power links in crappy weather doesn’t inspire confidence. Thankfully the 6 hour race was  over and Joshua offered up his ferrous.  It was either running 11 miles or riding it on ss speed. We changed the pedals adjusted the seat and lubed the chain. I had reservations about the gearing, as the dude next to us doing 24 hour solo was switching his gear from 34-20 to 32-20.  Me, I was rolling on 34-18, keeping it baller style as some one would say. If by  baller style you mean hike a bike style on the only hill of the course then you would be right.

Whatever though, I didn’t drive 9 hours to sit around and drink beer. Might as well ride a bike. So that’s what I did. I rode/hiked and heckled people for next 5 hours.  The laps got kind of blended. The only thing I remember is performing a nose wheelie for the local hooligans… All and all it was good time.  I got 9th overall I’ll take it with with mechanicals and riding an over geared bike that’s to small for me.

Couple of notes.  I love upper midwest the weather is awesome so was the trail.  If there is any doubt about future of 26 inch bikes one would have to go and check out what best regional riders are sporting. The bikes was 80 % 29er with some 20% full suspension 26 inch bikes.

I wish I hadn’t ridden Josh’s bike now I kind of want a steel single speed. Why did no one told me those things are that comfy…

Thanks to MK, Wolffs and Stampers for the support. Thanks Steve Fuller and  Ryan Feagan for the lights. I learned some things about setting up pits for the 24 race.   Noted and to be implemented next year.  So 24 hour events are not what they used to be 4-5 years ago but they are still fun. The big loop races are all the rage now but 24/12 is still fun even if you don’t get to see anything “new”

Hopefully this is last crappy day for racing minus the cross season..  Worlds and five-o on the schedule… then it’s onto cross. Based on the result I’ll be back next year. That place is a lot of fun and the trail is great.

So yes 2012 might be the year of filing grievances racing. I might even bring an aluminum post with me to some of the races

With all this local cx talk  and my recent conversation with Ryan and MOD I decided to talk a bit more about tubeless conversions and how a poor schmuck like me or you can make that work for yourself . This is overall experience I had thus far setting up my wheel/tires tubeless.

My quest for tubeless started with Dirty Kanza preparation. I heard stories of flats, shredded tires and just bad environment. I figure that majority of the flats besides cuts are actually cause by pinch flats after you change one tube. I believe it’s just hard to get the pressure high enough when you are in the moment, resulting in 40 psi range which might  be okay for normal gravel but is not suited for Flint Hills. This made me  think about how to make this not happen to me.

Interwebs and MG were the key here.  SO here is the deal you  can setup most of the tires tubeless with following items:

• Gorilla Tape or Stans Tape (one is 10$ a roll the other one is a bit more decide)
• Valve Cores ( i have used both Bonty and Stans/ you can also you the old valves from old tubes as long as you can take out the valves)
• Tubeless Juice (I use ghetto sealant / but you can use any sealant of your choice)

The Process is the same regardless. You need to measure your current rim strip width and cut the gorilla tape about 1-2 mm wider than existing setup.  As far as lenght of tape is concerned. Minimum of tape  should be overlapping by about five spoke wholes. That way you can overlap the valve hole by at least 2-3 spoke wholes. For road application I would recommend at least two wraps around the wheel. The road pressures is a lot higher and you might need that extra layer.

* Nifty trick. Standard door height plus  about 6inches is perfect length for one wrap of 700c wheel.

Process of setup

• Remove current rim strip
• Clean the channel if dirty
• Cut the tape to width and length desired
• Cut a “X” over the valve hole and insert the valve core
• Mount a Tire
• Apply sealant of your choice  either through opening or by taking the valve core out.
• Follow the same directions as airing up MTB tubeless

About Beads and “tubeless” tires.

All tires have beads, that’s obvious ,right? The difference it the size of the  bead and how it interfaces with the rim. In practices, setting up non-tubeless tires on non-tubeless rim occurs when you get latex “bead” setup on the place where both of these items meet.

From my experience it’s impossible to setup non-tubeless road tire on any rim with out a tube.  The pressure is too much and the bead is not strong enough.  Conversely it’s almost impossible to take tubeless road tires of rim (that is a lot of elbow grease)

Cx and tubeless

The problem with cx tires and tubeless is the burping as you are running low psi,high channel and smaller bead than that of mtb tires. I theorize that building up a center channel would prevent burps. This is yet to be tested… that’s what cx practices are for

Thus far I have setup the following

• RS 20 and couple of Kenda cx tires
• Bontrager race lite and Fusion 2 tires
• Coming soon ultegra 6700 UST wheels and wtb/Kenda/Challenge tires

So that is that. I don’t have money for dedicated tubular wheel set. Hence the long post…  Thus far tubeless has worked great on gravel/road application. CX be tested in couple of weeks after the start of the cx practices…