March Radness - BMX Jam in Athens GA

You should go to this event.
Across from the Varsity in Athens GA. Fun times. 

Like the Weather

I have a small amount of momentum going with biking this year, but I also have new rules as far as what type of weather is suitable for riding. By that I mean, I'm 49 years old, I've acclimated to the heat of the south, so I am not riding in weather under 50 degrees. 

The upside of this is that I am back in the routine of asking myself almost every day "is it nice enough to ride?" That is a step in the right direction even though it is tough during the winter when the answer is almost always "no." 

Physically I'll never get back to previous "performance" levels. But mentally I'm beating the excuses that kept me from riding in 2019. I guess I am having "marginal gains" as Team INEOS (formerly team Sky) would put it.

Wednesday of next week I am getting a Heart Catheterization procedure. This is, from what I am told, a fairly routine procedure that allows the doctors to examine more closely what is happening with my heart by inserting a tube through an artery in my arm or leg, and injecting a special dye that will allow them to see blood flow blockages in real time. I have been told that if they detect blockages that are bad enough, they will install stents to open those blockages.

My first question was, "will it give me more energy?"
The answers I've gotten so far say no. These answers were from both the actual doctor that will be performing the work, and from a few people I know who have one or more stents in their heart having been through the same procedure. The way it will work from what I understand, is that my heart may work more efficiently after the procedure, which could extend my lifespan. In other words, with my congestive heart failure, my heart is only moving 60% of the capacity of blood it is supposed to. If I have stents installed, it most likely will still only move that percentage, but will work a little less hard doing it.

I am writing this based only on what I have been told, my next step is a deep dive into information about the procedure and its affects.

In other  news, I retaped my road bike bars with white tape. Stupid tape had no adhesive. Oain in the neck.

Mongoose Pro-Class Wheelset Mystery

There are a lot  of interesting things about this build. What we have is an old school Mongoose with new school Crupi forks, I am guessing the bars are also Crupi, and some sort of vintage alloy cranks. The most interesting part however, is the all blue Mongoose Pro Class wheels. 

 

What makes these Pro Class so interesting? Hmmmm….as far as I know, Pro Class wheels were only ever available in three finishes: regular aluminum, polished aluminum, and a smoke colored anodized (or some other type pf coating process). So how in the heck are there a set of blue ones on this build?

I started searching around trying to find out if I was wrong about Pro Class only being available in the three finishes mentioned above, and everything I found said I was correct. I also leaned that Mongoose had contracted with two separate rim manufacturers to have the hoops constructed: Araya and Sumo. Some of the production run from both manufacturers utilized existing rims, so you could find Araya or Sumo actually stamped into the spoke side of the hoop. I'm guessing the later runs are the ones that don't have the stamps. 

Anyway, I just could not find any evidence that they were ever available in blue. 

These wheels, if you are unfamiliar with them, have a large hole drilled out between every spoke hole in order to make them incredibly light, and they utilize a metallic rim strip with a glossy color coating which which you can see through the rim holes in order to give them some color. Below you can see the rim strip in action. This one is set up so that the red side shows through the holes. You can also see the unused blue side. You could change the color scheme of your wheelset just by flipping over the proprietary rim strip.

In my search to find out whether the rims for Pro Class were ever available in blue, I came across an eBay ad which had this set of wheels:

These are pretty much the exact wheels used on the frankenbike Mongoose build! If these were custom coated, clearly they were professionally done. They look great. Not only that but check out the valve stem home graphics:

Very nice right? It uses what looks like the correct font and definitely gives them an authentic factory production feel. However, along the way I couldn't find any other pics of Pro Class with this valve stem hole graphics. All I could find were a totally different rounded rectangle style.

So I'm perplexed? Are these customs? Am I just totally mistaken that they were never available in colors and if so, why can't I find any advertising or supporting evidence that they were?

The only downside of the whole mystery is that by this point in the game with wheelsets, manufacturers had wised up and started leaving the sidewalls uncoated since caliper brake shoes would end up destroying the finish pretty quickly, and the frankenbike above def has handbrakes. 

I would be glad to hear any info you may have about whether pro-Class were ever available in colors, and if not, any info on who is making the custom refinished ones would be rad! 

I had also wanted to get into the crankset on this bike, but I can't tell a lot about what manufacturer they are from via the pic above. If you have any info on that I'd love to know. Are they from the  Campagnolo BMX groupo? Are they some sort of repurposed track bike crankest?

2020 Goals

Okay it was a terrible year for biking for me in 2019. However, the upside of having a bad year, but still logging the stats, is that you end up with a clear goal to beat the following year.

For 2019 I only rode 88.8 miles with 4131ft of climbing.
Ugh. I know.

I actually rode just a lttle further because there were a few times I rode without my strava running.

So, there we have it. A yearly goal that at one time I would have come close to beating in just two weeks.

Why didn't I ride in 2019? That is a complicated question to answer as it was no one reason, it was a group of reasons. Here is a list of what I believe were the issues:

1. Congestive Heart Failure - I just don't have the oomph that I used to.
2. Boredom - I just got kind of sick of riding the same spots I always do
3. Loneliness - I got tired of hanging out on the bike by myself all the time and chose social activities that involved other people.
4. Money - It was a tight year for me financially. Tight enough that I budgeted for gasoline, which means that I would opt out of driving 15+ miles each way just to do a 7 to 10 mile ride.
5. Fear - see #1. With my condition, I am sort of scared to get too far away from the car when riding these days. I do not want to pass out back in the woods  or out on the road alone.
6. Anger - I am mad at all of the above.

But that was last year. This is a new year and I'd love to beat last year's stats, and I'd ove to eliminate or lessen the impact of the list above. This means that I'll need to make some adjustments to my expectations and also the way that I ride. Most of all it means I'll need to ride.

I also have a build that I have not yet talked about which I am looking forward to working on. Some time ago I acquired two -almost complete- but disassembled Schwinn Stingrays, and they have been in storage inside a giant container under my house. I'd love to get those back to rideable condition. Since I have two frames to strat with I'd like to make one stick and make one into an early BMX build.

Of course I'll be logging the year here and I hope you are along for the ride with me.

Happy 2020!

Huffy Pro Lightning

Yep, I had this one. I believe I got in at Christmas 1983. It is the least expensive of the Huffy Pro Lightning line.

Interesting choice for them to go with the aero shaped tubing for the seat tube and seat post. I can't remember if the seat in the pic was the original seat.

The rims had a U shaped cross section, similar to the rims that came on the black and gold version which was one level up from this one. Check out that high flange hub on the front wheel.

The downward slanted gooseneck makes me lol!

Over the course of owning it I upgraded some of the parts. I'm pretty sure that I broke the cranks but not in the way you may think. I broke the small stud that sticks into the sprocket on the drive side. Huffy, in what I am sure was a cost cutting measure, did not use cranks where this part was cast at the same time as the crank, they welded one on. I use the term welded very loosely. It broke off and I was still able to pedal enough to get home, but if I tried to get into it hard the sprocket would just slip lol.

Believe it or not I had a lot of fun on this bike. On a personal level this bike meant a lot to me because my mom got it for me even though she had dealt with some issues that left her hospitalized for the fourth quarter of the year. Even in her state of ill health at that time she managed to set aside enough money for me to have this for Xmas. Thanks Mom, I'll never for get your kindness and thoughtfulness.

Tracer Finn Boosting a One Hander

The caption says one handed 360 degree aerials but I don't think that is what Tracer Finn is doing in this picture. Regardless that photo is great because it shows a unique angle and direction of travel. He is absolutely boosting it for a jump from this particular era. More and more I am liking the classic era of BMX these days when it really was about imitating what was happening in actual Motocross. Sooner or later I'll do a Bob Hannah appreciation post and hopefully find a bunch of pics of BMX riders doing "Hannah's"

Lego Mountain Bike Babe

This Lego Mountainbiker MiniFig is a girl right? I think the lips are girl lips, but the long hair could go either way. I dig the aggressive eyebrows lol.