Shallow Thoughts : : bike

How to Assemble a Stem on a Threadless Headset

(This is a followup to Upgrading an Old 1-1/4" Cannondale to a Modern 1-1/8" Fork.)

After installing a new headset and fork on my mountain bike, I slid the stem onto the new steerer tube, cinched it up, tightened the top bolt and went for a test ride.

It tested out fine, but the way I'd installed it was exactly wrong, and I didn't realize it until I did some more reading. It turns out cinching down a threadless headset requires a step that's not at all obvious if you don't know any better. Or at least it wasn't obvious to me.

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Upgrading an Old 1-1/4" Cannondale to a Modern 1-1/8" Fork

My (beloved) mountain bike is an old 1993 Cannondale M700, which I've customized fairly heavily over the years. I know people say the new (enormous, heavy) mountain bikes are more capable, but I'm not convinced. I've ridden Dave's new Specialized and while it's a nice bike (and I love the modern trend of an 11-speed cassette with a single-speed front), it's heavy and slow-steering and honestly, it didn't tempt me to replace the Cannondale.

But one thing about the 'dale that could definitely use replacing: the fork.

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First Time Biking the White Ridge Bike Trails

Dave and I finally got around to riding the White Ridge Bike Trails. It's an area north of Albuquerque, adjacent to the Ojito Wilderness (which is also on our to-explore list). Somehow we'd never quite gotten there, but this week was perfect. Here in White Rock our local trails are covered with melting snow, which means they'll be muddy for at least a month even if it doesn't snow any more. But down near Albuquerque they didn't get much snow, and the temperature was forecast as mid-40s, so we hoped conditions would be good.

The map paints trails as Beginner (green), Moderate (blue), Difficult (red), and Severe (black). We're intermediate bikers: pretty comfortable riding over rocks and other modest obstacles, but not good enough to do the super technical stuff like we see at Pajarito. But there's no consistency to bike trail ratings: a lot of trails rated difficult in the bay area were well within our abilities,, while some trails that Los Alamos County puts on their "family friendly" list are so difficult that I can't ride them (we've argued with the county's trail guy, who I don't think is a mountain biker; he insists that they should rated as easy based on some IMBA criterion or other.)

Anyway, the point is that you can't tell what you'll be able to ride without going there and trying it.

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Fun With Little Bikes

I wrote in midsummer about the fun Dave and I were having on our Lectric ebikes. We've been riding the Lectrics most days for errand running and jaunts across town, and it's gotten us back into pedalling our regular mountain bikes again, too.

But then one day a big box showed up on the doorstep. Dave had been lusting after a different sort of ebike: a Jackrabbit.

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E-Biking Fun with the Lectric XP

Ever since a friend let us test-ride her electric bike at PEEC's annual Electric Vehicle Show two years ago, Dave's been stewing over the idea of getting an e-bike.

Why an e-bike?

One goal was to help us get into the back country. There are several remote places -- most notably, in Canyonlands' Needles and Maze districts -- that can only be accessed through trails that are beyond our Rav4's ability. Or at least beyond our risk tolerance.

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