While being punished on the hills of northwest Omaha yesterday with EB we talked about our hopes of making Omaha a more interesting place to cycle, or at least party with a bike. One thing I've been working on, but have made very little progress is building a Goldsprints setup. I've been shopping craigslist for months for cheap sets of rollers and have come across very few possibilities. One other issue keeping me from pursuing this more aggressively is the lack of a venue to hold Goldsprints events. EB mentioned that the Slowdown may be open to something like this. He's checking. What I need from the rest of you is leads on cheap rollers and cheap bikes to build as SS/Fixed. Maybe a bike shop would sponsor this setup and parts? Once we get moving on this we'll also need a tech-wizz who can wire the machines to feed into a laptop, which will be projected onto a backdrop. This all takes money and time, so I need as many interested parties to help put this thing together. If there's no interest then I'll let it die. Got anything to add? Speak up!
On another note...did you know it's the end of the world? Apparently this latest round of winter weather has Omaha in gridlock. Schools and businesses closing. Local news pushing this story as if the sky were falling. Besides the normal amount of stupid comments I get when arriving at work by bike, this morning I was greeted with a half dozen comments and questions about how I was going to get home. "It's a blizzard out there!" one half-whit mentioned. Well...let's see. I rode my bike to work. I'll ride my bike home. The troglodytes seemed confused by the thought of riding a bicycle in the snow. Batten down the hatches!!! The snow is falling, the snow is falling!
13 comments:
Excellent post my friend-
Were Gonna Make It Happen!
The Douglas, where have you been all my life? Your wife ensues jealousy upon me for being so lucky! Oh boy.
Hmm... now I feel bad about not biking in today. So...how are you going to get home? :-)
I like the goldsprints idea. I have a Colnago frameset and flip flop hub I was going to sell once spring is sprung. I've got exactly $345 invested in it, but I would let it go for $300 for this project (includes headset, brake levers, hub, fork, touch up paint). Daddy needs a new pair of shoes.
i'll build wheels for any track frame. maybe the bike coop will have the right length spokes, i can see what they have (both spokes and wheels) and find out if there exists some cheap hubs (formula/dimension/surly) that have the proper measures.
I won't buy the hubs though!
Bob:
Your bike may be way too nice for the abuse of Goldsprints. I'm thinking more along the lines of a $25 clunker w/semi-horizontal dropouts. Any cheap wheel that we can affix a single cog will do. Doesn't have to be a track wheel or a flip/flop. We just need to ensure that both bikes have the same gear combo and crank arm length. Since riders of all sizes will be racing the same two bikes they will need to be a middle-average size, like maybe 54cm's? or a 54 & 58cm? I think the bikes will be the cheapest part of this setup. Finding bikes and getting them matched probably won't be as big a deal as finding rollers with fork mounts. The ones I've seen on craigslist are around $250-$300 a piece. That's too much.
Erik:
Your wheel building skills may come in handy. Building a set from the ground up will blow our budget. If we find a trashed bike in need of a wheel build, I'll point at you.
What I have so far is an old laptop to run the goldsprints shareware program. We need a cheap projector, two bikes w/horizontal drops and two sets of rollers with fork mounts. I have no budget for this set up and will entertain any ideas on how to share the cost. As I said, maybe a bike shop with sponsor this project and take ownership of the rig. Or maybe we, the freak-collective of cycling enthusiasts can share the load and all be co-owners. I'm open to ideas. I just can't shoulder the entire cost myself.
Keep the ideas rollin'! Good stuff man!
Lucas:
Speaking of my wife and jealousy...she's training for the Mickelson Trail 100-Ultra and could use a running partner on the looooong days. If you're entertaining another shot at a 50 this spring/summer and need a route or training partner, holla'! She ran her first 50-miler in 7:30...so she can cook.
Douglas: Can She Bake?
MUNSON TO THE RESCUE!!!! (partially)
I have a set of rollers with a fork mount. They are gathering dust in the parents basement. Let me know if you conjure up another set and if all get's planned out. I could also possibly supply a projector for a night/weekend.
I'll keep tabs on this and get my stuff together if the stars align.
EB:
Boy can she!
good point about just using an old freewheel hub, i can poke around the bike coop for some of that (once we have the bicycles, odds are they might have one anyway).
in lieu of a wheel build i'll donate some red loctite and BB lockrings for freewheel fixing
Munson:
Sweet! One set of rollers accounted for. Nice! Loaning the projector on a case by case may work as well.
Now if we can get the Slowdown on board we can figure out how often to have races. Every other weekend? Once a month with the finals in the fall? Cover charge? etc, etc, etc.
We get the parts first then we can worry about the small stuff.
Pedal bitches! Pedal!
The Douglas:
That is cooking. Your wife that is. But I bet you can cook too. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt until other wise noted.
I think I will be putting a 50 down in a few weeks, but I'd be up for some longer runs later in the season or whatever. Shiver me timbers.
I've got a set of alum rollers that I could loan. We'd have to still purchase a cycleops fork mount adapter ($89 new), but it's at least a start on a second set of rollers
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