A Broken Axle

You might have seen on my last post how I took apart my rear hub, found a broken paw spring and thus decided to reduce the number of paws in my hub to a equalized triangle per Industry Nine's specs. It rode nice.....until the 3rd ride of which the 1st two rides were lunch rides and the 3rd ride I was two hours in, so you may call it the only ride if every ride you ride you expect to be of epic or length or as a roadie told me once...."I won't even get on my bike if I can't ride longer then 2 hours." Not having a roadie's mentality I'll still think of this as the 3rd ride even though the 1st two rides were lunch rides of less then 2 hours.

If you followed that then continue.....

On that 3rd ride which was a ride ride and not a lunch ride, my freehub started slipping. I had already climbed Green Mtn that morning; up Hayden, crossed to the backside on Summit, which still needed more drying time and crossed back over to descend Rooney Valley. From there I had climbed Zorro, descended Dakota Ridge and started to climb up the Red Rocks when the offending freehub began it's slip.

By the time I reached the actual Red Rocks my freehub had completely given up and I took the wheel off to see if I could do a trailside fix. What I found instead was my one piece axle was now two and able to be removed without tools of any sort.



Not good...

I thought to walk back to my truck but either way I looked at it, my truck was miles away. I called my wife but the kids were napping so I took a chance and called Bad Andy who had just finished church to be forgiven of his heathenish ways and just so happened he was home and willing to come get me.

Bad Andy, what ever they tell you at the Pearly Gates...for your one good deed that day, you are forgiven all else.

Once back to my truck I drove home, slapped on another rear wheel, went back to Green Mtn and got in another hour and a half of single track loving fun before calling it a good day.

A good day indeed. So I later called Industry Nine fully expecting to pay for a new axle and the paw springs that cracked when the axle when out thinking I had done something wrong in the Hub Love I had recently given it. I-9 says they had some issues with their 1st Generation axles and they have a new axle available and all will be covered under warranty. Thanks for the outstanding customer service Industry Nine. Your above and beyond customer service should be a benchmark for other companies!

Some Hub Love

Since buying my daringly expensive though cheaper then you think, Craigslist bought Industry Nine wheels I've had an issue. When set up geared (compared to SS) my cassette would rotate forward 90 to 180 degrees, wrapping the chain and making a good peddle stroke inefficient.



I finally took the time to tear down my rear up and I found a paw spring had broken into about five pieces. All of these little pieces were floating around and getting caught between the paws and the drive gear binding it up. I thought to replace the spring but I also wanted to quieten down the hub a bit so I took three paws out including the offending spring.



I've had some friends question why quieten the hub and all I can say is, "On a good long adventure with a bonk looming near my hearing becomes sensitive and silence or close to it, is golden".

1st Time on the Board this Season!

Since I sold my board back in November I rented a Colorado made Never Summer Heritage. This board just rips. Below is a little video I put together. Unfortunately the best riding couldn't be filmed due to almost whiteout conditions above 11,000 ft where the wind was ripping and throwing snow like paper mache.

Rise of the Phoenix

The Falcon died last last year but from its ashes, a Phoenix has risen. Thicker tubes, top and down tube gussets and clear coat help make this one better then the first.



and all craft need some nose art before going to battle





narrow singletrack on Green Mtn...can it be so?



Box O Rox hurts worse in the winter



and the wind up top...had some kick



and one more for the road

Skinning Loveland

Ever since moving to Colorado snow sports have appealed but the cost had always been the limiting factor. My 1st year here I picked up snowboarding and got in a good season of 23 days on the slopes. Last year funds dropped and cost of living increased and I got a measly 3 days on the slopes. This year I've yet to get a day on the board but am hoping to change that in the next few weeks.



Back country beckoned but the idea of being caught in an avalanche...simply put, scares the shit out of me. It should too, experienced backcountry users with avalanche training and the proper gear can be caught off guard even in areas they know well. The number one killer for winter backcountry use in Colorado is an avalanche and being a father and husband, it makes me take pause.



This weekend I knew the mountain bike trails were gonna be out due to all the recent snow fall in the Denver area so I sent my buddy PBR a text to see if he wanted to do some low angle and relatively safe backcountry at Butler Gulch. He was game so I contacted another buddy, Bad Andy to see if I could borrow his gear.



All was set but when Bad Andy and myself started talking more about it, he brought up some concerns. The ok snowboarder that I am, skiing is something I had never done in my life. His concerns were the trees in the Butler Gulch area and it rose my own concerns to where I contacted another friend who was a skier and snowboarder and we all came to the conclusion that maybe I should try some wide open areas 1st. Bad Andy's idea was skin up Loveland before the lifts opened and after some coercion we got PBR talked into it.



PBR and I arrived at the Loveland Ski area around 6:30am in the morning. We skinned up about 2 miles and somewhere around 1500-2000 ft to a little over 12,000 ft. I'll admit that the skin left me feeling a little too self assured as skinning is just about as easy as hiking. As soon as the skis turned downhill though, I became about as efficient as a snail high on crack. It was so ugly, that it took me almost 3 hours to ski down what it had taken a little over an hour to skin up. It was so ugly that ski patrol stopped and asked us three times if I wanted a ride down, which I turned down all three.



Funny though, as slow as I was, it didn't give a knuckle dragging snowboarder the chance to avoid me. Fugger! He got his ears chomped a bit but in the end, I let it go. Even funnier, I'm going back to the old faithful snowboard. Though I am looking at a Split board set up, which is basically a snowboard that can be split into two halves for skinning up the mountain and then put back together so you can snowboard down.

Custom Misfit Dissent Fe (geared or singlespeed) for Sale

$850 with the Buyer to pay shipping. Help me fund my next 29er project.

All the gory details on the MTBR Classifieds.



oh, and Sunday...its time for something new and I'll be in the high country with PBR doing this....

T.I.T.S. Snow Ride

Just another night on Green Mtn....and it was Bad ass!



If you have broadband internet click the 360p and change it to 720p to watch this in HD.