NYC Journal

Phil,

BTW my steel IBIS came with a Shimano U-brake on the rear. Mounting was on the seat stays though.

Currently I am using a BMX U-brake.

I believe the Sun Tour roller cam brake is like a BMX Pit-Bull.

The Ti IBIS pre-dates V-brakes and feature a “Hand-Job” which is an investment cast fist that is a cable hanger on cantilever brake bikes.

Cal
 
Thanks Cal,
I just pulled the trigger on an order for some wheel building. I went with the Andra 40, for both front and rear. The front is going to be laced to an old Sachs Quarz hub I have. It has wide sealed bearings and is really lightweight but known for durability off road. I’m using Sapim 2.0 spokes for a 3 cross lacing front and rear.
My buddy Kurt, who is a colleague in the mental health business here, has a spare set of Magura RaceLite brakes he’s offering me for super cheap. I may go for those but it will make me need to create a bash guard for under the brake up to the bottom bracket. Just the kind of crazy project I like.
Phil Forrest
 
Cal,
Thanks for the insight. I've always disliked U-Brakes and rollercams because I've been a shop mechanic and had to repair or replace them due to people neglecting their bicycles. That area is certainly neglected, with a combination of mud, grease, lube, road salt, garbage, and HAIR from whatever carpeted apartment the offending bike has been kept in. One thing I've read about recently is that the rollercam design can be powerful enough to flex the stays, so I'm going to be either designing or finding a brace to get the most out of the brake. I'm going to do a full overhaul, which will include replacement of cables and housing, chain, and the bike is getting new ss freewheel and chainring. I do need to find a new set of cantilevers around here somewhere, since the old DiaCompes up front are corroded and are known for not stopping as well as they did 35 years ago. I have a couple sets of brakes around here, one of them is a Shimano Deerhead XT which stop very well, but this is the first gen which didn't have a centering spring tension adjustment, which is anyone's only complaint about them. Otherwise, they are outstanding cantis. The brake levers are getting replaced, as are the grips. I have a set of XC Pro levers which I'll stick on there.
This bike is bone stock, as-delivered and like many mtbs of the early era, it is a mix and match of Suntour, Shimano, Tange, and DiaCompe components. I need to get into the headset to see if it is at all indexed also. Mucho busy in my basement shop these days; usually I don't have two projects fighting for the stand. It's all coming together though.
Phil Forrest
 
My 99 year old mother-in-law passed away a month ago. She wasn't the nicest woman one would want to meet but she was rich, very rich. It’s a convoluted story but she left all her money to her eldest son. In the event that he should die, all would go to his eldest son.

My mother-in-law had 7 children. While she was in a care facility 2 of her children died; one of which was her eldest son. Nobody told her that her eldest (favorite) son had died because that would have killed her. She died anyway.

Now, some of the remaining children are unhappy that the eldest son's son is going to inherit a fortune. Of the 5 remaining children (all are over 65 years old) 3 of them think that the money should be divided equally amongst them. My wife strongly believes that her mother’s wishes should be respected and that the eldest son's son should inherit the money per her mother’s will.

Greed is tearing this family apart.

All the best,
Mike
 
Mike,

Greed and entitlement is part of American Culture.

I knew a truck driver who’s grandmother made a lot of money in real estate. Pretty much he had a trust fund, but one of the agreements of the fund was that Mike had to have a full time job. I guess the grandmother wanted him to remain humble, but Mike had a cigarette boat that had 3 engines and a 750 gallon gas tank. A full tank would last about 2 weeks.

Bought his wife a Land Rover, but she did not like it, so it sat in a garage. One day he goes to the boatyard to price getting new motors, he drove basically a new Land Rover to the boatyard, a comment was made about the new SUV by the yard owner, and somehow a partial trade happened towards the new engines…

Then there was Andrew Carn-NA-GEE of Pittsburg Steel fame. He had people killed in his union busting, created ghetto’s, and exploited his own form of institutional poverty, but later in life tried to buy a stairway to heaven by creating a foundation to undo the evil he had created.

”Maggie” has a friend who is an heiress with a trust fund, what an unhappy person… Her life is very sad…

My point is that there are a lot of wealthy people who lack meaning in their lives, don’t know struggle, and are not only unhappy and empty, but get trapped into a lifestyle where they have distorted values.

Some people call it “blold-money” because it has a price.

A lot different if you escape poverty, or become wealthy by your own hard work. Money earned has a different value.

Cal
 
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Last night it likely rained more than an inch of rain. My garden got a real soaking. 100% chance of rain today. The rain made it so I didn’t have to water, and I’ll se how my erosion controls worked.

I might use today to pull knotweed down by the marsh grass since it is a cool day. I’ll dress in pants and boots to avoid ticks. The marsh grass is displaying green shoots where it is backfilling where Knotweed once had a dense thicket. Now it is the Knotweed that is getting choked out by marsh grass due to my intervention.

The bamboo like plant has been weakened to the point where root and rye-Zome often come up with the stalk.

Lots of yard work happened yesterday, but this got sped up because I had the help of Maggie. We stopped around 2:00 PM to attend the grand daughter’s soccer game. We were in a state of relaxed tiredness that was mighty pleasant, and we felt accomplished because we got a lot done.

Today I likely will have to do a Home Cheapo run and get more mulch and pressure treated lumber.

Had a bout of hysterical woman syndrome, where a PhD woman overthinks and overwhelms herself with all her OCD like planning. We have a cheapo temporary shower head in our brand new bath, and a shower manifold for a rain shower head and hand pendant now has an expected incoming date of 7/22/2023.

This manifold has a brass finish and has been backordered since January. My POV is all we can do is wait, meanwhile we still have a bathroom that functions, so oh-well we have to wait… But this causes hysteria in some people. Oh-well again.

Sometime happiness is a choice… but I didn’t say that. LOL. Don’t tell Maggie.

Also meanwhile I have other things to do. Part of the culture of a wired digital influencer is a lack of patience. Everything has to happen fast and there is always a backdrop of immediacy that becomes expected, but in real life it does not always work that way.

I see how this makes and creates unrelaxed behavior, anger and unhappiness. It gets real crazy. I’m glad I’m not stuck in this mode of getting so upset over nothing. “Oh-well,” I say.

”Happiness is a choice, and so is anger,” I say. Problem is that there are so many angry people out there That basically are unhappy for no good reason.

I am waiting for a guitar neck to be built. 6-weeks lead time, should I be anxious and angry that it was not in stock? BTW I knew of the long lead time when I ordered it. Do I have a right to get hysterical and angry?

Anyways this behavior is readily predictable, and yesterday and the day before were days where Maggie and I did a lot of work we could do, basically because I had materials on hand and stockpile so the work can flow.

Seems like a woman with a PhD has no comprehension of lead-times, logistics, management, and planning.

Do you think anyone who has a frenzied life and is overwhelmed is happy?

BTW I know that learning to relax is an art form in itself, it is learned behavior, but most people I find can’t really relax.

For artists the most valuable asset is free-time…

Cal
 
Today might be a washout.

Might just work on bikes today and convert the Ti IBIS from a single speed to an 2x11-speed. Also might convert from rigid to a suspension fork.

I have a 1 1/8 inch Rock Shox Judy that has a new damper cart, Speed Springs, upgraded brake bridge, and all Ti hardware.

Pretty much would be the bike for “Trail” riding with wide gearing and long epic rides.

This would be the bike for New Paltz and Lake Minnow-Wask-Kaa.

It is really-really nice having a steel version of the IBIS set up as a 1x11 technical bike.

Cal
 
Around lunchtime I was able to go and kill Knotweed, the rain stopped.

Like I thought the rain softened the soil and many stalks came up root and all.

The cool weather allowed me to enter the marsh grass. I wore sweats, socks, boots, and a long sleeve shirt to protect from ticks.

Was able to pull some Knotweed from the dead end also.

What impressed me the most was that the marsh grass now is right up to the embankment I made that creates a terraced landing just about 20-24 inches up the slope. My idea is to let the marsh grass choke out the Knotweed, and by removing the Knotweed the marsh grass can fill in.

Last year it moved in about 8 feet, and now with the new growth and shoots it is about 10 feet. I would expect it to fill in and get lush as it once was before the knotweed invasion.

The marsh with Dickey Brook and a frog pond seen from my bluff is might pretty, and in the distance is a hillside of forest.

Things really greened up after the rain, and now the sun is out.

Today was a good day to attack the Knotweed.

Did work on my Ti IBIS a little bit in the morning. Mounted a front tire and on the new 11-speed wheel a Billy Bonkers, a tire that is made/designed for pump track with a gravel like thread that has a low rolling resistance.

Cal
 
I tell you, searching for tires for the old 24" Raleigh Edge is hard. I may have to special order a Maxxis Snyper 24x2.0 because, just like with the Breezer, this bike comes from the days when 1.95" was wide and anything wider was for downhill. It's even harder in the 24" width. I don't want to risk the 2.1 Schwalbe and have to physically cut off all the edge knobs in order to clear the stays. I suppose I could get one from Amazon and if it didn't fit, just return it. I like the tread pattern of the Snyper. I'm going to ask my buddy at the shop if they stock any Specialized Ground Control that are narrow, because they may work as well. Another good tread pattern. There's always the Continental Double Fighter, which is a very fast, low rolling resistance tire, not unlike the Billy Bonkers, but with some knobs on the edges. Those are readily available and cheap, so I may just grab one to have on hand. Finding one with more bite is proving to be a bit more difficult.
Phil Forrest
 
Phil,

The Billy Bonkers is a 24x2.0 and there are no side knobs. The compound is soft and sticky and is not hard rubber.

The Ground Control came stock on the steel IBIS Mountain Trials. Tires are hard to secure and a 2.1 width can be tricky. I have an Arrow Racing 24x2.1 that barely has clearance but this is a very aggressive tire that if I measure the axel height is actually an odd 25 inch tall tire with side knobs. I use this tire on my heavy duty trials wheel With a 26x2.3 on the front, and the tire barely clears.

I think the Schwable 24x2.1 Rocket Ron should also work for you. It seems our bikes are of the same era with U-brakes on the rear and 24x2.0 was wide. Not sure if the Ground Control was a 2.1 back in the day or a 2.0.

BTW the Billy Bonkers and Rocket Ron are available in Kevlar bead.

I will likely stock up on more tires. I bought two sets of Kojak slicks, and now it seems the 24x1.5 size is discontinued. These tires are fast, and they resist flats really well.

Both the steel and Ti IBIS have UBER short 15 1/2 inch chainstays, but the steel IBIS features horizontal dropouts, while the Ti IBIS has vertical dropouts. The short wheelbase is what makes my bikes “twitchy.” The steel IBIS has a wheelbase of 39 1/2 inches, and the Ti IBIS 40 inches. The 1/2 inch difference is a lot.

Pretty much I am happy with the tires I now have, but in the past I was very-very limited and finding good tires was very difficult.

Cal
 
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BTW my steel IBIS had a Shimano U-brake and Shimano front derailleur and a six speed Shimano rear, but the rest was XC-Pro grease guard including the peddles, BB…

Back in the day they did a lot of mismatching.

Do you know the date of Shimano 6-speed? I know indexed shifting was developed and brand new on 6-speed. This would help me date my steel IBIS. Pretty much I got a blowout deal because it went unloved because of the mullet configuration.

Cal
 
Cal,
With the MTB gear, it was all borrowed from Shimano 600, and indexing was introduced in the early 80s in the road scene. SIS housing wasn’t developed until maybe 84, which is probably the bleeding edge of early Deore MT60 shifters. Indexing existed on road bikes a few years prior, but they were all still shifting from the downtube, and using standard wound coil bowden housing would allow a significant amount of pull or slack when steering, if the shifters were on the handlebars. This is why indexing took longer to trickle down to the MTB market, as the thought was that a MTB rider would be steering at slow speed enough that it could accidentally cause the chain to skip. The Raleigh Edge still has the original Suntour XC9000 hubs and a Shimano 600 freewheel, with Deore 6 speed shifters. The freewheel is pretty gross and needs an overhaul or replacement. I need to see what kind of gearing I have available to build up a Suntour New Winner freewheel, if I ever use the Edge with multiple gears. If so, I wouldn’t do a triple in front, only a double at most and the idea of a 1x6 is really appealing.
I haven’t had the chance to do anything with the Raleigh mullet since the Breezer is still occupying the stand and isn’t yet a rolling rig. Wheels still need a final true, and I’m still waiting on a couple unique bolts for the Maguras.
Last night I got my cranks set up with a Girvin RockRing but looking at it, I think I want to take it off. My only issue is that these are the first (and probably last) XC Pro chainrings I’ve owned, so I want to protect them. That said, I can only think of maybe 20 times in 30 years that I’ve actually bashed the big ring on anything and I think I damaged a couple teeth only several times, as most of the impacts have been with logs, not rocks.
Breezer should be done this week then the mullet will go into the stand for complete component strip, framesaver, and paint chip repair. I’m going to assess the components and see if anything needs replacing. Most likely the headset will have been indexed and BB bearings may need replacement. Square taper cartridge bottom brackets of any sort of quality are all but unobtainable these days. Used UN52 are going for real money and anything better are super expensive. I could have made a car payment if I had sold the XTR unit in the Breezer.
Phil Forrest
 
Phil,

Six and a half decades of age makes timelines useful. Your information allows me to correct my bad: the steel IBIS came with six-speed Devore SIS and had 46/36/26 and a 12-28T freewheel. Now I remember…

My research says that XC Pro and MicroDrive came out in 1990 and those parts were recycled from the Ti Basso (rebranded Litespeed) that was a show bike from some trade show in California. I likely had one of the very first bikes with XC Pro MicroDrive That I might of gotten in 1989, or very early 1990.

I bought the steel IBIS around 87 or 88. Just trying to date how long it languished at “Brands” as an display model that went unloved. I got it at a discounted price as a leftover fort $500.00.

I helped win the Cold War working at Los Alamos on one of Ronald Ray-Gun’s Star Wars projects. It was when I returned to New York from that field assignment that I bought the steel IBIS. The Cold War they say ended in December 1989.

I immediately fell in love with the agility and aggressive response.

How cool is it to have a bike for over 30 years that you bought new?

Cal
 
Built another bed with pressure treated lumber. Made a couple of squares as frames to build more gravel steps/staircase that will lead down to the new terrace path.

Also started to make the gate part of the fence. This required adding a length of cedar along the sides to join the topper to the 5 foot fence section which also is a strengthening to unify the two discreet sections into one.

Some clever problem solving to cut an 8-foot long section into a 3 foot section which will be a gate/door off the driveway, and saving a 5 foot section to maybe make a gate on the side yard inbetween our house and the next-door neighbor’s property.

Came up with a cool idea of using a pad of framed gravel as a base for the gate opening, but also to beef up the two posts that enclose the gate. Overkill for sure, but one and done. Another function of the gravel pad is drainage that will feed The flower bed I built just in front of the fence. This fence is a work of engineering of sorts. LOL.

After the heavy rain it seems spring sprang. Remarkable growth is happening.

Cal
 
Phil,

The Rock Ring is for rocks. I guess useful for that purpose, but pretty much chainrings do fine by themselves on logs.

My Middleburn Trials Guard is great for a 30 gear inch bike, where pretty much the bike has to be capable of handling rocks and other obstacles.

Cal
 
Our friend John says I have a “Camera Museum” because of not only the selection and the span, but maybe because I kinda capture history and novelty.

I do have a pretty wide selection of gear, but I’m not like Devil Dan…

When we bought the house, in a private deal we also bought some furniture that kinda went with the house, and one of those items was a china closet that is the real deal Victorian era with 4 glass shelves. The front door has glass that bulges and is curved in an arc, and the sides have glass sides that are curved. This china cabinet is about a hundred years old.

Not simple craftsman, but ornate Victorian and kinda fancy. So the logical jump is that it would make a great camera display for my gear. When we connect the tower room to the second largest bedroom to make a master suite it was “Maggie’s” idea that we should recycle the china closet as for my camera storage.

Is this my dream come true?

Anyways she wants me to build some simple craftsman style built ins for the dining room…

I forgot to mention that the rear of the china closet is mirrored and even has the original skeleton key.

How cool is that?

So in the tower room, in our bedroom, will be my cameras. Sweet dreams… LOL.

The grandson is almost 8 months old. Teeth are coming in and he is at times a monster-baby. BTW he is not small anymore and pushing him in a stroller is approaching 40 pounds on wheels. Maggie complains she can’t handle and hold him like she use to.

I took him for a 2 1/2 stroll today up and down hills. He slept and pretty much woke up as a new baby.

I cleaned up a bit in the back-backyard. Mighty hill-billy looking with piles of stuff I need to dispose of or move around. Gravel, compost, trash, building materials and supplies. Mighty hill-billy.

I have a collection of plastic pots in case I need any, but I need to likely put them out for recycling Friday. Pretty much a huge pile right next to my pretty cedar garden shed.

Don’t tell anyone, but I’m storing logs in the dead end. I have some ideas to make log modules I can build and stack to build trials obstacles to practice on. I will clear out some brush on the dead end so I can kinda annex the land for my own use (trials course and modular log storage). Also the way my dead end is I also have partial pavement on the second building lot.

I noticed today that they changed the no parking signs on my property to no parking December first to April first. Pretty much the opened up the envelope two weeks on either end for the change in the weather patterns and to account for global warming. The City of Peekskill BTW does a superb job of plowing while the town of Cortland ( a township of villages and other towns) is not so great.

The lowdown is Peekskill is the city, and Cortlandt which surrounds Peekskill is the burbs.

I love when it snows that I have no sidewalks to shovel because I’m on the outskirts of the city. All I have to shovel is my front walkway and my UBER short driveway. The city plows my dead end. I love it.

Cal
 
Uber Good I'd imagine. I can't see much grain at all at 1600, makes a real nice 5x7 which is a perfect size for 35mm for printing. I'd wonder how much shadow detail at 3200? I've heard from a friend it's very good at 3200. HP5+ is good stuff
 
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