Saturday, March 13, 2010

Sloppy Spring Weather

DO NOT BUY LYNSKEY. My frame was an absolute noodle with rear end tire rub, squeaking, popping, dropped chains and general no-funnery. I spent a year bickering with several representatives at Lynskey (including the arrogant David Lynskey) only to be told that I needed to tighten my seat post clamp, lubricate my slider every 3 rides (what?!), etc. Ultimately the frame broke both in the sliders (hairline crack) and failed massively at the headtube-downtube junction. The original fix was going to be a replaced downtube but after lots of argument they finally sent a replacement frame. I sold the replacement frame without assembling it on Craigslist. I received an email soon after posting the frame for sale telling me that they were shocked that I was selling it without riding it and if they had known I was just going to sell it they wouldn't have offered a replacement frame. These guys are the friendliest people you'll ever meet when you're buying a new frame but it turns bad fast when things aren't going well. For those of you around bikes awhile this sounds a lot like the BS surrounding Litespeed under Lynskey's watch prior to the brand being sold off. Do youself a favor and give your hard earned money to people that actually ride and know how to design and support bikes. As always, you may have a wonderful experience unlike me but why take the chance?

I was able to squeeze in another ride today. The trails were pretty empty. I assume most of Columbia was out getting their share of the green beer downtown. We had a pretty hard rain on Friday so there was a lot of standing water on the trail. The trail itself was pretty solid so there was really no harm in riding. There are still a lot of piggy sections to walk around or sometimes through. I couldn't stop thinking that I could really use some fenders on the Lynskey to cut down on the spray.



I'm in fat old man shape right now so a few breaks were in order. The unusual rain made a new sand and rock beach on the creek running by the Spider Woman section. I think this will be my new hang out if I decide to sit and reflect.



Singlespeeds shine in this kind of slop. No complicated wiggly mechanicals to act like a princess in the mud.



You can't see it in this photo but I pinched my tube on Spider Woman. You can't see it in the photos because I stopped a few times to top the tube off. I have a patch kit with me but I didn't want to bother since it was a slow leak (and I'm lazy). Tubeless here I come!