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If I'm traveling, I tend to bring a go-bar with me. A typical go-bar is a handle of WT101, a bottle of Laphroaig 10, and probably a rye of some type. Jessica and I spent xmas at BBRSP. After three nights at the Mining Company, we drove to the other side of the Solitario for a night of camping at the park's most remote site, Tres Papalotes. Laphroaig makes for a killer campfire dram.

Rode Pace Bend this Monday and trails were perfect. Wood features were great. There are some new to me downhill runs and some berms looked recently made with some small colored markings with arrows. I hadn’t been there in a while though. Several enduro lines, longest one from the top of the climb, instead of looping back up the hill you go down. None seem to interfere or disrupt the regular trails.

I've tried doing it by hand. It was impossible. Threw the saddle away. This seems like the easiest method to get it done.

And it only gets worse when you leave the convention hall and realize you're in Dallas.

I was going to tie it to the back of my truck and drag it around the neighborhood

Pumpkin, cinnamon, and habenero combine to make a very nice beer, and it also helps clear your sinuses.

I was thinking it might be beneficial to some of us to have a technical and maintenance thread. Especially for those of us who wrench their own bikes and for those who might want to learn to do their own maintenance and repairs. So let me kick this off with a little brake maintenance that I believe gets over looked but shouldn't be. This is something you may want to consider doing if you notice you have a brake pad dragging. A dragging brake pad may be an indication of dirty brake pistons sticking when trying to retract. To start I got on one of my bikes the other day and realized the brakes weren't as good as the brakes on my other bike. I was getting no stopping power when I would try to stop. The bike has been sitting unused for a bit so I figured the brakes may have gotten contaminated just sitting in my garage. I do a lot of house type stuff and vehicle maintenance in the garage. Step one was to remove the wheels and then remove the rotors. Once I had the rotors off I took some 180P grit sandpaper on a sanding block and sanded both sides of the rotors making sure I sanded of all of the old wear indication off both sides of the rotors. Once the rotors were sanded I used denatured alcohol (isopropyl works as well) in a spray bottle to remove any sanding dust making sure the rotors were clean. Don't touch your clean rotors with bare hands it'll transfer oil onto the surface you just cleaned causing the initial issue. I then remounted the rotors torquing them to spec for the rotor bolts. From there I moved on to cleaning the brake pistons (this is the part I believe gets overlooked). When cleaning the brake pistons you'll need to remove the brake pads and using the lever expand the pistons as far as possible out of their bore without causing them to come completely out. Sounds scary but not really, it's kinda hard to get them to come completely out. Once I have the pistons out far enough I take mineral oil which is what my brakes use as fluid on a q-tip and start to clean the pistons. Taking the q-tip and going around the outside of the piston where it slides into the caliper you want to get as much black brake dust and dirt off as you possibly can this also lubricates the piston. You can do this a couple of times cleaning with alcohol in between each time. Once the pistons are clean you'll need to use a flat object that fits between the pistons on the inside of the caliper and push the pistons back into the caliper. You don't want to pry when doing this, you want to push the pistons back in straight and square, prying can damage your caliper or pistons. When done make sure to clean the caliper thoroughly with alcohol wipe with a clean shop rag and then blow them out (canned air works fine for this). You can now install NEW BRAKE PADS, you don't want to use the old pads due potential contamination which is how we got here to begin with. Once the new pads are installed reinstall the wheel and move on to the next wheel. Once you've finished it's time to bed the new pads in. Bedding in is the process of depositing brake pad material onto the rotor without over heating it causing what's known as glazing. When bedding brakes in you want to get up to a good speed not screaming fast but relatively fast and apply even pressure on the brakes slowing the bike down but not coming to a complete stop. You'll need to do this at least half a dozen times, as you're doing this you'll notice the brakes working better each time until there is no noticeable difference. Once satisfied with how your brakes are working you're done and can now move onto the next step. Going out and riding your bike while feeling like you did something positive and rewarding. PS; if you notice that you still don't have good bite or soft lever with your brakes you'll need to do a brake bleed. Maybe next installment of this thread. Also if your brakes are working fine but you notice a pad dragging you can just go right to the piston cleaning procedure. Below is a picture of what the q-tips look like after cleaning my brake pistons. Hope this helps some people.

I use an old phone to broadcast on my TV and my current phone for the companion app. Super easy and everything is blue tooth

I make a great bad example.

I don't know that the rails from the Fabric saddle come out. I believe the rails are cast into the saddle but I could be wrong.

I use the AppleTV app usually, sometimes laptop with HDMI to TV.

Anybody done this before? If so, similar approach or something simpler? I have a really nice Fabric saddle with broken carbon rails and a Fizik saddle that I'm not using. Was thinking about trying to remove the chromoly rails from the Fizik saddle to place into the Fabric saddle.

That's a hell of a combination.

Bawahaha!

Hit Double Down for the first time in over 6 months today, W-to-E. Sure was nice to be back! Trails were superb and I never encountered another soul.

Have you changed your tune or are you surmising that this thread is not political?

A breakthrough of sorts. Pulled the wheel off and took the dropouts sliders out. Bad news: Kona does a proprietary slider, so the Paragon sliders from my other bike will not work. But in taking the slider apart I noticed the drive-side dropout was severely grooved (see pic below). My gut was telling me that the sound was coming from the dropout, so this could be the culprit. I took a mini grinder and smoothed that down. I was also able to find an old 8-speed chain that fit it perfectly (the 9-speed chain was a little short and the slider was as far forward as possible so it was hitting the frame, not the adjustment screw. If this fixes it then I will probably replace the dropout and get a new chain while I am at it (not a big fan of running multiple magic links on a chain that gets high torque on hills). Anybody want to lay odds on the dropout being the problem? Ed, you were riding behind me and trying to listen so you had the best perspective.

It's just three weeks until race day!!!! We've made a lot of improvements since the last race. The times should be at least 30 seconds faster. Go sign up. https://www.facebook.com/events/2354948434833999

Thank you, the last ten days sucked pretty badly. A couple days ago things turned around and she was awake and pretty normal. Everyday is a big improvement.

Back in the day I felt we (at HH) had one of the best wheel-building games in town. When we moved on and our customers would ask our opinion, we'd recommend James with confidence. I believe back then, at that time, he was with Jack & Adam's cycles. Later, CJB

Let me fix that: How to clean your brakes

Saturday night Old Fashioned(s): a tutorial your ingredients are: Bulleit Bourbon Angostura Bitters Angostura Orange Bitters Simple syrup Orange Cherry Large surface ice cube The process: 1/2 teaspoon simple syrup 2 dashes bitters 2 dashes orange bitters 2oz bourbon *mix* 1 large ice cube 1 slice orange peele (spun out over glass to release oils) 1 cherry (I’m out of Luxardo, so your standard poor man cherry will have to do) Enjoy