Comparison

Swapped out the wheels on the El M. to the back ups for the coming Spokane weekend. I felt inspired to take a little comparison shot. Anybody remember back in the day when a 1.95 was a huge tire? Now a 2.1 seems crazy narrow(to me at least), not 100% excited about getting these low(er) volume meats out on dirt, but they are much more appropriate for the pavement miles I'll be logging so there you go.

2.55 Weirwolff on the left and 2.1 Nano on the right.

Don't Know What I'm Doing...

...but it's not like that's ever stopped me before. I abandoned the purpleheart and bubinga core and instead went with three layers of bamboo. Horizontal grain running lengthwise on the top and bottom and vertical grain running perpendicular in the middle. Even though the veneers are listed as 1/8" they measure a little thicker making the total thickness ~1/2". It's pressed up so that there's a 1 1/2" arc over the 47" of material that I've got set up. Shannon's going to come over a little later today and drop some knowledge about how I should be setting it up when I'm ready to start cutting and drilling. Hopefully this isn't all for naught, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

The Current Project List

My list of projects just keeps growing. Here's what's currently awaiting completion, in no particular order:

1. The boat. Does anyone even remember the boat? Well I've been getting some work done on it lately. As of right now the keelson is repaired, the bottom is finished, and it's right side up in a webbing cradle. My hope is to get it done by late summer, use it a bit while the weather is still nice, and deliver it back to Pat sometime in the fall.
2. Bamboo vanity top for my parents. The cost of bamboo ply in the 'nix is downright unreal, it cost nearly three times more there than I can buy it for here in Seattle. I picked up a sheet of 3/4" blond vertical grain ply today and fab will go down the next time I get decent weather.(I don't have room in the garage to make it happen)
   
3. Paul and Sean's couch. It's a little repair job that's kind of fallen to the back burner, the new part I've built is ready to go, I just need to find some time to go over there and take care of the hard part.
4. Shannon's new bike. I brought home Shannon's new(to him) mountain bike from the party on Friday. It needs a bit of a tune up and some minor misc parts. I'm mostly done right now, I just want to swap the tires out for something a little less shitty than what he's got currently.
5. Longboard. Oh yeah, a longboard. I've been captivated by longboards for a long time now and when I was picking up the bamboo for the vanity I was able to get some 1/8" veneer remnants for just a couple of dollars. I've got some purpleheart and bubinga I can use for the core already in the garage. I'm going to try and get the core ready today and laminate the deck together tomorrow. This might end up being a complete and total failure since I don't know shit about what I'm doing so don't expect anything great to come of this.
6. Front fender for the tank. I could have used this today, it was raining like a mother fucker on my way to class this morning. I've got the walnut bent and ready to go, I just need to get to work on it. Longboard first.

I think that covers it. I'm going to have a half sheet of 3/4 ply left over when I get done with the vanity so I'm sure that will lead to something else I can add to the list.

Paradise Found

One of the first things I did when we got to Seattle was buy a mountain biking guide book for the area.  One of the crazy things about this guide is that it lists a number of places that are currently closed to bikes.  After a brief explanation about the trail closure the book talks about how you might have wanted to drive to the trails, routing suggestions you might have wanted to take into consideration, and a detailed description about utterly fantastic these tails you'll never never get to ride are.  At first I thought this might be just to help pad out what is a pretty thin book to begin with(at least by AZ standards), or maybe an invitation to poach(although the book clearly discourages that), but really it's call to action.  Paradise Valley is one of those trails.  A week ago it reopened thanks to a great deal of work put in by our local advocacy group. 

All of the trails are very well marked, although a map on my person might have helped a little since I was riding around with near zero beta to begin with.

The "Mt. Bike Park" isn't much more than about a mile worth of twisty trail.  Don't think it's not any fun though.  I had a blast for I do so love those little twisty switchbacks and such.

Someone was thoughtful enough to put a number of these nice little log skinnies alongside the trail.

I don't remember the trail being this purple, odd.

Nicely built section of elevated trail.

The book was right by the way, the trail is fantastic.  I'm considering heading back today with TBFKaU.

Note to Self:

You Know That Feeling...

...when someone kicks your $100 helmet across a classroom where someone else nearly steps on it? No? Well let's pretend that you do. So my back up helmet is at my parents place in the 'nix and Shannon took care of my back up's back up, so I picked up this little gem for future trips to school. ABS shell and super cheap means that I couldn't give a shit if it gets kicked around a little.

Looking as sexy as I do with it on is just a bonus.

So It's Come To This...

Open comments have come to an end. In the last two days I've gotten some 13 comments inviting me to join some group, save a prince, or see Natasha naked. Whether or not I want to see Natasha naked aside, the spam comments are not welcome here. From here on out I'll be moderating comments. As far as Natasha is concerned, that's what Google image search is for.