Cracked Elbow Blues

I've got the cracked elbow blues,
I have not been diagnosed,
I've got the sore arm blues,
No, I know something ain't right.

From the crash of about a month ago, I still have soreness and tenderness in the elbow. You can also, if you push in the right places (please don't touch me), find some bone chips to move around. And I can't pay a doctor to tell me what I already know. Next time I fall perhaps I shouldn't put all my weight into only one tiny sharp end of a bone.

Moving on... My plans for a personal bike this next season have me all confused. I am tempted to look at getting a new Jamis Composite Road bike for myself and pull a George Costanza by doing the opposite of what Scott would do. I've never owned a bike with full composite everything. Maybe it is time I move to the dark (composite grey) side.

But, then I see the Maverick ML8 everyday and it makes my stomach hurt to not ride it!

And then Giant goes and puts out a new bike called the Trance X0 that is going to be the *Perfect* front range bike. They didn't pull any bait and switch on this bike. It is pure evil. For those of you who have ridden a Trance, you know that the 4.2" of travel feels way bigger, probably closer to 5.5". So, I'm thinking that the X0 is going to feel like a downhill bike that can climb all day. Only riding will tell.

And then there is the other thing in the back of my mind that no one wants me to do... the ultimate bike from Black Sheep: Ti frame built up with 14 speed internal speed wheels. Sex. Dripping. Oozing. Sex.

I gotta go. Something just came up.

Wheel Builds

I get to build the most expensive *front* wheel I have ever built today. It is a disk brake compatible generator front hub from Schmidt (a German company that you can check out at Peter White Cycles) laced up to a Mavic X717 Disc Rim, black double butted DT spokes. Ironically, this is the matching wheel to the most expensive rear wheel I have built: Rohloff to X717. Total value of wheel set is approaching $2k. These wheels are completely off-road touring specific, and so far the customer loves them.

The lights that are to be used with the Schmidt hub are obscenely bright. One of my favorite stories about these lights is a customer/friend of mine who set up this system on a Heron for long rides. He set off for a night ride and went to Washington Park for a nice long spin. Everywhere we rode around, people acted like they were caught by the cops. They thought he was on a silect motorcycle. This guy is a retired officer, so he laughs everytime it gets brought up. Great stuff.