Ride Lugged

i just found these pictures of caramba cranks, one of my top 5 favorite mtn bike cranks ever, and the only style i dont own.
but i do have: crank bros rcrs… syncros black revolutions, middleburn r 8s, and kookas… carambas are def the most rare, and strangest, but cool from a design prospective. anyway, i’ve only seen one pair in person, and hardly any online, so this to me is a treat.

OK, so I am building (after many years of lusting and sweating it) a 29er Moots YBB with S&S couplers to travel the US and Europe, and wherever the hell else dr. hot czech and i end up and want to mountain bike.

With that I had the idea to make the bike primarily of domestic US production, which is impossible because of tires and tubes and cables and such. But anyway as much as I am an idealist it has more to do with the fact that I don’t really want a $500 set of carbon cranks made by a machine in Taiwan on my handcrafted in the US from wholly US materials custom titanium bike. (and i’m even down with carbon) So I’m thinking that with European parts filling out the rest, since this is where i’ll be riding, I should be able to make the most of it(outside of my avid disc brakes which i am unwilling to part with.)

But I haven’t found a good set of cranks. I want bearing durability (ie. no ISIS) so a square taper or external BB and to run a single 38T chainring with a bash guard to a Rolhoff hub.

So where do I find this mystery crankset. I’m completely open to anything from a Record aluminum crankset(Casey wants me to use a track crankset, although the availability or bashguards is slim) to some locally machined thing, so long as it’s not one of the Kooka deals that likes to snap off.

What do you think? Could a forged aluminum road crank be up to mountain abuse?

Exclusive things will always be around, whether or not they are mass produced or handcrafted. They are what define us as a class society. if we could all party like paris hilton, she wouldnt have a platform to project herself from, and would be therefor unmarketable. Our world has been, I would argue, and always will be class and exclusivity driven. That is the only thing that makes things special, and therefore marketable. Nick made the point himself saying that the tour bikes are rad, and as such saleable because they are expensive, light, and fast. these things of course have nothing to do with rideability, or the ability to enjoy something beyond mere ownership. At the low end of the economic spectrum, in America, people are stuck with subpar choice via forced marketing, ie poor people watch show X and brand Z advertises during that show, so brand Z becomes the poor guys’ brand o’ choice. Why else would anyone in thier right mind drink bud, or coors? given a blind taste test of 10 cheap beers, those would undoubtably be near the bottom. To further that, why do poor people smoke marlboros and not american spirits? american spirit doesnt have a nascar sponsorship…I dont think we are moving towards a classless society. I think we are simply diminishing the middle class, and polarizing our current population. What were we talking about again?

A healthy skepticism about the progression of the TV-as-babysitter and the newer Internet-as-babysitter culture is good – these are not exactly virtue based entertainment devices. However, as a larger cultural shift the rise of cheap information and communication technologies will change our culture for the better.
One of the points Casey was making the night this conversation originated ((resurfaced?) also the night these rad pics were taken) was that the value of objects is based on their exclusivity. In terms this blog would understand: a Bridgestone bike is kewler than a Cannondale because it is more exclusive. I’m sure Casey won’t mind me saying, since he is of his own admission, “on such a retro program,” but this view is old fashioned. It is based on the 18th century “economics of scarcity” worldview, that while still dominant in the world, is changing.

What I believe is foreshadowed by the rise of blogs, as well as the oft mocked “hipster culture” is that once our (earth humans) ability to produce exceeds our ability to consume, then old ideas of “better/worse” and “exclusive/common” will cease to be relevant. When everything is equally available (due to increased efficiency in production, distribution, etc.) then all choices become only a matter of taste. In this theoretical (though not far) future, the availability and cost of a lugged steel bike is virtually identical to that of a carbon one. I choose lugs, Casey chooses lugs, and we are friends and ride together. Others choose plastic and ride with people who make the same choices. Communities become based on groups of people making similar choices – out of the infinite variety available. My central argument is that these communities are more “natural” than what exists today, which is based on the scarcity principle (big houses are scarce so only rich people have them – but being with other rich people is not a community forming function).

I think that this point of view extends from bikes to clothes, music, and pretty much all consumer products. Truly hand made things, where art and craftsmanship is involved will still have value, even more so than now. But those things will represent a statistically insignificant percentage of the total. The thing is, the world is moving this way whether we like it or not. While the increased sterility of the objects with which we all must interact is not exactly a romantic notion, the fact that the plainness and sameness is a byproduct of efficiencies that are allowing people (for the first time ever!) to exist at the lowest end of the scarcity food chain and still have food, acceptable housing, access to the mainstream flow of information, and yes - quality mass produced bikes, is something which we should all support.

This is probably part of the reason why kids are more
A.D.D. than ever. Too many choices on TV, too many video
games, too many extra-curriculars, too many things to
buy. I think all these choices they have to make early
in life makes people fickle. Fickle people are less
likely to commit to a good relationship as an adult.
Adults are divorcing each other left and right because
they get bored with each other and because they refuse
to put any effort into developing a strong foundation
from day one. They are frustrated and argue with each
other and think that it’s grounds for divorce. People
are also just plain selfish. People get tired and
bored with each other because they don’t want to work
at the relationship because of their selfishness. They
have lazy personalities because their ADD or whatever
causes them to give up. People put less and less
effort into all relationships these days. Just look at
IMing and text messaging, that My Space crap, and this
stupid Blog shit. People are less intimate with one
and other. Everything is superficial. Do kids even
hang out with each other anymore?
I realize that this statement is a generalized and
biased but I think there is some truth to it.
I myself have this fickle attention problem (part of
it is inheritance) this makes it hard for me to read
and write or sit still and write this. I’m not even
going to bother editing this article because I’m
multitasking as we speak while my parents watch
“America’s Funniest Animals”. Unfortunately there is
always a screen in front of us, cameras, phones, TV,
computers etc. Too many things to look at. This is why
James and I don’t have a TV. If we did we would never
enjoy simple things with each other like playing music
or cards. It’s bad enough we have a computer that we
both fight over. (we fight over it? ed.) I’m sure someone has a different
opinion on this. Let it out.

-Mel

An update on STARMER’s post with the video of the bike thieves in NYC: apparently the guys who made the video got asked to be in a piece about it on Fox’s NYC affilate this morning and played a little prank. The ruthless bastards who run my life at Gawker have the links: description here and actual video here.

FOX sucks, and so do blonde airhead “reporters” - they are “so not cool dude.”

ok so we, ie nick, this dude joe and i, were having a super good (i thought) conversation about some fairly intangible stuff, ie feelings, and technologies role in feelings, and quantities, ie having too much of one thing makes choice not only hard but not fun (my opinion) my take was this: if you can have as much as you want of any one thing, that makes it less special: ie music on your ipod. also, i argued that downloading music wasnt as fun or special or exclusive as going to a record shop and shoping for vinyl, and that therefor degrades the value of downloaded tunes, and even makes them not as fun to listen to. I want responses on this, but in the form of posts, not responses. hop to it.

Casey (Johnson) took us to this Coppi’s in DC last friday. Beacuse he was wearing “vintage” pink jersey we got free drinks (limoncello and sparkling water, I think). They have very good food their too. He also got a picture on their website, check the bottom of the page.

We then proceded to the Konono No.1 show where there was the Air Conditioning was not working. We didn’t even make it to the end of the show and this is the result:

I am considering a set of compact cranks. My rationale is that, while I don’t need the extra climbing capability, I also don’t really need a 53-11 gear very often and that a compact crank would actually give me more gears in a tighter range for the mostly flat city environs. Most of my riding around town, commuting etc. is done around 53-16, with the addition of a compact crank’s 50 tooth large ring in order to get an equivlent gear I could just go lower (I have an 11-23 cassette). Often times though, I find myself slowing mashing up a hill or overpass because the situation doesn’t exactly warrant a drop to 39 in the front, but 53 is too big. So I end up staying in a bad gear for whatever reason, maybe just laziness (but Nick you have hyperglide it doesn’t take any effort at all!(yes I know)).

Possible complications are that I have a braze on front “derail-her” which I heard often doesn’t work with compacts. While I realize I could saw that off and get a clamp on, I’m not yet in the business of hacking on european steel.

Also this post is largely an excuse to post the above pic.

Thoughts from the gallery?