The frame is a 57cm lugged DBS (Den Beste Sykkel – “The Best Bike”) which is a well known Norwegian bike maker. This frame however is an “Internazionale,” an early 80’s made in Italy limited edition. The frame was made by Daccordi and has Daccordi dropouts.

The components are as follows:

Handlebar: TTT Grand Prix
Stem: TTT
Brakes: Campagnolo single pivot (front & back)
Brake levers: Shimano 105
Cranks: Shimano (42t)
Bottom Bracket: Shimano Dura Ace
Front Wheel: Campagnolo hub, MA40 rim
Rear Wheel: Surly flip-flop hub, Mavic Opensport rim (Handbuilt new in June 2009, at Cykel City Stockholm)
Cog: Surly (16t)
Saddle: Avocet Racing
Tires: Michelin Erilium 2
Pedals: Crank Brothers Mallet

Please Note: Bike includes Kryptonite New York City U-lock w/3 keys.

This bike is available for immediate pickup or delivery in the greater Stockholm area, price: 2800kr.

More Pics Here & here!

Pass this post to your friends!

But this week-end I (Cory) realized that it isn’t summer here in Prague anymore (hopefully it was just a cold windy week-end), and we need to get off our collective asses and get back on the blog.

So we will, I promise.
Soon.
(I personally have mountains of pictures to put stories to.)

I leave you with this one (which I promise will come up again in a future story.)
A short stop for a beer in Prague.

“Their mentality is, well, you should just get on with it because Bernard Hinault won the Tour like that and you should be grateful.”

Of course, Ancy McLarmstorg’s über scientific approach is distasteful in its own way, but it gets results. Practical realism has been the defining aspect of the last two centuries of civilization, winning every war and enriching every economy that shed romanticism and ideology, and doing “what works.”

From a personal perspective, having a “throwback” tour with lugged bikes and no ear piece radios would be a public relations coup that might put big time cycling past “le doping” once and for all.

anyway here is a conundrum I am in these days, see if you can answer it:
(I’m pretty sure it’s a recurring issue I know the solution for, which I’ll pipe in with later.)

when I am pedaling along at a normal (~75rpm) cadence under a light to moderate load (generally flat terrain) on my mountainbike I have a distinct slipping feeling at my left foot with each revolution as the foot passes the top (12:00) dead spot. it has the feeling of a loose pedal or loose crank or even a poorly adjusted cleat. seeing as how none of these have turned out to be the culprit, please help me try to solve the problem. as a note, I do sometimes have the feeling that pedaling smoother circles can somewhat diminish the issue, and also that it may seem to go away on longer rides (maybe I just forget about it.)

in the interest of science I have replaced the pedals, with a new pair of a similar model; I have replaced the cleats with a new set; and I have tried a second set of same model shoes with their old cleats; none of which have alleviated the issue.

clean drivetrain

btw, everything is always (85% of the time) lubed and cleaned directly (within 3-4 weeks) after every ride. and all (~35%) rides take place in ideal (or possibly rainy, muddy, or snowy) conditions.

that’s about it.
lots of little checks and the problem persists.
leave questions and answers in the comments!

-cory

please take some time and provide some guidance or comment on a photo or two…

Everyday Pictures – each day, one shot

thanks,
Rob

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so we had a super good turn out for the scramble.  dave got points for driving the furthest to get here.  phil got points for riding a bike that would give a cory townie a run for its money (crappynesswise).  way to many people showed up on fixed gears and kicked ass on them.  joe, jay, john (sort of) jason and phil were all punished the roads with their insanity.  there were, if i recall, 9 flats, 4 of which happened to Rob and two of which happened to Damien.  Is that right?  Or were there more?  We made it home before blinky lights were needed, but not by too much.

Dave took pictures, which he hasnt posted on Flickr yet, so did John (same thing) but Joe has some up here.

I hope everyone had as good of a time as I did, pain aside.  That said, I rode the next day and felt 90 percent OK.

I want to not feel OK next time.  I want to be groveling on the side of the road.  To that end, I propose a mega monster ride for october.  That gives you almost two months to lay off the sauce and ride a bunch.  We could split the ride over two days, but where’s the suffering in that proposal?

I’m thinking sort of an expanded dirty sugar ferry ride, to include much more dirt and plenty of more excuses to get flats.  there would be no singletrack, but just alot of farm roads and potholes.  120 miles.  It’s totally doable.  We’d have to start early, and we’d definately end after dark.

here’s a link to the proposed ride route.  

Go ahead and call me crazy.  There will mad amounts of dirt.  Or you will be mad about the amount of dirt.  Check it against the dirt road database.  There is more dirt than pavement, almost. I’d say at least 40 solid miles of dirt.  Let’s say October 26th for now.   Image from last year’s Ferry Ride here.

Maybe someone knows someone’s yard we can sleep in down that way.

By the light of the day the pimp’s yellow ochre suit is plain beige. The rotting wooden trailer out front is the same emerald green as the swing that sat under the willow tree for years after the willow had blown down in a windstorm, 15 feet from the porch where I slept, dead to the sound of the willow tree’s instant death. Now, 10 years later, a small willow grows from the base of the old tree’s trunk. The porch swing became art, the emerald green lending is patina to pieces about Abraham Lincoln and satellite radio. Memories are traded for cash and endorsed checks.

The porch furniture caught in the amber are invisible behind the dirty off white curtain, the illusion reserved for night rides only. The snake smell is just musty now, like a mouse dead in some remote corner of the house, reduced to powder and bones. There are no competitors out today, just the wind, heavy and high, pounding through every turn, making even the steepest downhills into high RPM chores. The splinter in my foot throbs on difficult climbs. The wrong foot placement could lead to a limp leg, as the pain shoots to the kneecap and saps it of structural strength. The lapis lazuli cascade has 3 kids playing in it, 2 teenage moms watch, bored. Not 6 years ago they were playing in that same stream. Now they just it watch it go by, the sparkling water holds no more interest than the latest congressional race, or the biker passing by, observing their life for 3 seconds at 27 mph.

I’m building miles slowly. Today I rode to school, and back, 6 miles total, and then my short local loop, 8 miles, then to the Giant, 3.5 miles, and then I’m heading back to school, 6 miles again, riding home in the dark at 11 or so. I’m eating a spoonful of ice cream a day, and loads of salad and grainy bits. I’m drinking lots of room temperature water, and extra fiber English muffins. My sweat has cooled to a dry powder on my forehead.

_______________________________________________

A tale of two one point fives:

I have an idea, its not mine and I don’t remember who said it, but Sean’s recent comment brought it to mind again, and I’ll put the two thoughts together to make one newish thought.

I was always told to hold my handlebars loosely, like they were 1.5 times bigger than they actually are. This way, the bike and rider could react to bumps, and small directional changes, and still sort of auto–pilot its way through stuff. In other words, a loose grip actually meant more control, less wasted energy, and a more ‘ready for anything’ stance. I took this bit of wisdom and applied it. I loosesed up and found more control, less fatigue and more power for my legs, that otherwise would have gone to my hands and forearms. I could ride rigid and not be beat up. I could ride skinny tires off road. I could descend really nasty rocky stuff with crappy brakes and be ok. I ditched my fat oury grips and got big cheeze grips. They were smaller and harder, making it easier and more nessesary to loosen my grip. On my road bikes I switched from cork to cotton. Same deal. I can ride for dozens of miles and not experience numbness or a sketchy front end, because of how I hold my bars.

Instead of increasing headset diameter on road bikes (and don’t think its not coming to mtn bikes, or comfort bikes) why dont we re-teach this old chunk of wisdom. Let’s trade 1.5 inch headsets for theoretical 1.5x larger diameter handlebars. We could start by getting rid of all that gel tape nah nah, and foam pad hooo hoo and get people riding cinelli tape, or medium density stella or (gasp) cloth.

This would also expose undersized bikes, and poor riding positions. Lots of gel and saddle cut-outs do wonders for hiding bad bike fit. Its a win win situation. Really.

The poster known as 5dollarbud, aka a4nick8tor, aka Big Killa N, aka Golden Balls, aka Kung Fu Jimmy is currently on holiday in Prague, CZ.

He appologizes for not notifing sooner and wonders if it would be possible to meet any other posters on this blog before Thursday when he leaves.

He can be contacted at his usual email, or by his swedish mobile (+46 70 fourseveneight fourfouronetwo), or by calling the hotel (+420 296 889 688)

kthanks!

check the blog for what we have so far, a quick users guide to labeling and symbols, and other stuff. if you want to add content to the new blog, or join it as a writer, let us know in the comments (ie leave some contact info) hell, that goes for this blog too.

the new blog’s title is dirt road datebase, but its home on the web is dirtdata.wordpress.com