All Things Bikes and Tacos! (...and every vehicle imaginable)

Always love a good frankenbike!

How them bars coming along?

 

Got really lucky, nothing broken.
Deep muscular contusion to the palm, should take a couple of weeks to be "healed enough" to where I can get some smoother rides in.
I'm pretty banged up today. I actually supermanned into a dry creek bed at pretty high speed. Not sure what the hell happened, ridden there a bunch, nothing on the trail to throw me off. One second I was on the trail, another I was off it. I tried riding it out, but once I ended up in the rocks, my front wheel got caught and over I went. Bike landed on top of me, smashed my head and body into the rocks a second time.
Bruised all over, sore as shit, but nothing is broken except my confidence. I'll still get the best part of the season in so I'm stoked!

 

My DJ must have a knock block or something, bc they don't spin.

The bars on the arrival spun yesterday after I looped out on a climb clipped in, had to inspected the brake cables on that one.

 

A short morning ride in the Santa Monica Mtns. yesterday. It was about 78*F around 6:45am over there. Clear skies with a view of the Pacific Ocean in the distance at our turn around stop.


Post ride Filipino food breakfast hit the spot.
Fun fact: I found out from my friend after the ride that a recent (or current) White House Executive Chef was(or is) a Filipina-American. I wonder if any of the recent U.S. Presidents, First Ladies and their families have gotten to try some chicken or pork adobo, tapsilog or garlic fried rice during their tenure at The White House. Or, someeggs, and rice? Maybe, Obama was reminiscing of his days in Hawaii and had a craving for some and asked for it? Lol

 

Haha just poking fun at you, I can't do bars very well either. But I won't stop trying! lol

 

My bike was purchases second hand, so the Cable was routed with a loop before the stem for some reason. The new bars made that loop not go back in its position, due to the 30mm rise difference. So, it is what it is for now. The rear brakes are weak at the moment, they needs new pads & a good bleeding. Hell, after adjusting them, the fronts Tektro Mech brakes have way more stopping power then the rears. Haha
New Pads and a MUCH longer brake line will be next for the bike. As Whitedlite pointed out, it will be wrapped around the stem for future bar spins. I'll remove the front brake once that's dialed in.

 

Speaking of injuries, any of you had experience with bad sprained fingers?

About 3 months ago I crashed and jammed my index finger pretty bad. Didn't get an xray, but could have potentially had a small fracture?
Ever since healing, it's still not back to 100%. I have strength, but can't make a super tight fist with it compared to my other hand or bend it as tightly as the other index finger. It's like 90% of the way there, but will occasionally flare up if I'm doing heavy stuff

Is this the kind of thing that will take like a year to get back to 100%?

 

Can you straighten your finger all the way? I broke my pinky like 15 years ago, after a couple days thinking it was jammed or sprained I went to the doctor and found out I broke my pinky at one of the joints. The doctor told us that you should be able to slightly hyper extend your finger (not sure if it's true, just what the hand doctor told us). The only reason I remember that is because when he told me to extend some other fingers he was like, have you ever broken these fingers before? haha

From recent experience, the best answer to these situations is physical therapy. A good physical therapist that understands you are a mountain biker should be able to help. I will say though, my finger is still jacked up though (probably many factors including have hardware and a ton of scar tissue in the area).

 

Probably not a year, but maybe 6 months before you don't notice it as much anymore. From my experience, unless a finger is badly broken and needs to be set, they don't really do anything except maybe splint it for a bit. The last obviously broken finger I had, I just pulled on it quickly and taped it to the fingers next to it knowing that the doc would just say, "Yep, it's broken" just like they had before. A sprain or soft-tissue injury can take a while to heal, and like @113tac mentions, PT is likely the best answer if it is not improving.

 

Dude you were super close! Bet that was a warm one.

Did you do the Millennium loop or drop-down Colossus?

Next time drop me a line. I'll show you the goods.

 

Yea it can go straight out just fine. I only feel it when trying to wrap it tightly.
Good suggestion on the PT. Can't think of any other injuries I've had on that same fingers.

 

Nice ride! Where are you located in So Cal?

The front brake was kinda fun for messing around doing stoppies.... I pulled it for those weight savings...

Was rear brake still weak with coiled around the stem? I would imagine same being hydro but worth a shot just to take up some slack in the cable and get rid of that awkward routing.
I've got the same shitacular Tektro brake on my P2 and it works good enough.

Dirt jumping is so much fun.

A buddy of mine got some rad shots a few weeks back on our group ride at the bike park.





Finally starting to work on the big line... so far made it through 6 of 8. It's been a mental battle for sure.

 

The contest is over except for the voting, and I can finally take a deep breath and get some rest. I’ve been working like a madman out there and it has been over 100° every day.

Parts of 9 bikes, junk from my pile, used parts from the web, and $1000 all came together, and it finally lives.

 

Thanks! And likewise. I dig the Specialized P series bikes, but they were out of my price range for a fun, occasional bike. Share some pics!

I'm in the High Desert, Victorville.

I messed around with trying stoppies on this bike, since the rear facing stanchion brace would interfere with foot jambs, but I was never good at either. Ha. Main reason to eliminate the front brake for me would be just to clean up the cockpit.
The rear brakes were weak when I got the bike, and the loop wasn't around the stem, just literally a loop in front of it. Idk why. By weak, I mean like 1/2 of the lever travel is just moving the pads closer to the disc, then they bite good. The new orientation made no difference.

I did some dirt jumping in my BMX days, but I mainly got this bike as a big urban bmx bike. If I could put a rear peg on this thing, I'd be feeble'ng some ledges.

Your buddy is good with the camera. What park is that?

 

Right on dude. We'll be out your way this weekend... doing a prerun for the Clean dezert clean up in barstow..

Sapwi Bike park in Thousand oaks, CA.... super fortunate to have this place like 10 mins from my house.


The DJ

2014 P.2 I got lucky and picked it up used Pre Covid pricing dude rode it like twice after installing that sweet leopard seat hah.



Front brake delete.
New bars Spank spoon 35mm rise
Hussfelt stem my buddy had laying around
Odi Rouge grips
Maxxis Holy rollers were a nice upgrade from the stock Specialized DJ tires.
Purple Race face chesters
Half link chain




I've been cruising PB looking for a wheelset. These are fine for now just tough to like a low-end up hub compared to i9s on my MTB.

Eventually....cranks, sprocket, stem, and new front fork. It's always something. Right?

 

Just looked up what that was. Pretty cool man. Always wondered who cleans up at Hodge road.

You sure those are 35mm rise bars?? They look higher than the stock bars I just removed, which were 50mm rise.

I9s, man, that's dreams.

Yeah, ha-ha. It is. Something about them new part feels.

 

Christy wanted to pay her respects to the Black Mamba (she's a big Kobe fan). By the time we rounded the corner and went into the sun, we decided to drop down Las Virgenes instead of doing Millennium. It was hella hot!

 

This maybe my last ride for a few weeks (or more). I had to make it memorable.

 

Santa Cruz 5010 is now an MX bike, no one is surprised. The new colors are pretty rad, but theses prices for jank build kits is getting absurd. SC isn’t alone on this, but they’re getting pretty out there.

https://www.santacruzbicycles.com/en-US/bikes/5010?color=Gloss Red | V5

 

Curious how it rides. As long as it retains its fun poppy nature i'm game. I only have limited experience with mullets and thats on big travel bikes & ebikes.