Ok so this is rather ridiculous...Please Wait...Loading...

[Bill Drayton Jr.]

[enderzero]

I agree that is rather ridiculous. ...and not just the fact that it is an animated gif.

[Goemon]

That parking job is indeed ridiculous. Look how completely over the line that jackass left his car.

[Bill Drayton Jr.]

And you would think that amount of impact would not be sustainable by the equipment...at least I would think that - but then again maybe it was just metal fatigue...everything breaks...is just a matter of time as I found out yesterday.



I suffered only minor lacerations on my left calf from the broken part of the crank shown here: ( thankfully I was really not even hurt )

[R3C]

There's where chromium and molybdenum will get you. Just kidding... It must be the iron cross...

[R3C]

Time to get a what's his name's catalog. Was it named after someone? I can't remember. I just remember wanting a lot of stuff out of it. I still plan to get one of those Specialized solid-rear+front suspension MountUrban bikes...

[Bill Drayton Jr.]

however we are very lucky to have a very good MTB/BMX bike shop here in Renton called G.H.Y. bikes. They match Dans prices for everything.

Christin has taken a huge interest in riding so I thought I would support my local bike shop and have them put a bike together for her via my specs. I went into the store knowing I was going to pay more than if I bought it on Dans but amazingly enough if I didn't use them I would have paid $250 more and I would have to assemble it.

I would go through them if you want to get a bike - very cool people and they can get anything you want if they don't have it. It was pretty cool to see Christin's frame on the website and then just walk down to the store and hold it in my hands...

website:

www.ghybikes.com

[Bill Drayton Jr.]

w00t!

Replaced old race crank arms with new bigger/stronger/heavier dirt jumping crank arms mated to a titanium spindle instead of chromoly to offset weight and I am told titanium is supposedly stronger. New seat, seat post, and seat clamp, for further weight savings and some new grips and brake cable upgrade.

Weight down from 31.7lbs to 30.5lbs with increased strength.

really can't tell how much bigger these crank arms are but quite a big difference...

[Bill Drayton Jr.]

This bike is amazingly 24.00lbs with nothing special just new parts...

[R3C]

That is a TINY front sprocket. (even if the rear is tiny) Wow! Must be the hill-climbing edition.

[Bill Drayton Jr.]

yeah the small sprockets are the new thing...the bottom bike is actually geared quite a bit higher so it has a higher top speed...

top bike is 45 tooth front, 16 tooth rear
bottom bike is 27 tooth front, 9 tooth rear

[R3C]

I see. I couldn't tell how big the rear one was. Seems like it would be nice to have the small one in the front just because it's out of the way more.

[Bill Drayton Jr.]

Fractured wrist and sprained thumb. Pain and swelling was minimal. X-rays revealed a bone fragment the size of a pencil eraser. Waiting to see orthopedist to determine if I need a cast or whatever. The crash was a very well executed shoulder roll with tiny little abrasions. 11th bone fracture, actually have to think about how many I have had now. Going to lose track eventually I imagine.

Heh, my bike is fine - the handlebars did not bend...maybe I should get weaker parts...

[enderzero]

Lucky number 11! Congrats!

[Bill Drayton Jr.]

The fracture occurred August 8th so I have had 14 full days of healing. The range of motion for my wrist I approximate being at about 70% without pain or about 90% with sharp pain. There is maybe 5% inflammation.

Two weeks is hardly sufficient for a full recovery though, especially for a lackadaisical 37yr old. I can't explain why my wrist is repairing itself so quickly. The obvious reasoning would be that the bone was never fractured but the x-rays taken disprove that entirely. To put it in esoteric medical terms straight from the mouth of the doctor: he say,"You see that thar big white spot there?" me say, "yup." he say, "That ain't supposed to be thar." me say, "Ooooh."

I was expecting to not really be able to jump that well but today was the best day I have had the entire summer in terms of balance, strength, skill, and performance. Very bizarre. I postulate there being only one realistic theory for all of this. It is rather fringe however. I think it is because I got depressed after the crash and ate too many Dreyer's fruit bars particularly Strawberry. It was pretty bad...I was eating at least two packs a day, or 12 bars and strawberries actually have more vitamin C in them than oranges and I think that this increase in vitamin C did the trick. Oh yeah and they are actually magical too.
= magical!

[R3C]

They fill those with narcotics. I finish a box every time I eat one of them. (which is to say, I don't eat one, but a box of them)

[Bill Drayton Jr.]

went over the bars again but was able to roll out of it using my left elbow to start the shoulder roll instead of the wrist. Thought it would work but landed on my head in the process and got a bit abraised but the wrist is only slightly tweaked so will have to try to crash harder next time...maybe wear a helmet too...I should get a fricken video camera...

[R3C]

Why not get a camera, and attach it to a helmet?

[spidermonkey]

Or build a robot, name it Orlando, and program it to go buy a video camera.

[R3C]

That's the best idea...

[R3C]

I think we already did build him... Possibly in the McNevin Approaches thread.

[Bill Drayton Jr.]

Right, so build a German robot named Helmut instead.

[spidermonkey]

I built him, but he was bad-mouthing you, so I banished him from the forum...

[enderzero]

Yeah some guy named Helmut has been posting a bunch of spam. I've been spending like a 100 hour every day cleaning it up. But it just all of the sudden stopped. Kick/Ban!

[R3C]

Helmut Sparkle? With the true essence of flavor?

[spidermonkey]

And the knowledge crystals?

[R3C]

Uh huh, and the knowledge crystals?

[Bill Drayton Jr.]

more antics coming soon...

[Bill Drayton Jr.]

occurred during ye olde last session of comfortable abuse. I unhappily twisted and bent the six week old titanium spindle AND crushed the bearings in the bottom bracket.

All has been repaired though and in an attempt, that failed, to keep the weight down I replaced the old stem that weighed over a pound with a new light one to compensate for the weight increase from the 4140 chromoly spindle...somehow the bike comes in right at 31.06lbs

[Bill Drayton Jr.]

These are not very good quality as they are stills extracted from video...Also notice the complete lack of style in each jump as I am just getting back to this level that I have not been at since I was 22yrs old...I was 150lbs then and my bike was 22lbs...now bike at 31lbs and me at 210lbs plus being 15yrs older makes me a bit slower...

First straight - collage of all three jumps


side view of first jump...

Then a table for the second jump...(yes I am jumping higher than in the collage because I jump it lower to keep my speed up for the last one)

and then last jump is a 24' double - I didn't realize how long it was until yesterday...

(This is the jump I came up short on that bent and twisted my titanium spindle and crushed ye olde bottom bracket) Need to get a better picture of this with the camera opposite of the sun and closer to the jump because this picture doesn't really show its size that well...

rest of track...fun...