iRide

Doing some internet browsing last week, I found a deal that was too good to pass up. I was on the Santa Cruz Bicycles website looking around. Granted, I don’t own a Santa Cruz bike, but they have some crazy good deals in their “Store” from time to time. As a manufacturer, they buy components in bulk and get a really good deal on them. When they are over-stocked on these items, they sell them at ridiculously low prices. So when I was looking around, I saw they were selling 7″ Shimano Centerlock rotors–the Spot takes Centerlock rotors–for the crazy low price of $8 (they retail elsewhere for closer to $30).

I have always toyed with the idea of upgrading the front rotor from the current 6″ rotor I’m now running. Simply put–most of the braking force/load is put on the front rotor and a 7″ rotor will stop better than a 6″ one. At $8 for the rotor, I just couldn’t pass it up.

Also, I have mentioned here before that I wanted to get a new rear cassette for the 29er. Since the bigger wheels make gearing seem taller/bigger/harder on climbs, I wanted to switch to an 11-34 cassette. I am currently running an 11-32–which happened by mistake. I thought I put on an 11-34 when I built the Niner. I was washing the bike one day a couple months ago and upon taking a close look at the cassette I was running, discovered it was an 11-32.

Now for those of you who don’t ride bikes and don’t know the difference–basically I’ve been cheating myself out of one whole gear this whole time–the “granny” gear/climbing gear. Trust me–on long climbs you need all the help you can get!!

I finally got the new cassette, rotor and new adapter in the mail today and decided to put them on.

Hot Wheels beach towel–my work mat for the day:

Have tools, will travel:

Side by side comparison shots of the new 7″ and the old 6″

New rotor mounted:

Brake caliper on current 6″ rotor adapter:

New adapter:

Spot with the new 7″ front rotor:

And onto the new cassette install…

Mmmm. Shiny new cassette:

Changing cassettes is easy. Done in about 1 minute:

The bad thing is that this is a REALLY busy week and I won’t be able to ride until Saturday–which means I threw on some sweet upgrades and won’t get to trail test them for another 4 days. Sucky!!

I have TKD tomorrow night and Thursday night. Then Friday night is the big night: I am doing my first mid-term as a Black Belt but more importantly, Spencer is testing for his 1st Degree Balck Belt!!! WOOT WOOT!!! I am so proud of him for traveling this long road so strong and finally on the cusp of acheiving such an awesome goal. I’ll be sure to post pics!!

Until next time, seek your bliss and plant new seeds.

Ride lots…