01/09/19
Woke up after 4 hours sleep and loaded the bikes on the car and went and picked up my son and headed to the track.
I took the Curtis Jump bike for its first visit to the track.
We stayed for about 30 minutes as I was feeling a bit bad and my Son wanted to get back to fix his PC and laptop.
Liked the jump bike. The bars are too low for me and it feels weird compared to a race bike but I can live with riding a jump bike for the time I am in Seattle.
The Curtis looks amazing and rides as good as it looks. Once I get some higher bars on it and a new front wheel as the current one is only temporary while the new profile hub is shipped from the USA and built up.
I am meeting my friend Matt at Bath skatepark tomorrow morning and I think I am going to take the Curtis to see how it is in the skatepark as I am planning to ride a lot of skateparks and street when I am in Seattle so want to see how it is on a jump bike.
02/09/19
Got up at 05:30 and got to the skatepark for 7am. Had a really good session leaving at about 08:30 and did loads of jumping and hit the jump box a few times too. Didn’t jump it but got over my fear of it so next time I can try and jump it.
The jump bike was really good I think that I prefer it to the park bike if I am honest. The forks suck as does the front wheel so I have to sort them out as soon as I can but apart from that the bike felt good. I have bought some higher bars as the bars are too low and there is no extra space on the fork tube as it was cut when I bought the forks. I have won some different forks so I will see if I like them more or not. If not I will have to save up for some new decent forks which could take a while!
03/09/19
Got up early and drove to Mid Sommer Norton to ride this morning at 7am as the weather said that there was a 9% chance of rain. As I got to withing a couple of miles of the skatepark it was raining pretty heavily and the ground was really wet so I turned around and headed home.
I had a bunch of chores to do so I got them done and was finished by 5pm!!! Busy day but a very productive one.
I have decided that I am going to take the Curtis Jump bike with me to Seattle instead of buying a second hand jump bike to take with me!
I invested the money that I could have spent on the old bike in a new back Halo T2 wheel and a set of dmr chain tensioners with derailleur hanger so that I can get the 10 speed gears that I bought last month fitted to the bike to make it better for riding to work on.
At 6pm I went to Trowbridge Track for a session with some friends which was really good fun and involved a lot of peddling and jumping which is what I need at the moment. Going to go again next week as well.
04/09/19
Set my alarm for 05:30 but it was raining really hard so I went back to sleep until 8 am. Woke up had a shower and finished the cleaning from the night before.
I then had a weigh in which wasn’t too bad at 100.3kgs. Although I am over 100kgs again its not too much over and I can loose this extra weight and then some before Sunday.
I have to wait in for a Dell engineer until 5pm tonight so can’t do much today so I will chill and watch Netfilx and then after 5pm I have to go and pick up the forks I bought for the Curtis and then I will go to the track and get a training session in as I haven’t done any proper training for Months.
05/09/19
Had to work from 07:30 – 19:30 without a break so didn’t get time to work out today.
06/09/19
Had to work from 07:30 – 19:30 without a break so didn’t get time to work out today.
07/09/19
Worked again today and got a lunch break so went out on the road bike today for just over an hour. Unfortunately I forgot my shoes and the basketball boots that I had in my locker didn’t fit in my clips on my pedals so it was a bit weird pedaling today.
The cycle path was really busy with students doing a bike/scooter pub crawl on top of the usual riders and ramblers so the ride was a bit stop and start to say the least but still had a good ride and it was amazing to get out of the office for a while and forget about work and de-stress.
Here are the details of my ride.
Felt much better for working out today so planning on doing the same tomorrow and fitting clipless pedals to the bike.
08/09/19
Went for a ride again in my lunch break again today. I put on the clipless pedals and remembered to bring my clipless pedals and found it much better than yesterday. It was so much better today I did the ride 6 minutes faster than yesterday:
The clipless pedals felt much better and made spinning the pedals much easier. I wasn’t really pushing it and had another couple of gears that I could have gone into to go faster still. It was also really busy too. I also had a couple of times where I had to slow down as someone got in front of me and then went the same speed as me so I was essentially slip streaming them which I didn’t want as I wanted to have a work out not ride for time and distance.
I also has a misshap where I had to stop as I swallowed a fly and was being sick!! Need to remember my facemask next time.
I am planning to do the same route every lunch time now and thinking that I will ride at about 5am when I am doing night shifts as there should be very few people on the path and those that are will be commuters so should be riding fast and be aware of other people not like the people using the path at the weekends.
I also bought another Curtis MX24 off of my friend as he has just bought a new 26″ jump bike and needed space in his garage. This means that I can leave my MX24 as a jump bike as I have it how I like it now and I can add gears to this one to take to Seattle with me in a couple of weeks.
I plan to use some of the bits from the new bike on my MX24 and the forks will be perfect for the 4X frame I have waiting in Seattle to bring back with me.
Here is what the new MX24 looks like:
Basically everything except the Wheels on the bike are brand new and it has been ridden 5 time max and one of those time I rode it more that my friend did I think 🙂
Basically, I am putting the bars and stem, cranks, pedals, chain and probably the seat and post onto my MX24 as they are better than my current pieces and I am going to remove the single speed cog and spacers and put on gears and put on the Shimano Gee cranks that I bought to build up the 4X bike in Seattle.
As I said earlier I am going to take off the forks too as they are going on the 4X bike when I get it back to the UK.
I am planning to take the bike minus forks in my DK Golf bag as I have some Identity Non suspension fork waiting for me in the office so I don’t need to bring any forks which will bring the weight down and make it easier to fit everything in the bag.
Picked up the bike tonight and got some jump forks and 4 tyres with the bike too 🙂
Decided that I am going to use the green bike as my park bike as it is 90% built already so all I need to do is swap the forks for the jump forks and the wheels from my Grey bike and it will be 100% ready to go.
I stripped off the forks that were on the green bike and tried to fit the jump forks but I have had to buy a tool to fit the bearing race on the forks which will be here tomorrow.
Left the Grey bike in one piece for now as I want to ride it in the morning.
10/09/19
Got up a 5:30 and went into work to pick up a delivery that arrived yesterday and then went to Midsommer Norton skate park for about 6:45. The park had dried up nicely so I was able to ride without too much disruption to my usual lines.
I found that I am starting to get some pop when I jump now so I don’t need to ride so fast to clear the jumps as I did before which is a great sign.
I also found another hip jump to add to my line so starting to get a quality line in the park which is good.
I also started to air some of the quarter pipes below the coping as I want to get to airing out of the quarter pipes as my next goal.
Got home and relieved a delivery slot of 10-12am so that means I can go out for a walk with the dog this afternoon which will be great.
Also got the DMR chain tensioners with built in Derailleur hanger so this is the last piece that I needed to build up the grey Curtis with gears ready to take to Seattle. I will start doing this this afternoon once the tool arrives and I can build up the Green bike ready to ride tomorrow.
The tool arrived at 11:00 which is amazing as I only ordered it at around 22:00 last night! so I seated the crown race and fitted the Jump forks and also the wheels from the Grey Curtis (Profile Elite rear wheel and temporary halo combat front wheel) and also fitted some cult vans grips which currently stink due to using deodorant to fit them!
The bike is looking really good now and can’t wait to ride it tomorrow morning:
Went to Trowbridge track in the evening and trained with the Whiltshire Warriors on my race bike which felt really odd compared to my jump bikes.
11/09/19
Got up early again and went to Midsommer Norton skatepark again and took the green bike. It feels really good. The forks are much stiffer than the forks were on my grey one much stiffer and less bouncy! The higher bars also made the bike much more comfortable and made it much better for jumping than the grey one. I wasn’t impressed with the manual brake on it as the stopping power was much worse than the hydraulic brake on the grey bike so I am going to swap that over to the green bike. I also have to drop the size of the front cog as it is currently a 28T which is way too high with the 9t on the back. I am going to swap the cog for the 25t that was on the grey one that I took off of it yesterday then the bike will be perfect.
I drop off the grey bike tonight to be built up with the gears and also new hydraulic brakes ready to take to Seattle with me next week.
Had to stop riding after about an hour as it started raining but I am happy with the riding I did I even jumped the death gap which isn’t a massive gap but I have been stressing it for weeks and never even tried to jump it before so pretty chuffed that I sacked up and jumped it and a bit annoyed with myself that I stressed it for so long. I also worked on airing out of quarter pipes and managed to get to a point where I an now getting my back wheel to coping level so another step in the right direction! Tomorrow my goal is to get the wheels above coping if I can and continue to jump the gap as part of my run as it looks like this will make the setup for the hip better too.
Just got the street tyres (DMR Street Transition) that were thrown in with the green bike onto the Grey Curtis so once it has the chain and gear cable fitted it will be ready to take apart and pack 🙂
Pretty happy with how the bike has turned out and I think it will look amazing with the Black Identity Cromo forks that are waiting for it in Seattle. Think it will also be much better for riding around the City and to the track and stuff than the Race Cruiser was last time. Also the seatpost is long enough that it can be used slammer and also goes high enough to tide the bike without needing to bring a long seatpost with me.
This afternoon I changed my plans as a really good 24″ freestyle cruiser came up for sale on facebook so I jumped on it and picked it up this afternoon.
Its a MiraCo 24″ from 2009 ( https://www.vitalbmx.com/product/guide/Bikes,6/MirraCo/Icon-20Forty-24in,1231 ) and it was basically brand new and everything was origional including the tyres and Grips which is pretty amazing.
Unfortunately I have had to break it down as it was not suitable for me to ride as it was. I have removed the rotor and bars as the bars were too small and the cables on the rotor were too short to use with bigger bars. The headset was also open bearing so that had to be changed too. I am experimenting with 8.5″ rise S&M race bars to see how they feel as I think they will be just about right now that the rotor has been removed as the bars will drop a few inches and I wanted the bars a little higher than they were. I also put on a StayStrong stem on the bike that I had in the garage.
The MiraCo is perfect to take with me as it has a fully Chromo frame and forks and the top tube is 21.5″ the same as my race bike so it feels similar to the race bike and it felt really nice straight away when I rode it.
When I get to Seattle I will need to buy a seat, post and grips to complete the bike but apparently the best BMX shop in Seattle is only 2 miles from my apartment so I can pick them up when I get there and then I am ready to go.
I have ordered a new headset, brake cable and headset spacers which will be here tomorrow so that I can get the bike ready to test and then clean and pack ready to go to Seattle next week. It looks like I will have to change the gearing as I want to use the wheels that I have in the US already so I will have to change the gearing from 25×12 to 36×16 then it is the same as my race bike. Luckily I have a 36 tooth sprocket that I bought a wile back and then never used and a set of 175mm redline flight cranks so the bike will be ready to go once the parts arrive tomorrow.
The bike basically looked like this when I picked it up but a bit dustier:
As I am taking a BMX with me I have also ordered bars a stem, headset spacers and inner tubes for the Dialled as I am now going to have to use it as my commuting and bmx track bike (as the nearest BMX track to my apartment is 16 miles away!!) and the BMX will be for skateparks and learning to manuals and working on my bunny hops ready to get back into racing when I get back to the UK.
12/09/19
Got up early again to go to the Skatepark but it was still raining so I decided to go back to bed and chill. I have had notifications that my delivery is on its way but no delivery window yet so I can’t really do much until I know when the stuff will arrive.
The MiraCo is in the bike stand waiting for the parts ready to go. I have been thinking about it and if possible I will take the rear wheel with me then I don’t have to mess around with gearings and chains when I get there. I will see how I go weight wise as I only have 23KGs to play with so it may be a bit tight weight wise although I am not taking a laptop now so I can fit a bunch of clothes in my hand luggage if needed.
As you can see from the picture below the bike still has the reflectors on the wheels which is amazing for a 10 year old bike!!!
While I have been waiting for the delivery I have started taking off the pedals, seat and reflectors and packing them up with the rest of the bits in case I bring the bike back with me. The idea at the moment is to leave everything but the frame in the US as I want to bring the dialled home with me so I will not have space for the MiraCo on the way back.
I may try and fit it into another bag and pay the $80 for the second bag on the way back then I can hang it on the wall along with the Meybo frame that I used on my first trip to the US at the beginning of the year.
Another option is to buy either an S&M AFF 24″ or a Standard Trail Boss 24″ frame to bring back as they are much cheaper in the US than the UK. I also want to buy a Planetary freecoaster while I am in the US to bring back and build up so I may get it built up for the 24″. I will see how I go for money while I am there.
The other option is to sell the MiraCo as a complete or the dialled or both and then fill the bag up with parts to build up over the winter 🙂 Decisions decisions 🙂
I found a seat and found some pedals to put on temporarily. I also found the cranks and 36t chain ring to see what they will look like if needed and they don’t look too bad. I will have hop in instead of dropping in but I think I can do that now so all good.
I would be happier with the original gearing so hopefully I can get it in the suitcase. Also a black seat would go better with the bike than the camo one I had lying around 🙂
I have been doing some calculations and with the tyres that I have in the USA my gearing will be a bit lower than my race bike even running the 36×16 on it:
Race bike (Tioga Powerblock 24×1.60) = 52.88
Current on Mirraco (Kenda 24×1.75) = 54.93
Current gearing with powerblock 24×2.1 = 55.45
36×16 with powerblock 24×2.1 = 55.45
28×13 with powerblock 24×2.1 = 53.08
36×16 with Maxxis Tourch 24×1.75 = 52.58
28×13 with Maxxis Tourch 24×1.75 = 50.34
I am thinking that 36×16 would be the best option unless I swap the tyres for Tioga power block 2.1″ tyres then the ratio looks better on 28×13 which is the smallest gearing rear cog that will work with the hubs I have in the US.
I have just bought a 13T cog in 1/2 x 1/8 size that will work with the current chain so that I can use the race wheels on it instead of bringing the old wheels which are heavy to say the least. I may also have to buy a 29T front cog to get the gear ratio to be as close as possible to the race bike or change the tyres which I will probably do anyway. The Cog should arrive in my office about the same time I do so I can build the bike up when I get there.
I may also need to use the BMX to ride to work while I am waiting for the bike shop to dial in the gears for me on the Dialled 4X bike as I am not sure when they will have a vacancy to sort it out. I have just decided that I will use clipless pedals on the Dialled so I will bring my clipless shoes and pedals with me if I can get under the weight limit.
Bike all together but the bars are still too high so I will stick on some s&m race bars tonight to test the bike in the morning. I will put the bars as high as they will go for now to see how it is as higher bars are better for the park.
13/09/19
Got up at 5:30 and took the MirraCo to MSN skatepark for a ride. Really like it except for the tyres which are horrible and make the bike feel like a tractor and the wheels are pretty rubbish too! The bars are also a little bit low still as I have been riding for about 30 minutes and my back is sore already.
I have just had a look at the back wheel of the MirraCo and it is actually a cassette hub so I am going to take the wheel off when I get home and check to see if the cog is the same size as the Shimano cogs that I have at home. If it is then I will be able to leave the wheel at home and pack the cog 😁
The bars on the bike definitely need raising as my back has been hurting all day since riding this morning.
This afternoon I washed the bike ready to break down to pack tomorrow. I will then see if the cog will fit.
If it doesn’t there are some cheap wheels for sale on the internet for $170 which I will buy instead.
14/09/19
Didn’t exercise today as my back was still sore.
15/09/19
Didn’t exercise today as my back was still sore.
16/09/19
Got to the skatepark early and met up with my friend Matt when I finished work. It wasnt the best session as my back was sore and stiff and I was really spaced out from being up all night. Even so I got some new things learnt so not all bad.
17/09/19
Was really sore today due to riding yesterday and also really tired as not been sleeping well.
Got up about 3 and tried to pack the bike and keep it under 23Kgs but couldn’t do it so I have decided that the BMX will have to stay at home and the Dialled will now be built up as a single speed jump bike instead of the planned 4X bike with gears. I have also put in the bomber forks that I bought last week.
I just bought a single speed 12t kit from halo which is on its way to the office for me to pick up on Friday.
When I get to Seattle I will have to buy grips, pedals and a chain and then the bike will be ready to go.
I still haven’t figured how to get the bits from the office to the apartment bit I’m sure I will be able to pick it up.
This evening I took the Curtis Jump bike to the track in Trowbridge so I get jumping. I rode for about 2-2.5 hours and got much better jumping by the end. The back is feeling really good so I am thinking that the BMX may have to go and maybe the MirraCo as well to buy some parts for the jump bike.
18/09/19
Woke up early and went to Bath skatepark this morning and met up with Matt before he went to work.
Had a good session and jumped the stairs in the street section and also did the jump box a bit as well as hitting the driveway for about 2 hours.
I am now packing ready to go to Seattle tomorrow.
19/09/19
Got to Seattle at 6pm Seattle time so went straight to the apartment and unpacked and slept.
20/09/19
Woke up at 4am this morning and decided to get up early and walk the 5 miles into the office to pick up my bike bits.
Tried a different way and ended up miles from where I thought I would be so had to get the train 2 stops into work.
Then decided to walk back via the BMX shop which is pretty much on the way and buy some pedals. I carried the frame and wheels and then put the rest of the bits in my bag.
Not a bad days exercise as I walked about 15 miles all together and got more bearings of where things are in the city.
When I got home I started building the bike only to find that the suspension forks that I had brought with me had a crushed steerer tube so couldn’t be used. unfortunately I hadnt brought the Identity forks with me from the office.
I had also bought the wrong handlebars which are way too narrow for the bike so I gave up for the day.
21/09/19
Got up early again as I woke up at 4am again and got the bus into work to pick up the forks. I then mocked up the bike and marked where the forks needed cutting and took them to the bike shop and let them cut the steerer tube down and also knock in the star nut.
I also bought a quick release front axle as I stupidly left the one I had bought at home in the UK!
Got the bike built up only to find that I had also left my chain tool at home as well so had to drop the bike off at the shop for them to sort the chain out.
I also ordered some bigger bars which will arrive on Wednesday hopefully.
Pleased with how the bike has turned out except for the seat which I will swap for a bmx seat and post later in the week.
25/09/19
Borrowed my flat mates bike today as I have not heard from the bike shop and I need to do some exercise and I have had enough of the bus. The bike I borrowed is a hybryd so it is much faster and easier than the BMX that I used for the ride back in March. I did the ride to work in 10 minutes less than before and was able to ride everything really well and got up all the hills. The ride home was fun too as it was at 10pm at night so I could ride through most red lights as there was very little traffic at that time of night.
26/09/19
I arranged to go into work an hour later so that I could pick up the Dialled from the bike shop and get the bars. The bike was ready and the bars were in but the chain was too loose to use the bike until I buy a chain tensioner when I get paid tomorrow as it is on the verge of coming off all the time.
I took the bike home and got my flat mates bike again and rode into the office. Forgot to start Strava again so not true timing but I was stopped a lot at lights today so I think that the time would have been slow anyway.
I fitted the bars on the bike when I got home and got the order for the chain tensioner ready to send when the money drops in the morning so that I can use the bike when I get the chain tensioner on Monday or Tuesday next week.
I am also going to buy some cult van’s freestyle grips for the Dialled as I prefer them to the lock on grips for street and park.
My flat mate is away for pretty much the whole of October so I can use his bike anyway.
I am toying with the idea of buying a 22″ bmx tomorrow as the Jump bike is being such a pain in the arse and I want to get on the trails and in the skatepark for the next 3 days as I am off work and don’t want to waist any of my spare time because of having no bike.
If I get the 22″ BMX I will see how the Dialled is for commuting and if I don’t like it I will break it up and ship the frame and wheels back to the UK and sell the rest of the stuff.
Tomorrow I also want to pay for the ViaBike at Velo bike shop so that I can start using it to shower before work and I can leave my bike there if I want to go into downtown when I am not working.
27/09/19
Got up early and ordered all of the parts that I needed for the dialled so they will arrive next week.
I then rode into the office and did some work while I waited for Velo bike shop to open at 10am. I then paid for a months membership so that I can get a shower before work and leave the bike in a more secure area.
I then rode to Seattle BMX to look at bikes. I was going to get a 22″ but it felt way too big so I went with a 20″ trail bike that had a slightly longer top tube and back end so it was slightly less twitchy.
I had to drop my flat mates bike at home and then walked back to pick up the bike and also some cult grips for the new bike.
I bought a 2020 Fit trl XL in the end and it was much less than the 22″ which was a bonus.
From the shop I walked up the hill to Green Lake skatepark and trails for a play. Didn’t really get on with the trails as the bike felt odd still so I went to the skatepark and had a bit of a play on the street section mainly as the bowls were really big and I need to work up to them. I rode for about an hour and then headed back down the hill and home.
I am pretty happy with the bike except for the seat and post which are cheap and crappy. I bought an S&M long johnson seat post which will arrive next week sometime then I will head over to Seattle BMX and buy a better seat. This will mean that I will have the option of raising the seat so that I can sit down and pedal when I need to.
I plan on going back to the park tomorrow weather permitting as it was cool.
28/09/19
It started really lashing it down during the night so I decided not to bother getting up early today as it will be too wet to ride today anyway 😭
I’m pretty tired from all the riding and walking yesterday so probably a good idea to have a rest anyway.
I am going to clean up the apartment and do my washing so that everything is ready for next week.
The weather looks like it will be better tomorrow so I will get up super early and head to green lake again to try and get used to the trails and maybe drop into the bowls too.
29/09/19
Rained again most of the day but I found a bowl 2 blocks from my apartment so I went for a quick look but it was too wet to ride safely.
Went to the supermarket and bough some food and watched films and studied all day.
30/09/19
Was going to get up early this morning and go to the bowl but I wasnt feeling it so I did some more studying instead.
Rode to work and back so I got some exercise in at least.
Went to the viabike and left the bike there to see how it will be. It seems pretty good except that someone was using my locker. Going to Target after work and buying a lock and I will lock it if it is empty so that no-one else can use it anymore.