Test: Absolute Black N/W chainring

During the last winter I've had it with my chain guides. First, the Hope chain guide including the fancy Integrated Bash Ring sucked at keeping the chain on. Despite using the clutch rear mech I was just dropping it on and on. Then on one of the rides the lower roller on Gamut P30 seized up permanently. MRP G2 Mini SL got screwed up in Hafjell, in a stupid slow speed crash the boomerang got bent and I have never managed to straighten it up so that the chain wasn't rubbing on the upper guide. That was just before i lost the lower roller to it... lots of bad luck aye, enough to turn my eyes on narrow wide chain ring...

I decided to try that hyped thingy before buying a new guide. There were plenty of options but I wanted to buy something made in Europe, and it happened that there is a Polish bloke in UK making those. He runs a small manufacture called Absolute Black making very nice looking components. So I gave it a try. I bought a beautifully carved 34t chainring fitting my old XTR cranks. The finish quality is top notch and it arrived quickly in very nice packaging. I like such approach to business.

Cairns World Cup - Who is going to win?

It always amazes me, why people want to know the future, what is coming. There are some relatively non-creative fantasies of what is going to come: who is going to win a race or a match. Most of us if asked about the sense of visiting an astrologist or a fairy, would use words like useless, stupid, delusion, mumbo jumbo, waste of money. Yet everytime a new race comes along, many of us "fans" predict future in the same manner, it's just that instead of horoscpes or cards they tell future from start lists, timed practice, qualifications:  Danny is going to win. In more popular sports, like football, tennis or F1, there are masculine fairies. They sit in TV studio and are called: "experts". There are also means of wasting money on future telling called "betting".

I believe that surprise is a bigger reward than "Hah - I said so!"  so just sit back and enjoy watching it unfold alright?

Say NO to Prejudgment! Kill the prejudice!

I recently read a book called Spiritual Bypassing by Robert Augustus Masters. A great book about the mechanisms that push us into unhealthy denial of our own feelings, like: "I was too harsh for my girlfriend today, I should not have shouted on her so much" - "it is because I haven't prayed too much lately, I am too weak in my faith, I am missing the leading power of God". Or more secular interpretation: "I overreacted because I am disfunctional, I grew up with a harsh father", or atheist interpretation: "I haven't read enough articles from psychology, how to control emotions, maybe I should have been more aware of the low atmospheric pressure causing me to be irritated due to diminished ability to focus - I am missing the leading power of Science". Maybe: "I should have taken a spare tube, I wouldn't be so angry after walking home for 3 hours in hard clipless shoes"

Frame project update

Geometry for the "production" frame is ready. Main differences from current prototype are very slightly slacker head angle, lower BB, steeper seat angle, much more tyre clearance, 650B compatibility. Short stays stay where they are, just as the reach. After testing the bike with longer 417 mm stays I decided that 405-410 for 26" is just this bit more fun. Then by adjusting head angle I need to keep the reach as it is, in order to avoid making the front end too long. We have too many tight corners here to hang around with DH wheelbase :D

SOFT SIDE OF MINE: la famiglia, grandi emozioni e una bicicletta

I haven't been writing for a while, not that someone complained about it (pause), but I wanted to explain myself. A lot happened lately. First and most of all I got a second child, a son: Stanislaw. For international purposes let's call him Stanley, Stan :D Not that much to say about it. Then I had plenty of work and I learned loads of new things about architectural visualizations, but that came at a price of a nervous breakdown. Fortunately I have a great and strong wife, I have strong daughter and I am taking an integrity training program with Ryan Leech. Then I had the articles for Pinkbike, and I had to squeeze in some time for redesigning my frame. All that piled up in 3 months, has woken up so many emotions, freaking hell, it's hard to believe as I write this. Anyways, I realized that I arrived somewhere. In the last three years I have been on an emotional roller coaster. I had at least two "revelations" of who I am, what is this world around, kind of existentional stuff, but it wasn't until now that I found some meaning of "one-ness". After one of latest rides it came to me that I could incantate that fine line from the movie with Will Smith "In the pursuit of happiness". That line is: "that new chapter in my life, I call happiness". I felt it, for the first time, that everything fell into place, even though three years ago I would not call such situation as living a dream.

The Crank and Sprocket

Just after my first article on Pinkbike I have been contacted by two blokes passionate about starting their own bicycle service place in Cambridge UK. They asked me if I could redraw a crankset drawing I made for Sheman-Oh leak. They wanted their logo on it... I got pissed off! Show some respect to the poor artist ok?! Did anyone ask Leonardo: "Hey mate, love your stuff! Listen, I buy that Lisa´s portrait over there if you paint me moms face into it!"  

Mnah just joking :)

Buyers guide to Perspective

I tried to put into this picture as many issues as I can think of. These are things that must fall into place in order to achieve the elusive "optimal performance".  We are all after optimization, even if we think of getting a do-it-all bike, it has it's specifics and well we must optimize it so it can do as much as we ask it to do... rider, machine and element must match!