XOXO Updates

After nearly 8 years of riding my Handsome XOXO as an all rounder, I recently wanted to try the bike with some larger tires. I was originally looking at Rene Herse Rat Trap Pass Tires as we’ve enjoyed them on the tandem but decided I wanted to go a bit more dirt oriented. The Humptulips Ridge is the comparable knobby tire in the RH line and I’ve had a good experience with the very similar Juniper Ridge I use on the front of the Wolverine so that seemed like a natural choice, but not being sure that I’d stick with the larger tired, fenderless setup I wanted a lower entry cost than RH tires have.

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Pasta Party Build Update – Coming Together

My Sour Pasta Party build is coming along and at this point everything is on the frame except the wheels, cog, chain, and pedals. Most of it was pretty standard. Double external cup headsets are a bit less common these days and rather than spend for a White Industries or Chris King (which currently have a long lead time), I went with a Nukeproof Horizon that was available in the color I was looking for.

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Sour Pasta Party – Single Speed MTB Build

Over the past six or seven months I’ve become fond of riding single speed bikes. The Wolverine has seen hundreds of miles of pavement, dirt roads, and tamer trails. My Jones 29er has been a single speed since October and in that time has seen more miles both than my geared mountain bikes combined, even though winter sees the Wozo getting the most use. Lately the Jones has been sporting some wide dirt drop bars and narrower 2.25″ tires, which on the right trails it can be surprisingly fast but has lead to me wanting a single speed mountain bike for more general trail use.

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Handsome XOXO – I love this bike!

Handsome XOXO (60cm)

I recently passed the 6-year mark with my Handsome XOXO (60cm frame) and it has long been one of my favorite bikes. The combination of road bike geometry and wheel diameter make for responsive handling, while the 26×1.8 tires provide comfort and stability over all surfaces.

My build is an all-rounder for paved roads, dirt/gravel, bike paths, and lightweight single-track.

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Micargi California – New Wheels

GR001-1664_california-800

While the Micargi California is a great value in a 26″ wheeled tandem, mostly thanks to its well designed frame, it does have its weak points. The stock wheels are fine for casual use – we’ve ridden them on several short neighborhood rides and one longer ride on one of my usual road loops – but their single wall construction, 36 spokes, and low flanged hubs raise concerns for long term durability.

On their own none of these are particularly problematic but wheel durability, especially for tandems, depends on a lot of things including rider and luggage weight, terrain, riding style, tire width/pressure, and expected performance. A light team riding unloaded on smooth roads can use a relatively low spoke count and/or lighter rim without having to true it very often. Change some of those factors and you impact the durability so maintenance goes up.

Given our intended use for the tandem I wanted a wheelset that would handle any road (paved or not) and a light touring load with our ~325lb team. There are a number of pre-built or custom options to meet these requirements but I like building my own wheels for the extra options it gives in terms of choosing hubs and rims. I also wanted to keep the cost down.

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Micargi California – Crank Upgrade

GR001-1594_california-800

Our California after replacing the cranks, tires, and captain’s seatpost, handlebar and stem.

In my earlier rundown of the Micargi California tandem’s provided components I identified the drivetrain, specifically the cranks and bottom brackets, as a potential upgrade area.

The stock cranks and bottom brackets are functional if not fancy. The steel bottom brackets were well adjusted to spin freely without play. While the riveted chain rings would require the stoker drive crank to be replaced eventually as the chain rings wore out, you could likely go thousands of miles on the provided cranks.

I came across a Truvativ Elita road tandem crankset with bottom brackets for a great price and thought it would make a worthwhile upgrade to the stock crankset and bottom brackets.

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Micargi California – An Entry Level Tandem

micargi california

My wife and I recently became interested in the idea of a tandem for paved and dirt road use. I want to use 1.75″ – 2″ tires with fenders so 26″ wheel tandems seemed a good starting point.

Looking at the options for lower priced tandems I came across one I’ve been unable to find much info on – the Micargi California. In some ways it’s the Giordano Viaggio of 26″ wheeled tandems but there are some appealing aspects:

  • aluminum frame vs steel (KHS Sport, etc) for potentially lighter weight
  • frame has both V-brake posts and a disc caliper mount on the rear (the included fork is V-brake only)
  • 6 bottle cage mounts, though only 4 of the spots can hold a 24oz bottle and one can hold a 32oz bottle
  • eccentric bottom bracket up front (the Viaggio uses an idler tensioner)
  • kickstand plate
  • priced between $500 – $600 new

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Hello world!

Welcome to the new blog. Same as the old blog except where it’s different.

I’ve moved to Word Press, which will make updates easier and hopefully more frequent. We’ll see. All the old content is gone for now but I’ll be manually pulling most of it back into the new site.