Surly 29er+ Velocity Blunt 35 Knard to Follow

After several months of Knard, Knard and nothing but Knard on the front of my either my Lynskey Pro29 SL, fits nicely in the Black sheep fork, for everything short of the Maah Daah Hey after a rain or on my old Ferrous and Switchblade fork combo (plenty of room there).  Except for some railbed riding.

Click here for my First Look at the Knard.
Click here for Follow Up

The Knard Rolls pretty good on the Velocity's Blunt 35. I am running it tubeless, but I was pretty conservative on the pressure and only ran it 17.5, just 1.5 psi lower than my 2.35 Ikon. I dropped another half PSI when I got back near the car at Games Loop/UWF Pensacola Florida.  It was great in the sugar sand of course.  Slid out on some fresh pine needles. Usually I could feel it slide and hook back up though.  I had to keep it weighted, more on top of the front wheel, kinda like riding a hardtail with a big fork up front.

As I slowly lowered the pressure, like half a PSI each ride, I had to ride on top of the front end less.  I worked down to 14 PSI.  That was just starting to feel more shock absorption at 14.  I stayed here a while, as I am concerned about breaking a bead and rolling the Knard off of the Blunt 35.

I settled at 13.5 psi, getting just the occasional bottom out clank.  I weigh around 200 lbs. No scale in the bus so not 100% sure.

Now I always break something at Stokes, Stokes has my number, you could say,  Stokes is pretty much all rock garden, even though rock gardens are usually my forte. My Stan's sealant was getting thin I guess.  I burped or punctured and was able to put the Knard/Blunt 35 up a few times, but ended up putting in a tube.
Back at a compressor, I removed the tube, added some Stan's and  reinflated and it has been good for a couple months now.

Wet rocks seem to be the Knards nemesis.  Particularly on technical rocky climbs, the Knard hunts around a bit, sometimes finding the wrong line, accentuated on a single speed.

Having a 29er+ up front and a weekend on a fat bike, got me jonesin for a 29er+ rear as well.  The Surly Krampus and the Carver Titanium Gnarvester, if you guys are listening :-) Lynskey said they could build me a custom one.  A guy can Dream.

My Lynskey was down for a while, when I got her back together, the bike's handling felt a little slower than I remember with the Knard.  The Ferrous has slightly steeper head angle, and maybe I got used to that.  I gave the 2.35 Ikon another try for comparison and it just worked better with my Lynskey geometry.

Back In The Saddle Again

#Lynskey

1st and Second rides in the Books!  Two months is to long to go with out a single speed.  Bar switching components back and forth on the Ferrous, it was gears only for me for a while.

No creaks rattles or moans, except occasionally from the handlebar and seat clamp and sometimes the rider :-)

Due to me not being in top shape and it has been a while, I decided to put on a very low 22t cog, pared with my 34t Q ring and 180mm cranks.

Blue Dawn

Most bike mechanics know that regular old fashioned Blue dawn is the best thing to clean disc brakes.

But it is getting harder to find. With all the eco 2 times and now 5 times concentrate!

I have been a die hard user of Dawn for years.  It really cleans up your hands after a greasy job, bike or car.

But ever since the trend to concentrate, I have had a harder time cleaning my hands.  Finger nail brushes helped, but I used to just soap up with Dawn, back then there was only one, let it soak a bit and rinse it off with warm water, wala clean hands! Not so much any more.

So it got me thinking, maybe all this concentrating is the issue.  So, maybe great for dishes and making a spray bottle to detect leak, in tubes and such, but just a little too viscous to get deep into the fingerprints on my hands.

I founds a bottle of regular old fashioned blue Dawn at a Krausers after a remodel.

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise, my hands where cleaner faster than they have been for years!

So I diluted some of the 2X concentrate, about 50/50.  It seemed a little thin and did not mix to the even consistency of Original Blue Dawn, but it did clean my hands much better than the concentrate.  Even with wet hands or cupping water in my hand first, the concentrate will not mix well enough, in my hand, to get into the nooks and crannies of my hands.

I know this is somewhat off the topic of this blog, but epic rides, sometimes require epic repairs and clean up afterwards!

The moral is if you cant find good old fashioned blue Dawn, split the bottle in half and add your local water, keeps the carbon foot print down and gets your hand clean to boot!

Play List of BullDog Rump H2H Race Videos

Here is the play list of edited video from the Rump.  I will add the awards later.
You can use the drop down at the top left of the Youtube screen to skip around the videos.
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BullDog Rump Video H2H race Series White Trail

Som KVSP White Trail Happiness
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BullDog Rump Video H2H race Series

Pros and Cat 1 guys and gals taking on Dunlop on lap one of three on a warm summers afternoon.

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Emergency Derailleur Hanger

I have been carrying a Wheel Mfg Emergency Derailleur Hanger for some time now.  It is something you never want to need, but you sure are happy you have one when you need it.  I was only 10 miles in, but did not want to walk or make the bike a single speed.  The EDH saved the day and it worked well enough to get in 25 more miles.  I got all my gears almost all the time.

 This is not a happy Derailleur Hanger. But it gave it's life to save my frame and derailleur.

No more nobler end for a Hanger!

Here is the EDH after the install.

The EDH does have a tendency to rotate forward.  I only really slowed down some upshifts as derailleur was close enough to the chain to impede it from coming up of it's cog high enough to derail.  Downshifts worked because cable tension force and not a spring make the derailleur shift, down and up respectively.

Problem Solvers makes one that looks a little bit easier to install and addresses the rotation problem.

Either one is then next best thing to carrying the specific hanger for your bike, maybe better if your buddy breaks his and does not have a spare for his bike.  There are so many different hangers for different bikes, an EDH makes sense.

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