Monday, December 12, 2011

A SuperMutant, Boeshield T-9, and a Tree


I have sad news. Mutant Winter is no more. When I got around to trying to clean her up for this winter season, I found that the disc brakes had deteriorated into rusty clumps of unfixable goo. I didn't want to buy new ones. Other things were also pretty bad, so I stole the studded tires, the second best tub in town, pedals and a few other components and slapped 'em on an old SuperCycle mountain bike. SuperCycle is a house brand for Canadian Tire bikes. At the lowest end they are about the same as NEXT or any of the other cheaper department store bikes. The Gary Fisher Bitter that Mutant Winter was based on was nice, but while I wait for the time and resources required for my next sweet winter bike build, I figure this will suffice. One nice thing is that by combining parts from Mutant Winter and this SuperCycle, I have created a SuperMutant!


SuperMutant, sans Tub

I guess it doesn't really look like a mutant at all yet. I'll get there, I promise.

The Deore derailleur from MW wouldn't work on this frame since it required a derailleur hanger, so I bought a new, cheap ($15) Shimano "Tourney" from Village Cycle in my neighbourhood. Looking at it, I knew its screws and other silver bits would begin to rust immediately in the salty road conditions here. That's where the Boeshield comes in.



Boeshield T-9 is really great stuff. I originally bought it to treat the insides of my steel Trek touring frame. I also sprayed it on a heavy chain that I use to lock up bikes on my porch. That chain has been sitting outside in the snow and and mist (although not direct rain) for about 15 months and it still looks pretty good...

 

I only treated it with Boeshield that one time over a year ago, so I'm pretty impressed. A steel chain left outdoors would normally get rusty pretty quick, I think. Anyway, I hosed down that derailleur and many other parts of the bike with Boeshield and I bet it'll help considerably. When I get around to building a new winter bike, I will use Boeshield from the get-go on everything (especially spokes, nipples and rim eyelets: I've had nipples break due to salty brutality) and every few months in the hopes of keeping it nice despite the salty crud it will face.

If you are thinking of commenting about how I should give the bike a rinse after riding in salty slush, I know, I know. I also know myself and that I'm too lazy or hurried or both most of the time to do what I should and Boeshield or something like it may be my only hope.

Where was I? Ah, yes, a tree! There is another SARATS entry. It is a Steve A find from a blog post he read. It is, however, being entered by the owner, Durango, who shot it in Fort Worth, Texas with Steve's encouragement.



Love that dome shape, man. Thanks for the tree and good luck in my contest! 



Yer Pal,
R A N T W I C K

Monday, December 5, 2011

The End of SARATS?

It is entirely possible that the two entries I show you today are the last I will receive before the deadline of December 15. Whether I get any more entries or not, I would like to say that I am more than pleased with the response, especially considering that I've been less active on the blog this year. Thanks very much to everyone who has entered so far!

This one was from Bob in California, who responded to the post about PaddyAnne's #13 entry with this email:

Yo Ranty,



I don't have a story as grand as PaddyAnne's, just trying to show some love from the West Coast (of the U.S.) and break your 13.

I'm in San Juan Capistrano, California. The tree in front of our house is a bit stubborn and only a few leaves have turned, but luckily one cul-de-sac over is this beauty. Unfortunately all I have is a phone camera at the moment, so the quality ain't so great. And yes, you can see that pretty much everything besides this tree is still Granny Smith green. And yeah it was 77 degrees here today. Sorry haha.

Have a great one,
Bob
 
 
 
 
Bob, I'll happily get reports of perfect weather from anybody, any time, because I'm sick enough to enjoy "bad" weather most of the time anyway. Thanks for the tree pic! Because I'll be displaying them to voters on a laptop, pictures of lower quality will display pretty much as well as super high res ones, so no worries.
 
Next came a more mysterious entry from what my gmail calls ".w..brwn." . No worries .w..brwn., I've got your real email address as well but wouldn't post it here. If you win, you'll get email for sure. If you see this, leave a comment to tell me where your tree is located (country, city, state).
 
Here's .w..brwn.'s brief message:
 
Hello Rantwick,

Thought I might send an entry for the SARAT competition that you are running.

This particular tree is located in park that I pass though frequently. It was in fine colour this year, however recent change in weather and winter temperatures alas is now taking its toll.



Ah, such is the nature of Autumn glory... the fleeting quality of a tree's fall foliage is part of it's beauty for me; thanks for your entry!



Trees! Woo Woo! R A N T W I C K