Last Tango in Paris

The Qball rebuild has begun.  This will be final edition of the Qball and as it came into my world as a singlespeed mountain bike it shall also leave my world as a singlespeed mountain bike.  I am going to ride it for awhile and then sell it.  I thought of signing up for Singlespeed A-Palooza but the high fee was a turn off and I am still not sure, with my shoulder, if I really want to be training hard for a mountain bike race that could only make things worse for me.

I didn't feel like going out and playing in the snow after work so I decided to play in the garage instead.  To make matters more interesting I had to work with the car in the garage because the plow guy had not come yet.

I knew I was taking a chance with this fork have such a short steering tube, only 6.5 inches, and I have a remedy for short steering tubes and it's called the Avid SAAGO (Stiff as all Get Out) Stem.  I am not sure if they are made anymore but you can still find them on eBay for under a $100, but when they first came out they retailed upwards of $200!  Fortunately, however, my 110mm Race Face stem worked perfectly.

Then came the cranks.  I quickly found that my 32t chain rings were incompatible with the Shimano LX cranks that I was using before.  The 32 ring that fit was sold on the Kona but it turns out I had a 34t laying around that fit perfectly.  The only problem was the gearing.  I checked Sheldon "Gain Ratios" Brown and found that a 32:20 comes out to 44.2 inches, so the closest I could get was 34:21, which comes out to 44.7 inches but I couldn't find my 21t cog so I went with 34:22 which is 42.7 inches.  I wonder if I will notice the difference.  If anything it will be easier to pedal in the snow.

I thought I had another flat bar laying around but I couldn't find that either.  I have one off the Trek but it's really heavy.  I need to reach out to some of my bike building buddies and see if they have anything to trade for.  In the meantime, I pulled the risers of my Burley and put them on temporarily.  I am not sure I like them only because they are aesthetically pleasing to me.  Flat bars look better on a Single Speed. 

I did get the tires and wheels on.  The Schwable Racing Ralph is huge!  Fits perfectly with the Reba fork and makes it look like a snow bike.  Hope I can get it out before all the snow melts!