well, rensho is officially in a box and in the hopefully capable hands of UPS. let's all send her good vibes for a safe (if expensive) journey.

and yeah... i'm getting a little crazy. as bad as i want superbe cranks in 165, i'm not willing to buy these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Suntour-Superbe-...QQcmdZViewItem
why? they're not track cranks. bah.

also, Rincewind is now joining us in Chicago! Hooray!

also... a couple folks have talked to me about scraping together fg or ss bikes in time for chicago. the easiest way to do this would be to 'ghetto fix' the bike you're already riding, by swapping out the rear wheel with something like an IRO fix hub wheel and buy a new chain (NOTE: track ends are usually spaced at 120mm, but few road bikes are. make sure you measure your dropouts before ordering a new wheel!). remove derailleurs/derailleur hanger, and leave the new chain on the center ring of your triple, building it to be as tight as possible when your wheel is set in the rear dropout. the nice thing about this is, as much as your chainline will suck, you'll stilll have two breaks. and you can go back to normal if you don't like it.
option two is to buy a complete bike on craigslist and do the same.
option 3 is to do either of the above, and swap the cranks for appropriate track cranks to improve the chainline. IRO makes good cheapies, as does Sugino (RD's are cheap).
the easiest option is to buy a IRO complete or a pista for $550.
lemme know if you have questions.