maddmaxx 

At last the snow has melted enough to take the receintly rebuilt trail bike out for a picture and a quick ride.

This is the setup for tall people with short legs that I spoke of. 23 1/2 inch virtual top tube length on an 18 inch frame with lots of standover.

First time in a while without my own homebuilt wheels but I was changing to disc brakes and these were cheaper than I could buy material for a new set.

Took the Shimano Dual controls off (sold them) and returned to the X.9 SRAM control group. Overgeared the bike with a 26-36-48 chain ring set with a 12/26 road cassette. This bike is built for relatively mild grade rail trails, dirt roads and asphault. It is my everyday general all rounder and does most things well except travel through mud.

Digital Gee

Good lookin' bike. I like your "understated" bar-ends. Unlike mine, they don't go out calling attention to themselves. I like that!

maddmaxx 

One handful only. just for and additional hand position or when I'm really struggling up a hill.

DG as a contest winner you have a pm

maddmaxx 

And DG is in fact the winner of the contest.

Thanks all the rest of you for playing.

The next time I have an unannounced contest I'll post it here........

Now can anyone tell me what settings to use to post "good" pictures here. I had to downsize this one so much to fit the forum limit that its pretty fuzzy.

Digital Gee

Woohoo!!!

I feel something like that truck driver in Georgia who won the lottery! Well, "something" like him. Thanks, MaddMaxx!!!

stapfam

Now for a bike for short people with short legs=5'6" with 29 inseam. 15 1/2" frame and 22" toptube but with riser bars to bring up and back. I only ride XC so 44/32/22 with 11/34 rear cassette and as I found out this morning- I need all the low gears I can get. This one does go through mud but you have to use a Mud specific tyre in 1.8 to stop the mud collecting between wheel and frame/forks. LX crankset but rest of Drive chain up to XT grade. Short stubbie bar ends are the best so apart from the disc brakes- that are not necessary on XC rides of 30+ miles can agree completely on the Bike set up.

Nice bike.

Edit-Try to get the bike up against a plain garage door- apparantly white is best- or up against a brick wall like I have. It stops the background taking MB's on the picture.Yours is 80.7kb's and mine is 41.3kb's

maddmaxx 

Thanks for the photo tip, makes sense now that I've heard it.

I don't ride this bike exclusively cross country. Sometimes on the road between trails the are reasonably large hills. Since I ride at about 205 lbs and go down hill like a stone I've found evidence of minor melting of the tire bead on rim brake wheels. The disc's are the result of the terror of a 60 year old man blowing a tube at 45mph.

Besides, Im an equipment geek and had to have something to play with this winter.

p8rider

Very nice looking bike! Great job!

stapfam

One of the advantages of discs is the lack of tyre problems and the lack of wearing out rims. I go through rims about every 18 months- by which time the hub is normally on the way out too- so I buy ready made wheels from a GOOD wheelbuilder. Now on Tandems- One of the problems is overheating tyres on Long descents and T's weigh a lot more than you. I put discs on the T as V brakes were causing a problem on extended rides. After about 65 miles- the lever pressure was beginning to hurt and we don't know if it was the pads going off or just the effort. All we have to put up with on the T is the noise once the disc's get a bit warm. They get noisy. When that happens- it doesn't bother us as the Pilot just stops braking. Makes it hairy through the corners, but stops me getting ear ache. Gearing on the Tandem is 48/36/24 and a 12/32 rear cassette. Still gives us a high enough top speed and we can get up all the hills- unless we lose grip.

BluesDawg

The best bet it to set up a free account at a site like Photobucket that allows you to store photos and post IMG code links. Since the actual image is on the host site, the BF limits don't apply. You can even post small thumbnails that will open large images when you click on them.
https://photobucket.com/

maddmaxx 

DG, your contest winnings are in the mail.

John E

Nice bike, stapfam, but then I am a big fan of Bianchis.

I concur with your advice regarding background, but would add that lighting is absolutely critical. A few afternoon attempts to photograph one of my bikes against my east-facing white garage door have been disasters, because of severe shadowing. I can pull up the brightness on the computer, but this creates artifacts in the background.