I finally got around to investigating my stove up bottom bracket. Apparently the bearings that come in the Race Face X-type brackets suck really bad. Between the 5 or so creek crossings at Fools Gold and the 4 at Tom Brown every bit of grease washed out of the bearings and the gritted up and rusted. It’s a poor bearing design. More about that here.

That dog won’t hunt.

I picked up some new bearings and bearing grease from the Enduro Fork Seals guy. He does away with the lame plastic shim/dust seal thing and makes the inner diameter of the bearing slightly smaller which allows bigger bearings with a retainer. The Enduro stuff is top notch, their pictorial archive alone is pure gold.

I have to wonder. Is the increased stiffness of the outboard bearing design enough to offset the increased maintenance and failure? Isn’t there way more flex in the frame anyway?

Well it’s been 1 month since the Tom Brown race and I’ve ridden 3 times, run 5 times, and done a whole bunch of home improvement. We still aren’t moved into the new house but should be in 2 more weeks. I’m fresh and ready to start putting in saddle time. I’m a little concerned about my crotch, it’s already gotten soft. I better put a lot of chamois lube on for the Spaghetti 100k.

Terry C. is dripping with enthusiasm and it’s a great thing to see. Riding home from the group sunday thinking about his enthusiasm definately has me inspired to start putting in the hours. He did a nice guest blog for juancho about the man trying to make us soft by destroying our hills.