Its been a long time coming. For anyone who may follow this blog at all, you know I've been working on this carbon frame forever. For whatever reason its taken me this long but its done now, everything except maybe a few brush strokes to enhance the overall look. I work with a guy at the bistro who does hand pin-striping and I may let him play with this frame a bit and see what he comes up with. This photo here just shows the fit of the integrated bearing and it came out nice. I got to use my integrated head tube cutters, I love 'em.
I didn't really do any pre-planning for the seatpost but it turned out that a 31.6mm post fit perfectly.
The brake bridge will get improved on the next frame. This wasn't thought about too much beforehand and I just kinda threw this idea together on the fly. Its a piece of steel tubing compressed and then wrapped in carbon. Its sufficient but I plan on doing better.
I built this frame Di2 compatible but I'll just be using my same old Campy groupset that I've had for the last few years. I didn't enjoy cutting holes in the chainstay on two sides but I think its gonna be ok. I guess we'll find out. I was gonna wrap some extra carbon or even kevlar around the right stay in order to beef it up but I just decided to roll with it as it. I can still do it if I need to but i think I'm just gonna give it a dig and see where I'm at with it.
I could've used some flat-head screws for this and it would've been a bit more pleasing to the eye. Oh well, its a prototype.
I tried to create as much room in the bb shell for housing all the wiring and so forth. Hopefully its sufficient.
This is it.
The last few days have been pretty cold here in Mountain Home, both inside and out. We recently got about 2-3 inches of ice and snow here and the temp has dropped dramatically. "Why is it cold inside D? Did you leave a window open?" Well, kind of. Those last couple of blog posts didn't sit well with some folks. I got a bit of an earfull on a couple of fronts. I got called a racist by one guy. I've been called a lot of things by people in my time, mainly people in cars passing me on the road, but never a racist. I've managed to live for 46 years without being called that one and truthfully I would've liked to live another 46 without hearing it, but the run is over. I'm not gonna lie, it hurt. My first thought was, "Oh no, am I gonna be put in a boat with Mel Gibson and Paula Deen?" I can't stand Mel Gibson, and I don't care for Paula Deen much either, but maybe she'll bring some of that cobbler that she makes with Krispy Kreme donuts. My fingers were crossed. And then I thought, "Maybe Axl Rose will be sitting somewhere close." I always thought he had an interesting personality. In the song "One in a Million", Axl managed to insult immigrants, homosexuals, African-Americans, and the cops. He must be a multi-tasker. I'm not that good yet. My Greek grandparents came over from Greece in the early 1900's but I wasn't offended. He'll probably get a seat in first-class since he is so accomplished. Then I started wondering, "Am I gonna go to Hell?" Oh well, at least it'll be warm there. Anything to get me out of this ice and snow. "Come on kids, get your swimsuits and sand buckets, this year we're going to Hell."
That first night I didn't get much sleep. I kept thinking, "Am I a racist?" I never thought I was. I always hated the Ku Klux Klan and thought they were a big joke. I've never told anyone this before but I've always imagined me and some friends ambushing a KKK rally with paintball guns, you know, just come out of the bushes firing, paint their arses about 10 different colors, send 'em home looking like a bowl of Skittles. I could see the ol'boy walking in the house with his tail between his legs with a handful of sheets and pillow cases looking like they'd been tye-dyed by a bunch of hippies. His wife would scream, "VERN, you've ruined our best sheets again!" Just for the record, not all people named Vern are in the KKK. I just wanted to clear that up.
So anyway, now I'm a racist. Its hard being a racist, well, its easy to become a racist, you might be one and not even know it, that was the case with me. I've only been a racist for about 36 hours now but its been rough. I didn't really want to leave the house all day but then I needed to run to Lowe's and so I was forced to. I warmed my truck up and put my boots on. I laced 'em up pretty tight because I was thinking I might run into some trouble, I mean people don't take kindly to racist. I felt like I had racist written on the back of my shirt, you know, like a football jersey with a big number and across the back it said, "RACIST". When I pulled up into the parking lot at Lowe's I just kinda sat there for a minute and looked around. I was afraid someone might throw eggs or tomatos at me, like uncooked ones, but everything looked pretty safe. I pulled my hat down over my eyes a bit and kept my shades on and didn't make eye contact with anyone and I managed to get in and out without any trouble. "Whooosh, that was close."
I'm feeling a bit better today. I've decided to accept my racism. When I initially got called a racist I was hurt and offended, but after thinking about it a bit, I thought, "Wait a minute, I've played this game before. I call you a name and you get mad, so you call me a name and I get mad. This is a kid's game." I remembered something I read in an Eckhart Tolle book. It said when you experience something that hurts you, to not react with emotions quickly but rather be accepting of it and embrace it. Feel it, let it soak in deep and you'll find strength in it. So I did, and I feel better. I've already started my Racist Rehabilitation program. I want to embrace the Jewish community. Mr. Richard Sachs told me that he attended a Yeshiva for eight years. I don't know what that is but it sounds fun. I imagine they'll have live music and lots of food kinda like a Greek Festival. I went to Lollapalooza once but it was only 2 days, Janes Addiction headlined. They're my favorite band of all time, Perry Farrell is Jewish you know. He sang one song about Whores and another about Summertime. It was a good time.
So anyway, there isn't a Yeshiva in Mountain Home to help me and so I just decided to start finding famous Jewish people that I like because I knew I didn't dislike all of them, just a few of them. So below I've picked out some of my favorite Jews of all time. I actually had no idea that half of them were Jewish.
Billy Crystal He's alright, very entertaining, pretty funny, and I like some of the stuff he's done. He was in City Slickers and a few other movies. Most of all i like his upbeat personality.
Gwyneth Paltrow. Great looking, a really classy women. Nobody can not like her.
Ben Stiller. Good looking man, great smile. He was in "Theres Something About Mary" and he had a bunch of jizz in his ears. His dad is also very entertaining. Like 'em both.
Julia Louis-Dryfess. Another super-classy Jewish girl. She played Elaine on Seinfeld. Love her. I loved that whole cast and still watch reruns constantly. Its on the TV right now.
I forgot this girl's name. Silverspoon or Silverton, who knows. I don't care that much for her really. She's just some slut on Comedy Central. I'm sure her dad is proud.
Adam Sandler. Great smile, very funny to some. I personally don't find him that funny. I thought his best movie was "Funny People" with Seth Rogan. He seems like a very personable and likeable Jewish man. Very cool.
Seth Rogan. Love him and all his pot-smoking movies. "Super Bad" was an excellent movie as was "Pineapple Express". Seems like he would be a blast to hang out with. That reminds me. One Thanksgiving night a couple of years ago my wife had to work and my mother-in-law put the movie "Knocked Up" in and I had forgot about all the dirty scenes in it. Needless to say, long movie. I was also a huge fan of the show "Freaks and Geeks" in his early years.
This is Peter Faulk. I always thought he was cool but I'm not sure what he did. Maybe he was in some show called "Get Smart". It doesn't look like he ever did.
Paul Rudd. This guy has been in so many movies over the past 10 years I honestly don't know how he keeps track of his lines. Another good-looking guy, great smile. Love him!
Aayyyyyeeeee! The Fonz. Super-cool guy! Everyone loves the Fonz. He was on "Happy Days" and jumped his motorcycle over 13 garbage cans. Thats not bad, but I know of at least 3 MEECH team riders that can jump further than that on their cross bikes. This show takes me back to when I was a kid and me and my family would sit around watching TV together. I miss those days.
This is one of the most famous Jewish men of all time, Albert Einstein. He discovered the Theory of Relativity and was the first man to ride a bicycle in outer space.
I had to come back because i forgot Gene Wilder. How could I leave out one of my favorite actors of all time.
And I almost forgot the most famous Jew of all time, Jesus Christ. Its funny though, when I look at Jesus Christ I don't see Jesus the Jew, I just see Jesus, and I think thats the way we're probably supposed to view one another.
Thanks for checking out my stuff.
Now, back to building bicycle frames.
Dimitri
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