S18O

It's a slow work week so I decided to enjoy the long days and do a quickie overnighter, what Rivendell folks would call a s24o, but in our case a s18o.

coming down Coastal trail

Amazing wildflowers

Everyone who camps here can't resist this pic...

I am always interested to see how others are loading their bikes, so this just shows my funny set up. I keep trying to leave my panniers behind on short dirt trips, and I like the gear being up high to clear obstacles on the trial.  I've got the sleeping pad/bag up front on a Nitto mini front rack tied on with a small rope using a trucker's hitch, and the tent on top of the rear which is supporting the big saddle bag. Extra clothes and food are in the saddle bag. It worked great, and didn't feel too funny or wobbly.

No ghost bikes with crazy sweepyback bars.

Heading out up Coastal trail. It's like a green hallway!

85 goose, more on lugged fork crowns

Just posting some recent stuff. Below is an '85 Mongoose ATB that I tinkered on for a bud. Mostly just new tires (chen shin, heavy/smelly/cheapie), new rear wheel with a 7spd cassette, and newer nothing fancy Alivio 8spd rear der. Also, changed the cockpit around with more rise and gripshift to match the new gearing. I know that it's taboo to use gripshift, but the buddy I built this up for is a bit of a noob and it was the simplest thing I had. It ended up like a big kid's BMX.
I learned something about these bikes working on this thing. They use an unconventional fork steerer size/ stem size. The stem steerer diameter is 21.15 mm NOT the normal 22.2mm. It's a bummer if you have one of the bikes and you want a specific stem because the options are severely limited. Harris cyclery has some though. Here.

Risin'

The Specialized X-2, which I guess means 2" rise.

Then I got on to thinking about luggy fork crowns. At first glance this one is the same as the early stumpys, but it is actually different. You can see that the area between the two plates at the fork leg is a cast socket that the fork is brazed into.

On the '84 Stumpy the fork leg is passed through a hole in the lower plate and there is a reinforcing tang on the inside the slots.

there's that tang...not too sure that "tang" is the right word but that's what comes to mind.

The next two are the same crown, the first from an '84 Diamondback and the other is an '84 Bianchi. You can really see how powdercoat makes bikes look marshmellowy. This was a popular crown on early 80's Japanese MTBs, the fake bi-plane. I've always wondered if you could drill the superfluous(?) steel between the plates. Might be a fun Drillium project on a bike, but maybe not as safe/sturdy as the stock one.

Another variation here (below). It's a '84 Trek 830. Not sure if this one is cast as you can see a little weld at the fork leg.

And a funny narrow cast crown from an 84 trek 890.

Just for reference, the '85 stumpy crown.

The last little thing is this neat old cycle touring guide from 1982. It covers the California coast route and was put out by Caltrans. I just liked the design layout and choice of images, pretty rad.