aistriu.

got out for a shakedown spin on the Semi-Squishy-Shifty-Therefor-Unmanly-Pony, or SSSTUMP for short. it's got a single ring up front and 5 speeds out back, of which only four seem to work, so it's not really a full on multispeed. i like to think of it as a singlespeed that stutters. besides, the easiest gear it has is a 32 x 24... i need to lower the front end. shorten the travel to 100mm probably and maybe throw on a lower rise/longer stem.

as expected, it's significantly faster over the roots and downhill, and more forgiving of error on obstacles with bumpy exits. climbing was noticeably slower, which i'm attributing to the front end being so high. i also need to actually try adjusting the fork. i kinda just took it out of the box and put it on the bike, like one would with a rigid fork, not adjusting anything. i have no idea what the +/- air pressures are. the maxle is incredible though. 40mm more travel than the reba i was running a couple of years ago on the rigorilla, yet it tracks really damned well through the turns. i like it. gordo rims aren't that noticeably heavy, at least compared with halo freedom disc and wtb ddfr's, which i'm running otherwise. stouts at 50psi had more traction everywhere i rode yesterday than they do at 30-40 psi, and roll alot faster. i did notice more bounce out back on the roots though. even i can admit that 50 psi is a wee bit high for a 29er, especially with 35mm wide rims....



sat down and knocked out a couple of carvings today. first female face i've carved in a looong time....

pre-polycrylic in the backyard sun





post-polycrylic in the behind the garage shade

cosuil le fliuch....

polycrylic is awesome. especially on cottonwood bark. really brings out the colors, darkens it up just enough while maintaining the visual depth of the carving....

for size reference the slats on that picnic table are @3.5" wide.

ag obair mo mhear ar an cnamh

lot's of carving today.

ollpheist adhmad

neck is a wee bit sore today. guess i hit the ground a little harder than i thought yesterday....

might head out for a little spin in a bit, just to stay loose. got some new carvings done.

ceann eile

carving even a soft wood like whatever the piece below is really makes me realize just how heavenly it is to carve cottonwood bark. and you'll likely never catch me trying to carve ironwood again with hand tools like i did in mexico... i remember at one point down there waking up with my fingers locked in a clench.

i intended for this to be a full body, but it just didn't happen.





my legs are really sore from yesterdays hike, and there's a bottom bracket issue with the new bike, so not much in the way of exercise today. excuses excuses...

agus glan anois

cleaned em up and added a few features last night after that last post.

it's raining now and amazingly, i have the motivation to ride. i'm gonna go play around at crev mo i think.


edit: ok, now it's raining harder. think i might be losing that motivation.....





and another made today.



riding will commence tomorrow....

an beatha simpli.

eat, relax, waste time on the internet, carve, eat, drink, carve. only thing missing is riding. i got notivation.

not yet finished.

snoíodóireacht adhmaid

no riding today. it was raining and i, again, lacked the motivation. got an interesting call though, with some interesting info. need to return that call.

worked a little bit on two of the carvings i posted yesterday. well, a lot on one of them and a little on the other. i cleaned up the one and squared up the eyes a 'little' better, and cut the entire face off the other and re-carved it.

still not symmetrical, but who is?





this guy from yesterday's post:




became this guy from today:



this is one i've had sitting around for about a month.



anyone know what type of wood this is? it's about 2 inches in diameter and was found as driftwood on the coast of norton sound.

adhmad aris.

rode today, on the karate monkey. having some flexing issues with the back end. i don't think it enjoyed all that bending and hammering to fit the 26 x 3 and 70mm rims as much as i did. good thing the 'other' is nearing completion. one glitch i've run into with the 'other' is that rock shox has decided to go post mount on their 29" forks this year. at least the 20mm axle one anyway. unfortunately, half of the 20mm hubs on the market are 'out of their spec range'. which means that the hope moto v2 caliper hits the friggen spokes when mounted straight to the posts and slammed all the way left. i have a 183 adapter en route in the hopes that it'll cure my woes. according to a thread on the ultimate waste of a mtbers time, it's happening to nearly everyone stupid enough to purchase that fork. i should have known better than to trust a company starting with the letter 's'. other than surly. and speedway. so, starting with the letter 's' and containing the letter 'm'. the ride was a brief one at crev-mo. it was enjoyable, i played around a bit, and walked the steeper hills because im a disgusting blob.



got home and actually did some carving. i've been doing it sporadically ever since mexico. i guess maybe sparsely would be more accurate. but alot more since i moved up here and discovered cottonwood bark, which carves like butta and is in massive abundance. the typical stuff i've always been doing, santas and woodspirits. santas because my mom likes them and woodspirits because everyone likes them wether they admit it publicly or not. what's not to like about a crazy old man with an epic beard painstakingly carved into a piece of wood?

here's a preview. most will be getting some sort of paint. the cottonwood bark actually needs paint to tone down the excessive grain, which drowns out features of the carvings unless side lit.



this one is today's


blurry