I picked up a Motobecane Fly Team SRAM XO Ti 29er for myself and a Gravity 29Point1 for the wife from www.bikesdirect.com. You get some pretty good stuff on the higher end. I probably could have gotten something similar to the Gravity in a shop for just a little more. The Motobecane was a deal though. The components alone are worth the cost of the bike, and then you get a sweet titanium frame out of it. The Gravity went together in a snap. However, when it came time to assemble the Motobecane, the dérailleur hanger was shot. Hairline crack in it and it was pretty bent. They were quick to replace it, but when I got it, the dérailleur was facing the wrong way on the chain. Trying to fix that I got a loop in the chain, then the dérailleur cable was caught in it. I had to take the cable and the cap off. Of course this lead to the cable splintering when I went to feed it back through. I will need a new one sooner than later, but its all of %$5-10.
The thing is scary lightweight. It takes a little getting used to. I felt like it should snap underneath me at any moment when I first hopped on, but it is warrantied for 100 years. From what I have read, they do honor it too. Its fun to ride, but I think in some instances there is a benefit to a heavier ride, like more momentum. Hard to say as I don’t really have my legs about me just yet at this point in the season. We had a cold Spring. The bike is a little taller than my old one with about an extra 1.5 inches stand-over height and an extra inch or more in effective top tube length. Still, I see to have to put my seat up pretty high. No back pain though, which I dealt with a lot before. I also think the seat has to go up so high because the pedals are actually higher off the ground than before.
With the wife on a bike too, I hope to go hit the trails a lot this year. I am pretty excited about that.
Tags: 29er, bikes direct, gravity, motobecane, mountain bikes
Posted in Biking | No Comments »
Posted on 2 May '13 by Eric B, under Biking. No Comments.
I brewed up a batch of beer that I called Big Red a few weeks ago. It came out to about 7.2%, but it is a big beer regardless. A lot of flavor, mostly from the malt.
I just steamed some oak chips to add to the secondary on my old ale, Old Oakie Dokie. Wow,is all I can say. A lot of the flavor was there up front after sanitizing the oak. I will give it 1 week on 2oz of oak chips. This beer will be a beast. IT fermented down nicely. 8.2%. I am kind of tempted to let it sit on the oak for a long time and enjoy it come fall.
Saison season is almost here. I hope to brew and IPA in a week or two.
Tags: Beer, Homebrewing, oak, oaked, old ale
Posted in Beer | No Comments »
Posted on 4 April '13 by Eric B, under Beer. No Comments.
This game is pretty sick. It takes place in a city above the skies with a very racist and warped religious society inhabiting it. I am pretty partial to the creepiness of the first two, but Columbia is nice and open compared to Rapture. If I didn’t have a ton of homework, a test, and a paper to write, this thing would be beaten in 3 days. It is pretty hard to put down and stay away from.
Tags: Bioshock, Video Games
Posted in 360, Gaming | No Comments »
Posted on 1 April '13 by Eric B, under 360, Gaming. No Comments.
Went to The Word of Drum and Bass NYC again this year. I had a blast, but got a little messed up at one point. This is why I don’t usually care for pre-gamming, but everyone else wanted to. I had a good time except for when some trap type business was dropped. All in all a great night. Lots of people came from all over the place for this one. A lot of good shows are on the way. Marky, Andy C, Optical. I only wish I could go to them all. The wifes work schedule, school, and getting old might make it kind of rough.
Tags: DnB, NYC, World of Drum and Bass
Posted in Music, Raves | No Comments »
Posted on 21 March '13 by Eric B, under Music, Raves. No Comments.
Finally my water has stopped smelling and tasting poorly, and it was time to brew again after my failed chocolate chipotle stout.
I wanted to go for a bigger amber ale than I made with my first recipe. Added more malt extract, and went with just some caramel 40L to steep. Then I realized the recipe calculator said the SRM would be too low, and not amber enough. I used some biscuit malt I had laying around for my planned old ale recipe. I am wishing I didn’t though. I remembered the time the guy at my local shop said that the color from the caramel malts is always greater than people think these days. It seems he was right. It came out a little darker than I hopped. Oh well. I got to use my new immersion chiller, and wow. Beats a sink and a few bags of ice. It was cooled down to 70F in no time. Topped off with a little cold tap water and I was ready to pitch the yeast.
I used the same yeast that I did with the failed stout, which shot up to 80F during fermentation, but the colder weather should prevent that. My ambient temp is like 60 or so now instead of 72. It had a heck of a lag time. about 24 hours or so. I wasn’t home to tell for certain. This is day 3, and the temp has rose again in there, but only to like 63/64. That should be perfect for the yeast. I have read recently that US-05 is just more estery than others though. I might go back to using wyeast liquid yeast packs and just harvest the yeast cake.
Can’t wait to try it out. I intend to call it Big Red.
Tags: Beer, Homebrewing
Posted in Beer | No Comments »
Posted on 27 February '13 by Eric B, under Beer. No Comments.
