Dad Biking

The Baby was born about 11 months ago.  Before Baby (BB), I was fit, moderately successful and connected in the bike industry, and rode my bike pretty much daily, even if a ride was to grab eggs at the grocery store down the street.  After Baby (AB), I'm lucky to ride my bike weekly, and the ride is still often to grab eggs.  I've gained eight pounds.  Hills that I used to breeze I now struggle up.  Technical sections I used to clean I often dab.  I love my daughter and my life, but fuck...

I went for a ride the other day, a real ride, on my Surly Stragggler, on real trails with rocks and turns.  The trail in question is an odd one.  It's singletrack and the loop is around six miles long, but it's crammed into an area about the size of a couple football fields.  It's nothing but turns, and you're often only a few feet away from the trail as the crow flies, even if that section is a mile or two away by trail.  The hills are super short and often brutally steep.  In short, it's the opposite of a flow trail.  But, I can ride to it in less than 10 minutes and do a lap and still get home in about an hour.  It's fun, especially if you only get to ride it once a month.

So I do this ride, and it hurts.  I'm so out of shape.  But I still manage to make it up all the hills I used to ride up, albeit a hell of a lot slower, and it feels fantastic.  On the ride home, I think a lot about why this ride seemed to mean so much more than it should've.  I think it's because when The Baby was born, my identity fundamentally changed overnight.  I went from being a semi-successful and respected member of the bike industry to being a stay-at-home-dad who didn't know shit about shit.  The ride connected me back to the old me, convinced me he was still in there somewhere.  I don't want to lose the old me, even if the new me is also pretty rad.

Intro to The Fugly Stump Project

Oh, hey.  Yeah, I'm still alive, just spending more time changing diapers than brake pads these days.  As far as my "official bike industry status," I'm out.  Right now, for the first time since I was 16, I am in no way officially or professionally associated with the Bike Industry.  It's weird.

But you don't really give a shit about that, you want to hear about the FUGLY STUMPJUMPER.  Back story: an old colleague, let's call him Bob, is a vintage MTB guy with lots of connections, and he loves to wheel and deal.  I've long been pondering a vintage MTB project along the lines of a big BMX restomod - take an old Zaskar, Stumpjumper, Homegrown, etc. frame and put some cruiser bars on it, one fucking speed, and some big ol' fatty slicks and use it to bounce off the curbs on the way to and from the bar.  He knew about this daydream of mine and found himself in a situation wherein, in order to buy the really nice Stump he wanted, he also needed to buy a really ugly Stump frameset that nobody in their right mind would want.  But he knew about my daydream...

Fast forward a while, and he shows me this thing:

Somewhere under that marbletastic truck bed liner is an early 80s Stumpjumper.  I'd like to learn how to nail the year down, so you if you know your early Stumps, or know somebody who does, let me know in the comments.

I'm nearly finished with phase one of the project - I just want to swap the tires out for something even fatter, and it'll be finished for now.  Future phases will include all of the following:

• Doing something with the finish.  A relief carving of the name on the down tube?  Maybe.  Just strip the lugs so they can shine through?  Maybe.  Despite its ugliness, somebody put a shit ton of time into this finish, and I want to respect that while making it my own.  Plus, it looks awesome.  In its own fugly way.
• Gears?
• Drop bars?  The geo on this thing would make for a pretty fine off-road touring rig.

Anyway, more pics to follow.  Now go ride your bike.