The Lesser of Two Evils...

Anybody that rides knows how annoying a creaking noise can be. My Black Beauty developed such a creak. The first thing you need to do is figure out where the creak is coming from. Mine was coming from the front of the bike. The second thing you I do is take everything apart, clean and re-grease it all. Wouldn't you know it the creak was still there. So, I went through step two again, still had the creaking. So now I come to the conclusion that it is either my beloved Spot Brand frame, or my super sweet Black Ops carbon fork.

The best way to figure it out was to throw my heavy ass Surly fork on and see if I still have the annoying creaking noise. Well I did that and it seems that the fork is the culprit.

Now I just hope they warranty it.

Cheers,

Buddy

The Crooked Christmas Tree From Hell...

For the past few years Rachael and I have gone to the same Christmas tree farm and cut down our own tree. We always came away with a nice tree. This year would be the exception.

That is not a camera trick, the tree is that crooked. It turns out the trunk of the tree is no where near straight. After many attempts to make it straight we had to settle for this. Granted it is decorated nicely, but just slightly askew.

The first thing I did was place a cinder block on the stand to hold the tree in place.

This seemed to fix the problem, however it was only temporary. After Rachael had finished trimming the tree, it fell over. Luckily nothing but the stand broke.

This was next solution. I screwed a hook into the wall and tied a freakin rope around the tree. It looks silly, but at least it isn't going anywhere.

Has anybody else had these kind of problems? What is your worst Christmas tree catastrophe?

Other than being a little lopsided, it is a nice tree.

Cheers,

Buddy