Long story short of why, what, how - a couple of rides ago, while out on the trail, my chain kept on disengaging from the chain ring and locking up my pedals. Upon close inspection, I found that my middle chain ring teeth were all bent and worn. I’m sure it was due to all of the times I crashed and ate sh##. Anyhow, I chose to replace and upgrade my crankset with a non-black colored, heavy-duty, yet fairly-priced crankset from a well-respected name in the industry. And taking advantage of a 50% off after Thanksgiving sale from one of my favorite online retailers, I found the Race Face Atlas to fit all of my criteria. Awesomeness.

Anyways, being my first time performing this kind of operation, it took me all afternoon, a few instructional internet clips, and a couple of round trips to the local bicycle shop to complete. Nevertheless, I managed to do it and gained additional knowledge that I’ll employ the next time I need to upgrade. =)

For those interested, here are the tools that I used..

For removing the old, crappy crank set:

• 8mm Hex
• 10mm Hex
• Park Tool Crank Puller for Square Taper Cranks (model CCP-2)
• Spin Doctor Cartridge Bottom Bracket Tool w/ a socket wrench I found in the garage

For installing the new, shiny crank set:

• 8mm Hex 
• 10mm Hex
• Park Tool Bottom Bracket Tool (model BBT-9)
• Park Tool Polylube 1000 (waterproof grease)

This particular Youtube clip introduced me to the Crank Arm puller and prompted my first visit to the bicycle shop.

This video had me going to the bicycle shop a second time to pick up a cartridge bottom bracket tool. LOL. =P

Fortunately, the hard part in this exercise was removing the old stuff. The instructions for the new crankset were pretty straightforward. However, it did introduce me to a couple of new words that created moments of pause:

• Bottom Bracket (BB) Shell Width. Mine was 68mm.
• Nominal Chainline, which is basically the distance from the middle of the seat tube to the middle chainring. I guestimated mine to be 48mm. In other words, I didn’t use any of the spacers that came in the box. Oh well.

And that’s that! Now, hopefully, I’ll get another ride in before the year ends. Cheers!

Link:
Race Face

The frame looks amazing, and it’s made of carbon fiber. One day, it will be mine!

Link: Ibis Cycles

Link: DiNotte Special Package.

JC going down this really sandy decline.

The next decline was insane. From the top, near the cylindrical thingamagig, it already looked pretty hairy. One thing I did not anticipate was the drop being split into two sections, with the latter part being much more steep. Whhheeeeee! I took the whole thing down with no brakes and ended up quite a ways up the following hill (where i took the below photo). For scale, peep that little guy in the upper right. The trek up from the other side was particularly brutal, but we were sufficiently rewarded with this nugget of adrenaline.

Getting dark and hungry, we called it a day.

I’d definitely come back to explore the other areas of the park. Cheers!

Link:
Peters Canyon Regional Park Trail

Here is a picture of CQ emerging from the forest and catching a little bit of air. This was about 1/2 way through our ride.

Until next time. Cheers!

From here, we either make our way to Sullivan Canyon, or just go back the way we came.

On this day, the weather was awesome. The air was cool and fresh. I felt like I could ride forever.

Cheers!

Copy + Paste from the Manufacturer’s website:

A free ride glove, where ventilation, touch and feel are the key criteria. The knuckle shields are divided in two parts and the joint protection is made of soft but durable rubber. The inside is made of grippy Pittards® and digital leather and has just the right feel to it.

Link: POC

Half way up the mountain, PH surveying the landscape.

This day, I actually had to leave the group early to be on time for dinner reservations. When zooming down the mountain, I was quite amazed at the distance we covered. It took a good 15 to 20 minutes going down with minimal application of brakes. Very, very fun.

I later saw video of the guys taking an alternate, much scarier route down. Pretty ballsy if you ask me, especially since most wear minimal body armor.

I’d like to come back again! Cheers!

Link: La Tuna Canyon Loop

it was a baby rattler.

i also spotted a coyote near the top of the mountain. i guess all i need to see now to make my mountain biking experience complete is a bear and a mountain lion – i’d rather not.