NEW CRANKS!! YAY!!

The thing that I hate about the internet is that you can find information on seemingly everything that you want to find, yet at the same time you can never truly find the information that you really want. That said, we all rely on someone else to get that information into the ether, so here's my contribution to the needs of those weird enough to go looking for pictures and information on a pair of Primo Hollowbite cranks. It all started with the desire to upgrade the cranks on my SE Stout 29" single speed mountain bike. I wanted to get rid of the stock chromoly pinch bolt monstrosities. It wouldn't have been so bad if the arms were mostly cylindrical, but when viewed from the side they had this really distinct taper that started to get under my skin and to throw off the whole aesthetic of the bike. My orignal plan was to get some Profile Race Cranks, but settled instead on swapping out the cranks that were already on my BMX bike, some Fit Bike Co. cranks. Here's how they turned out:


I especially like the fact that the 48-splined Fit cranks don't have pinch bolts to keep the arms secure on the spindle. Basically, they're just like the Profiles, but a little fatter and more cylindrical with only a very slight taper.

So then came the question: What do I bolt onto my BMX bike now??

I was initially gonna swing for some Primo Powerbites, but then figured for an extra $20 I could save 3 oz and get the better looking Hollowbites cranks. I'd have to buy a 22mm bottom bracket, but I figured that I'll only live once. . .

A quick visit to Albe's (http://www.albes.com/) and a week later these show up on my doorstep:


"Ooh, cranks. Big deal."

Well, the whole point here is to show some pictures that I couldn't find anywhere else on the web when I was making the decision to buy these cranks. Hopefully someone weighing the decision to buy some Hollowbites will run across this blog entry.

Geometry:
The first thing that I was surprised to find out was that the crank arms actually have an outboard cant. For some reason I thought that they were gonna be straight as arrows and not angle away from the frame at all. But you can see that there is a good amount of outward cant:


So I was somewhat relieved there. I thought for sure that my ankles were gonna be banging into the spindle like there's no tomorrow. . . but now I'm gonna guess probably not.

Spindle Spacing:
I had always wondered how close the crankarms were to the bottom bracket shell. Since the base of the crankarm was so wide, did it but right up against the bottom bracket bearings the way some mountain bike cranks do? Was the spindle accordingly short? Or would the Hollowbites use the same bottom bracket cone spacers as virtually every other crankset out there? I got my answer:


You can see the bottom bracket bearings, tube spacer, cone spacers, and sprocket adapter all installed. The crank arms are practically butted up against the square taper shoulders machined into the spindle. Mystery solved: Normal cone spacers, and the spindle runs practically the whole way through the base of the crank arm!

It's worth noting that I had to stick an additional 1/16" spacer onto the spindle to keep my chainring from interfering with my chainstays, but even with the extra spacer installed the arms are riding on waaay more spindle than your normal set of chromoly cranks. . . unlsess you ordered an extra long spindle from Profile .

How do they look:
Once all was said and done, and bolted onto the bike here's what I ended up with:



A couple of things worth noting:
1. The steel pedal bosses are burly! You can kind of see the way they thread into the back of the crank arm.
2. The pedal bosses are T-shapped in cross section, with the flanges of the T on the back side of the crank arm. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that you'd be really hard pressed to tear those bosses out of the crank arms.
3. Having said that in #2, if you end up siezing the pedals onto the arms and subsequently have to really wrench on 'em to get them off you might unthread the pedal bosses. I assume that they'll thread back in, and as long as they're tight you shouldn't have problems with the pedals stripping out.

The scratching of the itch

Can't stop thinking about bikes. Here a bike, there a bike, everywhere I look are bikes. Why am I so obsessed? Who knows? Who cares? Here's the bike that is currently scratching my itch.

Trying to regain a bit of my youth? Maybe. Admiring the welder's handiwork? For sure. Something else to hang bitchin' parts on a little bit at a time? Oh yeah.

I guess that's the greatest thing about stock bike parts: They work when you buy 'em, but stuff wears out and gives you an excuse to save your money for some rad parts later on.

Cold Steel Sidewalk Sale

And the freaks came out of the woodwork on Saturday.
My cousin Aaron and I went to the Cold Steel parking lot sale in Ventura, CA this past weekend. We're long-time fans of Cold Steel knives, and since we're both living in the People's Republic of California right now we thought it would be fun to finally hit up the sale and see what the hype was all about.
Suffice it to say that we were not disappointed.

Me. In the car at 5:00am. Ventura's a couple of hours away. Wanted to get to the sale before it opened.

Aaron's GPS got us there.

Cold Steel's office is pretty much in the middle of farmland north of Orange County. Smelled like fertilizer, but the scenery was nice.

The parking lot just as we show up. 6:40 am at this point.

By the looks of things, people were already lined up way before we got there.

Lynn Thompson (the owner) showing up to work. Shows off his new club. . . errrr. . . I mean . . . walking stick.

Lynn changed clothes, and decided to show us some knife fighting techniques. He was extolling the virtues of fighting with two knives. . . and I quote, "I love fighting with two knives. In my book fighting with two knives is like fighting with six knives!!"

One of Lynn Thompson's cronies showing off.

More sword fighting.

. . .

Lynn Thompson about to sword fight Mr. Awesome Sword Fighter.
Lynn Thompson signs Awesome Sword Fighter's paychecks. Guess who won.

Lynn Thompson graciously posing for a picture with my cousin Aaron.
Aaron also got him to sign the scabbard of a sword he bought at the sale.

Me with Mr. Lynn Thompson himself. One of the highlights of my life: Meeting a legend of the knife world.

________________________________________________

THE PEANUT GALLERY:

Dude had some crazy dreadlocks. I HAD to get a picture of him.

Dude's samurai karate pants, ninja shoes, and awesome hair: beyond priceless!!

Dude was wearing a kilt, and is part of the staff. Crazy.


Lynn Thompson talking to some salt-of-the-earth customers/fans.

Dude HAD to immediately wear BOTH knives that he bought. I don't know why he couldn't wait to get home to model and pose in front of the mirror. Not shown in the photo is the THIRD knife that he's wearing on a chain around his neck. . . Wonder what he'd have done if he bought a sword.

Just some of the riffraff that was in attendance.

Awesome tats!!! I wonder if he got 'em in prison.

I think the dude in the tank top is going to carry out a prison initiation with the guy on the ground.

Turns out that this is what happened.
I don't know whether the guy in the middle is friends with the guys on either side, but it looks like they're making him eat the whole hamburger at knifepoint. Guess it's better than the initiation those guys probably got in prison by the looks of their tattoos at wardrobe.

The Vampire's Got It Right. . .

Youth is wasted on the stupid.
No offense to all the young people I know. But seriously, c'mon!

Test Blog From Outer Space

Trying to e-mail to my blog.

Does it work?

I don’t know. I’ll have to wait and see.

-nate