Chris King Warranty part II

It took about a week and Chris King did a good job of fixing my bottom bracket.

The BB arrived earlier than I expected. I thought maybe it would be completely replaced, but it was rebuilt with new bearings on the side where the bearings had been damaged.

It's back on my singlespeed bike and working well.

I was a little worried that Chris King would not honor their warranty but such fear was unwarranted. So if you're looking for a good bottom bracket, you can't go wrong with Chris King.

Chris King Warranty

My last ride of the season ended with a bang. Or maybe a crunch. I was riding up a fairly easy hill in Orem. It was the week before Thanksgiving and probably about 30 degrees so the ground was in great shape.

I hadn't seen anyone but just up ahead I did see a lone rider so I sped up just to see who it was, when my crank or bottom bracket made a clicking noise and got significantly hard to pedal.

I stopped and looked at it. Everything looked ok. Just tight and hard to pedal.

So I coasted back to my car, pedalling as little as possible.

I pulled the crank and looked at the bottom bracket.

It had a problem. Some of the bearings were loose and the plastic bearing cage was crushed.

The non drive side of the bottom bracket looks fine, although I haven't taken it apart. The drive side actually fell open when I pulled the crank off.



So I didn't get to see who that was ahead of me. Maybe next time.


Now, I know these are great bottom brackets, I have one on another bike and have been happy with it. So I'm not sure what caused this one to fail.

Now I will get the chance to see if Chris King really has a good warranty or if it is just a paper tiger.

I will report later on my success with getting Chris King to honour the warranty.

Timpanookee frozen loop

Thursday morning Jeff and I met and carpooled up to the Pine Hollow parking lot. The gate was closed so we rode the road up to the Timpanookee trail head.

We began riding the frozen trail over to Salamander Flat and across to the Summit trail.
We rode up to the Summit and although the trail had snow on it occasionally, it was very rideable.


From the Summit we continued up the Ridge Trail to the 4 way and down South Fork of the Deer Creek. That trail was primo. I love being able to drop my seat with a flick of a finger. That Gravity Post seatpost has got it together.

We climbed over to Mexican Flat and began climbing back to the summit. About a mile from the summit the trail melted from ice to mud and we could no longer ride so we bushwhacked up to the paved road and rode back to Pine Hollow parking lot.

It really didn't help that the motorcycles had churned the trail into the consistency of chocolate pudding.

I don't have any footage of the really bad mud here. But I have some video of the climbing up to the summit early in the ride. Notice the water running down the trail. There is also a shot of Jeff riding down to the 4 way.

SingleSpeed Friday

After realizing that I am lazy and can do most of the rides around here without stopping, I thought I need to build up some better leg strength. And all these fast guys around here seem to ride single speeds. What is so cool about that?


So I got a Niner SIR frame and started building the single speed in May. Six months later, I finished.

The crank was created from a Shimano XTR M960 Crank. I modified it for single speed use by trimming the four mount points to where they just fit the middle sprocket. This makes for a very strong, proven crank all for only 500 grams.




I built the wheel up using Stans Crest and Chris King.


I rode my new SingleSpeed for the second time on Friday. With Brett DeHart. He can ride the singlespeed much faster, but was gracious enough to wait for me several times.

Parked by the Gate before the road that goes up to Dry Canyon trail head. We rode the Bonneville Shoreline trail up to Franks and then up Franks to the Belt Route to the Altar. Then we rode Buckle over to the top of the Dry Canyon twisty decent and down to where we parked.

We started at 4:10 and ended at 5:40, a little slow, but we were in no hurry, this was a ride to be savoured before the snows come.

On Tuesday I had ridden after work for the first time on the single speed. I took the Meekonector from the Belt Route and I was a little faster, 1:24 vs. 1:30, but then again I was alone and didn't talk as much. Here's a shot of the bike on the trail from Tuesday.

Thursday Mud Fest in Draper

Dude, I hate the Mud.

It sticks like snot to my bike and then dries like cement.

Thursday we met at the shoreline trail off of Mike Weir drive.

We rode up the shoreline trail to what I think is Draper Hollow trail and up over the ridge to the Utah county side. That ride over the ridge is where we loaded up on mud.

Then we rode some more and went through this cool tunnel.


That is Bob riding through the tunnel. Shortly after this we hit the draper downhill. An expert downhill ride with slick muddy conditions. If I wasn't awake yet, this downhill was a real wakeup call. Jumps and drops and steeps and deeps.

Yeah. That works for an early morning ride.

Mooses at Mexican Flat

Today we saw 4 moosers in the field to the north of Mexican Flat.

They had smaller racks but they were good sized animals.

Terry, Jeff, Matt, Royce, Bob, Russ and I rode from the summit trail head to the Horse Flat and out the back to the whups then up to Mexican Flats, where we saw the mooses. Then up to the 4 way and down to Mud Springs and then down Tibble.

Great ride! Lots of colorful leaves. No motorcycles, only a couple of other bikers were seen with a boxer-looking dog.

We finished before 8.

The Dirty Rat

Saturday was an epic ride. The Dirty RAT. RAT is an acronym for Ride Around Timp, Mount Timpanogos that is.

I rode most of the RAT last year (See The RAT).

But you have to ride a bit of pavement to ride the RAT correctly. You have to ride the pavement from at least Canyon Glen in Provo Canyon, up to the Lame Horse trail in Aspen Grove.

The Dirty Rat cuts out the pavement nonsense. I mean it's not nonsense if you are on a road bike, but on a mountain bike, come on, you really just want the dirt.

So park at Dry Canyon above Lindon and shuttle to Aspen Grove. Then take the Lame Horse trail up to the Summit and from the Summit head up to sheep camp via the Timpanookee campground and up to Bear canyon, etc.

From sheep camp ride to the top of Grove Creek, pass the turnoff to Grove Creek and follow the trails to the base of Big Baldy.

Make the arduous climb up to the saddle of Big Baldy then drop off the saddle into upper Dry Canyon, but don't miss the turn off to the Great Western Trail which will take you south to the saddle of Little Baldy.

Descend off of Little Baldy on a section of some of the sweetest single track you've ridden and then take a right to Area 51 and follow that to the Dry Canyon twister singletrack down to the good part of Dry Canyon.

Smoke the pipe on the way down if you wish and end your Dirty Rat at the Dry Canyon trail head.

The Pipeline

A successful pipe smoking (Dec.2008, filmed by Paul Hillyard)

The ride starts on the Aspen Grove side.