Gear Report: Homebrewed Components

 The drivetrain adds color to the otherwise paint-free bike.

Anyone who rides a single speed long enough will soon find themselves looking for replacement cogs and chainrings. I had since moved to a splined hub about a year ago and found swapping the rear cog to be much more friendlier. There is something about using a pipe wrench with a freewheel removal tool and a cheater bar that just left me feeling, let's say, over-torqued.

Now that I'm free of freewheels, I quickly went out and bought some rear cogs. Good, mostly round blue-collar cogs. They worked great, moved the chain forward one tooth at a time, yada yada. Not sexy, but they generally aren't supposed to be, right?  My long-termer Middleburn crankset from the UK never complained nor loosened but it was wearing out and it was looking iffy to spec another ring this side of the Atlantic anytime soon.

Sometime last October I'd glanced at a basic, photo-driven quarter page ad in Mountain Flyer Magazine (excellent quarterly!) from Homebrewed Components. This relatively new, circa 2009-2010) one-man machine shop offered chainrings for the Middleburn crankset so I was instantly intrigued and ultimately sold. Homebrewed's main picture was of a spiderless chainring for the Sram XO crankset. Unique.

 

The spiderless chainring that matches the Middleburn interface...

Now that's serving a niche market. Thanks HBC!

Using his easy-to-use dynamic Chainring Finder I quickly found my chainring/cog options for the Middleburn crank. I quickly got lost window shopping on the site and perused his bash rings and even read a tutorial on how to make your own chainring (which HBC was interviewed and published in Wired Magazine)

The only catch was the lead time...

Homebrewed Components (HBC) tries to fulfill orders in about 30 days but some orders ship out 45-60 days later according to online reports. I received my order about 45 days after the original purchase date. My credit card wasn't processed until the product shipped so it kept the financial side of things tidy.

My simple order of a replacement aluminum Middleburn ring (32t) and aluminum rear cog (18t) shaved about 21 grams from the Lynskey. Not much, but it all counts doesn't it? The rear cog alone knocked off 12 grams despite offering wider flanges to interface the freehub and prevent notching - which had already occurred as my old rear cog silently ate into the soft American Classic freehub body. Oh well...

HBC offers an anodized rainbow of colors for you to choose from. I opted for the 'safe' shiny / red theme on the Lynskey so I ordered some Red up. But the orange sure looks awesome, too. When I opened the US Mail package the shiny rings looked like jewelry. They were both perfectly round. The craftsmanship is also top-notch. Knowing they were made buy a single guy in his personal shop might classify them as bike jewelry. 'Merican-made to say the very least!

 

While the aluminum rear cog will wear much faster than titanium, you can
buy two for the price of one... I wanted some color so that sent me
over to the aluminum camp.

Not only do they does he offer aluminum rings but HBC also specializes in titanium and stainless rear cogs and titanium chainrings. Yes, they are more expensive ($105.00 avg) and are not available in any colors other than, er, titanium, but the rings will wear much, much longer than the more affordable $45.00 aluminum cogs. Color vs price vs longevity - oh, the problems of personalizing your bike. Better make a matrix chart and start analyzing.

The rings and cogs offer a narrow profile as I can attest: I unknowingly attached a 10 speed chain to the drivetrain and only discovered the error when the quick-connect wouldn't quickly disconnect... at all. Whoops. The 10 speed chain tracks beautifully over the teeth so I'd say his 3/32" tooth widths work just fine. Just remember to use a 9-speed chain with a quick-connect or a tried-and-true bombproof BMX chain.

I plan on ordering some more rear cogs in different sizes. I better order soon as I hear HBC continues to grow in popularity but is still a one-man shop. Think it through: If you want some functional bike candy for summer you'd better be dialing up your Internet radio signals and selecting your gear now.

The 'virtual' line is around the block leading to the door of this machine shop.

Highly recommended.

Lost Valley Race Report

by Matt Hayes

Unknown rider from Team de Seagal , but damn, look at that sweet new switchback hotness!

Several GORC members attended the Lost Valley race. Craig and Steph were on GORC Bike Patrol and the crowd appreciated the assistance in the Kid's Race. Larry Koester, Bryan Adams, Scott Piepert, Greg Ott, John Twist, Curt, among many more whom I can't recall due to my race-fogged mind, rode circles around Lost Valley. While some of the guys weren't directly racing for GORC, I donned the green GORC jersey and tried my best to show folks that we're more than just a bunch of trail-building fools. We had just laid down fresh Lost Valley (LV) trail the day before and I felt the need to market the club as best I could.

I raced the single speed class and knew it would be hard on me . . . I'm just not a fast spinner and Lost Valley is all about the cadence meter. I pulled the Lynskey from the basement - last used at the Berryman Epic - and hoped the 2:1 magic sprocket set would get the job done.

Larry Koester rackin' up laps of Marathonic proportions

Nine SS'ers who chose not to race Marathon class (gravel road madness! - Ouachita without the trails) launched off the line on the Hamburg trail and rocketed away. I kept up early on but backed it off because I was gonna die in the first 30 seconds. I never knew people could dole out the pain so swiftly. You know, pedal, pedal, pedal, OK, boom, 20mph follow me now mf! - that's what it felt like anyway. Greg Sandknop of Team Seagal kept the pace sickly fast with fellow team mate Eddie K. right along side me. Eventually I found my groove about 40 seconds behind Greg and 40 seconds in front of Eddie. I felt ill the entire ride (I mean race) as there was no time to actually recover. I gave it everything I had and was coming up short. I found my flow on all the narrow and gained time on Greg only to lose sight of him on the flats. I couldn't spin any faster. Hell no.

The new singletrack is terrific, by the way. It was cool to see people on the opposite side of the valley drains with the slight hope of catching up to them. The new stuff was a bit bumpy and slow but it will simply be mind-blowing fast this fall.

But back to the race report.

Everyone rode well. The marathoners did 40+ miles while I opted to break off my personal tachometer in the SS class. Turns out I did pretty well. During the entire race I thought Greg was pacing just behind the 1st place single speeder who was out of his sight. I told myself it was insane the speed these mofo's were pushing. A 36x16 would've been nice. I'd never punished myself so hard.

Scooter on the 3-hr Marathon trip

Finally, at the end I found out I was 2nd and not 3rd . . . cool with me, my head was spinning and the edema/COPD-like lung fungus kept me cross-eyed for a while! I was satisfied because I knew there was nothing left - I'd tried my absolute very best to win while flying the GORC banner. For a non-dedicated race-when-I-feel-like-it who prefers trail building over training, my day was made and - behold - beer was in sight! Oh, damn, beeeeer! ASAP in the belly, and then quickly, the little Drinky-Crow on my shoulder said another would do me up so I bummed a tasty Miller Lite (thanks Steph!) for some additional supplementary enhancement. Instant heartburn, but such relief. Even as I write this I am still coughing up bits of scarred lung. I gotta hand it to the Seagal kids - they're a fast bunch doing mega rides left and right and their PBR-sponsored beer tent is much appreciated - so much so that it was completely destroyed and left a crumpled shell in the wake of the race.

Mesa Cycles put on a great event and everyone agreed the new singletrack addition at Lost Valley is super cool. All in all, a superb weekend to be on the bike. See you all at Greensfelder this weekend. New trails, more beer, good friends. Perfect combination.

Race Results can be found here...