Un dia divertido en Oso Grande

Eh..you impressed with my Mexican talk? I did take 3 years…or should I say “tres anos” of it in high school. But that’s about the extent of my Spanish.  But I still remember how to say, “La entrada esta alli, no aqui.” When I was 18, I was a security guard at a grocery store and I had to tell people that the exit, where I was stationed at, was not the entrance. Anyhow, let’s get back to what we did this weekend. So we rounded up some of the amigos de MtnBikeRiders.com to join Lady, The Moe and myself at Snow Summit in Big Bear, Ca. We loaded up the Team Limo and hit the road. You’d think with all the KHS Bicycles we have, that we were sponsored by them…

KHS DH200 and KHS Lucky 7. The KHS XCT556 was inside the limo.

LadyP, The Moe and RL.

Safety first! Goggles are a must!

During our first run, we ran into Cuz’n Joe who happen to get a flat. Here we are helping him, that’s what family is for, we help.

It was right after this run I started to have issues with my bike. I noticed that there was some play on the headset. Kinda odd if you ask me. So I tightened things down and went for another run down the mountain. Half way through I notice the play go worse and worse! Now there was major play in it and no matter how much I tightened the top cap down, it would still move. I make down the mountain and I decided to check out my headset. I pulled off the bar/stem removed the upper crown race and bearings I noticed that the FSA Pig Heaseat pretty much blew up. I noticed that the lower bearings wore out so much that the piece that holds them all together was pretty much a goner. During that inspection, I noticed I was missing 3 bearings. Not sure if they fell off while I was up on the trail or they fell out while I was working on the bike at that same spot.

I called a show down the street called Chains Required. I asked them if they had that same model headset available for purchase. They didn’t but invited me to come in and see if they can help me out. I get there and one of the mechanics took me to the workshop and gave me some bearings that closely matched what I needed, at no charge! I hurry back to where I left my bike and tried to reassemble the headset, but there was still some play. I’m only guessing that the bearing cups and race wore out so much that it was the cause of my problems. After 2 runs down Snow Summit, I had to call it a day. Bummer. That’s ok, I knew that LadyP and the rest of the group was having a great time on the trails. Check out this photo of her.

All in all, everyone seemed to have a great time. No one got hurt and we got to see Cuz’n Joe! Not sure why I posed like this…oh wait, now I remember! Look where my left hand is…haha.

Before I go, I wanted to leave you all with this piece of magic. This is Doc Thunda, after a few beers, he can cuss in any language.