I think my brain has a mis-wire in the greeting department. It’s not every time, but more often than not, I’m left shaking my head at my ridiculous responses.

The majority of my greetings are made in the hallway of my workplace. I’m not a big socialite so the greeting is almost always offered by the other person and the burden of response is left to me. For some reason, my brain handles this by repeating the greeting back to them in the same manner as it was offered.

For instance, I just walked past a co-worker who, for some reason, whispered a greeting. My response? A whispered “hey”.  Why did I do that? I don’t whisper greetings! Another favorite of mine is the guy who always offers a snarky looking smile and rocks his head backwards, I find myself doing the same thing back even though I’ve never used that as a greeting in my life.

I also have a major pet peeve when it comes to greetings. When someone says “How are you”, I respond with “I’m going well, how are you?” A lot of people just keep walking without another word. Maybe they didn’t expect me to answer their greeting but it annoys me just the same.

The title is a complete lie, I cannot grind. I do have pegs on my bike which might communicate to other riders that I grind, but they’re a lie as well. To be fair to myself, I put them on the bike so I’d be forced to learn, and I’ve been riding around my city trying to find a nice low ledge to learn on, but alas, such things seem in short supply. I did find one spot with a nice low ledge that is obviously a popular grind spot, but I’ve yet to try it.

Last night I was encouraged to attempt a feeble grind on a ~20″ ledge at the skate park. Try as I might, I simply could not get my front wheel on top, and my rear peg on the ledge. Repeatedly, I’d get the front wheel up and then just dig the peg into the side of the box. I don’t know what’s wrong with me but my mind can handle getting the front up, but it forgets completely about pulling the rear end up. I’m told the problem is simply over-thinking.

Which is probably true now that I over-think it. I’m a research kind of guy, the internet has cultured me into someone who puts massive time and energy into researching and dwelling on whatever my current interest is. Last year I was so intent on my research of a particular hobby, that it actually gave me the first migraine headache I’ve ever had. I can only assume that while I’m pedaling toward an object, my brain is putting so much thought into the process of the bunny hop, that I just flub the entire thing up.

My new project.. stop thinking about it. I know how to bunny hop, I know what I have to do to get onto the ledge, I just need to forget about that part and focus on spotting my landing.

I should build a grind box and annoy my neighbors with hours of grinding.

Shock and awe, I’m trying to build a new bike. I know, I have a nice one already but there’s something fun about wrenching in the garage that has me building bikes left and right.  I’ll say the same thing I always say, it’s cheaper than working on a car!

I’ve had this old Terrible One frame for a few months and it never felt right. That’s probably due to the 20.5″ top tube measurement which I wasn’t exactly aware of when I purchased it. I tend to buy a lot of junk while I learn a new hobby and while this isn’t junk, it’s not working for me. So I stripped all the parts off the frame and ordered a new frame to put them on.

When the new frame showed up -it’s a simple Enigma V1 in case you were wondering, I promptly tossed it on the bike stand and started assembling it. Unfortunately I ran into a problem when I slid my Eastern 720 cranks and Solid 36t sprocket into the bottom bracket; it doesn’t exactly fit.  A quick glance at my Hoffman confirmed that I had been a little short sighted when I assumed I could just swap everything over, today’s frames just aren’t built for larger sprockets anymore. I tried to use spacers to push the sprocket away from the frame but that resulted in a very bad chain angle.

Woe is me, I have to unlace my back wheel and find a 48h cassette hub in the 10 or 9 tooth variety. I might just spring for the Danscomp Poverty cassette hub, it’s cheap and probably adequate for my poor riding skills. I’ve not read any reviews on this particular hub but it’s safe to say that there will be those who hate it, and those who love it. I’ll just have to give it a try.

Notice a lack of bike content? It’s because summer showed up late and brought humidity with it! The summer in Michigan has been rather mild this year and suddenly August erupts with high 80 degree temps and crushing humidity. I’ve been staying in doors where the AC keeps me safe and cool.

Obviously that’s a bit of an exaggeration, I’ve been out in the garage a bit during the past 2 weeks putting together 2 complete BMX bikes to try to sell off the collection of old parts sitting in the corner. So far I’ve managed to trade one complete bike for some 9mm ammo, and I have another bike 85% finished which I’ll be selling next week to a guy I know. Then maybe I can start to make sense of the mess that has become my garage.

As for riding, I haven’t been to the bike park in 2 weeks. Tomorrow’s weather looks nice in terms of keeping the park attendance low but the park is indoors which means it’ll probably be near 100 degrees inside. Not sure I feel like putting myself through that although I should, I need practice!