neo_pop_71

Ha- Thank you for thinking about me, I wish Big V., I’d love to be off work and riding!!!

Today is my 3rd day of teaching summer school at a different high school in my high school district. I finished the school year last Friday and my summer assignment started on Monday. It has some serious challenges as I don’t know the kids nor the staff, in fact I’m the only “outsider” from a different school. Don’t misunderstand, I’m very thankful to have gotten a summer assignment, I’m the only person who did… the idea of living off savings for 2 1/2 months is an awful idea! I will get some riding in on the next couple of Fridays until my daughter is out of school on the 18th. My summer gig is for 6 weeks and only 4 days a week for 5 hours. Like I said before, I’m not complaining about 20 hours weeks, 3 day weekends, and a month off before I return for a new school year. It’s a sweet gig, not a ton of money but it helps. My wife was lucky enough to be offered a summer position also, a different district than mine but thankfully the same work schedule. What I’m most looking forward to are Friday family beach trips to Sunset Beach, yeah the same one The Beach Boys wrote about in the ’60’s. Also, having a few weeks off with pee-wee will be great; riding our ‘Cudas and doing some art together are top on the list of things to do.

Thanks again compadre!

-D-

@vpc66 wrote:

…was 14 a odd ball size or something !

Odd ball size for odd ball ‘Cuda customers!!!

@vpc66 wrote:

Duh, went on line for pictures…guess there was small curves at the center

Hey Big V.,

That cassette you’re asking about looks like a a Shimano “AJ-AM” cassette, the same I’m running on my A2L, plus I have a few spares in the spare part bins. The AJ-AM was Shimano’s attempt to improve oh their long time “HG” workhorse platform. Here is a link to Sheldon Brown’s write up on “Interactive Glide” aka AJ-AM:

http://sheldonbrown.com/k7.html#interactive

In a nutshell, it was the beginnings of Shimano’s attempt to go to a wider range cassette, think of a 7 speed with a 12-26T versus a 11-28T, the 12-26T would be “HG” and the 11-28T would be the “IG” aka “AJ-AM” cassette. Whatever way you want to look at it, it was the last creative push before 8 speed hit the market hard and essentially killed previous platforms. With regard to the killing, none was more absurd than the Dura Ace 8 speed group… it worked with nothing other than other 8 speed Dura Ace… NOTHING… no 8 speed Ultregra, no 9 speed Dura Ace, nor any other platform up or down in the Shimano lines.

Good eye Big V., curved cutaways and fully drilled out, you are looking at the last generation chromed XT 8 speed cassette. I never cared about the slight weight hit from chromed cogs, they look great and clean off beautifully. Think back to the long gone days of 8 speed, the XT stuff was very good and XTR was “race” which meant lighter but almost twice the price, plus the light weight “thin” cogs meant shorter life with less durability. Shortly there after Mega 9 speed stuff had blown up but not with me, I was a die hard 8 speed guy, I still am with my Dura Ace group on my road bike (though I have 9 speed brifters on hand for when the 8 speed stuff dies… but then there is always Shimergo… tempting). I give Sram all the credit, their XO shifters are still the nicest and best design I’ve ever owned plus Sram pioneered redesigning the rear derailleur “parallelogram” and in doing so unlocked mega 36+ tooth cassettes. Heck, 36T 10 speed is the standard on all Santa Cruz bikes at my LBS, right along with double cranks instead of triples. Isn’t 20 wide range gears enough… do you really need a triple with 11 speed cassette, just imagine the gear overlap, worth it? Shimano played catch up Sram for a few years on the rear derailleur, forever Shimano cassettes max’d out with 34 teeth solely based on the traditional rear derailleur design that hadn’t been improved upon in 20 years aside from figuring out a long cage meant more range.

Right on Derek… a total blast from the past, thanks for jarring the memory!

That little doodad did an awesome job! I ran them on all my racebikes, maybe it seems to simple to actually work but I always ran new cables for every race and my rear shifting with a Rollamajig and a XTR rear derailleur was flawless! I had an original one on my Smorgasbord… damn, I miss that bike, 22 pounds of racing joy! The very least I should have saved my Cook Brothers bars… you can get the cranks but no one ever had the handlebars!!!

As far as pricing goes of the Rollamajig, the red plastic in your link is one of the original ones, and the $25.00 asking price is about 10 bucks more than they cost 15-20 years ago. Avid later came out with an anodized aluminum body Rollamajig, a quick peek at Ebay has a NOS silver one for $35.00 and a scratched used on. Before I buy anything on Ebay, especially when it come to components, I always check out the selection on bikepro.com website. Sure enough…

http://www.bikepro.com/ad_copy/der_f_rr.html
(scroll down to rear derailleur)
AVID ROLLAMAJIG Blue-Black-Purple-Red-Silver-Green $15.99 (same price as the late 1990’s)

Here is a link to bikepro.com aka Pedal Pusher bike shop, in Santa Rosa, CA online ordering info:

http://www.bikepro.com/ad_copy/order_info.shtml

I’m going to be ordering a few small parts for some upcoming builds, I love the selection of anodized parts, and the pricing is pretty good… it’s almost like opening a 15 year old copy of Mountain Bike Action and wishing you could still order stuff and thanks to their site you can!!!

@vpc66 wrote:

…yes I stuff into roots and stumps a few times… I said I was out of shape… never said I could not ride any longer!

Okay fine Vinny…
we’ll give you a moment to catch your breath…
please though to satisfy my curiosity…
can you point out the difference between a root and a stump when you were stuffing her?!!!

Hee-hee…
I love the tasty hint of a stretched belly button peeking out the bottom of the muumuu… delicious!

Sweet! Buy the R.S. Tora fork and get a Tange Ultimate frame and components for free!!!

Hey NORD,

Really nice Stumpie Team bike, I dig the look with the chrome Koski fork. I agree with you that yours is a 1990 and not a 1991. Do you have any of the stock parts? The 1990 Team bike came with Shimano XT and the 1991 Team bike came with Suntour XC Pro like the Bridgestone MB-1. The fact that yours looks purple in the sun is the color “Black Pearl” as opposed to “Black” on the 1991. When I went to buy my 1991 Stumpjumper, I bought the Comp model because the “Matte Gray” appealed to me more than the plain white or black. I wanted the XT 7 speed group that only came on the Comp model, besides the Team model coming with XC Pro it only came in plain black. The previous 3 bikes I bought were all black and I wanted something different. I parted out the Comp a few years ago and used the XT 7 speed on my A2L but I’ve always regretted selling that double butted Tange Prestige dream bike… purely stupid move on my part and I don’t have many regrets in life!

Great job, 4 years is a good long time but the results are surely worth the patience taken!

-D-