We have all been gifted some time to dream sweet adventure dreams and plan for the next big trip, assuming the world doesn’t erupt into a fiery deathcano in the next few weeks, thanks to COVID-19. Here are a few helpful ideas to help you navigate through the Coronapocalypse…

• Follow all WHO and CDC Guidelines regarding the COVID-19 virus. This is a good starting point. Better to be safe than sorry.
• Drivetrain Cleaning Time! It seems like no matter how often it happens or how thorough you think you have cleaned your drivetrain, there is always some more grime hiding in there somewhere. Check to see if you need new cables, or if your rear derailleur jockey wheels are in need of service or replacement, pull apart and clean your cassette, put some fresh grease upon all the greasy spots. Time to lean, Time to clean (your bike).
• Rig Picture Time! Unpack your entire dirtbagging rig, lay it out, and take one of those “here’s all my stuff I take on trips” pictures. I’ve always meant to do so, might be time for that.
• Gear Inspection & Cleaning Time! While you have your entire bike unpacked it’s a perfect time to inspect everything and see what needs to be cleaned, serviced, or replaced.
• Gear Prioritizing Time! What has been hiding out for years in your bags that has never seen one use? Do you need it? Could that space be better used for something else?
• New Gear Time! Have you always wanted some custom bags made? Now is probably a great time to start talking to one of the many bike bag makers out there about some custom jobs. I’m certain they would welcome the work, times are tough all over.
• Trip Planning Time! We all dream about the next adventure, start putting it on paper. Selecting actual dates may be a little difficult at this time, but you can still look up routes or use an app like ridewithgps to make your own (or link a few together).
• Start A Blog! No, really. You should have your own personal blog site in which to keep a record of your dirtbagging adventures, and to share with your friends. Don’t worry about followers or analytics or anything like that, just register a free blog site at WordPress or Blogger or something similar and start writing the story of your travels.
• Help Out Your LBS Time! Get ahold of your LBS, many are doing curbside pick up sales and maintenance. Now is the time to send your bike off to the shop for some TLC if you don’t feel like tearing everything apart your own damn self. 2020 Pro Tip: you can now tip your mechanics in beer OR toilet paper. They are equal in value.
• Be Safe Time! Most of all, please be safe and considerate of others in this contentious time.

There you have it, a few helpful ideas to help you pass the time. More on some of these too, I’m being summoned to go hike some rocks or something.

DC

Fellow Dirtbaggers, the world is a very weird place right now. You know this, as nobody is exempt from the mounting madness engulfing the planet. For those who have spent years prepping for the worst, we could be closing in on that day when your perceived paranoia reveals itself to be the one true way. For those who live day to day or have to rely on others, things are potentially very bad. For those of us who are moderately prepared to go camping in the wild for any length of time, it’s been looking like a pretty sweet moment to bust out the gear and break those rusty cages of civilization and ride.

But is it time to spread your wings and fly?

My personal advice to you all is this:

• Follow or exceed all current CDC guidelines for distancing and sanitation
• Do your best to isolate yourself from any risky business
• Support your local businesses if you can, the hospitality industry is basically screwed at this point and we will definitely see an epidemic of businesses being permanently shuttered during the course of this situation if no help is provided, be it from the public or the government.
• QUIT BUYING ALL THE TOILET PAPER, WATER, AND PERISHABLES. If you are sitting on a year’s supply of fresh eggs or milk, you’re doing it wrong.
• If you decide to travel, remember that many of the resupply stops along your way could possibly be closed. You need to prepare for this
• Remember that tap water is better than no water, break out your filtration systems if you need to.
• Just because you are in a “low risk” category doesn’t mean you can’t spread it to someone who is at risk. Take the proper precautions.
• Help your neighbors if they can not make it to the store themselves.
• This isn’t a Partisan Pandemic, and to those still pushing that angle: STFU, look around you, and maybe do something to help rather than troll the internet comment sections. Seriously, don’t be a dick.
• Of course, make sure you are properly washing your hands and sanitizing surfaces during all of this…and really all the time. There is never a bad time for good sanitation.
• It’s really up to us as individuals to survive and move past this moment in time.

Ok, now get out there and avoid people. I’ll be spending some of my down time writing more reviews and articles here, and I’m sure in your boredom you will be waiting on pins and needles (from sitting down too long) for more DirtCylist goodness.

But in all seriousness, please be safe in whatever you choose to do.

DC

Have you ever been in the midst of a killer bike build and get stuck on one particular piece of the rolling pie simply because that part doesn’t come in just the right color? It’s a modern day horror story. For instance, maybe the purple anodizing on that cog doesn’t match that sweet purple ano chainring on your single speed build or the hot pink accents on your saddle clash with that dope Pepto-pink powdercoat on that new all-road frame? Do your oranges not match? Is the “right part” the only one that doesn’t actually exist in our current reality? Does it exist and is prohibitively expensive? Does the dizzying array of greens make it difficult to make one cohesive colourway?

I have tread upon that glass path of bike building many times. Years ago the LBS mechanics would rib me about this penchant for matching parts. In fact one time it was properly used against me while impatiently waiting out a delay for my holy grail road bike build, a baby blue Salsa Ti Colossal with Sram eTap, to be completed. They had to order another front derailleur hanger in because “we have one at the shop, but I didn’t think you’d want a Shimano branded hanger on your SRAM derailleur.” Touche. He knew me well, that would have been grinding my gears until it was replaces. Speaking of that Salsa frame, I still to this day hate that they added a red pinstripe to the fork. I almost bought a new raw fork and had it painted to match the frame so that I could do a baby blue/pink theme aka the “Gender Reveal Color Scheme.” This thankfully didn’t happen, I went with all black components and it is a fine steed indeed, even with the one tiny red offset which I can clearly not move past years later. I did build a pink Twin Six Standard Rando after that, so I got my pink bike fix eventually. I get that the shop ribbing was all out of fun, although reading back through this paragraph (and thinking back through my past color match neurosis), it was funny because it was true. Maybe a few of you reading this now can relate. All of this was before the Modern Era of Matching Parts.

The Modern Era of Matching Parts, or MEMP, has been sort of like the Industrial Revolution for us hobbyist bike build fanatics, except without all the cholera and brown lung disease. Paul Components, Wolf Tooth Components, Industry Nine, Supacaz, Hope, and so many other now offer a dizzying array of blinged out colors for everything from levers to bar end plugs to mounting bolts. Paul periodically releases full sets of limited edition anodized parts, one of the more recent was an entire gold set. My New Belgium Urban Assault partner and I were planning on building all-gold fixies to use for the third or fourth running of that event and this would have been perfect as many of the gold parts available at the time were kind of sketchy Chinese knock-offs. I’m sure they would have been just fine, but today this would have been as easy as a few searches to order parts and waiting for delivery.

MEMP is a great and glorious thing, and with more options it means you have a much better chance of matching those colors on your dream build. I guess that is my point today: it used to be a PITA to match parts, if you were so inclined, but now it’s pretty simple if you have the $$$$ to fork out.

I will expand on this discussion in the future, but for now, as it is time to leave on my bike ride to parts unknown, I leave you with this:

What is your most painful moment of bike build color matching?

• Wolf Tooth Components – Chainrings, Bling, err’ thang
• Paul Components – Boutique level anodized parts
• Endless Bikes – Kick Ass Cogs, SS Chainrings, Spacers
• SUPACAZ – Bar tape, pedals, tools, etc.
• Purely Custom – Custom top caps, all sorts of anodized stuff
• White Industries – Hubs, Cranksets, etc
• Industry Nine – Wheels n Things!