Robby94LS..... The Blog

Haven't posted here in awhile, but that doesn't mean I'm not up to anything! Maire and I have done our usual fall beer fest, managed to work a few more bike rides in, been to a number of breweries, and biggest of all, went on a real vacation!! If you don't already follow me on Instagram, you can see pics of all those adventures there, check the main page for a link!

Maire and I finally got up to western MD to do some running around! If you're following me on social media, and you should be..... (links to the right!) you'd know that Maire and I both ended up with new bikes this summer! That probably should have been a post on it's own here, but long story short, we were shopping for a new bike for me, ended up finding a 2-fer special so Maire got a MUCH needed upgrade as well!! So this is a late post, the fun happened the weekend of 8/5. Now it has been a LONG time since we went biking on the rail trail. We couldn't really remember how long it had been..... But fear not, Facebook was there to make sure we knew that.... What's funny is it happened  to be 8 years ago to the day!! On the timehop ripoff that Facebook has integrated, right before we left I see pics from 8/5/ 2008!! I couldn't believe it..... What are the ODDS!? Here are the pics from then!!  I can't believe how YOUNG we both look!.... Or how much HAIR...

I didn't end up getting any video of this job because it was done 100% under duress..... So for awhile now.... like months,  my drivers side window has been having trouble going up and down and making some cracks and pops in the process. I kept telling myself it probably just needs some lube on the tracks, it'll be fine, I'll get to it when I get to it. Well one day while trying to lower it, after some louder than usual noises it gave the final pop and fell down into the abyss..... It was a Sunday morning, I was dropping Maire off at the Metro station to go somewhere. I was going to do some things I wanted to do that morning, but in that second, my plans had been changed..... First stop, 7-11 for some much needed energy drink, this was no longer the casual coffee sipping morning I was hoping for, I needed to snap into ACTION.... Energy drink in hand, windows down on one of the hottest mornings we'd had to date, I bee lined back to the condo to tear down and hope for the...

I'll be updating this with better pics and vid as I slowly go through and edit things, but I'm still buzzing off of the excitement from the event and had to get something up! Enjoy this quick slideshow I threw together!! EDIT 6/13/16: Here's a second video I put together of some of the show festivities!

Coors Banquet beer..... Or "beer." Whether you buy the stubby bottle or the retro 12oz can, you instantly feel like a 70s badass just looking at it before even opening it. Even when they're not actively printing throwback designs the logo is still reminiscent of the era, their logo hasn't changed that much over the years. Coors is as macro as it gets. Not 100% sure who's who, but there are merges and partnerships with them and Molson and even InBev.... There are a number of brands under the MillerCoors umbrella that, like most macros do, are marketed as brands of their own. Some notable examples are Blue Moon Fosters Icehouse  Keystone Henry's Hard Soda (which is AWFUL! I have a vid up trying the orange one!) Leinenkugel's Mickey's Olde English Steel Reserve (another guilty pleasure of mine.....) When it comes to the big 2, MillerCoors and InBev, which essentially boils down to the Coors and Budweiser umbrella (remember, Miller is Coors...

After clearing the haze from Maire's headlights a couple times and it always coming back, we decided to just get her a whole new assembly. I ordered a pair from  1 A Auto  and put together a rough little how to video. Here's what I learned in replacing them..... First thing was part quality. The lenses from 1A were not as well finished as the factory headlights. Where the factory lights were riveted the 1A lights were glued, trim pieces didn't seem to fit as well and the general quality was worse, thinner. They were however CLEAR!! There was some good, the fitment was perfect which I was pleased with, and they came with bulbs which I wasn't expecting but was very excited about. Tools needed. You could get away with doing the entire job with a 3/8in drive with a 10mm socket and a phillips head screwdriver, however a ratcheting box wrench makes one of the bolts a lot easier. A flashlight is good to have on hand as well. You'll see in the video that one of the le...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!  So I was lucky enough to get a bike speciality tool kit for Christmas so I could FINALLY start doing some of the projects to my mtn bike I’ve been wanting to do, such as replace the bottom bracket that’s going bad on me. Anyone who has had a bottom bracket going bad knows how  frustrating  it is when you’re riding and then snap into that freewheel feel for a second! And you better HOPE you’re not standing while that happens…..  I definitely learned a lot here, I think the main lesson being, working on old high miles bikes, is  not  that much different than working on old high miles cars…. Things are seized, things break, and nothing is as easy as it should be in theory…. You can’t really tell from the pics below, but I DESTROYED the crank getting it off to get to the bottom bracket….. The crank puller made for bikes which is SO simple in theory, didn’t work out…. The crank which has been on there for at LEAST 10 years and through a...