Tribute to the Soulcraft

When the whole world, or at least TSP, went 29er crazy, I scored the sweet orange Soulcraft that has become my only real mtb.  It is different from my old Bianchi Martini frames, most importantly it is not broken and laying in the 1on1 junk pile.

I dug up some sweet pictures of the Soulcraft in action and at rest.  This will be the longest post in history, so fill up your coffee!

A while back Thorny posted a pic of TSP ripping it up at WFBH on the SC.

Here are some that I have.  The SC sitting in Aspen Co in the summer of 2006. The SC at WFBH for the BKB kit debut.  The SC in Scotland.  The SC in Fruita in 2008.  And the SC hawking over Gold Hill Co today.  The SC gets around and has not failed me yet, every time I ride it I smile like Fride.

I don't really know how TSP had the bike set up, I did ride it once at WFBH, maybe the day of Thorny's picture and remember that the brakes worked better than mine ever do, smooth like silk.  The seat was also too high for me and the stem too short.  Thats about all I recall.

In the 2006 Aspen & WFBH pics the SC was all dialed in for hot laps at Wirth.  Kenda small block 8s, slr saddle, chrome white industries cranks with a 34x19.  Well the gearing was all Aspen, but the tires and saddle were all Wirth.  It climbed like crazy with that set up, but rough trails and steep downhills were too much for it.  The sm8s would slip on the rims under heavy breaking on long steep stuff, Aspen, and eventually rip the valve stems off the tubes.  I even burned my fingers on the rims during one of the fix a flat sessions.  The WFBH set up was probably the exact same deal.

For Scotland the SC got some Psmurf built Chris King wheels and a Moots Tailgator and the super special orange flight saddle. even though it is not nice enough for Fride anymore.  And some really stupid miss matched Conti tires.  The SC was a great mule and got me all the way from Glasgow to a pub in the highlands.  Also got some black WI cranks, the orange and black is a KTM set up to keep it moto just like the brake set up.  The bb also got swapped to a Phil Wood, why not, I mean does anybody remember his grand daughter from SSWC in Nor Cal?!  I don't recall the gear set up in Scotland, but I do know that it had to get softened up a bit on a short cut.

Fruita 08 it is about like Scotland, probably because the only time I rode it between Scotland and Fruita was to the Snowballs chance in Hell on Cedar lake during a cold snowy day, the only kind that is right for such an event.

  

In the pic from today the SC is all dialed in for going downhill, at least as much as a rigid steel ss can be!  The wheels are the same old Vitch built Spot wheels that were on it in 2006, but the tires are now some old ass Tioga 2.3 DH tires that roll along at about 2o psi super sweet.  Oh, and the gear right now is a 36x16, perfect for going up if I was CF.  But it will be a 36x18 before the sun goes down on this day thanks to some help from the Vitch.

More than you or anyone wanted to know about my bike.  Whatever, reading some bike ramblings has to be better than running another TPS report...

And the SC is heading back to Aspen on Thursday, first time the bike gets to go to a repeat city for a big trip.

Cotree