ProjectFD.com » Miata

Black Market Sale

Eric — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:52:02 +0000

I sold the Dirtjumper about a month ago. The main motivation behind me getting rid of it is because I felt too old to be riding a bike like that, and since I wasn’t able to start when young… I didn’t see me getting really good at it any time soon. A bit disenchanting when it’s put that way, though. Plus the bike was slow to get around on, and it didn’t really serve a substantial enough of a purpose to warrant me keeping it, especially with the good chunk of change invested. I put it up on eBay and someone from Japan seemed eager enough to buy it, so I let it go.

Miata Sold

Eric — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:24:21 +0000

The yellow miata was certainly a fun car, and I used it to get me around a lot. At the end of summer 2009, I figured the smart thing to do was to part with it. Mainly because I had to go back to school and didn’t need it there, and having two 2-seater cars wasn’t exactly practical. It served me well and will be missed.

Following the same mindset, my Nikon D90 camera was also sold at this time so the quality of pictures from this point won’t be as good. I’ve went back to an old Canon Powershot point and shoot, does the job though…

BLK MRKT Redux

Eric — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 05:29:10 +0000

After upgrading the crankset, I took the opportunity to step it up and redo a lot more… I changed a lot of parts this time around and the bike has a much different feel now.

It started with a few more orders from Deity. I got the same front sprocket I had again in anticipation for the new rear wheel and chain. I had a BLK MRKT Bada Bing! handlebar before, but it was cut slightly too short for my taste so I went with a Deity Twenty14. The Deity Grips are just for good measure.

Next, to be more street-oriented, I switched out the standard rail system seat and post with a Pivotal setup.

My rear stock Avid BB7 rotor was slightly out of true, so I moved up to a Hayes V6 rotor:

I was never too content with the Marzocchi DJ3 fork I had before… especially the fact that it weight over 7lbs. I decided to go with a RockShox Revelation All-Mountain fork, in my opinion a good medium between durability and lightness. I immediately had it opened up and spacers installed to lower the travel length from the stock 140mm down to 90mm. It was quite a challenge finding the necessary spacers, but luckily Home Depot happened to have some Nylon spacers that were exactly the necessary size.

I had a new wheelset built as well. This one took over 5 weeks of waiting to finally get it built and delivered, but I’m very happy with them. They’re Mavic 721 rims laced to Profile SS rear hub and 20mm Discless front hub with Sapim Double-Butted Spokes.

Of course, not everything is entirely easy. Being that the rear hub was a Single Speed, it had almost no adjustment in terms of cog spacing. I noticed the chainline was off, and it was because the front sprocket wasn’t completely true so it wobbled and thus throwing it off. A local bike shop did some filing on the drive arm and added some washers to true out the wheel, and I got a small 1mm spacer for the rear cog to get the chainline just right.

I had to run the rear cog backwards, however, to achieve this. This meant the chain would hit the lockring and skip, so I dremeled in grooves where the chain hits to make everything compatible.

Everything mounted back on…

Complete!

Deity Vendetta Rev2 Crankset

Eric — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:32:35 +0000

My DirtJumper came with some fairly beefy looking 3-piece cranks, but they looked generic and had no branding. I took the opportunity a few months ago (somehow didn’t get to this until now…) to change out the bottom bracket and crank arms. Keeping with the Deity theme and quality, I picked up their Vendetta crankset.

Here’s the original packaging. They were nice enough to include detailed step-by-step instructions on the install.

The old no-name cranks…

Getting ready for the tear down.

Old crank arms pulled.

Giving the sprocket and chain a clean in the solvent tank. This clean wouldn’t prove long-lasting since I ended up replacing these 2 items with new ones.

More parts removing…

I didn’t really get many pictures of actually putting in the new crankset, since I was more focused on the work. But dialing in the chainline required me taking everything apart again and redoing the spacers. I didn’t get the chainline and sprocket distance from the chainstays exactly how I wanted, and before I could fix it again, the craftcenter I was at closed for the day. So I had to wait and limp back the bike on another day, pull everything off again, and redo it.

Just a pic showing the 73mm converter sleeve for my bottom bracket.

In the end everything worked out great. The cranks are rock solid and look amazing. Since I’m waiting on a new wheelset to be built, I ended up just buying the same chain and sprocket I had over again so everything is fresh for the new rear cog. These crankset are one step in a larger picture.

BLK MRKT Mob 26″ Dirt Jumper

Eric — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 09:21:52 +0000

As a little preface, I ended up selling the Aerospoke front wheel from my fixed gear (even though I only owned it for maybe 3 weeks). It was just too heavy for what it should be, so I let it go in hopes of getting something different down the line…

I used this as an initiative and figured I could take a break from fixed gears for a bit. I was always interested in BMXs and Dirt Jumpers, so I decided to go for it. I found a super nice 2009 BLK MRKT Mob frame with a bunch of Deity Components goodies on it. Buying this bike felt like one of those moments when you know you just scored big time. Not to mention I got a pretty good deal on it.

Anyway, onto the info list and pictures…

2009 BLK MRKT Mob Frame
Deity Fantom Stem
Deity DeathGrip Jump Saddle
Deity Termite Sprocket
Deity Classic Grips
Deity Decoy Pedals
BLK MRKT Handlebars
BLK MKRT Riot Stick Seat Post
Marzocchi DJ3 Forks
Colony Integrated Headset
Avid BB7 Brakes
Maxxis Holy Rollers
KMC 710 Chain

Skunk2 Shift Knob and Shark Attack-II Antenna

Eric — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 07:46:33 +0000

While checking out the Miata and browsing the garage, I remembered I had previously acquired a Skunk2 Racing Shift Knob… I didn’t want it in my RX-7, so I thought the Miata would be the perfect candidate. The stock shift knob wasn’t in bad shape, but it was pretty plain.

To spice things up a bit…

Although the Miata is suppose to be my Daily, “Beater” car… I can’t help myself from putting some effort towards it. The stock retractable antenna was busted, so I picked up a Short Shark Attack-II antenna.

The new one also really updates the car’s appearance, and looks like it belongs.

San Francisco New Years Cruise

Eric — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 05:08:37 +0000

There was suppose to be a Rotary cruise on New Years day in San Francisco, but it wasn’t exactly well organized and only 7 cars showed up in total. Still not a bad time, we met up at Red’s Java House then went to Mel’s Diner for some late-lunch, and drove over to Twin Peaks. I didn’t actually take my RX-7, but rather the Miata.

1996 Mazda Miata

Eric — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 09:00:05 +0000

Picked up a new Daily Driver today! I actually looked at this car a week earlier but passed it up to think about it. It’s a little rough here and there, but overall pretty good. My logic was I could get a nice deal on this car, and either way if I get a Miata it doesn’t matter if it’s “perfect” anyway. This made me call the guy back about a week later and commit to the purchase.

The Miata came with a good amount of nice, nice goodies:

1.8 BP-ZE engine
Power Clutch Systems Street Clutch
15×7.5 +0 Konig b.bombs (SSR MKIII Reps)
Dunlop dz101s 195/50
Torsen II LSD
Tubular exhaust header
Racing Beat Sway bars
Racing Beat Cat-back
Hard Dog Diagonal Roll Bar
Bilstein struts
Ground Control coilover springs
F1 spec Full Bucket seat
350mm OMP Corsica Replica steering wheel

It’s supposedly had an engine swap previously and the current one has around 60k, but I’m not entirely sure if it really does. Either way, aside from a small crack that appeared on the radiator and a few radiator hose c-clamps that weren’t fully on (and caused a lot of coolant to drip away), the engine is rock solid.

I bought the car at around 118,500 miles. I was surprised how many looks this thing gets, it’s pretty amusing.

Here are some photos the previous owner took for the ad.

And one with my cell phone when I took the car to go get some food. Some girl walked by and thought it was a lotus, which made me laugh. I removed the ducts/turnsignals because they had a rough surface on them… I’ve since replaced them with some new clear turnsignals though.