Muddy Brown's Blog: Weekend Catch Up & fitting Jumbo Jim

12 April 2015

Weekend Catch Up & fitting Jumbo Jim

Saturday we went to Team Valley for my cousins birthday party at Battlezone Laser but we called in past Team Valley shops first. Its been a few years since I have had a walk around the retail park and its looking clean / tidy with just one empty unit. From there we had half an hour spare before going to Battlezone so we called in past Team Cycles. I have not visited the shop before and is a relatively new, based in a rather large unit at the far end (metro end) of the valley. After a couple of wrong turns we found the car park and had a look in. Plenty of staff - two behind the counter and two in the workshop on the first floor, we were the only customers in. The set up / display is new and crisp with a good display of road / mtb / cx / hybrid & kids bikes. Clothing is on the first floor and the accessories / parts are dotted around the walls on the ground floor and behind the counter.

From there is was a short drive to Battlezone laser with a free car park to the rear. Once inside it was clean/tidy and very noisy! It was jam packed full of kids / adults all screaming and shouting trying to hear what each other was saying as the music was so loud you could not hear anything anybody was saying. We got booked in and food orders taken. A small wait then we went through to the briefing room to watch a video which was put on full volume and felt like it lasted ages. We also put on some rather damp/sweaty/smelly boiler suits before battle. The playzone is massive and very well set out. The games were good fun and time flew over. Boiler suits back off for the next poor punter to put them on and hand the guns back in. Back into the café area for late lunch, food was ok but cold. Kids all had a great time but the music was still blasting away. I got 3rd out of 15 lol. Back home for some headache tablets and a power nap!

Today, Sunday the forecast was heavy rain from 8am to 6pm. Well it did not start until just before 10am but its still pouring down now as I type this. Angus has got a new pc box so our computer friend Bob was coming at 10am to set it up etc. As for me internal jobs today due to the weather and had some time in the man cave. I fitted the Jumbo Jim 4.8" tyre onto my Surly Rabbit Hole/Hope Fatsno front wheel. I was going to take the Bud off the Rolling Darryl rim and fit it to that but wanted to see how it looked on the Rabbit Hole. Fitting the tyre was tight, the tightest fat tyre I have fitted to date. First Surly Ultralight tube out of the box, blew it up and went flat - hole on the inside seam! now I was just talking about Surly tube quality yesterday being hit and miss. Took the second one out and that seems to be ok. Plenty of washing up liquid and both beads snapped into place. Below are some photos with Jumbo Jim and Bud side by side. I might swap it over onto the wider rim at a later date, see how I get on with it fitted to the Rabbit Hole first. The feel of the rubber is very tacky compared to Surly tyres so only time will tell how long they last.