The weatherperson’s Magic 8-Ball must’ve been on the fritz yesterday.
Every time s/he shook the sumbitch a new alert popped up. Heat warning. Thunderstorm warning. Dust-storm warning.
Herself had things to do, people to see, and places to go, so she cast a critical eye at the sky and went out for a run. Almost immediately the rain began to fall.
Lacking any pressing engagements, I waited awhile, dithering. Run? Ride? Throw in the towel and spend the morning swapping SSDs in the 2014 MacBook Pro?
Then the rain took five, so I thought I’d try to squeeze in a short trail ride, just to get outdoors and mix things up a bit. Mostly I’ve been riding the road. But I was tired of that itchy feeling between the shoulder blades one gets riding the shoulder of Tramway Boulevard, where the 50-mph speed limit is considered the minimum rather than the max.
I didn’t plan to be out long, so I pulled down a bike that would make me work for it: the Voodoo Wazoo.
When I snagged this frame with its Reynolds 853 main tubes back in 2005 I set it up pretty much in my typical cyclocross style, based on what was on hand and what I could scrounge: drop bar, XT double crank (48/36T), Shimano 600 derailleurs with bar-end shifters, 600 brake levers and some Avid cantis that had to date to 1995 or even earlier, and — just because I had ’em — a Rock Shox suspension post and Flite saddle, a True Temper Alpha Q carbon fork, and a set of Dura-Ace weirdo wheels, probably wearing Michelin Jets.
As I wrote back then:
Haven’t had it on a scale yet, but I suspect it’s the lightest bike in the bunch. The top tube is a centimeter shorter than my (Steelman) Eurocrosses, and the stem sits a tad higher, so I’ve a nice upright position on this rascal, which is nice when you’re riding something that says “Voodoo” in a town full of Bible-thumpers. You want to be able to see ’em coming.
Four years later what I didn’t see coming was a patch of ice hiding under a puddle on a Bibleburg bike path. Down I went, dislocating my left communications digit, leaving me wearing a splint and unable to handle a road bar and its various levers, STI or otherwise, with a multiday bike tour of southern Arizona coming up, my first gig for Mike Deme and Adventure Cyclist magazine.
Well. Shit.
I had to train, and I didn’t want to do it on a 26-inch-wheeled mountain bike, so I got the gang at Old Town Bike Shop to redo my Voodoo as a flat-bar, single-ring, thumb-shifting, seven-speed. The weirdo wheels went away, replaced by a mismatched set of Mavic hoops laced to Hügi Compact hubs cannibalized from an old set of MTB wheels. The cantis went unchanged, but got a pair of Real levers operable by two of the fingers that still functioned on that left hand.
Bingo.
And 17 years down the road that’s pretty much how the bike remains, with a few changes to accommodate failure and/or necessity.
The rear Avid brake finally croaked, so I swapped in a Dia-Compe 986. The Flite got moved to another bike and after a few candidates auditioned only to be found wanting the Wazoo now sports an Ergon SMC4-M atop an old Control Tech post. The tires are Continental CrossRides in 700×42. A Tange Infinity fork replaced the carbon model. When the Shimano 600 rear derailleur was needed elsewhere I plugged in a 105, with a tab extender that lets me run an 11-34T cassette with that 38T chainring.
I hadn’t ridden it since February. And that “short” ride I had planned turned into two hours of giggles on the trails, from El Rancho Pendejo south past Copper and then back north to the Elena Gallegos.
When it really started getting good to me I thought, “Maybe I should turn this back into a drop-bar cyclocross bike. I’ve got the parts. Who knows? I might spend more time riding it if it were a ’cross bike again.”
And then I thought again. The Wazoo is perfect just the way it is.
For now, anyway. …
Mad Blog Media 
Perfect as it is indeed! Thinking back, you seem to have a large and soft spot in your heart for this bike, and it makes sense to me.
Is that a pair of XT SPD pedals I see? One of my faves back in the day.
Yup, XT SPDs. Great pedals, and the Deore version ain’t bad either.
I am fond of that Voodoo Wazoo. It’s one of the least expensive frames I own, and nearly every component on it is some ancient hand-me-down from some other bike, but it’s just plain fun to ride, no matter how it’s set up. Very frisky, especially with the flat bar.
Having enough room for 42mm knobbies is certainly helpful. My Steelman Eurocrosses top out at 35mm, UCI-legal being 33mm.
I believe in whatever configuration your Wazoo may be in that suits your fancy, is the configuration that it should be in. The pleasure being that it is versatile enough to allow for the flights of your fancy. Now, with all that brain time expended, one should now get out and just pedal.
I’m curious in why the carbon fork was switched out the Tange steel. Was it because it was a 1″ steerer and you didn’t feel well with it’s stability?
Shawn, I never liked the feel of the fork. It came with one of my Eurocrosses (True Temper supplied some of the tubing for that frame too) and I replaced it with a steel model because the carbon felt dead on impacts. Quite a few of our ’cross courses were lumpy and bumpy, and some of my training loops were even worse.
I tried it out on the Voodoo — what the hell, it was in-house and not doing anything — but I swapped it out for that Tange fork as soon as I could.
I pulled another carbon fork off my DBR Prevail TT after it put me into a death wobble on a fast descent at the Air Force Academy. Brent Steelman made me a lovely steel fork to replace it and the bike has been without fault ever since.
Tuesday I thought I would get in a quick ride even though the skies were getting dark. Got about three miles from home and marble size rain, extreme crosswinds, and I was running my aero wheelset. I was turning around and going back. Of course, in a little while, it all stopped.
It was Ride the Neglected Bikes Week for me. Dodged what little rain we got (not much) and the DBR Prevail TT, Voodoo Wazoo, and Co-Motion Divide Rohloff all got out for an airing.
It was a bit of a shock to the system to go from two of the lightest bikes in The Fleet to what may be the heaviest. The Co-Motion goes 32 elbees with a full saddlebag, lights front and rear, a bell, and 50mm tires. But it sure rides smoove like butta. On a flat, straight stretch you can take your hands off the bars, lean back, cross your ankles over the stem and your hands behind your head, and have a nap.
Indeed, ride the neglected bikes week.
Since I retired, finally, I find having two commuters seems silly, except I like them both. As far as road rides, I should probably just buy a third set of hoops for the Litespeed Gravel and jettison a couple road bikes. The Litespeed rides nice and if I had a set of wheels with pure road rubber on them, I probably would not need the two Cannondales. But old bikes have a sentimental value, unfortunately. What to do?
“Sentimental value.” There it is.
I keep thinking about thinning the herd. And I keep not doing it. Almost sold the Bianchi Zurigo Disc once, but after having Two Wheel Drive give it a good going-over I remembered why I liked it and decided to keep it. Shit, I might ride it today.
Do I need two Soma Saga touring bikes, one rim brake, one disc? Almost certainly not. But Soma isn’t making them anymore, and they’re just different enough that I keep mumbling to myself, “Well, you never know. …”
I have a New Albion Privateer because a Soma Pescadero wasn’t available during The Bug Years, when I wanted to review one for Adventure Cyclist. Now I have a Pescadero too. Does that mean I’m giving up the Privateer? Never in hell. You can have my Privateer when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers. And that goes for the Pescadero too.
Four cyclocross bikes? Seriously? C’maaannnnnn. … No! Mine! Mine! Mine!
Etc.
Could be worse. I mean, I could have a freezer full of vodka and counterfeit currency. Or hitchhikers’ heads. A monster truck up on blocks in the front yard with an AK in the gun rack and a giant you-know-who flag in the bed.
Had to put on my thinking cap for a second … had the Grand Wazoo and the Great Gazoo mixed up in my head.
See also: Me Old Bamboo.
And leave us not forget “Big Bambú.”
We happy few?
Cat Ballou?
Motley Crüe?
And Tigger, too?
Ah, “Cat Ballou.” Filmed in part in and around my old hometown of Weirdcliffe, in CrustyTucky. As were some mountain scenes in “Continental Divide,” a John Belushi vehicle.
Carbon fibre is for guitars.
Ah yes, the old “This bike is great, I should change it.” conundrum. Good on you for steering your wheel away from that Siren’s Song and onto the trail, rather than into the shop.
Funny how that works, huh? I have a Soma Double Cross that started life as a cyclocross bike, got turned into a townie, and then went right back to being a cyclocross bike.
I just didn’t like it as much in its townie personality. But as a ’cross bike it’s the ideal go-anywhere, do anything steed. Road rides, light touring, non-technical singletrack (it’ll take 42mm tires). And since it’s smallish — I normally ride a 56 or 58, but the DC is a 54 with a longish top tube — I can stuff it in the back of the Forester for a road trip without even removing the front wheel.
The Soma DC in townie configuration.