The reports of the demise of my bike have thankfully been greatly exaggerated. I took the rear wheel off and sure enough my Bicycling Magazine's Complete Guide to Bicycle Maintenance and Repair was right when it said that the cassette may just be gummed up with rust or something preventing it from turning. It was hard to turn until I shot with a few shots of PB Blaster and then some WD-40 and it spun freely once again! I also got a closer look at the cassette cogs themselves and man, are they worn.
It had me thinking and I tried to fit my old Araya 700c wheels with old 700X21 or 23c cyclocross tires on them, but not quite enough room in between the down tube and the stays... Just thinking out loud about something smaller and with lower rolling resistance... If it had fit it would have given up some gearing for my old road bike's I think, 14-24 cassette six speed.
Sunday, August 31, 2014
Bleh...
Not a great ride today... I could make all the excuses, hot and humid, much moreso today than it has been, not a great sleep- woke up at 3AM, couldn't fall back asleep and only managed six hours of bad sleep, so I was dead tired after a hard ride yesterday, then Google Maps misled me again into thinking a dirt ATV trail at the end of a dead end road was another road instead of a trail to the possible marijuana farm/ pitbull breeding facility, meth lab at the end with a shotgun being pointed at me. Thanks Google!
And I broke the bike somehow. I was about 3/4 of the way back and I noticed that the chain was slack and slapping the chainstay... WTH? Did I drop the chain somehow? I stopped and nope. It was back to normal. I rode again and as soon as I freewheeled for a second, the chain dropped. I stopped a couple of times before I realized that the cassette had stopped freewheeling and was locked up, jumping gears and trying to make the rear wheel into a fixie. Damn... so I managed to pedal without a break the last 3 miles or so and here I am at home weighing my options.
One- ride my wife's bike. Not a bad solution, but its way heavier than mine. Cro-mo versus aluminum, plus no bar ends and the tires are darn near dry rotted out. Two- borrow her rear wheel, but there's still the dry rotted tire or Three- build the spare wheel that I picked up a couple of weeks ago from a dumpster in Portland. Haven't written yet about that, but I will as soon as I get photos.
And I broke the bike somehow. I was about 3/4 of the way back and I noticed that the chain was slack and slapping the chainstay... WTH? Did I drop the chain somehow? I stopped and nope. It was back to normal. I rode again and as soon as I freewheeled for a second, the chain dropped. I stopped a couple of times before I realized that the cassette had stopped freewheeling and was locked up, jumping gears and trying to make the rear wheel into a fixie. Damn... so I managed to pedal without a break the last 3 miles or so and here I am at home weighing my options.
One- ride my wife's bike. Not a bad solution, but its way heavier than mine. Cro-mo versus aluminum, plus no bar ends and the tires are darn near dry rotted out. Two- borrow her rear wheel, but there's still the dry rotted tire or Three- build the spare wheel that I picked up a couple of weeks ago from a dumpster in Portland. Haven't written yet about that, but I will as soon as I get photos.
Saturday, August 30, 2014
My Goals
I'm so glad to be back cycling again! even with all of the little surprises it holds for- an unexpected little hill that I have to battle up, the realization that I can power uphill sometimes harder than I ever thought that I could, to riding on roads that I haven't been on before, to the flock of wild turkeys that crossed the road in front of me. I started doing it because I wanted to lose some weight and I needed to get outside of my own head for awhile. Since I started to ride again and lift weights back after my birthday in March I've lost about ten pounds, put on alot of muscle and have been able to wear clothes that had previously been tight on me. My goal is to get back into alot of pants and shorts that I used to wear when I had a 32 inch waist. I always knew there was a reason to keep them! But most importantly I want to be around for a very long time to enjoy a long life and relationship with my kids and wife, Melissa!
Friday, August 22, 2014
More Heaven... Or Is It Hell?
Nah, just heaven! Only feels like hell at the time. So alot has been going on since I last posted. Been riding and riding like mad. Going from 3 or 4 mile rides a couple of weeks ago to a 13 miler today. Something back at the beginning of the month of August or late July just clicked in my head- I'm a cyclist! I have been since I first began enjoying riding my new to me bike in April around the driveway with my two sons and I still am. I've been a cyclist since the early 80's, maybe 1984 when I turned 13 and started getting turned onto road cycling. Life changed when I was in my early 20's and I gave it up, but I guess that I never stopped being a cyclist. And I realize that I still love it!
So in addition to riding I wanted to feel like a cyclist too. I found a pair of Shimano MTB shoes at Play It Again Sports, a second hand sports equipment shop where I have found ALOT of great deals, mainly weight lifting equipment. Not enough cycling duds, but these shoes have immensely raised my level of enjoyment. From old sneakers and gym shorts and a t-shirt now I am back into spandex bibs and cycling jerseys via a few second hand Ebay purchases. Oh yeah, and a pair of beat up, but perfectly functioning Shimano M520 pedals also came from Ebay for $15!
As far as the bike has changed- well, not alot. I bought a small under the saddle bag for it, finally caved into the all too real world of tres expensive water bottles ($9 for a store bottle, but from a store that I love anyways- AllSpeed in Portland) and swapped in my wife's cycle computer (that she isn't using right now) a Sigma BC906 that is a fairly nice and well featured computer that would be better if it decided to work more than it does. I blame the magnetic pickup which is incredibly fussy about being only a millimeter or so from the magnet or it stops entirely giving a speed readout. I've also picked up for cheap a Ritchey WCS alloy seatpost in 350mm. yeah, the frame is still too small and even with a frequent watering of sweat it hasn't grown, so in order to counteract the fact that its too small for me I've raised the post up too far (and it needs a fraction more really...). The Ritchey is 50mm longer, a good two inches that will make me feel alot more secure. Plus, its the bling factor- Ritchey!
And so I've enjoyed the hell out of riding. I'm feeling stronger day by day and capable of riding farther and stronger and faster. My only real problem has been mainly solved by reading this article on leg pain. This fellow is a bike fitter in Britain and this article said that what I've been feeling especially since installing new cleats in my Shimano clipless boots was wrong. On longer efforts, especially climbing from the seat, my quadriceps would burn like hell, esp. right at the inside corner of my knees. I figured that it was just being out of shape and that it would be the price I'd have to pay until I got into better shape. But it hurt so much that it really hindered my desire to keep going. It was so painful that it made me want to just slow down and hopefully stop. This guy said that ANY localized pain in your quads should not happen- ever. He suggested adjusting cleat position. The old wisdom has been that you should adjust the cleats so that the ball of your foot just in back of your big toe should intersect your cleat. Well, he wrote that that may be too far forward. I had adjusted my cleats so that they were so far forward that I had no more adjustment and I had thought that it was what I should have been doing. You know, the old toes down and dig with your pedals. I moved my cleats back a few mm and hey, no more pain! Incredible! I'm still fine tuning them a bit, but what a difference! I can go harder in the saddle with no flaming pain in my quads, well, nothing that I can't endure at least!
So in addition to riding I wanted to feel like a cyclist too. I found a pair of Shimano MTB shoes at Play It Again Sports, a second hand sports equipment shop where I have found ALOT of great deals, mainly weight lifting equipment. Not enough cycling duds, but these shoes have immensely raised my level of enjoyment. From old sneakers and gym shorts and a t-shirt now I am back into spandex bibs and cycling jerseys via a few second hand Ebay purchases. Oh yeah, and a pair of beat up, but perfectly functioning Shimano M520 pedals also came from Ebay for $15!
As far as the bike has changed- well, not alot. I bought a small under the saddle bag for it, finally caved into the all too real world of tres expensive water bottles ($9 for a store bottle, but from a store that I love anyways- AllSpeed in Portland) and swapped in my wife's cycle computer (that she isn't using right now) a Sigma BC906 that is a fairly nice and well featured computer that would be better if it decided to work more than it does. I blame the magnetic pickup which is incredibly fussy about being only a millimeter or so from the magnet or it stops entirely giving a speed readout. I've also picked up for cheap a Ritchey WCS alloy seatpost in 350mm. yeah, the frame is still too small and even with a frequent watering of sweat it hasn't grown, so in order to counteract the fact that its too small for me I've raised the post up too far (and it needs a fraction more really...). The Ritchey is 50mm longer, a good two inches that will make me feel alot more secure. Plus, its the bling factor- Ritchey!
And so I've enjoyed the hell out of riding. I'm feeling stronger day by day and capable of riding farther and stronger and faster. My only real problem has been mainly solved by reading this article on leg pain. This fellow is a bike fitter in Britain and this article said that what I've been feeling especially since installing new cleats in my Shimano clipless boots was wrong. On longer efforts, especially climbing from the seat, my quadriceps would burn like hell, esp. right at the inside corner of my knees. I figured that it was just being out of shape and that it would be the price I'd have to pay until I got into better shape. But it hurt so much that it really hindered my desire to keep going. It was so painful that it made me want to just slow down and hopefully stop. This guy said that ANY localized pain in your quads should not happen- ever. He suggested adjusting cleat position. The old wisdom has been that you should adjust the cleats so that the ball of your foot just in back of your big toe should intersect your cleat. Well, he wrote that that may be too far forward. I had adjusted my cleats so that they were so far forward that I had no more adjustment and I had thought that it was what I should have been doing. You know, the old toes down and dig with your pedals. I moved my cleats back a few mm and hey, no more pain! Incredible! I'm still fine tuning them a bit, but what a difference! I can go harder in the saddle with no flaming pain in my quads, well, nothing that I can't endure at least!
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