Jun 10 - it's never easy

I decided to dismantle the True North since it will need cleaning and packing shortly.  I went to take off the stem and stripped both recessed screws ... ugh ... there was no moving them even with Kroil and no way to get a grip on them.  So, I had to drill them out.  Luckily (good planning), I have a huge selection of different length M5 screws, mostly with knurled heads.  I replaced the recessed screws with the knurled headed screws and a washer.  Now they'll be removeable, even if the hex part gives way.  Did I have them on too tight ?  They weren't seized because once I drilled the head out, the exposed screw turned easily with needle nose pliers.  Of course that's after I'd pulled the stem so there wasn't any load on the screws any more.

The dismantling is pretty through, for the S&S packing: off with pedals, seatpost with saddle attached light(s), water bottle cages, rear derailleur, break chain, fork with stem attached, maybe brakes (did last time, may or may not this time), rear rack ... there ends up being a lot of stuff on the floor.  I'll now give all of it a thorough cleaning before adding the protective sleeves and having a go at packing. I'm considering putting the fork with attached stem into my luggage, perhaps even the handlebars.  We'll see.  To a certain extent, having the S&S bag tight is actually better protection than having things rattle around, but I do have bubble wrap for that.

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I now have the bike cleaned and packed, including fork, including bars.  I'm not happy with it, will tinker with it some more.  The bike is much better protected in the big hard case.

I went into town and got the mail; the roaster parts had arrived and I installed the new heater; bingo, it's working again.  That new control board and inbound sensor were a waste.  I know have spare parts, not worth sending anything back. 

It's still puzzling.  The heater is basically a single element wire.  Once broken, it doesn't work.  How can it work partially ?  Per the website, I checked the resistance and it was ok.  However, there's no disputing the fact that the temperature now goes up high enough to roast beans !

Now I have 2.5 pounds of Starbucks French Roast to get through.  I did roast a batch of coffee for Sandy which she'll probably use, relegating me to the Starbucks.  It's not too bad. 

Speaking of bad, the other day I opened a nice Spanish Syrah, had a little and wasn't happy with the taste. Sandy figured that it had gone -- the heat perhaps ? -- this is the first one that is actually undrinkable, not just below par.  The next night I decided that yes, it was bad.  I opened up another bottle and it was the same.  I opened up the other 10 bottles and poured them down the drain ...such a shame.

In more positive news, the Xplornet dish attenuation continues to run 11.0 or less, down to 10.5.  It has to be that ground plate that has made the difference.  Interesting.

In negative news, Sandy called me from the road on the way back having stopped in Barrie and Stef having noticed that the passenger rear tire was bald. Thank you Stef !  Good eye.

What the heck ?  I regularly look at the tires and I'm sure that when I adjusted the air pressure when we arrived under a month ago that the tire wasn't bald.  Since then, it's made a trip to Britt, Sudbury and now to and from the Toronto area ... probably close to 1000 miles in total.

We've known for some time that her rims are all out of round.  That causes unbalanced-like behaviour.  I figured that once these tires were ready for replacement, I'd buy new rims and tires.  That was going to be a next-Spring thing but now it's immediate.  I'm going to take the car into Arnstein Garage and leave it with them to ensure that there isn't something else going on.  Perhaps the alignment is way off; that could cause this kind of wear. A sudden alignment issue, however, is more than likely due to something broken - a control arm, a shock absorber, not sure.   We'll be gone for two weeks and can leave it with Jeff to troubleshoot. 

Sandy described it as "smooth as a baby's bottom" -- well, it wasn't quite that bad, but almost.  There were no cords showing.  It was bald. 

I may pop the rim off this morning before taking it into Arnstein, to take a look at the Control Arms. The car is siting ok, so it's not egregious.  I can't easily check the shocks though.  A constant bounce could cause significant wear -- combination of the rim being out of round and the shock not holding the road ?  I'll also get comparison prices from Tirerack.  I could take the hitch rack down to PA with us and bring new tires and rims back with us, I suppose, but unless the price differential is really significant, I'd rather not.

That's all folks ... that's enough !  Onward !