Apr 10 - parts wearing out

No, not me, parts on the bike ... although sometimes I think that I'm wearing out too, but that's mostly my brain.

Anyway ...

I got out of here a few minutes late yesterday morning but the trip to DeLand is quick. This time I knew where I was going and was organized -- bike out of the car, pockets stuffed, and rolled up to the convenience store / 1st Control about 7:25. Judith was already there and checked-in. I purchased a coffee -- you have to buy something to get a receipt -- drank 1/2 of it for the water content, certainly not for the taste, and we hit the road.

The temperature was in the high 50's so I was able to get away with just my vest over the short sleeved jersey. Since I was riding the sports car I needed something packable with the predicted temps in the mid 80's -- stuffable in my pockets that is. My seat wedge was maxxed out with a couple of packages of perpetuem, my wallet, cell phone and the usual tool pack. I also had two packages of perpetuem in my pockets along with a half-dozen of my gels, the brevet card and money, etc.

Judith was still riding all decked out for a long brevet. She'd been away for the intervening time so hadn't had a chance to remove lights, hub dynamo wheel, or even the light on her helmet from the 600k ride. Had I been in her shoes I would have taken the 15 minutes to remove some of this ... but then she probably had other priorities like getting her 2-year-old over to her mother's.

I was traveling light though, and it felt good. There were no hills to climb, but the bike feels better anyway. The narrower tires are less forgiving; the seat is less forgiving due to it being new; but the roads on this route are very good for the most part with no "shake and bake" like the route that starts close to my house and goes to Maitland. My big question was whether my butt would survive without serious chafing ... I'd adjusted the seat angle slightly and was wearing the new shorts. Well, I won't keep you in suspense (ha) -- my butt survived.

My butt survived even though there was this annoying clicking that occurred when I stood up and put more pressure on the pedals. The clicking, of course, had nothing to do with my butt ... but since I knew that there was something wrong I wanted to go easy on it, not wanting some sort of parts failure to impact the ride. Without any climbing on this route the only reason to stand up is for butt relief ... which I do a lot in the course of a ride ... but not this time.

So -- backing up -- it was a great ride. We made good time, better than I've ever done for a ride this length. Here are the stats:

Elapsed time -- 9:25
Rolling time -- 7:53
Avg speed -- 17.61 mph
Distance -- 138.8 miles

Time off the bike sure adds up ...

That average rolling speed is very good for me, probably 1 mph over what I'd expect. I have to credit the Perpetuem for that -- I felt good. The weather was also perfect. The only time we hit serious headwinds was on the last leg going south back towards DeLand. For 20 miles we had to grit our teeth. Of course, it's not just the Perpetuem -- which obviously helps -- but becomes a proxy for monitoring my intake -- fuel and hydration. Whereas I might normally pull into a Control with part-full bottles, I made it a point to finish my bottle with Perpetuem and therefore also my water bottle. As it happens, the Controls are about 2 hours riding apart so this is perfect.

So -- back to my gear problem(s).

The first issue, the clicking, was getting worse. I varied my motion, trying to figure out what might be causing it -- was something loose in my seat wedge ? Could I feel it as I pedaled, i.e. was my chain doing something ? I finally determined, about 40 miles from the end, that perhaps my wheel was loose -- perhaps I needed to tighten the wheel itself because I could detect a small side-to-side movement when off the bike and pushing at the wheel. Did I have the requisite 2mm Allen Wrench with me in my abbreviated tool pack ? Could I do an on-the-road repair ? I preferred not to find out. I preferred to get the ride over with and check it out at home.

I rode gently; when standing I rode carefully; we were in the middle of nowhere and I did not want to call for a rescue. Judith pointed out where her friend Linda had to abandon -- nausea and vertigo stopping her from even walking. Judith's husband Charles had come to pick up Linda while Judith finished the ride. I said nothing, thinking that she might be finishing the ride by herself again !

Ahhh ... within a couple of miles of the finish ... if the wheel craps out now I'll just take off my shoes and walk. There's nothing in the rules that says that you cannot walk. Get thyself and thy bike to the end without any assistance ... nothing in the rules says that it has to be butt-to-saddle !


We're done ... or rather, we're finished (meat is done). we celebrate with a coke ... the legal kind of course. Cold beer was also tempting but I had to drive home. We finished our cokes and rode back down Kepler. I turned off at the FDOT parking lot; she continued on to her house about another mile away. "Thanks again" ... "Keep in touch" ... we both say. I've determined why Judith likes riding with me -- none of her other riding friends can ride mid-week :).

She is one strong rider. Strength to weight ratio has a lot to do with it since she's tiny; she flies up the hills. She wasn't feeling her best yesterday but still had no problems. "Not feeling energetic" was how she put it -- there are many riders who would love to feel as good as she does when she's in low ebb ! The only times that she flagged a little was into the wind. I can empathize with that because my larger friends plow into the wind but have problems climbing, while I do better climbing than on the flat -- relative to other riders. I pulled, not paying attention at one point and she lost my wheel. I eased up -- but needed to ease up anyway because 15 miles into a strong headwind can still be an hour of riding. I had a gel -- the only one that I consumed all day.

We had stopped for a Subway at the next-to-last Control. It's probably the only time that I've ever bought a 6" sandwich, but I had a veggie for a change. Judith had tuna ... like Sandy always does. At 40 miles to the end I figured that it wouldn't impact my ride, and it didn't. Their bread, being very fresh, is not terribly filling, which is good.

So ... back to the wheel ... and other problems.

After dinner last night; after my usual time on the computer; after my usual bed-time; it was tugging at my mind. What was wrong ? So ... into the garage I went, pulled the wheel and over to the workbench. I removed the cassette, which seemed wobbly and checked the tightness of the wheel itself. All was well ... but I removed the hub internals anyway, careful not to lose any of the springs and pawls. Reassembling and tightening, I reinstalled the cassette ... hmmm ... still wobbly, almost like the stack height of the cassette was not high enough for the hub. I had all the spacers ... hmmm. I pulled out the new cassette from my tool bin and installed that, tightened it up and sure enough, it was very tight. The old cassette has many, many miles on it, but it's almost like over time the plastic spacers that are part of the dura-ace cassette had worn thinner and given the overall assembly enough room to wobble. A slightly off-center cassette would then pull at the wheel, exacerbating the situation and accelerating the wear even over the course of a ride. I'll look at it again this morning.

The new 7900 cassette has a different carrier, vs the 7800 cassette. I don't know if that makes any difference. They want twice as much for that cassette though ... because it's better ? because it's newer ? just because ? -- I think the latter is the case.

What is the other gear problem ? Well, in this case the saddle already mentioned and also the pedals. I had not noticed having a problem with the pedals on the hummer, only noticing that the pedals on the new bike were much harder to get out of. How did this really come home ? Well, I had not mentioned it ... mostly due to embarrassment ... but on a ride last week with the new bike I stopped at a stop sign just before the causeway back home, stopping suddenly because a car was coming through ... and I fell over. Duh. It's been a long time since I've done that. The pedals were sticky to get out of -- sticky the way that they are supposed to be. I've gotten so used to the old bike (the hummer) having pedals that slip in and out without any effort at all that I had not noticed how much the "bow ties" -- stainless steel inserts in the pedals -- had worn. I'm ordering another set; they're not expensive. The car that stopped behind me at the stop sign gave me a wave as I started up again -- I cannot imagine what he must have been thinking. Most people would not even realize that these cleats actually hold your shoes to the pedals.

So -- gear wearing out -- pedals, cassettes, shorts -- perhaps I'm doing a lot of riding ? Food -- Perpetuem, gels, chamois cream ... it seems like I'm always ordering stuff on the internet. Of course part of that is simply because I'm stocking up for the next few months where these products are hard to obtain, expensive to ship across the border. Part of it is just "normal" wear and tear. I put "normal" in quotation marks because I cannot help but feeling that I'm far from normal. It reminds me of the Gene Wilder "Young Frankenstein" movie -- "Abby Normal" -- no, you idiot, abnormal !!

One huge advantage of all the biking is reduced recovery time. I could go out again today ... but I won't. We're going to run some errands -- the door is in at Home Depot; I need to pickup herbicide for Monday's work with the Marine Discovery Center on the Brazilian Pepper out the back; we're going to drive up to Ormond Beach and I'll visit the bike store up there; and then we're going to Flagler beach with Abby. It's time that I did something other than bike.

Tomorrow we're going to Bev's in Sebastian -- I"m sorely tempted to ride down but with brunch at noon, her being 105 miles away; I'd have to leave at 4am to guarantee being down there in time what with vagaries in the wind and other possible slowdowns. Of course ... that's not impossible ... that would mean that I'd have to go to Mass tonight. Maybe what I'll do is go to 7am Mass as usual and then go out for an hour, test the new cassette and ensure that I've dealt with the problem. We have to leave here around 10am so timing is perfect.

So here's the plan --

-- today, errands
-- tomorrow -- Bev's
-- Monday -- Brazilian Pepper
-- Tuesday -- bike
-- Wednesday -- boat; dinner with Patti & Norm
-- Thursday -- short bike ride
-- Friday -- laze about, drive to Gainesville
-- Saturday & Sunday -- 600 km ride
-- Monday -- recovery, pack
-- Tuesday -- hit the road !!
-- Tudaday evening -- Linda's in VA
-- Wednesday -- drive to Jeffrey's
-- Wednesday, Thursday, Friday night -- at Jeffrey's
-- Friday -- 200k Permanent in the Reading area (Birdsboro, already arranged)
-- Saturday, drive to Oakville, stay overnight with Stef
-- Sunday -- drive to cottage

As I said in an email to Bonnie, there's nothing magical about the travel plans. However, I do get "twitchy" when plans are disrupted. I have not changed -- I still wear a watch; have not adapted to the "soon/later/whenever" lexicon of retirees. Ah well ... that's the way it goes.

By the way -- see the plan above ? -- the bathroom door is not going to get widened before we leave; new door won't be installed ... I'll do that "later", definitely not "soon" !

Ok, that's enough typing for one morning.

Happy Easter to you all !