Filet-O-Tire

Swoosh-Swoosh-Swoosh-POW!  No more lame red striped tire.  Standing on the side of the road in 100 degree weather with a star shaped tear in my tire was quite the experience.  I contemplated making the dreaded call for a bailout, but I couldn't do it.  Instead, I jimmy-rigged a tire patch.  The silver lining was getting to stop every five minutes in the shadeless godforsaken desert on the climb back home to hand pump my tire once I ran out of Co2.  I'm sure my wife thought I was insane when I walked through the door with my rear wheel in my hand and a big grin on my face.

Those tires were lame anyways right?

New Leaf, Same Luck

I decided to start keeping my bikes clean.  I've always kept my drivetrain clean, but I usually leave a nice medley of dust, dried mud, chunks of dried sand, blood, sweat and bugs on the non-moving parts.  I liked to think of it as a moving collage.  When it got overly crowded, I would reluctantly wash the bike.  When I did wash it though, I did it the hard way. I usually employed an old yogurt or peanut jar, a toothbrush, rag, and some WD-40.  I think the reason for this was it allowed me to relive the memories of rides past one speck of mud, or blood at a time. 


I distinctly remember washing my Redline for the first time after about 6 months living in Colorado Springs.  Off the bottom bracket shell fell the last pieces of Flagstaff mud.  That was also about the time I realized how awesome the riding in the Springs was.  In the four years I lived in the Springs, I probably washed my bikes ten times.


There is nothing wrong with nostalgia, but change can also be good too.  I live in a new city, ride new dirt and pavement, and have a new job (which is looking for a new job).  So now I wash my bikes regularly. I feel like a clean bike gives me a clean slate every time.


Apparently, the clean slate does not apply to my luck as a mechanic.  I have a severely seized steerer tube on my road bike.  I've lubed, whacked, twisted, lubed some more, and whacked again. I've tapped, spun and sprayed it.  No dice.  The headset spins fine.  This was just supposed to be preventative maintenance, but instead it prevented me from doing maintenance.   I think the spacers are seized to the steerer tube.What's odd is only the top one is aluminum, the remaining ones are composite.  Could they be the culprit? Should I get a sledgehammer and a block of wood?  I would like a new frame and a sledgehammer would probably get me there.  I know,  I should go into a local shop and be like, 


 "Its a good thing you didn't hire me, I can't even service a headset.  
Please take my money magic men and perform some magic on my bike!"


Maybe I'll be like Elaine when she got blacklisted by all the doctors in New York.  Nice.  Off to see a Veterinarian I guess.  I wonder if the Vet will let me work off my debt?  Oh well, at least the bike is clean right?

            

Good Link On Bottom Brackets

Bottom Bracket sizes are confusing.  This helped me a bit. http://www.slowtwitch.com/Tech/Bottom_Bracket_Standards_2573.html

Cheers

Dreams and Character

Chasing dreams builds character.  How we deal with rejection says a lot about who we are.  Working through self doubt makes us physically and mentally stronger.  I'm re-learning this.  I have an advantage this time that I didn't have coming out of college though.  I bike.  When it hits the fan, I bike.  When cash gets low, I bike. When faced with rejection, criticism, and doubt, I bike.  Some people say lofty things like, "Biking can change the world".  I believe it, because it has changed mine.  So today's rejection means two wonderful hours of reflection and contemplation on the trainer.  Life is good as long as I have family, health and my bike.

Peace.

F.S.A. (Fully Sucking Ahead/For Sure Avoid)

A 100% guarantee is a bold statement of the pursuit of perfection. 75% off is a realistic and fair compensation for a bullet-proof product that rarely fails.  30% off of the replacement cost for a defective product like FSA carbon cranks says, "We are only 30% confident in the products we sell."  Not only is that failing, but its failing badly.  What's even more pitiful is the amount of people who have "Fully Sucking Ahead" carbon cranks with busted pedal inserts who have all been informed of the 30% guarantee.  Don't take my word for it.  Type "FSA carbon crank pedal insert" into your web browser and see for yourself.

So next time you are looking at a new bike or a new crankset, take it from my dad, For Sure Avoid FSA unless you feel good about being 30% sure your product will work.  I guess the glass half full view would be 70% confidence in product failure?  Either way it will likely be Fully Sucking Ahead.

Until Next Year...

The end of the Tour de France is always bittersweet.  Like a kid leaving Disneyland, or the end of the holidays, it signals a return to normalcy.  For three weeks normal was: ride, watch the Tour, ride while watching the Tour, and watch the Tour again in the evening over a few beers.  The allure of the Tour is  not just the fact that its an amazing feat of strength and endurance.  Its signals the time that most avid cyclists should hit their best form of the year.  The Tour also coincides with some of the coolest mountain bike races in the west. The Tour is also a celebration of how cool cycling is on a global scale.  There are bike commercials and bike news and people who don't pay attention to cycling recognize that something is going on with all these bike geeks.  Then it ends, and things go back to normal, until next year.

And she was hooked...

I was hunting through my truck for my TBR sticker today and I found one of the coolest emails my wife ever sent me. Here it goes:

April 16, 2012 8:56:22


So something is wrong with me! I woke up this morning and immediately thought about my Giant.  So I was surfing Colorado Cyclist's website...is the Hope Pro II Evo a good rear hub and is it compatible with my bike and with the wheels u bought?  Cuz if so I could buy all 3 for $367 not including my discount which is cheap right? I could pay u to build them.


Well my AM is off to a good start. How about yours?

Needless to say, I walked around and showed this email to all the cyclists that I worked with like it was a custom Coconino Cycles frame for me (that would be nice).  Wondering if she got them?

 Did I build them? Come on, my wife is smarter than that.

By the way, I found my sticker!

Short n Sweet

The race season is over for me.  Time to ride slow, get lost (physically and mentally) and enjoy my favorite thing to do: ride my bike. 50, 100, 12, 24, I'll see you guys next year.  In the meantime, I need to help the real racer in the family rehab so she can get back on the bike.

DBA #5

The “Hose Epiphany”

Towards the end of a mid-day ride this summer, I had an epiphany that led to a joke in my head that made me laugh out loud.  My bottles had been cashed for about an hour and I was thirsty so I drank from my camelback.  A chunk of the deteriorating hose came out of the bite valve for the fifth or sixth time.  As I chewed on that chunk of moldy, BPA laced plastic, I had a thought: They say its not safe to drink from a garden hose.

I disagree with this.

As kids growing up in Tucson, Arizona, we drank from garden hoses.  The water was nasty, but when its 109 degrees and you have been riding, running, or playing basketball for hours the water tastes great and is definitely the difference between life and death. It is relatively safe to drink from a garden hose.  The key word here is relative.  Relative to what?

Imagine the headline.  “Teenager Suffers Heatstroke After Refusing Water From a Garden Hose”.  This was my thought as I considered whether or not to continue drinking from my decrepit camelback.  Ironically the thought caused me to laugh out loud and lose an entire drink of cesspool water as well as a chunk of hose.  I also realized that another chunk was lodged in the bite valve causing it to spew water all over my shorts.  I blew that chunk back into the hose (the thought of which, would likely make some feel like blowing chunks) and continued riding.

I guess the bottom line is that everything is relative.  Drinking from a hose is safer than a heatstroke.  Drinking from an old camelback is safer than dehydration.  Maybe I’ll replace my camelback soon.

Flagstaff in Photos

No captions necessary.