Did a sweet pre-Memorial day ride out with my posse today. Met nice and early at 8 am to beat the traffic and then do a nice tempo ride out through Doylestown and then to Lumbersville-Carversville. Totally sweet roads up out that way, way cooler there too, even though it was later in the day when we got there.
Reminded me of the Tour de Chester the DE posse used to ride. Empty and shaded roads, little houses on huge plots of land, and just the hum of the tires and chains making noise. It was a fine ride (80-90 milesish), and a good one to do to try to get used to the summer heat which has no arrived.
Tomorrow I have no clue what I will do as it's been a long while since I've had 3 days of in-a-row saddle time. I'm about to rock out in Manayunk though, so whatever it is, it'll be weak...
Got lost in Kennsington last weekend trying to ride to Fishtown via the "shortest" route so I can pick up my new team's uniform. WOW, you see a place like that and it really makes you wonder why we have troops in Iraq, when we have a place like Kennsington which is a warzone and everyone looks high and ready to shoot you. It really is the real deal. I was lost and too afraid to stop and use my cell phone as every person I saw-white, black, asian, hispanic- all looked and acted like crack heads. It was really surreal to see such a thing in the land of plenty. Well I ended up bonking hardcore and knew how to get back to Broad St. and so I road West as fast as I can, burning every stop sign and trying not to look too out of place (which I did). I got to Broad and was waaaaaay North of Temple. I knew Temple U was a "safe" place and so I did the gangsta thing and rode on the sidewalk (trying to fit in) and hit up a McDonald's drive thru for a Milk shake to try to ward off my bonk (oh, I did a 4 hour rode ride earlier in the day, and didn't really each much afterwards that's why I was bonking). The dudes at McDonald's were all cracking up at the honkey buying a milkshake on his bike, but I didn't care as that Milkshake was better than an energy gel could have been as it cooled me down and fueled me back up for a long ride home. All in all it was like a 2 hour ride that should have been 30-45 mins round trip.
YOU can guarantee I'm not going to do anymore shortcuts through parts of towns I don't know.
Hope everyone is relaxing and having a great long weekend,
Ride on!
-BC
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Replace your cables!
Sorry for the lack of posts, not that anyone noticed...
I'm finally getting fit now, after riding during the week the past 4 weeks. It's amazing how just throwing in 2 hours in the middle of the week can really help you get stronger. So last Sunday I thought it was time to do my crazy hill ride and about 1/4 of the way into it, while coming out of Gladdwynn into Conshi, my rear shifter cable snapped. I thought, I'll ride back to Manayunk via the VF trail and be on my way again in an hour. Well, here's some knowledge for you, don't ever re-shift your shifter once that cable snaps! About 2 hours later I was limping home from the cool Human Zoom shop in Manayunk b/c my shifter cable head had become jammed in the head of my shifter. They tried and tried to get it out without taking apart the shifter, but said I could leave it there over the week and they would find a way to fix it. Well considering I lived 50 minutes further away from Manayunk (sou philly yo!), that wasn't an option. So I got home and quickly made a plea for help among my cycling posse to see if anyone had a spare 10sp rear shifter and/or was able to fix my shifter. Colin (the Professor) took charge and by Monday night he had totally fixed the shifter and I'm on the road again.
There's a few things to note which bugged me out about this whole busting a cable thing.
I almost never have a mechanical and pride myself with keeping my rig clean and smooth rolling. Well, I ended up having Human Zoom check my chain, and they were like "Dude were not letting you ride home with that thing on" plus when I got home I checked my front der. cable and sure enough 1/2 of the cables had frayed and so it would have snapped on that side soon enough too. I'm now a little paranoid about my bike as the Scott CR1 frame is going on it's 3rd season, while all the DA components are just ending their first year of service. I'm pretty much at the point where it's time to get a new bike. I hate to be that way, and know that I should have replaced the cables, chain and cassette way sooner than I did...they are only a year old, plus I didn't race last year, so while they were ridden a good bit, they weren't under total abuse. I think most cyclists are always trying to legitimize the purchase of their 6th or 8th bike in their collection, but I think this time it warrants it as a $2-3k new bike is way cheaper in opportunity cost at avoiding another hospital visit than risking it. Carbon bikes are so sweet, but other than an ultrasound test, how the heck do you check to see how much life you have left in it? Steel and aluminum were so easy, you either had rust or a hairline crack before the frame was cooked, with carbon, I have no clue what happens before failure. Anyone have an idea?
I'm finally getting fit now, after riding during the week the past 4 weeks. It's amazing how just throwing in 2 hours in the middle of the week can really help you get stronger. So last Sunday I thought it was time to do my crazy hill ride and about 1/4 of the way into it, while coming out of Gladdwynn into Conshi, my rear shifter cable snapped. I thought, I'll ride back to Manayunk via the VF trail and be on my way again in an hour. Well, here's some knowledge for you, don't ever re-shift your shifter once that cable snaps! About 2 hours later I was limping home from the cool Human Zoom shop in Manayunk b/c my shifter cable head had become jammed in the head of my shifter. They tried and tried to get it out without taking apart the shifter, but said I could leave it there over the week and they would find a way to fix it. Well considering I lived 50 minutes further away from Manayunk (sou philly yo!), that wasn't an option. So I got home and quickly made a plea for help among my cycling posse to see if anyone had a spare 10sp rear shifter and/or was able to fix my shifter. Colin (the Professor) took charge and by Monday night he had totally fixed the shifter and I'm on the road again.
There's a few things to note which bugged me out about this whole busting a cable thing.
I almost never have a mechanical and pride myself with keeping my rig clean and smooth rolling. Well, I ended up having Human Zoom check my chain, and they were like "Dude were not letting you ride home with that thing on" plus when I got home I checked my front der. cable and sure enough 1/2 of the cables had frayed and so it would have snapped on that side soon enough too. I'm now a little paranoid about my bike as the Scott CR1 frame is going on it's 3rd season, while all the DA components are just ending their first year of service. I'm pretty much at the point where it's time to get a new bike. I hate to be that way, and know that I should have replaced the cables, chain and cassette way sooner than I did...they are only a year old, plus I didn't race last year, so while they were ridden a good bit, they weren't under total abuse. I think most cyclists are always trying to legitimize the purchase of their 6th or 8th bike in their collection, but I think this time it warrants it as a $2-3k new bike is way cheaper in opportunity cost at avoiding another hospital visit than risking it. Carbon bikes are so sweet, but other than an ultrasound test, how the heck do you check to see how much life you have left in it? Steel and aluminum were so easy, you either had rust or a hairline crack before the frame was cooked, with carbon, I have no clue what happens before failure. Anyone have an idea?
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