Bicycle Repairman!

Brrrrrrrrr!

Going Bowling!

We'll be on our way.

The Cyclones are playing Minnesota at the Insight Bowl this year, which happens to be in Tempe, Arizona. I kept mentioning to Jenny we were going to a bowl game, and she pretty much ignored me until the announcement was made. The Cyclones were expected to travel to either the Texas Bowl in Houston or the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, LA. Apparently, the Insight Bowl committee really wanted Cyclone fans at their bowl and passed on Missouri, just like the Independence Bowl committee did. Understandably, the Mizzou fans on the way to Houston are pissed.

But good news for us! The wife spent a good portion of her youth growing up in Tuscon and really, really would enjoy traveling there. Let's see...5 degrees in Minden, Iowa and 65 in Tempe? Do the math.

So we bit the bullet and jumped on the Cyclone bandwagon, as it were. We put in an application for the Alumni tour to the bowl game the very same day the bowl was announced. The tour spots filled very quickly and we waited in anticipation for our confirmation. Today, the confirmation arrived and yes, we WILL be traveling to Tempe for our Dec 31st bowl game!

It'll be a great time. No need to worry about flight, rental car, hotel reservations...it's all been taken care of. Just show up and get on the plane. Margaritas, anyone? :>))

Piles and Piles and Piles

The snow started Tuesday morning.

And it snowed, and it snowed, and it snowed. Then it snowed some more.

Both Jenny and I stayed home on Wednesday, attempting to dial into work. She was more successful than I, but I eventually managed to get in. Too many folks at home, not enough VPN licenses. I did get some work done, eventually. We managed to get up enough courage to shovel snow in the afternoon, after the wind and snow abated. We managed to get the sidewalk done and the large pile left by the snowplow behind my truck in the driveway. It made me wish for warmer days.

Yesterday, I braved the elements (<5 degrees, not including wind chill), loaded up the truck and went to work. Four wheel drive all the way, not even considering the possibility of dragging a bike out of the basement. Frostbite City! Vehicles littered the interstate median or off the shoulder, stalled or stuck in snowdrifts.

It actually got up into the lower 20's today. Maybe warm enough to try out my Nokians? :>)

-D

RIDE REPORT: Taking advantage of the weather

The weather has been extremely nice for late November. Mid 40's to Mid 50's, low wind, sunny. Perfect for a couple of extended Thanksgiving weekend rides. Yesterday, I took the Quickbeam out for a nice half-century spin through the Iowa countryside. Today, I pulled the Le Tour off the rack and with a bit of tuning, had it ready for another 35 today.

The Bleriot has been getting a lot of attention lately, so I decided to pull a couple of other bikes out for my rides this weekend. The Quickbeam was as smooth as ever, still one of my favorite rides. My favorite thing about it is how smooth it is...no derailer (Sheldon sp) no shifting, fixed gear, easy to ride, floats down the road. I did have to do a bit of tuning before I took off. I noticed the left hand BB cup was unscrewing to I pulled the crank to tighten it up a bit. It's one of the cheaper Shimano BB's so the cup is plastic. Unfortunately, I discovered the cup was cracked, probably from the huge torque generated by my massive quads :>). I dug the defective VO bottom bracket out of my tool box and extracted its BB cup. Lo and and behold, it fit perfectly! Plus, it's made of some alloy so I probably won't have to worry about it cracking. I could have thrown the VO bracket in the trash, but now I'm glad I kept it around. You never know when some component might come in handy in a pinch. Anyway, it was a great ride that day!

Today, I pulled the Le Tour off the rack, since it hadn't been ridden for awhile. I decided it needed some attention so put it up on the bike stand for a quick tune-up. Lubed the chain, adjusted the rear derailer so I could use the Suntour downtube shifter in index mode (shifting was a bit off), pumped up the tires and took off. It was another beautiful day, even nicer than yesterday.

As I was pulling a hill, I shifted into the small chainring. I'd been running in the big ring for the most part and hadn't really noticed, but when it tried to upshift in the small chainring the derailer just would not move. No problems in the big ring whatsoever, just the small ring. What the heck? Anyway, I shifted back into the big ring and had no problems getting back home, and the issue certainly didn't detract from my ride enjoyment.

I had to put the bike back up on the stand to try and figure out what was wrong. Why wouldn't the rear derailer shift in the small ring, but work just fine in the big ring? I noticed while in the small ring the derailer cage was pushed up against the cassette when I was in the largest cassette cog...once it was in that gear it was just jammed there and the cage spring would not pull it back out. As I looked closer, I could see the problem. There was no B-adjustment at all because there was no spring tension to hold the derailer cage away from the cassette. The tab on the derailer fits into a notch on the dropout, and the tab was not in its right place. That means the guy that pulled the derailer off last to clean it (ahem!), didn't replace the tab in the right orientation, thus no B-spring tension. It was easy enough to loosen the derailer, rotate the tab back into the dropout notch, and retighten. After a bit a of adjustment everything was hunky-dory.

I really have to think about getting a new bike mechanic. Unfortunately, the one I have works for peanuts! :>)

-D

Turkey, turkey, turkey...

Ah, Thanksgiving!

That turkey cooking in the oven smells really great. Thanks for turkey!
Thanks for my wife cooking the turkey. Thanks for my wife, in general and in everything.

Thanks for my daughter. Thanks for my grandson, who I'll be meeting for the first time sometime in March.

Thanks for my parents, grandparents, in-laws, brothers and sister, nieces and nephews, friends, good co-workers, friendly strangers, nice cyclists, and goofy comedy.

Last but not least, thanks for my bikes and the ability to ride them all on a regular basis.

THANKS!

-Dwight

Why I Don't Ride Carbon

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"Crabon" is bad for your health, and steel is real! - D