Ten days to go until the Big Ride, and I’ve got bike trouble. On Sunday I went out with my regular group for a long ride out to Maple Ridge, and halfway through the ride I started hearing a clicking noise coming from some part of the drive train. At first I thought it was just the chain not sitting cleanly on the rear gears, but no. Fiddling with the derailleur did nothing, so attention focussed on more serious things - rear hub, freewheel, bottom bracket.
Fingers were finally pointed at the bottom bracket - when I stopped pedaling, the noise stopped. Elementary, my dear Watson.
So there I was, out in the middle of what is charitably known as The Shitsticks, with a potentially ride-stopping mechanical problem, 70 km from home. The only thing to do was to keep riding, so I did.
By the time I made it back home, the clicking had gotten louder, plus there was now a chirping noise that sounded like a small flock of sparrows. Not good.
But there is a good part - Eli, Penny’s godson and Ace Bike Mechanic (he’ll be one of the mechanics on The Ride), came by and said, no problem, bring it to the shop and we’ll take care of it, and give the bike a thorough tune-up for The Ride. So tomorrow we’re going to tear that bottom bracket apart and fix it, because that is what we have to do.
Training Report #6
I’m tweaking things a bit with this report and adding last Sunday’s ride to last week’s stats. This week is going to be a bit sparse on data until the Talbot is back on the road, and even then I won’t be putting in any long distances. All part of tapering down and saving myself for the main event.
Eli’s Tip #29
Fresh out of hand cleaner? Hands all covered with bike grease? Don’t know what to do?
Get a little squirt of dish soap, add half a spoonful of sugar, scrub, rinse, and viola! - cleaner than clean.
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