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Wednesday, May 4

Super Bum

Yesterday I was up at 4:30AM. If you were my facefriend you would know this already.

When I opened my eyes all I could think about was my rear brake. I had not fixed it, at least not in a proper manner of brake fixery. PMBAR looms, and my partner is depending on me to not arrive with a shit wagon for a bike. Something had to be done.

By 8:10AM yesterday it was fixed.

CSI type analysis was used to figure out what was going wrong the whole time.

September: Crank the Shield killed the brake with it's mud and muck and shit. I get home and ride the Superbeast until I get hurt... and then I ride it some more.

January: Short track racing starts, and I ride the bike as is.

February: I try to fix it by swapping the pads. I pretend that it's better and go to SSAZ.

March: I am well aware that it is not fixed. I leave it that way.

April: I race the 6 Hours of Warrior Creek with a shitty brake. I vow to fix it soon.

Mid-April: I get a Hayes small parts kit from Mike Stanley (Niner rep) and some new Strokers from Peter. Not wanting to admit defeat, I decide to fix the old rather than mount the new.

Late April: I swap the pistons and seals, consider it fixed, feel iffy about the whole thing, but do nothing I should do. I ride my road bike and leave the bike untested.

May 1st: I ride the bike in the mountains. I confirm that the brake was not fixed.

May 2nd: Feeling the pressure, I inspect the rotor and find huge grooves. I replace it with a new rotor. It still doesn't feel very fixed.

Yesterday: I wake up at 4:30AM knowing it still isn't fixed as there was no sign that the brake fairies had entered the house. I head out the door to the back yard trails with some tools and a spare set of pads. I decide my stem needs flipped before PMBAR, so I do it on the trail. As the mosquitoes bite me all over I freak out and drop the four stem bolts in the dirt. I locate the bolts, put my shit back together, and start to ride out. Then as I'm about to exit the woods, I swap the pads.

My brakes work now.

I figured out that my seals were bad enough to leak fluid, that (unknowingly) contaminated the pads, I put the new seals in with the crapped out pads, swapped to a new rotor, and then finally I changed the pads.

My fucking brakes work now.

I was up again at 4:30AM today to head out for my weekly TSE training road ride. It was raining and dark, so I went back to bed. I'll squeeze in some miles tonight while The Pie gets her yoga on.

I would say that I've been missing out on the Topeak Ergon Basecamp, but as I've been tagged in at least a dozen or more photos I feel as if I'm there, but I'm not. I shoulda pulled a George, bought a plane ticket, and crashed the party. Baller move.

Here I am not hanging out with George, Michele, and Dejay.

Here I am not having a glass of wine.

Here I am not sharing a tub with George.

Here I am not receiving loving affection from Sonya, Nam, and Michele. I will refrain from making every inappropriate comment I can think of, and trust me, there are lots and lots of them (so hard to refrain).

Here I am... not.

Assholes.

I'm super bummed to not be there. Can't wait to be super bummed this fall.

6 comments:

dougyfresh said...

hahaha

been waiting for this post all week.

TheMutt said...

I thought you were out in Sedona. Once again, I've been Facefooled.

Btw, I might use the name "Shitwagon" for my next bike.

ant1 said...

those facepics make me laugh. you have some funny friends.

Anonymous said...

Your "friends" ought to take over your blog - funny stuff!

Advocat

CB2 said...

I believe it's called a partie à quatre.

Anonymous said...

Yet in the picture with the three cuties (Damn Nam is hawt), I see a death march t shirt. SO you are kinda there, no?

OK, no you are not.