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Thursday, October 29

Some weeks are good...

 I guess I'm "racing" this weekend?

Teams of four, riding one trail, then over to another, and back... sorta in Charlotte.  I've never been able to do it before this year.  Timing and the lack of motivation to find three other people that wanna ride forty odd miles of trail and pavement in a fast'ish manner.  Chase and Nick told me I was on their team... I guess because they know I've got nothing better to do.

"okay?"

Then Dr Mike was included in the same manner.  Less of a volunteer and more of an unwilling inductee.

Two guys on trail bikes and two on single speeds, because that's totally gonna mesh well on trail and road.

And I kinda sorta made my situation worse the other day...

I made the ill-timed decision to swap over to my backup wheels with happy-fun-time tires.  That 3.0 DHR+ is so buenos for running into the obstacles in my path.  I even went so far as to drain the tubeless juice out of my Industry Nine Hydra/Forekaster setup... so I don't find a sticky pancake in there next spring.  So I feel kinda tied into this arrangement, because the idea of undoing everything I just did makes my head part sad.

Somewhat worthy of note, I swapped the wheels with only a quick glance at the Chris King cog that was on the backup wheel... looks like a 19... in the poor light I was choosing to work in.  Toss the wheel in, flip the bike over, give the brakes a quick squoosh... should be good to go.

Go to Sherman Branch to ride the next day.  Scott walks over to my bike...

"That seems like a lot of slack..."

Doh.  It was an 18 tooth cog.

I've taken a rather ineffective and ill-advised scatter gun approach to various things that need done while I'm off this week and the weather is more or less shite.  One minute, I'm fixing up a couple holes in the wall and painting.  The next, I'm rebuilding the tarck bike headset.  Mebbe hang a picture or my "World Champ" jersey in the new bike room.  Then, I'm swapping stems and tires on the garvel bike...

Sponsor appropriate and probably more betterer for the surfaces I've been riding lately. 

And then I'm devising a way to make 40mm tubeless tape into 28mm tubeless tape...

Note the tarck bike handlebar on the bench... also in mid-project.

Suffice to say, I've got zero focus on any one thing right now. 

And that's how you show up to a ride with a super droopy chain.

Today is more shite weather, and I definitely haven't had the usual amount of saddle time I get on my "off week."  Mebbe that's good prep for this weekend.  Mebbe it's not...

Still gotta change that cog tho...

Mebbe after I put some cleats on some new shoes, and mount a cog, and go toilet tank lid shopping, and pick up some drugs for Pester, and move some random stuff around on my bench in an anally compulsive manner, and pace around the house, and...

Pretty sure I'll be ready to head back to work this Monday.

2 comments:

craig said...

just spend the $3 and get a roll of Gorilla Tape in the "Handy Roll" size. Works perfectly for tubeless setups without cutting the tape down to size.

dicky said...

Craig,

I'm not a fan of using thick tape on rim/tire combos that already fit well enough. Not to mention, when you have a roll this big... kinda hard to just pitch it in the garbage,

I do have that size Gorilla tape for when I travel to do quick repairs if the tape ever shifts or I break a spoke.