Dogs don't halp

After doing the Breck Epic seven times, you think I'd be more dialed.  Somehow, here I am, amazed that I'll be headed out in just a little over a week.  Things have been somehow slow yet also hectic here on my part.

With the family outta town most of the week, I've been dropping Boppit in the mornings, going to work, picking him up... and then trying to catch up on getting all the neglected bike things back up to 100%, whilst in the back of my brain, I'm thinking about how I should be preparing for Breck.

I'm flying with my bike this time...

for purely logistical reasons.

That means cramming fewer goodies in with it, so less space in my luggage for important things, like spare parts and multiple tiny hats.  I so wanna bring my squeezy leg bags, but I doubt there will be room in my one piece of additional luggage.

I'm still leaning towards bringing the Vertigo Meatplow V.7 with me, despite what I said shortly after doing the Pisgah Enduro™ about enjoying the descents.  Partly because that's just how I do what I do, and partly because the Vassago Meatplow V.8 has been less than pleasant to ride lately.

That is my fault.  Pretty much entirely.

I replaced my drooper housing and cable some time back, and afterwards, it was obvious that something was off.  The lever was difficult to push.  I suffered from thumb exhaustion on even short rides, but I refused to take the time to sort it out.

The bike was feeling sluggish.  I couldn't put my finger on that problem.

The headset was ticking.  Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick... and I only threw a half-assed effort at fixing and gave up.

So, these past few nights of living La Vida Bachelor, I've been trying to give it my full ass.

Despite my reluctance to mess with my internal drooper, I went all in on it.  Replaced (with some slight swearing) the housing with Jagwire (I don't know where I got the unbranded housing I was using), and a new Shimano cable, and boom... a prooper drooper.  Function fully restored.

The headset.  Take it apart.   Grease the ever-loving shit outta it.  Everywhere.  No ticking... at least when I test it inside the house.  Mebbe bueno?

The sluggishness?  A while back, I started running a slightly worn chain so I could run 32X20 at the absolute shortest position on my sliders.  As in "slammed."  The chain was a little tight... but things still went in circles.  I assumed the chain would stretch a little more and things would be good eventually.

Mebbe no.

While preparing to just give up and add a link to the chain, I discovered that the wheel was reluctant to spin when I tightened the skewer up good and snug.  That's not how that's supposed to work.

Remove the wheel, pop off the end caps and freehub... meh.  Running my chain super-tight roached the double row bearing in the freehub, entirely my fault.  Fortunately, I was still sitting on one in my drawers, so some swearing pulling... I mean 'bearing pulling,' and then pressing, and lubing, and fixed.

Basically, 87% of the problems I created for myself are now addressed.

So V.8 VS V.7 becomes just one more thing to think about when I go to bed at night with my eyes staring into the darkness and an exhausted dog snoring at my feet who has been very little help around the house all week long.