So on the ride home tonight my bike started riding a funk. What ever could be wrong? I limped, scraped, and burnt myself and the bike home, only to find out my front derailleur cable had went slack.
Oh bloody hell what to do!
SHELDON BROWN TO THE RESCUE!
Lest to say, I know *how* to fix it, but I don't exactly have people around me that can assist in the actual crap I have to do to do such things(limited by things that will seem petty, and well one sadly being too short, even though knowing what I was getting at doing). The cable stop on it had actually come loose, releasing the cage to it's own devices. I got it tightened down enough to ride weak ass gears long enough to get it to the shop and yip at them, and ripped off the cable end in the process, c'est la vie or something.
I'll hobble it to the bike shop tomorrow, express my frustration with various problems I've had with this bike (improper original adjustment preventing riding in either the granny gear, or the hardest gear properly) and the fact I've already got a nice little knock in the bottom bracket with the bike being less than a year old and very little in the pouring rain riding going on.
The bike itself is a great bike, I might not like it being pure aluminum, but it's a pretty decent frame, and rides pretty good, but shit like this can just ruin your day ya know.
Oh well, it will get fixed, and I will ride again, even if I have to buy a repair/service stand, and all the other goodies I want to actually do this kind of work.
Now I'll continue wondering if globe is actually gonna get up ons this project they started, cause for reals, even though I want the bike primarily for my wife, this would be an excellent time to have an extra spare hanging around, especially with training a newbie who is riding my beater to beat all beaters (ok it's not that bad, but it's pretty bad, but it rides, and has a decent set of tires on it).
Ok, I'm out, need a beer or two or three to soothe my nerves.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
In liue of other junk to do
Columbia has just decided it randomly wants to scrape and retar roads. I wish I had know they were doing it to rosewood before last night.
Schep described a ride down on of these like his own personal "paris roubaix" (spelling? actual race? cause I am tired and honestly don't give a flyin. . ) and I got to experience this exact same thing last night.
Now me, I'm no great cyclist. I use one for transportation a good bit, and a little dicking around on the weekends when I'm stressed. I was stressed last night (was reminded it was the anniversary of my brothers death) and instead of doing what I'd normally do on a night such as that, I decided it would be much better to rock the bike to a party I was invited to. You know, throw combichrist in the ear, and abuse the living hell out of my legs. Rosewood has one hell of a climb starting it off, I am no great climber, and greatly underestimated that hill, along with it being recently scraped. Oh god I wish I would've just looked for a better route, hindsight is sometimes a bitch.
So, I finally hit Rosewood, and the first bit doesn't look to bad, roads been scraped, that sucks, no way to effeciently ride the sidewalk (it's just as cracked, and the drops to the road have increased to about a 2-3" drop), but the initial start didn't look bad. It looked long yes, but I was certain I wouldn't have to drop it to granny and be a pansy. I come around the small curve that starts the climb and notice how enormous this hill looks when not in a car. I had to drop to granny, but I'm not ashamed because I didn't stop pedaling. It took a good 2-3 minutes to get to the top of it, but hell yeah, I did it. I doubt I'll be wanting to do it again, until they repave that road though.
Ok. . . seriously I'm just rambling now, I'm gonna cut this short because my head is stating that my blood sugar is low and requires some food.
Schep described a ride down on of these like his own personal "paris roubaix" (spelling? actual race? cause I am tired and honestly don't give a flyin. . ) and I got to experience this exact same thing last night.
Now me, I'm no great cyclist. I use one for transportation a good bit, and a little dicking around on the weekends when I'm stressed. I was stressed last night (was reminded it was the anniversary of my brothers death) and instead of doing what I'd normally do on a night such as that, I decided it would be much better to rock the bike to a party I was invited to. You know, throw combichrist in the ear, and abuse the living hell out of my legs. Rosewood has one hell of a climb starting it off, I am no great climber, and greatly underestimated that hill, along with it being recently scraped. Oh god I wish I would've just looked for a better route, hindsight is sometimes a bitch.
So, I finally hit Rosewood, and the first bit doesn't look to bad, roads been scraped, that sucks, no way to effeciently ride the sidewalk (it's just as cracked, and the drops to the road have increased to about a 2-3" drop), but the initial start didn't look bad. It looked long yes, but I was certain I wouldn't have to drop it to granny and be a pansy. I come around the small curve that starts the climb and notice how enormous this hill looks when not in a car. I had to drop to granny, but I'm not ashamed because I didn't stop pedaling. It took a good 2-3 minutes to get to the top of it, but hell yeah, I did it. I doubt I'll be wanting to do it again, until they repave that road though.
Ok. . . seriously I'm just rambling now, I'm gonna cut this short because my head is stating that my blood sugar is low and requires some food.
Friday, August 21, 2009
sitting and waiting
You know what would be nice this weekend, a long bike ride by the river. Possibly stopping at the end of the ride for some cocktails on the riverbanks.
I think I might have to make this happen.
I think I might have to make this happen.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
I'll do anything to try and get a free bike
Especially one that I've priced recently. . .
Ok, I'm starting this blog outside of my normal one for one purpose, and one purpose only. Globe bikes by Specialized is putting on a free bike for blog ordeal, and me I am one to sell out like a motherfucker.
Especially for a good product.
Backstory then my friends!
I commute a deal back and forth to work. A mere meager ride of 3-5 miles according to route in the loveliness, and mugginess, and pure hell that is Columbia SC. Believe it or not, my oversized, chain smoking, heavy drinking self is in half decent shaped for having a moderate amount of riding. I take occasional pleasure rides (usually to the bars, yeah you can get a DUI on a bike, but I tend to think they'd have leniency on someone not too toasted who is taking a clusterhell of extra back roads in order to stay out of traffic), and sometimes my wife wants to ride with me.
One problem though, Columbia is. . . well a tad hilly. She also only has a single bike, which is an old huffy single speed beach cruiser. Nothing wrong with it, fine around our neighborhood, but not really good when it's downhill halfway, and uphill the rest of the damn way on your ride to and from downtown. She just can't keep up, and after 30 minutes would be so miserable you can gaurantee I won't be seeing the good side of her bed for a month or so. I guess I'm just lucky I already sleep on the couch!
She's been wanting to go on rides more often, but I keep telling her her bike just isn't made for it and she is welcome to ride my beater frame (old diamondback mountain bike with some decent road fairing tires on it), which she takes to me calling her a lard ass.
First things first, my wife, ain't no lardass, second of all it is just pure mechanics of the bicycles, around the neighborhood fine, but I normally want to ride a bit farther, and up quite a few hills.
Second things second,
I decided to make ammends and say I'd buy her a bike, even in this effed the hell up economy. So we carted down last Saturday to the LBS I usually hit, partially to talk about bringing my main commuting rig in cause it has a horrible click(a Specialized Crosstrail), and to let her look around, find a bike that fit her, and she enjoyed a tad. Main things were it needed gears, and from what's she's used to be a nice hybrid commuter bike.
So the friendly fellows of CycleCenter in 5 points showed her a globe frame. It appeared to be a vienna (I didn't ask, I was being pissy about my bottom bracket), had gears, was comfy, and since she wouldn't be riding it except weekends, I could also throw down on it during the week since it was substantially cheaper than my main rig, and she refused the pastel colors and wanted to go strait for the black. I agreed with her, and told her it might be a month till I could afford it, but it'd all be hunky dorey in the end.
So there it is, damnit give me a free bike, I buy enough of your products already, am about to buy another one, and if I could get it for free, I can get my tankless water heater quicker. My wife could ride it, she'd no longer assume I was calling her fat, I'd be out of the doghouse, and I could pimp it around town on the weekdays and abuse the living crap out of it and give it solid reviews. I'll ride it to work, ride it home, let my friends ride it, let my friend Doog employee his insane stuntman like skills to ride it a 1/10 mile down the road on a wheelie, and then see if he can do it downhill on the front tire, it'll help out my LBS when I take it in to get certain things adjusted, and honestly, it'd just be a cool move that I'm willing to write for.
Later.
Ok, I'm starting this blog outside of my normal one for one purpose, and one purpose only. Globe bikes by Specialized is putting on a free bike for blog ordeal, and me I am one to sell out like a motherfucker.
Especially for a good product.
Backstory then my friends!
I commute a deal back and forth to work. A mere meager ride of 3-5 miles according to route in the loveliness, and mugginess, and pure hell that is Columbia SC. Believe it or not, my oversized, chain smoking, heavy drinking self is in half decent shaped for having a moderate amount of riding. I take occasional pleasure rides (usually to the bars, yeah you can get a DUI on a bike, but I tend to think they'd have leniency on someone not too toasted who is taking a clusterhell of extra back roads in order to stay out of traffic), and sometimes my wife wants to ride with me.
One problem though, Columbia is. . . well a tad hilly. She also only has a single bike, which is an old huffy single speed beach cruiser. Nothing wrong with it, fine around our neighborhood, but not really good when it's downhill halfway, and uphill the rest of the damn way on your ride to and from downtown. She just can't keep up, and after 30 minutes would be so miserable you can gaurantee I won't be seeing the good side of her bed for a month or so. I guess I'm just lucky I already sleep on the couch!
She's been wanting to go on rides more often, but I keep telling her her bike just isn't made for it and she is welcome to ride my beater frame (old diamondback mountain bike with some decent road fairing tires on it), which she takes to me calling her a lard ass.
First things first, my wife, ain't no lardass, second of all it is just pure mechanics of the bicycles, around the neighborhood fine, but I normally want to ride a bit farther, and up quite a few hills.
Second things second,
I decided to make ammends and say I'd buy her a bike, even in this effed the hell up economy. So we carted down last Saturday to the LBS I usually hit, partially to talk about bringing my main commuting rig in cause it has a horrible click(a Specialized Crosstrail), and to let her look around, find a bike that fit her, and she enjoyed a tad. Main things were it needed gears, and from what's she's used to be a nice hybrid commuter bike.
So the friendly fellows of CycleCenter in 5 points showed her a globe frame. It appeared to be a vienna (I didn't ask, I was being pissy about my bottom bracket), had gears, was comfy, and since she wouldn't be riding it except weekends, I could also throw down on it during the week since it was substantially cheaper than my main rig, and she refused the pastel colors and wanted to go strait for the black. I agreed with her, and told her it might be a month till I could afford it, but it'd all be hunky dorey in the end.
So there it is, damnit give me a free bike, I buy enough of your products already, am about to buy another one, and if I could get it for free, I can get my tankless water heater quicker. My wife could ride it, she'd no longer assume I was calling her fat, I'd be out of the doghouse, and I could pimp it around town on the weekdays and abuse the living crap out of it and give it solid reviews. I'll ride it to work, ride it home, let my friends ride it, let my friend Doog employee his insane stuntman like skills to ride it a 1/10 mile down the road on a wheelie, and then see if he can do it downhill on the front tire, it'll help out my LBS when I take it in to get certain things adjusted, and honestly, it'd just be a cool move that I'm willing to write for.
Later.
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