Wednesday, March 15, 2006

The wheels on the bike go round and round...

YEEEHA!

Guess what was on my doorstep waiting for me this evening? A package from my homies at SPINERGY! A shiny new hub and cassette body relaced to my rim. How do like them apples??? You don't, unless you're on my team, cuz I'm gonna be ridin by you on em!!! Ha HA!

Talk about speedy service, too: I sent the broked one in on Wednesday, it got there on Friday, and now it's already back in my sweaty little hands. Plus it's a new-and-improved beefed-up version of the hub.

Guess what's gonna be on the Litespeed tomorrow? =)

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Broked

I know it's been tooo long since a post, and this isn't exactly the topic I would pick, but here I am anyway.

I finally got around to hooking some Egg Beaters up to my race bike on Saturday after a messy ordeal removing the old Shimano cleats. A bolt didn't want to leave it's warm cozy spot on the bottom of my Sidi. After my attempts with power tools failed, I was forced to take it to the shop where there were bigger better power tools and men with much more elbow grease than I have at my disposal! It had actually rusted in (see previous posts about Monsoon and Monsoon II) but was thankfully removed.

On Sunday, with the new pedals and cleats now installed, it was time to hit the trail! I found the 'Beaters to work very well. Tons of float (so much that you wonder if you're clipped in sometimes) and very light. It made the transition very easy. It made the first mile of trail superb. Which was great, because that's as far as I got. I was spinning up the first part of "The Hurl", where you've just come out of a dry creek bed and started negotiating up some rocky switchbacks, but nowhere near the steep, gnarly rocky section that comes later, when my rear rim started rubbing somewhat awfully on the brake and the chain began to jump wildly. I figured my quick release had somehow come undone. After untightening and retightening the QR and still not fixing the problem, I was pretty mystified, until I noticed the following:



Yes, that's the rear hub coming almost completely apart at the seams! No, you aren't supposed to see the innards spinning around in there (like I did)! Well, I wasn't even able to ride back down the hill, so I had a nice hike back to the truck (cross-training is good, though, right?).

Spinergy is on the case now, and tomorrow the broked wheel goes via FedEx to it's final resting place, and hopefully it's replacement is soon to return to me for wielding against my racing foes. Warranties are good things, my friends, but whilst making sure you are in shape for the season, be sure all your stuff is in shape, too. Dust it off and look for cracks and such where they shouldn't be (the one on your backside is supposed to be there!).

Just a little safety reminder as we ready ourselves for a seasonfull of careening speedily down rocky mountainsides in large adrenaline amped masses.

TTFN
(ta ta for now)
VB