The bad first. I slung a new 18 tooth rear cog on my single speed mountain bike last night. I was going to ride Rosaryville with Tom, Trevor, and Jon. This morning, at 5:55 as I'm headed to John's, I notice that the damn thing feels like it's skipping a tooth - like a missed shift - every time I put a reasonable amount of power to the pedals. John tried a couple quick chain oriented fixes at the shop, making him a little late for the ride (sorry guys) but we couldn't get it. I've had races end after 4 laps and 5 minutes... but never had a ride end nearly an hour before it started. Bummer. Riding this afternoon, I decided I need to check the MTB to see if the cog is skipping around the freewheel hub body. That would explain how it's happening, given that the chainline seems straight and the tension good.
The good. I did get out for a little under two hours on the fixed gear Surly Cross Check this afternoon. I averaged about 17.5 MPH without hurting myself, and my legs felt stronger than they have in a while, even though my spin didn't feel fluid. I suspect that my less frequent but higher geared (fixed & SS MTB) riding over the winter along with my recent start on the trainer is building up some raw strength. Doesn't matter too much though; what matters is it was a fun ride in nice weather. The light was weird - it was sunny, 53, with very blue skies, but the light had that mid-winter sunset-at-noon tint to it. Strange.
The Ugly. Spent the morning at Lowes, buying stuff to redo the next bathroom in the house. It's funny - if you buy the materials yourself and figure out how to do the work, you can do a really nice update on a half bath for $500 to $1,000 - thereby adding a couple to several thousand dollars value to your house. Basic wiring, sweating pipes, laying tile, painting and basic crown molding work is not that hard to do. Here's the ugly though - it eats up a lot of time, including riding time. The first bathroom I did has probably 60 or 75 hours of labor in it. This next one will only take 40, because I sorta know what I'm doing now. But that's 40 hours I'm not on the bike, spending time with my wife or kid. So yeah, that means my spring is going to be kind of ugly - unless I take a couple days off from work and just knock the thing out. We'll see.
2 comments:
Re The Bad: I don't suppose you put a 1/8 sprocket with a 3/32 chain? That mismatch does a superb imitation of a half shifted derailleur.
Re The Good: Good.
Re The Ugly: If it's cutting into your quality time with your loved ones (and family) include them in the process. You do the actual technical work and get Jr lugging the smaller less breakable items for you while the missus does the truly heavy lifting.
BIg Mike in Oz
We'll check the chain tomorrow Mike, but I think it's a fit - the company only makes SS MTB stuff and it's an 8 speed MTB chain. I think what it is, is the elderly freehub body may have splines that are too shallow for the new cog, which isn't machined with the same number of teeth on the freehub side, as the Surly cog it replaced.
As for the Ugly - the boy does a pretty good job of fetching tools. He's 3, but clever. The spousal unit does a pretty good job with agonizing over paints before picking them, promising to help, offering occasional token assistance and then criticizing the results and second guessing my choice in paints. Me, I just do the work. So I think we have things fully covered.
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