Whew! Hot spell with very high humidity came back with a vengance and left almost as quick. Friday pm a friend at the ball game said it was 98 in the stands. Today 55 outside. Typical Michigan weather. During the week the mercury rose daily with Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the high 90's. Sunday was cooler but the humidity was so bad you never knew it and today was downright chilly. All of this has not affected my bike riding as much as being "under the weather" has. Since my return from my trip I've been feeling pretty bad and believe that I have a nasty bug in my digestive system. This is lingering much longer than it should. I've had no to very short rides mostly around town. I've ridden 24 miles in the last 5 days with two of those rides being earlier in the week when I wasn't feeling so bad.
Yesterday when it cooled off a bit later in the day I got ambitious and did a through cleaning of my bike and decided to "tinker" with the adjustment on my front derailleur. Not a good idea. I can be a fairly ok mechanic and am not afraid to work on my bike but his was a bit ambitious as it is one of the more difficult and subtle adjustments on a bike. I watched a couple of youtube videos on the subject and mucked it up somehow. Stuck in the smallest chainring up front. Off to the Local Bike Shop. They looked it over and pronounced that I needed a good tune up as the brake pads were worn, cables needed changing on the shifters etc. All of that is well and good, the main reason I bought my bike from this shop was that they had free tune ups and labor for the life of the bike. Plus I get a 15% discount on parts and accessories. Good deal.
However they were preparing to close and would not be open over the holiday so the soonest I could get my bike back was Tuesday pm. I was feeling so poorly for the last week I really hankered for at least a short ride and decided to take it home and bring it back on Tuesday morning. Well I tweaked it some more and got it to go into the smallest and middle size front chain ring so 2 out of 3 isn't too bad. However one of the rear brake pads was dragging and no amount of tinkering fixed it. Shop was right. Ride was just ok all things considering...bike on the fritz and me feeling all draggy and listless. Oh well, at least it was cooler today and when I get my bike back this week it should be good as new. With over 850 miles on this bike I'd say a tune up is overdue.
I wondered how long brake pads lasted and will note to get them checked at the 700 mile mark. I am certain that their life is shorter considering the dirt roads and hilly terrain that I travel.
oh, you poor thing! I hope you and your bike are both back on top form very soon. It must be satisfying, in an odd way, to see your bike showing evidence of all those miles.
ReplyDeleteThe weather is turning here too, it's much cooler and even wetter, impossible as that seems.
I'm still dragging and am going to see the Dr. this afternoon. Bike is back but I'm not thrilled with the shop and will be posting about it.
ReplyDelete