Management Trainee #3 will be here, but let's face it, he's EASY when it's one on one.
Once it starts cooling off a bit, he and I will be doing some easy spins. Well, I will be...he'll be getting dragged along in the luxury of the Burley Solo. Give the boy a juice cup, and some Cheez-Its, and he's a happy Pappy for 60-90 minutes.
HWF brought me his Masi Friday. Seems it was time for cables/housing, a chain, and a good lick and rub.
Normally, this repair would take me 45-60 minutes, including time to watch whatever race happens to be on the DVD player in Service Course.
Brakes? No fuss, no muss. 15 minutes, tip to tail. No issues.
Rear Derailleur? A bit finicky, simply because the housing is a full run from the headtube until it pops out the chainstay. Fortunately, Masi had the forethought to include a guide that runs all the way thru the frame. Just keep shoving housing in, it'll pop out the back, trust me. Easy peasy.
At this point, I was about 30 minutes in.
F/D? I always do this last. Why? Who knows? I can't tell you when I started running cables in this order. Now, because of my OCD, I sort of have to.
Anyway, the F/D is also a full run of housing, so one would THINK that there's a guide, a la the R/D.
As Lee Corso would say, "Not so fast, my friend..."
I could make an effort to explain how the cable/housing is run, and the myriad steps needed to get there, but it would just come out as convoluted as the actual act.
Let's just say that I'm reasonably sure that the factory in China employs fine-boned children, whose sole responsibility is to run the F/D cable/housing.
It's a shit design that really takes away from an otherwise really nice frameset.
As for riding, I skipped this morning. Sounds like I really didn't miss much. I'm truly glad some new folks are showing up for the Sunday ride, but these folks have lost the storyline. The Sunday ride isn't meant to be a "whip out your junk" ride. Sure, there are times we pick up the pace, but overall, it was created to be a base-to-tempo paced ride.
Dropping people in the first 30 minutes of the ride runs contrary to the ride's Mission Statement...if it had one.
Like I said, I'm glad people are coming out, and I hope they continue to do so. Just know that every ride doesn't have to be a stem biter, or an exercise in dropping people.
Saturday, I left in the light drizzle, and headed for the Powerstation.
Normally, I would have some lovely photos of the road, the mudholes, the completely destroyed bike, etc.
Sorry. I realized I'd left the camera on the table after I'd turned out of the bottom of the 'hood, and I wasn't keen on climbing back to the Service Course. Oh well...
Once out, and warmed up, I did an out and back loop of the dirt/mud, looped around to the Northside (throw up your gang signs now), and climbed Gervais for the second time.
2.5 hours passed quickly, and I returned to SC soaking wet, covered in semi-dried grime, and with a bike that really wasn't quite white anymore.
'Twas big fun...
I really need to buy a new fender though...
HWF, Il Prof, and I are headed to Clinton next Saturday for The Flight of The Dove metric century. There's one hole left in The Beast, if anyone wants to join us.
And good luck to TVH on his loaded pack hike thru bear country out West, and to the Columbia boys who are tackling The Haute Route in the Alps.
I leave you with just a single picture today. It's a good one though...
Hope everyone had a good weekend, and rode a little bit...
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