Just 99 miles to go

Monday, November 27, 2006

Thanksgiving weekend 2006

Man where to start?
First, this is the first 4 day weekend I have had for a very,very,very long time. It was forced upon me though. I found out Tuesady that our offices were closed Friday. This would be OK but it is without pay. That sucked. I did get T-day paid for but still. If your not gonna pay me you should have given me a choice.

The wife and kids left Friday morning for New York. No family visits or anything just some site seeing and to see a show. As they were leaving Friday morning and packing during turkey day we opted for a Safeway "boxed" turkey dinner.
Everything you need for Thankgiving in a box. It was Ok, but you can't expect much out of box with an expiration date of June 2007 on it.

I spent some time cleaning and tweaking my bike for a ride at Gambrills on Friday. This would be my 2nd time there. I noticed that the cable for the rear derailer was starting to fray. I lubed it up real good and made sure it worked. It seemed to work fine.

Friday morning. I say goodbye to the family, load up and drive to Gambrills.
An hour and 20 minutes later I pull into the trail head.
Its going to be a beautiful day for riding. Its gonna hit sixty with bright sunshine all day.
I suit up and say a few hellos. I haven't been around alot so its good to see some of the familiar faces. I jump on the bike to do the before ride, parking lot shakedown.
I've got no gears.
The rear D isn't moving.
I flip her over an inspect the problem. The cable has become frayed some more and has gotten all knotted up inside of the cable housing. I evan pull out some pliers and yank the shit outta it.
It ain't budging.
The only thing I can think to do is rig is as a SS, but this ain't Rosaryville we're talking about. This is rocky ass Gamrills. This place tried to kill me last time with gears.
I realize, I'm not riding.
In shame I throw the bike on the truck, change back into street clothes and start the commute back home.
2 hours and 40 minutes worth of driving for nothing.

I stop at the LBS and pick up new housings and cables and change them out when I got home. I had never did it before and didn't know how hard the job would be.

It really was easy. Well, sort of.
It should have been easy.
The first thing I do is take apart the shifter.
Did you know you can replace the cables with out taking the shifter apart?
I didn't.
The job should have taken 10 minutes, I turned it into an hour job.
The good news is that I can now take a shifter apart and put it back togather.
A skill I'm sure will come in handy in the future.

In the end it all worked and I don't know why I waited that long to change cables.
I don't think the bike EVER shifted as easy and clean as it does now.

Stay tuned for the next post "Return to Elizabeth Furnace"

seeyall

1 comment:

gwadzilla said...

bummer....

I hate when that happens

unless
that is what I want to happen

I remember being hung over in Moab
broke my axle early in the ride
it was already hot
I was real hung over

I sent everyone on their way
took my dehydrated ass to the Colorado River