Just 99 miles to go

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Who did I piss off?

Saturday was one of those weather days were you didn't know what to do.
Started out raining and they were calling for more rain later.
Shit. Trails too wet to ride, and I don't wanna chance riding in a thunderstorm.
I go to the bike shop, figure if I couldn't ride I'd make money.
They didn't really need help so I took my bike in and worked on it.
A pretty productive day .
New brake on the front with 8" rotor. I'm really the anti-look guy.
My bike usually looks like shit with dirt and rust but I've gotta admit, that 8" rotor looks cool as hell.
Also put on a new bottom bracket, rear shifter Sram x-9 thats high class for me, and a new computer. Ended up spending money instead of making it.
Now remember the new bottom bracket, that will come into play for Sunday.
The brakes looked cool, but made a nasty squealing under load. When i got home I changed the pads over to a spare pair I had. Poof. No more squealing.
I don't know why, but its great now.

Sunday. I'm fed up with questioning trail conditions and I want to get the bike out on some real trail to check out the new components. I drive the 70 minutes down to Quantico to pre ride the race course before next weeks race.
I'm in about 1-1/4 mile and the drive side crank arm comes off.
WTF! I know I tightened those bolts good this time, how the hell did the bolt back out now?
After fighting and getting the crank arm off of my clipless shoes, I get ready to backtrack and see if I can find the bolt. Then I see that half the bolt is still in the bottom bracket.
It didn't back out, the head snapped off of the bolt.
I go to take the bolt out of the crank on the non-drive side. I think its better to have the drive side crank on, and the other crank arm is smaller, thus easier to carry.
I'll be damned if the head of the other bolt didn't snap off as I'm trying take it out.
I coast walk back to the truck. Searched thru the truck a few minutes hoping I've got spare bolts. Nope .
Pack it up and drive the 70 minutes back home.
Once home I've got to drill out the rest of the bolt from the side I snapped off manually.
As I'm drilling, the drill bit breaks, the drill jerks to the side and goes right through sidewall of the back tire.
PFFFFFFTTT!!
Have you ever been ready to just give up on hobby?
For a few seconds I didn't know weather to put the bike on the driveway and run over it with the truck, cry, or laugh hysterically.
Luckily, I found my "calm" place and proceeded logically.
I do this when I know if I follow my heart, its going to cost me money later on.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and things end up getting destroyed.
Got another drill bit, and proceeded to work on the bolt.
A minute later, smoke starts coming out of my drill and it dies.
I believe I've just ruined my 5 year old cordless drill.
Still in my calm place, I take a punch and hammer and was able to unscrew the bolt out.
I don't have the right size bolt for it. It seems as if this "downhill" BB has a thicker spindle, which makes for a small bolt.
I' m assuming this is why the POS broke off.

I put the bike aside,
got on my road bike and went for a ride.
Got 40 miles in and didn't break anything.
The day wasn't a total bust.

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