Sunday Ride, and Bike Maintenance

I was, oddly, unmotivated to ride on the road today, likely due to the strong-ish winds, which meant, given my desired route around Deer Lakes Park, meant lots of headwinds. Lots. So I pulled out the Monocog and headed to Frick, hoping that nothing would fall off since I haven’t even looked at the bike since May or June. The high RPM, low speed spin to the park was just what I needed to warm up and get motivated, and I rode for about 90 minutes in the park, looping up the Fire Road trail and coming down either Iron Grate, Concrete, or Rollercoaster. Today was the first time in nearly ten years that I’ve ridden Concrete, and I happened upon by mistake. This is probably the closest Frick comes to a rock garden, albeit with chunks of discarded concrete.

The Monocog did just fine, though I am considering two modifications:

1. Mounting the Origin 8 Gary bars (flared drops)
2. Mounting a TomiCog, just because.

I think the position of the drops, with the higher rise stem I have, would be perfect, and my hands would appreciate an additional hand position or two for climbing. I just need to get a set of drop bar levers that will work with V-brakes. As for riding fixed, well, what the heck?

And on the subject of bike maintenance–I just finished what is, I think, the fifth bar swap on the Steamroller in the last four weeks. Yes, adding the Origin 8 bars to stock was a good idea, but not at the cost of the Albatross bars. Why did I get rid of those? The Surly went back in time a bit, as I stole the Nitto Promenades from Jen’s bike (replaced with the Nitto risers). This, of course, led to a host of unintentional repairs, as the struts for the CETMA rack have done a number on one of the nuts of my front hub, enough that it won’t engage the axle threads with the strut in place. Humm. Off went the tire and wheel, and on went the 36 hole touring wheel I inherited last year. As an added bonus, I can actually mount the tire without a tool. Novel, that. The whole process, however, reminded of an analogy Matt Chester made (though he was referencing frame building, it still works for general maintenance, I think):

…I built my own bike out of blems (wavily extruded tubing, machining marks on track ends, etc.) and for good measure I totally f**ked it up. If it had been a customer’s bike it would gotten the hacksaw, the recycle box, and the DO OVER button. But, like the BMW mechanic who drives a tatty 2002tii covered in primer with no passenger seat/carpet/headliner/working dash and an exhaust note to rattle windows, I have my long term partner 2+ years and counting. STFU and pedal.

Yep, this describes the Steamroller. In the interest of time, my goal in maintenance is usually “will it get me back and forth to work without falling apart?” The bike has its little idiosyncrasies, things that, if I were working on someone else’s bike, I wouldn’t tolerate, but since it’s mine, and I know it well, I live with it.