The major accomplishment of the day is that I got my birthday present, a new phone. I posed it here with a couple of its new friends on the theory that it can start right away getting used to the sorts that it will be hanging out with from now on.
I can now text and I sent one to Wireless earlier this afternoon to prove it.I just thought that my old phone was obsolete and that a retired guy has a slightly enhanced need for communication. I mean I just am not going to be available at that desk phone at the DNR very much any more. I upgraded.
The ride took me north with a loop through the Fairgrounds on the return trip. They are having another car show of some kind there this weekend. There is probably some overlap with the crowd that was present for the street rod show but there definitely weren't any of these around for that.
This one would have fit right in, however, a really pretty 57 Chevrolet. This car's entry to this week's show was visible on the rear fender where it says "Fuel injected".
Short break in the action there, I just received a text message and replied!Only serious bicycle geeks need read past this point as the content is about to veer precipitously in that direction. Be forewarned, gear ratios are going to be discussed.
It has been very windy both of the last two days. Yesterday I was riding up the hill from Lake Vadnais and my bicycle began making an unfamiliar noise. It took a bit to diagnose but I had been riding in the small ring (here goes, you've been warned), the 39x19 actually. My usual approach of late for that hill has been to go down three cogs. But usually I am in the 39x17, three cogs from there puts me in the 39x21. However, starting in the 19 meant that I had shifted all the way to my 39x26, the lowest gear on the bicycle. I had been in that gear only one other time, three or four years ago when I climbed the Myrtle Street hill in Stillwater. The chain rubs slightly on either the derailer or the big chain ring in that gear and that was the noise I heard. I remember thinking the last time that it happened that I could try to adjust the chain line to fix the noise but it isn't much and I don't use that gear very much. I let it go and yesterday heard the noise again. But twice in 16,000 miles doesn't seem like a problem that requires a solution.
Today I was out at the turn around point and was heading east, the direction where I felt the strongest. I was heading slightly downhill, to be sure, but only a little bit. I was coasting along without having to pedal but for some reason I decided to try a higher gear, I mean I was feeling really strong. The directions in the racer boy handbook for this situation call for maintaining cadence while shifting to a harder gear and this time that is what I did. I was riding in my usual 53x17 so I hit the thumb lever for the 16. It was still going pretty well so I shifted again, now to the 15. See where this is headed? Since I have owned this bicycle I have been to the 14 a time or two and today with one more click I was there again. But I still felt strong so I gave the final click and for the very first time on this bicycle shifted it into the highest gear available, the 53x13. And pedaled easily along at 32 miles per hour.
Over the course of the past two days I rode in the lowest gear for the second time ever and in the highest gear for the first time ever. Today I felt strong, I felt fast.
3 comments:
This has definitely been an interesting week for cycling. I have also had some of my slowest, hardest rides (that don't involve climbing Ramsey hill), contrast that with a couple of times going 35+mph for a few blocks, and even hitting 40mph for the first time I know of going down Marshall to cross the river.
It might be time for me to upgrade from a compact crankset.
Nice birthday present, but I know when your birthday is and this is a little premature. Happy birthday, anyway. TT
Ummm -- just how hard was the wind blowing?
I'd have to look, but I think a 34X27 is Ruby's lowest gear, and I use it a LOT. Every day, at least once. It's very quiet, BTW.
I don't get into the 50X12 (again, I think that's the highest gear ratio) very often -- and I get a chain noise there every time. My problem with the compact double is that the gears I do ride -- smack in the middle -- require lots of chainring shifting. I would have expected those to be accessable without derailer rub from either ring. Not so. Obviously, I don't have the gears memorized, even after all these years on road bikes. A hold over from the hybrid years. I still think of them as 1, 2, 3.... But I speak the language, just as a second language.
Have fun with the phone.
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