Triple crown

In August I had the most miles ridden for any month this year to date. The annual goal looks out of reach but just very vaguely on the edge of if it doesn't snow until Thanksgiving maybe.

But it is still August and that means the Fair. Here is the triple crown of even though this piece of curb is only about two blocks from the main gate you cannot, absolutely cannot park here.I rode even a tiny bit closer and got a photo from a block away of that aforementioned main gate. That is the closest I have been so far this Fair season.The bicycling lesson so far for August is that you cannot expect to hang a bicycle, even a really nice bicycle, in the basement rafters for nearly seven years and then expect to just put it back on the street without the intervention of cash.

So, today Scott finished with installation of all new cables and housing (which along the way requires unwrapping the bar tape which means all new bar tape in the bargain). The shifting is way, like WAY better, but I still have an occasional chain skip under pedal pressure in the 39x17. The 39x17 is one of my two or three main riding gears so a skip there is just not acceptable. I have installed new chains lots of times and new cogs several times. It is axiomatic in the bicycle culture that when you install a new chain you may well have to install new cogs because you may get a chain skip if you do not. I have traipsed around the edges of this bicycle truth without ever getting burned before. Well, welcome to the mainstream for Gino. As I told Scott, I don't think I need a whole new cassette because some of those cogs just don't have very much wear on them. But I do need a new 17 cog. Scott says it should be here by Friday.

All things considered, the cost of putting this bicycle back on the road is still less than the cost of putting the Wireless junior high bicycle back on the road earlier this year. But then again, that Wireless bicycle was hanging from the rafters for a lot longer than the Crown Jewel.

I had a nice ride today considering that I had to use the 39x18 in many of the situations where I normally for the past 10 years or so have used the 39x17.