ride on a not-so-rainy day

 I'd say it was about 80% because I'm driving a rental car, and didn't want to put the bike in it (I was in a no-injuries crash that will have the Ramblin' Wrench Prius in the shop for the foreseeable future), and about 23% because I didn't want to deal with the hilly ride that Tom H was planning (I've never been great on descents*, and while I used to be a good climber, that facility seems to be passing - and I find after every flat ride, I'm saying to myself, "THAT was GREAT!"), and about 32% because Marty-and-Bobbi had posted a ride, and every time I go out with them, I wonder why don't I do this more frequently?, but yesterday I found myself on Bobbi-and-Marty's ride.

 *Years ago, as I was riding the brakes on a long downhill, I remembered thinking, "I'm a shit descender", and came up with the following song parody:

Oh, yes, I'm a shit descender,
I ride the brakes all the way down.
I hear you complain, that it makes you insane,
You cuss me as you go around.
You cuss me as you go around.

And if you can't place the original song, you're far too young for me to hang around with.

==

At the start:

 The route was one that Marty had adapted from Tom's book (see the link in the first paragraph - Marty-and-Bobbi treat Tom as a hero, which makes me laugh, as I know Tom so well). It was just shy of 40 miles, which meant that including my five-mile ride in from home and back, it would be a fifty-mile day. I haven't done one of those in a long time, and was slightly concerned about my stamina, but it turned out I needn't have been.

Bobbi usually sweeps for Marty, but she had to turn off early, so I rode in the back with a couple of the slower folks. One in particular didn't have the speed, but had endurance, and responded well to a bit of company and encouragement.

It had started out as a sunny day, but clouds came on as the ride progressed, and we did wind up with drips of rain for a while - nothing heavy, and frankly, it was better to have cool-and-humid than hot-and-humid. I made the usual (probably inescapable) jokes about not needing either a shower or a laundry at the end of this ride.

We stopped at the Brandywine Soccer  Field (Marty had warned us to bring snacks).

 And back. One rider almost suffered a left hook from a thoughtless driver, but escaped with only a scare; we talked about it as we pedaled. It was otherwise a pleasant, uneventful ride. I'm delighted to have been out on another Bobbi-and-Marty ride.

Ride page.

'nother no-pace ride

 

I like doing the no-pace rides; I like the opportunity they afford to meet people I don't normally ride with, and I like that they offer an opportunity for riders who aren't strong and fast to come out. That said, all of the folks that came out today are pretty experienced (and four of the five others are friends). But I'm glad to offer these anyway.

We do the same 20-ish mile route, and riders know what to expect. We go at the pace of the group (don't let the pace on the ride page fool you; we've gone slower than this if the group needs that), and faster folks sometimes go off the front, but we generally stay together. We were all in sight of each other on today's ride, which is not always the case.

 I didn't get a picture of it, but Jeff had installed the new Wheeltop electronic shifting system on his titanium bike. While there's a disk brake system available, they also make it for cable brakes, so it went well on his older bike... and he said that the phone app for adjusting the system took some getting used to, but he was able to set it up and get it going by himself, and he was happy with the performance on the ride today. (Another rider, Mindy, is also interested, because the heavy spring on front derailleur shifters hurts her hand, and the electronic assist would make riding much more pleasant for her.)

I'm intrigued enough to consider a set for the Yellow Maserati, my titanium road bike... and I can just see myself riding half the year on electronics, and the other half on my bar-end friction system. (Rivendell bikes has a low-normal rear derailleur, designed with friction shifters in mind, in the pipeline, and I'm eagerly awaiting news on that, as well...). 

 Above is Abhijeet, who came out today for the first time on one of my rides, and who can clearly ride rings around me. He had a custom bike business, and complained that it interfered with his riding and his love of bikes generally, and that makes perfect sense to me, with the Ramblin' Wrench operation I have. But he is pleasant to speak to, and had nifty pictures and animations of his bikes on his phone. I hope to see him again.

I know these no-pace rides aren't for everybody, but I like doing them. Maybe you'll come out for one.

listen to your mechanic, and change your cables

 

I did the annual pre-season tune and checkup on a customer's bike today. The bike is fifteen years old, with Shimano Ultegra road shifters, and the cables had never been changed.

So?

So in the past 2-3 years, I've worked on four or five bikes with Shimano road shifters (Ultegra and 105), where the shift cable has parted inside the shifter. In some cases, I was able to remove the short bit of cable and get the shifter working again; in others, I could not, and the shifter is gonna shift again, quoth the raven, nevermore.

I've resolved to tell folks with older bikes with Shimano road shifters that I recommend changing the cables, based on these experiences. My customer today agreed, so I changed 'em out (internally-routed shifting, so a PITA, but that's a rant for another post). The old cables are in the picture above. There's a terrible blow-up below:

 The lower cable is for the rear shifter, and you can clearly see the frayed cable. It was a matter of time and use before this let go. The cable above is from the front shifter. It's used much less frequently, but the careful eye will note that the black Teflon covering is wearing away a short distance down the cable.

The older Shimano shifters have the cable take a hard turn inside, and I'm sure that's what's causing the wear. I haven't seen the same problem with SRAM stuff, and I doubt it will be a problem with Shimano GRX shifters, partly because they're newer (after all, this takes a decade or so to happen!), and partly because the don't make the same demand of such a hard turn on the cable.

(But it WAS gratifying to have my recommendation so clearly confirmed!)

So if someone tells you to change out your old cables, the like of this is why. 

*All is not necessarily lost if the shifter dies. Even if the speed combination is discontinued by Shimano, I've had good success with two Chinese manufacturers, Sensah and L-Twoo. So your 3x9 drivetrain may still be able to be saved.