When conditions are as good as they were this weekend, it doesn't matter what type of bike you were riding -- it was AWESOME riding the entire weekend.Spent the first-half of Saturday leading up the Pro/1/2 road race at the Lincoln Plating Spring Cycling Classics. What a race that was... There were crashes, carnage, chaos and at times, confusion. JP and Frankie were in the wheel truck behind the pack, and on two occasions, JP quickly ended a cell phone conversation with "oh shit... a crash. i gotta go." then silence.
After the race, I talked Laura into camping at Branched Oak with JP and Frankie -- a good move. It was absolutely perfect camping weather. We ate, drank, laughed, burned all the wood we could find, and were in bed by 10:30.
Woke to the sun Sunday morning, had a super chill breakfast (and much coffee), a walk with the hounds, then we packed 'er up and rolled home. jp and i met up for a ride through wilderness in the afternoon, and we hooked up with the thad, ep, woodman (et al) group at the ep bridge. Rolling back to the beeramyd, we even got to hang with dan and sam kelley, and bill jones. sam was on his first ride on the new f3000 dan built up for him, and they looked to be having a super good time.
At this point, my day took an uncertain turn. My rear QR skewer had been not holding the wheel particularly tight (on my Ti Bontrager singlespeed), allowing the wheel to twist slightly in the frame under power. I soon learned why. With a resounding "CRACK," the threads in the QR nut gave out, leaving my rear wheel loose in the dropouts.
After about 15 minutes of searching for a solution, I found one nut on my bike that actually fit the skewer. When I tried closing it down though, it immediately stripped -- too soft of a material for the task.
So I took off, thinking I'd duck out at the tracks and call Laura to come pick me up. Much to my surprise, once I got going, as long as I stayed in the saddle, the bike actually worked fine, and handled okay. I wasn't bangin' corners, but I wasn't crawling either. It taught me a lesson about not assuming something won't work until it proves you otherwise. I ended up going all the way back through the park, and rode it home without any significant issues or resulting damage. To say I was surprised woudl be an understatement, but I have a feeling that's a lesson that will come in handy to me at some point in the future.
I hope you all had a super weekend too, wherever you are.
Bdiddy, we miss you buddy.
Have a great day,
MG
5 comments:
wait - you were racing road bikes while talking on your cell phone? And there was a mountain bike race within a 3 hour drive? I must have missed something there.
I really wanted to make a crack joke, about smoking some or seeing some, but I couldn't make it happen. It's the thought that counts, right?
perhaps i wasn't clear... i was driving the lead car for the race. perhaps that'll make the story clearer.
still my bad tho -- i was talking on my cell phone while driving. at least i didn't take anyone out doing it. :-}
mg
what an odd combination of bikes. downhill rig and a rigid ss 29er.
Sounds like a good weekend man. I got a nice ride in. Lots of work, too.
yeah, that was actually the point of the picture, but somehow you may have been the only one that picked up on it. it didn't matter what you were riding -- it was all fast and fun.
i didn't get nearly enough work done over the weekend, so back to work i go now!
cheers,
mg
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