Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Bike maintenance and a ride.

Last Saturday, I rode the Cerv a few miles across the land of Walt Disney to watch Coach finish up her first half-marathon.  Read about it here.  The Cerv already needed a cleaning, so I figured one little sprint in the rain / sleet wouldn't hurt, since I'd clean the bike when we returned to NC.  Well, that day was today.

I first removed all the victimized moving parts (here I'm halfway done) and put them through my unusually secret process for cleaning. 


This involves a few methods I usually keep quiet, but will share with you loyal blog readers now.  Here's how the workdesk looks as I go through The Process:

           

The special ingredients are the Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies (milk chocolate, but you can sub in some mint chocolate if you wish) and Egg Nog (in a plastic cup).  Not shown is the critical spaceheater - this shop is NOT very weather-proof.

After downing the aforementioned goodies, I pretty much use a bio-degreaser, occasional alcohol (for cleaning, not drinking) and some Pro-Link chain lube.  I am fascinated by Pro-Link.  The stuff removes dirt and old grease as well as any dedicated degreaser I've used. 

After removing sand (it was Florida) and other gunk from the Cerv, we went for a spin.  30 miles with the goal of 20mph average.  You can imagine how this went, knowing my nutritional intake from above.  Truthfully, I felt more comfortable and in-rhythm than on the previous 30 mile rides.  The hills were not AS bad and my cadence is improving.  The stats tell a tale similar to previous rides, but I chose a more challenging course this time and left my tire pressure lower than usual (since I'll probably lower pressure a bit for the Battenkill).  OK, honestly I forgot to give the tires some air and came up with this excuse much later. 

Check out the new feature this week:  Route.

Stats:

Route:  5 Points straight out to Lewisville, Vineyard Loop, then back Shallowford --> Country Club to 5 points. 
Time:  1:36.31
Dist:   30.55mi
Avg:  19.1mph

Up next, a slower, shorter ride on Thursday night.  Anyone wanna come along? 

0 comments:

Post a Comment