Well I haven't posted lately cause my running has been non-existent since the Al Toll Masters Race, work has been crazy and I have been trying to get Maddie as much as I can.
But I was able to get some cross training done today.
I have been working on building a Tri bike for the past 12 months. Well I finally got to ride it some today. This was actually a shakedown ride to work any kinks that may have been hanging around. I wanted to do this shake down ride cause I am planning a long ride Sunday, maybe 40-60 miles worth and I thought this ride might help work out any mechanical issues I might have.
Well guess what......there were plenty.
First off as I was getting it all together at the apartment to head out I noticed the bike shop didn't attach the magnet for the computer so I headed to the Bike Store to get one put on. Josh was cool, he found one on the mechanic tray and slapped it on quick enough, plus I did not have a water bottle cage on the frame yet, so I slapped one of those on too, and then I was off to meet at the group ride meeting location.
Well by the time all this transpired everybody had left the parking lot and headed on their ride.....no big deal I knew I was past time to be there, well thennn I realized I forgot my socks.....so I decide to go sock less.....no big deal.
So as I was adjusting my newly magnetized bike computer, I wanted to clear out the little bit of time that was on it from the installation as well as set the clock to the correct time ( now since we have daylight savings time kicking in )....Well guess what, I accidentally set the frickin thing to GERMAN......well I don't speak German so I try to get it reset to English, welll with this being a new computer and seeing as how I don't have the instructions with me, it's time for a call to the bike store. Josh finds a set of instructions and we figure it out and now everything is hunky dory.
Now it was time to clip into the pedals for the first time.......uh oh, I realized the seat post was set wayyyy to high, and it doesn't have the quick release ( it's a Tri bike remember ), and I didn't have the correct tool to adjust it. Well I figured I didn't want to drive it back to the bike store in the van, so I decided I'll just ride it the 4 miles back to the store and get Josh to adjust it for me...........Ohhh if it were only that simple.....the ride wasn't that bad, even though my crotch was cussing at me for the torture it was going through with the maladjusted seat height.
So I get back to the store thinking it was just a little adjustment, well it was a little more than that. Even with the seat post sent all the way down it was still too tall ( tall seat post to start with ) But Josh being the master mechanic that he is........he pulled it out, took out his handy hack saw and took a inch and a half off and adjusted it perfectly.
But while I was there and he was looking at the height and making sure the fit was right, I noticed the handlebars were about 2-3 degrees right, so that got adjusted. I had also noticed the forearm pads were too far out on the ride over so they got adjusted too.
So in and out in less than 10 minutes ( thanks Josh ) and it's back off to the meeting place to see if any other folks showed up late like me.
Well no one was there, so I decided to keep going and put a few miles in.
After all this tweaking I did notice I will definitely have to go with the 10 speed cassette instead of the 9 speed ( lot of shifting problems were occurring on this ride )
Well even with all the crap that happened tonight............it's exactly what I wanted to happen and I couldn't have been happier. I wanted to find most of the kinks on this short ride ( 11.50 miles )instead of a 60 mile ride, far from home or help.
So see there is a silver lining to everything...........if ya look hard enough
8 years ago
