*************
So I finally got back on my bike last night. Favorable weather. Feeling up to it physically. The moon and stars lined-up correctly. 75 minutes on the bike path. A good first outing.
The bike itself does need to go to the shop for a tune-up. After bringing it up from storage in my basement and pumping the tires to the proper inflation, and finding the rest of my riding gear, I thought I was ready to go. But once on the street, there was the small matter of a sticking brake-lever and a seat post out of adjustment. So it was back to the house for immediate repairs.
Lowering the seat was easy, but the brake-lever required more finesse and some lubricant on the cable to the rear brake assembly. I think the same "stickiness" has been a problem in other years on that first ride. Even though the bike is stored inside, there seems to be a tendency for those wound-wire cables to oxidize at the points where the wire goes inside the protective housing. My fix worked, but I'll let the boys at the shop do a full tune in the next week some time.
I did a calculation while on my ride that it had been around 280 days since I had been outside on a bike. That death march up Mt. Rose with @bcbison on the Monday after 07282012 ended my 2012 biking season. And it had been 10 days before that that I had actually been on my own bike. So its no wonder that things are now a little out of tune. (The improper seat setting puzzled me. But I had forgotten that I had taken my own bike seat to use on my rental bike in Tahoe. So when I got home in August, I may have re-installed the seat on my bike, but never rode it to test for proper height. Sometimer's again.)
Another point that came to me while on my ride was that that Mt. Rose ride also saved me probably something along the $3000-4000 range. Up to then, I had accepted a logic that I was on the 10-years-to-a-new-bike plan, and figured that 2012 close-out sales would be the timing to upgrade. (My first rode-bike was acquired in 1991, and my current one came in 2001. Do the math.) No that there is anything wrong with my current bike. But kinda like the need for a new car, the new-bike-urge was there.
No more. What I have will do just fine. I'll be lucky to do 1500 miles a season. A new bike will not enhance that experience.
Last night was also the first night of the year for cocktails with @bcbison on the deck at Gov's. He and another guy had gone out on a ride and called me to join them for a post-ride brewsky. That's a lot better experience than the snow of last week!
Today may be the first day of my golf season. I may have cobweb problems with that equipment too!
Switching gears...
One of my efforts here at the office this week has been to delete myself from the gratuitous email solicitations that I get from a variety of on-line professional sites. I think that I get targeted from my SEC registrations, and maybe the state insurance registration listings. My broker-dealer gives my address to a few folks, and the CPA organizations do the same. Then you have conference sponsors who give the addresses of attendees to the conference subsidizers. And then I think all of these solicitors trade lists.
Anyway, I've been going to the new emails and "opting out" of their mailing lists. I'm curious how long it will take to clean up my inbox.
Let's make 1.02 Grandson of the Day. What a great pic! You da' man!
More later. Make it a good Wednesday.
BCOT
No comments:
Post a Comment