Wind and Rain, Finally Can Sit for Brief Moments

What I saw when I was leaving work this late afternoon, just before 5:00pm. Blowing rain, woo hoo!

Today's visit with my chiropractor/acupuncturist was great - more adjustments, will need at least a couple more. Getting there, when I got home, I could actually sit at my computer. At work, I could sit at an angle for a bit longer - several minutes rather than several seconds.

Tallied up 16 miles today, as I biked to my doctor's, which is about 3 miles in the opposite direction of work. From there, decided it would be nicer to bike to work than just ride over to the MAX station and ride MAX into work. Lightly drizzling on the way in, so not too bad.

The adjusted brakes were much better and I am so much more comfortable using the drop bars than the flat bars. Glad I made the change back to the drop bars. With all the rain and water, had to keep tapping the brakes to keep the water film down and have responsive brakes.

The ride home was WET! I need to write to Showers Pass, again, and see if maybe the soaked knees is because there isn't enough space at the knees. Maybe I need to size up?

Back in the Drops

Well, here we are, the SUB has her drop bars back on. Aesthetically, I like the look of the drop bars on the bike much better than the ftat bars.

What's different now than before? I did a little cable re-routing, plus replaced the generic cable housings with Jagwire cable housings. The cable pull feels a bit smoother (of course, that could be the pyschology of buying something new, so it must be better syndrome - haha).

You can see that I have rotated the thumb shifters quite a bit forward, so shifting is an up and down motion rather than the original fore and aft movement.

Rotating the shifters eliminated routing the brake cables along the front of the bars, so I routed them along the bottom of the bars. I used the shifter clamp area as a cable guide and to try and keep the cables as close to the bars as possible.

Once I had all the cables routed and back on, I took a quick spin up and down the street, just to make sure braking was good and I could shift through the gears.

I readjusted the brake arm angles and position of the center pull hangar. I did some internet research and found information on adjusting the right mechanical advantage. Braking feels much better than before. I guess I took the long way around, should have researched first, might have saved me the interim bar swap.<shrug, oh well>.

After all the major adjustments and cable routing testing, it was time to re-wrap the bars. Wrapping around the shifter clamps was a little tricky and while the bumps look a bit dorky, the cushioning is better than hanging on to bare metal.

I like the unobstructed top part of the bars, which is where most the pressure is anyway when my hands are there. I can comfortably reach and shift through the gears.

The cables routed nicely, and as if by design, wrap nicely around my headlight. I did another test spin up and down the street really pulling hard on the brakes from the tops, or at least attempting to stop quickly. Definitely feels like it has more stopping power now with less effort than before. Will know on Monday when I am back to commuting.

I hope the SUB does not feel too bad with all the tweaks, mods and adjustments. It just means I care.

Foggy, Cold -- Healing -- I Want My Drop Bars Back

A chilly, foggy morning to start Thursday's ride. Note the frost on the car. I suppose in the grand scheme of things, though, we have it pretty mild here in the Pacific NW compared to the eastern side of the states.

Evan and I bundled up and made our trip to school, then I continued on to work. Gosh, I feel slow, I think the hip pain is getting to me mentally. I can't wait until I don't have to think about it anymore. I mean, I just want to ride.

Of course, just being able to sit at my desk for more than a few minutes would be nice, too. Then, because I am standing so much, I am so tired at the end of the day. My hat is off to those that are on their feet all day, like wow.

At the Steel Bridge we all had to wait as the lower section was raised as a tug approached. You can just make it out coming down river through the fog. Everyday there seems to be something new and different.

Even with the less than 100% of my current situation, I must be riding okay. When I was a bit away from work heading toward Evan's school (about Multnomah and MLK) I noticed a shadow behind me.

He proceeded to stay behind me for the next mile and a half. I'm thinking, "Hey, go ahead and pass." I think he was using me to push himself along or a lazy wheel sucker. Anyway, about a block from where I was going to turn right, he did decide to finally push past me. He said something inaudible, I thought to myself, "Ya poop! You suck the wheel of an invalid and then when you are all rested, you go hammering by, without offering to pull?"

I think it is good I am back riding the SUB and using my panniers. At least I am not putting any extra pressure against my back and, thus, my hip area. Hopefully, this will help speed up the healing. Friday's ride was uneventful, except this morning, Evan led the whole way! I guess he's got the route down, now. I don't often get to ride behind him and watch his riding style. The dude is pretty strong and pretty smooth. Sorry, it ws too cold for me to get the camera out and snap a picture.

Well, my experiment of going back to my SUB's flat bar is not working out so good for my hands. So, this weekend's plan is to do some adjusting to maximize brake efficiency when I am riding on the hoods. While I am there, I am planning to make a modification to where I mount the shifters (original, Shimano thumb shifters) so I can create the most room for my hands across the bar tops.

Brake-wise, I think I just have to fine-tune the brake arm positions so I am pulling with the most leverage. Since I had the bars off (Cinelli Little Wings), I decided to fill-in the front and back cable grooves, which I never really liked. I used some liquid metal filler. This is a picture of the back of the bars and that flat looking section is where I filled in the cable groove.

 

Here you can see the extremely rotated thumb shifters. This puts the levers on the front side of the bars rather than across the top. This will hopefully provide the full bar top for my hands and still provide relatively easy access to the shifters.

Next step is to fit up the cable housings, run the cables, make the adjustments and do a quick around the block test for positioning. Once I've got it pretty close, I will re-wrap the bars and be ready to ride. (Okay, until the next time I get a "gotta change something" itch - hahaha).