Riding a New Bike. Sort of.

I finally got my TT bike back from Elite yesterday with its new 165 mm crankset. I wanted to take it out this morning for a test run. I set the saddle up 5 mm as John instructed, but was hardly a mile from home when I stopped to adjust the arm extensions. I moved my left bar out a bit and adjusted the right elbow rest to its outermost position. The entire handlebar seemed too low now but the action of raising it up was too involved for a roadside operation so I headed out to Hwy. 80. I hadn't gone more than one mile on it before I heard a metallic "clang!" and heard something hit the road. Recognizing that something had fallen off the bike I pulled onto the shoulder to stop. But this was not my road bike and I was not used to the power of these brakes, nor did I take into account the lower center of gravity--all of which is a nice rationalization of saying I fell over, still clipped in. (Naturally my right foot unclipped as a result of the fall, but otherwise I was still perfectly mounted, just horizontally rather than vertically.) I got up. I saw a cut and some scrapes on my knee and had some scrapes on my right elbow but no major damage done. I walked back down the road about 20 feet and saw the culprit responsible for this chain of events: an X-Lab CO2 cartridged that had come unscrewed from its mounting. I screwed it back in securly and took off. But by now the heart was gone from the exercise. I also saw from my watch that I was running out of time and would probably not have enough time to get home and shower and make the Bahai meeting on time--never mind completing a brick as I'd hoped. I still made the Crow turnaround and enjoyed a good turn of speed heading back. But wouldn't you know ten minutes hadn't passed before "clang!"? The same ****** CO2 cartridge had hit the road again. (I should file a complaint with X-Lab. This is, after all, their wing nut, but their CO2 cartridge won't stay put. The other cartridge from the bike shop stayed put, thank you very much.)

...but for all that the new cranks worked a treat. It was like having a compact crank again but with the benefit of a larger range of gears. I still have to adjust the front end, as I indicated above. Also I heard a rattle located somewhere near the bottom bracket that was out of place. I hate to put it back in the shop so soon after I got it out, but it's annoying to say the least, and who knows what deeper problem it might indicate?

Sending a shout-out to the Buffalo Springs "returnees". Sounds like everyone had a fine time and there were some good results for the ETT crew. Poor Ross, though! We'll have to get that boy an ETT jersey so he won't get penalized next time.