We'll never know because the chick cut him off.

Gerard! Get away from that puddle this minute before you... oh good grief!  

still purty... purty FUN!

Blow 'em up, spread 'em out, way out...





 

I've been riding to work pretty reliably since the last update.  I've missed a couple days for doctor and dentist appointments, anyhow.  The riding has been very consistent, which is more than I can say about the reliability of the gear selection.  I'd done my best to verify the derailleur hanger was straight, the jockey wheels were straight (after some manual adjustment, on more than one occassion, even during my commute. I eventually took the bike to my local shop, Uptown Cyclery, and Kodi put it up on the stand and tuned it up properly. Both limit screws correctly adjusted.  B screw properly adjusted.  Verified the haanger and the jockey wheels parallel to the plane of the cassette.

After all that, he showed me that the jockey wheels still waggled to and fro at least a cog's worth (hahah cogsworth, bastidge).  The bike would shift ON IT'S OWN, under power, very, very rude!@!!!  And this is why.  It was just worn out, as the bike mechanic told me after noting that I was a "big guy" (thanks captain obvious).  He said it was just worn out.  Fine.  I don't care I just want to ride to work without being ambushed by my pedals.

So, I sorted it out with M - O - N - E - Y.  After one trip to work and back, WORTH IT. He set me up with a new Shimano Deore M519 rear derailleur, the right shifter and the right cassette.  Take my money, please.  I du miss the wider range of my old 8 speed 11-40 cassette.  The new one is 11-36t, and I do miss the top ten percent of mechanical advantage.  

Fine.

I'll just get stronger, I'm ready to just work harder.  Those few pitches that are no longer sit and pedal.... I'll drive around.  I'll get out of the saddle and work... Ok, maybe not that, I'll drive around.  Today I switchbacked back and forth a few times.

Any. Damn. How.  Griff, when you said you'd gone through a couple drivetrains, compponent by component, I was suprised.  Rookie surprise.  This new Shimano gear will likely be longer lasting than the NO NAMe (Axe, no, really, Axe) shifter and derailleur setup that came with the bike.

Bike performs vastly better than before, I'm still riding.

griff wrote:

There's a lad! I don't know if it's your habit but it's always a good idea to clean up the drive train at the end of the day. You feeling stronger? It always amazed me how impossible becomes difficult becomes ease.

I don't clean the drivetrain after every ride.

I get home, well, near home, get the mail, get in the house, change out of my cycling costume for the second time of the day.  I'll say this, my ability to undress and redress (heh) standing up has improved dramatically.  Anyhow, once changed, I usually have breakfast #intermittentfasting.

Then I bring the bike in the house and start my chores before I retire to the cellar.  hahaha see what I did thar?  Anyhow.  My cycle-hygiene habits are less hardcore.  Honestly, the bike is on pavement, sometimes wet, to be sure, but no mud/sticks/rocks/dirt/mud/gravel etc.  Not much to clean up.  I do regularly lube the chain and the articulating joints with drylube from Muck Off.  Smooooove and smells nice too.

I admit I was very surprised to learn that drivetrain components are consumables on a bike like tires and brake pads.  s'OK.  I'm learning.  I do love riding to work.  I have said elsewhere that I've previously driven to work as much as eighty miles each way, when I lived in SoCal.  Never. Again.  This is really the best, even better than teleworking.  More exercise and a real, definite separation between church and state, no, no... work and life.  ish.  I love it.

OH!

You mentioned that "the health benefits are profound".  That remark stuck with me.  And one of my bicycle hooky days that I spent at the doctor yielded good news.  No, really, really good news.  Not sure how much I related at the time... but I was in trouble some time back regarding my heart health.  The medical term "heart failure" was used in earshot. 

W

T

F

Failure?!?@!!?!!!

be still my beating heart. NO! wait, flip it and reverse it beat like a MFer you heart, you.  YOU HAVE ONE JOB.  

Any. Way.  Point is, I had some serious heart problems. I had an echocardiogram (sonogram of the heart) and they measure the output of the the heart. No, really, the acutal amount of blood pushed out by every squeeze of the heart.  It's called the ejection fraction.  It's not as dirty as it sounds, really.  My number at that point was 30-35%.  Which is very poor!   Muuush, thrruuump, muuussssh. bleurgh.  All the work, a fraction of the reward.  Fast forward after medicine and diet mindfullness, a second echocardiogram calculated my ejection fraction at 50-55% after a year of my new life.  This was defined as a SUCCESS! ???? Not 100%?  No, you moron, if your right ventricle ejected 100% of the blood it contained, it would be empty, that's a problem.

Oh.  Sorry.  Ok.  50% is good.  OK.

Anyhow, ffwd one more year, including eight months of biking to work and my ejection fraction is now 60-65% another big improvement!

Yay me!  And, credit where credit is due, Griff called it first "the health benefits are profound."

Thanks Griff.

Way to go!

Bah, good health is overrated, it just causes you to live longer so you can pay more taxes and get ugly ties for each birthday, and have more sex. WUT? WAIT! Let me rethink this... nevermind.

glatt wrote:

My trash pile bike has that same changing gears by itself problem. My son replaced the chain, but that didn't quite fix it.

Usually changing the cassette and chain together is helpful since they wear together. I usually start with the pair and then replace the chain before things go too far.

someone not pleased

I knew the basics of the steer right to turn left, but there is a whole lot of other information about bike handling in this video.


 

Good teacher!
Good student!
Good success!!!