Solid Week

Another one's in the books. Solid week overall, and solid weekend as well. I'm satisfyingly exhausted and looking forward to resting up tomorrow.

Yesterday was a LONG day on the mountain bike. I'm amazed at how quickly time passes when you're ripping on singletrack rather than just riding the road. Maybe it's just the boring ole roads here on Long Island, but man do the woods just suck time away-in a good way! Anyway, I spent a ton of time on the trails Saturday and enjoyed every last minute of it!

Today was a bit frustrating in a few ways. First, I had moved a client from yesterday afternoon to this morning, which in the end (at least she said) worked best for both of us. I got an afternoon free to ride my bike, and she got to spend more time doing whatever it is she does (still haven't figured that one out yet!). So, instead of getting my Sunday started early, as I would have preferred, I slept in a bit, farted around on the internet, and waited until about 10:30 to get showered and head in to the gym. After I'd gotten out of the shower, I checked my phone to see that she'd left me a messege, cancelling her appointment. I mean really!?! Fifteen minutes notice??? C'mon! So that was roadblock number 1...

Ok, so big deal, I though, I'll just start my ride earlier than I had thought. As I'm making my bottles and preppin my road bike for the ride, I notice that my bottom bracket is a bit "gritty". Not sure exactly when it started, but let's just say it was unrideable. Luckily, I had a spare bb in my toolbox. I swapped it out, only to find that the spacing wasn't going to match up with my piece of shit FSA crank (more on FSA later). Again, luckily, I had a spare crank laying around...

Right. So I'm all swapped out and ready to go. Another hour down the drain, but it was all good. I managed to get out and have a terriffic ride, enjoying the sun and warm temps. It might have been a good idea to wear toe warmers and some light cotton gloves, but I like to live dangerously and didn't. I was fine, albeit a little cool by the end of the ride.

Ok, so on to a bit of a rant...

Yesterday on the mountain bike (and just about on every ride since I've had the damned bike!), I had issues with my brakes rubbing. Nothing big, and not even close to enough to steal any power or rotational business, but just enough of a "squeak" to drive you nuts! Spending hours on end with a squeak is enough to drive you mad. The problem here lies not in the bike or the mechanic, but with Avid Elixer and their stupid design. I built up my race bike with Shimano brakes and have NEVER had any issues with them. For a cross country bike, they are smooth and have the perfect amount of "catch" in them, regardless of the conditions. They've never rubbed, squeaked, nothing! Perfection! The Avid's have been nothing but a pain in the ass. Squeaking all the damn time, and finicky as hell. They seem to need fine tuning after ever single ride! What's more, they are just TOO damn grippy for a cross country bike. There's really no need to have all that bite in anything but a true downhill bike. If I had the money I'd get another set of Shimano's. Way better brakes in my opinion.

Second rant (a bit smaller)...

FSA components suck! I've had an FSA crank I bought new a year ago that has given me nothing but trouble. The attatchment design is aweful, causing it to slip and develop play after hard riding. FSA=Failure to Stay Attatched. Horrible. The crank I swapped out today was an FSA carbon K whatever, and it will never see time on any of my bikes ever again.

With all that said, I've got a pair of "gently used" Avid Elixer 5 disc brakes and a beautifully functional FSA carbon crankset for sale. Serious inquiries only. :)

Solid week. Now time to drink a couple beers to celebrate.

Peace.