Teaser Weather
Sixty degrees F when I got home, today! Spring is here!
Not really. The high, tomorrow, is supposed to be around 40 degrees, with chances of snow tomorrow night/Thursday morning.
Sigh. The weather is teasing me. But, that's okay.
I had a terrific ride back and forth on the red Scorcher. The handlebars put me in just the right position, and the 40/18 gear feels good with the bags loaded.
I have no idea of what speed I'm making, with that gear. I don't have a speedometer on the bike, so I just ride as fast as I comfortably can. I made it home in 45 minutes, according to my wrist watch, so I must be travelling at about the same speed I always do.
I think leaving the speed measuring device off of a bike adds to the enjoyment of riding. I don't have a cyclometer on the orange Peugeot, and it is always a fun bike to ride. If I ride by myself, I don't sweat it. As I said, I just ride in my comfort zone. If I ride with other people, I just try and match their speed.
If I feel the need to "train", to try and maintain a certain speed for some reason, I just ride a different bike.
The only problem I had on the ride was that I occasionally felt the rear tire squirming when I would turn at speed. A couple of times, it felt as though it was about to roll off the rim.
I realized, on the way home, that I had no idea how much air pressure was in the tires. I had just randomly aired them up, when I was assembling the bike, and never topped them off. I checked, when I got home, and I had 50 psi in the rear, and 65 psi in the front.
While that would be fine in the 26x1.95 tires on the Miami Vice bike, it seemed a tad low in the 700x37 Continental Twister cyclocross tires.
So, I aired them both up to 100 psi, only to have a problem appear.
The rear tire now rubs on the chainstay brace. I had a similar problem when running these on the LeMond, and I think I will solve it in a similar fashion (with either a hammer or a Dremel tool...although I'm in a mood which makes me lean toward the hammer).Ah, well, I guess I'll go beat on...I mean modify the frame to clear the tire.
UPDATE:
Plenty of tire clearance, now!
Hammers! Is there any problem they can't solve?
x
posted by Jon @ 5:22 PM
5 Comments:
haha modify.
In the computer and automotive industry, we call bludgeoning something with a hammer a "technical tap". I love steel. I suppose you could almost pass that off as "cold setting" (haha)
Imagine if that was aluminum. Ping. Ping. CRUSH. SNAP!
The weather has been all over the place here too. It was 60+ on Sunday. Now we appear to be getting more snow than we've had all winter.
Nice job on that bike. You're having so much fun with it, maybe you should keep it!
Won't ... ahem ... adjusting ... the frame like that weaken it? Not enough to matter, I assume?
Whenever my computer is acting up, I give it a good whack. Sarah laughs at me when I do it, but it solves the problem about half the time.
I actually removed the seat stay bridge on the LeMond to get around this same problem, and I've had no issues with that frame.
Steel is very forgiving, and easily manipulated and shaped. I think the final shape of the brace looks very good, almost as if it were made that way.
My grandfather was a blacksmith/farrier, and I think one of the things that appeals to me about bikes is that I use some of the same techniques I watched him apply to metal, when I was a kid.
Cool. It does look great from the photo, like they designed it to allow for bigger tires. Nice job.
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