One Of Those Days
First off, I overslept. I meant to be on the trail, at Mt. Falcon, by 6:00, but I didn't get up until 5:30. As I loaded the bike, I took the front wheel off, and noticed that one of the mounting bolts on the front caliper was missing! What next?
I got to the trailhead, and put the wheel in the front fork (I had replaced the missing brake bolt). At that point, I noticed that the front tire was flat. I apparently picked up a thorn on my ride around town, yesterday.
Two hundred fifty strokes of my frame pump later, I had the front tire aired up sufficiently, so I took off up the hill.
After I had ridden through the ravine, just out of of the parking lot, and started up the side of the mountain, I noticed that the freewheel was a bit balky about back-pedaling. Eventually, it got to the point that I had to constantly pedal forward, or the chain would get dragged down around the cog. I stopped to check it out, and realized that the freewheel was pretty much locked up.
At that point, I turned around and headed downhill.
Once I got home, I disassembled the freewheel and found that one of the pawls was broken, and one was bent.
So, I removed the cogs from the freewheel body, and put them on the body of the freewheel I had been using, before. (They were the same freewheel, just with a different range of cogs.) Then, I patched the tube, and I was back in business.
On the plus side, I did answer the three questions I wanted to address, on this ride:
1. Do these tires work well, on dirt? Yes, they do. Even with the rear tire somewhat over-pressure, the tires hooked up well and performed nicely.
2. Does the weight of the bike make it unpleasant to ride, on the big climbs? No, it does not. I was probably not as fast on the bike as I would have been on the 29er, but I didn't notice that the heavier bike was harder to deal with.
3. Does the longer rear end (compared to the Mukluk), and the "cruiser" geometry have a negative effect off-road? No. I had no problem lifting the front wheel and climbing over the waterbars on the trail, and it handled just fine. In fact, it reminds me of late 1980s/early 1990s mountain bikes.
So, I am happy with the bike, when it comes to performance and handling. Now, if I can just keep from having a mechanical, on the next ride...
x
3 Comments:
Really great to see you on the trail, but a huge bummer on the barrage of tribulations.
That thing looks like an adventure bike. Ever considered an overnighter?
Whoops, the comment above was mine.
The tribulations were largely my own fault, so i can't really complain. Next time, I just need to prepare more, and pay more attention to the bike.
I do plan on doing some overnighters with that bike. I'm actually planning on busting out the sewing machine and making a frame bag for the bike, one day, for that purpose.
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