I took my bike back to the shop on Monday to have them work on the front derailleur. This is the 2nd time this shop has worked on it. I took it to one other shop since their first adjustment.
What's funny/frustrating is they get my bike onto the stand and as they look at it they say, "That is a funky chain line you have going on there." I think to myself, "Wouldn't you be responsible for that? Seeing how you re-cabled the bike when it was last in and then adjusted both derailleurs?" Maybe I'm missing something here as I'm not the best bike tech out there.
Anyhow, I show him the K-Edge chain catcher that I brought with me to have installed. I explain to him that of course I'd like to have the front derailleur adjusted so that this is an unnecessary piece of equipment but at the moment my confidence in the shifting is zero. This would give me some piece of mind. Not only has the chain been dropping but shifting up to the big ring has been ugly too. Thus my frustration.
He works on adjusting it on the stand for a bit but then eventually says it would be easier for him to install the catcher if he took it to the back room to work on it. 10 minutes later he's back with everything adjusted and installed. He tells me it's shifting really well now. Unfortunately their trainer was in use, so I couldn't hop on to try it out under load. So I crossed my fingers and headed for home.
Last night I had a 80 minute ride on the trainer with a bunch of shift changes. No drops! And stepping up to the big ring is soooo much better. It's probably as good as I can expect. I just need to readjust my feel for the shifting now that it's working properly.
I finally feel that my dread of shifting on this bike is going to go away. Of course I'm a bit disappointed that I couldn't manage the adjustments on my own but that's how it goes. Until I work at a bike shop making those adjustments every day and learning from a pro, I'll be spending the money when adjusting the trims just isn't enough. (hopefully I'm set for a good long while now)
While I was at the bike shop I also wanted to try on helmets. My helmet is old and I keep hearing people say that they lose their effectiveness with age. Which, when I think about it, makes sense. Especially with a model like mine which is 99% foam. It's going to get brittle with age along with heat (leaving it in a hot car) and light deterioration (normal use).
If I'm going to buy a helmet, I figure I'd like to consider upgrading to something that allows for a ton of airflow to keep me cool. So I started at the top and tried on the Giro Ionos. As soon as I put it on, I thought, "My current helmet is crap". Why? Because of the lack of fit adjustment and such. Obviously there are many other helmets that have the nice fit adjustments, it's just that I've never worn one. This helmet feels like it would stay on your head in a crash, whereas my current one, I'm not so sure.
The second thing that came to mind is just how huge the vents are in this helmet! Seeing it in the pictures didn't give me enough appreciation for how big these vents are. One of the main reasons I'm really not that interested in an areo helmet is the lack of air. I sweat... buckets. These are the types of vents I'm looking for. Obviously this is a spendy helmet. What else is out there?
I then tried on the Bell Volt. $65 less MSRP than the Ionos which is considerable in my opinion. I felt that it fit equally as well. Venting also looked to be very good.
I didn't buy either of them, they both very nice options. I'll make a decision on that soon.
Training and the eating plan are both on track. I've been thinking about my base training and I've been feeling that maybe the volume has been a little low. That may be a good thing. Err on the side of caution rather than doing too much right? I'm probably just feeling this way because I'm itching to start the build for race season. I'm sure I'm not the only one out there feeling this way.
Lastly, is anyone going to the Endurance Expo down near Philly this weekend?
No comments:
Post a Comment