Sometimes your the Hammer, sometimes your the nail. Worst ride in awhile....
Sunday I had one of the worst rides in a while. Perhaps ever. So, I thought I would share my mis-adventures....
Goal for the ride was to try and get in a few easy hours on the new P5. I am going to race it on Saturday 5/4 at Wildflower and I need to get in as many miles as possible. I have been through a few new bikes recently, and the first 50-100 miles can be dicy as things settle in or shake loose. You need to get in a few rides and then go back around and re-torque everything.
20 minutes into the ride, a guy in a LOUD kit yells my name as he zooms down the hill I am grinding up, Coach Rich in a non-EN kit? I should have taken that sighting as bad omen and just turned around.
Issue #1. Thirty minutes after the Coach R sighting, I am JRA (just riding along) and I hit a small seem in the asphalt. Bang! I the left aero pad pops off and almost crashes me! I stop the bike and walk back to pickup the pad. The soft part is still velcro'ed to the support which left the two bolts where they needed be.
When I added the aero bridge to hold the bottle, I should have added longer screws. The LBS used shorter one, because there was no bridge there. When I hit that little bump, the screws pulled out the single thread or two holding the pad support in place. Bummer. So, now I flip it thinking I will just peddle home sitting up and score the right bolts.
Issue #2. I am descending down a long hill into a stop light. I make the left at the light and as soon as I cross the intersection, my steering goes to hell. WTF?? Turns out I have a flat front tire. Damn it!
I pull over to the side and the wheel is holding air, but it's soft. Maybe a slow leak? Perhaps a little air will get me home. I am close-ish. I have two CO2's so why not. I screw the first CO2 onto the Lezyne chuck and put it on the wheel. Nope, It will not hold air. I quickly change the tube and reach for CO2 #2.
Issue #3. The CO2 is NOT threaded! How the heck will attach it to my lezyne chuck?!? At some point, at a bike shop, I grabbed a handful of CO2s out of a bowl near the register and some how a non-threaded one got mixed in.
Now I am stranded.
Bike looks sexy right? Not as fast though....
Time to activate my emergency plan. I bite the bullet and call my wife. Thankfully she is a gamer and eager to pick me up and probably tease me about it. Lucky I am close to home and 10 minutes later she pulls up.
Issue #4. Here is the capper! I pop the hatch on her car and the first words out of her mouth are "is that a new bike?" OMG. It's Sunday, I picked up the bike the previous Tuesday. It has been in the garage in plain site for almost a week and no mention of it from her. That's the beauty of having eight bikes. You can just slide number nine in.
"No, I have had this bike for a while." It's lame, but I give it a shot. She responds by stretching her arms out with her elbows close together as if doing the "aero position" and says "Your bike that does this (aero) is white. That ones black."
I am caught. I tell her "no, this old. I have had it since Tuesday...." Lucky for me she is cool.....
Tough day in the saddle none the less.
FYI - Longer bolts did the trick. Bike is ROCK solid and ready for Wildflower!
Comments
busted.
My break-in rides on the P4 have been less eventful, but even though my new front brake shows up tomorrow I don't think I'm going tempt fate and change anything else until after the race.
Just envisioning the Mrs imitating the aero position while describing is funny though