Wednesday, October 14, 2009

On Cyclocross.... public thanks.

Ok, so I am pretty stoked on racing cross.

Here are a few things that are pretty freaking awesome.

- Having 2 bikes. A brother hooked me up with some nice 10sp shifters last year saying that I needed a pit bike. I was not going to argue, but wasnt super sure of it. This weekend in Cincinnati I took a few bike exchanges the first day in the TOTAL MUD FEST. It made a huge difference having a mud free bike. Thank you Sean.

- Sweet people. John and Dave pitted for me Friday. This basically consists of standing in cold mud and having me throw a dirty bike at them so they can hand a cleaner one back to me. Somehow they were stoked on it. I was all like "let me buy you beers" and then I didnt (due to John going to another race sunday and getting paid that day in checks not cash etc etc). I OWE YOU. Awesome.

- Crowd hecklers / cheerers. It took 5 laps on Sunday until I was offered NON ALCOHOLIC BEER hand ups. That is freaking awesome. Im still not sure who those kids were, but they were obviously down. Each day I also made about 6 dollars in crowd money. This was then used to buy cokes for people I raced against afterward. A coke after a cross races is indescribable. No I wont even try to describe it.

Finally
- SRAM shifters (warning, total bike geek stuff...)... After the mudfest of Friday, I had to play with my bike some. The shifting was not perfect Sunday and I was a bit worried that the shifter might have shifted its last shift. (We are talking 1st generation Rival Aluminum shifters with at least 10,000 miles on them for real). I took it apart today cause it wasnt dropping into the smallest cog in the back very well. I am fairly mechanically inept as far as dudes who have been tinkering with bike stuff for 20 years goes. It was so easy. Remember the 9 speed sti's and how you knew when one was dead and there was like nothing you could do but push up on the shift lever while shifting or stick a rubber band around it to hold it to the brake? ....

- took shifter off.
- took 3 screws out and removed plate.
- cleaned all the dirt and muck out of the wheel that I saw. (you can actually see how the shifter works right here. Unlike the shimano stuff...)...
- cleaned it better
- sprayed it with T9
- put 3 screws back in and put on bike.

It seriously feels really really good. Not new, but really good. So stoked.

2 comments:

Chris Mayhew said...

Speaking of, I forgot to thank you for pitting for me. The tactical information was extremely helpful and very motivating. Thanks for that.

Anonymous said...

glad you are putting that stuff to good use!! my first race of the season is tomorrow. A little drier down here though...no pit bike for me!

Sean