Was pretty amped to go ride as I prepped myself a Huge sauce pan of garbanzo beans. I am really doing my best for my system to avoid grains so the simple carbs I am trying to use to fuel my rides are Beans. As I sipped my coffee and continued my prep I marveled at how long it was taking, gosh....Finally out the door, the air is crisp, the bike's rolling great, I constantly have to force my Knee Paranoia out of my head, but I could of sworn I felt something not even five minutes into it.
But I ignored it. Got into the Tall Woods section heading towards Old Train Road, decided to stop at the dead end and adjust the bars and just soak in nature for a bit.
I took some pics, started making a mental list of things I would do to make this bike even more comfortable for a SUPER LONG ULTRA LEVEL Epic. Hmmm, More Bar tape, Check, shorter stem? Nah, seems like turning the bars up a bit really helped, internal dialogue is funny.
As I roll on to the other side of Old train Road I start putting the hammer down a bit, having fun,
the twinge in my knee disappeared, (could it have been from over reach all along???) and then when exiting that section of dirt, I notice my rear TUBED tire getting very squishy. I pull out my trusty Topeak Mountain Morph mini pump(which I love) and attempt to pump the tire only to see it deflate rapidly. Apparently the little top cap of the inflater head must of vibrated loose during PMBAR, backed out and I lost all the guts. 
Fantastic, I am stuck walking. So Push, I go.The first thing I did was Text a friend to see if she was up and could come fetch me. The second part of the plan was to walk to Ace Hardware 1.5 miles away and see if they had a pump that would work with my presta valve and make a flat repair, all the while, keeping an eye open for any real cyclist that may have a pump I could use in their house. Well I asked one guy and he did not have a pump. So walked, I did, eventually reaching ACE. ACE did not have a pump, so on I walked to the bank to get cash, then to Mcdonald's to break down said cash, then to the bus stop.
Everything was timed perfect as I ended up catching the bus and being dropped off to finish my walk home.While walking I call Broadus from Bikeworks Orlando and ask him if he has supplies to make tubeless, I did not want to go thru this again. He said he did, and after some waiting, I rolled out to go do the damn thing. It took some time and some work on my part, but after a couple of hours I left with a Tubeless fixed war machine, but had to Leave the Black Beauty. While attempting to repair the bent derailleur hanger from PMBAR it snapped. Ordered two and was on my way home.
Broadus totally hooked up my Tubeless for the right price. Let's just say for the same amount of money I would of spent on 4 venti Iced Latte's at Starbucks, I got Tubeless!!!
I really dug how the bike rolled. At an easy cadence I was easily doing 13mph, so I decided on some FAT tire Commutes for the week as many as I can muster with the hopes of getting my leg speed up on the bike. I have only completed one successful Self Supported Race and its on that bike, in fact when I look at the stats I have had more plug pulling incidents on that damn Salsa then I have the War Machine. Is it the name? Is it the bike itself? Cursed? We will see right cause I'm pretty sure that I am using the Black Beauty at the TNGA.
Regardless, we are a couple of days away from the NK Ride REDUX, you should be there, its gonna be awesome! There will be a riders meeting for sure and I am looking to be done in the 6 hour total time range, and that's at sight seeing pace, I hope to control the front so as to not blow anyone out of the water.
A nice little Intimate ride, hopefully will have my Black back by then so I can put the aero bars on it and test the Fred bars for their actual intended application vs. what I have been using them for, LOL.
Ok, well, should be an interesting week,
Take Care,
Laters,
The NaKeD InDiaN
2 comments:
I'm so glad we left that hanger alone at PMBAR!
its exactly the same thing I thought when I heard it snap.. I lost some gears but it was better than having to go SS mid race and or walking... I told you, I listen to the captain!
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