Taking some time off

Sorry for the lack of updates here. It has been a hectic few weeks. Promotion at work, means more responsibilities and learning new tools, good in some respects. Being put in charge of a team also means longer hours and more accountability. End of the quarter also means account reviews and in this economic climate those are even more important than ever.

I have been riding a bunch, managed to ride four days last week culminating in a second attempt at the Bicycles East Saturday Mid-morning ride. This time I made 12 miles before being dropped on Union Road. A little short cut straight up Hwy 218 and I made it back safely and happy with the effort. Now sitting at 240 miles on the season so it might be time to start some power workouts to help bring back some of the leg strength lost during my riding hiatus. This winter will be interesting as I feel I have lost so much this year, I need to make up some ground. The end of the year is coming soon and I so much want to participate in New Year’s Eve/Day rides.

Congratulations to all those that participated in this past weekend’s Mid-Atlantic MS ride. I have already seen good things posted about the route from Rock Hill to Greenville. I hope to read more good stories.

I received a clean bill of health from my neck surgeon yesterday. The neck seems to have healed up very well. The scar is just a bit wider than the surgeon wanted but it is not in a spot that concerns me. It also seems that short of the worst outcome I did suffer from every complication that this procedure brings. While not 100% back up to strength I have recovered enough to make cycling tiring rather than painful. My guess is that my left arm strength is about 80%, there are a few movements that are not possible because of the missing strength and muscle tone, but everyday actions are easily accomplished now. The neck muscles are healing well and now instead of pain when riding they are just tiring. The mileage is increasing with each ride before the tiring begins, now at about mile 20 of any given ride. Nothing a couple of NSAID’s won’t take care of after a ride.

The tandem made it out for a ride last week. Nicole and I were able to ride around our area with a bit of climbing and a 10 mile loop. Since I had the time to fiddle with it everything seems to work just a bit better. Shortened the rear derailleur cable about an inch and retuned the rear derailleur. Shifting is just about spot on while still just a bit slower going up versus going down through the rear cluster. I don’t expect it to be as crisp as a single bike but it is sure close. It would be nice is Shimano figured out that Di2 would be of benefit to tandems and made both a long cage rear derailleur and a triple front available in Di2. Replaced the rear stem with a 140mm Easton. It is a bit heavier than the Ritchie 4-Axis but at 1cm longer and 2° shallower it brings the rear bars just a bit closer in and more in line with Nicole’s single bike. It will result in a better fit for her. What was really needed was a 150mm stem but the only one I could find is made by Deda and is out of production.

There will be much to talk about when we return; Shimano’s revised Ultegra group, new cranks from Rue Sports, updates on components used in our tandem, review of the new Hudz colored brake hoods, as well as questions to be answered. We won’t be gone long maybe just a week or two. Expect more pictures too.

The last thing is while you know we have been trying to support local cycling as much as we can, usually by promoting it in pictures, there is one ride coming up that previous commitments prevent us from attending. The upcoming Morrow Mountain Massacre is a local ride from Matthews to Morrow Mountain then back again. It is turning out to be a real challenge and well supported ride. I hear people talking about it all over the cycling community. Sign up for it and you won’t be disappointed. Unfortunately we cannot make it this year as all of us will be out of town that entire weekend. So no pictures unless someone else takes up the charge.

That’s it for now, be safe and keep the rubber side down.