Day 243: Wearing out my Bikes

I’ve written a lot about how difficult it’s been for me to ride daily throughout the winter months, but what I haven’t written about is the damage that I’ve done to perfectly good bikes. It’s been an even worse winter for my bikes, than for me.

I’ve tried very hard to keep my bikes in good working order, however riding in the rain is simply punishing to them. The water that inevitably gets into the bearings, as well as the sand and mud that enters into the drive train, wears out parts faster than you can sneeze.

I tried to prepare my Superheavy for today’s ride with a buddy from WTB, and things were really not looking good for the bike. First of all, the headset is worn to the point that it needs to be replaced (That's number two). Then there’s the rear wheel that has bearings so far worn out that they can no longer be adjusted. My friend “F” tried his best to get the wheel back into adjustment, but there was no way to bring it back to spec. He looked at me and then said that riding on the wheel was dangerous at best. Today was it's last hoorah with me.

The drive train is also making that noises that no one likes to hear, because it means one thing, that it needs replacement! That’s a repair that costs hundreds of dollars that I really don’t want to spend right now. Uugh.

The bottom line is this, if I’m going to ride my bikes every day, I’m going to wear out parts at a very high rate of speed. I can’t do anything about that. It’s simply a part of R2R. Bicycles really aren’t meant to be ridden in the rain, extreme mud, and also the sand that’s found around here. They’re an extremely bad combination for moving parts. So this is just a part of my new program.

I rode with a new friend today, and we had a great ride, albeit a bit short in length due to work time constraints. Even so, we were able to get in a good climb, and then some beautiful single track. He’s been riding mountain bikes longer than I have, and that’s not usual. 1983 for him, and back then he had a custom Fat Chance (NICE!), and for me it was 1988, and I was riding a GT. Thanks for the ride “C,” let’s do it again soon.