I was supposed to race NCVC's Ed Sander Memorial CX race but instead I stayed home, drank beer and watched the Skins beat up on the Cowboys. Yes, I could have raced another bike, but I was not in the mood, not after picking up my brand new Blue cross bike and nearly crashing because the stem bolts were not tight and the bars took a major nose dive on me going down Capitol Hill. Then I dropped my chain about 50 (I kid you not) times because the derailleur limits were not set properly (or at all if you ask the bike shop that wound up fixing everything). Then my chain breaks because the pin was bent during installation. Thankfully, we had already made it back to the city and were near a Metro stop, otherwise that would have been one long walk. Oh, and then the straddle cable on the brakes was cut too short so my wheel would not fit. Yeah, I was pissed. In fact, there was so much wrong with the build of the bike that it took Conte's (by the way, Conte's did not build the bike) 2 hours to fix everything. They had to basically rip all the cables off and start from scratch. But on the bright side, the Blue is ready to go and hopefully I will be too come this weekend's doubleheader of Hagerstown/Kelley Acres.
I'm behind on my blogging so I'll just state that last weekend's races were ok. I had good finishes (a 2nd and a 3rd) but something seems to be wrong with the legs. I can't climb my way out of a paper bag these days. Or maybe it's Anne Rock(star) intimidating me at the start. Here are some photos...
Dirty Girl Anne (in pink). See how she's already got her elbow on me?
Charm City Cross podium. We are sporting our coveted Under Armour jackets that we won.
Goat with chicken.
New favorite place to eat on the Hill, Cafe 8. Belga, my old favorite place, is always too busy. The only thing Cafe 8 lacks is Belgian beer, but this Polish one will do for now.
4 comments:
This is why I became a mechanic. Crappy wrenches won't ever touch my bike again.
Yeah, Sonja and I are looking into becoming more mechanically skilled. We are even considering mechanic school in Colorado Springs or the one in Oregon. I have a hard time learning from a book but am a pretty quick study once someone show's me something.
Barnets or UBI. I vote for UBI in Oregon.
If you guys can wait until January I am moving back to the Annapolis/Davidson area and can go through most anything. I've organized/taught many shop mechanics clinic.
who put it together?
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