click click click

so for a while the commuter/cross bike has been making a bit of a racket.

not the normal fender rattle that it has, or the hum of constantly under-inflated tires (it is a cross bike - tires never go above 60psi)... this was a pedal stroke sensitive click.

I couldn't feel it in my shoes, but i'm running some 3-4 year old two strap Sidi mt bike shoes i bought new for $25 with toe straps to keep the velcro attached and the shoe somewhat secure (velcro is completely worn out). Yeah it is either ride with these or ride with my Specialized 3 velcro strap mtb shoes that I raced in for a year or two and that are serving as my road shoes. My other pairs of Sidis have self destructed and i'm down to two pair. Oh and with the worn cleat of who know what vintage and the Shimano 747 pedals from '96 or something with the aluminum on the end totally smashed from CX remounts and bashing rocks it is hard to feel clicking like you can sometimes.

The BB is pretty new, replacing the old '95-96 vintage 7400 square taper BB. But the Ti bolts that hold the crank arm on can stretch and sometimes loosen up.

Over the last week it hasn't really been getting worse I've just been progressively more annoyed with it. So I had to do something to it this week.

Before taking the crank arm off to clean the square taper surfaces i checked the chainring bolts. Nope they were all good. Pop the crank off. Hmm the pedal has a bunch of play. Clean that junction up, grab a normal 14mm crank bolt and tighten it way down (maybe the sugino angle is slightly different than the dura-ace, i think they are supposed to be the same though). Take the 14mm bolt out and stick the Ti one back in.

So rather than just leave it at that to see if I fixed the ticking I pulled the pedal off.

Shimano pedals are nice. Those 747s you just grab the shimano tool and take out the spindle. There was a bunch of play. So i grabbed a 7mm wrench and a 10mm cone wrench and adjusted the play out of the bearings, stuck a touch of grease in the pedal body and put it back together. No play and smooth as silk.

Man i love me some adjustable bearings.

I'd isolated the creak to the drive side doing some one legged riding. Got passed by a handful of pathletes while I was doing the investigations over the last week. Of course i was almost matching their pace with one leg to their two, not that anyone is keeping track or it matters.

I also went Adam Craig on the bike. Yeah that dark XTR gray and no cable hanger in the back works pretty damn well. Sleek too. All that canti talk got me to take the xtr v-brakes off the mantra (that hasn't been ridden since the 24 hours of great glen i raced) and put em on. Only had time to put them on the rear. But i did that after actually installing the travel agents correctly on skinny's tandem. So it is all ready to go for the new two weeks of commuting.

finally got some batteries for the one working bike computer, an old sigma BC 800 for my wife's Lemond. I had walked into CVS and saw the $5 price tag and walked back out. Found the LR44 from a battery place, 10 for $6.85. Shipped free. And placed the order earlier this week, they were at the house last night. Crazy.

That and my sunscreen has been sold out for a while. I guess all the press they got as one of the only "safe" sunscreens out there flew the stuff off the shelf. It is pricey and we tend to try and stretch it out. But you can't stretch a 3oz tube out forever. And with the 3, 5, and 9 oz sizes out of stock at every online retailer i could find I broke down and bought the one size left. the 128oz size. holy hell of a lot of sunscreen. We'll see if it actually was in stock and if it ships. It was a bit of cash but with a week coming up on the beaches of the Outer Banks in NC can you really have too much sunscreen? And unlike last years cloudy rain fest of the early summer and the cool weather, it has been sunny and hot. More skin time.

Time to make the mad dash to the summer camp. I'm getting my TT efforts in now anyway. I should just start timing them...

heddwch
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