Since I was having trouble with my rear derailleur pinging on the wheel, I took the bike in. They monkeyed with my hanger a little so I had the clearance I needed, then slapped a new chain on which fixed the gear slippage on the front rings. I was pretty excited! Unfortunately a chest cold kept me sidelined for a few days until I started feeling better. I got on and rode off and things were going GREAT for about half a mile up the hill when the bike started crunching every sixth to seventh pedal stroke on the rear cassette. I figured I might have it slightly misaligned after being in the shop, so I fiddled with the derailleur and rode, fiddled and rode, and fiddled and rode for about 15 minutes to no avail. With a heavy heart I turned around and started back to the house only to have an epiphany! I jumped off and started spinning the pedals backwards to watch the chain go by and sure enough, one of the links was freezing up. The masterlink, to be exact. I smeared my fingers along the chain to get some extra oily goodness on them and rubbed it into the masterlink, then worked it back and forth a dozen times or so until it loosened up. I jumped back on my bike and SUCCESS! I was riding smooth as silk again! Even a little better since I’d dialed in my rear derailleur as accurately as possible and now my shift to the big cog was easier than before. Then I set off for my ultimate destination! A trip to my friend’s house up Crestview, a 600ish foot climb with two very steep sections, one about 16-18% and one 14-16%. I included pictures from the bottom and top for reference :
As you can see, the view at the top is very nice. The view at the bottom… well,.. the picture doesn’t really do it justice. Anyway, my newly usable granny gear got me to the top of it. If you look carefully you can see another biker in a yellow jacket climbing the hill. I caught him about halfway up and beat him to the top. I’d feel proud about that but he was running a double and I have a triple, so it wasn’t even CLOSE to a fair contest. Based on his leg cadence, I suspect it’s a compact double, but still, that’s a tough hill!
Over the top and down towards my friend’s house on an 18% down grade I discovered that I may need new rear brake pads! Not the best time to find THAT out! I made it past the steep section and started doing repeats on a tiny little 50 foot ‘dip’ that made for some fun thrashing of my legs until my chain started seizing again. At that point, I decided to call it a day and grunted over the last tiny climb and scooted down to my friend’s house babying the brakes all the way.
The Red Lantern Rides Again! 