More gear stuff

So, another week of classes down, just one more to go! I have classes through next Friday, then a few finals between then and the following Thursday (the 10th.) One day to get all the last minute stuff done (including packing all my stuff into our basement,) then flying out of Denver Saturday afternoon!


Have gotten a lot of little things done to get ready for the bike trip over the last few days, mostly gear related. Main item is I spent an afternoon replacing all the cables and cable housings on the bike with new ones. Had been meaning to replace the brake cables for a while and am very glad that I did! The little chunk of metal on the end of the front brake cable (the thing that the brake lever pulls on - probably has some fancy name) had literally broken in two and it looks like half the strands of cable had broken off. Not good! Looks like failure wasn't too far off, had that happen a couple years ago on my beater mountain bike and it was quite a spooky experience!

The new cables have been working well, was pretty surprised when I took it on a ride around the block and the derailers and everything were adjusted almost perfectly right off the bat, lucky! Only issue so far is that when I re-taped the handlebars, I wrapped a little too much of the derailer cables (I've got bar end shifters,) so they rub against my pinkies when I grip the drops. Will probably take care of that before I take off, although it's not that big of a deal as I don't use that riding position much.

Did some more work on the front end Friday as well. The headset had been a bit loose for a while, so I took it over to Full Cycle and tightened it up a little bit. Unfortunately, when I did that, I realized that the bearing races were pitted as the wheel really liked staying in a few distinct positions - not good. Picked up a new headset for ~$25, still need to either borrow a headset tool or improvise one to put it in. Or, I suppose it would be OK to just pay bike shop to do the labor.


Picked up a handlebar bag the other day, hopefully my last decent size gear purchase for this trip. It's got a clever mounting mechanism - a little hard to see in the picture, but there's a little bit of steel cable that loops under the stem and over the handlebar so that the mount can't twist down and let the bag sag into the front brake or headtube.

Spent some time at work researching shipping options for getting my bike out to the coast. Pretty sure I'm going to ship it UPS and have them hold it for me, then just pick it up and assemble it when I get out there. So, the only big logistical thing left is figuring out a ride from Damascus, VA to the Yorktown area. Shouldn't be too difficult....