Coffeeneuring 2017: Coffeeneuring 2017 Ride 2

Ride 2--Sunday October 22, 2017

My three speed Electra cruiser has been giving me a little bit of a problem lately. I recently had to have the dropout lock fixed at my local bike shop, only to find that I needed a new three speed cable mount, at the rear hub. What a pain--three-speeds are very easy to work on unless it's mine, I guess. I was able to hang out with my bike shop guy and he showed me how to fix it if it happens again. The bike worked perfectly after the fix. I even bought a new randoneur rack as a thank you for the front of the bike.

We rode downtown this weekend for gallery night--got in 3.8 miles, which reminds me how long it's been since I've ridden more than 15 on a single ride. It has been a VERY long time--like I said in an earlier post--I'm ashamed of my mileage this year for sure.

Today we decided to ride to Drowsy Poet Coffee house on the beach. A staple ride since we started doing coffeeneuring years ago. It's one of our absolute favorite places with a fantastic ambiance, great views, and even better coffee.

Today it felt like I was riding in the Tour de France with team Lacondesa. I actually got dropped by my other slow riders on the trip over this morning. We had a tail wind too, and I had no idea why I couldn't catch up. I figured it must be a late night last night, drinking late, sleeping late, lack of exercise on the bike--no matter what I tried, I could not catch up to my neighbors and wifey. It was crazy. By the time I got to the 4 mile mark I was pouring sweat, and had to stop. There was either something wrong with me, or with the bike.

I had given up on trying to catch up at this point. I figured my friends or wife would at least turn their head to see that I wasn't with them anymore, but it never happened.

My first stop was to loosen the rear brake, and take a look at the hub that was giving me trouble in the first place--maybe something was tightened too much in the shop, or a brake was rubbing. I adjusted my seat to a higher height, all while dripping sweat and being out of breath. It was crazy. Surely I wasn't this out of shape. I adjusted a few things, then had the same problems. Finally after a few breaks, some stops, adjustments, I felt like i was making some headway. Maybe my body was just getting reused to riding more than 5 miles at a clip. Something was wrong but i couldn't figure out what the heck it was.

Finally I caught up to Team LaCondesa at Whataburger. I certainly thought multiple times about just calling them and telling them I'll cook my coffee later, and came very close to turning around and riding later.

Once in the parking lot, instead of cutting the trip short and going to whataburger, I decided I was going to push on. I told my friends it felt like the rear hub was rubbing on something but even loosening the brake cable and the nuts on the axle didn't seem to help.

We got to the bridge. I realized what it was at this point. I obviously wasn't going to be riding my cruiser up a 6% grade with what seemed to be my brakes being on, so i dismounted and pushed it up the half mile hill. When I pushed the bike, it was super hard to push at this point. What a disaster this turned out to be. Along with the 20 mile per hour headwind, my neighbor Joe, a the top of the bridge suggested we maybe just turn around and go to whataburger--hell no, we made it this far, I'll try to fix the problem at the bottom of the hill, once we make the Drowsy Poet parking lot.

Turns out it wasn't the rear hub at all--the front rack that I installed was rubbing against the front brake cable causing the FRONT tire to appear to be on the brake--all those adjustments were for not, so the way back I was constantly adjusting all the adjustments I adjusted in order to try and make the ride easier, which failed in the first place! Needless to say, once I figured out it was the front brake, I just disconnected the brake up front and no longer had the problem. I'd rather be moving anyway--I can always put my feet down if my brakes don't work!

Glad I got it figured out, we enjoyed three iced coffees, and I had a hot Caramel Macchiatto--not the best decision on the day where it felt like I was murdering myself, but at least I was able to figure it out. The ride home was a little hard due to my legs being toast from the ride over, but much more pleasant. The worst part of the ride home was the final two miles, where the wind held dead at us at about 20-25 miles per hour. My legs were burning, but we got the ride completed. My red face was from overheating, windburn, and more than likely a little blood pressure. Maybe I should watch my salt intake.

Ride 2: 14.5 miles, avg speed 8mph

Ride to Drowsy Poet in 20mph headwind

Brake problems.

Don't murder yourself. Fix the problem before the ride.

#droppedbyteamLaCondesa