Hello Old Friend -or- Revenge of the Bike

Our team's efforts in our Race Across America fell well short after Josiah had to bow out with a knee injury, so on Monday I returned the 2007 Trek Madone 5.0 that I had been using to the store where we'll sell it as a demo bike. I had a few weeks to look into buying the bike, but decided that the deal wasn't sweet enough to pursue it.

So, I'm back on the LeMond Zurich that I picked up last summer. Still a great bike, but I wouldn't have minded trading up. I hit the road with it on Tuesday and the bike messed with me some to let me know that it didn't appreciate being left alone for six weeks. I had loaned the bike to Dave in the bike shop who rode it once (on a ride with me), but apparently that wasn't enough.

I started by spending a good five minutes on the bike trail messing with the saddle height and pitch before finding a position I felt I could live with for the full ride. The bike was also rattling in a way that was driving me nuts. It sounded like the chain or a cable slapping against something, but I couldn't pinpoint it. I started to wonder if Dave had put a ball bearing in the frame just to mess with me. I finally figured out that I had a loose bolt on my bottle cage. A quick adjustment and I was back in business.

I had originally planned to do about 30 miles, but about 15 in I realized that I was starting to lose air pressure, so I started nursing the bike home in order to avoid having to change a tube on the road. As I got closer to home, I got slower and slower. The pressure was dropping and I knew that I was running the risk of damaging the rim if I hit a bump too hard or rolled the tire off the rim on a corner, so I eased it home. I normally run my tire pressure at about 110 psi. By the time I got home I was at 20 psi. Not optimal at all.

Hopefully, the bike will treat me kinder on the next ride (which I'm planning for Saturday). In the meantime, I've been getting reacquainted with my Gary Fisher Rig that I got in April. I had only ridden it once during the Race Across America, so I did the work commute yesterday and rode it to coffee with Aaron this morning. I'll probably look to get out on some decent trails at Newton Hills or Beaver Creek with it soon and test my off road abilities in the next few weeks, but probably not until after our move next week.