How does this keep happening!??!  

that was rhetorical, i know exactly how this keeps happening: a) ride a lot so stuff always needs fixing, b) have 5 bikes between you and your wife, c) suck as a mechanic so everything takes 3x too long, d) be compulsive and eager to learn so you invest lots of time in this, and e) have too much to do so you are sloppy and make mistakes.

grrrrrrrrrr!

things started out well enough getting Beckie’s bike together with Rick’s help, and I learned a lot, and we got really drunk doing it. then Saturday I decided to chase down some play in pivots on the Blur, which led to a good cleaning and a bottom bracket service and a wheel truing and an understanding of the bottom pivot and that i couldn’t fix the problem. Meanwhile, I had the bike upside down, and somehow must have forgotten to get the chain all right once things were rightside up, so i bent my chain and bent the derailleur cage. No great loss both things needed replacing, but in actually measuring and changing a chain and using the PowerLinks for the first time, and then dealing with the additional heretofore-unknown bug of the derailleur, I spent about 3 hours on something that should have taken about 30 minutes, and the thing still wouldn’t shift worth a shit. and then i spent time online ordering parts.

did i mention parts i ordered for another small project were backordered, which meant more time ordering and un-ordering parts?

did i also mention a tiny-yet-essential plastic part on my helmet cracked for no good reason, necessitating an RMA to Giro?

then i decided to get G’s bracket off the Heckler so I could do my mid-week National ride, and in so doing noticed a tiny tear in the sidewall from Area 52. Again, no loss, the tread was gone it was time to replace the tire, but this would be my first time changing out a Stans’d tire. It was different than a typical tubeless, and in my cockiness that i knew what i was doing i shorted a couple key steps since sealant on a Stans’d rim is not quite the same as Slime and a UST rim. more soap, air compressor highly advised, hold the wheel horizontal and shake it sideways…things i will never overlook again. as the job took me about 20 minutes once i re-read the instructions and started over.   thankfully, Alex let me borrow his air compressor overnight — I have got to get one soon! meanwhile the garage looks like the set of a porno movie. and since it was off, i trued the wheels and rotors.

and the rest of Beckie’s parts arrived.

i did ride Hawes with Ray and Alex, and we had fun despite the constant ghost-shifting off my rear derailleur. and i hit the staircase by the Walgreen’s again, this time on the Blur!