John’s Ramblings

Because I experienced pain in my left wrist during STP, I made an appointment with my Physical Therapist to have the fit of my new Lemond checked.

Ron put my bike in a trainer-stand, and I got on and started pedaling. He stopped me at various intervals and measured angles and positions. Seat height and position were good, as evidenced by lack of any pain in the knees during my 200 mile ride in one day.

He asked about my gloves, and I pulled them out of my pocket and put them on. He looked at the palms and noted that the stretch and wear patterns on the left hand were far more pronounced than the right. That prompted him to get out a bubble-level, and lay it across the brake hoods. The left brake/shifter was sitting about 1/4 inch higher on the handlebar than the right. This wasn’t enough to be visible, or even evident to me as I rode. It was significant enough to force me to bear more weight on the left, and to also subconsciously bend my left wrist a bit during the ride in order to compensate. Wrist pain explained!

Ron raised up the brake-shifter on the right side by 1/4 inch, and I was on my way. I’ll give it a 20 mile test ride this evening, then the acid-test will be August 4th, day 1 of the RSVP.

On another semi-related front, it appears that I bent my rear wheel Saturday, either on a bridge expansion joint in Buckley, or perhaps on the rather large tree-root-bumps in the Foothills trail in that same vicinity. Therefore it looks like I’ll be seeking a new rear wheel before the Vancouver ride.

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