John’s Ramblings

Garry at Mountain Bike Outfitters called Tuesday afternoon with the joyous news: “It’s a new set of wheels!”. The Velocity deep-V rims (Ti Grey) that I had ordered were in, and he was building up the wheels at that moment. Happy Happy Joy Joy. This meant that I could replace the rear wheel that I had borrowed from Terri’s bike, and I could quit sweating bullets about a wheel failure every time I hit the smallest pavement imperfection.

I did a quick clean-up on the bike, and a not-so quick clean-up of the chain. The latter process ended up being an hour of transferring all the built up oil and road grime from my chain to my hands, which now had the magical power to turn everything I touched black. I headed down to the shop an hour earlier than normal for the start of Use It or Lose It in order to pay the man, and to get my cassette and tires transferred. That process ended up taking a little longer than expected, so I sent the assembled 7 riders off with the other ride leader. I met them on the Interurban Trail in Tukwila, and managed to get a respectable 13.6 miles in for the night. The wheels are very nice, and being somewhat of a clydesdale I feel better having 32 spokes rather than the 24 that come stock on bikes these days. The spokes are all shiny and silver, catching the lights at night. They are a stark contrast to the black spokes I’ve been riding, kinda retro-chic in my book. I’m a happy cyclist.

We also found out last night that Use It or Lose It ended up making the list of “8 Great Club Rides” in this month’s Bicycling Magazine (March 2007, p. 43). It should be interesting to see if it increases participation, or possibly hits to this site.

172.52 miles ytd (roughly double my January ’06 mileage).

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