Bike Maintenance

I have this thing that makes me feel really insecure whenever I go to a bike shop for maintenance.

As soon as they start talking about rotors, and cold-working, and torque, I have this overwhelming urge to prove that I understand what they're talking about. Because I do! I am one year away from being a mechanical engineer! So I ask overly detailed questions (today, "would the number of arms in the rotor affect the heat resistance of my brakes?) and nod, looking pensive, at the answers.

There really is just a lot of cool science in bike maintenance. I legitimately wish I knew more, so at least some of my interest in what they're telling me is sincere. But mostly I can't wait until I get my iron ring so I can subtly flash it. I've already practised signing my name with my adorned pinky finger prominently displayed.

It's so strange, though. When I ask the guy at Best Buy for helping purchasing a printer, I have no urge to let him know that I knooooow things. When I try on running shoes and the girl instructs me on Gait 101 I don't need to interject with the full rundown of my podiatric experience. But let's get real here: one time I even purposely wore an engineering t-shirt when dropping off my bike. WHO DOES THAT.

I guess maybe I don't want them to give me just the basics. I don't want him to say "you should buy this chain because it is stronger and won't rust as easily." I want the full low down! I've always been jealous of the people who know so much bike stuff. I couldn't even change my own wheel until last year! But are there bike maintenance classes? I should sign up.

Anyway, on that note, if you're from the GTA you should shop at Gears. When you buy a bike there, you get life-time free tune-ups, including free wheel truing. And they are charging me $56 for a job that a different bike store told me would cost $220. (I am not in any way getting paid for this message. They just really are the best. And they have an in-store dog!)

Back Road Bike Ride

I'm finally finished school for the summer, so I've been putting my free time to good use. Over the weekend, I decided to go on a nice long bike ride.

Now, Waterloo is a mid sized city, but the university is only about 5-10kms away from farmland. I hate having to dodge cars or stop for red lights, so I usually like to bike out through the farms. I usually only train about 20-30kms on the bike, but I decided that a good 45-50 would be a nice way to end my summer here before I move away.

So I went far out into the country.And I mean far, far out.Soon, my problem became not cars, but horses and buggies. (Waterloo is home to a lot of old order Mennonites) Let's just say that horse poop isn't my TOP choice for scents to bike along with.

The further out I went, the worst the roads got. Luckily I have gloves (thanks, Lin!) that have some padding, but I still felt my elbows get a bit stuff from all the vibration caused by the poor road quality. I had to keep re-routing myself whenever I hit signs like this:SOOOO many gravel/dirt roads! The route I had mapped was 49kms on gmap-pedometer and I really didn't want to cut any of that distance off, but it seemed that everywhere I went was dead-ended by a dirt road!

Also, the further out I went the hillier it got. I promise that people have successfully ski jumped off hills with a lower gradient that the ones I rode on. I was going to take a picture but I didn't want to lose momentum by stopping at the bottom, and they always looked so lame once I got to the top.

I was riding with a 2L Camelbak and I guess I was drinking a little too liberally. 20km from home, I had to pee. This trip was quickly becoming far more wildernessy than I expected. As I realized that I was slightly lost from all my detours, I started to imagine myself foraging for berries and finding rest under a hollow tree for the night.

Everything started really looking the same:But I of course eventually made it home. I ended up only biking 46.3km, but was having a great time near the end. My legs really only whine from about km 5-10, I think. They're like the kids in the back seat asking "are we there yet" and you just have to put on a DVD and suddenly this mode of transportation isn't so hard.

Unfortunately, I'm not going to have a bike in Texas with me for the next four months, but fortunately the sweet bike shorts tan I've got will probably be with me for at least that long.

And finally, I good solid selfy:

LFar and the local bike shop

I'm pretty interested in bike maintenance.

Okay, full disclosure because my sisters are probably going to accuse me of being a poser (they always do that, and it's kind of good because it makes me be honest but it's also annoying because I have to provide caveats to 50% of the statements I make around them), so full disclosure: I am INTERESTED in bike maintenance. Not "I am terrific at it" or "I am vastly knowledgeable" but, "I am interested."

So my lovely mountain bike (which needs a name, yikes!) kind of had a rusty chain (I rode it in the winter) plus it was making a weird noise upon rotation of the front wheel (out of true?) so I decided to take it into the local bike shop.

First things first. 90% of all bike shop employees are incredibly attractive. It's a universally accepted fact. Am I right? So here is the conversation that went on in my head:

My socially acceptable side: So um, let's shower, hey? You haven't showered since yesterday morning
My rational side: UHHHH BUT IT TAKES SO LOOONG.

SA side: Well, okay. Maybe do something to that hair? It's literally bed head.
R side: Quest-ion-nay... what are you suggesting?

SA: mmm, maybe a quick brush, or -
R: or a headband? WHATEVA.

SA: Okay, um, how do you feel make up. A touch of bronzer? You're especially pale since you're sick.
R: Nay can do. It makes my face look dirty.

SA: please brush your teeth at least
R: jjake.

(Slowly yet surely, my two halves turn out to be Jake and Amir)

So I get to the bike shop. Everybody is hunky, as expected. I try to kind of show off, but conversation tends to go this way:

Me: So uh, not sure if this is an acronym or a word because I've only seen it used in IM, but.. "S.R.A.M"? is the brand I want?
Bike Shop Boy: Sram.

Me: Yes, correct. Sram. Always seems to be written in capitals, hey? Heh-heh. Sooo the 900 series? Like uh, the 910 or something? Solid links?
BSB: Your bike has 8 gears in the back. I think you want an 800 series.

Me: Ah, correct again. An 800 series will do just fine.

So that guy gets to work on my front wheel, and I strike up a conversation with another employee. We talk for a bit about different types of chains. He uses the term "nickel-plated" and I ask what that means, he nicely explains. He later uses the term "heat treated" and is about to explain what that means but I haughtily interject that I know what heat treatment is.

Regretting my interjection, I change the topic to degreasers. Things are going fine until,

Me: ... and then I'll scrub down the cassette with degreaser, then just-
-a hesitation-
Him: lube it up?
-a really weird and awkwardly prolonged eye contact-
Me: right. Well I'll just take this one then. Gotta go.

I don't know how it suddenly got so awkward. He probably didn't even notice that I got awkward. Why do I make everything awkward? I think I've spend 30% of my social life being slightly uncomfortable.

Anyway, what I'm saying is that I got home, scrubbed and re-lubricated my gears, and it was really fun. The end.

I love shoes!

Is this a post about Lisa finally finding a pair of heels? No! No it is not! It's about these beauties:

Retailed at $150, my oldest sister (Lin)'s boyfriend (Jon) found them on ebay for me for only $85! What a nice guy! Now all I need are some pedals and cleats and my good old (slash, brand new) bike will be ready to rock! And roll! Probably more like roll since it has wheels!

I'm currently riding on Gillian's super light very nice Specialized road bike, in Gillian's quite good but a little big Shimano road shoes. However when I go home, all I've got is regular pedals. Like not even cages... how is a girl supposed to win triathlons with that sort of gear, hm?

With my next triathlon LESS THAN TWO WEEKS away... I'm starting to get re-nervous! I'm totes going to drown. Sigh/hooray!

My First Brick

A brick is a session of biking followed by running (sometimes iterative). Yesterday was my first time going.

The coach is really awesome. I used to see him training people at the pool all the time so he's probably triathlon coach extraordinare. Now, when I go biking I usually do 3-5 loops of the park. (! loop=3.35 miles). John, the coach, is like "okay, we'll warm up with 2 laps then on the next one go hard for the final third, on the forth go hard for everything but the first third, and on the fifth go hard throughout. On the sixth take it easy and cool down." Sure, John! Why not?

I was the only girl (apparently others come sometimes) and expressed that I was really slow. One guy who's name I forget... actually okay I could only distinguish them by shirt colours because they all looked the same, pretty much. When you're wearing a helmet unless you have a giant nose or weird tattoos, it's hard to distinguish. Anyway so silver shirt did the first warm up loop with me. We're chatting nicely. Oh he's doing 20 triathlons this season. Oh he did an ironman last year. OH HE USED TO PLAY PRO SOCCER.

Our first warm up loop was like 16:30 which is embarrassingly slow. I usually do them in anywhere from 13- 14:30, 15 TOPS. (note: there is a really long hill, too). Anyway so silver shirt takes off. I end up only doing 4 loops, with my final being 15 minutes and the middle two being 15:30s. That's BAD. John was all nice about it and I ran my run session really fast to I might still impress somebody. (No need: it was quite flattering having the attention of 5 amazing triathletes all directed at me. "So you're coming back next week RIGHT?" "Sure, guys" "YES. I mean, cool." I love having that monopoly of being the only girl)

Anyway as I was carrying my bike back up to my apartment I noticed the back wheel wasn't spinning properly. If I was holding it up off the ground and spun the wheel, it would slow down really fast and stop suddenly. Yes, something was wrong with the brake. Basically, the brakes are stuck at a slightly on position. NO WONDER my quads were killing!

So next week when I go again I am going to take them all by surprise! And be so fast! Hooray! (That is... if I can fix this bike up! I don't know how!)