Friday Night with a Hacksaw
I have a love/hate relationship with USPS. This blog post would have come a lot sooner had they not screwed up the delivery of my Salsa long rack struts, holding my package captive for two weeks! After having to google search the phone number of the post office that left me a message about my packages (the employee that left the message told me to come pick up my packages but never said where they were calling from!), I was able to finally get to the post office before it closed. Normally, I’m already at work before the post office opens and I don’t get home from work until it’s already closed so this was not as easy to accomplish as one might think!
So, what better to do on a Friday night than saw some struts and install a rear bicycle rack?
I started by installing the rack with the new struts at their full length to see where the clamping bolt would line up on the struts once it was sitting level. Next, I marked the struts with a fancy pencil, making sure to leave the suggested 10 mm clearance at the end of the struts. Then, the fun began and I started sawing away with the hacksaw that came with my really cheap tool set.
I didn’t have a vice or any real way of securing the strut while I was cutting it so this whole process took a little while and required a few breaks throughout. I ended up with struts that were not sawed through evenly but whatever. I reinstalled the rack with the shortened struts, double checked that it was level and finished with tightening everything to make sure the rack would be secure.
Voile (LOL LOOK AT MY BICYCLE HUMOR I CRACK MYSELF UP)! A touring bicycle:
Once I was done with this, I spent a little time organizing the office and my bike stuff. There’s a lot going on on this wall:
After this, I had an appointment at Bicycle Roots to get my Pack Rat tuned up for the season. This bike shop doesn’t offer "tune up” packages, per se. Rather, they evaluate each bicycle individually and recommend and perform only the work necessary for the specific bike. This was a relief, since a lot of the local bike shops I had researched had packages ranging from $80 for a basic tune up to $195 for a standard tune up to $300 for an “overhaul”.
I really thought that I had fixed my V brakes myself but my own adjustments, combined with the fact that my rear wheel does not like to sit properly in its dropouts, only made the short ride to the bike shop a whole lot worse than it needed to be. My rear brake was very badly rubbing the left side of the rim and because I had removed my saddle bag for the appointment, I didn’t have a multi-tool on me to fix it. Rookie mistake. I eventually got to the shop and apologized profusely to the immensely helpful and friendly staff at Bicycle Roots.
After the apologies, one of the employees was chatting with me about how much he loves the Pack Rat and that made me really hopeful for and excited about the things I’ll be able to do on this bike. I let the staff know the issues I had with the brakes, warned them that I had installed the racks myself and asked to have a second water bottle cage installed. They let me know that they would reach out to me with an estimate for any work that needed to be done and that their goal was to complete all of it today. Within an hour or so, I had an estimate to install the water bottle cage, make adjustments to my brakes, true the rear wheel and replace the chain. Dave, the mechanic, sent over a pdf of the estimate and I was able to reply back via text to approve the work. One more hour and it was ready!
I had a separate appointment this coming Tuesday to have my road bike checked out. I planned to do another classification trial for the B SIG (I did my first classification ride earlier this week, two days after snowboarding and one day after getting my COVID-19 booster, so my timing was probably not as good as it could have been) today (Sunday), but, thinking about my week and how busy I would be since I’m flying to Florida on Wednesday, I asked if I could bring my road bike in when I came to pick up the Pack Rat. I was fully prepared for it to be an issue with the limited space in a lot of my local shops but they told me it was totally fine! Life savers!
At the end of the day, I rode back to the shop for the bike swap. Dave reviewed the work he did on the Pack Rat and we talked about the issue I have with the rear wheel and dropouts. I explained this was something I have been experiencing since I bought the bike and that I had trouble tightening the quick release on the rear wheel. Dave said he tightened the release as much as he could and that he felt it should hold. If the issue persists, he let me know that switching the wheel from a quick release to a thru axle could help me with getting enough leverage to ensure the wheel is properly attached to the frame. He also mentioned the possibility of a new drivetrain with three chain rings to accommodate lower gearing that would help me while touring. This was something that has crossed my mind but I figure I will see how I do with the current gearing and go from there.
Back to the road bike. Dave shared that he would be able to get an estimate to me before they closed and have the work complete by Tuesday, when the shop is next open. I headed home, enjoying the sun, and the fact that I was no longer riding with my rear brakes involuntarily applied to my wheel.
The road bike needs new brake pads, a rear wheel true and a new rear tire. Dave said there were a lot of cuts in the rear tire so I asked him to recommend a more durable one. He suggested the Continental Gatorskin tire, which would be more resistant to and better able to survive the mean streets of NYC. I opted to have both the front and rear tires changed to match and asked that Dave keep the old front tire in case I ever need it in a bind.
I’m glad I was able to get both bikes looked at before the real start of riding season. Hoping for fewer flats and mechanical issues in 2022!
