Really, it's not.
So I wimped out today for I did not feel like battling these rogue winds that have been pummeling the islands.
Okay, not really pummeling, but gusting really hard.
Instead, I called it a maintenance day and decided to clean the chain.
If you've been following along at home, you, the reader, know that I've got some new chain lubes to try out.
I got another one:
Rock N Roll lube(second from the left) is a wax based lube that is "the king of lubes." Well, we'll see about that.
Later.
I've been pretty happy with the Boeshield; it's clean and lasts for 50-80 miles. After that it gets noisy and shifting gets a bit balky.
So I decided to try out the Dumonde Tech.
I went to my favorite review site MTBR.com and read up on all four lubes. If you believe all the comments, then what you have here is a collection of the finest chain lubes known to man or cyclist.
There is also a trend of sorts that applies to all four: clean your chain before applying, wipe off excess, it's the best lube I've ever used.
Well I take everything I read on the internets verbatim so that's why I got four different chain lubes sitting on the shelf.
Let's see if the Dumonde lives up to the hype. I'll try it for a week and see how long it lasts. Next week I'll try a different one.
Hopefully we'll get to the bottom of, er, top of the chain lube chain.
As I was faithfully following the instructions on the Dumonde Tech lube and wiping the excess off my chain, I was listening to the Chris King hub and wondering what it was that possessed me to lay out that kind of scratch for a set of wheels.
I mean the freakin wheels cost about the same as the whole bike.
When the bike was all stock that is.
The thing about bike bling is that you can't see it while you are riding your bike. I mean you have to be off you bike to see and appreciate all the actual upgrades you've done.
Okay, I admit it.
Sometimes I do catch my reflection in store windows.
Not that you can really see anything anyways.
Well, you can see my giant belly hanging over the top tube and, well, you get the picture. Or wish you hadn't.
So anyways, I was looking at the bike and thinking of all the things I changed out over the last year. The only things left that came with the bike are the brakes and the headset.
I'm thinking about changing those out too.
So now I'm thinking to myself, boy, is this bike a black hole or what?
Not really.
Really.
See, most of the stuff I upgraded to were performance upgrades.
At least that's how I justify it in a warped kind of way.
I don't get to actually see any of this stuff while I ride.
Nor do I have to think about any of that stuff while I ride.
I guess that makes all that stuff worth it.
The part where I don't have to think about it I mean.
Okay, now the astro part.
If you, the reader, take a look at the links on the right, you'll see Astonomy FM.
I've given it a listen a couple of times and think it's pretty cool. Basically it's like astronomy radio. What they've done there is to take all the astronomy podcasts and put them in a streaming format that repeats I believe every three hours. There's also a schedule so that you can follow your favorite, like the Jodcast.
I like to listen to it late at night while I'm making all of this- I mean while I'm working hard to deliver only the best entertaining and educational material.
Oh, and something also changed with the Velocast.
It seems that they've gone to a live format. Instead of putting up a podcast every Tuesday, they will have live interviews every Sunday. They were supposed to have Liz Hatch on this week, but it got postponed.
Unfortunately for me, since they are on Greenwich Mean Time, that means their evening is my morning so I'll probably miss it.
I'll catch the repeats though.
Okay, that cleared three drafts off of the list.
Time for me to stare at my bike for a while.
2 comments:
I am still surprised by how many really nice bikes I run into that need lubrication. Maybe it's because I live in a hot, dry, dusty place. It's a pet peeve. "Lube that crunchy chain, dude!" If I had a nickle. Or a new bike part. OTOH buying a new bike one part at a time is the expensive way to go. OTOH when you're done it's all yours. Oh and after you try out all those lubes, pls let us know which is the king of kings.
I sometimes feel like I should carry around some chain lube for those who ride bikes with chains that cry out for help.
My brother claims not have cleaned his drivetrain in five years and he does the Tinman on his bike.
Oh well. Keeps the chain manufacturers in business.
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