I can always count on bike commuting to add a little adventure to my day; and that's good. But today I had too much of a good thing.
It started two miles into my 9 mile commute to work. The mechanical front disc brake on my 2015 Charge Plug wasn't grabbing the rotor as strongly as usual...in fact, it was barely slowing me down. A quick look showed the gap between the pads and rotor were as slim a usual. I thought maybe some oil contaminated the rotor and pads, but no. I thought maybe they were glazed...nope. So I stopped, flipped the bike and swapped the right and left pads and all was well again, but I arrived at work late just as a client showed up and I didn't have my usual time to prepare. And I didn't get to change out of my bike clothes for an hour.
Then at lunch I planned on hitting the credit union and the bank. It's downhill a quarter mile to the credit union, then a mile and a half up and over a hill to the bank. I start out and realize I can only shift between the two highest gears on my rear cassette. But it's downhill so I just go. I figured the shifter cable was fraying. This had happened twice before on this bike. I haven't learned how to change the cable on the Claris brifters, so I decided to twist the trim adjustments until I could get low enough gears for the hills. I managed to get 3rd and 4th. And since I had just had new lower gearing fitted last month 3rd was like the old low gear.
I made it to the bank and then called my local bike shop which was only 2.75 miles away by the most direct route which was a stretch of 4 lane divided road with a 50mph speed limit, but a generous shoulder for most of it, and a long steep rise. I had thought about taking this road for years, but never had. I guess today was the day I would finally ride it.
I called the shop and the head tech said come on in, he could change a cable while I waited.
The ride to the shop was an adventure in that I had no familiarity riding this road. But it went well.
I left the bike at the shop and walked to lunch around the corner. Just as my food arrived a client called with an emergency which I could handle on my smart phone. My lunch began to cool before me as I started to work on the issue.
The phone rang again and it was the bike shop. The shifter cable was fine, but piece inside the shifter had snapped. The shop had focused more on mountain bikes over the last few years and didn't have a replacement Claris brifter in stock, but could get one in a day or two, or...
...they had a near-new Sora brifter they had taken off a bike recently.
"How much?" I asked.
"For you, $20. But it's silver, not black"
So I told them to do it. A new Claris brifter is around $60, and a New Sora is near $90.
After dealing with my client and then eating my now cold lunch I picked up my bike and paid just $55 including labor. Not bad. The old Claris brifter had a split lever for up and down, the new Sora has a lever for down and a short knob for up.
As I rode back to the office I discovered the Sora knob can be shifted up with the pad of the thumb, or the inside of the thumb knuckle...very slick!
All in all the Sora brifter required less physical motion to shift.
Later, after work as I rode home I kept trying to upshift with the brake lever instead of the knob, but then that's what I do on my old, downtube-shifter road bike, try to shift with the brake levers.
Eventually I will either get another Claris or Sora shifter so they both match...or not. I'm kinda diggin' the Sora thumb knob.
In the mean time I will ride my "Clarisoras" and remember a most adventurous day!