Mojo31

Agree, that's why we turn to the cash labor market.

WhyFi

This is my son's last week of school and my last week of getting up (involuntarily) before 6am. In the past, better/more sleep has helped a lot, so I'm hopeful that that laggy feeling will shake off.

I wish that I was just buyin' some toys, but all of this is needed, no-fun maintenance stuff that's made itself apparent over the last week or so. Well, I suppose that I could have just gotten the cleats, instead of new pedals with cleats, but the cleats are a big chunk of the cost of the pedals (more than a third) and the pedals were on sale, while the cleats weren't.

I don't really have any other bike "toys" on the horizon, though. The only thing that I'm looking forward to is wearing out these Michelins (which have been really good) so that I can try out the Pirelli that are sitting in the basement. Based on the tread wear indicator on the rear tire, though, I might need to put another 2k+ miles on the Michelin before they're done.

WhyFi

I haven't been feeling like cooking too much in this lil heatwave of ours, so it'll be beer and pizza for me tonight. And a salad to keep things movin' along.

sshakari

How many miles do you get out of that waxed chain?
I get about 130-150 before it gets noisy. Sometimes I think its a hassle with wax, but my drive train lasts much longer. I use 2 Wipperman chains and swap them on my road & single speed.
On my vintage bike, I decided to try NFS chain lube. I have not taken it on a ride yet.

Mojo31

Say what??? No nano pedals?

WhyFi

400+, typically, though my noise tolerance may be different. It's very quiet for probably100ish miles, the rest is acceptably smooth and quiet. Not sure how much the brand/formula matters, but I'm using Molten Speed Wax.

I rotate two chains, too. For me, the big attraction to waxing is not having to clean black gunk off of my drivetrain, which makes waxing a time (and frustration) saver for me.

genejockey 

What kind of beer? Rolling Rock?

Eric F 

My condolences.

I'm in the fine-tuning stage of my singlespeed 26er project. Got a new cog, computer mount, and some bling items to finish it off. It's a fun ride, and I'm enjoying the complete change of mindset and scenery from by road bike. This week, I got notified by a buddy that he moved his son to a larger frame, and the one he has been riding - an aluminum Colnago - was available for me to buy. I won my only State Champ title on that frame, and had sold it to him in '05 after my previous retirement from the sport. It will be fun to have it back in my stable, and is intended to be a long-term rebuild project with Dura-Ace 9 speed. Currently, I have a new chain for my Storck that has been sitting on my bench for over a week, and really needs to get installed. However, HS softball is over, and the travel ball summer season has come out of the gates hot and fast. My daughter has tournaments or showcase events every weekend until the end of July. My weekly bike miles are taking a big hit. It's been since last Thursday since I've been on my bike.

Velo Vol 

Rotating chains? wut

Velo Vol 

What about transportation?

WhyFi

I'm not that much of a weenie. I was looking at the steel pedals, but 80 bucks gets you literally a few grams worth of weight savings between the Comp and the Steel.

edit: now that I look closely, it the Comp comes with the lighter action cleats and the Zero (steel) pedals come with the standard cleats. Guess I'd better watch those first couple sprints.

sshakari

I use a homemade wax formula and it does really well for me. I do still get some "black stuff" and some wax build up on some parts, but nothing compared to oil based lube. Dont think formula really matters as well. I get nervous when there is too much noise around my drive train.

Mojo31

About the same here rotating a Ultegra and 105 chain on my Trek, and KMCs on our Spesh bikes. I use food grade paraffin with PTFE added. If I get a little noise between waxings, I'll use a bit of Squirt. Our riding conditions are most dry.

Hate the black gunk as well. I wax both my bikes and my wife's, and don't find the time required to be unreasonable.

Mojo31

You get the rocks moved, and I'll get you cases of whatever beer you want!

genejockey 

On Sundays ride (on the Canyon), every time I got out of the saddle, I could hear a *scrape,scrape,scrape* from the front disk. Seems that one pad was ALMOST touching when the bike was upright, but tilted slightly, and with 200# on top of it, it was rubbing. No sound or vibration when I'd spin the wheel, but no visible daylight between the disk and the pad on one side.

So last night I tried the old 'loosen the bolts, squeeze the lever, tighten the bolts' trick. That didn't do it. So I tried the 'business card' trick, where you take take your wheel out, take one of those thick business cards, fold it over, put it on the disk, put the wheel back in with the card between the pads, squeeze the lever and tighten the bolts. That worked! I can see daylight on both sides of the disk.

It's always nice when simple things work.

Mojo31

You should be able to get here in a day in the vintage Accord.

bampilot06

my back light started acting up today. Not amused. Lately it seems I have to keep replacing stuff so I can’t get new stuff.

Power meter and trainer are still a must.

Im in desperate need of some more bibs/ shorts. Currently on a wear each one twice before washing and would like to stop that.

Mojo31

Tell me someone hacked your account and posted that.

bampilot06

I only have 4. 2 of which I hate, so really I only have 2.

phrantic09

I bought new headset bearings if that counts.

I had to drop 7 grand unexpectedly in the last month on a sick dog, busted car and broken dryer among some other things, so I'm taking it easy for a couple of months.

Mojo31

Why is it that when you think you are getting caught up or a little ahead that sort of stuff happens?

Eric F 

I can see how that might put a speed bump in the fun-stuff purchases. Adulting sucks like that.

genejockey 

We dodged a bullet with Mrs. GeneJockey's Sienna. It was either gonna be $5000 to replace the catalytic converters, or a lot more to replace the car. So, by the Theory of Compensatory Cashflow*, we should now have an extra $5000. Right?

*Calvin Trillin's Theory of Compensatory Cashflow, if you even briefly considered buying something but then didn't, you now have that money to spend on other things, like "There's that $5000 we saved by not having to get new catalytic converters".

And yet the bank balance didn't go UP $5000....

Mojo31

But, it didn't go down, so you are ahead by $5,000.

You should hear how my wife explains how she saves us money by shopping.

rjones28 

The storm that rolled thru this morning just made it humid.