Rest Day – Final Maintenance before Seagull

I have no rides planned for the day.  I will do some fine tuning of the bike for the Seagull Century (Saturday) and a little maintenance.  I’ve noticed that the brake cables have stretched a little, and I want to make sure I have the high gear working for the very flat course.

I put new tires on last evening.  I’ve ridden these Continental 4000-S tires nearly 3100 miles.  I probably have some life left in the tires, but the rear is worn causing a lot of surface area contacting the road and both tires have multiple cuts that could expand and cause a blowout.  I’ve had one flat with these tires, a pinch flat that occurred when I hit a large rock … really not the fault of the tire.  While I was at it, I also installed new tubes.  I noticed this past week that my rear tube was losing about 15-20 lbs pressure overnight.  As cheap as tubes are, it made sense to replace them both.

With the rear wheel off as I was changing the tire, I also cleaned the cassette.  I started using a Teflon based lubricant last month, and like how well it is working.  It doesn’t collect the dirt as fast as the oil I had been using, and seems to do a pretty good job of providing lubrication for the chain.  I’ll complete the chain cleaning today and then lubricate the chain today to allow the carrier oil to evaporate off before the breakfast ride tomorrow morning.

I’ve started my checklist for the Seagull Century, and can’t believe how long the list is!  The forecast for the ride is about 50 degrees at the start and a high of 75 degrees in full sun.  That is a significant range in temperatures for someone who has to carry the gear used for something like 6 hours.  If indeed the start is around 50 degrees, then this ride will require two pair of gloves, arm warmers, a wind vest (or maybe newspaper under the jersey), and the ability to strip these off as necessary.  Wear too much and later in the day overheating will be the problem.  Wear too little, and a great deal of energy will be spent early just trying to stay warm.

The whole day won’t be spent tinkering with the bike.  I’ve got to mow the lawn and do multiple errands on this day off work.  I’m really looking forward to dinner with the Curried Goat that is in the crock pot as we speak.