Back In The Saddle Again . . . Again

The eBay crankset seems to work well. Cheap Shimano triple, but it's certainly good enough for the slush mobile. I put the old pedals from my Trek on it, since I was sure the original slush mobile pedals would be the next to break.

The commute today was fine. The new knobby rear tire gripped well, and it didn't have the wobble of its predecessor. We'll see what happens when the cold hard snow softens up again, letting me sink in and wallow.

But for now, it's nice to be commuting by bike again.

Still January . . . hard to believe. There's been quite constant snow on the ground since mid-November. I haven't seen the driveway in weeks.

Back In The Saddle . . . Briefly

I'm a brute. Hard on equipment. So is the weather.

I returned to winter commuting this week. It was awful. Almost
impossible riding on the sidewalks, what with two inches of packed
down snow that was just soft enough to sink into, but not packed
enough to allow a purchase. And cut up by footprints, which throw the steering off. Still, it was biking, better than driving.

Until the chain broke. I was standing up on the pedals, laboring
through the deep, cut-up crap, when the gear went to infinite
easiness. There was the chain behind me. I walked the remaining 2.5
miles to work. At home, I swapped in a spare chain that I had lying
around. The next day the snow was still awful, but I made it to work
and back.

But today, on my way out for a little errand, trying out the new rear
tire I put on, standing (again) to get through more crap, and snap!
the crank broke. Right through the drive-side crank arm. Perhaps the
freezy coldness and excessive saltiness weakened it. Who knows?

So I'm without a slush mobile again, and it's still January. I don't
want to pull out the touring and nice-weather commuting Trek. I've
seen what these conditions do to a bike.

I ordered an equivalent used crank on eBay for $15.

I tried to replace the bottom bracket, now that I have the cranks
off, but I just managed to break the plastic lock ring on the old BB,
which is totally fused in place. I can't loosen the non-drive side,
either. I'm going to try to get an 8MM bolt to hold the bracket
cartridge remover in place, and a long length of pipe for increased
leverage. But I'm not hopeful. I may just leave the grinding BB the
way it is.

Discouraging. Bikes aren't meant to be ridden in these conditions,
I'm afraid.

What a January!

In the middle of a record snowy January, I took last week off from
riding to work. I was sick at the beginning of the week, and the
temperature went down to -10 at the end of the week. Ordinarily, I
would have given it a go at 10 below, but I had my wife's car with a
parking permit at my disposal (she was out of town), and I needed to
get to my office by 6:30 a.m., so I drove. I don't regret it. I rode
the route yesterday, and it was miserable. New snow on top of cut up
old snow. I had to walk the bike a few times.

It should be better next week.