Rides, ramblings and rants on a motorcycle.
- We are scientists, too!
2.22.2007,9:12 PM
I'm lost.
It started after last Saturday, Tech Day, when everything went horribly, horribly wrong.
Change chain and sprockets? Oh, piece of cake! they told me. It was actually. But something was not put back together right. Well, there were three or four of us working on each other's bikes. Mine was the fourth bike to have chain and sprockets changed out. Everyone was tired and hungry; it was getting dark. I don't know where or when it went wrong.
The rear wheel locked up three times on the way home Saturday night, there was very little free play in the brake pedal Sunday. We bled the brakes and checked the caliper, but couldn't see anything amiss. Tuesday when I started the bike up to ride home, the brake light was on and stayed on.
Laying on the tarmac in a parking lot with tools and people scattered around, we tried to determine what the problem was, and why. We adjusted the sensor which returned the brake light to normal function, but still no free play in the brake pedal.
Over dinner at Chipotles we tossed around candidates that could be the causes of all this, ranging from air in the fluid lines, debris blocking the return line, misaligned wheel, bad caliper........... It could be any of these.
Advice was "Don't use the rear brake!"
Great; how do I stop on gravel without a rear brake?
"Very slowwwwly."
I rode home with the ball of my right foot planted on the peg to keep it off the brake pedal (I'm a both-brake rider). Next day I rode to the station and to a friend's house after work. We tore the bike apart. Again. And again.
I was dosing off leaning on the bike lift having had only 4.5 hours sleep the night before. They steered me into their guest bedroom where I hit the pillow already asleep.
The bike was back together, but the caliper doesn't sit right. It's angled. We decided to leave it to the Master to determine why. Rich trailered Whee to Cliff's shop (Piper Performance), picked me up at the train station and drove me home.
I don't have my bike. Whee is in the hospital. I feel like my kid is in surgery.
I feel lost without my bike. This is not just any bike; it is Whee. My best friend.
I miss my bike. It's a part of me and it's not here with me.
I'm lost without it.
I'm sad.
Change chain and sprockets? Oh, piece of cake! they told me. It was actually. But something was not put back together right. Well, there were three or four of us working on each other's bikes. Mine was the fourth bike to have chain and sprockets changed out. Everyone was tired and hungry; it was getting dark. I don't know where or when it went wrong.
The rear wheel locked up three times on the way home Saturday night, there was very little free play in the brake pedal Sunday. We bled the brakes and checked the caliper, but couldn't see anything amiss. Tuesday when I started the bike up to ride home, the brake light was on and stayed on.
Laying on the tarmac in a parking lot with tools and people scattered around, we tried to determine what the problem was, and why. We adjusted the sensor which returned the brake light to normal function, but still no free play in the brake pedal.
Over dinner at Chipotles we tossed around candidates that could be the causes of all this, ranging from air in the fluid lines, debris blocking the return line, misaligned wheel, bad caliper........... It could be any of these.
Advice was "Don't use the rear brake!"
Great; how do I stop on gravel without a rear brake?
"Very slowwwwly."
I rode home with the ball of my right foot planted on the peg to keep it off the brake pedal (I'm a both-brake rider). Next day I rode to the station and to a friend's house after work. We tore the bike apart. Again. And again.
I was dosing off leaning on the bike lift having had only 4.5 hours sleep the night before. They steered me into their guest bedroom where I hit the pillow already asleep.
The bike was back together, but the caliper doesn't sit right. It's angled. We decided to leave it to the Master to determine why. Rich trailered Whee to Cliff's shop (Piper Performance), picked me up at the train station and drove me home.
I don't have my bike. Whee is in the hospital. I feel like my kid is in surgery.
I feel lost without my bike. This is not just any bike; it is Whee. My best friend.
I miss my bike. It's a part of me and it's not here with me.
I'm lost without it.
I'm sad.
Labels: ramblings
