IanA, nice job on getting out, stick with it ! The nice days are coming. Some of you sound like you could use a little cheering up and with the great day I have had so far, I am the man to do it.
I started by taking my bike to the shop about a half hour away to get a new chain. The temperature here today is 20c, with very light wind and not a cloud in the sky. The shop was full of customers but it very well staffed. I went straight to the mechanic's area and a gentleman at the counter found the chain and I asked how much to install it, he said $9.99, which if you know how to do it seems like a fortune and if you don't it is a bargain at twice the price.
I asked if he would show me as he did it and he said sure, then I asked how long until he could do it, he said bring your bike in I will do it right now. I think I was out to my truck and back with my bike before the store door had shut itself. The man working with me had a British accent btw but they were so busy I didn't get enough time to get chatty enough to find out where he was from.
He put it on for me and explained exactly how he sizes them. He also checked the shifting and smiled and complimented my bike and its shifting. He may have been just a great sales person but I think he meant it. To my credit, it was spotless and I had just indexed and adjusted everything. He even waived the installation/tutorial fee. I think he was happy to not be working on some old rust bucket that someone brought in so little someone Jr. would have something to thrash for another year. I had a pleasant bike shop experience to start the day, something that can easily be not a lot of fun when I am spending my cash. If anyone ever by chance happens to be in the triangle area of NC and needs assistance with bikes, the Performance Bike store in Cary was topnotch for me today.
I now have my bike dialed in, my confidence in my chain is restored, the weather is great. Hard to get much better, but wait, after I got home I realized that we went to daylight savings time this morning! I was wondering what was wrong with the clock in my truck.
Now I have an extra hour of daylight too.
The good weather will soon be there and while you are having days like I had today, I will be crying about the heat.
I thought with all the good mojo going on I would go out and do a relatively flat ride and work on my pitiful cadence. I think the work this winter might have helped some. For my first ride today, I was able to do over 15 mph for 15 miles today. I still have work to do on cadence but not bad for me at this time of year.
http://app.strava.com/activities/43929624
