my thoughts, musings, rants and discoveries . . .

Okay, I’m back in business! I’m speaking of my cycling. After the numerous maintenance problems I described last week, I’ve finally got my bike back in tip-top shape. The biggest problem I actually had was finding replacement screws for my Speedplay Zero cleats. I would have thought that the wide-spread popularity of these pedals would have ensured the availability for replacement screws. But nope. I was wrong. I searched all over the place for a mention of them. When I tried to inquire and order just the screws, my only option was for a pair of replacement cleats, which happened to come with more screws. Hmm… not ready to shell out $35 for screws. Know what I mean?

Anyway, after finally figuring out the size of the screw, which wasn’t easy because it’s hard to tell the difference between an M4 and an 8-32 screw, I managed to find them at a local ACE Hardware. Hallelujah!!!  Seriously, you have no idea what I went through. It wasn’t enough that these screws were metric. They were also countersunk so that they could sit flush with the cleat.

To make things more interesting, walking around the driveway, with all the rocks, didn’t help my situation. Apparently, I had worn down the screws so much that it was hard to get the screwdriver to get any bite. It took a lot of work, but I finally managed to get all 8 screws out of both shoes. After a little bit of cleanup, the new screws were a piece of cake to insert.

Apart from the shoe fun, I also put a little thought into my tire situation. I estimate I had put nearly 1500 miles on my last set of tires. Replacing them didn’t take much thought. What did require me to think a bit was the potential use of Slime Lite tubes. These were never an option a year or so ago. I’m very weight conscious when it comes to my bike. With pedals and cages, my bike weighs close to 14 pounds. Trying to put heavy, wobbly Slime tubes in didn’t make much sense. Well, with a little branding help, I was convinced otherwise. I had an excellent ride yesterday and didn’t feel any side effect from the new tubes. Instead, I felt a new level of confidence that descending the mountain road at full speed wasn’t a foolish feat. I didn’t worry about a blowout sending me into the windshield of an oncoming car. While the ride wasn’t my best time, it was my second best ever as I found myself climbing that final road back at speeds of 10 to 11 miles per hour. That’s a huge improvement over my normal 6 to 7.

So… it’s great to be back in the saddle.