So my ride today was mostly pleasant, but there were a few bits that sucked.
I rolled out of the house at 7:30, planning on doing what I call the "City Loop", a nice 50 miler with about 2500 feet of climbing. It's all urban, but for most of it there really aren't too many stop signs or lights, so it makes a nice three hours on the bike.
Halfway up the first major climb my right cleat came loose a bit. Not enough to detach, but enough to cause concern. No big deal, I had a nice multitool with the needed phillips screwdriver, so I tightened it and resumed speed. Still, that hard stop halfway up a decent four mile climb did me no favors when it came time to pedal again.
Anyhow, about 2/3 through the loop, as I was just riding along a slight descent, my Campagnolo carbon seatpost broke about halfway between the collar and the clamp. I'm glad it happened when it did, because a fast, bumpy downhill a few minutes later would have been a bad spot for it.
The nearest bike shop along my route was about 10 miles, so I figured I'd just ride standing up until I got there. I shifted into the big ring to drop my cadence and slogged along until I got to The Bike Whorehouse. Man, what a disappointment that shop (if you can still even call it that) has become. There is no service department any more (they outsource, I guess) and the only post in a 27.2 (the most common size ever) was a complete POS boat-anchor Kalloy that they wanted $30 for.
"F**K that" was my response. I rode on (still standing) a few more miles until I passed a new shop I'd never been in before on my way to a place run by a friend of mine. Well, my destination was closed (I'd forgotten wednesday was his late opening day). I backtracked to the new shop and stopped in, hoping they had something.
The guy dug around in a box of miscellaneous posts, and it didn't look promising. Finally he found a Time carbon post that had never been in a bike but had rattled around in that box for long enough that the anodizing on the cradle was a bit worn. Since it was NOS, the guy gave it to me for $100 out the door, and man, was I stoked. It was the same offset as the Campy, but was noticeably lighter and most important of all, way, way less broken.
as I was returning to my scheduled route there were some guys stopped on the side of the route trying to fix a flat. I gave them my spare tube and rode on, legs shot but happy with the way things turned out. I had one last big double climb (about 500 ft of gain) to go to get back home, but I was OK. All I had to do was grind it out.
At the stop light at the top of the second pitch, my front tire went flat. Damn it! I was six long blocks from home- too long to ride on the front flat without ruining the new $60 Continental I had on there, and long enough that my cleats would have been a real bummer. And, of course, I now had no spare tube. As they say, no good deed goes unpunished, right?
I called a riding buddy who lives just a few blocks from where I was and he drove over and gave me a lift home. He gave me a hard time about not inviting him along on the ride, but when I told him I'd started at &:30 he admitted that there would have been no way he would have gotten up that early, anyway...
Normally, road rides go without a hitch- and for most of this ride, that was the case. However, that seatpost breaking put a bit of a damper on my ride. I'm certain this was a long time developing, and it would have gone sooner or later, so in that sense it worked out OK, it seems.
Edited to fix spellcheck fixes.
