Thursday 9/15/05:


So went and rode candice again last night, had a good workout but realized I had two problems with my bike. One was my bottom bracket was creaking horribly---very bad noises. I know the BB isnt loose because i tightened it the night before after I first began to hear noises coming from down there. The second issue is that I was having a hard time clipping in and unclipping into my pedals.

Solutions: Im going to go to Performance bike today at lunch and buy a new BB, only $36. Hopefully, that solves that problem. For the pedals, I'm going to put those little shims that come with the Candy's under the cleats and hopefully, that will work.

If the new BB doesnt solve the problem, then im not sure what to do. But will probably ride Lafawnduh this weekend, which makes me a little nervous because i just got her and havent had one real CX ride on it yet.

Okay, so 4 hours later....The BB was $50 plus tax. But the good news is that it actually worked. The creak is gone. Thank goodness. Then added one set of spacers under my cleats and the clip in is so much easier and exiting is easier as well (How'd ive ever live without the spacers before is beyond me). Something im learning more and more in cyclocross is that whats fine for just going on a little easy ride by myself isnt always fine for an intense high speed game of cyclocross racing. You cant afford to spend 12 seconds for clipping in, you cant be thinking about your clicking/creaking bottom bracket. Your saddle's gotta be comfortable enough you dont mind jumping on it, etc.

Lastly, Mr Tuffy's rock! I put the reds in my tires earlier this week, inspecting my tires today, when i took off my BB, and i had 2 good size thorns in my rear wheel. Pulling them out i was anticipating the hiss of death, but no such bad luck. Seems that the Mr. tuffy's did their job.

Edit: Just got back from a ride, the spacers didnt quite work well enough for the left shoe, on dismounts i was getting held a little too much. So i got out the DREMEL and grounded off a little of tread where the pedal rubs. On my little test ride with a few dismounts, it seems to have been fixed. We'll see...