Halftime Report & June Numbers

The love affair with my MTB, that I was experiencing just a year ago, is quickly slowing down. My first trail ride was on 06/16/2013 and, by this time last year, I had racked up 129.63 miles.  This year, between those same dates?  Try a whopping ZERO miles!  Tire issues, rim issues, squeaking bearings, and a busted front brake have all limited my MTB riding.  While these issues aren’t that big of a deal, my ability to make it to the shop, and/or the time it takes to fix the issues are few and far between.  Not to mention, I’m not much of a wrench when it comes to bike maintenance.  At any rate, at least I still have my relatively low maintenance tri bike that is filling my riding needs nicely.

I’m still running, but not as much.  I was running between 3-4 time per week this spring, but have brought that down to 1 time per week.  That one day, however, has been between 7-8 miles.

As for swimming, well, another month has gone by with absolutely no time in the pool.  That makes it 5 full months with no yardage and just 6700 YEAR TO DATE!  The good news is that the family just rejoined the YMCA by our house.  While I still have my issues with this facility, we quickly realized that it is absolutely the only source of convenient water around our house.  Hopefully I’ll see my swimming numbers increase here shortly.

JUNE 2010 TOTALS (IMAZ 2010 TRAINING YEAR):
SWIM = 26750 yards
BIKE = 672 miles
RUN = 81.63 miles

JUNE 2011 TOTALS:
SWIM = 30187 yards
BIKE = 419.80 miles
RUN = 23 miles

JUNE 2012 TOTALS (IMAZ 2012 TRAINING YEAR):
SWIM = 14712 yards
BIKE = 392.22 miles
RUN = 81.23 miles

JUNE 2013 TOTALS:
SWIM = 12550 yards
BIKE = 421.34 miles (292.52 tri & 128.82 MTB)
RUN = 0 miles

JUNE 2014 TOTALS

SWIM =  0 yards

BIKE = 406.85 (all tri)

RUN = 42.47 miles

Going Ghetto

For quite some time now, I've been really wrestling with the tires/rims on my MTB.  For some reason, the tubeless set up worked fine for almost a years worth of riding, but is no longer cooperating.  Every time I'd fill 'em up, the Stan's would bubble around the bead, but wouldn't seal.  We'd (my neighbor and I) try, and try, and try, and would finally think we got it to hold, only to wake up the next morning to a flat.  On a few occasions, it would actually hold long enough for me to go for a ride.  Saturday, May 17th, was one of those times.  I set out solo for a nice cruise around one of my usual paths.  About 4 miles in, my back rim hit a rock funny and put a small dent in it that made it immediately go flat.  I had no option other than to put a tube in it and limp back home.  I made a trip to my LBS, to see if they had any cheap rims that I could buy.  Honestly, I only really needed just the rear and didn't care if it didn't match the front.  The only thing they had in store would set me back $300.  Nope, wasn't going to do it, no way, no how.  The owner indicated that he had some used rims at his house and would check to see if they were what I was looking for and would have fit my budget.  He told me that the store would get in contact with me about it, but they never did.  I ended up doing two rides (about 54 miles total with that tube in my rear rim and the creaking issue described in my last post).  Frustrated, I went to another bike shop to see what they had too offer.  Nothing.  No 29" rims in stock at all.  It wasn't until after I left that second shop that I remembered what another neighbor of mine did to his MTB.  His bike wasn't set up to be tubeless, but he watched a YouTube video on how to modify it so that it could be.  He indicated that he's never had a problem with flats, leaking air, or anything else after making the conversion.  What the heck, I figured that I'd give it a shot too.  In order to make the conversion, I had to go buy 2 26" tubes and some more Stan's.  That's it.  Basically, you take the tubes and cut them in half down the seam opposite the valve stem.  You then place it in the rim (like rim tape), put the tire half on, add some Stan's, re-bead the rest of the tire, pump, and trim the rest of the lining tube.  All in all, the process only took about 30 minutes and cost only about $15.  Much better than $300!  BAM!  What do you know?!?!  The held air perfectly!  

Now all I had to do was take her for a spin to make sure the Stan's sealed everything up.  As soon as I hop on and take off, I hear a scrapping/rubbing sound coming from my front brake.  I get off to take a look and......wait for it.....the metal clip that holds the pads in place bent when I was putting the front tire back on.  DAMMIT!  No riding until I get that fixed I guess.  I solve one problem and another pops up.  This bike is starting to piss me off. 

My Neighbor, McGyver

My last MTB ride was on 05/26.  I haven't ridden since because I've been having some issues with my rims, wheels, and flats.  That, however, is a story for another day.  On that 05/26 ride, I was constantly being annoyed with a persistent squeaking/creaking noise that I assumed was coming from my bottom bracket.  I couldn't understand why, because not too long ago, my neighbor and I took it off, cleaned it, and determined that it was good to go.  At any rate, Craig was willing to help me look at it again today.  After giving it a quick once over, he determined that it wasn't my bottom bracket, rather it was the bearings for where the rear suspension attaches to the frame.  They were completely shot.  Luckily, Craig is somewhat of a McGyver when it comes to tools and fixing things.  He has a tool for just about any task you can imagine.  Want to clean the exhaust vent for your dryer?  He's got a tool for that.  Having trouble opening a special clamp on the reservoir tank of your car?  He's got a tool for that too.  So, I goes without saying that he has a bearing remover tool, a bearing packer tool, and assorted bearing too boot.  Before I could open my beer, he had the crank off and was whacking away with the bearing remover tool.  No sooner did I finish said beer, he had the bearing packed, the crank back on, and had fixed the problem.  I had no idea that MTB were this much work!  With my road bikes, you change a few brake pads, or maybe a chain every so often, but that's it.  If it weren't for him, I'd probably have spent a quarter of what the bike is worth in shop fees!  OK, now that that's taken care of, let's see about the leaky rims.....

Replaced bearings: