iRide

…when it comes to mountain biking and my pursuit of said activity. I was looking through the February post archives from previous years and this second month of the year usually leaves a whole lot to be desired. It started raining Thursday, has rained everyday since and isn’t supposed to let up for more than a week.

Last Sunday–the 1st of the month, I got in a decent ride at Lake Hodges with J and his son, Dylan, Tom and a couple other friends. It was a fun ride — even though the handlebar remote for my Gravity Dropper sort of broke. One of the clamp bolts stripped, fell out and I had to rig it with a zip-tie to get me through the rest of the ride. When I got home, I found an email address for one of the head honchos at Gravity Dropper and told him what happened and asked if they sold just the clamp part. He emailed me back first thing Monday morning and said, “That is a warranty issue. Give me your address and I will promptly mail you a replacement clamp mechanism.” Wow!! Pretty sweet customer service. I emailed him the info he needed and I received the new clamp in the mail Thursday!!

I always get nervous doing any sort of non-standard repair of any kind, so I was going to take it to Tom, the mechanic at Bicycle Warehouse and have him install the new one. Then, last night I got bored and decided to take the old one apart and see what all installing the new one would entail. I pulled the little bolt on the cover:

I found that the remote lever clamps the cable with 2 tiny little bolts:

I pulled the bolts (after some shopping, more on that later), detached the cable from the lever and as easy as that the broken housing was separated:

I then threaded the cable through the new housing and back through the tiny little hole on the lever. It took more than a few tries, but I had it done soon enough.

I put the cover back on, installed the new clamp and voila — a “like new” handlebar remote!! As far as the shopping trip I had to make in the middle of the project: the 2 tiny little bolts that clamp the cable in the lever are hex wrench SAE size .050 or 1/20.

The smallest size my set had was 1/16. I figured if that was all that stood in my way, I’d just run out and buy one. Since we don’t have a Lowes or Home Depot or anything similar here in town, I ran into Kmart. All the sets they sold only had a small size of 1/16. I went to Kragen Auto Parts and all the sets they had were the same way. Then I saw an 84 piece tool set that had the size I needed on sale for $25!! I figured I needed a good set of tools to keep in my car anyway, so I bought the set, got back home and finished the repair.

Anyway, so I got in the ride on the 1st and a really fun solo ride the next morning. Dyl and I got in a short exploration ride Wednesday late afternoon. We found more hidden stuff– like an insanely high dirt jump as well as a mini-pump track. The camera’s batteries were dead so I didn’t get pics, but I’m going to start taking it on all these exploration rides. The stuff I’m finding out here is pretty crazy sometimes.

I’ve also heard rumors of DH runs near here with man-made stunts. I have an idea of the general area and I was planning on going on an exploration ride to find them this afternoon, but good ol’ Mother Nature rained on that parade. I was actually able to get a picture of the clouds moving in:

I ran across some pretty sweet gloves on Bike Nashbar. They’re roadie gloves so I’ll never use them, but thought they were pretty cool:

As I mentioned in a recent post, I am now on the schedule at Taekwondo as an instructor. I was put on 5 times for the month of February. Well, I got the March schedule today and I’m on it 8 times. It’s still a little daunting to try and wrap my head around it. It’s one of those things that you want so much, you work hard for, you have a time line in your head for when to expect it, then it comes a little bit earlier than you thought it would and BOOM–you’re in it. I don’t know. It’s hard to explain I suppose. It’s just that I take this so seriously and it’s such an honor, that I feel like it’s almost to good to be true.

I also got an informal permission to test when I was at class today. Mrs. Neal told me and 3 other Recommended Black Belt’s that she “has us on her list to test on the 28th.” We haven’t received the formal permission to test yet, but this is the first concrete thing she’s said to let me know it’s going to happen. I’ve been guessing I was going to get permission to test at the end of the month, but I’ve been trying to not just assume it’s a done deal and take anything for granted. It was nice to hear it straight up today though.

I’m not sure what the next week holds for riding with the rain and all. Here’s hoping I can squeak something in!!

I also just recently joined Facebook. I kinda-sorta did the MySpace thing a few years ago but I never really got into it. But, I’ve heard Facebook is much better, so I’ll give ‘er a go. If you’re reading this and you’re on Facebook–holla at ya boy and and we can both pad our “Friends” count. Until next time, seek your bliss.

Ride lots…