Rain + Mud + Bike = Problems

It has been almost 2 weeks since Mud fest '11 and I am still working to get everything sorted out.  When the skies over Bear Paw opened up at noon (just in time for the Comp/Elite waves to go off) the rain did not let up and the course turned into a slippery slurry of mud that was nearly impossible to ride in.  When I spoke to riders in the waves before they said the mud was shedding of the tires instead of sticking to them and there was still some traction out there. They were right about the tires staying clean, but my tires just did not have the tread to ride many of the technical areas of the course.  I decided to just take it easy on the course and have fun with it.  Riding was a blast, but the aftermath was pretty ugly:

 

I was covered head to toe with mud, but worse was my bike (especially the drive train).

Thankfully they had a hose on site so I was able to get most of the mud off right away.  In fact, my bike got its bath before me!  When I got back home, I made sure that I got everything dry and put some more lube on the chain.  Unfortunately, I did not pay enough attention to the BB, because when I got around to pulling it apart the bearings had seized and the chain had a new bright orange sheen to it.  Better yet was the fact that I made this discovery yesterday and Sheboygan is now only 2 days away. 

This morning I was pleased to call Jeff at JB to find out that he has exactly the BB I need in stock, so I will be taking a detour up to Green Bay tonight to get it replaced and hopefully have the bike ready to roll for SheVegas.  If not, I am picking up the trusty Epic from my parents as a backup.  Although Green Bay is a long distance from Milwaukee, I am happy to make the drive up on such short notice. 

Why?  I have yet to find a shop like JB (and many of the other Green Bay area shops) that takes care of it customers and provides Service with a Smile!  Out of all the shops I have tried in Milwaukee including W@#$%&S*()& and C$@%k D@**%s, I have yet to find a shop that is friendly to its customers and does not judge them based on what they look like or what they buy.  So Kudos to Jeff at JB and any other shops who take care of their customers, your service keeps customers like me loyal to your shop(s).

-Andy

Too Much Power!

Been a while since the last post, but I figured this was worth a post on its own.  I got out for what was supposed to be a 30 mile ride around Holy Hill.  About 15 minutes in I was climbing a short hill and started to hear a clanking from the rear of my bike.  I thought it was just some slack in the chain making noise, so I kept on climbing.  The noise got worse and I was feeling some tension in the rear wheel so I decided to investigate.  It was pretty obvious that I blew a spoke, but less obvious was what happened since the spoke remained in tact.  A little more investigation showed that one of the flanges on the hub cracked and pulled away allowing the spoke to escape!

 So unfortunately the wheel was not ride-able and I had to walk/wait for a ride to get back home.  Now I am just hoping that this is covered under warranty!  Next up will be some TLC and cleaning of my mountain bike after last weekend's race (also known as pushing the bike through mud all day) and getting ready for the last race of WORS in Sheboygan!

-Andy