Where the Heck have I Been? And Bartape…

Yes, for some reason I have been away. I haven’t been able to sit at my computer and type away to update you chose few on how I’ve been doing on the bike. Well the latest news, maintenance.

Now maintenance sounds like a load of fun, right? Listening to someone talk about maintaining their bike is probably about as fun as riding a donkey through a dark dense forest while minstrels play and sing Toto’s Africa over and over. Yet this story is riveting…not really but I’ll do my best.

One thing I’ve found about me riding a bike is the lack of ab muscles I currently own. That’s right, I have a crappy core. What this means then is that I have to use my arms and shoulders to prop myself up on the handlebars much more than someone with a nice, tight, skinny, powerful…ugh…core.  What this also means is that my bartape was in shambles.

I bought new bartape in order to replace it long ago, but lack the cahones to pull the existing tattered tape off and try to replace it myself. I looked at my messed up tape and thought, my it would be nice to have pretty clean looking handlebars with nice bartape… *sigh* The other night I hiked up the knickers and stepped into my second dive into bicycle maintenance. (My first was chain lubing…but that’s for a later post.)

Replacing the tape required me to do some research, I didn’t trust that I could slowly remove the current frazzled tape and remember how it was wrapped. Although my amazing eidetic memory has pulled me through many a scenario, I wanted some help. And this video is amazing…it tells you everything:

Fun, huh? It’s a little dry but I’m not looking for flash and bang here, I want the facts.

So with my wife sitting there watching me, biting her fingernails in suspense on whether or not I was going to ruin my handlebars, I ripped the old ratty tape (that’s 3 adjective for the old tape! WIN!) off. That was easy, in fact I encourage everyone to at least give that a try for a nice sense of accomplishment.

Getting the tape on was actually a breeze. All the how-to videos cautioned about over stretching the tape while wrapping for fear of tearing, but I never felt concerned once. Nice tension on the tape and no tearing. Due to my crappy core, I didn’t want to push my tape exposing the raw bar again, therefore I over-wrapped the tape. Due to the tighter wrapping, I was afraid then I was going to run out of tape before I finished…this apparently was absurd.

So my handlebars now look amazing (I promise I’ll take some pictures and post them). The tighter wrap is actually much better looking then before and the difference in the road vibration on my hands was instantly noticeable. So to all that need to re-wrap their bartape, do it now…it will be ok.

When Foliage Attacks!

I should have gotten this up sooner, but I’m lazy (maybe that’s part of the weight issue…hmmm.).  A buddy and I went riding Friday from work. Being the pillars of the working establishment we are, we put in enough hours on Friday to get out of there early!

Shooting the deuces to the office, we hit one of the more popular trails in this area. It’s a nice ride around a city lake and through a number of parks. The wind blew right in our faces most of the time, laughing at us and put it’s shoe directly in our ribcage while we were moaning and lying on the ground. We pushed hard, the ride back gave us some wind relief [that being the real wind, not the “breaking of wind” type of relief]. Then fought the uphill run that is the majority of the return trip.

That’s when it happened…

Upon returning to the office there is a small walking path that has a surprising steep grate, 50%-70% boarder by shrubbery. I’m pretty sure this shrubbery was once used as ancient barbwire as the leaves and twigs were very thorny keeping out the Knights who say Ni (or other riff-raff). As I hit the grate, I misjudged the climb and didn’t gear up enough so I came to a complete stop with my pedals also stopped. Frozen in a state of shock, the bush out of no where leaped out and started hacking my arms and legs. I couldn’t get out of my pedals fast enough to fight back and I had to hold on to my brakes to keep from sliding back down the grate or being utterly consumed by the bush. Crying out in pain, I finally got my feet under me and bolted from the shrubbery’s grasp. Hike/biked up the grate and rejoined my friend.

Only a little blood was spilled, but I feel I got the better of the bush…but it lives on to fight another day…

[Ok fine, I fell into some bushes! Shut up!]