Window of Opportunity

GeeDubb said:

Bill Wheeler's version
it rained, it stopped, I rode, I stopped, it rained.....nice!

my version.
I got a morning call from Mike Dart who's in Phoenix on a biz trip. We set
a ride time of between 11 and 11:30 a.m. At about 10:45 the bottom fell
out of the clouds and the rain commeth, a lot of rain. I wasn't sure if
Mike would show but he did just as the rain had subsided.

The sky was looking a little blue to the west so off we rode into my
backyard playground of trails. We spent about 2 hours riding east toward
Dreamy Draw Park in Ncentral Phoenix. The ride was a good mix of up and
down with Mike showing me up in the technical climbing areas. The trail was
heavily eroded from Wednesday's heavy rain with a lot of the line completely
washed away. We headed back and were about 3 miles from my house when I
heard thunder. We stopped at the top of the last climb and looked back to
see a another dark cloud closing in.

We made it to the house before the rain. Mike headed out to get food and I
waited for the rain which came about 30 minutes later. Another down pour
that waited until we were done.

A window of opportunity that we took full advantage of.

Gary

It looked like you guys up North were getting pounded. I bought
my new bike around 12:30, ish..... Loaded it into my pickup,
and got home before the next down burst.

Pretty wild about Phx. getting all this rain eh? Cool though,
we really need it. Glad to hear you could squeeze in a ride.

At the moment, I've got no problem riding my old Trek 820 in
the mud and rain. My new Trek 6500 is sitting in the entry
way. Don't dare to take it outside to get wet.... :-)
Heck, it's only hour's old to me. I'm treating it like a new
car. Afraid to go outside, or get that first "ding". Does
that sound silly???? (of course, me and 6500 are gonna hit
it hard first thing tomorrow). It's just that a new bike looks
so pretty....

How do you keep a bike clean? ok to use car wax on
the frame? how about the chain and cassette, derailleur?
use a degreaser?

Gregg said:

GeeDubb said:

Bill Wheeler's version
it rained, it stopped, I rode, I stopped, it rained.....nice!

my version.
I got a morning call from Mike Dart who's in Phoenix on a biz trip. We set
a ride time of between 11 and 11:30 a.m. At about 10:45 the bottom fell
out of the clouds and the rain commeth, a lot of rain. I wasn't sure if
Mike would show but he did just as the rain had subsided.

The sky was looking a little blue to the west so off we rode into my
backyard playground of trails. We spent about 2 hours riding east toward
Dreamy Draw Park in Ncentral Phoenix. The ride was a good mix of up and
down with Mike showing me up in the technical climbing areas. The trail was
heavily eroded from Wednesday's heavy rain with a lot of the line completely
washed away. We headed back and were about 3 miles from my house when I
heard thunder. We stopped at the top of the last climb and looked back to
see a another dark cloud closing in.

We made it to the house before the rain. Mike headed out to get food and I
waited for the rain which came about 30 minutes later. Another down pour
that waited until we were done.

A window of opportunity that we took full advantage of.

Gary

It looked like you guys up North were getting pounded. I bought
my new bike around 12:30, ish..... Loaded it into my pickup,
and got home before the next down burst.

Pretty wild about Phx. getting all this rain eh? Cool though,
we really need it. Glad to hear you could squeeze in a ride.

At the moment, I've got no problem riding my old Trek 820 in
the mud and rain. My new Trek 6500 is sitting in the entry
way. Don't dare to take it outside to get wet.... :-)
Heck, it's only hour's old to me. I'm treating it like a new
car. Afraid to go outside, or get that first "ding". Does
that sound silly???? (of course, me and 6500 are gonna hit
it hard first thing tomorrow). It's just that a new bike looks
so pretty....

How do you keep a bike clean? ok to use car wax on
the frame? how about the chain and cassette, derailleur?
use a degreaser?

DO NOT USE CAR WAX!!!! If you are like me and like a shiny bike after
every ride, then clean it with some simple green and water. Then to
shine it I use Lemon Pledge. Yup, good 'ole furniture polish.

--
o-o-o-o Ride-A-Lot o-o-o-o
www.schnauzers.ws

G.T. said:

"Ride-A-Lot" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

DO NOT USE CAR WAX!!!! If you are like me and like a shiny bike after
every ride, then clean it with some simple green and water. Then to
shine it I use Lemon Pledge. Yup, good 'ole furniture polish.

Now I understand the bike tours. Metrosexual.

GT

Well, kind of. Ya just can't take the city out of a city guy. Don't
get me wrong, I get my bikes good and dirty. I've just found that all
the parts last longer and give me less problems when they are clean.

Well, at least I don't bring my laptop with me on a camping trip. 🙂

--
o-o-o-o Ride-A-Lot o-o-o-o
www.schnauzers.ws

Gregg said:

How do you keep a bike clean? ok to use car wax on
the frame? how about the chain and cassette, derailleur?
use a degreaser?

I never clean my bike. I never worry about scratches unless they are in an
area prone to high stress but even if it is, there's not much you can do
about it.. I found that over maintaining a bike causes them to decay early
<g>. For example, I had nearly 3 years of riding on my Marathon Bomber w/o
any maintenance and one of the air seals finally wore out. Nothing else was
wrong with the shock until I took it off and put a big nick in one of the
tubes....after it was off the bike.

I lube the chain with a dry lube after each ride (white lightening) but this
year I've started using a wet lube due to the damp riding conditions. As
long as the cables don't feel like they're binding I don't touch them.

This works for me but may not for anybody else.

Gary (looking like a good day to ride-a-lot <g>😉

GeeDubb said:

Gregg said:

How do you keep a bike clean? ok to use car wax on
the frame? how about the chain and cassette, derailleur?
use a degreaser?

I never clean my bike. I never worry about scratches unless they are
in an area prone to high stress but even if it is, there's not much
you can do about it.. I found that over maintaining a bike causes
them to decay early <g>. For example, I had nearly 3 years of riding
on my Marathon Bomber w/o any maintenance and one of the air seals
finally wore out. Nothing else was wrong with the shock until I took
it off and put a big nick in one of the tubes....after it was off the
bike.

I lube the chain with a dry lube after each ride (white lightening)
but this year I've started using a wet lube due to the damp riding
conditions. As long as the cables don't feel like they're binding I
don't touch them.

This works for me but may not for anybody else.

Gary (looking like a good day to ride-a-lot <g>😉

You might have had to clean it today. After my ride at McDowell my bike was
covered with clay with bits of stone embedded in it. (Think extra-crunchy
p-butter). I had to chuckle to myself at a couple locals complaining of the
mud. It was an awesome day out there. My legs were still heavy from the
ride yesterday but the race loops out there just beg for speed. I want to
take those trails home with me!

Mike

Michael Dart wrote

Quoted message said:

You might have had to clean it today. After my ride at McDowell my
bike was covered with clay with bits of stone embedded in it. (Think
extra-crunchy p-butter). I had to chuckle to myself at a couple
locals complaining of the mud. It was an awesome day out there. My
legs were still heavy from the ride yesterday but the race loops out
there just beg for speed. I want to take those trails home with me!

Mike

I'm kind of lazy when it comes to bike maintenance. I wouldn't have cleaned
my bike! I did manage to wipe the crud off my chain and chain rings
yesterday since the chain was sucking on our ride Saturday but I left all
that mud on it.

Glad you had a good day of riding. My hike with the family was good as
well.

Gary

Come on the sun shines 354 days a year in Phoenix. And
its time to flip those buns.

Quoted message said:

Come on the sun shines 354 days a year in Phoenix. And
its time to flip those buns.

Crazy you so crazy :-P

Quoted message said:

Come on the sun shines 354 days a year in Phoenix. And
its time to flip those buns.

Hehehe...I blame myself. I did a little too much bragging about being out
here to my friends back home in Virginia.

Mike

Ride-A-Lot said:

G.T. said:

"Ride-A-Lot" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

DO NOT USE CAR WAX!!!! If you are like me and like a shiny bike after
every ride, then clean it with some simple green and water. Then to
shine it I use Lemon Pledge. Yup, good 'ole furniture polish.

Now I understand the bike tours. Metrosexual.

GT

Well, kind of. Ya just can't take the city out of a city guy. Don't
get me wrong, I get my bikes good and dirty. I've just found that all
the parts last longer and give me less problems when they are clean.

Well, at least I don't bring my laptop with me on a camping trip. 🙂

hehehe, good call!