Father's Day Weekend

University Avenue construction showing the new Sergeant Road Trail underpass.

First off, if you are a father or serve as a father figure, I hope that you had a great Father's Day. Secondly, if you were here looking for reactions to the firing of Jim Cummins from the DK200 by Life Time Fitness, see the second post for Saturday over the weekend. Right now that's all I have to say about it.

Now then, over the weekend I did not go out on any long gravel rides preferring to stick close to the G-Ted Headquarters to (a) be close to shelter should it rain and (b) spend a lot of time with my family. It would kind of make sense to spend time with the humans that made you a father in the first place, yes? I think so, and I was very happy to do it. My children are very important to me.

So, adventures close to home were what I did on a bicycle over the weekend. First up was an exploration into what was going on with the new construction on University Avenue and the Sergeant Road Trail which are near to where I live. I decided to take the Ti Muk 2 since it had rained heavily on Friday evening and Saturday morning. In fact, it looked as though it might rain at any time during the day. I figured a quick look at the construction site and a tool-around the neighborhood was all in order and should be fine. So, I headed off in that direction first. While the site is all dirt, I figured that due to all the recent dry days, that the moisture dropped by the overnight storms would be absorbed quickly.

I spent about a half an hour clearing the mud off I gained from going from this spot to the paved trail.

So........yeah. I got stuck. Like really stuck! The mud was so wet and fluid in one spot that the front wheel of the Ti Muk 2 was sinking so fast I could see it happening. Like the old quick sand scenes in old time Western movies. The Ti Muk was about to become part of the muck! I had to get pretty physical with the bike- yanking and lifting- to get free of the mire and then I ended up nearly sucking my shoe off in the same mud. It was touch and go there for a few minutes!

Then it was mud clearing time. I'm always amazed at how quickly a bicycle tire can attract mud and how long it takes to get that mud off the bike. I know mud and tires do not have a magnetic attraction, but you'd swear that they do. I kept clearing off handfuls of mud, thinking I was about done, only to find several more handfuls of mud. Then I would find several more handfuls. What?! Was this mud replicating as fast as I could pull it off? It would seem that way.

After I cleared off as much mud by hand that I could, I sped off down the trail, throwing clods of dirt and mud like an old time manure spreader. I ended up running through tall grass and mud puddles alternately to clean up as much of the tires as possible. That worked and by the time I was satisfied with the cleaning operations, it started to sprinkle, so I high-tailed it back to the house and parked it for the day.

Spiffed up the Pofahl Signature. Check out that radioactive pink glow on the fence from the tape!

On Father's day proper I spent some time taking care of the Pofahl Signature rig. The Single Speed Century pretty much killed the old blue handle bar tape, and it was time to replace it. I had the option of going with red, black, or pink. I had been holding on to this Marque Cycling pink tape (out of production) for about two years waiting for inspiration to use it. Well, that happened Sunday.

I also had to address the 'knock' in the seat post. This could turn into its own blog post, but the deal is that where the post clamps is 27.0mm. Where the seat tube flares out underneath that has a larger inner diameter. The action of riding sways the seat post, with the clamp being the fulcrum point, so to speak. This allows the slightly smaller 27.0mm diameter post to hit the inner wall of the slightly larger than 27.0mm diameter inner seat tube which makes a small 'clank' when pedaling in the saddle.

I wrapped the bottom of the post with electrical tape, which damped the 'clank' until recently when the tape finally failed during the Single Speed Century. Removing the post and putting on a run of new electrical tape should solve that issue. I haven't ridden it since I serviced the post, so I'll have to wait to see if I was successful again in taking care of that or whether I may have to try it again. It is hard to get that first bit of wrapped post past the seat collar area without pushing the tape back.

I did ride the bike before this, so I didn't feel compelled to go out again after the servicing. Plus, I still need to look at the hub's innards. That Industry 9 hub has never been serviced in 14 years! I probably should get around to that. Also, the eagle eyed of you will have noticed the new Bike Bag Dude Garage Top Tube bag on here. It's a great bag, and will see duties on multiple bikes.

Well, that's about all I did with bicycles over the weekend. I had a great Father's Day, and spent a lot of time with the family. Hope your weekend was good too.