Torque

On Tuesday, I came up against an unforseen consequence of having 180mm crank arms. In order to take advantage of my inborn "gifts", I upgraded my crankset from 175mm to 180mm (moving from Ultegra to DuraAce along the way). The theory here is that my longer legs and tendency to have slower cadence with greater force behind each stroke will be well suited to longer cranks. A longer radius results in more torque arising from the same force on the pedal....

And that's where it all goes wrong. The freewheel part of the hub on my new wheelsets is aluminum. The supporting body for the cassette only extends through the three largest cogs. This means that the stresses applied to gears 4-10 are passed directly to the hub's rotor, rather than being distributed through the supporting body. The result? Deep etching of the rotor body, and the use of extra force to remove the cassette from the hub.

The combination of longer crank arms and the new wheelset has required me to upgrade to DuraAce for the rear cassette, since the supporting body there is for the first five gears, instead of just the first three. Pretty soon, my entire drive train will be DuraAce!

Flat

After a few straight days of being indoors, I was looking forward to a Saturday ride. Knowing that I'm a few pedalstrokes down, and wanting to get a kickstart on my "training season", I planned to head out for about 40 mi.

I didn't want to do the standard Myrtle Edwards-I90 Trail-Mercer Island route for those 40, though, so I took a slightly different route. Headed through the Locks and around the Magnolia Loop to start. Still had to pass through Myrtle Edwards, of course, to find a number of people setting up for "Step Up"-an environmental awareness rally. That meant dodging peds all along the waterfront. Until I had a chunky feeling from my back wheel....

Yep, I had a flat. Trying to reinflate, it refused to hold any air, so I knew it was time for a tube change. As I chcked the tire, I noticed a couple of shallow cuts that might indicate that it's time for a new tire. Sadly, I had finally beaten that bead into submission. I barely needed levers to get the tire back on. Oh well.

As I wasn't about to try to complete another 30-some miles on an underinflated tire (I can only seem to get about 50 lbs from my hand pump), I opted to head home. Thankfully. Because, of course, that's when the skywater began. Out along the waterfront, it's easy to see big nasty black clouds (and sheets of rain) coming. But from my house, it wasn't obvious, so I wasn't at all prepared for rain. There might still be time in the season for a trainer party!

Starting Over

The past couple of days, I've actually been able to get out and get some exercise. I rode a few miles both on Tuesday and Thursday, and played ultimate on Wednesday night. What's funny to me is the way that my body has reacted. It's demanded more sleep, and has been all kinds of achy. My shoulders and neck are sore from throwing the frisbee, and my hamstrings and ITBs are a bit tight after the rides. All of this has led me to one conclusion: My "off season" was more than just a season, and it's like I'm starting back at square one.

Hopefully I'll have a few travel-free weeks in which to get myself back into some semblance of shape.