BPW = Big Punishing Workout

I vacated work for a few hours and rode at Bay Park West this afternoon.  As always, my heart got close to bursting and I saw stars.  It may have been a bit tougher because of my month hiatus, but I did have a great ride.

I saw 4 or 5 individual mountain bikers and got lots of positive comments, which doesn't hurt.  I kind of like when someone rides behind me but keeps a distance.  I can tell they're interested in seeing what muni is like, so I try to do my best.

Muni at Bay Park West - 2013-07-31 at EveryTrail

Back In The Saddle

It has been a full month since I last rode.  I got sick and the cold took a week to move from sore throat, to head congestion, and finally to my lungs.  I had an annoying cough.  Even after the cough was gone I still felt my chest was tight at times.  Temperatures and humidity were high up until about a week ago anyway.

So finally I got back to riding and went to Whiting and Webster Park.  Unfortunately I forgot to bring my helmet and decided it would be best to go back and get it.  Whoops. Once I got back and started riding I found I wasn't rusty at all and had a strong ride.  I saw a lot of hikers and runners, including a coworker.


Muni at Whiting and Webster Park - 2013-07-27 at EveryTrail

Firemen's Parade

This evening the girls went out to the Webster Fireman's kiddie parade which precedes tomorrow's parade and festival.  The kids wear costumes.  Sydney rode her unicycle, and so, dressed as a unicorn.  Kessa rode her tricycle, and so, dressed as... a unicorn.  She could not be convinced to be a triceratops.  Oh well.

In other news, I've was sick for a week with common cold symptoms, and have had lingering chest irritation and "tickle cough".  So I haven't been riding.  Most of the past few weeks has been very humid and extremely rainy, so I haven't missed much.  Maybe I'll get out this weekend.  There's trail work at Whiting on Saturday.  Not sure if I'll do it.

2013 Chevy Sonic

Also, I bought a new car and got rid of the old one.  That's not really muni related, but my old car had my muni sticker on it.  I'm not sure if I'll put another muni sticker on my new car.

Ride and Anniversary

This morning I rode at Whiting and Webster before heading into work.  I wasn't feeling very aggressive and found myself stepping off on hill climbs I normally make.  Not all rides can be awesome.  Still, it's good to get out and see the trails in the morning.

I noticed the overgrowth in Webster Park is starting to get bad. I consider some trails basically closed for the season.  It's too bad there isn't a trail crew for Webster Park like the town parks have.  After Webster Park I rode in Whiting and appreciated the work The Friends of Webster Trails does to keep the vegetation from encroaching onto the trail.  The mud pits are back in Webster Park too.

This afternoon I got an email from my wife.  Happy Anniversary!  I almost forgot today is my four year unicycling anniversary.  I didn't feel like doing my annual ride down the driveway, but we did have cake!

Muni at Whiting and Webster Park - 2013-06-25 at EveryTrail

Whiting Trail Work - Extending Green

This morning I joined in on  the Friends of Webster Trails trail work at Whiting Road Nature Preserve.  We worked on further extending the green trail north.  Some of the new trail extension had already been cleared, but the trail needed benching.  There were a group of boy scouts that helped extend the clearing of trees and brush.  I worked with the core group of guys who are usually there to do the dirty work, benching and cutting the new trail. We made great progress but it will take several more work days to finish.

Tryon... meh

Dustin and I rode at Tryon Park this afternoon.  We started at the Tryon Road parking lot and rode our own paces with the plan to meet up at the green trail.  Knowing I'd ride faster, my plan was to add the purple loop to my route and then try to catch up.

I didn't really enjoy my ride as much as my recent rides.  I think I forgot how difficult some parts of Tryon are.  I dismounted more often than I like.  I also didn't really feel my strongest.  I've been staying up too late and  haven't been getting enough sleep lately, and today I went to Good Smoke for lunch and ate too much.  Mmmm... brisket burger.

In any case, after getting started in the parking lot Dustin and I separated.  After I rode the purple loop, I got back on course to catch up to Dustin.  Eventually I was at the green trail with no sign of Dustin.  He doesn't know Tryon well, so I figured he had likely made some wrong turns.  We had expected that might happen, but with cell phones we'd reconnect.  Unfortunately he didn't answer my calls.  I rode around the green for a bit and tried calling again.  Nothing.  I decided to backtrack.  I occasionally called for Dustin and tried calling again.

I ended up getting all the way back to the parking lot, and seeing his truck but no Dustin, I decided to head back again, this time taking some of the alternative trails.  Most likely he had tried to ride down some steep hill and fell off a cliff, landing on his back with his feet over his head.  It happens.

But then I wasn't far in when I got a text.  Yay!  He was alive.  Ultimately based on his descriptions of what he saw, I found him.  He had in fact taken a wrong turn, but rode some good trail nonetheless. His phone was just acting up and couldn't receive or make calls, but texts were working fine.  It was time to leave, so we rode back to our cars.

Next time we'll probably park where we can start at the green trail and ride from there.
Muni at Tryon - 2013-06-20 at EveryTrail

Dustin's Clicky Unicycle

For weeks Dustin's KH 26 unicycle has been making a clicking noise.  It seemed to be getting worse over time.  It's rather annoying and we've both been concerned something was going break or get ruined.

One time before riding, I had tried tightening his crank bolts to the right torque.  That didn't help.  Neither did tightening his bearing holding to spec.  Yesterday Dustin stopped by in the evening and we tried some more ideas.  Before getting too technical, we swapped seats and posts, and then pedals but none of those helped. It wasn't the typical pinging noise I've heard from spokes, but still I tightened all the spokes 1/8 of a turn.  No help.  That was all we had time for.

Later I read a lot of messages on the unicycle forums regarding what sounded like the same problem.  There were many suggestions.  This evening Dustin stopped by again and we worked on it some more and pretty much did everything that was suggested.

First I wanted to further eliminate the possibilities of spokes rubbing. Sometimes spokes make noise when they flex and rub against each other.  So we worked thin plastic spacers between every point where two spokes crossed each other.   The clicking remained.

Then we removed the wheel and took everything off the hub spindle: cranks, outer spacers, bearings, and inner spacers.  On the way home from work I had stopped at AutoZone and borrowed a bearing/gear puller.  It was the first time I'd used a bearing puller.  I'm not 100% sure it was the right model for this application, but it did work fine.  On one side of the hub the inner spacer was very tight and had to be carefully pried off.  The other inner spacer came off with no tools.  I assume this was just because of manufacturing tolerances, though I did file some very tiny spurs on the stubborn spacer.  It still didn't go back on easy, so I doubt that did anything.

With the inner spacers off we noticed some tiny metal filings at the connection between the spindle and hub body.  It looked more like something left over from manufacturing than something generated from friction.  After cleaning everything up we reversed the process.  One forum suggestion was to lube the spindle before putting the spacers and bearings on.  We did this.  We also swapped parts from one side to the other.  Why not.  To seat the sticky inner spacer and the bearings I used a deep socket of the right size and hammered.  I'm not sure if a press is normally used, but this technique worked fine.

After putting the wheel back on the frame and tightening the bearing holders to spec, it was time to put the cranks back on.   First I cleaned the crank holes with a toothbrush.  Then I greased the spindle splines.  I have never done this before because grease seems like a bad idea for parts held together mostly by friction, but apparently it's a not uncommon.  I tightened the crank bolts, put the pedals on, and it was time for a test ride.

Guess what.  The clicking is gone!  So, what was the fix?  It's hard to tell what specifically did it, but for now Dustin and I are glad that annoying click is gone and hopefully gone for good.