Taking Ruby for a Ride

Given the general nastiness of the weather, the only riding that Ruby has done is in the back of my truck. She spent a little time in the bike shop today, being looked at closely for causes of her unacceptable behavior of late. Twice lately, when shifting from the big chain ring to the small, the pedals just spun. The chain hadn't fallen off, so some integral connection on my drive chain wasn't being made. Saturday it happened at the bottom of the hill near home. Last week it was on the way to Kirk Park. On both occasions, whatever was wrong eventually righted itself, and I was able to continue on. So Nate took apart the rear hub and declared it to be filthy. He cleaned it up, and checked over the rest of the drive train. It may well be good for a while, but I am now thinking of a new wheel set. Specialized has some nice new ones for 2008 -- Laura's husband quite likes his Fusee Star wheelset, for example. I'm nearing 5,000 miles on this wheelset, so I am now starting to look seriously. Everybody needs a back up wheelset, according to Laura (?) and my existing wheelset could be my back up. (I've ridden well over 25,000 miles over the past dozen years or so, maybe 30,000. I've never needed a back up wheelset.) There was no biking yesterday, as it rained all day. And all night. Even if it clears up later today, the roads are unlikely to dry up enough for a ride today. There are two or three spots in the neighborhood where significant amounts of water ponded over the streets.

Not exactly the Root River, of course. But I am anxious to try out the Ruby -- including the effects of resetting the bicycle computer to the appropriate wheel size.