The 12/19/08 Report (A pure gravy Commute)

I know this report is a day or two late; however,
I spend the greater part of every day behind keyboard so when I got home on Friday I did not feel like doing any writing.

Friday's commute was wonderful with extremely mild weather I think the morning temperature was 68° which was perfect. Thursday night I was having one of those restless nights where I really couldn't sleep. So I wound up leaving an hour early (4:15 a.m.) which meant I'd basically owned the road from my house all the way to Texas Southern University. For the morning leg I posted a scorching one hour and 15 minute transit time this is nearly equal to my car commute in traffic it was really an amazing morning.

The ride home was also pretty good because I left closer to five o'clock I chose my southerly route which basically has become my standard way home. As I was passing Main Street I felt a distinct "thunk" and my feet spun until the chain caught again and it became apparent that I was suffering a chain slip.

For the past couple rides I have experienced one to two chain slips. Knowing that I was rapidly coming up to the 850 mile point on my odometer and I had no knowledge of how many miles the previous owner had put on the Sirrus (for all I know it could've been an additional 150 miles putting me right at a 1,000) I decided at about the halfway point to make a dogleg by Sun and Ski Sports to have the chain gauged for wear. The remainder of the ride was uneventful and I made it to Sun and Ski around 6:15 p.m. They checked my chain and sure enough I had worn it out. I also had done a fair amount of damage to gears three and four on my rear cassette; however, my front chain wheels were fine.

Unfortunately, they did not have any 12-25T cassettes in stock which would have kept the bike in stock configuration; however, they did have a 12-21T which would work acceptably well in Houston's nearly flat terrain. So the '07 Sirrus is now tighter geared then even its '88 granddaddy and for a heavily laden 700c hybrid it moves like a scalded cat.

Saturday I did my usual Raleigh Twenty commute to my weekend job which gave me another 4 miles and then Sunday I stopped by Performance Bicycle and much to my surprise my Schwinn Town & Country was finally ready for pickup! My best guess is they sent that replacement axel key by Windjammer because I had brought the trike in shortly before hurricane Ike struck in late August. So now I have my grocery/TFW commuter back in the fold. I might lighten it's duty a little bit as I've enjoyed the in store maneuverability of the Raleigh Twenty. (The Schwinn Town & Country tends to take over whatever space it resides in. It's the equivalent of a 55 Cadillac trunk in square footage.)

My work at Texas Southern for Christmas shuts down after two o'clock on Monday 12/22 so whatever riding occurs prior to the new year will be utility/TFW commuting, or pleasure/fitness riding. As it stands I've ridden 2, 119 miles for the year which is 82 miles over my yearly goal so far.