The good news is that gosh awful sound coming from my bike was the rear wheel free hub. My mechanic was able to clean it real well and re-grease it and I'm as good as new. I did need to put a new cassette (rear wheel gears) and chain on the bike as they had probably 3,000+ miles on them and were pretty worn. Mfg suggest changing them out every 1,500 miles or so. I got a pretty good deal on the parts and my mechanic didn't really charge me much. He also put new shifter cable ends on (mine were about to break) and cleaned, lubed and adjusted everything. I rode it again for the first time Thursday at Stone Mountain and everything worked well. It was hot, hot, hot and very humid. I only did 20 miles but looked like I probably had ridden a century (100 mile ride).
The sorta bad news is that I took Friday off after 6 straight days of riding and rode the Tucker "B" ride again today. I rode it for the first time last week and rode strong, so I was maybe feeling a little cocky or say over-confident. I rode my friend Richard's Ekko (independent fabricated) bike that is really awsome. It probably weighs about 2lbs less than my bike and has gearing set up for more top end speed. The Tucker Ride has been around for 20+ years. It's predominantly flat and rolling with a few not too long or steep climbs. It's a 45 mile ride. I ride to it from the house which makes it a little over 50 miles total for me. Anyway, most of the 15-20 people that were there, weren't there last week. There were mostly younger (30's) guys and a few very fit young ladies. About 5 miles into it, I realized that we were riding at a clip that I estimated to be about 2miles and hour faster than the previous week. That's all well and good five miles into it, but 30 miles (roughly an hour and a half) later it sucks big time. I held on till about the 32mile mark then just could not dig down any deeper to stay on the back and fell off. The other older guy, Alan who had ridden with me last week bailed out and headed home but not before he told me we only had a little over 15miles more to go. Richards bike does not have a cyclocomputer on it so I didn't know how far we had gone or even what the avg pace was. Today, that was probably a mistake. Anyway, at the 32 mile mark I reduced my pace and rode on into Stone Mountain Village where most people stop for a short break. At this point I was probably only a minute or two behind. I took a good 15 minute break and tried to regroup for the finish but did not feel very well. I just read in the paper that the heat index is 100 degrees today (93 high with 80+ humidity). I did another gu2o gel and drank some more of my hydration drink and got back on the bike and literally limped home the remaining six miles. I got off the bike and once I dried off and sat down in the lazy boy to rest I started to cramp really bad. Yes, I had pushed the limit today and it was not a pretty sight in the end, but I guess as they say; that which does not kill you makes you stronger. No more riding until Monday's recovery ride.
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