Gear Tweaks... Gear Headaches...

Back when I signed up for C2C I kind of vaguely knew that I'd need to spend some money on gear, but I really had not shopped around to find out what good bike gear costs, and how much I might need. So I did get a bit of sticker shock back then once I started looking around.

Since then I've tried to be cautious on expenditures. Each time I've wanted to be sure that I needed what I was getting, rather than just "wanting the new bling-bling!" So, for instance, I've been making do with just one pair of cycling shorts. As such, I could train, but I had to do wash every time I came home. But it did save me some money for a while, and I did get some experience in those shorts, so that now I better know what I need. So now that I've got a bunch of riding under my belt, so to speak, I know that I need riding shorts in order to make 100km days, and more than that, I need good riding shorts with good padding in them.

So, end of the introduction.

Monday I had an errand to run near Toronto, so I asked around and Pieter and Gayle also had the time and inclination, so they joined me on a road trip to MEC! (To my American Friends: MEC is Mountain Equipment Co-Op, which is an awesome outdoor equipment store. Good Gear, Good Help, Good Prices.)

Along the way we stopped at the (Canadian) CRC headquarters in Burlington to pick up a couple boxes of the C2C Devotional. While there we got to meet and chat with Al Karsten and Terry Veldboom, who are also C2C riders. Now, none of us were on bikes, so it wasn't a perfect meeting, but it still was nice to chat with them for a few minutes.

I picked up some shoes and Wellgo clipless pedals. I've been making do with my toe-strap pedals up until now. I'm used to them, and they do work better than plain pedals. And like I said above, I wanted to be cautious about expenditures on gear. However, I'd become more and more convinced of the usefulness of clipless pedals. In particular, while other riders were complaining about their backside after a long ride, I usually had throbbing upper thighs, which a few people told me were due to how my muscles were being used on those old pedals.

So yesterday, I set about changing my pedals. Or at least I tried to. The old pedals wouldn't budge off of the crank arms for all the beef in China. And yes, I do know that the threads on the one side are opposite to normal. I tried and tried. All I did was start to round over the nuts. So I called up John Vandersteen, 2005 C2C veteran, all around bike gear head, and very helpful gentleman to boot. He also made sure that I was turning the nut the right direction... but agreed to swing by today.

John couldn't get them off either. We tried penetrating oil. We tried a propane torch to heat up the metal. We tried wacking with a hammer. And finally resorted to pulling out the drill and trying to drill out the rust-seized old bolt.

No go.

So off I went to my local bike shop, tail between my legs. And there my grinning bike tech Brian had them out in less than 5 minutes. See, Brian had two things that I didn't. First, a metalworking vise on a solid bench. Second, a pipe wrench. (He couldn't get it off with a standard pedal wrench either.)

Okay folks, here in London I highly recommend Brian, owner of Cyclepath on Richmond steet as a stellar person/store to do business with.

Hmm, this is getting long. No matter.

So I got things back home and put the bike back together -- the chain needed cleaning anyway -- and at last I could install my new pedals (Wellgo WPD-823 by the way)

This is the point where you start falling. At least, that's what I've been warned to expect. Only, I didn't. Getting OUT of the pedals is not any problem at all for me. Getting IN, though, is still a struggle. I think that is just going to take some time to instinctively know where to position the shoe to get the front of the clip in before stepping down. But not to worry, I'm sure that I will fall sooner or later...

and that's enough for now.
blessings all.