Chain Gang and New Tires

Last night after my normal late afternoon bicycle ride, I installed my new Specialized Armadillo tires. These have a Kevlar band on them and are touted to be the best at preventing puncture flats. I've had 2 flats in the past 8 weeks and it's a pain to keep dealing with that so I think this is a good time and aggravation saver investment. In the process of changing the tires I also washed the bike and cleaned the chain, derailleurs and gears. It was really pretty straightforward to clean the rear hub with a rag when the wheel was off the bike for the tirechange anyway. With almost 1200 miles this spring (almost 1000 on the new bike alone), I expect I'll put a new chain on sometime this summer ... maybe at around 2000 miles. What I've read on this is that keeping the chain in good shape (clean and lubed) goes a long way towards enhancing the longevity of the chainring and cassette gears. When they wear down the chain will make noise and often shift on its own. Also the chain will wear out much more quickly. So the goal is to keep everything in the best shape and avoid having to change the gears for as long as possible (at least 5000 miles, I hope). But don't worry ... I'm on it!

Well, my weight is now at 161 and edging toward 160 ... which is my final goal. That's right near the midpoint of my "normal" BMI range (at 160 my BMI is 22.7), which is a pretty accurate indicator for me since I have a "normal" body type (i.e., I'm not "big boned" like Eric Cartman, etc., hehe).

By the way, today is officially the first day of summer as the summer solstice occurs in the northern hemisphere at about 1:07pm CDT. It's the longest day of the year so ... party on! And think about how lucky we are to not be living in, say, the dead of winter in Australia right now (although I'm OK with winter, too). Or, worse, the fact that in Antarctica, morning will not arrive until August 20 (they have about 4 straight months of no sunlight). Yes, we are *so* fortunate! Also, I hope everyone took a look at the western sky at around 10pm last night (June 20) ... nice line up of the waxing crescent moon along with Saturn and Venus.

I'm looking forward to this afternoon's ride on the new tires and a clean bike (there was a lot of trail dust on it from Saturday's ride to Waterloo). Sometime soon I need to spend some quality time re-calibrating the speedometer as I'm pretty sure the new tires will have a few more millimeters of roll per revolution. But I'll be able to compute a pretty good answer at the end of tonight's ride (since the distance of my usual workout is well known) ... at least to the point of matching it up with the old calibration. A little thing, I know, but it will bring a smile to my face ...

P.S. The new tires and the drivetrain lube all worked well. The calibration was still right on for the speedometer. And, although the forecast was for a 70% chance of possibly severe thunderstorms this afternoon, the 30% side won out and my ride was easily completed. Finally, I cleaned and cut up a new batch of strawberries today ... very good on ice cream, especially with a modicum of Hershey's topping.