Two Wheel Blogs

I went out for the weekly night ride/group ride at the local trails. The ride started pretty well, the temp was nice enough to allow me to wear shorts and short sleeve jersey. I thought to myself about the to-do list that I made up on Sunday, and how one of the many adjustments I made might come back to haunt me....but soon forgot about it as everything seemed to be really dialed.

As you may recall, I checked out my wheels, put some new cleats on my shoes, and a new chain...but I did not mention a few other things I did. I dialed my brakes in a bit (now they are TUNED), and I put on a new set of skewers...it is amazing how many rattles and squeaks a bad set of skewers can cause....I had figured that I needed to do a winter rebuild on my bike to chase all the squeaks, pops and rattles out of it....turns out all but one were coming from my wheel skewers. Note to others, if you have a skewer that does not close smoothly and give you a VERY confident feel when fully closed, get new ones...it may make a bigger difference than you think.

So, back to the ride. I am riding along positively railing the trails (I have not ridden in a week) and feeling like a champ when I come to the first field (about 2 miles into the ride). I decide to stop and wait for others, but also need to dial my brakes out just a hair (they feel a little to firm for my liking). That is when I noticed it....perhaps one of the big reasons I was riding so well. I had replaced my cleats, but had not re-adjusted the tension on my SPD releases. The pedals were holding my shoes very firmly and I was able to take full advantage of the upstroke and generate mucho-speed. It felt so right that I did not even notice...all along, I had figured that I was just feeling good from not riding for so long.

It was when I got to this field and decided to stop that I noticed the release tension....all at once thoughts started flooding into my head, as I panicked to un-clip before face encounters Terra-firma. I got out just in the nick of time...and no one was there to see my flailing panic. Success!

I ratcheted back the pre-load on the spring and all was well. The rest of the ride I enjoyed the renewed performance from something so simple as a set of skewers, and cleats. Try it, you will see!