Cape Cod Day 5 - made it!

Well, I'm pleased to report that I made it as scheduled today. The ride was just a touch over 60 miles (the shortest of the 5 days) and, aided by a slight tailwind (at last!), I actually managed to beat Laura and Stephen, who were driving here and left New York this morning at 7:30 a.m., by a grand total of about 3 minutes. A small (and basically meaningless) victory, but I'll take it.

I immediately headed off with them for a swim in the Bay. Very excellent - the water was cool, crystal clear and clean, and a welcome contrast to - and a needed relief from - the heat and humidity of the past 5 days.

It all felt so good (aided by an ice cold beer) that I really was not motivated to write a final blog post, so with apologies, this is being written the morning after, from the deck of Laura's family's house in Truro (which, I might add, in addition to a great view, has ample coffee).

The ride itself was a familiar one and basically uneventful. The first 20 miles or so were primarily on Route 6A, which is pretty scenic in its own right, but had more traffic than I would have liked (not surprising for a Friday morning on the Cape in the summer), occasionally mitigated by taking detours on parallel roads that would swoop out towards the Bay and add a few miles that were a worthwhile trade-off for the enhanced views and lighter traffic. And then the final 30+ miles were mostly on the Cape Cod bike path, to which I often have mixed reactions. This time it was all good - it was relaxing, good bicycling, nice people watching of families out with their kids, and simply a pleasure to be on.

Also, in the continuing annals of Roger bike mechanical issues stories, on the path I was able to troubleshoot and actually solve one little noise that was driving me a bit crazy (OCD, me?). It was a continuing, very minor tick, that only occurred when I was pedaling, and changed in frequency when I sped up or slowed down, so it clearly had to come from either the wheels or the drive mechanism (front and rear gears and chain). Initially, I thought it was the disc brakes rubbing and needing adjustment, but I tweaked those and made sure the wheels were spinning freely - so that wasn't it. I also made sure it wasn't my wheel reflectors or cadence/ speedometer magnet being misaligned and hitting something with each revolution. And then the lightbulb went off. This is a new bike this year, but I've already put 1500 miles on it. With new bikes, the cables stretch with usage. Typically, people think of the brake cables stretching and you bring the bike back in to the shop after a month or two to have your brakes tightened. In my case, my bike has hydraulic disc brakes, so this was not an issue and was off my radar screen. But there are also another set of cables that go to the derailleurs on the bike, and those stretch as well. The ticking noise I was hearing was a tiny misalignment of the rear derailleur mechanism resulting from its associated cable stretching with use. This meant that the rear derailleur wheels, instead of being a 100% aligned with the rear cassette cogs, were only, maybe, 98% aligned. A definite potential noise generator! But there's a tiny barrel adjuster at the back that lets you pick up the cable slack with a small counterclockwise rotation (I admit, it took me more than a few moments to remember which way to turn it to tighten the cable as opposed to loosening it). Et voila! Problem solved. It's a ridiculous corollary, but with the new, completely noise-free pedaling, I felt reinvigorated and much stronger on the bike for the remaining portion of my ride.

So that's it. Thanks again for reading and your support. Writing these entries (and receiving your acknowledgments and comments back) always help me to feel a bit more connected during what are, in essence, solitary ventures.

Finally, if you've been intending to donate in support of my upcoming Climate Ride, but just haven't gotten around to it, please feel free still to do so by clicking on this link or the "Support Me" tab above. Definitely no obligation though!

And of course, the last day's route: