GWGO: Rails to Riverside
Today was a messy and snowy adventure that again proved the Wahoo Bolt's effective routing and the Giro Air Attack Shield's winter helmet awesomeness. I collected some easy points today, but getting outside for GWGO points cost me about $109 in bearings.
I find myself hitting the Rails to Trails Path a lot when the snow starts to fly. so hitting this was a no brainer. It was totally empty, and the late afternoon traffic was great making the crossings a breeze. When you hit Sheridan and see no cars, you know life is great.
Well, it was great until I started to hear a distinct squeaking as I pedaled. At first, I thought it was brake rub. Alas, no. Both wheels spun just fine and were rub free. As I rode on, I could hear the noise was only coming when I pedaled and seemed to be coming from the bottom bracket. I knew it was getting close to its life expectancy anyways, so be it. I ordered a new Kogel ceramic bottom bracket when I got home. It annoyed the hell outta me the whole trip though.
The Wahoo made a nice path back from the end of the Rails to Trails, through Kenmore and into Riverside when I picked up points for Riverside Park, snapping a quick selfie on the pedestrian bridge. The Wahoo app continues to impress, and I had really nice roads to the park.
From there, I took my usual route home via Niagara Street and the bike path. My Ion 200 was dying because I neglected to charge it last night, so the path was a bit darker than I had hoped. It kept turning off every minute or so. I ran across a nice bunch of kids who jumped out of the way and apologized even though I probably scared the hell out of them with my failing front light.
Back home, I found Santa right where I knew he would be, about 500 feet from my front door. When I left he was still deflated and not lit up. Perfect timing just like yesterday when the Electric Tower lit up while I was out puttering around.
I was covered in road slime and wet when I arrived home. I guess I forgot the rear fender? The Air Attack Shield kept me dry and kept the snow out of my eyes like a champ. It's so funny that such a high tech piece of gear works so well for something so far from what it was intended to do. If you can pick one up on the cheap, it is a great bad weather helmet that thinks it's an aero crit racer's dream. I'll have to write more on this soon.
I am currently tied for 5th place. Tomorrow, I plan to map out the remaining "place" challenges and get some ideas on how to attack the rest while I wait for two new bottom brackets to arrive. I'm in a mess. The CAADX bottom bracket finally died after 4H CX's mud-a-geddan, the All-City needs a trip to Campus for an 11-speed rebuild, and now the Trek bottom bracket is toast, too.
This week, I also plan on swapping the Trek and All-City cranksets, as the Trek currently has both the PowerTap C1 chainrings and the PowerTap P1 pedals on it. I would like to use the SPDs with the All-City, so this will give me power on all three of those rigs. I guess this means I would have to ride the mountain bike if I plan on any rides before the new BBs get here. Oh well.
Here are the shots below and the route from Ride with GPS.