Gilbert is at the shop today after suffering a sudden failure of index shifting. I was riding Wed morning, stopped and got off for a couple of minutes, and when I got back on, it wouldn't shift out of 5th.
This being a fairly stiff gear for crossing bridges, starting up hills etc, I biked to a good locking place near the nearest T stop, and then went into work and home via T. When I rode back from the T stop to home in the evening, again it shifted once, then stopped.
I'm hopeful that it's a cable issue and that either replacing or lubricating and adjusting the cable will solve the problem, but this time of year I don't have much time to mess with the bike.
Luckily I happened to be driving out to a job site in Newton and would be passing Harris, albeit well before they opened, so I changed my zipcar to a ziptruck and dropped it off on the way.
Arriving back home from the jobsite around 10, I considered just walking to the T. But it was so so cold that I thought I'd actually be colder in the 10 minutes on each end I would end up walking than I would be in the 30 minutes it would take to bike. So Minerva got a turn to go to work.
I don't know if it's just faulty memory, or the cold weather, but I actually think that the front brake was more aggressive than I remember, but I still think it would be nice to have it be a little more aggressive.
If anyone had been biking behind me on the path this morning they would have thought I was disturbed because I kept accelerating, then slamming on the brakes- trying different combos (front only, rear only, both).
I stopped to take some pictures of Minerva and the skeletal trees (and their shadows). By that point I'd warmed up enough to unzip my shell (was wearing a cotton T shirt and a very heavy wool sweater, cords, wool ski socks and la Canadienne boots. And puffy insulated gloves (warmer than leather gloves, not as warm as ski gloves).
Too bad Gilbert is out with a cold, but nice that Minerva could pick up the slack.
ReplyDeleteHope Gilbert starts feeling better.
Mark