51 miles and a rubbing sound
By JB. Filed in Cycling |
It was an OK ride, I suppose, although I started to wear down near Monticello. Second in the pace line and the guy pulling was going a little over 20 mph into about a 15 mph wind. I was struggling to stay on his wheel and then just fell off. Martin, the triathlete extraordinaire, was behind me and told me not to worry about it, which made me feel a little better. But then it was my turn to pull, so I led the three who were behind me at a much slower pace until we got to a section of road that had a slight downhill grade, and I was able to bump the pace up to 20-22 mph until we hit Monticello road and the hill.
I fell to the back and then fell off the back, pushing my pedals like crazy, when I noticed a rubbing sound and vibration. I think the sound was there all along as was the vibration, but due to a relatively bumpy road and a strong headwind, I could neither feel or hear the rubbing. When we turned on to Monticello Road, which is much smoother, we were shielded from the wind out of the West by the hill we were climbing, so I could then both hear and feel the rub. So I pulled over to investigate. I’m officially sticking to the theory that the rub is what caused me to wear down and fail to stay on John’s wheel. 
The wheels both spun freely with no resistance, which meant that the rub was coming from somewhere in my bottom bracket. Great. By then the group was well ahead of me by maybe a mile or more, but they were entering Monticello, and I was close enough to catch up. Martin was kind enough to stop a couple of miles ahead and wait. When I caught up to him, I explained what was going on. At the Caseys, he spun my pedals a few times and agreed that the sound was probably coming from the bottom bracket.
So now I’m taking the bike to Champaign Cycle for its 30 day tuneup. I was going to wait a couple of months for that, but since I have to take it in anyway, I may as well have them do the tunep. The Lemond has close to 400 miles on it anyway, so it probably needs some adjustments.
The total for the day was 51.4 and my average was slightly over 19 mph when I turned on to Duncan, but I slowed to 12-18 mph on that road as I didn’t want to push the pedals too hard. We only started with 7 riders. One of the other new guys dropped shortly before we got to Neil Street and Dan and Larry dropped near the tree grove between Champaign and Monticello. Not sure why there was such a low turnout today, but I’m guessing it has something to do with the 8:00 start time.