At the Back

So despite some occasional stretching and wishful thinking, I could still feel, deep down, a lingering soreness in my apparently not-yet-recovered quads last night when I finally hit the sack around 1 a.m. I had been bouncing around all evening between the computer and the Peugeot project in the basement. I couldn't resist the Tuesday levee ride, though, so I went out with the plan of keeping my nose out of the wind no matter who surged off the front and no matter who else let the gap open. As it turned out things stayed together all the way out. The pace was fast, but from my vantage point at the back of the paceline the most noticeable thing was the "accordion effect" that is so common on the tail end of a long line. The ride back was more of the same until John flatted around the parish line and a few of us stopped to wait so he wouldn't have to ride back solo. After that the pace was slower and more steady, but damn I wish this leg soreness would cease and desist.

The jerks up in Baton Rouge are messing with our proposals for the higher ed. relief funding, asking us inane questions that have no relevance to the issue at hand. Apparently they were disturbed that our budget is out of balance and showing a deficit and want to know if we are allowed to do that. Yes, of course we are. We aren't a state institution, and why do you care anyway?

The city bike project is continuing down its bumpy path. Last night I shined up the old Nervar cranks and Campi Record pedals, rebuilt the old bottom bracket and Normandy hubs, and installed the cranks. Damn they look pretty. I was thinking that I could set this up as a 5-speed using a classic old Campi shifter and Record derailleur, but the removable derailleur hanger is very Simplex-specific and there's no way the larger Campi derailleur bolt is going to work, so I decided to go ahead and make it a single-speed as per my original plan. I ordered a 16 tooth single speed freewheel to go with the 44 or 45 tooth small chainring, along with some spacers so I can remove the big chainring and re-use the chainring bolts. I probably could have gotten this stuff from the LBS but then it also would probably have taken me a couple of days to get around to it and besides, in a world full of $1,000 wheelsets and 16 pound road bikes, nobody's going to be getting rich selling me a freewheel. They'll just have to trust that I am sending them real paying customers, which I am, all the time. So I guess it'll probably be next week before I get this thing on the road.