Unpredictability

I just lost a couple of paragraphs I'd written here.  It's got something to do with this fancy touchpad thing, but it seems to be rather unpredictable.  Oh well.  So anyway, I really didn't need to miss another day of riding today, but Tropical Storm Lee had different ideas.  Things got really windy and rainy early this morning, and by 6 am I knew I was definitely not going to be riding. As it turned out, that was about the worst weather we got an my house today.  Unfortunately it kind of screwed up my morning, leaving me with nothing to do but make coffee and watch The Weather Channel. By mid-morning I was really starting to get desperate for something to do, but with the weather still rather unpredictable and the roads still quite wet and covered with leaves and branches, I was still hesitant to get on the bike.  So then it hit me.  What better time to take apart that balky right shifter and confirm my suspicions.

For a couple of months it's been acting a little strangely, and the Ergobrain computer has consistently been showing the rear cog as being one lower than it really was.  I suspected a broken spring carrier, but taking a Campi shifter apart is not for the faint of heart, so I'd been putting it off.  Well, with the prospect of three days of steady rain I figured, "no time like the present."  Naturally, no soon than I'd started the clouds parted and the sun came out, at least for a while.

After peeling back the stinky handlebar tape, pulling out the brake and derailleur cables, rolling back the rubber cover to expose the old sweat, and removing the rusty bolt holding the shifter to the handlebars, I pulled the shifter off.  As I'd expected, it was pretty gunky. I sprayed it all down with silicone spray and started taking things apart. I could already see that, as I had suspected, the post that holds the big spring was either broken or cracked.  I removed all of the various parts and springs, cleaned everything up, and ordered a new $10 spring carrier. Guess I'll be riding the old Cervelo for a few days.  Meanwhile, the tropical storm was turning out to be something of a disappointment, not that I heard anyone complaining. Still a little bored, I decided it was time to re-wire the old 10-light brass chandelier that I haven't installed yet.  That turned out to be quite a task, ultimately requiring me to disassemble the whole thing in order to thread the power cord through the impossibly narrow sections.  It took me nearly an hour to take all of the sections apart because they were pretty much welded together with rust.

I think I'm going to ride tomorrow -- somehow.