Rollers and Builds

The last few days have been days of discovery. I have embarked on two different (though closely related) kinds of new experiences, and am blundering my way through them with a certain degree of satisfaction.


The first was to buy a used mountain bike frame on ebay. I did this in order to test my recently formed hypothesis that the reason my knees cause me so much pain on a mountain bike is due, not to the cycling itself, but to the full suspension. I can't quite recall, thinking back, why I decided full suspension was so important to me when I was a spindly 17-year-old trying to win the junior beginner women's AZ state championship race series. I guess the Racer-X was just all the rage in the 90's, so I had to have one.


My "new" frame (it is 14 years old) and fork (which is a fairly new, very nice component Brian is sharing with me) is at least two pounds lighter than my old frame and fork. This in itself will be a good change, (although admittedly this number was provided by the same scale that told me once I'd lost six pounds overnight, and then gained three back after drinking a glass of water).

So, when my new frame arrived I was excited to move all my parts over. Taking everything off my Titus required some help from Brian - mainly in the cranks and bottom-bracket area. I was neither strong enough nor educated enough to get those parts out. Then Brian left for class and I brilliantly decided to try to put the bottom bracket into my new frame all by myself.

The following is an approximation of the conversation between me and the service manager at the bike shop I went to the next morning:

Me: I just bought this frame on ebay. I'm having trouble getting the bottom bracket in. It looks like some of the threads in the frame are damaged.
Him: Sure, I can fix this no problem.

Later:

Him: Okay, the bottom bracket is in. Do you need anything else?
Me: Yes, cables, housing, chain.
Him: Are you building this up yourself?
Me: Yes. With some help from my boyfriend.
Him: You know, we are looking to hire some mechanics right now.
Me, Internally: I don't think you'd be offering me a job if you knew the reason the threads on this bike were screwed up was entirely due to me trying to put one side of the bottom-bracket into the wrong side of the frame, and the only reason said component is not still stuck in the wrong side of the frame is because Brian came home and patiently wrenched it back out again.
Me: I don't know if I'd really call myself a mechanic, but thanks.

Disaster averted, I brought my repaired bike home and proceeded to add on less intimidating components. From there, I managed to here with only verbal outside help.


I am now waiting for Brian to come home so I can adjust the rear-derailleur and decide on the chain length with his excellent advice and supervision. After that it will only require two more things that could not be swapped from my Titus: a front-derailleur (important or not, depending on your philosophy) and a seat-post (important no matter how minimalist you are).


My second grand adventure has involved Brian's rollers. Since I have apparently developed plantar fasciitis in my right leg, I've been limited as to my activities lately. Finally driven stir-crazy, however, I put on all my cycling clothes and went downstairs.

I have long been scared of the rollers, given the possibility of grand and painful crashes off of them onto the hard, cold, unforgiving basement floor. But once downstairs in my cycling clothes, I overcame my fears and tried them anyway. I proceeded to fall off of them many times (thankfully always onto my feet), and discovered that my spin is horrible to non-existent.


But I was pleasantly surprised after a day off to discover that my mind (apparently while I was sleeping or cooking or at work) assimilated all of the impressions it had gathered during my first half-hour of graceless roller-riding, and when I tried again I discovered I'd improved dramatically.

So, I look forward to my continued experiments involving my two new past-times.