Me and the GWB

I went riding today and while I realize that a ride in and of itself is not exactly exciting news, it’s a matter of where I went riding that makes it mildly entertaining. After spending the night in the city--in the Upper West Side, specifically--I hit the road at seven-thirty this morning and made my way along Riverside Drive to the George Washington Bridge, into Jersey, and eventually back into New York just south of Nyack.

And that was it. That was my ride. Fifty-one miles later and three hours later, I returned to 72nd Street and Broadway.

(Another quick thanks to Benny for the bag of Clif products. After an hour-and-a-half of riding, I pulled over to chow down on a bag of lemon-lime Clif Shot Bloks to keep the energy up on the way back into the city. LOVE those things!)

A bit chilly this morning, no? Windy as well? During the approach to the GWB, I found myself a bit worried the wind might carry me over the railings and into the Hudson River, although oddly, the wind was the worst on Riverside Drive and not as brutal while crossing the bridge.

Apart from the rather uneventful yet entertaining ride this morning, my gearing seems to be a bit messy once again. I would have to imagine I need to fine-tune the rear derailleur with the barrel adjuster considering I’m getting a bit of chatter in the crank arms when they’re under stress, meaning when I’m pushing the pedals harder rather than pushing them lighter. My first thought is that the chain may be jumping the tiniest bit while toward the top end of the cassette, but the derailleur is shifting fine when I was working on it Saturday night. Again, it’s only when I’m on the road and actually pedaling that I can both hear and feel the chatter, but it was really breaking my concentration this morning, enough to make it that much less of an enjoyable ride.

Over the past year, I haven’t had the best of luck with Shimano gear. The next bike--assuming there is a next bike--may be Campagnolo. Give that stuff a shot. Dr. Rob seems to swear by it, so maybe there’s something in that.

And FYI, I realize I’ve been a bit lacking in my blog update responsibilities, although I promise to work on that and get these things up with some more regularity. And I also promise to try and make them a bit more interesting as well.