After a really rad whirlwind trip like that, I relish a weekend at a home catching up on sleep and laundry and grocery shopping and basically trying to reorganize myself as best as possible. With high temperatures in the single digits, this was the perfect weekend to hunker down and get some stuff done.

My travel bike needed some love. So far I’ve taken it to Ireland, Oregon and Tennessee and the repeated assembly and disassembly had resulted in a bunch of parts rattling around in the bottom of the case. In addition, in December I pulled the fork and shipped it off to Push Industries for a rebuild and performance tune. It came back really quickly and already feels better. Until I get to ride it for real to know for sure, I can only hope that a little attention made a big difference.

So I took it into the shop and George and I (well, honestly mostly George but that’s why he makes the big bucks) stripped it down, cleaned it up, and regreased all the bits that needed to be regreased. Remember that time I arrived in Nashville and my rear wheel was missing a spacer and there was a whole big adventure to get a wheel to borrow? Well, while mucking about with my rear wheel George found the missing spacer. On the axle deep, deep, deep, inside the hub. Where it was never meant to be.

The spacer in question

And then he showed me where all those other spacers were supposed to go. And I took exploded diagram-esque photos in the hope of maybe doing a better job next time I put it together.

Think this will help?

The Center Track belt drive is finally available in other gearings so he put on an easier sprocket which should make riding the Caletti in areas with climbing a lot more fun. However, it seemed that I managed to come home from TN without some other spacers and my fancy Chris King lock ring to hold everything together. Whoops.

New tires. Trying out the Hutchinson Cobras. Just a bit of fiddling with the brakes left to do and then to pack it back up again for Singlespeed AZ on Feb 4. It’s a fine looking ride and seeing it all built up and shiny has got me all excited to ride it again.