Dead Legs and a Headwind

I rode out to Sandpoint for my annual reflexive visit to the Seattle Bike Expo; I don’t know why I go every year since after I go every year I ask myself why I went, but the ride, at least, was welcome as a tailwind pushed me along from home and through the U-District.

But on the way back, and then the entire trip home from Ballard where I’d gone to visit Dutch Bikes, I was fighting a headwind and my legs, never known for their fast-twitch fibers, seemed especially languid, and that gave me ample time to appreciate the weather, which was spitting drizzle all afternoon between bouts of bluster.

But the high point was that I seemed to have, for now, at least, silenced the click I’d been having with each pedal-turn on the Saluki. The other day it occurred to me that the source of the noise might be the non-drive side bottom bracket cup, which was a replacement, anyway, and perhaps didn’t fit quite right.

So, yesterday, I pulled off the cranks, and didn’t even have to extract the bottom bracket to replace the aluminum cup with a plastic one I’d gotten for a dollar at R&E; today, to my delight, clicking gone.

I was thinking last time I rode the Saluki that I might try to fix the problem by investing in a Phil Wood bottom bracket, which would mean I’d also have to buy the installation tool, so by the time all that paid for I’d be out over a hundred bucks; it felt good, therefore, to see the problem licked—(so far; not to jinx it)—for a mere one percent of that.

Then later, I took the 420 Bike out for a spin to the video store and some errands; its stateliness felt like a better match for my speed; it was pleasant enough to get out on two wheels even slowly; dead legs and a headwind be damned.