As I waited for the temperature to reach the mid 60’s I worked on the Canyon Endurace CF SLX. Tired of getting my fingers greasy I heated up the Fry Baby melting paraffin to wax the chain. I moved the Canyon out to the patio in the sunlight to get a better look. first I checked the rear tire for wear. I put the current tires on at 10,330 miles and they are at 15,881 miles now. Spinning the rear wheel I found the wear dot in several places so it has more miles to go. While spinning the tire I found a small cut with a tiny piece of glass embedded. The tip of a utility knife blade flicked the glass out, maybe avoiding a future flat. With the paraffin heating I wiped the Canyon off with a wet cloth using some WD-40 to remove the grease on the protective strip on the chainstay below the chain’s path. When I looked for the missing link in the chain to remove it I couldn’t find one. Tailwind Bicycles put the chain on and didn’t use the one I gave them with the chain. Fortunately I have extra missing links. I broke the chain, removed a link and soaked the chain in the hot paraffin. While the chain cooled I cleaned the jockey pulley wheels of built up wax and grease and then installed the chain. I wrapped up the work airing the tires to 90 psi.
By now the temperature was in the mid 60’s and I started getting ready to go biking. I rolled out at 1:33 PM to ride the ” Atascocita – Walden – Huffman” route. By the 4:01 PM finish time I biked 33.05 miles.
In the video I say the wind didn’t have any gusts. That was at the beginning of the ride. At the end the wind was much stronger with gusts. Weather conditions during the bike ride: start 66 (53% humidity, 48.4 dew point), a few clouds, wind N 12 mph. Finish 68 (51% humidity, 49.0 dew point), partly cloudy, wind N 15 mph gusts 22 mph. I wore shorts, leg warmers, long sleeve thermal jersey, and a wind jacket. I needed the wind jacket. Crossing Lake Houston going east the wind pushed me around like a Styrofoam cup laying on the road.
My legs took a beating in the headwind. Every time I turned north the wind assaulted me. Windbreaks were few and far between. I thought riding west over Lake Houston might be as bad as the east bound segment but I got a break going west. I tried to catch another cyclist about 1/4 mile in front of me but we matched speeds. Maybe Wednesday the wind will let up. It should be a few degrees warmer.
