sleet and procrastination

another fine cold morning, really enjoying the commute with the sun shining the way it has. i figure, if it's "warm" enough to board, it's warm enough to ride. but, sleet/heavy rain, temps warming to 32 for tomorrow. the morning ride will be brutal, but it's supposed to blow-out by afternoon, literally. winds from the east (headwind) at 15-20 steady, gusting to who knows what... sounds like an indoor trainer day. come spring, i'll head-out in that crap to toughen-up, but for now, would rather not get sick. just need to fix that ancient 7-speed chain on the indoor trainer bike tonight. it's been repaired about 6 times, making it 6 links too short, but i'm too cheap to replace the drivetrain until it really, really, really needs it (i.e. completely unridable).

talking about repairs left undone, my used commuter's (GT Avalanche) front rings were so beat when i bought it for nothing, only had use of the big ring and was missing a few rear cogs, so rode on it everyday in the same gear. i kinda like the singlespeed push off the line, really grinding-down to get moving, legs slowing picking-up speed like the screws of a ship...

anyway, finally got around to replacing the drivetrain on my commuter a couple weeks ago, kinda. the cranks and bb are sitting on my basement floor, covered in stain and pieces of mahogany (been riding jenn's commuter). the salt and road poop really gets into everything - it weathers some pretty gnarly crap - really need to get that bike put back together... what's funny is that the only reason i bought the GT for commuting was the disc brakes, which ended-up being a horrible decision. disc brakes might seem like a good idea for city riding, some quick-stopping action when in trouble, but there is so much oil on the roadway that the pads become contaminated after only a couple rain storms... have some v-brakes to swap-out, i'm guessing i'll get around to that by Spring... maybe i should just try harder to master the fixey and ride that sucka' around. that's one way to avoid bike maintenance...