october burlington ride

Tom H led this ride out of the Muschal School today. Eight of us went, not all of whose names I got: Ron S, Laura, John (with whom I ride just frequently enough that I remember his face, but not usually his name), Steve (ditto), a woman whose name I did not get... and the guy who reminded me that he was on this ride pushing a hybrid (and doing a good job of it; he joked that he didn't know enough to know that he couldn't ride that heavy bike fast enough to keep up with a B ride... so he kept up anyway!).

Just on the cusp of fall today. The day started cool enough that I thought I would want arm warmers (and I was talked out of them), and ended up over 80°. The fall colors are just starting to come on; and it was clear and sunny until near the end of the ride, when the clouds started to come (as I write this, rain is threatening for the afternoon).

A couple of neat things: after we came through Browns Mills, there's an unpleasant left turn onto Juliustown Road. Tom put in a right to a Wawa for an early break, and then proceeded in the appropriate direction, making the despiséd left into a right. That worked really well, and I don't think he knew how neat of a move that was!

Mostly a flat ride... especially for me, because about ten miles from the end, I got two of them...flats, that is (now there's some terrible writing). I was going too fast to avoid a pothole, and got a matching set, front and rear, of compression punctures ("snakebite" flats). The gang pulled over, and Tom and Ron replaced my front tube, with a pump, in about half the time it took me to replace my rear, with CO₂.

I've recently replaced my front brake pads with Kool-Stops, and after the tire replacement, I had a wicked squeal in the front brake. Here's what I had to do to fix it:

1. Wipe the rim and the brake pads with acetone, which didn't work.
2. Go to the internet, and read Sheldon Brown's page on brake squealing to learn that the problem is probably dirt or oil on the rim.
3. Wipe the rim with Glass Plus, which didn't work.
4. Wipe the rim with Simple Green Auto Formula, which didn't work.
5. Read Sheldon's article again to see he recommends a brushing and rinse. Spray on Simple Green, get a brush, scrub the wheel, then rinse with a wet sponge. This almost worked, but not quite.
6. Have an idea. Wipe the brake shoes with Simple Green, then wipe with the sponge to clean off the residue left there. This seems to have worked, and there doesn't appear to be enough residue to reduce the braking ability.

If I have the problem again, and can reduce the number or variety of these steps, you can bet I'll post it here.

I'm glad I got this in. I'm hoping to meet the Pennsylvanian Boys From The Hood (Dave C, Joe M, et alia) for the Covered Bridges ride tomorrow... but weather seems to be arguing against us!