Pet Pixels

What an excellent weekend! Driving up to Slimbridge in the pouring raid hearing flood warnings on the radio filled us with a certain foreboding, but it was great! Real proper mud, a sprinkle of rain, some excellent biking (but not too much!), brilliant company and excess food as usual! My new cranks fared very well, freshly serviced cables a big improvement, especially the front shifter. I'm still not fit enough though - my shoulders and my bum still ache! The T-shirts went down very well, pretty pleased with mine. On top of all that, it was a very happy 40th birthday party (if a little early) for Fraser. Luc learned to say "Dog", "Duck" (there were lots) and finally figured out how to say "Bye Bye" instead of just "Hello"!

Last Sunday I was doing some interval training on my turbo trainer when I noticed a nasty mechanical clicking sound from somewhere around my bottom bracket. It sounded just like a cracked bearing, so I borrowed a crank extractor, took the cranks off, only to find that my BB bearings were absolutely smooth, no sign of a problem at all. Mystified, I put the cranks back on, and while I was doing that, noticed that the left crank was cracked from centre hole to the outside of the spider, all the way through. I'm very glad I wasn't riding when it finally went! XT stuff isn't meant to do this! It turns out that it's more or less the same price to have a new combined BB and chainset rather than just replacing the old taper-fit chainset, and it should be lighter, stiffer and stronger into the bargain. So Chain Reaction delivered me a nice Deore LX Hollowtech II chainset, and Brockley Cycle Team fitted it for me today, along with some good advice. (Added a picture of it 22/9/2008).