I had some issues riding to work this morning. I'm thinking the temperature had something to do with it. I left the house about 0530 and it was a balmy 14 degrees! After about the second stop I noticed my back tire was not riding smoothly, it felt like the brake was on.
When I arrived at work I found out that yes the brake was rubbing, the wheel would not spin very good. I made a few adjustments to the back brake and it seemed OK. While checking out the back brake I noticed I had a bad spoke. I did what I could to fix it.
I also noticed that my lights were pretty dim by the time I got to work. I'm thinking maybe the cold is having an affect on the batteries as well. I usually leave my bike in the breezeway where there is no heat. Tonight I'm bringing it in the house to work on it so I think I will just leave it inside for the night to see if that makes a difference on the lights. If so then I know I need to bring the lights in the house and not leave them on the bike.
After getting home I took a closer look at the back tire and was able to fix the spoke, I think it must have just worked it's way loose. I cleaned and lubed the brake cables and I'm hoping that will fix the sticking problem. I really need to clean and lube the chain too but I ran out of energy. I swear riding in the cold just sucks your energy.
So far the low temperatures have not been bad, I've had a couple mornings where I did not dress quite warm enough, I needed more protection on my face. Today I added long underwear, and a scarf to my ensemble, I also wore my mountain bike glasses, they keep the wind out of my eyes, and I had a nice hot cup of tea before I left the house. I didn't get cold at all. I think the key is the hot tea made of honey and cinnamon. It's my new favorite!
There's a big ass winter storm on it's way due to arrive tomorrow afternoon so I may get my first chance to ride in the snow. I sure hope I'm ready for it! The Weatherbug just went off again I think I'll go check the weather...
