Turns out bikes and bike parts are fragile.

I ride 120-150 miles a week, depending on whether it's a 4-day or a 5-day week (my schedule is 4 days on, 2 days off, which causes some odd precessing away from traditional weekends). Which means every four days, I put the bike up on the stand, wash it, clean the chain, lube everything and deal with the stuff that's been bugging me for a hundred miles (squeaky front brakes, sticky shift on 8th gear, etc). I put the beastie away at the end of last season having just gotten to 75 thousandths wear on the chain... a chain that gets cleaned and lubed every 120 miles but which also has 3,000 miles on it. The intent was to change the chain when I had time, which was Sunday.

Mmmmyeah.

So now it won't take any power in the bottom two gears 'cuz the cassette is thrashed, apparently, and in attempting to adjust around this I also discovered that the rear derailleur is donezo and that the front tire has cracks in it you could drive a nail file through and my buddy told me he put like 10 miles on it while I was gone and I believe him. Also he lowered the seat an inch and a half and I raised it an inch and kept it there for two days and I'm still saddle sore so apparently I'm rather using this bike.

It also hasn't been that hot and I went through a 24oz bottle of water twice yesterday (thank god for the water fountain at Griffith Park) and since I left my camelbak up in Washington 'cuz I hate riding with shit on my back I'm gonna be one of those doofi with water bottles hanging off the saddle 'cuz it's a good 15-20 degrees cooler this year than it was last year but I remember 115 in Glendale and apparently I need even more water this year than last and that heat wave got legit scary.