On today's regular Wednesday 10:00am ride, I experienced something that hasn't happened in twenty years or so. I walked up a hill, Yaupon (in Austin) to be precise. I have never had to put a foot down going up this climb, ever. Until today. But it wasn't my fault! It is an involved story and we need to go back several months.
I have two road bikes, the Roark (custom titanium) and the Emonda (super climbing, full Dura-Ace carbon). The Roark had a triple chain ring, the Emonda a compact. After racing thirteen years on the Roark, I got the Emonda and, truthfully, became faster. In order to keep up with the times, I decided to upgrade the Emonda with Di2 shifting. This included moving to a 12-speed cassette and 52-34 front chain rings. That was accomplished last month and I'm extremely pleased with how they work. But the Roark had ten-year old ten speed components. Therefore, I asked Trek Research to put the old Emonda drive train on the Roark. They were happy to oblige. There were a few new parts but not germane to the story.
For the last six weeks I've been riding the Emonda and the Roark (which is for sale at $2,000) has been hanging in the garage untouched since I picked it up at the shop. Until today. Starting a few weeks ago, the Di2 had trouble charging and a few times stopped working. Last week I voiced my concerns at the shop and they were going to look into it. Meanwhile, I kept the bike and rode it four more days, the last being Monday. This morning I was going to clean the chain, and for whatever reason, turned on the computer and rode up and down the street not getting any response from the shifters. I hooked up my E-Tube app and learned the battery was DEAD. I hooked up the charging cable and got no response. Tried several times with different plugs. Time to take it to the shop.
Not a problem, I also took the Roark so that I could ride with the Wednesday morning group. I moved over a bottle holder, aired up the tires, and practiced in the street. All was in working order. At the shop, I dropped off the Emonda, told my tale of woe and was assured they would take care of it. While waiting for Craig's arrival, I turned on my computer and rode around the parking lot. Strange, the power meter wasn't connecting. I hit a few buttons on the Garmin and from about twenty yards away, it picked up somebody else's power meter. Dang! It wouldn't pick up mine. Turned the whole thing off and tried again. Success! The ride started. To finish the power meter story, if you look at my Strava analysis you will see that there were gaps in my cadence. I will change that battery.
The first climb on Wednesday is Floral Park and I noticed when I got past the 5th (from the top) cog, the chain would hop back and forth between cogs. Double Dang! The next hill was Fire Oak and I could get up that without using the top cogs. Same for the others, until Yaupon.
I briefly considered not going down to the bottom, but we had a stout south wind which would be at our backs going up. Well, for the first of the climbs I needed the top two cogs but when I shifted to them they went nuts. Hopping up and down like crazy. I had to unclip and get off and walk maybe thirty yards to the cul-du-sac. I mounted up and shifted down to the fourth cog and hoped that would hold. As it turned out, I could shift up one more cog going up the second climb and after that I was down in the lower cogs and moving on rather quickly. As a matter of fact, Strava gave me silver medals for two climb segments on Yaupon that I cycled. And a PR for the decent (35 mph avg). When I got to the shop and explained my situation, it was an easy adjustment to the cable.
And, my Di2 fix was apparently just as easy. The cables to the battery were too tight and not making a good connection. The wires were given a little more slack and the battery is charging (at the shop) as this is being written. Hopefully, I'll get the text to come pick it up shortly.
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