Mechanical Problems

I love working on my bike when I am not riding it, but come on! Saturday night I repacked my bearings on hubs of my old steel rims on my road bike. Need new ball bearings to really make improvements but some grease is better than NONE AT ALL. Only thing is I still have not mastered how tight I should tighten them after I am done. SO I am rolling along headfirst into a killer south wind but it is warm and beautiful so I don't care really. I am downtown Newton ready to ride south till I am bored, tired, or in Wichita. (LOL yea right) I love riding in Kansas, as you never know what will happen next with the weather. My back tire/wheel started feeling odd and fighting against me more than normal. I got off and pulled it up on the sidewalk and checked and it was like the brakes were locked even though the pads were not touching at all. I had tightened the bearing cups or whatever they are called a little too much and they worked into being WAY TOO TIGHT.

Went in the afternoon on Sunday to meet with Robert Garcia of Rivercitycyclist about a bike trade. I gave him an old girls trek I had and he gave me some aluminum shimano rims with a single speed cog on them with some decent tires. I thought I could fix it myself, but changing the cassette was problematic. My old freewheel was not compatible but John Hobbs from Great Plains Bike Repair/Bike SHop is truing my rims and switching out for a used cassette I bought from him for 10 bucks. This guy is super nice and very reasonable. Way cheaper than the bike shops in WIchita. No offense to those guys in ICT but they have way more overhead. So I should get it back today and switching cassette, buying cassette, truing 2 rims and making it all work. $35.00 to $40.00 bucks. I could not touch this job for less than 100 in Wichita at Bike Exchange. Plus this way I am sure the parts he puts on are what he says. Got a shifter "replaced" at bike Ex. and it looked JUST like the old one with the same scratches and all. I hope I have my new improved road bike by this evening's ride.!!!