Three Frozen Cables

Dec.19, 2016 39m
Dec mtd:118 ytd:2930

It was like 18F when I strapped my ECR onto the back of my Honda Odyssey. Opened the side door, dropped in my pannier, closed the door and bounce! - door wouldn't close. Tried it a few times, door wouldn't close. I thought: this happened once before in really cold conditions. Let me look at the other door, to see what the position of the latches should be.

Opened the other door. Inevitably, now I've got two doors that won't close. Turned out, my car had been sitting for three days of cold moisture, then the door cables froze. A bit of running the car and slamming doors and I was good to go.

I met YC at the Swinburne Street trailhead. We rode out onto the GAP. At the Valley of the Shadow of Death, near the Eagle Nest Observation Zone, there were some deep puddles of water. I walked ahead thinking: hey, waterproof Merril boots, no problem. Come to find out: waterproof means rain, it doesn't mean impervious to walking in five inches of water. My feet were soaked.

We rode out toward Boston PA, taking the McKeesport Loop. Stopped in Zach's Bike shop, where I saw the owner's bike with heated hand grips by AME. Most excellent.

Continued to Boston and went a few miles out on the GAP proper. Saw new mile marker 126. My front derailleur cable had frozen in place, and I was unable to shift onto the small ring. I had picked up an accumulation of snow and moisture that was like cement on the frame the the derailleur mechanism. I'm going to have to look at shielding the mech, or maybe identifying some sort of ice-preventing lube. It serves me right; I should have realized that two frozen cables on my van were an indication of conditions.

We had planned on riding to West Newton and it seemed like conditions were conducive, but my left foot was soaked and it was fairly cold out, like 25F, so I opted to exercise judgement.

This was really a nice day: a bit of sun, no wind, 25F. It makes me wonder about all the days I skipped because it was only 45.