Jenn and I considered riding another century today, but I wasn't interested in doing so if the wind was as strong as it had been the last couple days. As it turned out, the weather would have been quite nice for it, but by the time we figured that out, it was too late to do the century.

Instead, we made a trip out of cycling to brunch at Ramsi's Cafe on the World, a spot we whole-heartedly recommend, then cycling to the St James Court Art Show, as Bicycling for Louisville had free valet bike parking. I took the Raleigh, as it's the easiest for me to pull the trailer (I don't like having it hitched as far forward as is necessary on the Vanguard).

We spent a few hours wandering around the show, and while we didn't buy anything today, we got contact information for several vendors who had stuff we may want to get later (i.e. as finances allow). We cycled home, by which time I got tired of how noisy my bike was being.

I'd been putting off overhauling the bottom bracket--mostly a function of not wanting to deal with the cottered crank on that bike. I decided that this was the day.

I don't know how many cotter pins I've removed from crank arms over the last thirty years. I've had two that refused to come out in the normal manner--the right one on my Raleigh was the second one. After mushrooming the threaded end trying to drive it out with a hammer and punch, I took a suggestion I'd seen some time back on Sheldon's site, and started drilling. This didn't get the job done, so I put it all back together and tried riding the bike. Sure enough, the remnant of the pin collapsed enough that I could extract it, and I could continue with my work.

Now that I have clean grease in the bottom bracket again, and I have adjusted it properly, and have fresh cotter pins in place, AND have lubricated the chain, this bike is MUCH quieter! It pulls better, too, which I mostly ascribe to the fresh lubrication on the chain, although fresh grease in the crank bearings can't be a bad thing. The fact that I didn't have the trailer connected during the test ride may have been another factor, but who knows? ;-)

A job that typically takes about half an hour took me three hours. The biggest surprise, though, was that with all the drilling and pounding, I did no damage to the crank arm or the spindle. ALL of my drilling stayed within the cotter pin, and this with no drill press!