Labor Day weekend stuff

I finally got Jenn on our new-to-us tandem today!

She decided some days ago that she would use riding the tandem as a reward for doing some paperwork she's been putting off. I finally sat her down and got that done last night--at least far enough along that she'd ride the bike with me today.

Of course, by the time we were getting ready to go, we were going to be a bit rushed to arrive at the 2:00 PM club ride and do all I wanted to do. Still, we got there with enough time that I could fiddle with the steering a bit before the club ride left the parking lot (I needed to fine-tune my adjustments a bit). While riding, I learned what Larry meant when he was telling me that the captain's seat has an unnerving roll about the axis of the main frame tube. I'd heard that some of these seats did that with the Rad-Loc mounting system, but had no idea how disconcerting the experience was.

The roll-axis motion in the seat mounting was most of why the bike felt squirrelly compared to Bill and Kate's bike. I hope so, anyway. I'll need to have some conversations with the folks at RANS this week, as this will not do for long-term use. Otherwise, the bike felt good. I need to fine-tune the rear shifting a bit--the barrel adjuster on the shifter wouldn't move for me during the ride, and it's not quite where I want it. Hopefully I will remember to work on that before we leave for the Mayor's Hike and Bike in the morning.

As it turned out, some of the problem was loose hardware on the "sprint braces" supporting the seat back. Some of the problem was resolved--at least until I discuss the situation further with RANS--by adding some aluminum foil at the Rad-Loc rail to shim the seat in a more upright position. I'm not sure all the creaking has gone away--I didn't have enough time to fully test my work before departing to meet a friend with whom I planned to mark part of the Old Kentucky Home Tour route.

Yep, that's right, it's OKHT time again! This weekend will see the Bardstown ride in its thirty-third iteration. I don't get to ride it this year, but will see folks in Bardstown Saturday evening and Sunday morning in my bike-fixing-person capacity. I'll be wandering about the route on Sunday, looking for folks who need help getting their bikes working as well.

See you out there!