Hello again! Incase you haven't noticed, winter has arrived and what does that mean?!? RAIN! and lots of it. As a matter of fact, Salem gets more rain than Portland but we have about ten more sunny days. What does that tell me? when it rains, it pours; literally. Riding to and from work has been fun as of late, trying to have just enough bundling and finding a split in the clouds to keep from getting soaked. To top things off, my Niterider headlights went out so for the past week I've been riding to work and Lauren has been picking me up in the evening, until they've been fixed.
The holiday season is kicking up yet again and working retail is always pure enjoyment, customers are only on their best behavior and very courteous to boot. It's my most favorite time of the year :)
One thing Lauren and I have been doing more of since becoming house-dwellers is cooking breakfast, which means large stacks of pancakes, nutella and coffee. Perfect way to start the day.
The holiday season is kicking up yet again and working retail is always pure enjoyment, customers are only on their best behavior and very courteous to boot. It's my most favorite time of the year :)
One thing Lauren and I have been doing more of since becoming house-dwellers is cooking breakfast, which means large stacks of pancakes, nutella and coffee. Perfect way to start the day.
I'm continuing to build up hours on the bike, commuting guarantees me 5 hours of recovery riding and since this time of year is just fat burning base miles, I only have another 5-6 more hours to fill on the bike. With thanksgiving just around the corner we will be traveling North to Lake Oswego to be with Lauren's family, I'm going to leave early and ride there to get some miles in and work up a good appetite, should be 50-60 miles easy. Speaking of training, I had a unique experience while riding the rollers the other morning on my TT bike and I'd like to share this event with you. During the middle of my interval, I feel my foot disconnect from the pedal, in a split second I think, "huh, that's odd," look down to see that my pedal had unthreaded completely off the spindle. After hastily coming to a stop, I see the pedal still attached to the bottom of my shoe! My first reaction was, "that's not supposed to happen." So I snap a few photos with my phone and head upstairs to e-mail the pedal company about this incident and ask for some help. Here's where things start to get fun:
From: Andrew ******
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2014 12:12 PM
To: Dannie***
Subject: My pedal fell off.
To whom it may concern:
My name is Andrew Neill, and this morning while riding the rollers I had the unfortunate experience of being in the middle of an interval when suddenly my foot feels as though it pulled out from its pedal. I look down to see that rather than my foot becoming disconnected with the cleat, the pedal was unthreaded from the spindle. To put it simply that was quite the heart rate spike during my interval and now I'm quite displeased. Rather than go through the trouble of sending my pedals back to you for warranty, what I would ask is for you to send me the necessary pedal tools so I can tighten the body back onto the spindle. I am a Certified Master Mechanic with Barnett's Bicycle Institute for *** and am very confident I can put them back together. Also if this were to happen again (which by this standard, I would say is likely) I will be able to service them on my own. I have attached some pictures below to further illustrate what occurred.
Please mail the necessary tools to my address:
**********
Thank you and I look forward to your reply.
--
Cheers,
-Andrew-
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Hi Andrew,
I have had this same issue over my 45 years of working in the bicycle industry with several pedal brands as a shop owner and former cat. 1 racer. It does occasionally happen. Since you are a Certified Master Mechanic with Barnett’s do you own a Shimano pedal axle cartridge tool? If you have one, it will work on Exustar pedals. If you don’t have one, let me know and I will send you an Exustar tool. I sent you a picture of the Shimano tool for your reference in case you have one in your tool box. You will need a bench mounted vise to properly re-install your pedal axle.
I look forward to your reply.
Dannie ***
GM Exustar USA
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From: Andrew *** Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2014 9:42 PM To: Dannie***
Subject: Re: My pedal fell off.
Dannie,
Thank you for your quick response and wit to boot. Perhaps as I upgrade from my cat 2 status, and with another 27 years of tenure as a mechanic, I will see a few more pedals fall off.
Until then, kindly send a Exustar pedal tool to:
******
Thanks for standing behind your product, I do appreciate it.
Cheers,
-Andrew-
*please forgive typos, the operator's thumbs are still in training.*
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Hi Andrew,
I mailed you a shop grade Exustar pedal axle wrench today.
Best regards,
Dannie ***
GM Exustar USA
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: My pedal fell off.
To whom it may concern:
My name is Andrew Neill, and this morning while riding the rollers I had the unfortunate experience of being in the middle of an interval when suddenly my foot feels as though it pulled out from its pedal. I look down to see that rather than my foot becoming disconnected with the cleat, the pedal was unthreaded from the spindle. To put it simply that was quite the heart rate spike during my interval and now I'm quite displeased. Rather than go through the trouble of sending my pedals back to you for warranty, what I would ask is for you to send me the necessary pedal tools so I can tighten the body back onto the spindle. I am a Certified Master Mechanic with Barnett's Bicycle Institute for *** and am very confident I can put them back together. Also if this were to happen again (which by this standard, I would say is likely) I will be able to service them on my own. I have attached some pictures below to further illustrate what occurred.
Please mail the necessary tools to my address:
**********
Thank you and I look forward to your reply.
--
Cheers,
-Andrew-
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Andrew,
I have had this same issue over my 45 years of working in the bicycle industry with several pedal brands as a shop owner and former cat. 1 racer. It does occasionally happen. Since you are a Certified Master Mechanic with Barnett’s do you own a Shimano pedal axle cartridge tool? If you have one, it will work on Exustar pedals. If you don’t have one, let me know and I will send you an Exustar tool. I sent you a picture of the Shimano tool for your reference in case you have one in your tool box. You will need a bench mounted vise to properly re-install your pedal axle.
I look forward to your reply.
Dannie ***
GM Exustar USA
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Andrew *** Sent: Saturday, November 22, 2014 9:42 PM To: Dannie***
Subject: Re: My pedal fell off.
Dannie,
Thank you for your quick response and wit to boot. Perhaps as I upgrade from my cat 2 status, and with another 27 years of tenure as a mechanic, I will see a few more pedals fall off.
Until then, kindly send a Exustar pedal tool to:
******
Thanks for standing behind your product, I do appreciate it.
Cheers,
-Andrew-
*please forgive typos, the operator's thumbs are still in training.*
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Andrew,
I mailed you a shop grade Exustar pedal axle wrench today.
Best regards,
Dannie ***
GM Exustar USA
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hope you enjoyed reading that as much as I did writing it, here's what I have come to conclude. Don't buy second rate knock off pedals because they occasionally fall off. I am glad this didn't happen when I was on the road, racing my time trial bike. Somehow I still don't think this is supposed to happen. Until now I've always been in favor of my Look pedals, this is one more tally to switch to Speedplay. The jury is still out on this one...
Let's see what else has been going on, Oh right! Our English bikes are at the painters and nearly completed! (how could I possibly forget). We are so very excited, although I think it's fair to say that I may be a wee bit more excited than Lauren. They're team blue, with white logos and some special decals on there. Even Jacqueline is excited! Here's a sneak peek photo of the Mr. & Mrs. bikes.
With these English bikes on the way Lauren wanted her road bike setup more for commuting, we spent a cold afternoon in the basement installing a rack, fenders, platform pedals and lights onto her Fuji Connoisseur. I had an extra rear light that puts two laser lines on the ground signifying your own personal bike lane, pretty sweet.
Well folks, that just about sums things up for now. I'll post again after the holiday where we consume copious amounts of food and feel bad about ourselves for the rest of the afternoon. In the meantime, stay safe happy holidays.
Until next time,
Cheers,
-Andrew-
Cheers,
-Andrew-