Smooth Chain and Gears Come Together
Ah, the sound of smoothly meshing gears. I received the new Shimano CS-6800 11-28T rear cassette yesterday. For most of the day I figured it would be delivered on Tuesday (Monday is a holiday for USPS) because the email tracking did show the package out for delivery. After watching the University of Cincinnati vs. Miami game and the first half of the TCU – Baylor football game I walked to Subway to get dunch (what I call lunch and dinner together) for my wife and I. While I was gone the mail came and low and behold the cassette package arrived. After eating I went out to the garage and installed it. The nice shinny silver looked great compared to the black oily old cassette. After installation I spun it a few times and it looked perfect.
I was looking forward to biking today to test the gears out. Leaving home at 1:47 under cloudy skies and 77 degrees I headed to Huffman. Nothing unusual about the route or ride. I did see one other biker at Atascocita Shores Drive and FM1960. I was turning east onto FM1960 to go over Lake Houston and he was turning off of FM1960 to go south. We exchanged waves and went on. Making the turn onto FM1960 I shifted the rear gear to the 34 x 13 combination and starting pedaling. This was the combination that skipped on the old cassette. No skipping now and I sped up going to the east. Up to this point my average speed was below 15 mph. Using the 34 x 13 gearing I slowly increased my average to 15.3 mph when I reached the Huffman Chevron for a break. By now the temperature in Huffman was 85 degrees with an 8 mph breeze from the SSE. While I was there I looked at the weather on my phone and saw a big storm to the northwest.
After a 25 minute stop I left heading west on FM1960 still in the 34 x 13. With the long stretch of straight road and only one traffic light I increased my average to 15.6 mph and maintained that until the 30.6 mile point of the 33.4 mile long ride. By the time I got home at 2:29 it was still 85 degrees and cloudy. As I write this the rain and thunder have arrived and I am glad I didn’t ride further.
I am pleased with the new cassette and my legs are not as tired from spinning the 34 x 14 gears to go 18 mph. I did try the big ring again today to move the cable some and try to prevent the rust in the future.
Where I stand:
- 167.62 miles for the week
- 308.96 miles for October
- 5840 miles for the year
Today was the 50th time I rode the “Atascocita – Walden – Huffman” route out of 168 rides this year. The ride comparison image shows the different times and the metrics for each.
Links to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS metrics and maps.
