I watched stage of the Tour of The Alps to get my day off on a good foot. Lots of climbing but not an uphill finish. After eating breakfast I worked on a problem with the ICAN Cycling Alpha 46 rear wheel that goes on my Canyon Endurace CF 7 bike. Since getting home from my Adventure Cycling Association Big Bend bike tour the rear freehub has not spun correctly. The usual clicking sound when coasting was gone. Some people would say that was good but I couldn’t pedal in reverse. After exchanging emails with ICAN Cycling they want a video of the rear wheel rotating without the cassette installed. Earlier I prayed that the cassette would come off without an issue and it did. Inspecting the freehub I saw the paws were not inserted into the gear where they ratchet. I have no idea how the paws pulled away from the gear. I tried using a screwdriver to push each paw in to allow the assembly to move into the center of the gear but all the paws need to be retracted in order to do that. God gave me the idea to wrap a string around the paws, push them into the gear and then pull the string out before pushing the paws all the way into the gear. That worked perfectly. Now the freehub spins the way it should and the paws make the clicking sound when coasting. Replacing the speed sensor battery before the ride was easy in comparison. Then the Bolt computer flashed a warning that the rear derailleur battery was low. Not enough time to charge it before leaving so I borrowed the battery from the Lynskey Helix and put the low battery in the charger while I was gone.

With those problems solved the Canyon Endurace was the bike to ride today. I rode north on my New Caney – Roman Forest Blvd – Oakhurst route for the third time this year covering 34.24 miles, slight less than the other two rides. The overcast sky kept the sun behind and the temperature was below 80 from the 10:52 AM start to the 1:30 PM finish. Wind was around 13 mph from the south to southeast. My legs were strong and powered me to Roman Forest Blvd. with a tailwind and back to Kingwood with a headwind. Maybe the problem solution with the wheel added some adrenaline to my effort.

Weather: Start 77 degrees, humidity 75%, dew point 68.5, overcast, wind S 12 mph; Finish 79 degrees, humidity 75%, dew point 70.0, overcast, wind SE 13 mph.