Elly's Got New Sneakers

Elly is my road bike, it's really eleu [eh leh-(y)oo], Hawiian for fast, nimble, swift and lively - of course all that describes the bike and not me. I may show signs of those attributes now and then while running but almost never on the bike. Anyway the old tires were getting old so I had to replace them, I put in about a couple thousand miles on them. Don't let the racing stripe yellow fool you, it's still a training tire - thick, heavy with treads. They should have been on a week earlier but the first time I bought the tires I only bought one, imagine my surprise one weekday afternoon.

However, now there's seems to be a problem with the front brakes. They sound awful and a lot of uneccessary vibrations. Jason A. thinks it's cause my brakes are dirty and the rims are damaged from previous debris getting between the brake pad and the rim. You know if it's not one thing it's another. Well at least it's not my body that's breaking down but the equipment. In runnning your body is the machine and when something breaks it's usually you - at least in sports like cycling you get to split the wear and tear with your equipment. And as they say "cycling is a low impact sport", to which I add "provided you don't hit or get hit by something".

Quick side story before I go and I promise it's got something to do with equipment and Hawaii. My Sophomore year at the University of Hawaii I met John from the island of Kauai. An avid bodyboarder (boogie boarder). He was quite good too and would paddle out on the big breaks at the North Shore with the surfers. One day he was telling me how he took a tumble coming down a wave. The wave was large enough that it sucked a lot of the water in front of it leaving only a couple of feet of depth from the reef below. When John saw this he immediately twisted his body to protect his board from impact. So naturally I asked "why the hell did you do that" and he answered "bodies heal, boards don't". Crazy but true. In any case I'm not one to talk. I once saved a whole bottle of beer as I took a tumble walkind down drunk in North Beach, not a single drop was spilled from my 40 and I got applause from those present. What was I doing drunk with a 40 in public, well that's a story for another day. Rest assured it was a long, long, time ago. But I digress...Anyway John was great a person, like most of the people that I met from the island of Kauai. I hope he's still not doing that now, he should be able to afford a new stinking boogie board by now.