This morning the fog was about average over by my house with 2-2.5 blocks of visibility until I crossed Blackstone ave where the fog thickened and the visibility went to about 50 feet. My glasses fogged up shortly after creating zero visibility. After I crossed Ingram ave the fog lessened but was still kinda crappy.

Gotta love the central valley.

In other news I put my new 15 tooth cog on my red fixed gear. More on that later.
Of course I had a little episode with the FSA external bottom bracket on Tuesday on my way home. 1 mile from home the right bearing cup started sounding like a swarm of crickets being slammed in a car door. So when I got home I tried to remove it thinking maybe the threads were dry or loose or angry for some reason. Turns out the bearing was totally shot to hell. I tried to remove it with my special external bottom bracket removal tool but it would not budge which in turn caused the teeth on the tool to dig into the Taiwanese aluminum and completely and horribly damage the bearing cup. If you were blind you could tell that it was horribly damaged. Did I have tools could I fix it right then? NO. I had to bring the frame to my brother with his big van full of tools to help me with some BFP’s. (Big Frickin Pliers). I got the bearing cup out and took it home to install the new cups. Well they are actually a slightly used set of bearing cups from my road bike that probably have 2-3000 miles on them. Greased, Installed, Torqued. Less crickets this time and much smoother. I still have some creaks though and I HATE a noisy bike. HATE HATE HATE. Today on my way home I will swing into my neighborhood LBS to pick up my new Mini-U-Lock and ask him about my crickets.

The aluminum frame does not help the sound transmission and the AL to AL cup to frame relationship can cause some creaking. I might have to pick up an IRO Angus one of these days, steel is real.

Breaking news:
I installed my new Miche 15t cog and cog carrier yesterday.
The Miche System uses a splined cog carrier that threads onto the hub like a standard cog and the new cog interfaces the cog carrier. A standard left hand threaded lockring keeps it all together. It is a proprietary system but allows easier changing of cogs for racing. Who doesnt love some race stuff on the street??

This 15t cog is an upgrade from the 16t cog. 46×15 is a little tougher on the knees and legs but I cruised at 18 mph all the way to work and cut 3-4 minutes off my time even after hitting 90% red lights.
SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET.

Don’t Stop Pedaling