Busy ass day at work - and ABBA was in a frightengly grand mood today, so ther day was pleasant and quick. Got off work at 5:30 - went biking from Sterling to East Falls Church and back 42 miles, was very hot and humid but a small breeze pushed me home. On the way home, I stopped at the Performance bike shop right off the trail in Reston to get some light titanium grease to deal with the new creak that has developed somewhere on the frame. I decided that I'd just take the bike to the back where the mechanics were. I asked "who here is the best at isolating an annoying creak in my frame and quieting it?" This older dude raised his hand..slowly came over...sized me up and my bike then said "sure, dude - nice bike I think I've seen ya on the trail a few times..." I said yes. Then I described the bikes' short life history and what/how I've maintained it...the 1300+ miles I've put on it in the past month. He said, without a doubt - "I can find it". Cool, I thought to myself...I'll just mill about the huge bike shop and look at stuff (I wasn't really gonna buy anything - i had another 8 miles to bike home, something small possibly).

So I checked back with the mechanic - and he looked perplexed. I asked what the deal was. He basically took every single thing off the bike, cleaned it, greased it, and then put it back on the frame and torque tightened it to it's precise specs - everything - bottom bracket, crankshaft, headset, front/rear derailers, shifters, front and rear brakes, handlebars & stem & for, seatpost and seat - even the two water bottle cages - all taken off, cleaned, relubed and replaced. Took him almost 40 minutes. He was standing there shaking his head with his 3 other bike mechanics - saying "sheesh, I am stumped - there must be a defect in the frame" I felt horrible - not to mention, crap - I have to contact Bikesdirect.com and tell them I have a defective frame - they need to send me a new one - have my mechanic put it together - and then send them the defective frame back (lifetime garantee against defects). What a pain in the ass. The mechanic said that even though it's annoying to hear - it's not unsafe to ride, what a releif, the Century is on sunday (which incidentally - 3 of the 5 bike mechanics that were there are racing at as well (will prolly see them the same time on Sunday). So I biked back to my car dissappointed. It's just a creak - I'll have the frame replaced - no biggie.

Came home, ate dinner, did some domestic stuff, watched a little Olympics (wow..thrilling Friday night...party on!, meh). Tomorrow will do some more domestic stuff, and yard stuff then errand stuff then only a 20 mile bike ride to stretch my legs for Sunday. I need to go to bed early tomorrow night - I want to get there at @ 7:15/30am. Hard to gague what the entire day will be like. I am terrified, anxious, nervous and excited all at the same time. It's gonna be a great experience.

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