What a tuneup

Davis may not be a far drive from Washington but its weather is a world away. Thursday in Davis I was fresh with the memories of riding my mountain bike a day earlier in the fair winter (nightime) weather of DC, but in Davis there was 4" of fresh snow and morning temps in the teens. I drove my bike out on the roof rack to have Blackwater Bikes rebuild the drive train while I was here on other business. I arrived in town Thursday but my bike was frozen to the rack. Got a lighter? Too much wind. Hand warmers from Highland Prospects? Not enough heat. De-icer from Dollar Store? Too little too late. Turned out that a heating pad on an extension cord did the trick. It also pointed out to me by our property manager Mack that the hot water car wash would have done it, if for only the minute necessary to open the rack.

Roger Lilly, the owner and main tech at Blackwater Bikes, ended up replacing the cassette, two chain rings and the chain to bring the Salsa Dos 9er back to whole. The drive train was just worn down and causing chain suck, chain breaks and chunky hesitations that foretell more of the former.

Now Davis is a small town and people therefore feel "familiar" with you enough to call you on it when they see you riding down the street for the 3rd time in the snow. Basically, the message is: "Pete, shouldn't you be skiing instead of timidly riding a bike on snowy sidewalks?" I took some heat but hey the bike was put in full form again by Blackwater Bikes, allowing me to ride back in DC two days later. For some reason I rode like a winded and wounded wildebeast, but the bike was tiptop.

While in the bike shop a few visitors wandered in and one said, "this would be a great place to come to in the summer," touching on a significant business issue for Blackwater Bikes. When it is snowing and honking wind chill down to minus whatever, going biking is not on most people's minds. So what to do in winter? Well the stalwart BW Bikes stands open all winter. No diversification into winter gear or winter sports aside from the obscure but interesting segment of winter mountain biking. Yes this segment exists. That is some serious dedication.